My snazzy new friend

I'd like you to meet my new friend, we will become very close and personal and hot and sweaty together in the months to come.

Aren't they pretty...

I've been down home this weekend and decided to get fitted for new runners.  Being that I am running now compared to when I got my first pair I wanted to be tested again.  

I had a trainee lady fit me and I had a sense of foreboding, I had a sense that she was going through the motions, trying hard but I didn't feel confident in what she was doing.  She had me try a few pair on but had me even more confused having me have different runners on each foot, gaaaaah!!

I looked up way confused and I don't know if it was a look of pleading desperation on my face but one of the other salespeople came over and offered some advice, she asked me questions, had a good look at the soles of my old runners, and brought out some further selections.  A much better experience.

So she gave me her two top choices to try, trying each of them individually each time.  I had a little run in the store and chose my new friends.

And what do you know ... they are exactly the same as my old runners, just the current version.  Version 3 as opposed to my old Version 2's.  so shows I have been onto a good thing all this time.

New Balance 1080v3

So my new friend and I will become properly acquainted tomorrow morning.  I can't wait.  Incidentally I believe it has been scientifically proven that yellow laces go faster!!! 😉

The excitement doesn't stop there.  Our Warrnie 12wbt crew have a fun fun fun activity planned.  I won't say any more right now other than to say there may be feathers involved !!!

Good things come in small packages!

Or so they say.  I was at the gym the other day running on the tready, darn rain, I really don't like the tready now when there is the big beautiful world out there to run in.  But being a bit of a princess I didn't want to get wet so it was a means to an end.

So I'm running my heart out and the lady on the treadmill next to me was just loping slowly along.  I must admit to feeling quite self righteous at my speed and with a subtle glance I couldn't help but have my high and mighty self check out what speed she was running at.  

Woah, way to cut me down to size!! She was running at a much faster pace than me!!  How could that be?? I must have looked like the energiser bunny flapping around, arms and hair flying everywhere, and yet my treadmill neighbour looked graceful and was just loping along.

Then it hit me ... SHORT LEGS!!!

So that's where my grace has gone then, genetics! My 5'5" has done me no favours in the elegant cool running department.

But on I plod, and loving it.

So today was the 12 minute time trial, with the aim of running further each week.  Yay!  Another great time trial.  Love that we measure in metres, cause 1770 metres sounds sooooo much more than 1.77 km, it also sounds achievable to stretch out and go just a few more metres each week!

• STARTING DISTANCE:  1770 metres
• WEEK 1:  1790 metres
• WEEK 2:  1870 metres
• WEEK 3:  1930 metres 

Yahooooooooo!!!!  Getting faster and stronger.  Although my tempo run of 80-85% started off zippy but 80-85% of nothing much left in the tank is not very fast by the end of the 12 mins!!

What a sensational afternoon it was to run though.  After weeks of getting rained on, and wearing long sleeves because it's been so darn cold, this is what greeted me tonight after work...

What is that blue colour I'm seeing there, haven't seen it in ever so long!!!!   :-)

I'm heading down home tomorrow after work, I'm going to a retirement send off of one of my old friends that I used to work with when I started with my work oh back in 1985 (cough cough), yes I have worked for the same company all that time!!  The flyer said that the evening consisted of 'finger food'.  I dread to think!  I have some fruit ready packed to take in the car when I leave mid-afternoon, so I'll eat that so I hopefully will not be that hungry tomorrow night that I end up eating a whole tray of horse doovers!  Wish me luck.

Really scary hill sprints !!!

Funniest moment after work tonight.  Because I got caught by a downpour as I started my Monday routine after work for the 10km program, I was forced to switch days, so did my Toning exercises yesterday and my Cardio today.  And again it was an after work effort to fit it in.  

Hill interval sprints tonight.  What better than to pick Pertobe Road hill.  30 second sprints up, 60 second power walk down ten times, as part of a set lasting 15 minutes.  Trust me this is a steep enough hill.  It's a killer of a start to the Surf T Surf fun run each January, so it was going to be perfect tonight.

So as I came down on one interval, a fairly unfit looking fellow was huffing and puffing his way walking up the hill and we passed each other.  He had been in his own world so I don't think he'd noticed me until he happened right upon me walking back down the hill.   So we passed each other with barely a glance.   A moment later the chime on my Runkeeper went off, it was time to sprint back up.  So as I turned back and took off at a run I was right behind him and I think I frightened him.  He looked quickly over his shoulder and started running too because he thought I was chasing him!!!!

I swear I nearly fell about laughing.  The look of fear on his face.  Oh yeah, I'm really scary, the scary lady in the pink jacket and lycra pants.  Actually, maybe that *IS* scary! ha.

It was one of those had-to-be-there-see-his-face kind of moments.  Hysterical.   

Hope everyone is having great workouts and eating clean and looking forward to jumping on those scales tomorrow.  Good work people.

Crater Craziness!!!!

Well I did say yesterday I would be back to tell you all about our crazy Saturday session, except I fell asleep on the couch at about 7pm last night and was in bed by just after 9pm!!!  I was totally worn out from yesterday.

So yes, you know I am in the Warrnambool & Surrounds 12wbt crew.  Well the "surrounds" in the south-west go for some distance.  We've got girls as far away as Portland in the west, to Camperdown in the east to Hamilton in the north.  Yep, it's a big area.   So some of the ladies have hit upon these "rolling workouts".  They set a route/activity/timetable and you dip in and dip out wherever you are able.  This time it was the east's turn.

And the work out was called "CRATER CRAZINESS".

The area I live in is full of volcanos, let's just say we live on the wild side, they're dormant, not extinct.  Okay so they probably haven't gushed lava in tens of thousands of years, but they're dormant okay, they could blow their tops at any moment, right?  tee hee.

So the plan for Saturday was:

7.30am : at Camperdown for Mount Leura
9.00am : at Noorat for Mount Noorat
10.30am : at Terang for the Volcanic Park Crater
12.00noon : at Warrnambool to the Blue Hole
1.30pm : A well deserved rest

So I decided to do the first three legs being that they were in my neck of the woods.  With the torrential rain we've been having recently we were keeping an eye on the skies, but Saturday morning, although f-f-freezing, was clear.  Yay.

First stop :  Mount Leura.  Lot of old faces, but we got to meet new member Melissa which was great.  So we ran or walked up to the top of the Mount and then down and around the other side.  I decided to do it twice, cause that's the way I roll ;-)  Total 6.02km.    When I got down the second time, the ladies were already at the bottom, towels on the ground, music pumping through the bush, doing their SSS program.  The activity was contagious.

I set up the camera on a post and used the auto timer to take this pic, loved it !!!  

At the top of the Mount, one might say it was a bit blowy!!   Loving the 'do' huh??  

Great view from the top though, right across the south-west.

And here I am with my beautiful friend Casey,

who you may remember was the winner of Round 3 of 2012 12wbt finale.

We always seem to take selfies of each other when we are together!!

After about an hour and a quarter there at Camperdown we headed over to Noorat.  A couple of our friends dropped out (goodbye to Melissa and Kate) and Tania dropped in (yay!)

Mount Noorat is a heck of a lot bigger than it looks.  You may remember last year I attempted to run up it, I was with my husband and I got to a certain point and there was a big bull in the paddock and I was too frightened to go past it.  Well this time no bull, literally!  The mount is privately owned and yet they open it to walkers or runners alike.  Such wonderful people.  You actually climb over a wooden access point that gets you over the electric fence, and then off you go.   

Here are some of the photos I took as I was heading up the side of the mount. 

Debbie decided to say thank you to the Rain Gods for holding off the rain for our morning.

Now bear in mind it was windy. 

No ... I'm not kidding ... IT . WAS . WINDY !   

It was a plant-your-feet-and-hope-the-hell-you-didn't-blow-away-windy!!!

Almost at the top.

We made it!!!

Hey, I was there too!!!  ;-)   

There was no way the phone was being put down for a pic,

it would have blown clear away to Terang.

Ha!  I had accidentally hit the video button when I was trying to take a photo.

Now you can see what the wind was like!!  

What a way to know you were alive.

So while a couple of the girls went back down the way we came up, the rest of us decided to keep going around the top of the crater.  I really didn't realise how big wide Noorat was from the road.  It was a great circuit (2.74 km)

I really like this pic, you can see Kazz and Tania there, and far off in front of them a little speck

Debbie who was running! 

This is the top of the crater which dips down into the centre there on the left.

Back down to the bottom and the card table and a well earned coffee from thermos was set up, amazing how good it was after all that energy spent and the chill in our bones.   Then onto Terang. 

And then there were three.  Only Debbie, Kazz and myself were here for that leg.  I didn't even know this walk existed, it is right in the centre of town and goes around a 4.5 km loop, through paddocks (thank you farmers for letting us through) where you open and close gates, even through the nursing home grounds (I'm sure the sight of us in our leggings set some old hearts a flutter!!) and back in a loop to where we started.  

What a beautiful morning!

And back to where we started.  Myself, Kazz and Debbie.

Then a well deserved coffee in the nearest cafe ... skinny latte please and make it fast!  And then Debbie continued on to see if anyone was going to be at the Blue Hole to join her.  That was where both Kazz and I made our exits.

Absolutely phenomenal morning.  I went home to have a nice hot shower which will rank up there as one of the 10 best showers I've had in my life.  I swear my blood crackled as the hot water hit me!  

SSS ... done and dusted thank you Ms. Bridges.    Phenomenal effort by the Warrnambool & Surrounds 12wbt crew.  What's next I hear you ask ... you did ask?  Hmmm, you'll just have to wait and find out.  There's something very VERY fun coming up in the next couple of weeks.  Hope we get the numbers to pull it off.  Let's just say there may be feathers involved and leave it at that.   :-)

Four legged personal trainers!

Left my exercise session till I got home from work tonight, eeeek.  I must have looked a sight if my neighbours were looking out the window.  It was dark, I was up the backyard with my husbands miners light on my head and doing those towel tree pull ups!!  What we do to fit the exercise in huh?

Not to mention later I was inside doing my crunches and Molly and Lucky decided to join me.  After he heard my "ewwwww" when Molly licked my armpit, OMG that was gross, Mike grabbed the phone to take this pic of me with my four legged trainers.

Not the most ideal photo with my legs up in the air there!  Crazy dogs.  After that pic was taken Molly (all 38kg of her) lay down by my side and started snoozing and Lucky jumped on me.  All the while Mike was in hysterics!

Note to self ... all floor work to be done without the menagerie around!

Still feeling really positive, love this headspace I'm in right now.  Have a big BIG Saturday coming up, another rolling workout with the Warrnambool & Surrounds 12wbt crew.  Shall be back tomorrow to tell you the plan.  Lets just say I'll be earning my Sunday rest day!

And we're off ...

Week one weigh in for the round and I lost 300 grams.  Not great in the grand scheme of things but I was whooping and jumping about in the bathroom this morning.  Maybe because it was FREAKING FREEZING on the bathroom tiles!!!  But mostly because it was a loss.  I'll take a loss, any loss, I haven't lost for many a week.  I'm on the move again.

And the week one 12 minute tempo run and I beat my distance by 20 metres.

For those not doing the running program, each Wednesday as well as measuring up we run a 12 minute tempo run (80-85% heart rate max).  As the program mentions it is designed to measure our cardiovascular fitness and is based on the Cooper test, designed for US military use.

I like the idea that each week I am trying to run a further distance in the 12 minutes, so I'll record my 12 min distances here:

Start distance:   1770 metres (1.77 km)
Week 1:   1790 metres (1.79 km)

Although I will say I did all my stretching exercises under the shelter of trees as it was starting to rain.  Then I thought well it's now or never, despite the rain I got myself ready and went for it.  And then the wind came.  OMG it was howling!  I ran as close as I could to the hedge wall along Pertobe Road thinking it might break a bit of the wind, but no such luck, it would die down and then the head wind would start again.  I ran a km to the roundabout and then turned round and ran back as far as 12 minutes would take me, so then I had a tail wind.

So probably not the best way to clock my distance.  I have chosen a good flat path to run on, but I didn't account for the elements that were going to strike me tonight.  The joys of a Victorian winter!

Of course the Instagram junkie had to document the end of the run.  Good gracious the hair!!!  And wrinkles.  But a bit of joy on my face there, so all is good.  I must have had fun.  Or maybe my face was frozen and numb from the cold, who knows!!

Hope your weigh in was a good one.  Lets finish this week in style.

Day 1 done and dusted

I am turning over a completely new leaf in this round and I'm feeling so positive.  We have some fantastic new girls join our Warrnambool & Surrounds 12wbt crew and they are so gung ho and it's contagious.  Just what I needed.

I'm going to call the last round a learning round and move on.  I gained 2 kg and a couple of cms.  But I ran ... and ran ... and ran.  So all was not lost.  And as for learning, I learnt how easy it is to drop my guard so I need to be ever vigilant.

So day 1 doing the 10 km running program.  I aim to follow the program to the letter as much as I am able.   For the five rounds past I have flitted around the exercise program, oh I certainly did my exercise, don't get me wrong, but I didn't follow exactly the plan.  I may have spent an hour+ in the gym but not doing the specifics as set out by the 12wbt program.

This time it's going to be different.  I know to get the most out of the 10km running program and to learn to run with purpose, I need to follow it to the letter to get stronger and faster.

I can't even imagine what I looked like running down at Lake Pertobe Road tonight, doing my drills and hugging my legs and doing my knee pull ups and dare I say my pitter patters might have looked a wee bit like the prancercize woman.  But no matter, I was in the zone and doing everything on my list.  And of course in my beloved hot pink jacket I was rockin' it!!!!

Onward to day 2.  Bring it on.

Here we go ... Round 3 of 2013

And this is my commitment:

I am 100 percent committed to smash this round.  

I want to push my body and achieve great things and be the best me that I can be.  

I will eat clean, I will train hard, 

I will ask for support from my friends and loved ones 

and be willing to take the support that they give me 

(thanks honey for cooking your own meals when you don't want to eat what I eat!!).  

This is the round that everything is going to come together 

and I will push forward.  

I make this commitment to me and I am a woman of my word.

Our unofficial official end of round Finale Party

Okay so it's Wednesday now, I'm still reporting on last Saturday's activities, but after a nanna nap in the afternoon (actually I hear on the rumour mill there may have been a number of us having a nanna nap on Saturday afternoon after the workouts) I was ready to have fun with my friends.

Here's a snap, yes yes I'm still on the Instagram (have got quite a thing for it now) so it's been formatted square.  Because of netball and football and all those other things that get in the way, we only had six of us out for dinner.  Another three ladies were in the restaurant at other functions too.  

What a lovely time we had enjoying a wonderful meal (all of us making good choices) and fantastic conversation with good good friends, all met through our group on 12wbt.  I love that about this program, meeting like minded people and becoming good friends.

Don't mind me, we were all going to pick up our glass and make a toast to the camera, and being the last to arrive I didn't have a drink yet so I picked up the champagne bottle!!!  Truly I drank soda water all night.  

So in case you know us, from L to R, top to bottom - Lynn, Jacinta, Lisa, Debbie (yes you may have recognised her from two past finales strutting her stuff on stage in the top 20), Kellie and yours truly.   I am so lucky to have met these ladies and enjoying my time on the program with them by my side.  Go Warrnambool & Surrounds!!!

So Round 3 almost commencing, I'm pumped and ready to go.  I've signed up to the 10km program this round.  I know I've run it a few times now, but I really am such a plodder.  I want to run smarter, and faster, and stronger, so I want to go back to basics and build, rather than must go out and plod.  I want to learn it right.  

And who knows, the round after, which I'm aiming to be my last round (but then again, who knows!!!) I might just do the half marathon program.  Because I have that half marathon to run before I'm 50 and by my calculations that means I need to do it in the next 13 months!  Gulp.

So to those doing this next round good luck.  To those going it alone, continued success to you.  

And to anyone who is reading this and thinking, hmmmm what is the deal with all the 12wbt talk - SIGN UP NOW!  :-)

Great SSS to finish the round on

Another rolling workout for the Warrnambool & Surrounds 12wbt crew.  Love these girls.  We did this a few weeks back, you'll recall the stairs of horror in our Week 8 Mini Milestone Challenge.

So these rolling workouts that have been planned, you join in to whichever session you want, dip out whenever you need to, do all of them or only some of them.  Being that we are Warrnambool "and surrounds", the surrounds go for quite a few miles, let me tell you, so there can be a bit of travelling in it for us.

So today started off nice and early at 7.30am (brrrr it was cold!!!) in Woolsthorpe (where's Woolsthorpe I hear you ask? look it up people!!).  We had a fabulous session with Kazz from BodyMoves.  She really put us through our paces, a combination of teamwork (Gooo Scorpions!!!) and exercise and dance moves combined with exercise and conquering mind over matter with some super balancing poses and a fantastic meditation session at the end.  Loved it !!!  The support from Kazz today and the enthusiasm from our girls, it's such a win-win for all of us.

[some of the group at the end of the session - excuse us crouching down -

I had the phone camera balanced on the stage in the hall

and used the self-timer app]

Then over to Port Fairy for a workout in the local basketball hall by Commando Lisa.  Lisa is one of our 12wbt girls and is so bright and bubbly and effervescent, you can't help but be caught up with her enthusiasm.

Then to the Belfast Aquatic Centre in Port Fairy for a Spin Class.   Got to hand it to some of the girls who did all three sessions.     As we are having our official unofficial local finale party tonight in Warrnambool, I decided there was enough travelling around the countryside being done today for me and ended up just doing the Woolsthorpe session, being that I will be heading back into town tonight.

Plus today was quite the milestone for me.  I did my first ever (actually I did three) pushups on my toes.

EVER.

THREE OF THEM.

Count them people.  One, two, three.

I was over the moon.  But way to get shot down in flames.  I am bragging to Mike about it when I get home and so he thumped his chest like a caveman and dropped and did 10 in his workboots, not only that instead of palms down he did them on his knuckles on the slate floor.

pffffft  ... SHOW OFF!  

Let's see you run 11.8 kilometres Mike then we'll talk.  Hmmmmm????

Now ... off to pick an outfit to wear tonight.  I would have loved to have gone to Adelaide for the finale, but it was just too hard for us to get to.  Either we had to drive a ton to get to Adelaide.  Drive a ton to get back to Melbourne to fly over the top of our house.  Take a train that would get us there that morning or two days before.  Nope, I'm just going to celebrate the round quietly (or not so quietly) in my own way tonight with these ladies who mean so much to me.