The best birthday pressie !!

Someone asked me the other day if I got jewellery or flowers or something majorly romantic for my birthday.  Something that would make me swoon.  Something that would make me go giddy all over.

I got better, I got these sweet babies...

Yes Mike gave me a coveted pair of 2XU long running tights, hugely expensive for a slip of nylon, lycra, whatever the heck they're made of.  And OMG, I swear on Sunday when I went for my run, I ran like the clappers.  

I've only ever worn knee length One-Active Mish leggings before and they have been serviceable and fantastic throughout my changing weight.  But I tell you, there's nothing quite like putting these babies on and taking them out for a spin.  Warm and yet cool at the same time.  How can that be?  I could feel the breeze on my legs, and yet I wasn't cold, actually it was a magical Sunday morning when I went out for a spin in them.  I feel almost ... dare I say .... aerodynamic in them!  ha. 

I actually knew I was getting them because I had to work out my size (and sneakily popped into a sports store to try them on before ordering them from Wiggle.  Is that bad??  Yes yes I know it is but $40 saving wasn't to be sneezed at).  And actually we thought we'd ordered the black X on black, but the silver ones came out of the box.  No matter.

The fact that when Mike took one look at me when I came home (being that he was still in bed when I went out) he whistled and said "wow, you look like a professional runner in those".   That comment alone made me walk 6 foot tall.

Love love love.  I know also that there's nowhere to hide in them, but boy they suck you in, but not uncomfortably so.

I swapped my toning and hill sprints days around again and so it was hill sprints after work tonight.  Love that the map on my runkeeper looked like Mr. Squiggle had attacked it.  

And just for Leitchy who I know looooooves it when we do selfies, I did a contortionist selfie while I was running with the timer cam on my phone.  Follow that? ha.  Goodness my hair is looking very red in the sunshine!

Tomorrow is the 12 min time trial.  I missed last Wednesday as I had a cut across the bottom of my toe and it was very painful running, it would open each time I struck the ground.  So hopefully my strength training during the week has put me in good stead to smash it tomorrow.  My weight might be going up and down like a burp on the richter scale, but at least I have my running.  

We interrupt your scheduled programming ...

This past week has got a bit hectic.  I missed a couple of training sessions, eeeek!  I put in a few busy days at work.  Had a lovely run yesterday morning, it really felt good.  And culminated today in this ...

Excuse the blurry phone photo, I think the sight of my cake made my husband a bit giddy!!  Yes it is my birthday today and being that I was being taken out to a ritzy chi chi pooh pooh place for lunch, I had made a planned decision to eat, savour and enjoy.

So my meal this afternoon consisted of the most delicious vegetable tart ever! with sweet potato chips and a lovely salad with goats cheese and slivered almonds through it, so nice tasting the mellow creamy texture of the goats cheese and the crunch of the almonds amongst the greens of the salad.

I told Mike not to buy me a birthday cake this year.  Lets face it, it's just the two of us here and we would be eating cake all week otherwise.  I said that I was going to choose one of their delectable desserts and that would be my birthday cake that I would enjoy to the max, own it, and move on.

So I chose a scrumptious date and nut torte, which they warmed up and put berry coulis on the side, it was incredible.  But not before Mike (my gruff, he-man, no nonsense husband) dug into his top pocket and whipped out a candle he had brought with him and popped it on top, so I had something to blow out and make a wish.

Ahh, he is an old softie romantic after all, not that he'd ever admit it.

So there we have it, I have now officially entered into my last year of the 40's.  I have a plan (there's ALWAYS a plan people!!! stay with me on this one)  I have decided that this coming 12 months I am going to do 50 fabulous things before I turn 50.  That's roughly one "thing" a week.  I want to embrace life, celebrate it, celebrate me.  I want to know that I appreciate the little things as well as jump for joy for the big things.  It's the scrapbooker/story teller in me I guess.  And I will be documenting my 50 things.  So stay tuned.

And having eaten that AMAZING cake, I have a very big run planned tomorrow morning! ha.  As one of my friends mentioned this afternoon, now I've got to pay for it !!!!  

Catching up

Life is getting in the way at the moment, I am making far too many withdrawals from the sleep bank and not enough deposits, hopefully I will get back onto an even keel soon.  One thing I haven't slacked off on though is my running.  Thanks to hubby who has been cooking his own dinner each night so I can do my drills and time trials and strength training after work.  I just can't get my act into gear to do my workouts in the morning, no matter how hard I try.

I have had quite the trial in the last few days doing a lot of baking ... and I mean A LOT OF BAKING ... for the CWA cake stall today at the election hall.  I will admit here I did fail miserably with the choc chip cookies, until I slapped myself around and threw the remainder of the condensed milk can out.  So apart from a slight indiscretion I made sure I did an extra run to make up for it on Friday.

Here are some pics of my week...

Hill Sprints on Monday.  Looks like I'm running clear up to heaven there!

And no sign of the man who thought I was chasing him last time, tee hee.

Trying these babies out.

The verdict is in ... yellow laces make me run faster!!!

Last weekend I did a nice easy 4km to get used to the runners

and every split was consistently 6.something min/km.  

That has never happened to me, there are usually a few

7+ min splits thrown in.  Go me!!

Friday after work I ran from the Breakwater to the Flume,

the sea was rough and the weather ominous

so took a pic at the point of turning around.

Rained on the way back but it was light rain at that point in time

and it was so refreshingly cool.

My hair usually turns into a birdsnest by the end of the run!

Back at the Breakwater.

Will be heading down to see family tomorrow.  I love that each time I do that I get the whole gasps of astonishment as to how much I change.  I forget they don't see me all the time.  It's good validation that I'm still on the right path.

Before I go I have said that I will keep updating my 12 min time trial here.  Honestly I feel like I just can't go any faster to go any further in the 12 mins.  I can feel I'm stronger but I was tearing up that footpath until I had nothing left in the tank.  It will be interesting in the weeks to come if I will look back on these results and just smile knowingly that I knew I had it in me all along.

• STARTING DISTANCE:  1770 metres
• WEEK 1:  1790 metres
• WEEK 2:  1870 metres
• WEEK 3:  1930 metres 
• WEEK 4:   1930 metres (go figure, exactly the same)

And before I go, exciting times in the G House tonight.  Here's my husband watching the election results on telly!!

HA!

Stepping out of my comfort zone and into the world of Burlesque!!!

Yes you read right!  I did hint that Sunday's activities with the Warrnambool & Surrounds 12wbt crew had something to with feathers didn't I??

One of the lasses from our group very nervously announced that she has been doing pole dancing.  I'm not sure why she was nervous, we all pounced on her - how, when, where, what, we all had questions.  So she tee'd up a glimpse into the world of this (and I can now say) very VERY strenuous exercise.

Twelve of our 12wbt crew quickly put our hands up and filled the spots.  It was settled.  Six of us would do a Burlesque dance lesson while six did a session on pole dancing, and then we would swap, so we got to experience these two different art forms.

Oh but not before I announced that we all needed a Burlesque name, so found a name generator on the internet and soon my alter ego Florida Fannie was joined by such lovelies as Amethyst deVine, Iva Bottom, Nurse Twinkle, Colorado Candy, Blaze Supreme, Ginger Starlight, Miss Panties and others.

The Burlesque dancing was a hoot, what I did with a chair oh my!   Can't tell you how many times I nearly strangled myself with my feather boa and almost sent the chair flying as I tried to lean back and kick my legs up in the air.  By the end of the lesson you'd think a barnyard of multi-coloured chickens had lost their lives in the room, there were feathers EVERYWHERE!!!!

The Pole Dancing, wow!  What upper body strength you need, it was hard work.  I jiggy jigged my hips, I got myself oh about 6 inches off the ground! hahahaha.   The fact I was wearing daggy shorts and high heels, yep it really was a sight.

Don't we look the part ... kind of ... may be ... okay with a stretch of the imagination!!!

Both lessons were quite strenuous in their own different ways.  In fact one of our girls wore her heart rate monitor and in just over an hour had burnt 560 calories!

Lots of fun with this terrific crew I am honoured to be part of.  Lots of laughs and good good times.

So as an addendum to this I got home and thought Mike might like to see my Burlesque routine.  So I place the kitchen chair in the middle of the kitchen and off I go to the strains of "Hey Big Spender".  Okay so my singing isn't quite there, and any fluff ups I thought I could hide with a twirl of my boa, a jig of my hips and my come hither look!    I wasn't expecting him to almost keel over in hysterics when he couldn't stop laughing.  That wasn't the effect I was going for, hmmmph!  

Each to their own, in MY mind I was a sensational knock out!

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.