My next run

You may have noticed, due to my lack of recap, that I didn't do the trialthon, neither the full (although mini) one on my own, nor the second run one. Oh well! The girl I was doing it with pulled out, and I couldn't be bothered sorting out the other one and driving out there, just to do it with a bunch of strangers.

Pretty piss-poor excuses, really!

SO I've decided to really challenge myself - a 13km run under an hour.
That means I have a month of speed training/normal training to get down to roughly 4 minute k runs. Is this an outrageous target?? Who knows! I'm not a runner haha it doesn't matter if it's outrageous; it's what I'm aiming for! At the moment 2 km is taking me 13 minutes, so yes to me it seems like a pretty big ask to cut 2 minutes off my time in one month.

But we'll see. Nothing like a flat race to get you reaching your running goals!

Speedy!

Did some speed training today. I hard ran two minutes, walked two, and did that four times. It was only 3km, but it feels good to push myself for speed, rather than length!

Not quite this fast haha...

Excuses!

I hate it when people can't come to netball practice!

I'll have planned my daily exercise around it (or lack of), only to have to cancel it while I'm at work, and think "Oh man I could have done a freaking run this morning!" I didn't run cos I had practice and didn't want to stress my knee. To be fair, they did have decent excuses. But it's still so annoying! Oh well.

Indoor on Tuesday was ok. We got smashed, but we had a great, really athletic game! And it's always nice when my goals actually go in haha I love feeling like a reliable, accurate shooter :) I'm definitely the next Irene

Got this picture here.
People are often either totally for, or totally against Irene. She's easily one of the best shooters ever. I think she's fantastic. Plus she has an awesome as accent!

Lately I've been spending my time reading running blogs! They can be really motivating. I want legs like theirs! Why can't I have flash as running gear? Although I'm pretty confident I won't be jumping on the running-skirt bandwagon...

This might be a reason why not. OUaL may have put me off... she's one of my new favourite running bloggers.

Soon I'll be able to take my own sweaty running pictures when I buy my iphone! Am going to buy one, as I need a new phone and a camera for my trip overseas. Two in one!

This might come as a shock to you..

In fact it came as a bit of a shock to me..

but today, I ran 10 KM. I found this image here

I know what you're thinking. That's it's absolutely mental to go from running 5km to 10km, when only just the other day I was struggling to run 4km! Well, you're right hahaha

I'm not sure how I managed it, but here are a few reasons:
1. I knew I could already run 5km. So that was easy. Once I got there, I'd noticed that my breathing was fine, my body was fine, and mentally I felt that I could run further, so I set myself the goal of running another 2km... and it ended up being a whole 5 extra km hahaha
2. I'd eaten an awful lot of carbs yesterday and this morning that must have given me a lot of energy to burn
3. A girl I knew recently ran 10km in 1:10.47 in Brisbane and my 5km time the other day was faster that hers would have been. So after 7km I was determind to beat her.
4. I was running a route that I used to walk on my way to Zumba last year, which I could never run (back then), and so wanted to prove to myself that I could run it.
5. I ran the first 7km with no music. Once I put my music on, I gained a whole lot more motivation!
6. I was imagining telling my family and boyfriend that I'd run a whole ten km. This was the reason that kept me going for the last km!

The whole thing, including my cool down took me 1:11. My cool down is only 30 metres (not really good enough, I know) but I was walking really slowly with a crazy grin on my face haha so the full 10km took me 1:0845... a whole two minutes faster than the girl I know lol

If you've got some running goals, tell someone you care about and who cares about you! They will be able to share in your happiness when you annihilate them like I did today haha

Now I'm off to get a good as sleep cos I'm super tired lol

In case you were wondering..

I did it!

I ran the 5km :) Crazy to think that I jumped from really pushing myself to run 4km (with difficulty) to running an extra k without really noticing it getting any more difficult, with only a day in between runs.

And the weather was beeaaautiful! Although, it was actually really really muggy when I was running so I got super sweaty, it was not too nice hahaha I looked so sick when I got back! But at least it didn't rain!

Aaaand I've lost a whole 2 pounds!! Hahaha soo much. But it's something, considering I've been sitting at 69kg/70kg for a good two years now, with little variation.

What a fantastic week lol I hope you're all having a week just as good! If you're not, go for a run! It'll make you feel so much better! No one ever regretted a workout, only those you DIDN'T do!

Knocking off the 5km!

I am going to do it tomorrow! I promise!!!!!!

I've mapped it out all ready to do tomorrow morning! I've done it like I did my 4km: running for half of it in one direction, then doing a 180 and running the same route back to the start. This way I know where half-way is easily, and how long I should take. The one I did the other day was fairly easy, so I really hope I can get through the whole 5km without stopping.

Ohh Nooo this is the forecast for tomorrow!

22 Mar

High 23°C

Overnight 15°C

Morning rain to a few showers. Northwest develops.

Morning rain!! Noooo! Oh well. I need to go for a run because I ate sooo much today - far too much sugary food! I forgot lunch at work so I just had biscuits an then George's flatmate brought us ice cream, so I couldn't say no! haha so will definitely be going for my run. Lucky I have netball practice tomorrow too!

Also, on a side note, my hair is getting longer! It was my other aim for these few months (along with running 5km by April) was to treat my hair carefully in the hopes that it would grow. And it has!! A tiny tiny tiny bit hahaha Hurray! I will try get a picture tomorrow when it's not curly from being in a plait.

Netball shoes

Today, my sister compared me to Karen Brewer. If you read Baby sitters' club, then you'd probably know that Karen was one of the Baby sitter's little sister and she had her own series. She had blue glasses for one thing and pink glasses for another, and when she wasn't wearing a pair she'd hang them round her neck. What a dork and she was so annoying but I still read the books hahaha



So, I am Karen Brewer, because I now have a pink pair of shoes for Netball, and a grey pair for running. I bought those ones I talked about a few weeks ago. They were a bit cheaper than at the other place! I wore them tonight and they seem to do the trick. Hurray!

We've also got training on Thursday, which I've started planning. Here's a week picture of one of my drills hahahaI drew it in microsoft paint haha it uses alliteration to help you remember the colour codes! Purple is the passer, blue is the ball, red is where to run! lol

Also, I knocked off a 4km run today. I was aiming to get it under 25 minutes, so I tried to run the first 2km in 11 minutes, but unfortunately it took me 13, so overall it took me 27 minutes. Not too shabby, really! But definitely wanting to improve! I was battling to start off with cos it was so cold, and I'm still sick. Hopefully once I'm better I'll be able to hit that 25 minute mark, and even the 5km which just seems to elude me! I will get there by April!

Cold!

I have a cold :( :( I went into work yesterday for a few hours and then came home and slept, dragged myself out of bed to go to my Netball meet-and-greet, then came home to go back to bed and watch Bride wars lol

I found this picture here

I love Kate Hudson but just cannot stand Anne Hathaway's acting. She just reminds me of a girl I know who is annoying in the same way.

The netball meet was great! Everyone seems really lovely and keen to get into it - yay! I cannot wait! Two of the girls are fitness trainers... while I'm nervous about being pushed, I'm really excited to get super fit and look amazing and be awesome as at netball! I'm in charge of drills practice etc and can't wait for next Thursday when we have training!

I'm only going to go for a walk today - not my big as run as planned! :( But getting better is more important.

I've been finding running really hard recently. I've not been running the distances I was before and my focus has been lacking. I think it's time to find some new tunes for my playlist!

Sprained fingers

The most common injury in Netball, after ankles and knees! And I've slightly sprained my right-hand ring-finger (oxymoron?). You should see me type! Haha hard for someone who touch types

AND we didn't even win netball! Haha Oh well, my shooting was pretty good. I'm not a shoot ordinarily. When playing outdoor netball I play WA (wing attack).

You can't really see my bib here, and we don't wear this sort of bib. But just a bit of cheeky drinking/writing on arms/street fire for our Netball initiation! Haha. This is dress is not flattering at all! After seeing these pictures I've not worn it.

This is a real WA receiving a pass beautifully lol

For those of you who don't really know much about netball, my role is to get the ball to the shooters, along with the centre. The defences' job is to stop the shooters receiving the ball and shooting a goal.

Like this, but with a ball, not a balloon lol preferably not this drunk either lol

Anyway, we started playing indoor when I was in first year at uni, and I played defence (badly!) and sometimes shoot (even worse than defence). But then our shooter left and we had no one to take her place. So I just had to learn. And I did! Now I have a 70 - 80% rate, often higher which is really really cool. The other week one of the opposition said "mark her! She's their main shooter!" and secretly I was like hehehe I never used to be! I am looking forward to getting back to WA for outdoor though!
I'd like to say the most important thing about netball is meeting up with friends... but I'm too competitive lol It's about fitness, challenging yourself, improving and WINNING and then catching up with friends lol

My two favourite netball mates :)

Mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes. I have already made many many mistakes with my eating haha

So far, I have dicovered I eat healthily, but often eat too much. I'm eating enough to stay at my current weight (unsurprisingly); not lose any.

I love going out for lunch. I'll go with anyone! Haha but normally I go with Mum, the BF or with a friend, once a week at least! I've decided to make an effort just to get water if we're going for a meal instead of a coffee or smoothie. This morning George and I went out for breakfast and I got scrambled eggs on toast. I thought it would be a good option until it came out; it was HUGE. While I didn't finish the whole thing, I definitely could have just eaten less, but because it was all there in front of me I didn't listen to when my tummy was telling me that I was full. So today 500 of my precious calories went on scrambled eggs very early on in the morning, on a day when I hadn't scheduled any exercise. Next time I will GO FOR A WALK! lol!

I didn't have a big lunch, I just had cheese on crackers and some nuts because I knew I was meeting a friend for a Monteith's Summer Ale. They are just so yummy especially on a muggy day like today! It tastes like beer mixed with lemonade hahaha I found this picture here

While we were at the pub we discussed winter Netball. We're both so so excited! Am feeling really positive about our team. She is also a dietitian, and thinks that my diet (the food that I eat; not an eating regime I'm keeping to that restricts foods!) is very healthy.

Things I am going to do to aid my weightloss

- Get water when going out for lunch
- Minimise helpings. Pour salt all over it when I'm finished so I don't continue to pick at it even though I'm not hungry, like Fergie does! Haha maybe not
- Not have cheese in my sandwiches as well as having cheese on crackers haha
- Think "MIND OVER MATTER" when I'm tempted to eat too many cookies!
- Go for a walk when I've had a bit too much.
- Remember that eggs = a lot of calories hahaha

Huge run!

Such a fantastic day :) Me and the bloke went for lunch as it was such a beautiful day today. Then he went for his run and swim, and I went for mine (run. Not swim lol)!

I ran/walked 8.3km in one hour. For other people, this will seem like a very slow run. They are right lol but it was lots of fun :) I did push myself, and I did walk a bit which only shows that I can improve!

One thing really pissed me off though, when I ran past Relay for Life. If you're not from New Zealand, this is a charity/sponsored relay that lasts 24 hours to raise funds for the cancer society. Loads of people in my town get behind it and heaps of people go. I ran past the venue today, and I didn't even know it was on! Haha I was like why are there all these cars at the Uni when it's a Saturday?? haha.

But then, I ran past these two ladies, sitting outside the event, wearing t-shirts that read "Healthcare Hobbits" AND THEY WERE SMOKING. AT AN EVENT THAT RASIES FUNDS FOR, AND AWARENESS OF CANCER. What the hell??!! Not only that, but they were representing A HEALTHCARE GROUP!!! It got me incredibly rilled up. How despicable and disgusting. I pray that they have the strength to quit! If you're a smoker, good luck on your path to quitting!

On a happier note, I'm using myfitnesspal heaps!! It makes me think "Oh, don't eat that you won't be able to find it on the website" hahaha and "Ohh I wish I'd had water at lunch instead of that smoothie 'cos now I have to have a small dinner!" lol Can't wait to hit my goal and say "All the hard work has paid off!" which is definitely a mantra of mine lol woohoo!

Using sites to help my running!

I do not believe in diets. I think they are stupid. I think that you will just end up craving those things that you are denying yourself, and will end up binging! I will at least.

In order to help myself lose some weight as well as up my running, I use mapmyrun.com and myfitnesspal.com. I've been using mapmyrun for ages now. I love going on as soon as I come home from my run to see how far I've gone! I even plan routes I have no way of completing hahaha I planned a 15km run once which I have never run, it was just wishful thinking and over-excitement hahaha One day I will, though!

I can totally see that myfitnessplan would be super useful for people trying to lose weight. I, however, am pretty forgettful and so won't remember to put in all the food I eat every day. But I am definitely going to try. Mapmyrun has a similar tool, but it is much less-easy to use, and not particularly intuitive like myfitnesspal.

It reckons I should aim for 1,660 calories/day. If I exercise, it goes up. So if I keep to it, or under it, I should lose 1 pound a week. I don't know what that is using the metric system... 0.45kg Google says. So 10 weeks I'll have lost 5kg. As long as I stick to it!

My favourite thing that it does is it tells me "If every day were like today, then you'd weigh 66.3 kg in 5 weeks", which is what it said today. At 9pm I'm feeling full! So hopefully I can keep this up to reach my goal. I actually told myself "MIND OVER MATTER!!" when I wanted something to eat today when I was bored hahahaha

Taking it easy

I have decided that I need to take it easy. I LOVE running, but I love having operating knees more.

So, my weekly excerise stands thus:
Monday: 5km run (or at least work up to it!)
Tuesday: Indoor netball, including the walk there and back.
Wednesday: 5km run
Thursday: Netball training (once it starts)
Friday: Rest day
Saturday: Netball!!!!!!!!!!!!! And till that starts in April. So till then 5km run.
Sunday: Rest day

And any other day when I'm desperate to go for a run, I'll walk half.
This way I have a rest day between runs so that my knees don't hurt.

To be honest, I would really like to start losing weight, but it just isn't happening even though I've uped my exercise. I do not diet well. Straight restrictions I just cannot keep. I have been trying to eat healthily, but any food that I 'cannot have', I find it really difficult to restrain myself. It's just like running: mind over matter!

I can't remember where I got this picture from, but I saved it to my computer because it is SO TRUE! The same applies for eating too! I just need to work on my mental strength!!!

Back into it

Had a crazy weekend! My boyfriend, his brother and I drove up to Mahia (a beach up the east coast of New Zealand) for their cousin's wedding. If you're not from New Zealand, you won't know that this exactly where a 'weather bomb' hit. It was pandemonium. It was absolutely pissing down, the wind was at 70km an hour, two houses lots the roofs, and the wedding was supposed to be held in a TENT! They had up to 20 men holding down their marquee which was threatening to blow away in the wind, which was so strong it was lifting th posts out of the ground, despite fully-grown men holding on to them! Not only that, but part of the caterer's supplies couldn't come because of a slip blocking the road.

So, with no power, no running water, and no venue, the wedding was postponed an hour while they pulled every thing down and set it all back up again at a wee hall down the road. Somehow the caterers managed on one measley generator and made some amazing food, and it was such a fantastic wedding!
Came home yesterday, and today I went for my 5km run! Well, I'm working up to it lol. I ran the first 4km, then walked 700 metres and ran the rest (.36 of a km).

It's not far off! I feel so close to my goal of 5km by April! So stoaked!

Lame!

Both meanings of the word! I haven't been able to go for my run as... MY KNEES HAVE PACKED IT IN AGAIN!!!

This is starting to get to frustrating, but I know my physio will just tell me to stop playing netball and going running. But what else am I supposed to do? I can't do NO exercise or I'll BALLOON lol.

It's because I went for a run one evening and then did another run the morning after - I don't think I gave them enough recovery time. I can't imagine not being able to run at all though, so I know I need to tone it down and stop pushing myself so much, or I could do more permanent damage. It doesn't make it any better that I then played a game of netball on Tuesday (we had no one else! I had to play!). I need to organise my runs so that I'm only going for three or four a week, and with a decent amount of time between them; 12 hours isn't enough!

So lame!!!