Re-Living The Past

I know you cannot go back in time, I know there is no such thing as a time machine or a live remote control that controls the world so I’ve taken the initiative to re-live that past I dare speak about. I signed up to Commando Steve’s GET COMMANDO FIT 13 week program. For those non Aussies, Commando is a very well known fitness personnel in Australia, much like the US Jillian Michaels or Tracy Anderson. He has been on The Biggest Loser Australia for more than 5 years and his training style is very military.

About 2 years ago I joined Michelle Bridges 12wbt, She’s also on TBL, and I lost 5kg but so many CM and I was the healthiest I’ve ever been. I put weight back on when I stopped because a lot of my family and friends thought I was too skinny which is a lie because I was so healthy and I was a stick. I’ve put so much muscle on since then and now it’s just time to tidy up the rest of the fat on my body. I am comfortable now but I think that I still need to lose about 6kg to be happy as well.

Training in winter is always a bitch because I have the worst motivation when it comes to waking up at 5am to go for a run when it’s 2-7 degrees outside. I know in most towns like Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne and Adelaide it’s even colder and I refuse to join a gym. If I ever did move to Melbourne I’d have to join because A) It would be too cold and B) I wouldn’t have my normal fitness group to train with. First world problems hey?

Anyways, I’m really excited to just get back on the band wagon of eating super healthy and clean, I’ve pushed it aside for too long and my body is not coping very well with all the foods I’m not allowed or cannot digest. My poor body needs to be respected and fed well and at the moment that’s a no go.

I just cannot wait to be healthy again and be able to run long distances without feeling so tired and my legs are too heavy to lift.

And in sickness and in health

Yes I’ve just referenced a marriage sentence but lucky for you I’m not engaged nor am I getting married. I simply used this term to describe my dedication to running. As some marriages go, I mean go, they say these words but still they don’t mean them. Running relates to me in this way. I’ve been sick for the past 2 weeks and I’ve only managed to run for 1 of those weeks. Yes, I know I should take time off when I’m sick to re-coop so I can continue running, but ever since I’ve gotten sick, I have just lost all sort of fitness I had before I got sick.
Why is it that you have to build and build and build your fitness up but when there is a bump in the road, for example- eating bad or getting ill, you lose the fitness level it took you so long to build.

I’m in struggle town at the moment. I ran 9km this morning but because I’m sick, it took me half of the run to get completely warmed up and not feel any sort of tiredness. Is this just me or does it happen to everyone?
All I want to do is run and feel fit whilst running, none of this out of breath bullshit. I want to be able to run 15-20km without being so exhausted and I want to race 5-10km with a big achievement on my shoulders, knowing that all the hard effort I put in was well worth it.

I just dont want to be sick anymore and if it comes down to signing up to a fitness program and locking myself in and paying a heap of money to keep me motivated, I will… Just saying.

And in sickness and in health

Yes I’ve just referenced a marriage sentence but lucky for you I’m not engaged nor am I getting married. I simply used this term to describe my dedication to running. As some marriages go, I mean go, they say these words but still they don’t mean them. Running relates to me in this way. I’ve been sick for the past 2 weeks and I’ve only managed to run for 1 of those weeks. Yes, I know I should take time off when I’m sick to re-coop so I can continue running, but ever since I’ve gotten sick, I have just lost all sort of fitness I had before I got sick.
Why is it that you have to build and build and build your fitness up but when there is a bump in the road, for example- eating bad or getting ill, you lose the fitness level it took you so long to build.

I’m in struggle town at the moment. I ran 9km this morning but because I’m sick, it took me half of the run to get completely warmed up and not feel any sort of tiredness. Is this just me or does it happen to everyone?
All I want to do is run and feel fit whilst running, none of this out of breath bullshit. I want to be able to run 15-20km without being so exhausted and I want to race 5-10km with a big achievement on my shoulders, knowing that all the hard effort I put in was well worth it.

I just dont want to be sick anymore and if it comes down to signing up to a fitness program and locking myself in and paying a heap of money to keep me motivated, I will… Just saying.

Double Up Wednesday

The past couple of weeks I’ve been either going to 21st or going out to dinner with family and friends. The places I go to are quite normal priced for Australia but somewhere else in the world you’d be looking pay half. Now I’m one of those people who value my money and if I buy dinner out, I have to eat the whole lot, I don’t doggy bag that, I eat it. As I get home, it’s always the same routine when I see my partner. “I’m soooooo fat” & “I’m soooo bloated” but once I go to sleep, I wake up with a semi flat stomach. The thoughts in my head are always the same and I’ve definitely gone back to my old ways and a few things I normally think about are
– I’m fat, I need to exercise
– I’m fat, I need to start my ‘healthy eating’ tomorrow
– I’m so bloated I don’t want to feel so uncomfortable
– I’m so bloated, why did I eat that?

So this morning I went through with one of my thoughts and that was to exercise and I normally do eat healthy unless I am going out for dinner and I let myself go a little bit, which is bad in a way, but I went to a morning class at my outdoor fitness group which is really rare for me because it’s either I do nothing in the morning and go in the afternoon, but even then I am umming and arhhing because I’m just so exhausted from working all day. Most of the time I go but half the time I don’t but yes, as I was saying…. I went to my weights class this morning and it was hard, we worked mostly on our legs and I’m happy because I’ve been going on and on about needing to strengthen my legs so I’m deciding to go again this afternoon. Dedication or what? Lets see if I actually go though ha ha.

What are you like when you go out for dinner?

Motivation where are you?

So I’m no longer doing my 14 week half marathon plan because it’s just too hard to get out of bed at 5am when it’s 2 degrees outside and I’ve also had a lot of time to think if my body and performance can take it on race day. You know how too much training can exhaust you even before the race day, yeah well I know for a fact that my body just won’t be able to take it, I get tired when I do more exercise during the week, imagine 14 weeks of it!!

I’ve now just decided to go ahead with a shorter plan and not focus on sprints but more just endurance and tempo runs with a few sprints, not many but enough to be able to build speed.

I also just can’t afford to buy tickets to melbourne plus the half marathon race price, it would be a total of almost $1000 just to get there accomodation and the race and a bit of shopping – I don’t have that sort of money- plus it makes me $1000 less for my big Mediterranean trip this time next year and I need all the money I an get…. Who knows what’s going to happen but right now I’m opting out and it might be for a good reason or I may just be making excuses…

What to do…

Alex

Tomorrow’s another day

I’m starting my 14 week Half Marathon plan tomorrow and if I have to be truly honest, the weather is CRAP! I don’t have any motivation to get up at 5 am and do some sprints especially not when there is a storm tonight. It’s windy, it’s raining, hard might I add and it’s also very cold. A downside to running in winter for me is I do not have any winter running gear. I need long skins, long tops and more than 1 running jacket, maybe a head band and gloves too.

On the plus side,I’m looking forward to being in shape again, that will be great. I haven’t been so great with my running, wait that’s a lie, after so much time examining my performance over the past few months I think I haven’t done well or improved (because I’m sitting here contemplating my motivation), but if I actually think realistically, my speed has improved and now I’m running 5 km at mostly 5:30 min pace p/km which is great for me because I used to struggle at 6 sometimes, 6 min p/km is very slow for me now. I have this feeling that if I am running an easy, slow run, I have to run less than 6 min p/km but in actual fact its quite hard for me to go that slow and I feel I’m going to injure myself a lot more and a lot easier as well… Oh first world problems.

This plan seems a bit excessive but I know you cannot just build speed in one training session, it comes from a lot of hard dedication. My 14 week program is for speed rather than endurance, even though there are still long runs, during the week it’s all about short and long sprints and weekends consist of slow long runs, easy enough to talk. I think toward the end of this training session I’ll be physically exhausted but I know if I dont put in the effort with the training and eating healthy and getting my sleep, I wont put out a decent enough effort.

I hope I can surprise myself because it’s going to be a lot of dedicated training including my off days with weights and boxing.

How do you think I’ll go?
Does anyone have any advice for these such programs? You know, the excessive training ones?

Alex xo

Tomorrow’s another day

I’m starting my 14 week Half Marathon plan tomorrow and if I have to be truly honest, the weather is CRAP! I don’t have any motivation to get up at 5 am and do some sprints especially not when there is a storm tonight. It’s windy, it’s raining, hard might I add and it’s also very cold. A downside to running in winter for me is I do not have any winter running gear. I need long skins, long tops and more than 1 running jacket, maybe a head band and gloves too.

On the plus side,I’m looking forward to being in shape again, that will be great. I haven’t been so great with my running, wait that’s a lie, after so much time examining my performance over the past few months I think I haven’t done well or improved (because I’m sitting here contemplating my motivation), but if I actually think realistically, my speed has improved and now I’m running 5 km at mostly 5:30 min pace p/km which is great for me because I used to struggle at 6 sometimes, 6 min p/km is very slow for me now. I have this feeling that if I am running an easy, slow run, I have to run less than 6 min p/km but in actual fact its quite hard for me to go that slow and I feel I’m going to injure myself a lot more and a lot easier as well… Oh first world problems.

This plan seems a bit excessive but I know you cannot just build speed in one training session, it comes from a lot of hard dedication. My 14 week program is for speed rather than endurance, even though there are still long runs, during the week it’s all about short and long sprints and weekends consist of slow long runs, easy enough to talk. I think toward the end of this training session I’ll be physically exhausted but I know if I dont put in the effort with the training and eating healthy and getting my sleep, I wont put out a decent enough effort.

I hope I can surprise myself because it’s going to be a lot of dedicated training including my off days with weights and boxing.

How do you think I’ll go?
Does anyone have any advice for these such programs? You know, the excessive training ones?

Alex xo

Here is winter!

For the first time this year my run had me breathless. I was breathless to a point where I couldn’t feel my fingers, my legs, my toes and my nose. It has been the first run this year, running in about 2 degrees. At first it was ok, as soon as I got out of my car it felt a little more like 5-10 degrees but as soon as I had ran deeper into Kings Park, the main park in Perth, I couldn’t breathe at all. 

People call this particular run the ‘roller coaster’ and you’ll know exactly why once you complete the track. The track is just up and down, 1 way is mostly down, the other, up. Heading out the way of mostly downs, I felt really energetic, felt really comfortable and fit but let me tell you, the way back I had to wind in my face and the cold air was certainly not pleasant. I was coughing, spitting and snorting, it was not a pretty sight. I honestly have never felt so cold and out of breath in my life.

There is good news to this story. I ended up only running 6 km but that was enough for me. I usually run a big distance on Saturday but I felt a little off and just a touch unmotivated to  keep going in the cold because 

the air, wind, bush was so incredibly freezing! At one stage I didn’t know if my legs were hot or boiling and if my hands where on fire or just numb.

I guess this is what’s expected in winter time and I should be considered lucky as winter in Perth is just cold, there is no snow & there is no negative temperatures. I just got to push through and I’ll adapt really quickly, I usually do after a while otherwise it’s a waste.

Alex xo