Some fun running

OK here are some pics from the 6 runs I have done in the last 6 weeks. Very pleased with the progress I have made so far, on track to completing half marathon in 9 weeks!!

My first run bib, forgot to take a pic when I was there, but got to keep a souvenir.

Nice little power walk before a massive flash storm hit.

Bright and early, Matilda Bay fun run 10kms, I ran it in 1hr 11.

Post 10km run, I look a little hot

Post Matilda Bay, almost passed out on the ground eating breakfast!

At the end of my first cross country 5.8km Bold Park fun run, took me approx 41minutes.

A view of the trail as I headed back to the car

VET's Friendship run 11kms at Kings Park, ran it in 1hr 11 minutes. The finishing line.

Nice cool overcast weather for the 5km Point Walter fun run. Ran in 30mins 5 seconds.

Getting ready at the start

Looking over the course on my way back to my car, watching the others who went on to run the 16km length.

5km Run on my birthday, at the start waiting. Ran it in 28mins 22. 

View to the city at the end of the race

Clean food

So one of the things that got me pretty surprised (and not surprised really) is overhauling my diet. I thought I was doing pretty well last year but looking back, a lot of it was still processed, the servings wayyyy to big and not enough fruit and veg. Since I started the 12wbt Round 1 2012 and started *gulp* following a calorie controlled meal plan I have been going through stacks of veggies and salad. I was a bit sceptical, these servings aren't going to touch the sides I first thought, and to be honest, the first week I was looking around with hungry eyes to see what i could eat (good thing I did a pantry clean out the weeks before so there was little to tempt me), but now i can be satisfied with the serving allocated. So here are some of the meals I have been preparing over the last 3.5 weeks

Pan grilled Asparagus with mushrooms and zucchini. Great as a side dish.

Sweet corn pan grilled in a frying pan (spray olive oil!) OMG this is wayyyy much tastier than frozen corn or tinned. 

Low fat ricotta on wholegrain toast, with handful of frozen (well defrosted lol!!) berries on top

Chicken Penang Curry, my first curry, and it was great, got heaps of frozen leftovers and great with a cup of rice.

One of my most favourite lunch meals so far, this was a Mediterranean wrap filled with chargrilled eggplant, zucchini, capsicum and marinated tofu with Tomato pesto. 

A treat meal, lamb cutlet with pan grilled asparagus, and a veg mix of grilled tomato, mushroom, zucchini, carrot and onion. Delicious!

Baby spinach and egg with crumbled feta. Cooked this in the oven until egg was cooked through, delicious!

This is sliced sweet potato, chargrilled capsicum, crumbled feta and baby spinach on a wholegrain wrap and then cooked in the oven, served as a vegetarian pizza.

Chicken kebabs with red capsicum, onion, zucchini in homemade marinade.

Mexican beef Fajita. Fillet steak with pan grilled capsicum, garlic and onion, served with salad and yoghurt in a wholegrain wrap. Lovely!

Breakfast burrito - Rasher of lean bacon, cooked egg, with baby spinach inside a wholegrain wrap. This is better than anything from Maccas!

This looks impressive but I don't think I will make it again, it was a Chickpea, carrot, feta and tomato salad. 

First attempt at cooking fish! Pan cooked with some flour dusted on the fillets, olive spray and seasoned with pepper. Yum! Accompanied with a watermelon and pickled ginger salad. Very nice flavours.

A birthday present from the kids, seed starter kits to start growing my own herbs.

Lentil Loaf. I was really sceptical, haven't really had lentils before, I had visions of tastelessness beanyness (ok I know that is not a word haha) but woah, it turned out fantastic! I made a minted yoghurt sauce to go with it and served with a side salad. The serving size on this is quite big so it was quite filling.

Cajun Chicken grilled chicken with sweetcorn pan roasted, asparagus and homemade coleslaw. No bottle sauce! 

Some goals reached so far...

It's been a little quiet on the blogfront lately! I am week 3 into the 12WBT and not finding I am having a lot of time apart from sleep, work, kids, exercise! I have been taking a few pictures along the way.

First up, just finished up my 6 week fun run goal and YES 6 runs in 6 weeks! My first run I completed 5kms in 33 mins 6 seconds. 4 weeks later I did another 5km in 30 mins 5 seconds. On Sunday just gone, I did my 3rd 5km run and did it in 28 mins 22 seconds! Very happy with that.

I can now do a somewhat dodgy toe pushup! And leg raises...well dodgy ones still

Let's move on to some Boxing

Someone posted on the FB group for 12WBT in my local area for a 1 hour boxing class down at my local rec centre. I need to work on core strength and my upper body (hello arm muscles I know you are hiding in there somewhere). So I took myself down there last week and LIKED it! Like yes. It was really hard work. I can run a little bit now, but pair me with a skipping rope and it's a bit of a disaster! The first half of the class is a combination of warm up exercises, some sit ups and some leg lift manoeuvre that totally had me baffled, and when told that it is something I do to work my stomach muscles, I go ah huh, which stomach muscles? AWOL since high school at least! Then the last half we get to practice punching bags, tackle the gym equipment and take a turn in the ring with one of the instructors. It felt daunting the first couple of times but at $2 an hourly session, I am thinking bargain, and great workout. I can't wait to find out how many calories I will burn once I get my HRM.

So I have a couple of small goals I want to achieve with boxing class!

1 - Do 1 proper push up. Starting small here LOL!
2 - Do 30 full sit ups (not the stomach crunches, the normal ones)
3 - Plank for 30 seconds
4 - Do the leg raising exercises  without my feet touching the ground.

I will check back in as I complete the above!

It's like riding a bike...

Many moons ago...probably about 9 years, I decided I wanted a bike for my birthday. So my family pitched in and surprised me with one. I used it about 3 times and decided it hurt my bottom too much and that it was too hard to ride around where I live (semi-hilly). Over the years it sat in the spare room, until it retired in our shed and gathered a fair bit of dust and webs. At the end of December I decided I would get back on the bike. So I got it out (it still had new tyre tread!) and promptly fell over when I tried to do a test ride under my patio. Ok not a great start!. After fixing the inner tubes and getting them pumped up I set off. I started by getting onto the map my run website and mapping out "easy" routes around me. First was a couple of km's, then 5kms, and now I just did my first 10km bike ride through the Heritage Trail tonight! I rode from home and a punishing 1km descent. Had to stop halfway, I feel it was too steep for me still and I can't work out how to ride standing up and off the seat. But I got there, and got to John Forrest National park and back within an hour. It was really lovely, it was supposed to be a really hot day today, 40'C, but it had cooled to about 35 by the time I left  before 6pm. It was nice, I had the trail all to myself until the end when the evening walkers were out. Even spotted a couple of rabbits and friendly magpies! No snakes PHEW. No swooping magpies DOUBLE PHEW!!

Above - About 1km into the trail ride, near the entrance to the Swan View Tunnel

Working hard! Ok I had to stop and take this photo, no riding and phone operating at the same time!

Ok so how about a time to set a goal?

According to this The distance from Swan View to Parkerville is about 16kms return. So I think I will aim to to that within the next couple of months. I will update when I get it done :)

Reaching new heights, another fun run already?

I have decided to do another fun run. I will give the 10km a go! I know I can do 6kms straight and if I can't do the whole lot without stopping, then its not the end of the world if I walk some. One foot in front of the other right? Whether its running or walking I just want to cross that line.

And yes maybe the offer of post run breakfast might be part of it :D

I have a copy of the marathon/fun run schedule on my fridge, anticipating upcoming events. I wonder how far I can push myself? Who would have thought I would be excited about running? There is even one on my birthday, I would rather do this than have dinner at a restaurant and eating too much food, as inevitable the temptation is.

Edit: I DID IT!!!!!!!
1hr 11 minutes, probably about the 5th last person to finish but I am stoked that I got through it, no stopping, just a very steady pace the whole way through. I feel like I sprinted that last 200 metres when I saw the finish line, everyone is so supportive, it felt great to be clapped and cheered on when I finished. YAY!

 Before....when I was sitting there thinking, I could be sleeping in right now!

                                                           Straight afterwards. Bit hot here!

Who's up for a Fun? Run!

Ahh see if you asked me a couple of months ago if I would ever participate in a fun run...I would have literally laughed out loud...hysterically..LOL. Now here I am, about to jump in and do my first one on Sunday so fingers crossed...its only 5km so can't be too hard, and there is a sausage sizzle at the end so yes...mmm :D

If you are in Perth there is the http://www.wamc.org.au/index.htm . Don't let the name fool you, they do have fun runs and "little marathons" listed on the event list so there is something for everyone.

UPDATE

DONE!!! YES!!!! non stop 5kms DONE!! time was 33 mins 06 seconds...somewhere near the back (204 out of 248), but gives me something to work on. Can't believe it, I DID IT!!!!!!!!

ps. I am hoping they took a picture of me when I ran into the gate so when I find one I will upload.

Edit : Found a picture of me! I look a bit strange, like I am about to trip over or something. This beginner needs to work on stride/technique I think!

A little running challenge

I put the call out on my Facebook and asked my friends to "Like" my status and that for every like, I will run 1 km. I don't have that many friends so to bump it up I asked for a comment and that would be a bonus km to run!

So I got 41 "Likes" and 12 comments -53kms to go!

As of the 25th of January...

Target Reached!! (56.51km run in just over 3 weeks)

6.14km on the 27th of Jan
6.06km on the 25th of Jan
10km on the 22nd of Jan
6.3km on the 18th of Jan
5km run on the 15th of Jan
6km run on the 13th of Jan
5.85km run on 11th of Jan
5.05km on the 8th of Jan
5.05 km on the 6th of Jan
4.6km run on the 4th of Jan
4 km run on the 2nd of Jan

Keep watching this space..

New shoes!

One thing that I (and the professionals) recommend is go get some good workout gear! (They should suit your needs of course). My old cross trainers were starting to feel worn down (and they are nearly 2 years old) so I went down to Rebel Sport and grabbed a pair of these running shoes. Yes I was sold on the colour too! I got these for $80, RRP $140 AU so I am happy with that! Did I mention they are hot pink?!!  I still have a bit of wear on my old sneakers so I will use them for non exercise purposes but these are my new trainers. Now to break these new shoes in...

Just did a google by the way, for us who use Km's thats about every 550km - 900kms. :D

Running Shoe Replacement Tips

• Track your mileage. After 350-550 miles it's time for a new pair. For runners who log 25 miles per week replace your shoes every three to four months.
• You can check for signs of wear on the sole by placing your old shoes on a table and looking at them from behind. If the soles are worn and leaning to one side, the midsole cushioning is probably worn as well.

Ps. Go get your feet measured by a specialist (in Australia we have something like The Athlete's Foot.) Just go buy elsewhere if you don't like the selection, lots of cheap deals out there.

And those who want to know, I am a AU 9.5. Yay for me...wide feet!!

Edited to add - if you have wide feet like myself, and you are DIY shoe shopping, look for a half size, apparently the .5 just means its wider, not longer

Lets get started

My name is KT and I guess you can say I want to get moving.

New years day 2011, I decided I wasn't going to be unhealthy anymore. I felt fat, I felt frumpy. I felt really unhappy about myself.

So I weighed myself, 87.3kgs (BMI of  32.9). A big number for me thats for sure. One I didn't want to see ever again.

I have lost 20kgs in 12 months. Most in the first 3 months, then as I got a little slack things plateaued. The one thing I have kept on doing is the exercising. I didn't want to be one of those people who just dieted. I have to make it a whole lifestyle change.

Apparently I look like I have lost a fair bit of weight (its always harder to tell since you are in your body all the time and its harder to tell the difference) and people always ask me how I did it. 

I basically just say, diet, eating better, and exercising. No quick fixes. No pills, no shake replacement diets, no counting calories, just being sensible and trying be active.

What is my goal for 2012? I want to do more. I want to enjoy exercising more. I want to push myself, I want to redefine my body. I want to learn to eat better (it's an ongoing issue for me). I want to help motivate others. If I can do it, so can you.