I Need a Rest

The biggest and best news to report this week is that my wife is finally on the road to recovery. She is actually sitting up on the couch 'facebooking' as apposed to lying down doing it. Believe me that is a big step forward. Luckily I work about a 3 minute drive away and so I have been able to come home every break to see if she is OK, make her a cup of tea, check the internet (obviously) and get back to work before anyone notices that I've gone. I've also been lucky that my students are on leave and my time has been very flexible. Thankfully I now have a week off (our kids are off for the next two weeks) and so we can all re-charge our batteries. Life has been hectic, Adam has had School Production till 9pm for most of the week and Laura has been coming with me to pick him up so late nights all round. Next week will be relaxed! We'll do some 'close to home' stuff but no long road trips like we originally planned.

Training has been on and off for the week. A good start with a hill workout on Tuesday.

4 repeats of Oropi Rd hill. 6:01, 5:06, 4:41, 5:58. Trying to find my 'old times' for this hill. I was thinking that my times were in the 6 and 7 minutes but I'll have to dig into the 'archives' to find out. Legs felt strong but I felt sick after the 4:41 effort :)

Couldn't find my old times for that hill. Found the 'entry' but didn't record splits whch is unlike me. I mapped the hill and it is a fraction under 1k so I am very pleased that my (sort-of) warm-up and warm-down efforts were around the 6 minute mark. The 4:41 nearly killed me but it was great fun to stride up the hill.

Wednesday's workout was a desperation last chance workout before my weigh in for the challenge. My eating had been OK for the week but not great and my weight was hovering around the same weight as the previous week. If you put on during the week you have to pay $1 for every 500g. So in an effort not to have to pay I sweated on the windtrainer for an hour. I know how Lester Piggot must have felt now!

The plan worked a little too well really as I weighed in 1.4kg lower than the previous weight. Results were:

Current Weight 85.3kg

Weekly weight loss 1.4kg (although this is two weeks cos I missed last week cos of Jo's op)

Total weight loss 12.2kg

Percentage weight loss 12.5%

I am still leading but there are two others catching me. Both are on 9%. There are 5 weigh ins left so I need to keep on my toes.

Friday was not a good day for weight loss. I was meeting up with a friend (who had been working in Australia) for a drink. I decided I wasn't going to go too mad in the pub but I kinda thought that 'well I'm gonna blow the diet in the pub so might as well make the most of it and eat cr@p during the day'. I had hoped I had left this kind of logic behind but I found myself overeating during the day and then pigging out on meat pie and chips before going out. I even finished off the cold chips still wrapped up in newspaper when I got home from the pub. NOT GOOD!!! If I lose the challenge I will look back at this day and know why! ... saying that, one day shouldn't make too much difference in the overall scheme of things but I can't have too any of them!

This morning was supposed to be my normal Sunday morning 'long' ride but it was p!$$!ng down with rain and I just didn't have the motivation to get out there. I ended up doing a half-hearted half hour on the windtrainer before deciding that outside was the better option. I decided to try a time trial down the Toll Road.

My time wasn't bad at 11:10. This is equal second fastest. I think I would have been faster if the roads weren't so wet and if I hadn't worn my tyre smooth on the windtrainer. Definitely need a different tyre for road/windtrainer work. It felt like my back wheel was slipping on every pedal rotation. I haven't got the smoothest of pedal strokes but this morning was very 'lumpy'. My heart rate was high so I was working fairly hard. I think the average of 159 is probably the highest on that TT. I'm encourage with the 11:10 and think maybe, just maybe I can go Sub11 for that course. We shall see :)

So the week coming up is going to be a recovery week with short, slow workouts. However I have a top secret squirrel plan to get a ride on the Rotorua Half Ironman course. Hopefully the weather will clear up towards the end of the week. With a bit of rest at the start of the week maybe I'll be rested enough for an attack of the course on Thursday or Friday. I hope so.

Right, I'm off to have a kip :)

Washing, shopping and school runs ...

What a week!

My workouts have paled into insignificance as most of my energy has gone into looking after Jo and the kids this week after Jo's visit to the hospital for 'exploratory' surgery. She reacted badly to the anaesthetic and has been 'couch ridden' for the week.

I can't believe how much washing, washing up and general mess a family of four generates daily. The kids have been great and helped out heaps but it seems that I've been on a constant cycle of washing, tumble drying, cooking, cleaning, washing up and hanging up clothes. If I'm reincarnated as a woman I'll be getting a maid!

Despite all this I have managed nearly 8 hours of training this week. Having the windtrainer has helped. I've been able to sneak down to the basement for an hour here and there. I also managed to get a 5K run in. It wasn't my fastest 5K ever but I was very pleased with a 22:35 (only 6 seconds slower than my PB).

There were also 2 x 10K(ish) runs during the week along Fraser St. I'm determined to keep up this consistency to avoid injury. My legs are feeling strong at the moment and I don't want to lose this feeling. Looking back at my training runs, injuries seem to come after a period of inconsistent runs and a result of me going too fast/far to make up for lost runs. I've got to keep it consistent even if the runs are short or slow. I need to keep moving.

Sunday was my long bike and I rode three hills off of Welcome Bay Road.

My overall average speed was pretty slow but it felt like my work rate was high. I also managed to beat my time to the top of Reid Rd, which is the first hill in the diagram above.

Best time for last year was 12:24 and I managed 12:30 last week. I really wanted to get as close to 12:00 as I could but as I climbed, with all the blood going to my legs and none going to my brain I thought that I had to beat 11:24 and was desperate to see 10:xx as I crossed the 'line'.

When I saw 11:55 at the top I felt really disappointed. I had worked hard and really gone for it and I was slower than last week. I stopped at the top, had a drink and the blood must have started flowing back to my brain because I suddenly realised that I had beaten the record. Weird how the brain doesn't work well when you stress the body physically. I have the same thing in transition when I always seem to go the wrong way even though I know exactly where to go before the race.

Update on Weight Loss - I didn't go this week (see blog title for reasons) but I'm allowed one week of non attendance. My eating has been OK but not great. Quite a bit of comfort eating and grabbing stuff on the go that's convenient but not exactly nutritious. I have to nuckle down over the next couple of days ready for the weigh in on Wednesday. I don't want to put on and have to pay a dollar for every 500g. Maybe a sweaty windtrainer session just before I go ...

Only a short blog this week cos I've got to go get the washing out and stick it in the tumble dryer. Kids need school clothes for the morning. A woman's work is never done!

Weekly Update

Monday 15th June 09

My legs were still hurting from the brick on Sunday and so I just did an easy 25 minute spin on the windtrainer with Adam. I'm trying to encourage him to use it more.

Tuesday 16th June 09

Another spin on the windtrainer with Adam but this time I used it as a warm up for my run. I left him to it after 20 minutes and went on my run. He carried on for a total of about 45mins I think. I had a good 10k run along Fraser Street. Just happy that my calf is giving me no grief whatsoever. Finished in 58:30. Happy with that.

Wednesday 17th June 09

Weigh in night at the weight loss challenge and so this in some way excuses me from training. There's logic there somewhere. Lost 1.2Kg so well pleased. Total percentage loss is now 11%.

Thursday 18th June 09

Had to work late so no training. Again another excuse that won't be accepted (by me) when I start training proper for the race.

Friday 19th June 09

Another attempt at the 10K along Fraser St. I'm using this as my base training route because it has hills and is a bit more interesting and more challenging than Cameron Road. Same sort of pace as Tuesday with a time of 58:58. I'll be looking to increase this Friday run to 90 ins over next few months. Not going to do anything too drastic so maybe the odd 5 or 10 mins added every few weeks.

Saturday 20th June 09

Rest day but did take the kids swimming. The local pool has an 18m kiddies pool and it's about a zillion degrees warmer than the main pool so we spent all our time in there. We had lots of 'races' and the kids loved kicking my @r$e in the one length sprint. I was able to show my dominance in the endurance 36m race by pulling ahead in the final 10m as they both weakened. Jo just mostly rolled her eyes at our 'competitiveness'. Great fun.

Sunday 21st June 09

Two words to describe the Sunday morning long bike ... Freezing Cold!!!. I haven't been so cold on the bike since last year's attempt at the Rotorua Half route when certain bits of me felt like thay were gonna break off. I rode out to my favourite hill ride, Reid Road and attempted a timed climb just to see how much fitness I had lost since the times I climbed it almost weekly (it semed).

I rode hard to the top but not 'out of the saddle puking as you go hard' but hard enough to produce some very impressive snot rockets. I was just using my lowest gear and so my cadence was high but it seemed even higher than normal and it seemed like I was making good time. I got to the top in 12:30.

At the time I didn't know where this sat in my list of times. I hadn't intended to time the climb so hadn't checked on previous times. It was only when I got back and looked at old posts that I realised that it was my second fastest EVER! ... and the fastest in that gear.

I need to get back there next week and try some climbs in bigger gears ... just to see. I think it's fair to say that the weight loss has helped greatly with this. I now have my eye on a Sub12 Reid Road climb. Maybe if I can just drop a few more pounds and swap some of the fat for leg muscles.

Next week is going to be erm ... difficult. Jo goes into hospital on Tueday for some 'womens' things. She may have to stay in overnight. It means I have to do the washing and cook dinners. I'm not good with washing machines and ovens :( Not sure if there will be any time for training ;)

Go on then ... just a quickie

I will write my rambling reflection on the week's training tonight but I just wanted to get this titbit of information out there as soon as possible cos I am so stoked ... and it needs a blog entry all of it's own.

I rode Reid Rd this morning. Just one climb in my lowest gear. I pushed it but not as hard as I have in the past. I rode seated all the way when I think I could have got a bit of extra speed out of the saddle.

My previous fastest time in the lowest gear was 14:36 with most times in the 15 minute range. Now I might have to re-check next week with a few more attempts just in case I timed it wrong (I didn't) but my time this morning was 12:30. My fastest time ever is only 6 seconds less at 12:24 and that was in my 4th lowest gear and REALLY working hard!

Bearing in mind as well, this was in freezing cold conditions with 4 layers of clothing on. It just goes to show what dropping a few kilos does for hill climbing on the bike. Wonder if it'll transfer to the flat Toll Rd?

Week 6 Weigh In

Another 1.2kg (2.6lbs) loss this week. Well pleased. I think the brick I did on Sunday and the hour run on Tuesday really helped.

This week's weight 86.7kg

Last week's 87.9kg

Weekly Loss 1.2kg

Total Weight Loss 10.8kg

% weight loss 11%

I didn't stay for the 'chat' bit and the product review. Just wanted to get home and eat :)

My week's training started off well enough with a 50 minute run on Monday. I chose the flat option and at no point did I push the pace but I was pleased to have survived my longest run for ages. So building on this success I then took the next three days off! I have a variety of excuses (working late, attending the weight loss challenge, more working late!) but the closer December comes the less I can use these as valid excuses.

Friday rolled around (the week just flew by) and I had two options for Friday evening. An hour run or 90 mins on the windtrainer. It was dark, cold and p!$$ing down outside. The basement with the windtrainer was warm and cosy and I could watch U2 on the DVD.

So no competition .... I laced up my running shoes and headed out into the darkness.

It was a little bit too dark for my liking. The rain on my glasses was a pain and meant I could hardly see one foot in front of the other because of the car headlights shining in my face. I didn't want to go fast anyway but I was extra cautious and extra slow going out. Even so I came within an inch of running into one tree. Why the path along Fraser St has to take so many detours I'm not quite sure. They could have built the path to the left or the right of all the tress rather than zigg zagging around them all. Oh well ...

The run back was easier as the headlights were over my shoulder and seemed to light the path more. I was able to avoid the trees, puddles and even the roadworks at the estuary.

Completed the 10K in 59:14. Certainly not my fastest run along that route but anything under an hour along there is OK by me.

Saturday was supposed to be a family/rest day but Jo was out for the day so me and the kids got on with stuff in the morning (cleared bedrooms/cleared bit of the garden/baked cookies) and then got a DVD for the afternoon. I didn't really want to watch it and so being the great dad I am I gave them each a bowl of popcorn, sat them in front of the DVD and escaped to the basement to get an hour on the windtrainer. Watched U2 live in Chicago. I didn't go mad but did a few intevals along the way. Got just over an hour in, got showered and was back upstairs just as the credits rolled. All good. We even got the house tidy before Jo got back home which was a bonus.

Sunday was my usual long ride but it was different this week because a friend from work was joining me. He rides a mountain bike and is training for Motu so the speeds along the flats weren't fast but we got some good climbing in. We tried a new loop off the main Welcome Bay Road and it was OK on the climb up but most of the downhill was on loose gravel. I was not enjoying it. On the brakes most of the time. It was also really slippery from all the rain yesterday and there were a lot of landslips with gawd knows what strewed across the road in places. I was slipping all over the place. Never again! :)

It was a great ride overall and we finished up with a climb up Reid Rd and a hard ride home. I stayed in my big ring and middle gear and had to really work hard on the climbs. I let him get away on the downhills and then reeled him in on the climbs. Good fun.

I wasn't really looking forward to running off the bike but I wanted to do it just to get back in the swing of it. I set off on the run at a very slow pace. Both sides of my groin were extrememly tight and my stride was tiny. I went the undulating route so it was just a case of surviving the hills rather than getting any pace going. I turned at the top of the biggest 'slope' on the route (quite steep but not long) and was thankful for the downhill. I think I finished stronger than I started. Groin didn't really loosen up so I need to work on that. Well that's my excuse anyway ;)

Hoping to get a bit more consistancy in my training next week. At the moment I only have one night class planned on Thursday so in theory I might get a 8 hour week in. That's the plan anyway.

My Diet

Aaron said...

Have you radically changed your diet or is it more exercise?

The only way I can lose weight is to remove the association of pleasure with food.

I love sitting down at the weekend with everyone to break bread and enjoy dips and chicken and olives and nachos and salsa dips then have cake and ice-cream for afters with coffee and chocolate biscuits after that. But I don't lose weight.

I love 4 slices of jam on toast and a cup of coffee (few biscuits after) on a Sunday morning. But I don't lose weight.

I love cooking a hot chicken curry and rice and onion bhajis that would feed a family of 6 and then sharing it all with Jo. But I don't lose weight.

I love raiding the chocolate vending machine at work if I'm having a bad day. But I don't lose weight.

I love take-aways on the beach. But I don't lose weight.

I love cooking cookies with the kids. But I don't lose weight

Now I know I could incorporate all of these into a healthy diet and lose weight at the same time but I know I won't. I was explaining to Laura why they had to shoot and kill that white tiger the other week because the argument goes that once it's tasted human it's wants more. She said 'what like you and chocolate' ... smart ar$e!

I'm thinking that I will be able to incorporate all of the things I love into a maintenance plan once I get to goal weight but until then I'll get my pleasure from other things. Seeing the weight go down is one way. Being able to ride up Reid Rd easier (which it seemed to be last week) is another. Even running my undulating run course last night seemed a bit easier. I loved that!

The only way I can lose weight is to get boring with my food. I do not need new delicious wonderful flavoursome dishes to keep me on a diet. I need boring regular food that I know will keep me full until the next feed. We have to keep a food diary for this Weight Loss Challenge and I am waiting to get told off for not eating a variety of foods. My plan looks the same almost daily but certainly weekly.

Breakfast since the start of the challenge has been porridge and honey. Keeps me full till a bit of fruit (usually apple) at 10am. The only difference in the diet is at the weekend when for lunch instead of my banana, peanut butter and honey sandwich (which is nice but not so nice that I want to eat 4 more rounds of bread) I have a LARGE bowl (think large dog bowl) of chicken salad, nuts, seeds and vegetables with hot lime pickle. Lots of goodness in there.

When I get home from work I used to raid the cupboards for food but I have stopped that and now wait till dinner. Such a good boy now! Dinner is either a 'Laura sized' portion of whatever Jo is cooking or my standby of a large bowl of cornflakes if I get home late or miss the 'family' dinner for whatever reason.

Once the kids are in bed me and Jo get really naughty. Out come the nuts and dark chocolate. A handful of (healthy) walnuts and a few squares of dark chocolate with a cup of tea watching trashy TV with the kids asleep in bed. Life don't get any better (in the relaxing stakes) than this. I read on a blog that one lady has a treat in the evening of a square of dark chocolate. $h!t, ONE square! We have 8 each!!! IT'S MEDICINE PEOPLE!!!

I think another thing that has helped with the weight loss is that I am not having any energy drink/gel/food for any exercise under two hours. An hour run for me would normally involve a bit of food before I went out (banana) a 750ml sports drink on the way and usually a gel at the half way point. Now it's just water and there's no problem. I'm not going to die from lack of food.

Oh ... and another thing. The challenge being for money has certainly helped. I've had a few work buffets in the past weeks and I would normally attack them with vengeance. In the past I would have been embarrassed to explain my lack of eating with the usual 'I'm on a diet' BUT I feel different (and people's reaction has certainly been different) when I explain that I am doing a challenge to win $$$. The usual reaction is 'you don't need to lose weight, an extra muffin/cake/brownie won't hurt' but now it is 'good on ya, good luck, stay away form the cakes'. Much easier to deal with.

At the end of the 12 weeks if i haven't reached my goal of 80Kg then I will draw out $600 put it in an envelope and set a time to lose the remaining.

If I do, I get the $600.

If I don't, Jo and the kids get it. I need short term incentives.

Medium term is to be faster at a lighter weight.

Long term is to live healthier and longer.

Short term I need MONEY!!!