Success!

I gymmed!  And only had to drop the squat and swing with dumbbell from the routine as that requires too much grip from the thumbs and could have resulted in either a dumbbell flying across the gym or the tip of my thumb opening up. Neither of which was an attractive prospect.

And this is what I did:-

• Squats with 70kg (counter-weighted Olympic bar with 2x 20kg, 2x 5kg and 2x 2.5kg on it) - 3x10
• Core pendulum swings (lying on the floor, legs up, swing legs/rotate hips) - 3x10 each side SUPERSET A
• Lunge with single arm swing opposite arm to knee (same side arm and leg working) 8kg dumbbell - 3x10 each side SUPERSET A
• Clean and press 35kg barbell - 1x3 then fail
• Clean and press 32.5kg (Olympic bar with 2x 5kg and 2x 1.25kg on it) - 2x10
• Reverse lunge with row (cable machine) 15kg - 3x10 SUPERSET B
• Side plank with row (8kg) hold plank throughout each set - 3x2x10 SUPERSET B
• Leg raise with press - 20kg ViPR - 3x15

*pleased*

Tasty lunchies and chin-ups

I've been having lots of fun with the Star Chef and the wide-mouthed Thermos  since I got them and it's SO NICE to have home-made, tasty, hot, nutritious lunches!  Seriously!  The latest one was a spiced soup of parsnips and apple:-

Serves 4 for lunches (approx. 200kcals per portion, 27g carb, 4g protein, 8g fat, 3 portions F&V):-

Ingredients:

• 500-600g Parsnips
• 1 Medium English Apple
• 2 Medium Onion, Chopped
• 15ml Groundnut or other flavourless oil
• 1 Tsp Cumin Seeds
• 1 Tsp Coriander Seeds
• 1 Tsp Powdered Turmeric
• 2 Cloves Garlic, Minced
• 1 Tsp Ground Ginger
• 1.25 litres vegetable stock
• 4 Tbps half fat crème fraîche

Method:

• Toast the coriander and cumin seeds then grind them with a pestle and mortar.
• Heat the oil in a saucepan, then add the onions and soften for about 5 minutes before adding the garlic.
• Cook for another 2 minutes, then add the ground spices, along with the turmeric and ginger, stir and cook gently for a few more minutes.
• Chop the parsnips into 1 inch chunks.
• Add the parsnips to the saucepan, stir well to coat with the spices and oils, then pour in the stock.
• Season and simmer for half an hour with the lid off, then half an hour with the lid on.
• When the soup has been simmering for an hour, remove it from the heat, and use a hand blender to make it smooth - leave a few chunks if you'd like to.
• When you're ready to serve it, either now or after chilling/freezing into portions, peel the apple and grate it into the soup. Simmer the soup for 3-4 minutes/reheat in the microwave/slow cooker, decant into bowls and add a small dollop (15g) creme fraiche and grind over some black pepper to serve.

I did all of the cooking steps in my Star Chef, first on "fry" mode for the onions, garlic and spices, then on "soup/stew" mode once the stock was added.  Only one pan to dirty, that way.

I'm trying to wind things back a bit this week after last week's huge exercise haul and the end of the week with a dodgy innards.  So, I've cycled into work once and gymmed once so far (gymming and cycling home tomorrow) but the gymmage has gone a bit hybrid now, mixing two routines for a bit of variety:-

• Warm up - 500m on L7 on the rower (01:55/500m pace)
• Squats on the Smith machine - 3x10, Olympic bar plus 35kg
• Chin ups using the Smith machine for a bar - 3x4, bodyweight
• Squat and overhead swing - 3x10, 20kg dumb-bell - superset A
• Reverse crunch with leg raise - 3x15 slowly - superset A
• Walking lunges with kettlebell - 3x20, 24kg kettlebell
• Squat, one-arm clean and jerk - 3x20, 14kg dumb-bell

And today my abs and pecs are saying "HI!" quite loudly :o)

But seriously!  12 chin-ups!  OK, they were in 3 sets of 4 and apart from the first one in each set they weren't completely from hanging, but I'm still really really pleased with them!  I fully intend to get a photo of me doing some in my new "Strong is the new skinny" tank vest when it arrives :o)

I don't know why

I went a bit silly at work on Friday.  I'd had a good week in general, lots of gym and cycling and good food in appropriate quantities.  Then there was a pretty major milestone achieved and my boss got cake in.  I have -no- idea what happened.  I have -never- been one to go nuts with sweet things, not in my life.  So, when I ended up having 3x Gu Millionaires Flapjacks, 5x M&S raspberry yoghurt bites and a raspberry cup cake...  What. The.  Hell?  Had I stopped before the cupcake that would have just been a bit piggy, but I'm actually lost for words with that haul.  Especially given that I knew we were having pizza for dinner and a couple of beers.  Just... I... I plain have no idea what happened there.  I don't feel guilty, or horrible, or scared I'll put on 10 pounds.  I'm just confused.

Any of you guys done something totally mad and random relating to eating like that?

Anyhoo.

Today's gym was pretty good.  I managed to increase the weights on the overhead raise with squat and the lunges with overhead swing with the ViPR from 16kg to 20kg as well as getting more reps in on the squat with clean and press with the 30kg barbell, and I had a go on the leg press and lat pulldown machines to see how heavy I can manage these days.  55kg on the lat pulldown, without cheating and using my bodyweight to pull it down.  And 110kg on the leg press.

Rawr!

GOOD gym today!  Increased my clean and presses to 30kg!  OK so I only managed 8, 8, 4 but still... a while back I couldn't get it over my head even once :o)  Unassisted (no counter-weights on the Smith machine) squats at 45kg as well... feeling faberlous!

Roasted a Black Farmer organic chickie for dinner and feeling great given that I've dropped some fat since coming back from hols (down to 66.6kg today from over 68kg on hols :o)) and gymmage went nicely.  Plus, I'm feeling a lot less stressy not logging foods though I have cheated a bit during the week and discovered I've been heading way low on active days so ended up snacking in the evenings.  It is nice not to feel that I have to eat at particular times to fulfil my set snacking through the day, but that I can eat -something- when I get hungry anyway.  And... getting hungry... well, I've been a bit scared of it and ending up scarfing loads of food but having available snacks in the office is helping a lot there.  Nibble on an appropriate amount of dried fruit/nuts/yogurt&fruit/carrot&houmous/beef jerky and I feel fine to wait until a reasonable meal time etc.

Brekkie was nice this morning (see photo)... again prepared by Mr TOTKat.  Toasted wholemeal seeded Food Doctor bagel with butter, Marmite and a poached egg.  NOM!

First gym in a little while

Last time I did any proper exercise was 20th September - an off-piste gym session at the Cornwall Hotel Spa and Estate which had a tiny gym equipped with lots of cardio machines but not so well on the free weights front.  No Smith machine, only a wobbly bar and bar weights up to 5kg to add on.  Still managed a reasonable couple of routines in that gym though, which was nice.

This morning... back to the last routine from my trainer and I was expecting to be weak and pathetic after almost 2 weeks off.  But no :o)  Increased weights on most stuff and added in a couple of extra bits from previous routines as well:-

• Warm up 1km on the rower (L7 04:30)
• Squats - Smith machine (no counter-weight) with Olympic bar plus 15kg - 3x10
• Clean and press - 25kg barbell - 3x10 (A)
• Reverse crunches - bodyweight - 3x15 (A)
• Overhead squat - 3x10 - 12kg ViPR (B)
• Crunch with overhead lift - 3x10 - 12kg ViPR (B)
• Planks on 3x medicine balls - 2x60s
• Pressups on 3x medicine balls - x5
• Squat and swing - 18kg dumbbell - 3x10
• Lunge and horizontal press - 3x10x2 - 10kg ViPR
• Lunge with overhead swing - 3x8x2 - 16kg ViPR
• Cool down on x-trainer - 5 minutes (L7, L6, L4)
• Stretch on the Powerplate.

 RAWR!  Gonna hurt tomorrow :oD

Photos from holiday(s) and some further thoughts later... it's been a bit sorty-outy this weekend so far and I could do with sitting on my arse a little bit.

Back in a bit...

Had a few days down in Cornwall.  Gymmed twice and ran once!  (drank every day, but not loads, ate a fair amount)  Came back, said hello to house-sitters and cats.  Heading back down to Cornwall on Friday for a week.

Feeling the size of a house and retaining fluid like a doodah, but still in thermometer jeans and tiny dresses, so.

Gym at the hotel was tiny, but I managed to do two different routines with significatly heavier weights than the last time I did them (squats with clean and shoulder press with 12kg dumbbells and squat and overhead swing with 18kg dumbbell :o)) and we ran for 40 minutes, which is the furthest I've run in a year...

And of course I can't do as I'm told, can I?

Having needed the extra sleep this morning, got up at 07:15 for brekkie and shower and a 30 minute huge tantrum around the house failing to find my Oyster card, I gave in and bought a single ticket to work this morning.  4 quid for a single journey paper ticket; daylight robbery!  On my Oyster card it's 2.70, for crying out loud! Anyway, as suspected, my Oyster was under my desk at work where it must have fallen out at some point Thu/Fri last week when I'd cycled in (I last used it on Wednesday, so it must've been after that).  Hey ho.  At least it was still there and the cleaners hadn't nicked it.  I was already annoyed that I hadn't been in a state to get up at 06:!5 so didn't cycle, but not having my Oyster really made me cross.

First full run through my new routine today and, yep, it's a good 'un.  Of course I can't do as I'm told and only do 2x sets of things like my trainer said to...

• Warm up 1km on the rower (L7, 02:10 pace for 500m, 02:00 pace for 500m)
• Deep squats - 3x10 -Smith Machine with Olympic bar plus 2x5kg
• SS1 Clean and press - 3x10 - Olympic bar with 2x 2.5kg weights
• SS1 Press with knee-lift against Swiss Ball - 3x20 - bodyweight
• SS2 Overhead squat - 3x10 - 8kg ViPR
• SS2 Crunch with overhead lift - 3x10 - 8kg ViPR
• Lunge and horizontal press - 3x10 - 8kg ViPR
• Lunge with overhead swing - 3x10 - 10kg ViPR
• SS3 Crunch with leg cycles - 2x30 - bodyweight
• SS3 Walking planks - 2x10 - bodyweight
• Sprints on x-trainer - 3x30s with 60s recovery - L8 (180-200 speed)
• Cool down and stretch

Ohboy those overhead swings are a killer! Love it!

Good new routine!

I really didn't like the last routine... too much isolation and relying on machines, though I did really like the ViPR stuff. Thankfully it was only a 3 week routine so not too long to be pissed off with it. Today was then New Routine day with my trainer; we usually run through 1 set of everything then do some intervals and knock off after 50 minutes or so in total. Today, my new routine only took 30 minutes to run through, so we had some fun after that... which involved some dynamic lunges with rows and knee raises and then some fun with 3x medicine balls.

Take 3x medicine balls. Balance on them such that no body parts touch the floor. This is best done with one ball under each hand and both feet on the 3rd, straight arms, straight back and legs. Now hold that position for 60 seconds. :o)

Oh, and then do pressups from there :oD  Like this...

God, that was fun! It even had a passing cleaner say "gosh, she's strong!" to my trainer, which had me grinning all over my face.  I managed 3 pressups before my feet fell off the back ball.

And here's the new routine; I said I didn't want any machines involved and I wanted a full body workout with lots of compound exercises:-

• Warm up for 4-5 minutes
• Deep squats - 3x10 -Olympic bar plus 2x5kg
• SS1 Clean and press - 2x10 - Olympic bar
• SS1 Press with knee-lift against Swiss Ball - 2x10 - bodyweight
• SS2 Overhead squat - 2x10 - 8kg ViPR
• SS2 Crunch with overhead lift - 2x10 - 8kg ViPR
• Lunge and horizontal press - 2x10 - 8kg ViPR
• Lunge with overhead swing - 2x10 - 10kg ViPR
• Sprints on x-trainer - 6x30s with 60s recovery - L8-10 (180-200 speed)
• Cool down and stretch

Love it!  Can't wait to get cracking with it on Monday!

How to tackle this?

A couple of weeks ago, I threw myself into cycling into work.  I ended up 800kcals under maintenance for the week and putting on 1kg (well, probably not really, but that's what the scales said).  Yes, I get that when I eat more, it weighs more and thus I will weigh more on balance the first week I eat lots more.  So, ignoring that effect when I'm doing it this time, I still have problems around eating.

Today I cycle into work and home again.  I will not be going to the gym.  The cycling gives me an extra 700-800kcals or so for the day.  I -should- eat at least half of those kcals, but I -think- that I actually need to eat all of them and not aim for any loss target kcals as my body doesn't deal with that very well and starts to retain water etc.  I'll be cycling at least 3 times this week, so it's not mad extra work (90km in total, oh arse, and an extra 21-49km on Saturday) but I feel I need to pretty much ignore this week as it's straight after an event, so I'm a bit heavy anyway and there's lots of extra exercise which will throw my body out as well.  I'll aim for "on or under maintenance kcals" each day this week, but definitely not "at or below loss kcals".  Then re-assess next week when things should have settled down a bit.  Of course, then I have only 1 week of normal exercise (3x weights and 2-4x cycling and 0-1 swims) before I have to taper for the final Thames Turbo Triathlon, so it may not be a fair trial or learning.

Anyone else gone through a significant increase in exercise output?  How did you manage your nutrition and what effects did you see?

Omnomnomnom!

Good gym today.  I upped the reps on my clean and press to 3x12 with the 25kg bar-bell, which was pleasing for my final run through that routine.  I wanted to get to 3x8 with 30kg but I've just missed that target I think.  Not down about it at all though, I've made some great progress with this routine and it's time for a new one.

Favourite home-alone dinner tonight, even though I'm not home alone :o)  I'm trying to shift a bit more fat %, get it down a bit lower so I'm on a lower calorie intake drive for a little bit and that means Prawnychilligarliclimething!  It does exactly what it says on the tin; it's strongly flavoured, packed full of great nutrition, is wonderfully filling and warming, and takes almost no time at all to make.

God, I love this stuff and I love it with enough chilli to make my nose run and my eyes water and make me a bit sweaty :o)  So, here's the recipe... (serves 1):

• 200g large, cooked, peeled prawns
• 50g dry couscous
• 5ml good olive oil
• 1 decent chilli, with the seeds
• 300g-350g fresh plum tomatoes
• 45ml lime juice
• 2-3 large cloves of garlic

Finely chop the chilli pepper, peel and crush garlic and add both to the heated oil in a non-stick pan.

While that's fizzling, chop the tomatoes into small chunks then add those to the pan with a little bit of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bring to a sizzling point, add the lime juice and bring to a fierce bubble. Leave bubbling for 7-10 minutes, then add the prawns for another 4-5 minutes until the prawns are well heated through and the tomato mix has gone very soft. Serve with the couscous (cooked as per instructions on the packet - I usually sit 50g of couscous with a bit of seasoning in 120ml boiling water with a plate covering it for about 10 minutes, then fluff with a fork).

Calories (kcal)	433.5
Carbohydrate (g)	52.8
Protein (g)	38.3
Fat (g)	7.8
Fibre (g)	6.1
Fruit & Veg	4.8

And today went like this:-

B - greek yogurt with fruit compote, flaked almonds and 1 scoop MP Max
S - banana
*gym*
S - 1 scoop MP Max in skimmed milk
L -chicken salad with lettuce, cherry tomatoes, celery, sweet pepper and roasted chicken breast
S - Frijomole (cannelini beans and chick peas mushed with chilli, coriander and mayonnaise) with Ryvita Thins
S - Fruit, nut and seed bar
D - Prawnychilligarliclimething with couscous

Exercise - 60 minutes gym (573kcals before background tax)

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1578 2292]
Protein (g)	147.3 (38.2%)
Carbohydrate (g)	157.2 (38.2%)
Fat (g)	40.6 (23.7%)
Fibre (g)	21.0
Fruit & Veg	11.0

Short break

Swimming intervals yesterday and a good nutrition day.  Hard gym today, increased my side-planks with rows to 7kg and still managed 3x10 each side.  AND managed 3x10 with the clean and press at 25kg.  Very pleased with that.  Good food again today, but as I'm slipping into the holiday zone... wiiiine!

Won't be updating until we're back from THE VALENCIA GRAND PRIX :oD  But I should have lots of photos to share.

Keep it healthy and fit guys!

Great day; really great day

Gorgeous brekkie today of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on toasted wholemeal, seeded bagel with lashings of tea.  Bit of mooching about the house and getting ready, along with a banana just before gymming.  And a very pleasing gym session it was too.  Mr TOTKat was with his trainer, so I had a bit over an hour to fill with my current routine plus a bit extra.  I added in some tricep pull-downs and bicep curls at the end after my intervals on the cross-trainer and I can really feel the burn in my arms now!  I also managed to squeeze out 8, 8, 10 with the 25kg barbell with the clean and press, so that's more progress.

Mr TOTKat's trainer was really positive about my "negatives" (negative motion pull-ups), which was nice.  He did think I should be able to do a full positive pull-up if I'm doing 12-15 4s negative ones.  I just never think to try a positive one until I've already done 10 of the negatives, so I have no juice left!

What really made me pleased today was trying on a couple of shirts that were too tight last time I tried them (about a month ago).  And they fit -exactly- now!  The last time they fitted like that, I was 3kg lighter than I am now.  Which just goes to show you that the scales are -definitely- not the only or best measure.  I have dropped 0.3% body fat over the last 2 weeks, despite being well over maintenance last week and only just 500kcals under it this week.  On average across the 2 weeks, I was 90kcals over maintenance, so I shouldn't have lost any weight, but I have definitely done so even according to the scales.  So it looks like I am actually gaining muscle somewhere as well as losing body fat.  My BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is for sure higher than WLR thinks it is for my lifestyle setting of "moderately sedentry" (i.e. I do walk about a bit, but my job is mostly sitting about all day and I log proper exercise separately).

Off now to have a warmed sultana scone with cherry jam and mascarpone with lots more tea!   (and dinner is going to be kangaroo steak with couscous, peas and sweetcorn *dribble*)

Feeel the warmth!

I have a warmth in my shoulders.  This is because I increased the weights on my clean and press up to 25kg (from 20kg!).  It was really hard, but I managed to get 3x8 out though the last 2 of each set were really difficult to get to the top and I had to restart a couple of them from the floor again.  But I did it.  And my shoulders are all warm from that, plus the new 6kg lunges with cross over things.  Good hard burn of 520kcals out of today's session :o)

So the routine is now:-

• warm up - 1km on the rower at L7
• squat and swing with 14kg dumbbell - 3x10 (superset A)
• pendulum swings - bodyweight - 3x10 each leg (superset A)
• lunges with cable rows - 12.5kg - 3x10 each arm (superset B)
• side planks with rows - 6kg dumbbell - 3x10 each side (superset B)
• lunges with cross arm to opposite knee from vertical - 6kg dumbbell - 3x10 each side (superset C)
• planks - bodyweight - 3x60s (superset C)
• clean and press - 25kg barbell - 3x8
• sprint intervals on the cross-trainer - 30s sprint, 60s rest - x3
• cool down and stretch

Very tired today and it's making me feel a bit queasy, which is annoying in a background kind of way.  Constant nibbling on snacks does help a bit, but having thoughts of pie and mash... that'd really help.  I don't remember the last time I had actual pie.  It may have to be worked into a cheat at some point soon, I think.

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop MP Max, fruit compote and flaked almonds
S - nut and seed bar
*gym*
S - 1 scoop MP Max in skimmed milk
L - salad; lettuce, celeery, peppers, beetroot, chicken breast
S -greek yogurt with mixed seeds and raisins
S - banana
D - salad; lettuce, sweet peppers, new potatoes, boiled eggs, bacon and a honey, mustard and vinegar dressing

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1679 2240]
Protein (g)	154.6 (37.2%)
Carbohydrate (g)	132.8 (29.9%)
Fat (g)	60.7 (32.9%)
Fibre (g)	18.2
Fruit & Veg	7.9

Tuesday

Lots of packed snacks again today (like the cottage cheese with tinned pineapple here) and back into the gym.  Cottage cheese on plain rice cakes isn't great; I think it needs something like Marmite mixed in for flavour.  Increased the weights on the side planks with rows and lunges with cross-arm-to-opposite-knee to 6kg but, really really annoyingly I forgot my heart rate monitor watch so had to estimate the overall burn.

Another really nice bit of progress was in my negative motion pull-ups which I actually managed 2 sets of 5 at 4 seconds for the lowering.  A great improvement, so maybe 3 whole days off was a good bit of recovery and muscle re-building :o)

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop MP Max, fruit compote and flaked almonds
S - cottage cheese with tinned pineapple in juice
*gym*
S - 1 scoop MP Max in skimmed milk
L - salad; lettuce, celery, sweet pepper, cherry tomatoes, beetroot, falafel and mint
S - carrot and houmous
S - cottage cheese on plain rice cakes
D -Waitrose buttered onion and mustard sausages with mashed butternut squash

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1710 2230]
Protein (g)	140.7 (33.3%)
Carbohydrate (g)	155.1 (34.4%)
Fat (g)	60.8 (32.4%)
Fibre (g)	24.2
Fruit & Veg	12.9

Premature peaking!

I've been working towards an exercise milestone; 100,000 kcals burned in recorded exercise since I bought my heart rate monitor and started to use it on 15th June last year.  I had intended to hit that 100,000 mark tomorrow, but I got my sums wrong and instead of needing to stay under 521kcals today, it should have been 511.  So, when I reached 514kcals and stopped today... oops.  All-time total; 100,003kcals.  Argh!  I missed it!

Still, I increased the weights on the lunges with cross arm to opposite knee to 5kg and still 3x10.  Which was a struggle, but I managed it :o)

Lunch today was a real treat!  I had leftover beef chilli with roasted tomatoes and red peppers and it was -gorgeous-!  Really tasty, a lovely change from salad and kept me full for absolutely ages this afternoon.  Having worked out that it costs £1.90 per portion of beef chilli that we make, I think I'll be having it for lunch again.  Oh.  Yes.

And having had chilli for lunch, salad for dinner wasn't boring at all :o) It being a chicken and avocado one helped even more! I was tempted to add bacon, but the fat % for today was already a bit high and even very trimmed bacon comes up quite high on the fat content on average.  (So how come ham is so lean?  Same animal!  And bacon is so very trimmed these days, you just try to get any -with- rind in a supermarket *mutter*)

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop MP Max, fruit compote and flaked almonds
S - fruit and nut bar (I'll take a photo of one of these before they all vanish!)
*gym*
S - 1 scoop MP Max in skimmed milk
L - beef chilli with roasted cherry tomatoes and red peppers
S - cottage cheese with Dr Karg crisp-bread
S - greek yogurt with fresh mango and chopped mint
D - salad; lettuce, cherry tomatoes, baby new potatoes, avocado, chicken breast and a honey, mustard and cider vinegar dressing

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1779 2237
Protein (g)	161.1 (36.9%)
Carbohydrate (g)	161.6 (34.6%)
Fat (g)	55.4 (28.5%)
Fibre (g)	23.2
Fruit & Veg	11.4

Work-day packed foodz

I pack lots of food when I go to work, to keep me going throughout the day; alongside a big plastic box with dry munchies like beef jerky and pistachios which lives in my desk drawer. I eat -lots- throughout the day and it all needs planning, packing and keeping from leaking, breaking, stinking or making a big mess in general.  So here's today's haul.  You can see a a pot with 3x hard-boiled quail's eggs in it, wrapped in kitchen towel to protect them; a Dr Karg crisp-bread that miraculously didn't break; 2x carrots, one Dorset Cereals berries and cherries bar; one tub of cottage cheese to go on the crisp-bread; one tub of Waitrose houmous with about 1/3rd left in it to go with the carrots; and a box of salad with lettuce, cherry tomatoes, roasted chicken and Food Doctor Herb Boost.  What you can't see is the shaker with whey protein powder in it for after my weights session.  Good haul, eh?

My gym session today was slightly awesome!  Someone was using the only pair of 12kg dumbbells (oddly, there are multiple sets of every other even numbered weight except for the 12s), so I had to use a 14kg one for my squat with swing.  Then I decided that my side-planks with rows needed a bit of a boost, so I used a 5kg dumbbell for that instead of the usual 4kg one.  And I pushed out 3x10 on the clean and press as well as 2x 5 negative movement pull-ups (OK they were definitely not all 4 seconds long, ohhh no, but still I tried!).  Adding in those pull-ups tips the balance on the timing so I've cut the cool-down on the cross trainer to only 2 minutes instead of 5 or so at the end but still managed the usual stretching on the power plate.  Good session!

I (and my team) moved desks in the office today, right down to the other end of the building, so... there were cakes. So I had a tiny one; a Thornton's Caramel Shortbread thing which was all sticky in the warmth and really really sweet. Thankfully, dinner was quite light: chicken breast wrapped in 2 slices of chorizo and on a bed of mashed butternut squash.  I overcooked the squash a bit so it was really soft and gooey when it got mashed :o)  Lotsa black pepper on top and scoffage ensued!

Slight oopsage in that when I got home I fancied wine.  So I'm sipping wine right now, and it is nice.  We'll see how much I end up having, it depends on how I feel and how nice it is (and it is nice!).

OK, so if I drink wine today I won't lose as much fat as I wanted to this week, but hey, I feel good at the moment and I'm not -too- fussed about losing fat really quickly.  Of course I have to look fabulous at a couple of weddings later in the summer, but that's only the icing on the cake of being fit and feeling stronger than I have ever felt in my life.  I think I might have got the muscle back now that I lost while losing loads of weight 4 years ago.  It's taken a year, but it's back and I feel great!

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop MP Max, fruit compote and flaked almonds
S - cottage cheese on a Dr Karg cheese and pumpkin seed crisp-bread
L -salad; lettuce, cherry tomatoes, Food Doctor Herb Boost, chicken breast, quail's eggs
*gym*
S - 1 scoop MP Max in skimmed milk
S - carrot and houmous
S - Thorntons caramel shortbread biscuit, Dorset Cereals bar - cherries and berries
D - mashed butternut squash with a chicken breast wrapped in chorizo slices

Exercise - 55 minutes gym

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1910 2239]
Protein (g)	157.5 (34.4%)
Carbohydrate (g)	155.0 (31.7%)
Fat (g)	44.7 (12.9%)
Fibre (g)	22.6
Fruit & Veg	10.4

Achey knee and a bit delicate

Feeling a tiny bit delicate after Mr TOTKat's birthday celebrations last night.  A couple more beers than I'm used to so rubbish quality sleep and quite tired today.  Gentle day today, day off work and I should be right as rain tomorrow.

Yesterday.  The race!

5am start was a bit harder than last time.  No idea why but it just felt ickier.  Thus followed a catalogue of small errors that could have made lots of dents in my race performance...

First off, last time I had fruity malt loaf with peanut butter for breakfast which worked really well; this time I had yogurt with fruit compote, muesli and chopped banana.  I had real trouble eating it and it didn't feel nice in my stomach at all.  Error number two was, er, number twos related.  I suddenly needed to go with less than 10 minutes to go before the start of the race and we were in the first wave of swimmers so I didn't have long.  Queue of 7 people for 2 loos!  Argh!  Got all flustered trying to get my tri-suit back on again so it took ages (the zip is up the back and goes through the "ladies support" section elastication so it's really hard to do up) and I ended up trotting back to where Mr TOTKat was waiting for the start of the race with only about 30s to spare before ditching our warm clothes for the swim.

The swim felt vile again; I think I just don't fare well swimming from cold and first thing in the morning.  I got overtaken once which was really downheartening especially given that I had to wait at the side of the pool for a good 20s for the overtaker to actually do the overtake and then she didn't whizz off ahead of me, so I just ended up with a bit of a draft for the last 4 lengths.

A little trot to transition and my bike where Mr TOTKat was almost ready to go off (he was race #16 and I was #17 so we were very close together) and I made errors number #3 and #4; I put my running/cycling top with my race numbers pinned to it on backwards so had to tear it off again, lost two pins from the front number by doing that, and jam it back on the right way around after finding one of the pins that had pinged off and pinning both back in place.  I lost a good minute or so there.  *sigh*  Then I put on my helmet and did it up, decided not to bother with socks, jammed my trainers on and grabbed my cycling gloves to put on whilst running out to the cycle start.  Mistake #5 there.  Of course you can't put gloves on whilst wheeling a bike and trying to run a bit!  So I ended up with them wedged under my palms against the handlebars which meant that gear changes and braking were impeded and tricky.

I then spent the next few minutes of the cycling deciding to try to stuff them down my top (mistake #6).  Hah.  My tri-suit goes quite high and I'm not stable enough on the bike to take hands off the bars (so yes, I can't signal at the moment).  So the next few minutes were spent mostly thinking about what to do with my damned gloves rather than concentrating on cycling quickly.  I eventually decided to lose them.  Left hand, easy, just lift it up a bit and let the glove drop.  Right hand... well, less easy as I didn't want the glove to drop into my chain or wheel and foul it up so I had to get my hand down to the middle of the handlebars whilst not losing the glove, get the other hand close on the bars, pass the glove to my left hand, move my right one back to where it should be, similarly the left and then drop the glove somewhere safe.  Faff!  Wasted thinking and effort and speed!  Still, once they were gone I could actually concentrate on cycling.

The rest of the cycle was pretty sore-butt-making as the roads aren't in great condition and this new bike is a lot stiffer and less forgiving.  And the last 6km it got quite windy, which dropped my average speed from 28km/h down to 23km/h.  So, overall a very disappointing cycle.  But the run...

...started as usual with legs made of puffed lead, or so it feels.  It took a few minutes for them to loosen up and feel normal(ish).  As I rounded a corner where you can see the start of the run join up with the circuits, I saw Mr TOTKat heading for the half-way mark of the run.  Disheartening as all hell as it meant he was 15 minutes ahead of me and I was expecting to be only 10 minutes behind.  Still, the kids helping out the marshalls were really encouraging and spurred me on a bit and I even managed a sprint finish right at the end :o)  Watch time 01:34:21 so with up to 7 minutes to cut off that time for the non-racing portion I was well in for hitting or even beating my target time of 01:30 for the race.

Official results: 01:28:32 beating my last race time by exactly 6 minutes and 30 seconds!  I did improve on the swim+transition by 1 minute and 13 seconds, despite the faffery with the backwards top and re-pinning my number.  I improved on the bike time by less than I'd hoped (2 minutes 26 seconds) but the really pleasing part was the run+transition improvement of 2 minutes 51 seconds!  Very very pleased with that improvement indeed; a whole 9% :oD  Overall 7% improvement in the race time and exactly 1000kcals burned.

Cor!

Good gymmage today!  I upped my clean and press to 17.5kg and cleared all 3x 10 reps. :o) I was feeling so good after the routine I thought I'd try an assisted pull-up and managed one with only 10kg assist which is far and away the best performance ever.  I reckon had I tried it at the start, I would probably have managed one with no assist, through sheer bloody-mindedness.

The routine is now:-

• 1km warm up on the rower at L7
• squat and swing - 12kg dumbbell - 3x10 SUPERSET A
• pendulum swings - bodyweight - 3x10x2 SUPERSET A
• lunge with cable rows - 12.5kg - 3x10 SUPERSET B
• side plank with rows - 4kg dumbbell - 3x10x2 SUPERSET B
• lunge with crossed-arm raise/swing to knee - 4kg dumbbell - 3x10x2
• clean and press - 17.5kg bar bell - 3x10
• planks - 3x60s (60s recovery)
• 3x 30s sprints (>200rpm on L6 on the cross trainer) with 60s recovery
• 5 minutes cool-down and stretch

So, yay!  Good gym!  Feeling good and strong and almost ready for Monday's race (start postion #17!  *wibble*)

I also tried the Nakd Pecan Pie bar today and that was pretty much as nice as the Cashew Cookie, so both are very much recommended and fill a little afternoon snack place in the overall scheduling quite nicely.  So thanks loads to Laura for those!

Kangaroo steak for dinner..

Very mild flavour, probably because it is sooooo lean.  Juicy, cooked rare like this.  Very nice.  Will eat again :o)

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop MP Max, fruit compote and Grape Nuts
S - banana
L - salad; lettuce, cherry tomatoes, celery, sweet peppers, pomegranate seeds, cucumber, chicken breast
*gym*
S - 1 scoop MP Max in skimmed milk
S - MP beef jerky
S - carrot and Waitrose houmous
D - kangaroo steak, roasted sweet peppers, couscous, peas and sweetcorn

Exercise 53 minutes gym

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1689 2203]
Protein (g)	173.9 (42.2%)
Carbohydrate (g)	162.3 (36.9%)
Fat (g)	38.4 (21.0%)
Fruit & Veg	10.9

Midweek and it's dragging

I tried the Nakd Cashew Cookie bar today and it was absolutely gorgeous!  Slightly malty tasting and the only ingredients are "dates and cashew nuts".  It came out of the wrapper a bit oily-feeling but that's probably just a bit of juice from the dates.  Really tasty, would definitely get them in the weekly shop if Ocado sold them!

For a mid-week slump day, I did pretty well in the gym; increased the weight on the squat and swing to 12kg which was quite hard towards the last couple of reps so was probably due as the 10kg was getting a touch easy.  Next point of attack will be the cross swing lunge thing and upping the dumbbell weight to 5kg on that now that my left arm is playing ball a bit better.  Rest day tomorrow and then winding it down at the weekend in time for Monday's triathlon.

Also, almost all of that extra kg is gone so I'll be ready to carb load on Sunday and put it all back on again in glycogen and water :o)

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop MP Max, blueberries and flaked almonds
S - banana
*gym*
S - Virgin Active mango and soya milk protein shake
L - salad; lettuce, celery, peppers, beetroot, cherry tomatoes, Food Doctor herb boost, chicken breast
S - Dr Karg cheese and pumpkin seed crisp bread with cottage cheese
S - Nakd Bar - Cashew Cookie
D - beef chilli with courgette, onion and pine nuts
S - Pie D'Angloys cheese with chutney and wine

Exercise - 50 minutes gym

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	2234 2202]
Protein (g)	186.2 (35.5%)
Carbohydrate (g)	162.9 (28.7%)
Fat (g)	57.8 (24.4%)
Fruit & Veg	14.9

Rocked the routine!

I had planned to rest today, do 2x weights this week and 1x cardio but this morning I just felt good on the way out of the front door, so grabbed some freshly washed gym kit that was over the radiator and stuffed it into my bag and off to work.

So. This time I did every exercise on the routine to a full 3x10 without failure. Oh boy did it feel good! My shoulders looked amazing in the mirror when I was doing the clean and press and I managed all 30 of those which is way better than last time. I went really hard at the 3x 30s sprints on the cross-trainer at the end, so hard I felt more than a bit sick :o) Very very pumped and psyched after I got back to the office. All raaaarrrr! I'm so pleased to have improved so much since the last session.

Oh!  And my prize from Laura arrived today:-

The tubes of pampering smell soooo nice and I can't wait to crack into those nakd bars; cashew cookie is top of my list!  *dribble*

Speaking of food, breakfast salad again for dinner today :o):-

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop MP Max, blueberries and flaked almonds
S - Dorset Cereals bar; berries and cherries
*gym*
S - 1 scoop MP Max in skimmed milk
L - salad; lettuce, sweet pepper, cherry tomatoes, chicken breast, Food Doctor herb boost, celery
S - Dr Karg cheese and pumpkin seed crisp-bread with cottage cheese
S - MP Max beef jerky
D - salad; lettuce, new potatoes, boiled eggs, chorizo-style sausage, honey, wholegrain mustard, vinegar

Exercise - 50 minutes gym

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1708 2197]
Protein (g)	168.4 (40.2%)
Carbohydrate (g)	117.3 (26.3%)
Fat (g)	62.2 (33.5%)
Fruit & Veg	6.0