So, what now?

So, what's next?

I ran my 5k on the weekend, what do I do now?

Well, at this stage, I have no other events I am entered into.  I've been thinking about the 5km NEON Run in October, which is a night event, kind of a 5km-disco-nightclub type event.  It sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun.  I had been thinking about it last year, but hemmed and hawed and missed it.  It's for one of my favourite charities, Beyond Blue.  Australia's national initiative to raise awareness of anxiety and depression.  I think the work they do is fantastic and so, so, so important.

After the B2B, I'd been spending most of the afternoon, whilst recovering, looking up other 5km events that are occurring this year.  There are still a few more coming up, so I am starting to put together a list of dates and costs.  More to come on that L8R (later).

I'm also counting down the days to when the swimming pool at work re-opens.  I have access to a 25m pool outside of work hours.   Cannot wait until the covers come off and the pool is cleaned and treated and ready for use again.  Even though I didn't swim as much this past summer (2013/14) as much as the summer before (2012/13), for the past two months or so I've been really missing swimming.  A lot.  So much so that while I am waiting for the work pool to be ready, I might (if I have time, the next two weeks are really busy!) duck into the council pool to have a swim.

I think at this stage I have two goals I want to accomplish.

1. To complete Couch to 5k and run 5km by the end of the year
2. To swim 1km non-stop by the end of the year.

Now, I haven't run them through SMART yet to see if they are reasonable/achievable goals, but they are what I want.  

• I'm already making progress on being able to run 5km.  

• When I was swimming in 2012/13, I was swimming around about 700m each session, three times a week.  

Given that I have been working on exercises that are more aerobic in nature (running & Zumba), I'm keen to see the effect that it will have on my swimming ability.  I've been (hopefully) building the muscles in my legs by running, so my kicks should be stronger.  And Zumba & running should be improving my cardio & lung function so I won't get as out of breath as quickly.

I'll be back with another post soon, ~2weeks and let you know my plans for getting there.

Oh!  And probably up date my weight & measurements!  : )

Quick check-in!

Hi there!
Quick check-in from me.

This morning I ran in the Bridge to Brisbane fun-run.  It has a 10km and 5km course, and I ran the 5km.  I say ran, but really, it was more of a jog.  In intervals.

When I entered (back in June) I was planning on completing the Couch to 5k program.  Well, I started, but then got waylaid.  I hadn't actually made it past Week 3.  Such a shame.  However, I took what I learnt from that and tried to run in interval fashion.  I decided, when I entered, to take my chances on entering into the 'Joggers' category as opposed to the 'Walkers' category.  The Joggers were meant to finish <45min.  (Runners <30min).  I actually got rather worried about that because I hadn't finished my C25K training, I was worried that I would take longer than 45minutes and I'd be disqualified.

Turns out, after emailing the organisers, it's not a <45min but more ~45min.  <Rolls eyes>.  Urgh... being a maths person, those terms are pretty darn concrete.  LESS THAN is not the same as AROUND/ABOUT/APPROX.  Grrrr.....

My biggest worry was that I wouldn't finish in the time I was meant to for my category.  I actually felt really anxious and keyed up about it before the race.  I have to wonder if I felt nervous/worried in my other races or more excited?  On reflection, I can't recall.  I want to keep an eye out on it though for next time.

So anyhow, ran the race this morning, not all at once, broke it into to walk/jog intervals.  Think I managed to jog the whole 1st kilometre!  After that, I ran to music, making sure I ran for the duration of an entire song - those with pumping jams at least.  I think it helped, because I ran faster when I was running along to music.

And.... drumroll please.....

My official finishing time was......



UNDER 45 MINUTES?!?!?  Wahoo!!  I'm so very excited about that, yay!

 *yawn*

Aaaaaaanad... I guess the toils of the day are starting to take affect (effect?) on me.  Time I think to heat up some dinner (Rich beef casserole) and curl up on the couch with some TV.  It's my plan, and I like it : )

My first 5K!

I left this in drafts because I wanted to add pictures! So here's the post now! :)

I got back about an hour ago from completing my first ever 5K race.  Woo!  It was part of a fundraiser for breast cancer research and support in coincidence with International Women's Day.

I say race, although I wasn't in either of the running categories.  There was a <30min runners category and a 30-35 min category and then lastly a general runners-walkers-and-those-with-strollers category.

I decided that I was going to aim to complete the race in <1 hour.

I based that off the fact that all I've really been walking lately is 3km (1.8mi) distances, and when I'm pushing myself thats an average 9'48" min/km pace (6.1km/hr; 3.8mph). If I could keep that pace up the whole race, then I should have made it around the 50 minute mark.  I gave myself more time because of the longer distance (in case of fatigue) and crowding (being a crowd event after all).  But I decided I would still try to push myself nevertheless to definitely finish under 1 hour.

I finished in 48'34".



I AM SO DAMN PROUD OF MYSELF!!! :D



I seriously felt soooo good when I saw that on my nano!  Because I was not a serious running competitor, I didn't get a timing chip, but that's okay.  I used my nano (as I just pointed out) to take my time and distance. And after all, this was my first 5K.  It didn't need to be serious.

But now I'm looking up what other events and 5kms races are on that I can sign up for.  The Brisbane Marathon runs a 5K race.  There's the always popular "Bridge to Brisbane" 5k/10k race that cross over the huge Gateway Motorway toll bridge.  Hmm... Off to do some investigating!

(You can click on the photos to make them bigger)

In the morning, ready to go! 

The results! And yes, that's my food diary behind it.

20 Feb. 14

So… Sunday came and went, and I forgot to update the table of my weightloss.  And I only want to make this a quick note because I’m on the laptop and left the charger at work.

Two things, related to the same.  I mentioned last post that I have started going to dance classes again?  Mondays and Thursdays.

I just want to share with the world that even though I was tired I had such a good class tonight J

This comes at the end of a long week.  A very hot and humid week (average temp 31*C/88*F), where I didn’t get to lunch until 3.30pm at the earliest (and twice I missed out altogether), traffic was shocking – 25min to drive 5km (3.2mi) anyone? and had three meetings called last minute before work (Tue-Wed-Thu).

Despite all these things, I still had a great lesson.  I haven’t felt so good about a dance class in ages.  I don’t know what it was, but I was on form tonight.  I’m without a doubt the only overweight person there.  Being 5’8” too, means I really stand out.  I normally feel so clunky and awkward, even though these are familiar moves to me.  But tonight I had great strength in my arms, I had better footwork, my neck felt loose, my sharp movements were sharp, my slow ones were beautifully controlled. *shivers* it all just worked. 

So that felt really good.

And then, walking home from the train station, I need to cross a major road (the same one I always talk about).  A car pulled up at the lights on the road parallel to where I walk and need to cross.  Sometimes it takes a long time for the lights to change, sometimes not.  Tonight was a short change.  Because I didn’t feel like waiting through another whole set of light changes, I decided I’d run to the corner to catch up to the lights as I saw they were changing orange.  My cross light was on red, because I didn’t reach it in time to press it before the parallel street went green, so I had to make the commitment to either run it or stop and wait. 

I know this is bad form, but I ran it.  I made it clear of the lights going green on the main road (which would have run me over).  In all, I probably ran about 75m (82 yards).  And that’s full pelt run-run, not just shuffle-along-quickly-run.  I didn’t even raise my heart rate.  I thought that was pretty good and what a surprise!  I didn’t feel the exertion of that at all.  Probably because it’s such a short distance, but usually, I would still need to catch my breath after such a dash.

So those are my two pieces of news I wanted to share.  :D  Please feel free to criticise me for running across the road, I had to tell you so there was a context to my running. 

And now, for dinner!

City2South

One of the reasons I am keen to get started again is all because of an event I did a few weeks ago. 

On the 16^th of June, I was part of an inaugural funrun in Brisbane, called City2South.  It was a 14km race which could be run or walked or wheel-chaired.  It was 14km of pain!  Haha, not really, but it was long!!  The course started from the city CBD, wend itself around the river, through the university, to finish in a park on the other side of the river.  The early morning stillness and quiet was wonderful!  The hill that went from 12-13^th kilometre was not wonderful.  The karaoke station in which the sponsoring bank would donate $50 for every person that sang was great fun!  (Crocodile Rock).  :D

Actually, yes, I was in pain by the end of it.  My new shoes (which I had bought 2 ½ weeks prior and thought I had already broken in enough) gave me blisters.  Only on the one foot, but man, did that make the last 4km or so slow going!  It was right on the ball of my foot, so that meant I was walking quite wobbly for a bit!

I saw a link for it on a news website back in March and I decided it was a great way to get myself motivated and kickstarted to get myself fit again.  I even convinced a friend to enter it with me. J  She’s gotten very focused on her health lately and has lost some weight in the process.  She’s stopped eating the foods that were making her sick, and has really upped her running.  She’s big into running now, which she enjoyed when she was in high school.  I didn’t know her then, so it’s so cool seeing her get into it.  J  Anyhow, she’s one of my motivator buddies here.  Because I know she’s taking better care of her health, and lost some weight in the process, as well as juggling work and family, it makes me feel I can too.

So, we signed up!  I had to keep emphasising to her that I wouldn’t be able to run it, but I think we kept up a pretty good pace.  Especially in the beginning.  We were dodging crowds for the first 5km or so as we were powering through.  At about the 8km mark however we slowed right down.  And that was because of me.  I hadn’t gotten in as much preparation as I had wanted and the longest distance I had covered in the lead up had been 8km.  My legs, back and FEET! were aching.  I had to keep stopping to stretch my feet.  And then of course, I worked out further along that I was getting a blister.  But I didn’t want to stop.

I had two goals while completing this race:

1.       I didn’t want to be the last one crossing over the finish line.  I knew I was going to be slow, especially after that halfway mark.  I was very conscious of the fact that I am overweight, and finishing last and slow was just going to draw unwanted attention to myself.  I didn’t want that.

2.       I wanted to finish within the allotted cut-off times.  There were three points along the course where the organisers were watching for the stragglers.  If you were late for the cut-off point, then you would have to forfeit the rest of the course and make your way straight to the finishing point.  I didn’t want that.  If there was going to be anything more humiliating than finishing last, it was not getting to finish at all.

Luckily for me, I didn’t let my friend down, nor me.  I do think my friend was a little frustrated with me and how slow I was by the end, but she kept shrugging it off.  She’s a runner, so I guess she’s more used to the longer distances.

But, how’d I do?  I think I did okay J

75^th last – woohoo!

 

Friday night's all right for walking

Hello!  I am so excited to see so many people following me now and leaving comments.  It's very nice of you all, thank-you.  I hope that you find something worthwhile to read while you're here, as I journal about trying to lose weight, get fit and build up healthy habits!

I was in a funny mood all day today.  I kept getting frustrated and angry and annoyed at people.  People who I didn't even have near me or in my company.  I think I was having one of those 'in my head' days, where I was just thinking too much.  I was running conversations in my mind, getting annoyed at the person I was talking with, because I wasn't able to express myself properly, or they weren't reacting the way I wanted them to.  Stupid stuff, because I as I said, I was on my own this morning.  I was meant to meet up with a friend this evening, but due to crossed-wires, poor communication, that fell through.  That annoyed me too.  I was annoyed enough that I wanted to stop into a fast food spot on the way back, just to get something to eat, so I could call it 'comfort food' and distract me from how crummy I was feeling.  Since starting my food journal, and just listing what I am eating each day, I've started to become really aware that I eat when I'm not hungry. 

I was feeling so wound up and angry and annoyed that I decided I would go home, change into exercise gear and go out for a walk.  While I'm on holidays, I'm visiting my ma, who lives by the coast.  There is a footpath that runs the length of the water, and it's all lit up of an evening, because on the other side of the road there are shops and restaurants and stuff.  I decided it would be a good idea to go for a walk there, clear my head and get some exercise at the same time.  It was a beautiful evening, really warm, without the wind being cold. 

I took my Nano with me and decided it was the perfect time to try out the 'basic' setting - seeing as I didn’t have a timeframe or distance to confine me.  I just wanted to go for a walk until I wanted to come back.

On the basic setting, I didn't get any reminders or prompts to keep me going.  Gladys/Glynis (still narrowing down names) only talked to me when I started, when I checked to see how I was going when I wanted to turn back, and when I finished and hit stop workout.  I kind of liked that because I went for a walk not just to exercise, but to clear my head.  So by being able to just go and to push away the negative thoughts from my head and the bad angry energy, with no interruptions was actually really cool.

I ended up walking for just over an hour - 1:10:42 in fact, and the Nano calculated that I walked 6.61km (or, if you use imperial, 4.1miles).  I don't think it was truly that much, however I do know that it was over 6km because the footpath was marked every 50m with the distance (I think that's 54 yards for the US folk).  I started at the 4300m mark and after I was walking for a while I decided I would walk to the 1300m mark (yeah, I was walking the wrong way) and then return.  Good plan, except… I got to where the 1300m mark should be and I couldn't find it.  At 1450m, the path diverged into 4 or 5 different paths, because I had reached a parkland/community space.  For the life of me, I could not see where the 1300m was, and it was supposed to be my halfway point.  GRR!!!

(However, in the three minutes I was looking for it, I did get distracted by some posts along the path that had a strip of LED lights and as I walked past them, the lights moved up the post and made sounds.  It was cool!   They must have had some sort of sensor, because they matched up to my height then dropped as I passed them.  And they only lit up when I was in proximity to them, so by the time I reached the end, the ones at the start of the path had dimmed again.  Much fun was had).

I turned back and because it was getting later (it was 7.40pm, I think?) I didn't want to take forever getting back.  I'm not entirely sure how or why, but I decided that because the path was evenly marked every 50m, it would be good to use that to do some interval runs.  Run 50m, then walk 50m to recover, run 50m, walk 50m, etc.  Now, I believe I've mentioned before - I'm not a runner.  I think I'm starting to want to be one day, but I'm not close to it yet.  However, I was able to do these interval runs for over 1km.  So I ended up actually running a distance of at least 500m, maybe even 600 (546 yd - 656 yd).  That's a pretty big deal for me, because I swear I hate running, and yet, it seems I have it in me to possibly become a runner.  And of course, the running boosted my heart rate for a little bit and I even managed to banish the mind demons that had been plaguing me all day.  Win-win-win!

Then when I finished, the iPod Nano voice congratulated me for this being the furthest workout I'd done yet.  That was another nice boost to my mood.

So I started my day in a funk, got progressively worse, and then, even though it was night-time, I went out, I exercised, and I feel GOOD about it!!  Yes!  Here's to more stories like these!

-Kathleen

My New iPod Nano!

How excited am I?!

I decided that I really wanted to get serious about my fitness, and finding easier ways to keep track of my exercise - especially as at this stage, I really enjoy walking the most.  And I want to try running.  But carefully, because of my dodgy knee.  And lack of fitness.  

I was doing some research about 1 1/2 months back about mp3 players  - I was going to buy one as a reward for completing my walk-100km-in-August-Challenge.  Well, I didn’t meet the 100km goal, but I decided I did like the idea of the iPod Nano!  It comes with the nike+ fitness app, so I can track walks/runs, time myself, and get a step count. 

The iPod Nano also allows me to play music as I workout (obviously, being from the iPod family), I can download podcasts (Robert Ullrey's Couch to 5K anyone?) and the absolute selling point for me?  It comes with a clip!  I know this sounds stupid, that this was the high point, but really, this is why I got it. 

Many of my trakkydaks or workout pants don't have pockets, so the fact that the Nano comes with a clip was a huge bonus for me. 

I took it out for a spin yesterday and OMG!! So excited and in love with it!! : )  I only went for a 30 minute walk to the park down the road and back.  In order for the app to keep track of things such as distance, speed, steps taken, calories burnt, I turned it to the "run" function.  I've yet to fully explore the 'walk" function, but from what I read online before I purchased the Nano,  the walk setting is designed to be used as a pedometer/step counter. 

There are four choices within the run function -basic, time, distance or calories.  So, because I only wanted to go out for 30 minutes, I set the app to 'time'.  It then prompted me to pick a playlist or shuffle my songs.  I could have also chosen to listen to the radio (oh yeah, it comes with an FM receiver!), an audiobook or podcasts. 

I picked my songs, hit start workout, and then I was off!! Walked away, all fine and good, and then!  Suddenly, my music dimmed and a disembodied voice told me that I had completed 5 minutes.  It was startling to say the least!!  But then I got second verbal encouragement at 10 minutes and again at 15 - "Great work, you're now half-way through.  Just 15 minutes remaining". 

I decided I liked this voice! 

I decided she needed a name!  If she's going to be my own personal cheerleader/encourager, then she has a personality and needs a name. I tried to think of movies or TV shows or anything which included a disembodied voice.  The best I could think of was the computer from Star Trek - which was only ever called Computer.  Then, inspiration struck!  I was using music from the computer game Portal to accompany me on my walk.  I decided that was a pretty good link to a name.  I'm still tossing up between Gladys (a play on GlaDOS from Portal),  or something else on that variation.  Names I've played around with include Glynnis, Glenys, or randomly, Lynda.  At the moment Glynnis seems to be winning. 

Maybe I need to go for another walk, just to test the name out, hmm?  See what suits best  : )

-Kathleen

Ego and endorphins

An update regarding my walk that I got back from around an hour ago.

Imogen rang this morning to see if I was keen to go for a walk again today, as she was out of town yesterday.  When I knocked on her door at 4.30, I got no answer.  Tried again at 5 o'clock and it turns out Imogen had been asleep - oops!  So I tried to convince her that a really good energy boost other than a nap was to exercise.  I tried for about ten minutes to convince Imogen to come along, but nothing doing.

So I went out on my own, on the same route we did the other day.  And after only 15 minutes, I was bored and I wanted to turn around and go back.  I had music with me, but I only own an FM-reciever, so I was at the mercy of what the radio threw at me.  Needless to say, not all of it was the most motivating to keep pushing myself to walk fast.  I was so disinterested and realised that I either should have pushed Imogen more to come along with me, or find some other way to keep me going.

On the route I took, on the other side of the highway, is a new development area.  There hasn't been a lot of development there yet.  Only 2 completed houses, and one in progress.  This new housing development has a long straight 'feeder' road, that the other streets (will eventually) run from.  This road is around 1km long, so a 2 km return distance.  (1.35 mi according  to googlemaps).  It also has no traffic (because no-one lives in the development yet) and has streetlights along one side of the road.  By eye, those street lights look like they are pretty much evenly spaced.

As I was pushing myself to keep going, somewhere, something twigged in my brain to run between streetlight distances, and then walk the next one as recovery, before running the next distance again.

Yes my friends, my brain suggested I do some intervals... and I went along with it.

I'm normally really good at ignoring my brain when it points out things which are good for me.  But I guess, snaps for my lazy side, I knew that running would be faster than walking, so if I ran some, I would finish up my walk sooner.  I convinced my brain that I would be better off running* the distance between two sets of streetlights and use the same double distance to walk, giving me more recovery time.  I'm pleased to say that I intervalled all the way down and back along that road.  Initially, I bargained that I would run* only down to my turn-around point and then just walk back.  But my lazy side battled with the time issue, while my sensible side countered with the "you just showed you could do it on the way down, why pike out now?". 

My sensible side won out, and I ran*-walked back to the top of the road.  And I felt GREAT!  I don't want to brag too much, but I think a got a little taste of what is 'runner's high'.  Although, truth be told, it was probably equal parts ego as it was endorphins. 

That was the second deal with myself, to run back up the road.  I stuck to it and went a little further again, once I reached the end of the road. 
As I was walking back along the path that heads back to the other side of the highway, my legs still felt pumped, I felt pumped from the ego/endorphin boost.  So I ran* a little more.  Just once, and I think the distance was about equivalent to three streetlight spans.  But I ran* again, further than I had initially thought, and further than the second time I adjusted my bargain. 

I felt so pumped and happy about what I accomplished!  : )  I hate to run, have always hated it.  The only time in the past I've voluntarily run was when I was chasing the school bus down the road on the mornings I slept in.  But today, because of laziness, or bordeom, I chose to run.  And I want to do it again.   : D 

So, I think I now know what will be my September challenge - to start a couch to 5K running program.

-Sunny Duckling

*P.S.  I say run, but I think my running speed is probably closer to fit people's jogging speed.  I was still moving faster than a walk speed and my heart rate went up and my breathing was heavier.  Signs that I exerted myself.   :)