The week from hell

Monday started the week off with the good news that I have finally broken the 85kg mark - meaning there's only about 15kg between me and my goal, and that I am nearly at my 10% mini goal and 10kg mini goal. Awesome work. I lost about 400g this past week, which is much better than the 1.2kg of the week before. At week 8 in the plan, you don't expect to drop that much in a week, although it was a hard training week on the back of another hard training week, and in retrospect I probably didn't eat enough that week. I've conciously been eating a little more this week, one because I'm really hungry, and two because I don't want another 1.2kg week - I don't want to lose any muscle!

Tuesday saw life turned upside down. Christchurch was devastated by another earthquake, only this time there are hundreds of fatalities. Most of my friends are okay, although I'm waiting to hear about some of them. I had one of my best sessions that night, through wanting to thrash myself to relieve the pain and sorrow I was feeling. I felt helpless being 2400km away and unable to offer anything other than electronic support.

Some good news on Tuesday was that I had passed my first theory assessment for my Cert IV. I knocked out another module and am now into viewing posture. I also need to follow up my insurance with Marsh who still haven't sent me anything. Frustrating much? Oh yes. I'm registered and insured, but have no documents or receipt in the mail. As long as they arrived before tax time, I'm happy. Tax time is going to be a pain this year, but I'm confident of getting some of my expenditure back.

I found out on Wednesday that I should have changed my tax status when I quit my day job. I've been paying double tax on my wages from my fitness job! No wonder my pay packet has been small - at least now I'll have a bit more in the pay packet and will get the excess I've paid back at tax time. Bring on tax time! Hopefully I can then purchase a new wetsuit because very soon, my one won't fit anymore!

Also on Wednesday, I relented and bought a new saddle for my bike. I just can't take long rides on the Zero Chrono anymore, it's NOT comfortable and I refuse to have a numb bum. I now have a ladies saddle with ladies padding and ladies cut outs. Amen. I got it home and realised that I couldn't undo the bolt to release the saddle. So, I marked it up, took out the seat post, wrapped it up and took it to the bike shop after work on Friday. There was a comment from the mechanic about just needing some muscle - then he had to use an airgun to undo the bolt. Ha - that'll learn you mate.

Friday had me heading to he market for some nice fresh NZ Snapper after thrashing myself in a workout at work after my shift. I felt great at the time, but after my nap on Friday afternoon I could feel the DOMS starting to kick in. My quads, glutes and abs were cranky. By Saturday, they were furious. Thank heck I don't have a sit on my butt job anymore - they would have totally siezed up if I had to sit all day.

Today my abs are more cranky but my legs are easing off. The good thing about cranky abs is that I can't feel any gallstone pain. Maybe I should make my abs cranky more often - then I won't feel the gallstone pain. I'm off my losec, because the side effects were horrendous (no details forthcoming, I'll spare you all the gory story). I think that is why I stopped it last time - I need to check with my doc in NZ why I stopped it. Regardless, I haven't had any losec or reflux in nearly a week and that's the way I intend to keep it. One bout of reflux and it's straight on the losec - not cool, doc.

Saturday (yesterday) I finally got to christen my wettie. After spending 17 minutes getting it on with no basting (I forgot the baby oil), it was off into the pristine water of Williamstown beach for a nice swim. Gees it was weird. Okay, so open water swimming in a wettie is REALLY weird! Have to fess up and admit to freaking out when the buoyancy kicked in. I have no issue with water, having spent bulk time at the beach and having done seven tris in NZ. I have no issue with deep water either. But yesterday, I freaked out. It was a strange beach, my first time in a triathlon wettie with all that extra buoyancy, and I was expected to swim out halfway to Tassie.  Oh hell no.

I was halfway to the buoy and just couldn't do it. It was too weird - one minute I was walking out and the next the wettie took over and I couldn't touch the bottom. Far out - I'm used to swimming in a tri suit, with natural fat buoyancy. This was freaky - and not in a good way. My poor coach had to swim over and try to psych me up. The others in my coaching squad were yelling encouragement (well, except for the guy from my club who was busy calling me chicken shit!) but I was pretty much frozen. Far out.

Coach told me I could just swim 30 strokes out and back at a depth that was comfortable, so I did. That's about 25m each way. I did my 2x 250m, then decided to try and have a HTFU moment. I decided to swim to that buoy that seemed halfway to Tassie. It took four whacks at swimming - I'm sure some bastard was under the water moving it further away while I was supposedly swimming towards it. I did however finally manage to round it, then swam in. I didn't feel very proud of myself - I felt like a big fat old scaredy cat. 

Anyway, I was meant to go to the club race today and set three alarms - all of which I managed to sleep through. I woke up at 11.30am and swore - only five hours late! Clearly I needed the sleep but still, oops! I dragged my butt down the road to get a coffee, came home, had some lunch and got stuck into some housework. I did my bike session with the new saddle and it's much better.  I can still tell that my butt is attached to my body :-)

I made a nice gluten free pizza for dinner and finally got around to taking the rice cooker I bought months ago out of the box. I've sorted my filing, collated all my receipts for tax time and re-labelled the filing cabinet. The dishes are done, the laundry sorted and at some point I'll frame all my fitness qualifications. But right now, I think it's time for a trashy movie. It's been a rough week and I need some blatant escapism.

Ciao.

98% hit rate

By the end of today, I will have completed every session on my training plan for the week. I may not have completed them strictly when they were meant to have been done, but I will have done them. So, I'm giving myself a score of 98%. Almost perfection, but as the time schedule hasn't been strictly adhered to, I can't claim perfection.

I've had two pretty testing training weeks, with around 10 hours of training each week. Last week I missed a swim, bike and run, as I had a houseguest for four days, and was buggered on the Thursday after a back to back at work. This week, I missed the Thursday bike again because I was buggered on the Thursday after a back to back at work. So, I did it on Friday night - when most people were out partying, I was sweating it out on the mag trainer in my lounge because it was hosing down outside. Mental note to self - next time keep a towel handy, because this one time that I forgot was the one time I really needed it!

My gallstone has been playing up merry hell this week, and today it's particularly bad. I've found that walking shuts it up though, as does liquid meals. I can't survive on liquid meals, so I guess I'm going to take some painkillers today. I hate taking them, and won't take them unless I absolutely have to. With all my knee injuries, fractures and surgeries over the years, I have taken enough - hence my reluctance to take any now. 

I'm angry that I'm suffering now, having lost almost 9kg since before Christmas. Had I known that weight loss would set it off, I may have thought twice about this process. I've worked really hard to get down below last season's race weight and my body is turning on me. Angry! Do I sacrifice the Sydney race (where I have a good shot at podium in my division, maybe even in the top two?) to get it taken out, or hope it settles down on it's own? What if it flares up worse before Yeppoon?

I think I need to go back and see my doc for a referral to a specialist. I'm tough, but this is annoying and it's affecting my quality of life. I don't miss alcohol or fatty foods, but I'm sick of pain after eating, pain in my lower back and pain in general! But, if this doesn't shut up, I'll need to go back to the doctor and start negotiations to have my gallbladder taken out. 

I'm about to head down to the village and grab a coffee before hitting the pool to catch up on yesterday's session. I've got about 1.5km to bash out, as much of it nonstop as possible. Tomorrow is a total rest day from my coaching program, so I may go do some weights and a whole stack of uni. In fact, this whole week is light on as it's a recovery week. I may well be able to get a whole lot of study done and some assessments bashed out too. 

Anyway, things to do and all that jazz - have a great day everyone.

Headless chook

Yesterday I had the joy of trying to cram in two training sessions, plus visiting the bank, post office, pharmacy, fruit shop, supermarket, buying new goggles, having lunch, having dinner, putting a friend on an airport bus, studying, sorting out another insurance policy, washing dishes, sorting the next load of laundry and trying to have some "me" time. My gosh, it was a nightmare.

I'm finding that although I'm only working 26 hours a week, I am probably more disorganised now than I was when I had a normal routine and was working 45+ hours a week. I am definitely less stressed, but that could all go to hell in a handcart if I don't get back into a routine soon. I need to work this out before the roos start to run loose in the top paddock. I need more sleep, more recovery time and more study to be done. It's time to sort out a timetable/schedule/plan.

Also, there are only seven weeks left before my "B" race in Sydney, and my gallstone certainly has some gall - it's been achy for weeks but is starting to stab more. Stupid thing! It needs to stop playing up, and I know the reason it is playing up is because of my weight loss - some 8.2kg in nine weeks and apparently the gallstone thinks that is too much, too soon. It's apparently common for them to be silent for years, then rear their ugly heads when someone loses weight. If this thing doesn't settle down soon, it will have to come out. I am scared it will play up merry hell between Sydney and Yeppoon, and I'd rather sacrifice Sydney.

I'm off to the pool shortly, then to furk for a few hours. I can already knock off some of my Cert IV workbook, which is great. Yesterday I found a pack of A5 plastic transparent ziplock bags, which I can fold my training plans in half and shove in, so they stay dry when I'm at the pool. Legend - they will stay dry and clean and readable.

I hate my bike saddle after only 30 minutes, and I think it's time for a change. I need to take my bike to BSC and get the brakes re-cabled, and I need a new saddle. Oh, and aerobars. Of course, more road riding would also be useful, because my cleats and pedals still scare the bejeesers out of me. So much to do, so little time.

So, there's 1.2km to do in the pool today, and I better get cracking.

Catch you all later.

The incredible shrinking woman

Check out my guns!

I've had a whopper of a week - without the whopper of course. Monday had me belting out 1.2km in the pool. Tuesday gave me a bike and run. Wednesday there was another 1.2km in the pool, but by Thursday I was exhausted. Training has gone downhill a little since, because I've been tired, super busy and have had a bucket of things to sort out.

I did Friday's scheduled long recovery walk on Thursday as I was trying to stay awake. A back to back shift (late night finish, early morning red eye start) and only four hours of sleep had me battling narcolepsy by 11am. I went for a big walk around Fitzroy, had lunch and headed back to work for the TRX training session. By 3.30pm I was gooooooone. I had a three hour nap, some dinner, and went back to bed. I had another red eye on Friday morning but instead of a 6-10 shift I did a 6-2. The extra four hours were great, and will certainly keep the bank balance healthy.

Friday night I went home and wanted to do Thursday's bike, but was stuffed. I had an early night after some serious house cleaning and tidying that I just haven't had a chance to do for the last few weeks. There have been many things taking a back seat recently - for example, I need to get over to Aldi/NQR this week sometime, get to the fruit shop, the post office, and sort out a schedule for my studies. I need to get my Cert IV finished and my CECs underway, ASAP!

I managed to change my house insurance (I wasn't covered for floods and storms with AAMI, but I am now - thanks Westpac) and get my fitness professional's insurance sorted on Friday afternoon, but very little else got done. There's just all this admin that I need to take care of, darn it! At least my library books aren't overdue...yet. But I need to start planning menus for the week and being a bit smarter with my nutrition. Speaking of which, I think Bircher Muesli would be nice for breaky tomorrow, so I'll organise that before I go to sleep tonight. I need to make sure that I eat properly because my hours at furk (fun+work = furk) don't really enable three square meals a day. 

On the subject of nutrition, I've lost another 1.2kg this week. It makes up for last week's 300g loss, which didn't surprise me - the week before I had a daiquiri and a mixed grill (chicken, beef, pork). I went over my points for the week and hadn't done any training, so this has made up for it. I ate within my points allowance and did 55 points of exercise (that's nearly two days of food allowance) so I jolly well deserved that loss. If averaged over the two weeks, it's 750g per week which is about right for me, as on average I've lost 700g per week.  

I've now lost a total of 8.2kg over 9 weeks, so I'm pretty happy. I've got a bit over 15kg to go to hit my goal weight, and a bit over 1kg to my 10% mini goal, so this is awesome. I think two more weeks to go for the 10% mini goal and I should be at goal by my birthday - or worst case scenario, by Yeppoon. I think three weeks until my 10kg mini goal is achievable too.

Training wise, the plan for this week is the same as last week - except this week I'm sticking to the plan and doing every session. Next week will be an easy week, which will be nice. I could do the club race on 27 Feb, and I just might. I haven't entered yet, but I'll think about this coming week. It's nice having Sundays off again, because I can do club races and go to trade shows (or anywhere else that takes my fancy).

Anyway, it's time to learn nomenclature so off I go. Have a great week everyone.

A lady of leisure

I'm loving this new lifestyle. Last Monday I got up, had breaky, got a latte, went to Fitzroy pool, belted out 1km, then went to work for 9 hours. It was a mad day, we had a promo ending and people coming from all directions to take it up. I barely stood still all night - it was an absolute whirlwind and I loved it. It's a big change from being parked on your butt all day. 

I tried out Fitroy pool because it's outdoor, heated, 50m long and highly recommended by my friend Mel and by my coach, Jamie. It's a great pool, it was just a pity about the silly guy in my lane who kept swimming right down the middle of the lane and then practising his flutter kick horizontally across the lane while clinging to the lane ropes. Tool! And the lifeguards did nothing about him. Not a great experience, but I'll try and find another time to go to avoid "tool time".

Last week was my first week of training under the watchful ear of a coach. Gees it was hard.  I did all my sessions until Friday, when we flooded like crazy on Friday night and Saturday morning. Our Sat AM open water swim was cancelled, I couldn't get to swim coaching due to flooding (oh, the irony) and had to be at work at midday, so hit Fitzroy pool after work.

Unfortunately, it was really humid and I was tired, grumpy and sore after a busy shift at work. I did about half the swim and gave it up as a bad job - and just as I was getting changed, people were coming into the change rooms saying a thunderstorm was coming - so they were threatening to close the pool.

I didn't get my run done on Saturday either, so I'm short half a swim, one 20 min run and half a bike session from yesterday. I just can't train 7 days a week. I need some down time. I need to speak to my coach!

Last week I did a couple of long shifts at work, with customer service/reception training and with training on our food coaching system. I can't believe how much training I've had in the last three weeks - it's just awesome! I still have the online training modules to complete, but there's no shortage of learning opportunities in this workplace. This week we've got an in-house training session on TRX (suspension training) which is awesome. I've used TRX at another gym last year and it was quite fun - and always in use, so it was very popular (more so with men).

I have some more sessions with clients I've seen over the past two weeks, who I hope to be able to pickup as regular PT clients once my Cert IV is completed. I need to get it done by the end of this month or early March, so once my hours settle down I can belt it out. I have clients wanting me to PT them, and I currently can't do that until my quals come through. 

I've had a slight change in hours, so now I'm doing Monday evening, Wednesday evening, Thursday red eye (6-10am), Friday red eye, and Sat afternoons. This gives me Sundays and Tuesdays off, which means I can race, train or officiate on Sundays. Yay! 

Right, off to the bank, the pool, the supermarket, the podiatrist and then work. Must be Monday - but at least there's a day off tomorrow.