Half Marathon Training - week 1

Well this week I started my training course with The Running Centre for the City to Surf half marathon. It is a 10 week course, of which I will miss 2 weeks because I'm travelling to Italy and Greece but my plan is just to run there!

After our first session - at Hyde Park

The program:

Day 1: Monday 5:30pm Hyde Park
This session was a threshold session. After our 1.5km warm up, stretching and running drills we had to do 3 x 1.5km at threshold pace which for me is about a 6:00 pace at the moment. I didn't have my HRM or a GPS watch with me though so I had to go completely on FEEL which was good (and I succeeded!) In between each run was 2 1/2 minutes rest. Apart from the nerves going into this training, I really enjoyed it.

Day 2: Tuesday - Bikram yoga
I am adding in two sessions of bikram each week to help with my flexibility and recovery. I was SUPPOSED to get up and do my weights session in the morning but it just didn't happen. I have sleep apnea and haven't been using a CPAP for the last month because mine broke and then the loan machine broke! I have one now though, got it on Thursday :) So, Natalie and I headed to Bikram which was great - hot (duh!) but my glutes felt AMAZING afterwards - they are my main problem area.

Day 3: Wednesday - easy 40 min run
I'll be honest. I didn't do it. It was cold, wet and once I turned off my alarm at 5am I didn't even have my normal 'will I/won't I' routine before I actually got out of bed - I just fell straight back asleep!

Day 4: Thursday - double whammy day!
Normally I would do PT on Thursday mornings but I was not at work on Thursday due to my poor sleeping and my body was going to give up so I slept in and then headed into the city for a session with Karin before getting my CPAP replaced. We ran through Kings Park and then did 3 laps of Mount St. The second session for the day (after my nice nanna nap in the afternoon) was again at Hyde Park but this time it was speed! We did 6 x 400m sprints basically with 150m slow jog rest in between! Well, in 45 minutes I burnt 483 calories! It was a hard session but I was so glad I got through it!

Day 5: REST!
Normally I will go to Bikram on a Friday morning, but having a night of sleep with a CPAP meant I wanted to get as much as I could squeeze in!

After our long run - at The Running Centre

Day 6: LONG RUN - 8km
This week's long run was 8km through Kings Park (including a really long nasty hill at the end!) that Petina and I just took nice and easy. My average HR was only 147 (and only peaked at 162 which is what my race pace HR is!) so I know I could have run faster but that wasn't the aim, it was just to clock up the kms...which we did (although we did contemplate skipping straight to coffee!)

What is up next week? Basically the same again, but a step up. I'm looking forward to the next nine weeks of running and I am seriously hoping that I lose some serious weight with it!

A year on...and a lifetime ahead

A little over a year ago I started my 12WBT journey. I didn't know the girls in the Perth Crew, I was afraid to go to events by myself because I didn't want to put myself out there. I ran in a few short fun runs (less than 5km) and just tinkered away at my weight loss.

I look at my life now and it is so full. I have an amazing group of friends within the Perth Crew who this weekend have really shown how amazingly supportive and caring they are when someone is struggling. I am so thankful for the way people have stood up for me and are willing to go into battle for me. The past few days have been so hard, but I have been surrounded by people who I can count on.

Friday morning I met up with Karin and Petina for an early morning workout. Karin and I did three laps of Jacob's ladder while waiting for Petina to run over from work and then we headed out for a run through Kings Park. 5km later we were back at Mount St for a couple of rounds up the nasty hill. It was a great workout and sitting having breakfast (and coffee of course) with Karin was great. It isn't often I get to do morning workouts with the girls but I had an appointment near the city so rather than sit in peak hour traffic I decided to make the most of my time.

Saturday I spent most of my day wallowing in self-pity. Now I had cause, and resting my body was probably a good idea. I did have a long list of things to do, of which I achieved nothing! I did manage to get myself down to the North of the River Perth Crew Workout in Mawson's Park which was great! It was so good to see so many newbies coming to workout and putting themselves out there. I remember how hard that was and I'm glad that we have such a supportive group for people to come along to.

So, today I went to Craig Harper's 'Life is not a Seminar' Seminar, which was fantastic! For me, it was reaffirming a few things that I have been thinking about as well as giving me a bit of a kick up the butt to get on with it! What better timing as well, seeing as tomorrow is the first day of my half marathon training with The Running Centre. Four running sessions a week that are NON-NEGOTIABLE. I have put my money into investing in my training for this event, in preparation for my bigger goal of my marathon through DisneyWorld in January.

So, what is going to keep me going? Well, a little late I have put together my Inspiration board and here it is!

There is so much more that I could say right now, but I am going to give it a few days to settle. To my girls (you know who you are) thank you so much for your support, love and craziness! I love you all xxoo

Round 2 Pre Season Tasks

GET REAL: EXCUSES

I really didn't want to look at my excuses. Why? Because I know they are a load of crap. I know what I need to do to get the results I want. I have been CHOOSING not to live in a way that honours the body I have. Below is a screenshot of my excuses, I have no injuries, no real reasons why I can't get out of bed and exercise in the morning. It is usually because I just can't be bothered. Well, that stops here.

Every decision I make is either going to take me closer to or further from my goal.

I need to make this count. I know I am running a marathon in January - I have booked and paid for it. I know I am running a half marathon in August, I have signed up for a 10 week training course for it. Now I need to honour these decisions by taking care of my body and doing what I need to do to best support these goals. I need to put in the weight training, the yoga for flexibility and the swimming for recovery that I was doing when I was at my peak. I know I need to eat food that is going to fuel my body to support the training I do and replenish me afterwards. There is no point in doing what I have always done and expecting different results...that is just not going to happen!

GOAL SETTING

I worked backwards for this task. I knew that I had the half marathon and full marathon already booked in...so here's the plan.

GEAR UP

I bought myself some new Michelle Bridges training gear (note to users - wash the red tops before doing Bikram yoga on a white towel! Noala borrowed mine and the towel went a lovely shade of pink!); I have a new Soleus GPS watch for my running so I can track my pace and do some threshold training and I have my awesome Thermomix...which I got in March but I absolutely love and will be using it to cook up heaps of new dishes this round!

SAY IT OUT LOUD

My commitment is to stay the course. I will commit to taking each day as it comes, be consistent in my approach and not beat myself up if I make a bad decision - own it and move on.

KITCHEN MAKEOVER

I live with my parents and so there are certain things in the house that I don't eat (especially during a round). Last August I gave up Diet Coke completely but it is still in the house because other people drink it (mainly my sisters when they come over). What I have come to learn is that I have the power to choose and I will continue to make the choices that will serve me well.

ORGANISE AND DIARISE

I'm excited about this round. This is what my round is going to look like:

Monday morning: Swim 1km (aim to get down to 30 mins)
Monday afternoon: The Running Centre Half Marathon Training (TRCHMT)

Tuesday morning: Lean and Fit weights session - gym
Tuesday evening: Bikram Yoga

Wednesday morning: Swim 1km
Wednesday afternoons: TRCHMT

Thursday morning: Lean and Fit weights session - gym
Thursday afternoon: TRCHMT

Friday morning: Bikram Yoga
Friday afternoon: rest or Perth Crew workout

Saturday morning: Long run - TRCHMT

Sunday: Walk along the coast

RED FLAGS: I am going to Italy and Greece for 2 weeks over the July school holidays. I leave on Friday 6 July and don't come back until Sunday 23 July. I am so excited to be traveling and doing some work for my business at the same time. I know it is going to be a challenge, but I am going to train hard (in the European summer!) and enjoy the food in MODERATION! This is going to be an amazing experience but I value myself too much to let go completely for two weeks - I will have a plan and I will be sticking to it!

FITNESS TEST AND MEASURE UP

Well, I'm currently sitting in the Qantas Club in Sydney, so these will be done tonight (measure up and parts of fitness test) and tomorrow (time trial). I am looking forward to what my time trial is now!


Thanks for taking the time to read this post - I am so excited about where I am headed this year and I'm so glad I have so many awesome people to share this journey with.

Getting perspective

Yesterday morning I got up and hopped on the scales, normal for a Wednesday morning. Like usual for the past 6 weeks the scales have not changed. Rather than get really upset that I'd worked hard and hadn't lost anything I decided to go and take my measurements. In week 8 I was in Melbourne so I hadn't done my measurements or weigh in. Here's what I found out...












In the 6 weeks I had lost no weight, I had lost 18cm off my body! I knew I'd lost size because I was wearing smaller clothes, but to see the numbers there was really encouraging. I got myself organised and went off to cycle around the Swan River with some amazing Perth Crew girls (and Brent!).

The past two weeks I have made the time to train with my girlfriends from the Perth Crew, even if it is a walk around the river (often a great time of therapy!) just to connect with like-minded people who know me and know my journey. They know where I struggle and they know where I want to go and what I want to achieve...even better, they encourage me to go for it!

I had two really great and different things happen last weekend. The first was my one-on-one session with Emma aka Emazon, which really gave me some perspective on some of my relationships and how I trip myself up and don't resolve issues when it gets tough...and the other was getting a lactate threshold test at the Running Centre. The latter was a present from some of the Perth Crew girls for my birthday and it was a fantastic experience and has really informed my training and racing now. It was great to see what my limits are for training and how to improve based on how my body responds to what I am asking it to do. It was also good to know that I had identified one of the levels (just below my threshold) as my race pace - I knew by my heart rate that I could keep that pace for quite a long time.

So, where to from here? Round 1 is nearly over and I'm still umming and ahhing about signing up for Round 2. I do know that I am learning more and more about training and nutrition and about doing what is best for my body. For me, that means shaking up my nutrition and taking things back to how I was eating for my training schedule in January when I was training for my triathlon. I lost more weight in one month than I have done in a complete round of 12WBT and I was eating a lot more...partly because of the amount I was training. I love to train, and I go hard in my sessions. I have learnt that I will burn out and get sick if I don't support my body with the nutrition it needs.

Coming up I have Step up for MS this Sunday, Relay for Life the following weekend, the Mothers Day Classic and then Round 1 Finale in Melbourne. Not long after that I head to Central Coast for Emazon Stand Your Ground 3 - Road trip weekend! It's going to be a busy term at school, but I am blessed to have the opportunities I do outside of work to keep me sane! Also coming up this year I have the HBF Run for a Reason (14km) and the Perth Half Marathon...and I'm planning on doing Run Disney in Florida January 2013 so I've got some training to do!

Over the next couple of months I am going to be tracking my nutrition, measurements and body composition quite closely and making the adjustments I need. I will also be cooking up a storm and posting new recipes, hopefully each week! I know I still have a long way to go on my journey but I am so excited about what I have achieved and the fun I've had doing it!

In case you are new to my story...check out some of my photos below so you can see where I've come...

L-R: Before (March 2011); Bridesmaid for Bernie (Oct 2011); NYE 2011; Triathlon (Feb 2012); School (March 2012); Birthday dinner (March 2012); First 10km race (April 2012)

Major life changing happenings...

So I started a new blog and have hardly posted....want to hear my excuses? I have soooo many of them! However, when I was a teenager I went to a youth conference where the speaker said that an excuse was 'an invalid reason for a neglect of duty' and this has always stuck with me (I think I've mentioned it in a blog post before). Here's what I've been up to lately:

March 19 - 70km Freeway Bike Hike from Mandurah to Perth

Result - injured calf!

This put me out of action for 2 weeks and it was so frustrating. I did upper body workouts during this time and as soon as I was allowed to do any form of exercise I was back in there! Then about 10 days ago my physio gave me the all clear to run...actually he TOLD me to run! So back to it I was and I was amazed at how easy it was to pick back up.

April 8 - Melbourne Arts Tour (trip to Melbourne with 32 students!!)
Result - got sick...

So I got off the plane last night, and it would have been so easy to give up. I had a goal to run 10km this round of 12WBT and I really wanted to achieve that goal...I had to give up the Bridges run due to my injury and so this morning was the Challenge Fun Run and I wasn't going to let a cold stop me! So I arranged for Natalie to pick me up and off we went!

I'm a runner!
Natalie and I started to run together in November, when Bernie went on her honeymoon and I needed a workout buddy. Our first 'run' was so funny because both of us wanted to stop running and kept going because the other was still running! We had a regular run that was 8km (4km along the coast and back between two beaches) and slowly built up to running the whole thing. One of our first runs we had two skinny fit girls pass us, chatting while they ran and we were amazed because there was no way we could talk while running!

Last week before I went to Melbourne, Nat and I both had the revelation that we were now those girls who could chat while running! This morning was the same, we chatted and supported each other along the way when we wanted to give up - neither of us prepared to quit. The results? Nat finished in under 1:17 and I finished in under 1:20. In December when we first ran our whole 8km route it took us 1:18! So I think it is fair to say that we have improved!

Mindset
I've really struggled with my mindset this round...it has been a roller coaster ride of emotions. Friendships falling apart and old friends reappearing in my life, watching friends have major achievements or major setbacks in their lives, coping with a ridiculous schedule...the list goes on and on. I have had a few things happen over the past week to show me how far I've come this year. My beautiful friend Karin reminded me of a photo that was taken of us 10 weeks ago and I couldn't believe the difference in me! I may not have lost heaps of weight on the scales but I have changed shape, especially in my face!

When I was at the airport meeting the students and their parents for the Melbourne Tour I had several parents come up and make comments to me about how good I was looking, but then one of my Year 12 students and I spoke for quite a while about my journey and she said that her music class were so proud of me and I nearly cried! I have taught these kids since Year 8, my first year at the school and now they are in Year 12...it meant so much coming from her.

Yesterday in Melbourne I went into Lorna Jane for some new workout gear...and ended up with heaps including free stuff! I came away with Lorna Jane's book 'Move, Nourish, Believe' and it just spoke to me. I am looking forward to reading more of this book this week while I'm on holidays and I have time to process it. I've also booked in some 'Perth Crew' time to catch up with some amazing friends.

What comes next?
Well, I've got a few things coming up (not in order)...the Mothers Day Classic (8km run), Step up for MS (1096 stairs!), Run for a Reason, Relay for Life, Finale weekend in Melbourne! It is going to be busy but I'm looking forward to it. I'm making a few changes to my routine, both in exercise and nutrition to get the best results out of my body - so I will be posting more over the next few weeks as I put things into place. Get ready for new recipes - I may even put together a bit of an eBook for people to use :)

Love you all, thanks for reading...

Sarah