Friday 30 October 2009

Need to rein it in

It's been a touch silly the last week; champagne teas, lunches out, dinner out, lots of wine etc., very little gym attendance (partly due to being made to feel guilty about it at work, but that will get fixed soon) and it's no surprise I'm back over 68kg consistently.

I've been over maintenance kcals about 3 of the last 7 days but some of that is due to lack of exercise kcals as well as special occasions. It should be a lot easier to "keep it real" for a few weeks and get back into at least 2 weights and 3 cardio sessions in a week (including 1 outdoor run) now the birthday season is over. My current weights routine is so much fun so I am keen to get more of it in and hopefully the nearest gym to my office will get back to HR about corporate membership discounts soon so I can move to that gym and go more often during the week.

I'm not crushingly down about any of this excess, just a bit annoyed that I let it get a tiny bit out of hand. A tiny bit more self-discipline is all that's needed. I think I'm most peeved about how much I'll weigh when I go for my next PT session (which could be my last with that trainer if I get to move to the more local gym to work) and thus how little fat % I will have lost, if any!

Monday 26 October 2009

*waddle*

Bit on the lardy side this morning and after the weekend I just had, it's no surprise! Last week ended around the lower 67kgs and this week starts around the lower 68kgs.

Felt coldy on the back half of last week, head cold and finding it hard to get enough air in to run up stairs etc. Still. Saturday we went out shopping a bit and ended up having a wee drinkie in Claridges bar while waiting to see if we could get afternoon tea in the tea room. 3.30pm deadline for that possiblity came and went so we carried on drinking and decide to get a bottle and some sarnies sent through from the tea room. by 7pm we were a touch sozzled and decided to nip home, via one of the local Italian restaurants for a bit to eat in the evening (having agreed we'd just get some toast when we got home *cough*). 2am, I woke up feeling iffy. After half an hour went back to sleep. 4am; woke up with cold sweats and dinner decided to make a swift exit via all available routes. 5am; back to sleep. 6am woke up for another half an hour then back to sleep. 8am,;woke up and considered breakfast as I was starving. Had porridge made for me and ate it with gusto. 9.15am we were changed and off out to the Clapham 10K.

Ran the 10K (furthest I've ever run) in 57:37! Having said I'd like to do it in under 60 minutes and I'd be chuffed with a time in the 58s. Cue huge grins and a race back home to get showered and changed and back out into town to run an errand before heading for lunch at the nice French place in the village. A nice, extended lunch with wine and then home to snuggle and snooze in front of the TV.

Last week's numbers:-
Exercise count: 4
Exercise duration: 03:02
Exercise kcals: 1,883

Numbers from 15th July 2009:-
Exercise count: 127
Exercise duration: 68:03
Exercise kcals: 37,328

Thursday 22 October 2009

Gentle week

Only 2 gym sessions this week (Tuesday and Thursday) - partly due to the office move and partly due to wanting a gentle week in advance of my race on Sunday. I did, however, up the weight for my squats with shoulder presses today to 15kg. Which was nice.

I'm hoping this burgeoning cold doesn't actually develop or if it does, not before Sunday 'cause i want to put in a good time (for me), dammit!

Tuesday 20 October 2009

Belated stats

67.3kg this morning. Protein counts getting better due to non-exclusively vegetarian lunches.

Having done a test run from the new office to my local gym, it's a teensy bit far to get things done in the "lunch" hour. I am now contemplating the phenomenally expensive gym at the end of the alley where our new office is. More than twice the monthly fees, but it has a small pool, you get towels etc. But still, twice the monthly fees is pretty extortionate. And I'd need to get a new trainer. I dunno.

Last weeks numbers:-
Exercise count: 6
Exercise time: 03:37
Exercise kcals: 2,189

All time figures since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 124
Exercise time: 65:43
Exercise kcals: 35,860

Sunday 18 October 2009

Hard run and some shopping

Phew! We (me and hubby) went shopping, like real serious proper clothes shopping, for the first time together yesterday! We spent a whole 7 hours at it and boy was it fun! Hubby bought a stunningly beautiful winter coat and an everyday casual jacket for work and I bought an evening/dinner dress and some lovely lipstick as inspired by http://geekyweirdochick.blogspot.com/ . Lippy looks great, dress looks all grown-up and sophisticated (and gloriously purple :o)).

About half-way through shopping, we stopped for a little refreshment in the John Lewis food hall wine bar. Well, we kinda had to as there was a 20 minute wait to buy a new fridge/freezer (ours has finally started to show real signs of imminent death in that the compressor makes a horrible noise when it's running). One tiny little glass of Pelorus (Cloudy Bay's sparkling white wine) and we were very happy and giggly... it was about 4 hours since lunch so not a totally empty stomach, but ohboy were we grinning and feeling warm and fuzzy. So we bought a half case which will be delivered on the same day at the new fridge (plus half a case of real Cloudy Bay, which we just had to buy as it's really hard to come by).

After a little more fizzy wine last night and crashing to sleep around 1am, we went for a 9.5km run this morning. 55:55 and 630kcals, but I had to stop at the top of the really hard hill as I thought I was going to throw up - mostly from the car fumes I think. Good run I think. Hopefully indicative of a good run in the 10K next week.

Back to work tomorrow and to our new office!

Thursday 15 October 2009

Loving the new routine

I'm averaging 460kcals per session with this new 45 minute weights routine. This is great. And since the first full outing of it, I've not had killed muscles the following two days.

I'm going to up the weight on the squats/shoulder presses next week from 12.5kg to 15kg. There's nothing in between so there's not much I can do about that. However, the overhead tricep raises are proving very very hard with 9kg so I dropped down to 8kg and managed 2x 10 then 1x 9 reps before I couldn't get it over my head any more. (I also find it really hard to grip the dumbbells for this exercise, partly in general and partly due to sweaty hands. I wonder if gloves would help at all.)

I'm quite glad I'm doing a combination of weights and cardio. I notice there are quite a few people firmly in one camp or the other, but I'm enjoying both and I'm finding it's nice to interleave them on alternate days. Definitely enjoying both.

Wednesday 14 October 2009

Not ow, again!

The day after the second go at my new weights routine and my legs are not sore -at all-! Last week when I did it in full for the first time, my legs were destroyed for two days afterwards, but today.... nothing at all! :oD AND I did the routine harder this time, burned more kcals etc. So that's really pleasing.

There's a week and a half to go before the 10K so I'll keep at it this week, then ease off next week so I'm all fresh for the race. I'm really hoping to get a good time, of course, but we'll see how it goes on the day; hopefully the thing that everyone says (basically, you go faster in a race than normal) is true and I'd really really love to get a time in the 58:xx, though anything under 60:00 will be OK.

My macro counts are totally off, especially today as it'll be popcorn for dinner (going to the cinema to see UP!) and a late evening supper of beans on toast, plus I'm trying out one of thos Innocent Veg Pots for lunch so not a lot of protein in any of that lot. I don't really mind as I'm not getting hungry and I am having chocolate milk after exercise to feed the torn-up muscles.

And finally, I'll be getting a call from the Mirror today for a feature they want to do on my weight loss success. So that'll be... interesting. I'm hoping to get at least a photo shoot out of it (the photos I have are just not great for an article, so) if nothing else - thankfully, nobody I know reads the Mirror :o)

Monday 12 October 2009

Not ow!

After watching my beloved haul around the Royal Parks Half Marathon in the morning on Sunday in a very respectable 2 hours, I dragged my own ass out for a run in the afternoon. 9.5km route planned (3 hills, one of which is a real doozy) and a light drizzle started as soon as I left the house. 56:48 later (10.03kph average speed) I was at the end of the route, soaked through the top layer of clothes by the persistent drizzle and a little bit pink, also choking a bit on the flies I'd inhaled in the last little bit of the run as they tend to hang around in clouds under the trees in that area.

Not bad; and it looks like I'll be able to do the 10K in 2 Sundays' time in under 60 minutes :oD (it's flatter and apparently one always goes a bit quicker in a real race anyway). So, having been so righteously killed by running, we stuffed our faces with Chinese takeaway and beer *beam*

Also, no pain in my legs today at all. Chocolate milk and a hot bath worked a treat!

Aaaand here are the stats...

Last week:-
Exercise count: 5
Exercise time: 03:19
Exercise kcals: 1,922

Totals since 15th June 2009:-

Exercise count: 116
Exercise time: 61:20
Exercise kcals: 33,215

Friday 9 October 2009

Ow

My thighs are very sore today, Burning fires down the fronts of them when I walk down stairs etc. So, I'm going to lay off the cross-training that I'd planned for today and have -another- rest day today. So this week now looks like this:-

Monday - learning the new weights routine
Tuesday - 8.6km run
Wednesday - hard going at it on the cross-trainer
Thursday - full new weights routine (inc. cardio warm up and down)
Friday - rest day
Saturday - rest day
Sunday - 9.5km run

And it'll no doubt be a rest day on Monday after that run. So next week looks like this:-

Monday - rest day
Tuesday - full weights routine
Wednesday - cardio at the gym
Thursday - full weights routine
Friday - cardio at the gym
Saturday - rest day
Sunday - some sort of long run (prep for 10km on 25th)

Thursday 8 October 2009

Ohyes

And when I was doing the squats with the bar, watching my form in the mirror, I thought I looked rather good. Lunges less so, due to wobbly flab just above my knee wobbling due to the effort. But still fiiiiine during the squats. Might change 2 sets @ 10kg with 2 sets at 12.5kg for 1 set @10kg and 3 sets at 12.5kg. Don't think I really need 2 sets to warm up, especially after 1km on the rower first.

Eep!

I've signed up for the Clapham 10K. I've got 2 weeks to get ready. What on Earth have I done? Furthest I've run to date is 8.6km (and there were two short stops for road-crossing in that run) and I was very very red and hot and maintained by max heart rate for a whole minute right at the end!

I have fear that I won't make it 'round for a whole 10km.

Today, however, I did my new weights routine. I'm utterly scatty today though so kept losing count of how many sets I'd done of things, so I'm not sure if I did the whole thing properly or not.

Squats are "fun". But it -is- fun being in the free weights pen at the gym. The only down side was being almost laughed at when I asked guy who was leaning over the bar-weights rack if he was using the 12.5kg bar 'cause I'd like to use it please. Meh! He was only in the way of me getting it, I didn't -really- think he'd want anything that blimmin' light.

Tuesday 6 October 2009

*zoom*

Down 700g on yesterday, which was only to be expected after a cakey birthday celebration weekend (my mum, my dad and I all have birthdays in this month; it gets cakey) which was nice. So, I decided yesterday that I'd get a run in today seeing as I wouldn't be gymming (speaking of which, blimey that one set of everything for my new routine yesterday with my trainer sure made my muscles wake up this morning!) and I planned an 8.6km route. Ambitious, seeing as the furthest I've gone before was 7km.

Anyway, once the sofa was delivered and assembled, I headed out. And discovered that my route had not one, not two, but three hills in it! I was sure that my target of 50 minutes was totally unachievable and the 52 minutes that would have meant 10kph average speed was looking iffy too. I did it in 50:29 :oD So, an average of 10.2kph which is great. It looks like I can keep extending the distance and say at the same average speed as I have done from 5km to 6km to 7km and now to 8.6km. I'm hoping for 10km now. Nutter? You decide!

Monday 5 October 2009

Playing with the Big Boys

So... new routine puts me in the free weights area with the beefcake! I get to use the bar weights and benches and stuff. So cool!

Body fat is down to 27.6% from 28% last time. Waist has shrunk by 3.5cm(!) but my butt is bigger :oD Considering I've been less than ideally working out and eating over the last month, that's pretty good!

New routine:-

Warm up - rower 1000m

Squat and shoulder press - x12 with 10kg bar - 2 sets
Squat and shoulder press - x12 with 12.5kg bar - 2 sets
3 minutes stepper
Lunge with side shoulder raise - x10 each side with 2x3kg dumbbells - 3 sets
3 minutes cross trainer
Overhead tricep extension with bench pressups - x10 each with 9kg dumbbell- 3 sets
3 minutes rower
C-crunch - x10 with 3kg medicine ball - 3 sets
Side planks - x10 pulses each side - 3 sets
Pilates roll-downs - x5 20s each

Cool down - 10 minutes cross-trainer

Thursday 1 October 2009

A bit behind

Not updated much this week as it's appraisal season. Missed gymming yesterday as there was just no time, but hopefully I'll make it today.

Not making huge progress on the fat loss, but having hurt my leg on Monday I've been laying off the step ups and lunges and not been running. No biggie really. Should be back to it next week.