Personal Best

Thursday:

I decided to go for my 1 hour lap of the lake attempt today. I got there quite late after taking my husband to a doctor's appointment (more on that later) but it was a cool and cloudy morning so good conditions for a walk/jog. Do people even talk about jogging anymore? Or is it all running? What I do could possibly be called running, some of the time. Or lurching, when I get really tired. But I think jogging describes it best.

I parked at the library, started my HR monitor, and set off. From the first jog my shins hurt. They had hurt a bit on Tuesday, but much worse today. So as much as possible I jogged on the grass beside the path, which was better (although it did mean getting attacked by one duck daddy protecting his family). Going over the bridges was good too, I like running on the gentle upslope. By about halfway round my time was really good and I had done 10 jogs; all probably less than 50 metres. From there on, though, I started to slow down. I kept lurching into a jog regularly and ended up with 23 jogging "sprints" (or possibly more, I lost track a couple of times and was conservative with my calculations) but in between my walking pace was much slower than in the first half. The clouds cleared and it became quite hot, and I was getting very tired.

Crossing Commonwealth bridge, near the end, I saw lots of police standing along the roadside and realised that half of the road (the half I wanted to drive on to get home) was empty of cars. Obviously it had been cleared for American president Obama -- visiting Australia for a couple of days -- to drive on. Do they do this in America, everywhere he goes? That must get inconvenient. We don't do anything like that for our Prime Minister, but then probably not many people want to kill her. There were helicopters overhead too, and a few people were loitering to watch him drive past but it didn't happen while I was beside the road. I resolved to take another way home.

Nearing my starting/finishing point, I realised that I was getting close to the end of the hour. I jogged a bit more but right at the end I walked. I wanted to run that last bit but my body just wouldn't comply. I made it back and stopped the clock -- 56 mins! Yay! 7 mins less than Tuesday. Quick drink and then headed home, only to get caught in a traffic jam on a different road, we all sat still for about 20 mins while (I assume) Obama was driven through an abandoned city centre. I just read the book I had with me until we could go again. I was pretty hungry though. When I got home I loaded up with rice and tea with lots of sugar.

For comparison:

Tuesday Thursday

63 mins .................... 56 mins

zone 0: 73% ............. zone 0: 36%

zone 1: 21% ............. zone 1: 36%

zone 2: 5% ............... zone 2: 22%

zone 3: 1% ............... zone 3: 4%

zone 4: 0% .............. zone 4: 2%

160 cal ..................... 181 cal

average HR 104 ..... average HR 114

peak HR 172 ........... peak HR 176

I was really sore all afternoon on Tuesday so I am expecting that again today.

Tim's doctor's appointment was about his blood pressure, and he has finally been put on medication for it. Scary that his blood pressure is that bad, but good that he is doing something to address it. It seems to be from work stress, so I am hoping that will be reduced in the new year.

photo by The Happy Rower

More sunshine

Sunday:

I am determined that this is the week I am going to start losing weight. It is clear that even lots of exercise isn't enough. Over the past 6 weeks, since I returned to the gym, my weight has fluctuated between 79.2 kg and 80.9 kg; which could be explained just by daily fluctuations. Today I weighed-in at 79.9 kg -- one kilo less than last week but exactly the same as two weeks ago. Obviously I need to rein in my eating if I want to actually lose some fat.

I did formal exercise on five days last week, which I think is pretty great. On Friday I had a rest day, and yesterday I didn't go to the gym but I spent about three hours house-cleaning, which I think was a pretty good work-out. I needed that rest, my body was getting very fatigued. I have my mojo back today.

Today I had a health check, which actually just involved weighing and measuring me. I didn't write it all down (it's all on file at the gym) but I was 79.9 kg and my waist measures 102.5 cm. My BMI is now 34.58, which I am actually happy with -- I am "overweight" not "obese"! [Edit: according to the Wikipedia article on BMI, between 30-35 is still obese, just obese category I not II, also known as seriously obese, which I used to be. Obese III, above 40, would be morbidly obese.]

I got on the treadmill for 10 mins: 92% zone 0, 8% zone 1, 20 calories; and then did a BodyAttack class, which I haven't done before. Some of it was the same as the first half of the 50/50 class that I missed due to my health check. Bascially aerobics, with lots of running and jumping which I had to modify a bit. Stats: 45 mins (I didn't do the last track which was floor work I can't do), 38% zone 0, 45% zone 1, 17% zone 2, 147 calories, 111 average HR, 136 peak HR.

After what seemed like a long time, I checked the clock to see if the class was nearly finished -- I was drenched in sweat and exhausted. The clock said 10.30. What? Only half over? That couldn't be right. I was half convinced that the clock had stopped on 10.30 days ago. But I looked at my HR monitor, and it also said that it had been tracking me for 30 mins. Arg! I dragged myself through the last 20 mins.

A food-related victory -- my husband suggested Kingsley (fried chicken) for our picnic lunch and I said no! Go me. He rarely suggests fast food, it is usually me, and I don't think I have ever resisted before.

We went to the lake and walked for about 20 mins from our parking spot to the Carillon (bell tower) to listen to the recital while we ate our sandwiches and salad. The kids were riding their bikes so it was a fairly brisk walk. Then Tim and I lay on the picnic blanket in the lovely late-winter sun while the kids played around us a bit before we walked back to the car to dump the picnic paraphernalia and the bikes. We walked through the park to the kids playground where I read for a while before we headed home. In all, about an hour walking and lots of much-needed sunlight.

I feel like I've done lots of exercise today and eaten quite healthily (only one cupcake!), and also spent time with family and replenished my vitamin D stores. A lovely day. Now I get to play computer games until it's time to cook roast lamb... mmm...

It's all about me

Monday

I just had an awesome "me" day.

I dropped the kids off at school and childcare, then went to the gym and did a BodyPump class. I added weights for a couple of the tracks, but I still have to be very cautious as my shoulders (especially the left) have a restricted range of movement. So most of it was done with just the empty bar. It is still good stretching and toning.

My (non-cardio) stats were: 60 mins, 93% in zone 0, 7% in zone 1, 114 calories, average HR 93, peak HR 118.

I've had a stiff neck and sore lower back for a few days -- I think from all the extra computer work I did recently, not from exercise. So after the class I got in the hot spa. It was very bubbly, but most of the jets were on the floor in the middle of the spa, so not very useful. After a while I changed to the kids pool, which has a submerged seat at one end with spa jets directed into the small of one's back -- presumably for parents watching their kids. The water (warm) seemed freezing after the hot spa! But the jets were awesome. I sat for a long time getting an intense massage on the sore spots. After all the spa-ing my neck and back were feeling much better.

I went home and had lunch -- home-made chicken soup leftover from the weekend -- then went to see the Glee 3D concert movie. I was by myself, and there were only seven other people in the theatre. So not very popular. It was okay, I enjoyed the actual concert parts and the glimpses of backstage but was rather bored by the extensive coverage of fans saying things like "My favourite is Brittany because she is so pretty." I kept mental track of the favourites and they were all named except Mercedes and Mike. What a downer for them -- imagine being the only ones out of a dozen stars (or more, I think Blaine was mentioned the most and he isn't even in New Directions) who aren't anyone's favourite.

Then I had enough time to do a quick grocery shop before picking up the kids. Now I get to play World of Warcraft before it is their turn for computer/TV time and I have to make dinner. Awesome day.

As expected, there is plenty of junk food left over from the weekend. I put away, for D&D night, a bag of chips, 2 bags of lollies, 2 packets of biscuits, and a bag of chocolate bullets. I have left the opened things in the cupboard -- only a few nearly-empty packets of biscuits. I had a handful of crispy m&ms at the movies (not from the weekend, left-over in my bag from the last time I went to the movies and forgotten about) and one Tim Tam while having afternoon tea with the kids.

Three days in a row of exercise! Go me! And I had toast for breakfast this morning, so that is going well too. I am not nearly as tired today as I was all weekend.

And we're off

Saturday

Half of our weekend guests have arrived and Tim had dance this morning, but I still managed to get out to a BodyStep class. My face is still bright red an hour later -- it was exhausting! Really good. I hadn't really done any cardio since Tuesday last week -- since then I'd only done a short session on the bike and a Pump class -- so I'd lost whatever endurance I'd gained from my first two weeks of exercise; but I can't do much about that now. I'm just starting from here.

My stats were: 50 mins; 17% in zone 0 (including abdominal work on the mat which I did some of between waiting for the room to stop spinning, and stretches at the end); 26% in zone 1; 41% in zone 2; 14% in zone 3 AND 2% in > zone 3 (lets call that zone 4, shall we). That is amazing. Average HR 125, peak HR 162. Remembering that 163 is my 'keeling over from a heart attack' point, I think I worked pretty damn hard. 205 calories doesn't really seem to reflect it.

On the nutrition side -- I have just ordered pizzas for our lunch... Oh well. I love cooking, especially for visitors, but I didn't want to have to cook 4 main meals over the weekend for lots of people, so I have gone for 1 fast food takeaway. Here on in I will be making all the food, including desserts of course. And snacks. Lemon cupcake, anyone?

More Zumba

Tuesday

I did Zumba again this morning. I really enjoy Zumba; it is more dance than exercise. There are chatty pauses between tracks and the last 15 or 20 mins is toning and stretching so my heart rate drops right down; but you know what? Heart rate isn't everything. I don't use weights but I think the toning is a great start for my damaged shoulders.

I weigh 79.4 kg, same as Sunday.

My stats for today were: 58 mins; 43% in zone 0; 40% in zone 1 and 12% in zone 2. I didn't get up to zone 3 at all. (By contrast, Sunday's class percentages were 8/18/63/11. Big difference!) 174 calories. Average HR 110, peak HR 134.