Dear Blogliners

26/3/2007: Dear Blogliners (all 15 of you!), please change your subscription to http://mahinui.wordpress.com/. I won't be posting here for much longer...

2/4/07: still 14 subscribers (okay, one of 'em's me) who aren't going to get any more feeds from this blog. Adieu mes amis... xoxox

PowerBar

Tried out the PowerBar class at the gym:

PowerBar: PowerBar is a workout that appeals to everybody. Adjust the bar to work at your own level and feel every muscle work. Never done aerobics? Join in these simple, strong, strength training exercises.

It sounds a bit like Pump, but has a lot more aerobic stuff in it. I sweated bucketloads, but used a really light weight and everything (including abs) held out well. Tomorrow will tell though. It was a fun class, and one I'd like to make a regular.

The class was all women - yummy mummies with kids in the creche or at school, and the instructor was part of a team which came 7th overall (of complete teams) in last weekend's Trailwalker. One fit lady!

Thursday gym

Fine and sunny on the Trail this morning, although it was foggy when I first stepped outside. 4.7 km. A few hours later I headed into the gym to do my weights program. I did everything, including lots of crunches, and the body didn't complain. I upped the weights on the leg press and bicep curls too (they were a bit light).

Now, on an unrelated topic - remember the guy that broke my heart late last year? Well, I saw him in the supermarket a few weeks ago. The only surprising thing about that is that it hadn't happened sooner - after all, Lilydale only has 3 of them. Anyway, I saw him in the gym this morning. He came in, grunted his way through some bicep curls, then grabbed his cycle helmet and walked out.

So, did he see me and not want to see me? Did he really only come in for a 5 minute workout? What the hell goes on inside a guy's head???? And here I was figuring out how to say a nice breezy no-blame no-committment "hello". Ugh, men!

Street-O @ Tunstall Juntion

That was fun: cool, dark, with a light drizzle. Perfect running conditions for the first night event of the year. It would have been even better if I'd remembered to put new batteries in my torch! I don't run with a light anyway, but it meant that I had to stop under a streetlamp to read the map. It also meant some good "map memory" training, as I didn't want to stop between controls.

7.1 km in 6:16/km

My right knee felt a bit unstable walking around the carpark before we started, but didn't bother me on the run and it feels okay now.

My abs have settled down, and I can now suck in my gut without it hurting.

The Huntsman spider who lives in my shower caught himself a large fluffy moth for dinner. Yum. (I had stale toast, jam, cheese and ½ banana.)

Walk 'n' Weights

Those of you who are keeping count will realise that I haven't been out for a morning walk for a while. Well, I did this morning - 9 degrees, foggy breath, and sunny. 5.8 km

My abs are still sore. I can't believe it! I hope I haven't damaged anything. And no, I didn't go to Pilates. After my shower last night I rubbed some deep heat into the muscle area, took some ibuprofen, and stretched out over the ball during the ad breaks. I took another couple of ibuprofen this morning, and they're not as sore now.

Went to the gym and did my complete program - except for the ab crunches. They've got me doing 20 reps of each exercise, then repeat the circuit, so I do 40 of everything. Low weight, no resting. Went well. I finished off with a 1 km jog on the treadmill (8-11 km/hr).

Gym Junkie

Got my programme sorted at the gym. My abs still hurt from Saturday, and I took it easy on all the weights so I didn’t kill anything else. Rounded it off with 1 km on the treadmill (at 8 km/hr).

Thinking about doing a Beginners Pilates class tonight, as it’s the only Monday night I have off running for a while, and it’s the only Beginners class the gym offers. But if my abs aren’t behaving, then perhaps I shouldn’t…

Besides, then I can go home and watch the Biggest Loser elimination!

Park-O @ Darebin Parklands

The first Sunday Series event for the year. The course setter had devised a devious plan: combine Street-O with Macro and make everyone work harder!

I like to do Course A at weekend events over winter, so the Street-O section had us doing a Scatter course, collecting 17 controls (out of 20) around the streets of Darebin; then come in for a map changeover to do a Macro (1:3500) line course around the park. The park section was shortened because recent rain had made the creek (river!) too unsafe to cross, so we went from control #23 straight to #27 - all the way around the riverbank.

Street: 8.1 km in 6:24/km
Park: 2.2 km in 7:50/km

Total: 10.3 km

Flat Ball

I've decided to do each gym class at least once, so I know what they're like. Today's was Fitball.

Fitball: A mixture of aerobic moves using the ball, seated cardiovascular moves & weight workout incorporating core stability.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was a lot harder work than I thought it would be. I also thought that I had pretty good coordination - but it turns out that my hand-feet coordination could do with some work! I had trouble bouncing the ball in time to raising my legs in time to the music, lol. I sweated bucketloads, and about half-way through my right quad started hurting just above the knee. Luckily I had a convenient ball to sit on to rest.

It was an interesting class though, and a good one for a Saturday morning when there's no Street-O to follow.

Just Do It

I Just Did It. I joined the gym.

I called in yesterday and cheekily asked the Hunky Young Thing at the counter if they had any membership specials going. Once HYT got over his shock, he said there was a 5-month special starting next month. I told him that if I could have it now, then I'd join up now. :-)

So I got signed up this morning, and pinched and weighed and measured. They seemed to be a bit unorganised. The 11am appointment turned up 15 minutes late, and then spent 10 minutes getting her kid settled in the creche, so I jumped ahead of her (being booked in for 11:30, and a few minutes early). But that meant there was no time to run through a weights programme, so I'll be doing that on Monday.

I forgot to ask what my bodyfat was; but I passed the exercise thingie on the bike with flying colours. I was meant to get my heartrate up to 141 bpm, on a resistance of 70, but it didn't get much above 115 bpm. So she cranked the resistance up to 90 and then 100, and I still only got to 129 bpm before my 6 minutes was up. Apparently this translates to a "93" of something, which is "above average". I still think the whole thing sucks because I wasn't working at 141 bpm, or even close to it. Never mind, if I get to ride as a higher resistance so my HR actually goes up, then I'll be said to have "improved" under my new programme.

Whatever.

Then I drove over to Active Feet to buy shoelaces and Bodyglide. They'd run out of Bodyglide (like everyone else on the planet), so I bought a new pair of Nimbus VIIIs instead.

My thoughts are with the Oxfam Trailwalkers doing it tough today in 34°C heat...

Street-O @ Darebin Parklands Extension

Slow one tonight - still very hot at 7pm: 31.6°C.

As I set off down the road, a group of young girls asked me what I was doing. As I wasn't exactly hurrying, I stopped to explain. I then headed off to my first control, and came back the same way. They came up to me as I approached them and asked whether I'd found it. So I showed them the map and the punch mark on my control card, and suggested that they walk with me to the next control, just up the road. No, that was a bit scary, so I left them there. Several other young children in the area were also interested/curious in what we were all doing.

I actually quite enjoy interacting with kids in that way. They're likeable, and comfortable talking to adults. It gives me hope for the future... especially as I won't be adding to the population myself.

Walked steadily around most of the rest of the course until I hit #16 and the rough track along the river. It was rapidly getting darker, and when I came to where #19 was marked, I couldn't see it anywhere. The clue was "tree"... like that narrowed it down. Not. It was too dark to spend more than a few minutes looking for it, so I missed out on 5 points. I then had to scramble up a steep bank to get to the road before I lost the light completely!

Got the "sugar shakes" at the top of the bank, and was relieved to get back to the car for my gatorade, and end-of-season supper of fruit cake, Lynn's chocolate brownie slice, and a few grapes. Home via McDonalds because I was still feeling a bit shakey. Nothing like grease, salt, and a Coke to sort things out, hah hah.

6.1 km