Good news first! I have attained a new PB on the stationary rower on level 10, (the hardest). 1000m in 4:03, (down from previous 4:06 PB a couple of weeks back). Still haven't cracked the illusive 4 min km......but it's getting closer. I was trying to keep my stroke around 1:58/500m pace, so I had a little leeway if I slowed a bit behind the pace in the final 30 secs! I kept up that average for 2 mins 30, before strokes started slightly slowing, instead of really feeling the need to die at the 2 min mark so that is improvement.
Also tried the leg press at gym, thought I'd try 3 sets of 12 at 80kg. Even in Perth I think I was only managing 70kg but doing sets of 15. The last couple of reps killed in each set but I did it! Then I dropped it back to 70kg, and placed my feet far apart for, then close together for a set of 15 each. Noticed my shoulder press is improving, plus what I can do on pec machine. I put my body through lots of different machines, was at least equalling if not slightly improving from my last gym visit. (I just go to the gym for a casual visit occasionally now). Thought I'd try an intense 20 min run after that.....but I deemed myself too fatigued after 8 mins at a cracking pace and incline that I decided to finish!
2 hours after the gym visit yesterday I attended a 'skills' session at Crossfit. This is the first time a full skills workout, (no WOD) has been held and it will now happen monthly, with a different skill each time. Last nights skill was learning how to kip, as in kip in kipping pull ups. We started with the Hollow hold, I need to work on that, I couldn't get the hang of turning over and keeping the right posture and position. I was an un-cordinated mess and kept forgetting what to do and doing everything in the wrong order no matter how much I tried.
Next we got to the bar! First up we had to hang and swing backward and forward, but using the shoulders, not the hips and with not bending the arms! I just could not do that! Yes, I'm good at swinging from the hips! Everyone else seemed to look to pick it up quickly and look great in action. Those that use pull up bands tried those for various moves, eventually progressing the the kipping pullup with the band. I stood in my band, one foot in front of the other and band in front of me as I was told. But I couldn't move myself back and forward at all without using hips or bending arms except maybe 3 inches max. I did use the dark blue heaviest resistance band....maybe not so effective for this. I can do about 7 strict pull ups with it before breaking when I was so far away from even doing 1 when I started! At the end of the night, after everything I decided to attempt one strict pull up with the green band. I was maybe an inch or 2 away from getting chin above bar, may have to try it again soon when not fatigued. I will watch a few videos on google regarding kipping and pick it up over time, not too bothered!
I was trying some hollow holds, airsquats with raising 4kg dumbells when lowering, pushups, tricep pushups and shoulder work this evening. Then I tried to get in the 'bridge' (hands overhead, palms facing floor, fingers pointing toward feet, while on feet with back arched). At last attempt 2 months ago I could do it but not walk one step and it killed. Tonight I could do it and walk backwards 10 steps, (lifting hands/feet off ground and walking them backwards so I move!) I couldn't quite manage to go forward though! As a young teen I remember walking around rooms and down the passage doing this! So am getting better and more agile at moving my body weight around in my own time. In the last 2 - 3 months I have got stronger, and am prob down at least 4kg.
Till next time,
Pip
Friday, September 6, 2013
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
NEW WEE MINI MILESTONE
Well, as I mentioned in the last post, yesterday I'd registered the lightest weight since my return to NZ by 500g, (Nov last year). That's my lightest weight in about a year now. Later on in the day I'd managed my fastest 5k since my return to NZ as well....almost goes hand in hand!
27:47 for 5k, flat route, mainly gravel roads but a few turns. It was a mild day for here, cloudy, not much wind, about 13 degrees, so it was cold to walk outside in with a short sleeved running top and lycra leggings, but not too bad to once running started! Actually I was running with an ipod, with quite invigorating songs. After my garmin told me I reached 5k, I slowed to a recovery jog, (no stopping) for about 700m, then put on a final 'faster killer run' for the last 550m or so to get home. My previous NZ 5k best was 28 mins, 20 something secs. So am getting closer to a sub 25 min 5k. Bring on the warmer weather I say!
Tonight had Crossfit, the first part of warm up was a 400m row. After a couple of warm up strides, I could feel without total full effort I was managing average 1:57ish pace on level 10. Occasionally a 1:53 stroke, sometimes a 2:00 stroke or thereabouts. I didn't want to fully push my max on the warm up row or lengthen it as the rest of the workout looked horrid. BUT I am ready to try my sub 4 min 1000m row on level 10 again and see if I can at least beat 4:06 for a km. If it's not to be, that is fine, but any improvement from 4:06 is excellent and if I can crack 4 mins by any chance....I will have a real nice head swell happening lol!
We had sprints for skill tonight. Then we had 'Nicole' for our WOD tonight. She is...a 400m run, then as many pullups as possible till breaking repeated for 20 minutes! I used the dark blue highest resistance band....still can't to do any more than 6 or 7 in one hit. But did 2.8k running and 44 pullups in 20 mins as my first attempt of that benchmark. A bit of time was spent getting into the band and chalking my hands lol. Still, 6 or 7 pullups with highest resistance is much better than the one that couldn't manage when I first started! It was freezing today, only 2 turned out to tonight's scheduled Crossfit class.
I had at least half a bottle of wine last night at a mates and got a ride home, - too much to drive! So I had a 6k bikeride to pick up my car today. Short distance sounding, but so friggin cold and very windy with rain today when biking. I should have worn gloves I realised after the first 200m!
Till next time :-)
27:47 for 5k, flat route, mainly gravel roads but a few turns. It was a mild day for here, cloudy, not much wind, about 13 degrees, so it was cold to walk outside in with a short sleeved running top and lycra leggings, but not too bad to once running started! Actually I was running with an ipod, with quite invigorating songs. After my garmin told me I reached 5k, I slowed to a recovery jog, (no stopping) for about 700m, then put on a final 'faster killer run' for the last 550m or so to get home. My previous NZ 5k best was 28 mins, 20 something secs. So am getting closer to a sub 25 min 5k. Bring on the warmer weather I say!
Tonight had Crossfit, the first part of warm up was a 400m row. After a couple of warm up strides, I could feel without total full effort I was managing average 1:57ish pace on level 10. Occasionally a 1:53 stroke, sometimes a 2:00 stroke or thereabouts. I didn't want to fully push my max on the warm up row or lengthen it as the rest of the workout looked horrid. BUT I am ready to try my sub 4 min 1000m row on level 10 again and see if I can at least beat 4:06 for a km. If it's not to be, that is fine, but any improvement from 4:06 is excellent and if I can crack 4 mins by any chance....I will have a real nice head swell happening lol!
We had sprints for skill tonight. Then we had 'Nicole' for our WOD tonight. She is...a 400m run, then as many pullups as possible till breaking repeated for 20 minutes! I used the dark blue highest resistance band....still can't to do any more than 6 or 7 in one hit. But did 2.8k running and 44 pullups in 20 mins as my first attempt of that benchmark. A bit of time was spent getting into the band and chalking my hands lol. Still, 6 or 7 pullups with highest resistance is much better than the one that couldn't manage when I first started! It was freezing today, only 2 turned out to tonight's scheduled Crossfit class.
I had at least half a bottle of wine last night at a mates and got a ride home, - too much to drive! So I had a 6k bikeride to pick up my car today. Short distance sounding, but so friggin cold and very windy with rain today when biking. I should have worn gloves I realised after the first 200m!
Till next time :-)
Monday, September 2, 2013
SKIING and FUN!!!
Apologies for the pic! I can't get it the right way around on my blog, but can on facebook etc. I can't find a tab here to rotate it!
Saturday was skiing day, up near Queenstown. It was the first time I'd been in 3 years, was awesome fun! I'd only done about 3 days skiing before as an adult and one as a kid, so I am certainly at an elementary level!
I did remember on the final day about 3 years ago when at the same skifield, I managed to progress from the learners area to the first beginners chairlift. I was snow ploughing, or skiing rather slow still with not much confidence and it was a bit of a hit or miss as to whether I could even get off the chairlift without sliding right back over onto butt!
On Saturday I decided not to pay for a lesson, instead try to remember what I'd learnt and try to re-start where I left off. I regretted the decision of no lesson for the 45 mins or so. Then I started to get a bit more speed in the learners area. Next I decided to try the beginners chairlift. To my amazement I got off the chairlift, leaning forward enough, skis squared up and didn't stack it! I was was rather tentative and slow but controlled most of the way down, but in the final 100m it got a bit steeper, I lost a bit of control, and decided to fall back on my butt so stop crashing into anyone!
So, I decided to go back to the learners again, practice speed, stopping, turning for a bit. Soon I felt lots more confident, so headed for the chairlift again. And then kept getting better and better, faster and faster, and even for the last few runs I was choosing the steeper side of the beginners chairlift to go down, and instead of getting passed by everyone, I was passing others in a controlled manner! YAY! And I didn't stack it once getting off the chairlift! And as the photo shows, the weather was superbly awesome too! Probably even 10 degrees up the mountain with no horrid cold icy winds!
Other training wise, I have been been targeting my shoulders, back and arms somewhat lately, regularly doing sets of pushups, tricep pushups and the like. Now as I can do 10, (even 11) pushups on toes again I am pleased. I have 4kg dumbbells at home, to work the shoulders and triceps but now want to get heavier ones! I sort of can use my 6kg and 8kg kettlebells for some dumbbell moves. For KB swings now, I use 12kg. Biceps are popping out even slightly and I did notice triceps are toning up nicely. I wasn't even talking about my body, but got the random comment yesterday that my triceps appear to be toning up! I do need to get my arse into gear for a run today as I didn't yesterday, and I do have Crossfit today as well.
I wasn't gonna weigh self till 19 September, as the goal is to only weigh in once per month, on the 19th of each month. BUT, I caved today! And, going by today I'm down more kg in the last 2.5 weeks than I did for the 10 week paleo challenge almost. 78.3 today, measurements going down for now as well. More and more of my size 12 (stretch) pants are coming available to wear! I did try on my pair of levi size 13 cut off denim shorts, (which I bought as jeans when 24). I do need to be sub 75 to wear them, more like 72 for a loose comfy fit I think. But I can get them done up, just not wearable or comfy yet. Now to keep off scales till 19 Sept.
Till next time,
Pip :-)
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
RUNNING and CROSSFIT.........
Yesterday was longer run day. But I did the 6.25 option instead of the 7.5k as I had Crossfit in the evening. It wasn't the greatest run, - weather was grey, cool, a bit windy, maybe 11 degrees. For our standards I've been 'spoilt' having temps like 13 to run in, so even 2 degrees feels notably cooler! *I must say I miss running in 20 plus degrees, and 30+ in Perth lol! And the gravel road I run down has a few potholes, has been recently graded and I had to run onto uneven surfaces a couple of times when vehicles came. I pushed it as much as possible, but didn't look at my garmin till the 5k mark, - time was 30:10. I felt a bit bummed not to go sub 30 mins, my recent best is 28:39. But oh well, not terrible! I felt like walking for the rest of it, was buggered but still kept up a slow jog! And while running slow and *hating* it, my sister drives past from coming up behind and toots! I wish she saw me running faster lol! I finished the run in just over 38 minutes.
Not long after I had Crossfit, warm up was a row, followed by skipping, shoulder mobility, squats and pullups. We had to do an intense round of squats together, down, hold 5 secs, up quick, straight down quick, another 5 sec hold....repeat repeat! For the pullups, I found I can do a few, proper form with the dark blue band now with most resistance. That is big for me, as I couldn't even do 1 when I started Crossfit, could infact only lift self up a few inches. Skill section was the Overhead squat.
WOD was 12 min AMRAP....(as many rounds as possible)
*5 pullups
*7 overhead squats
*9 box jumps.
I did my pullups with the dark blue band, only 8kg for the overhead squats as I'm still getting the proper technique. Still haven't mastered a bloody 16 inch box jump so I was stepping up, jumping down as fast as I could.
I got to 7 rounds, and on 8th round managed the pullups and one squat.
I am happy with my pullup improvement, although on the last couple of rounds I couldn't quite get my chin over bar for the 5th pullup. A long way to go, but good improvement. Getting set up in the band took a while, but I managed that on my own.
Now back to some study! We get our 'Paleo Challenge' before and after pics sent to us by end of this week, I haven't seen them! It will be interesting to see if any of the changes are visible. But close to Christmas I will take some more pics....hopefully with awesome changes. I have been on track since end of challenge, training well, food choices I'm pretty happy with etc. Not fully Paleo though, - I like my oats, occasional wholegrain burgen bread and brown or basmati rice and feel weird and fussy about eliminating food groups. Another thing I've started, is having 1-2t flaxseed oil daily, nice mixed into oats or on my omelette, (such as today). I got a nice chilli flavoured one!
Till next time
Pip :-)
Not long after I had Crossfit, warm up was a row, followed by skipping, shoulder mobility, squats and pullups. We had to do an intense round of squats together, down, hold 5 secs, up quick, straight down quick, another 5 sec hold....repeat repeat! For the pullups, I found I can do a few, proper form with the dark blue band now with most resistance. That is big for me, as I couldn't even do 1 when I started Crossfit, could infact only lift self up a few inches. Skill section was the Overhead squat.
WOD was 12 min AMRAP....(as many rounds as possible)
*5 pullups
*7 overhead squats
*9 box jumps.
I did my pullups with the dark blue band, only 8kg for the overhead squats as I'm still getting the proper technique. Still haven't mastered a bloody 16 inch box jump so I was stepping up, jumping down as fast as I could.
I got to 7 rounds, and on 8th round managed the pullups and one squat.
I am happy with my pullup improvement, although on the last couple of rounds I couldn't quite get my chin over bar for the 5th pullup. A long way to go, but good improvement. Getting set up in the band took a while, but I managed that on my own.
Now back to some study! We get our 'Paleo Challenge' before and after pics sent to us by end of this week, I haven't seen them! It will be interesting to see if any of the changes are visible. But close to Christmas I will take some more pics....hopefully with awesome changes. I have been on track since end of challenge, training well, food choices I'm pretty happy with etc. Not fully Paleo though, - I like my oats, occasional wholegrain burgen bread and brown or basmati rice and feel weird and fussy about eliminating food groups. Another thing I've started, is having 1-2t flaxseed oil daily, nice mixed into oats or on my omelette, (such as today). I got a nice chilli flavoured one!
Till next time
Pip :-)
Monday, August 26, 2013
INTERVAL RUNS and PUSHUPS...............
After my attempt the other day, I decided to revisit my 'interval running'. That is 500m in under 2 mins 30,.......then walk till I hit 5 mins, then another 500m run by 7 mins 30.......etc until I have done 6 running intervals!
I went up and down my road a few times so I could stay on tarseal, and not worry about gravel, pot holes or much traffic. AND.....by almost the skin of my teeth I made it, running fast enough in each interval!!! I think in the first couple I set off with a slightly cracking pace, fatiged after about 300m but still held through to complete the intervals in just sub 2:30. At the end I think I started slightly slower, but really had to pick up the pace in the final 200m to make it. I actually think I averaged about 2:20 instead of 2:30 for each interval as I wanted to be real sure! I used my garmin watch for this, a very handy device! Blimy, that was hard! I left a water bottle outside my place so if it was a walking interval I was passing by, I may have been able to have a gulp!
Today managed 10 pushups on toes first round before lowering to knees, and 7 on the second. That's my best effort this year, for probably for 11 months. I felt I was going quite low too which was good. I have been working resistance relatively consistently lately, even outside of Crossfit classes. Oh, also today, I did a 10 minute uphill walk, starting at incline 4, but increasing to incline 7 at 7.4kmph on my treadmill.....a nice little burn before stretching and starting my interval run.
I missed this evenings Crossfit due to my sis and her hubby and my nephews invite to the first meal in their new home! Was great to be there! Crossfit though, the next 2 days.
I went hunting for pauas on Sunday, (a shellfish). Well, my friend did the hunting, and I watched him, and the tides! Still it was a great powerwalk there, hills involved so some burn! And lots of clambering over rocks. He got some too, then he did everything he needed to do to mince them up! So we had yummy paua patties for tea. And I was dared to try sea urchin to eat as he gathered one of them too. I would never think to eat that, and am not in a hurry to have any more but it actually wasn't too bad.
Friday night we had the Paleo challenge party wrap up! A chance to dress up nicely! Have to say I was surprised, (even if it was a squeeze, but a wearable squeeze) but I managed to get into my Cue size 12 charcoal suit and wore that out with a Cue size 14 fitted blouse underneath. Blouse was a bit tight, but not impossibly stupid looking when I took jacket off. Usually I'd need to be about 3kg less for that suit to start being a possible but tight option, so that was pleasing. The evening was great fun, top company, nice food. When it came to buffet dessert, - they had a table with all types of cakes, desserts, sponges, chocolate things, cheesecakes, eclairs, slices etc with a big bowl of fruit salad in the middle. I had no plan, other than follow the crowd for dessert, wasn't hungry as dessert isn't a habit and I'd just had a good buffet but healthy main. I KNOW if I started, I would have then found an excuse to want a bit of everything! Sooooo, I grabbed a good sized serve of fruit salad, then got straight out of the food room lol! A couple of others did the same so I found out later.
Till next time,
Pip
I went up and down my road a few times so I could stay on tarseal, and not worry about gravel, pot holes or much traffic. AND.....by almost the skin of my teeth I made it, running fast enough in each interval!!! I think in the first couple I set off with a slightly cracking pace, fatiged after about 300m but still held through to complete the intervals in just sub 2:30. At the end I think I started slightly slower, but really had to pick up the pace in the final 200m to make it. I actually think I averaged about 2:20 instead of 2:30 for each interval as I wanted to be real sure! I used my garmin watch for this, a very handy device! Blimy, that was hard! I left a water bottle outside my place so if it was a walking interval I was passing by, I may have been able to have a gulp!
Today managed 10 pushups on toes first round before lowering to knees, and 7 on the second. That's my best effort this year, for probably for 11 months. I felt I was going quite low too which was good. I have been working resistance relatively consistently lately, even outside of Crossfit classes. Oh, also today, I did a 10 minute uphill walk, starting at incline 4, but increasing to incline 7 at 7.4kmph on my treadmill.....a nice little burn before stretching and starting my interval run.
I missed this evenings Crossfit due to my sis and her hubby and my nephews invite to the first meal in their new home! Was great to be there! Crossfit though, the next 2 days.
I went hunting for pauas on Sunday, (a shellfish). Well, my friend did the hunting, and I watched him, and the tides! Still it was a great powerwalk there, hills involved so some burn! And lots of clambering over rocks. He got some too, then he did everything he needed to do to mince them up! So we had yummy paua patties for tea. And I was dared to try sea urchin to eat as he gathered one of them too. I would never think to eat that, and am not in a hurry to have any more but it actually wasn't too bad.
Friday night we had the Paleo challenge party wrap up! A chance to dress up nicely! Have to say I was surprised, (even if it was a squeeze, but a wearable squeeze) but I managed to get into my Cue size 12 charcoal suit and wore that out with a Cue size 14 fitted blouse underneath. Blouse was a bit tight, but not impossibly stupid looking when I took jacket off. Usually I'd need to be about 3kg less for that suit to start being a possible but tight option, so that was pleasing. The evening was great fun, top company, nice food. When it came to buffet dessert, - they had a table with all types of cakes, desserts, sponges, chocolate things, cheesecakes, eclairs, slices etc with a big bowl of fruit salad in the middle. I had no plan, other than follow the crowd for dessert, wasn't hungry as dessert isn't a habit and I'd just had a good buffet but healthy main. I KNOW if I started, I would have then found an excuse to want a bit of everything! Sooooo, I grabbed a good sized serve of fruit salad, then got straight out of the food room lol! A couple of others did the same so I found out later.
Till next time,
Pip
Thursday, August 22, 2013
THIS WEEK..........
The other pic is of a Chicken Pad Thai I made, - again from Michelle's cookbook so the calories and macronutrient quantities are pretty good if you train relatively hard and don't have an oversized serve! I really rate the Pad Thai, it was delicious!!!
Another awesome recipe I made this last week was a chicken and veg soup, in a clear broth from a cookbook I received for my birthday. I didn't bluetooth the pic to here, but it was delicious too!
Have trained everyday this week, although today will be a day off, but I want to get down and do a quick lounge workout for 15 mins or so later to practise some pushups, and work triceps and shoulders and back, - may even get onto the abs and some lunges too.
Yesterday I tried a new for me interval running workout.....it was a killer! As I have it as an eventual goal to run a sub 25 min outdoor 5k....and maybe a sub 50 min 10k outdoors I tried something new. That was 500m at 5 min k pace, (or just below). The aim was to finish between 2:25 and 2 mins 30. Then a recovery walk until I reached 5 mins on my garmin. I had to start running again as soon as I clocked 5 mins, quickly notice how far I had moved, then add 500m to it so it tests my brain too. Then I knew the target I had to get to when I clocked 7 mins, 30! My aim was to repeat this 6 times, (so I ran 6 times, 3k all up, with 6 lots of 2 min 30 sec walks in between). Well, - I was doing all right till the 5th running interval, then felt so puffed and very uncomfortable about 200m into it, and just stopped, then walked for about 15 mins until I was back to my street, then did a final just sub 2:30 500m run burst down my street! I did take my 5th interval onto a gravel road, which had been newly graded, and very hard to run fast on! I will try this again....hopefully getting through all 6 intervals in time in a couple of days! Think I may just continue to run up and down my road rather than anywhere with gravel just to see if I can do it! Eventually I will increase the running intervals, decrease the walking ones till I can do 5 plus k continous at 5 min k pace!
On Tuesday I did a 7.5k run, managed the first 30 mins in 29:39, - had a gravel road to contend with. I sort of slowed down a bit after that and completed the whole thing in just over 46 mins.
Monday and Wednesday I had Crossfit, - it's bootcamp style and outdoors this week as the pavilion is being used for a huge book sale this week during the day times. The coaches have the keys to go and get what weights, bars and kettlebells etc we need but we have been doing it outdoors! Monday's WOD was a killer, - 9, 15, 21 rotation of tricep dips against fence, mountain climbers where you have to go really low, (OUCH), and jump squats, (OUCH). Then 10 x 10m sprints, a 2 min rest, then 9, 15, 21 of rotation pushpresses, pulsing lunges and side jumps over our push press bar, then 5 x 20m sprints with walking recovery back to start. I had to take some off my bar for the pushpresses halfway through the '15' set, - originally I was doing 25kg but lowered it to 22.5 to finish it off. Wednesday we had an awesome tyre dragging, running with it overhead and tyre flipping WOD after an interesting warm up! Luckily the weather has still been relatively mild by our standards this week! In the evenings the grass has been nice, dry, not freezing, wet and muddy!
Right, off to do some cleaning, then will proof read and submit my assignment and start the next one! And we have our dress up, go out for tea Crossfit party tonight!
Pip :-)
Sunday, August 18, 2013
END OF 10 WEEK PALEO CHALLENGE....'HELEN' REVISITED AND 'WHAT NOW'!
Well, this afternoon today we had our final weigh in and measurements for the Paleo Challenge, which has officially ended as of now! And we had to repeat 'Helen', our WOD of the day to see how much quicker we were than on day one!
This past week hasn't been the best for me. I succumbed to the flu/sore throat/cough/cold thing which has been circulating....and had no energy much for a couple of days. I've had the slightly sore clicky wrist thing this week, plus reasonably intense DOMS on Monday, Tuesday and even slight DOMS Wednesday due to last Sunday's really fast 2.5 hour hill powerwalk lol! Bottom line was I decided not to train this week. I felt guilty about that as our training totals go toward our teams training totals. I pushed it particularly hard week 8 and 9, and reasonably consistently most of the time except weeks 3-4, (where I fell off the wagon somewhat!) Last weeks weight gain.....I know it's silly but peeved me! And Monday despite eating tea at like 4pm, but eating some honey and about 100g icecream for throat.....I still was 800g more than the day before! Eating was off a bit all week as well, but I did take care not to overindulge too much cause of the looming team weigh in today.
Anyways:
Day 1: 84.1kg Today 81.9kg
Day 1 bust: 110cm Today: 107.5cm
Day 1 waist: 95.5cm Today: 89cm
Day 1 navel: 103cm Today: 97.5cm
Day 1 hips: 103.5 Today: 97.5cm, (sad navel is the same as my hips!)
The thigh measurements I had on my hand had rubbed off, - but each thigh was up about half a cm!
'Helen' time Day 1: 13:38 'Helen' time today: 11:20
'Helen' WOD is a 400m run, 21 kettlebell swings and 12 pullups repeated 3 times. I had to repeat the scalings I had on day 1 which were: 8kg for the kettlebells and the easiest jumping pullups. I was a bit tentative about today's workout cause of my slightly weaker feeling wrists, and with not training for a week. Oh yeah, I 'wasted' about 10 secs chalking sweaty hands lol!
There are of course differences with measurements with whoever measures you! I'm sure I pull the tape slightly firmer than the girls today lol, which takes charge of a further 1-2cm. Weight is very similar to the end of week 2....hmmm!
I do have to say my 'Helen' time and form is significantly improved with is awesome. Measurements down a bit, - but very similar to the end of week 2!
As for my weight, - I feel a bit short changed to be down only 2.2kg (which feels piddly) in all honesty. Whenever I did, (either with an online trainer or self made) 12 week 'challenge' I could always seem to 'blitz' those. My best effort was going from 85.9kg down to 71.8kg in 12 weeks, - all my own doing/no trainer! I still got away with drinking too much wine, even diet coke/bourbon, missing some sessions but being reasonably consistent, all round fitness went up. But I generally always lost at least 8kg on a 'kinda serious' 12 week challenge which I saw out to the end and started in the vicinity of 80kg. My efforts for this 10 week challenge have at least matched, if not bettered efforts in other challenges I've done. Yes, - there were little binges I ate at times I didn't admit to, and yes, a written down 'glass' of wine often meant a bottle. A bottle COULD of been a huge glass, - we didn't have to write the mls of wine we had! Even so, I used to be able to get away with this stuff, train half consistently and drop weight big time but not so much now! Yes:, they say Crossfit builds muscle which is heavier of course, but I'm pretty much 20kg heavier than just over 2 years ago when I seemed to get to 62kg, (my young days ultimation) when I was only trying to maintain under 68kg! I don't feel valid using the 'muscle' excuse!
My results today were average of the crew but good on the workout improvement. I did want to blitz this thing on the scales though lol and more with the measurements! However, in general am happy.
WHERE TO NOW:
* I am wanting to stick to Paleo ways in a sort of 70/30 way, - I do like the food, beliefs....I do love fresh veg, protein, minimal nuts and seeds, fresh fruit etc. I do want to still include wholegrain bread in my diet, (but maybe 3 days a week if desired instead of everyday), and oats, the occasional brown or basmati rice if I make sushi particularly, but otherwise a little as a carb serve if training hard plus quinoa etc occasionally. If I desire a scone or muffin made with white flour, as long as I'm happy with it and their aren't too many of such things in a week for my liking, that will be fine. I know my thing is if I feel 'on' I genuinely desire general 'on track' food, no sugar etc. But if 'off', I want everything now! But for my own good, I need to stay mindful and in control of that. That is similar to what I did on the Paleo challenge although I did have my binges, particularly after too much wine.
* I achieved the 10 weeks with no diet soft drink, no regular soft drink or no packaged fruit juice, cordial etc! I managed that without too much effort and will defo keep this up!
* Alcohol, - it's still a sore point for me. No drinking alcohol/relaxing alone EVER as of tomorrow. It could be a sad thing that I have a habit of playing on the internet relaxing, with music, with a wine or beer which can drastically escalate! That part of my life is over now! Also, if I choose to drink socially, (with others who are drinking), - I will stick to either half a bottle of wine max, or 3 beers (stubbies but if at a pub I could bend it occasionally to pints), or 100ml spirits, (thinking vodka, mixed with soda water and freshly squeezed lemon or lime, - that is nice). I am sure very occasionally I may slightly go over this, that is fine, but it needs to be rare and for a special occasion! I don't want altered sleep patterns or hangovers ever!
* I am wanting to keep up a relatively, (for me) heavy workout schedule, - either 2 Crossfit a week plus a skills session or 3 WODs a week. Add to that, I would love to say 20k running but may accept 15k running per week now, plus a swim of at least 1.5k. And really need to start bike riding, - even a 20k ride a week or brick 'run/ride' session'. In addition to that, about 3 times a week in the evenings I like to randomly get down for a few sets of pushups/lunges or squats/tricep dips/shoulder work/plank....say as a study break or while listening to TV, each of those sessions lasts about 15 mins and creates some burn. I want to work on consistency, achieve some PB's and aim to achieve a pullup unassisted in say the next year amongst stuff! And want to enter runs, some duathlons and triathlons. Plus I do quite a bit of incidental activity mostly so I should burn reasonable calories lol!
* For the workout schedule to work, - I need adequate rest, - at least 7 hours lights out, and don't want this deterred by too much alcohol, or even too little food close to bed time. I know sometimes I can eat lightly, - say 120g chicken with a garden salad or stirfried veg, sometimes including a half fist of kumara, lemon juice at 5pm, have Crossfit at 7pm, eat either a small tin of tuna or another 100g chicken, maybe a little salad or an apple after Crossfit with water, then still hit bed but feel supercharged and barely sleep sometimes! I don't feel hungry, but not full either, just too alert to want to sleep. But I eat lots more in the morning, including more carbs and it takes a while to get alert sometimes. May practice some tweaking to this if I find sleeping too scarce within the next weeks.
* I have made a totally firm decision to drop my weigh ins and measurements back to once a month. And I will take my weight and measurements on the 19th of each month, - it's my birthday, and the 19th signifies lots of birthdays in my family! If I'm not home on the 19th, no dramas but it will be the morning I'm next home. I still think once a week is too regular...if wanting to see a good trend. 1 month, if being consistent properly in all areas, it's reasonable to see a result in the right direction I think. This month I buck the trend and will use my measures and weight from today. I got on my scales this morn which I know are within 100g of the Crossfit ones! Am aiming to smash at least 3kg by 19 Sept, (to bring me to the 78.9 or less), then at least 2kg per month that follows, - should have me sub 75 by summer almost lol! I don't know about ellusive 62 but sub 75 is still really exciting me right now!
Another long winded one this was! Till next time!
Pip :-)
This past week hasn't been the best for me. I succumbed to the flu/sore throat/cough/cold thing which has been circulating....and had no energy much for a couple of days. I've had the slightly sore clicky wrist thing this week, plus reasonably intense DOMS on Monday, Tuesday and even slight DOMS Wednesday due to last Sunday's really fast 2.5 hour hill powerwalk lol! Bottom line was I decided not to train this week. I felt guilty about that as our training totals go toward our teams training totals. I pushed it particularly hard week 8 and 9, and reasonably consistently most of the time except weeks 3-4, (where I fell off the wagon somewhat!) Last weeks weight gain.....I know it's silly but peeved me! And Monday despite eating tea at like 4pm, but eating some honey and about 100g icecream for throat.....I still was 800g more than the day before! Eating was off a bit all week as well, but I did take care not to overindulge too much cause of the looming team weigh in today.
Anyways:
Day 1: 84.1kg Today 81.9kg
Day 1 bust: 110cm Today: 107.5cm
Day 1 waist: 95.5cm Today: 89cm
Day 1 navel: 103cm Today: 97.5cm
Day 1 hips: 103.5 Today: 97.5cm, (sad navel is the same as my hips!)
The thigh measurements I had on my hand had rubbed off, - but each thigh was up about half a cm!
'Helen' time Day 1: 13:38 'Helen' time today: 11:20
'Helen' WOD is a 400m run, 21 kettlebell swings and 12 pullups repeated 3 times. I had to repeat the scalings I had on day 1 which were: 8kg for the kettlebells and the easiest jumping pullups. I was a bit tentative about today's workout cause of my slightly weaker feeling wrists, and with not training for a week. Oh yeah, I 'wasted' about 10 secs chalking sweaty hands lol!
There are of course differences with measurements with whoever measures you! I'm sure I pull the tape slightly firmer than the girls today lol, which takes charge of a further 1-2cm. Weight is very similar to the end of week 2....hmmm!
I do have to say my 'Helen' time and form is significantly improved with is awesome. Measurements down a bit, - but very similar to the end of week 2!
As for my weight, - I feel a bit short changed to be down only 2.2kg (which feels piddly) in all honesty. Whenever I did, (either with an online trainer or self made) 12 week 'challenge' I could always seem to 'blitz' those. My best effort was going from 85.9kg down to 71.8kg in 12 weeks, - all my own doing/no trainer! I still got away with drinking too much wine, even diet coke/bourbon, missing some sessions but being reasonably consistent, all round fitness went up. But I generally always lost at least 8kg on a 'kinda serious' 12 week challenge which I saw out to the end and started in the vicinity of 80kg. My efforts for this 10 week challenge have at least matched, if not bettered efforts in other challenges I've done. Yes, - there were little binges I ate at times I didn't admit to, and yes, a written down 'glass' of wine often meant a bottle. A bottle COULD of been a huge glass, - we didn't have to write the mls of wine we had! Even so, I used to be able to get away with this stuff, train half consistently and drop weight big time but not so much now! Yes:, they say Crossfit builds muscle which is heavier of course, but I'm pretty much 20kg heavier than just over 2 years ago when I seemed to get to 62kg, (my young days ultimation) when I was only trying to maintain under 68kg! I don't feel valid using the 'muscle' excuse!
My results today were average of the crew but good on the workout improvement. I did want to blitz this thing on the scales though lol and more with the measurements! However, in general am happy.
WHERE TO NOW:
* I am wanting to stick to Paleo ways in a sort of 70/30 way, - I do like the food, beliefs....I do love fresh veg, protein, minimal nuts and seeds, fresh fruit etc. I do want to still include wholegrain bread in my diet, (but maybe 3 days a week if desired instead of everyday), and oats, the occasional brown or basmati rice if I make sushi particularly, but otherwise a little as a carb serve if training hard plus quinoa etc occasionally. If I desire a scone or muffin made with white flour, as long as I'm happy with it and their aren't too many of such things in a week for my liking, that will be fine. I know my thing is if I feel 'on' I genuinely desire general 'on track' food, no sugar etc. But if 'off', I want everything now! But for my own good, I need to stay mindful and in control of that. That is similar to what I did on the Paleo challenge although I did have my binges, particularly after too much wine.
* I achieved the 10 weeks with no diet soft drink, no regular soft drink or no packaged fruit juice, cordial etc! I managed that without too much effort and will defo keep this up!
* Alcohol, - it's still a sore point for me. No drinking alcohol/relaxing alone EVER as of tomorrow. It could be a sad thing that I have a habit of playing on the internet relaxing, with music, with a wine or beer which can drastically escalate! That part of my life is over now! Also, if I choose to drink socially, (with others who are drinking), - I will stick to either half a bottle of wine max, or 3 beers (stubbies but if at a pub I could bend it occasionally to pints), or 100ml spirits, (thinking vodka, mixed with soda water and freshly squeezed lemon or lime, - that is nice). I am sure very occasionally I may slightly go over this, that is fine, but it needs to be rare and for a special occasion! I don't want altered sleep patterns or hangovers ever!
* I am wanting to keep up a relatively, (for me) heavy workout schedule, - either 2 Crossfit a week plus a skills session or 3 WODs a week. Add to that, I would love to say 20k running but may accept 15k running per week now, plus a swim of at least 1.5k. And really need to start bike riding, - even a 20k ride a week or brick 'run/ride' session'. In addition to that, about 3 times a week in the evenings I like to randomly get down for a few sets of pushups/lunges or squats/tricep dips/shoulder work/plank....say as a study break or while listening to TV, each of those sessions lasts about 15 mins and creates some burn. I want to work on consistency, achieve some PB's and aim to achieve a pullup unassisted in say the next year amongst stuff! And want to enter runs, some duathlons and triathlons. Plus I do quite a bit of incidental activity mostly so I should burn reasonable calories lol!
* For the workout schedule to work, - I need adequate rest, - at least 7 hours lights out, and don't want this deterred by too much alcohol, or even too little food close to bed time. I know sometimes I can eat lightly, - say 120g chicken with a garden salad or stirfried veg, sometimes including a half fist of kumara, lemon juice at 5pm, have Crossfit at 7pm, eat either a small tin of tuna or another 100g chicken, maybe a little salad or an apple after Crossfit with water, then still hit bed but feel supercharged and barely sleep sometimes! I don't feel hungry, but not full either, just too alert to want to sleep. But I eat lots more in the morning, including more carbs and it takes a while to get alert sometimes. May practice some tweaking to this if I find sleeping too scarce within the next weeks.
* I have made a totally firm decision to drop my weigh ins and measurements back to once a month. And I will take my weight and measurements on the 19th of each month, - it's my birthday, and the 19th signifies lots of birthdays in my family! If I'm not home on the 19th, no dramas but it will be the morning I'm next home. I still think once a week is too regular...if wanting to see a good trend. 1 month, if being consistent properly in all areas, it's reasonable to see a result in the right direction I think. This month I buck the trend and will use my measures and weight from today. I got on my scales this morn which I know are within 100g of the Crossfit ones! Am aiming to smash at least 3kg by 19 Sept, (to bring me to the 78.9 or less), then at least 2kg per month that follows, - should have me sub 75 by summer almost lol! I don't know about ellusive 62 but sub 75 is still really exciting me right now!
Another long winded one this was! Till next time!
Pip :-)
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