The Week that Was – New plan of Attack

So this week I started a new program planed out by my Exercise Physiologist Rob Botocchio , it works on a 4 week cycle, 3 weeks hard, 4th week have an extra day or 2 of rest.

So this week went reasonably well with a few highlights.

Monday morning, I headed to the ocean pool for a swim in my wetsuit, I managed 200m and was feeling woozy with the added buoyancy. Managed to do 500m in total and was feeling really sick so got out and walked home. Upon discussion with hubby I mentioned using a weight belt to which he said, don’t use the wetsuit and “HARDEN UP”. Something to consider, if I must, lol.

Monday evening I did a workout with my PT, a bit of a light jog and some core strengthening exercises, nothing too hard, just a bit of a wind down after the NSW Indoor Rowing Champs on Sat.

Tuesday I managed to get to the Buggy Fit class run by my gym, this is an outdoor class where you can take your kids, they have a trainer to look after them and we get to run around. So the class this week involved a lot of interval running, starting with a warm up, then sand running, sprints, hill running and 1k time trial. I will be making the effort to get to this 1 more often.

Wednesday I had a day of rest which should have been a workout day.

Thursday I got into the Gym did a 10 minute warm-up on the Spin Bike and then 30 minute weight session, I would have stayed longer but Miss 3 was with me and had just about reached her limit in the kids play area.

Friday morning I met with Rob for him to assess my running technique and do a bit of a time trial. So after a 1 k walk/jog warm-up he set the clock and GPS for a 3k time trial. The outcome was all positive, apparently I have a pretty good running style which I need to maintain even when I get tired, and I did a 3k in 24:16 which equates to about 8min per Kilometre pace, my usual pace is around 8.45-9.05 per kilometre so a great PB, time to up the pace on my “shufflin”.

Saturday I left the house at 9.30am and didn’t get home until 8.30pm, a very busy day a brief catch up with some old Paintball buddies and then spent the rest of the day hanging out with some great friends. By the time I got home Miss 3 was crashed in the car and went straight to bed and I was pretty knackered and not far behind her. Not enough hours in the day for a workout.

Sunday in an attempt to make up for yesterday I headed out for a bike ride with a swim in the middle. I headed north which was has more hills and did a 9k cycle and a 500m swim in the ocean pool (without wetsuit). It was the first time I have ridden my bike since I stacked it, more about that here. Since telling people about my fall everyone has a laugh and says “oh you will probably fall off another 6 or 7 times before you really get the hang of IT”. “IT” being cleats and clip-in pedals. “IT” then gave me a huge dose of claustrophobia and anxiety when I was riding with a hint of paranoia. I felt like everyone or everything was going to jump out in front of me and make me crash. I was very slow, over-compensating by unclipping waaaay too early to avoid falling off. I am hoping that with each stack-free ride I will get back the confidence and lose some of my anxiety.

On the food front, my weekdays were pretty good with a little splurge on the weekend, but not over the top. I have cut down the sugar in my cups of Tea. Originally I used to have 2 sugars, and for about the last 4 weeks I was down to 1.5 sugars and this week I cut down to as much sugar as I can fit on 1 Teaspoon, I hope to level this out soon.

So here’s to next week stepping up and completing all my workouts and making smart food choices.

Recipe | Cajun chicken with Mango Avocado salsa

I have made a few variations of this over the last few years and I will explain where I vary it. This is usually a summer dish because of the Mango factor. I would also like to brag that the mint, rocket, curly lettuce, baby spinach and flat leaf parsley all came from my garden.

Home grown

Ingredients:

  • 250g of raw chicken (you can substitute this for prawns or probably most other proteins)
  • 1 teaspoon Dried Cajun spices
  • 2 pieces of Shortcut bacon
  • 50g Danish Feta
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  • Rocket, baby spinach or other mixed lettuce.

Salsa ingredients

Diced and chopped salsa ingredients, stir through Mayo and lemon/lime juice.

  • 2 mango cheeks diced ie 1 mango
  • 1 medium avocado diced
  • Fresh or dried mint approx. 1 tablespoon (I have also used Coriander)
  • Flat leaf parsley ¼-½ cup finely chopped
  • 40g whole egg mayonnaise
  • ½ green apple diced
  • ½ cucumber diced
  • Pepper to taste.
  • Optional – squeeze of lemon or lime juice.

Destructions (my version of instructions):
Chop chicken into Tenderloins or smaller, place on baking paper (have enough paper to double over) sprinkle Cajun spice over chicken and fold baking paper over, beat chicken with rolling pin or other heavy object to flatten so that it cooks evenly and tenderises (I learnt this tip from Jamie Oliver). The other thing I find is flatter chicken appears to be more than it actually is, therefore feeling like you are eating more, (remember food is all in your head). Cook chicken in frying pan with Oil about 3-4 mins each side and flip it regularly.

Layer the lettuce, salsa, grilled chicken, top with bacon and feta and make it pretty with a sprig of parsley. Bon appetite!

Dice and cook bacon.

Combine all Salsa ingredients together and stir through Mayonnaise add lemon/lime and pepper.

Layer the Rocket/lettuce on a plate, add salsa, stack chicken on top, sprinkle bacon over the top and crumble over the Danish feta. Garnish with a sprig of parsley if you want to pretty it up.

For a lighter option:

Reduce the amount of Feta, take out the bacon (if you dare), you could also reduce the amount of Mayo (or use light Mayo), reduce avocado and eliminate the apple (but it does add a nice crunch).

Another variation:

Dice the cooked chicken and stir it into the salsa for an easy take to work lunch.

Serves: 2

Nutritional Info per serve: (you will find this on most of my recipes as I can be slightly calorie/carb obsessed)
Note this as per the recipe not the lighter option*
Calories                669
Carbs                     36
Fat                         42
Protein                   45
Sugar                     20
Sodium                 801 (a lot of this comes from the Cajun seasoning and bacon so eliminate or replace if you want to reduce sodium)

Masterchef quality if you want my honest opinion!

*Nutritional information is only as accurate as My Fitness Pal.

The Week that Was – Row Row Row

Well it has been 2 week since I did a weekly wrap up, last Sunday night I was still in Singapore on a Family holiday and had a less than productive week of exercise. I did manage to get a run in whilst I was away, a quick trip to the gym at 4am (with a toddler on Australian time) and did stacks of walking, theme parks, shopping etc.

So arriving back on Tuesday morning I considered going to the gym that day but with mountains of washing, unpacking and cleaning to do, it just never happened. I did have to go to Indoor Rowing relay training that night and was feeling very flat, luckily our training was very short easy rows with the focus on the transition from rower to rower. With a relay event the team rows 2000m with each of the 4 rowers completing 500m and the clock continues to flow whilst the changeover takes place, so transition is important.

Wed still extremely jet-lagged I did nothing beyond going to work late; work, eat sleep. Still very very tired.

Thursday I had an extra Indoor Rowing training with a relatively short training but at a rapid speed. 1 minute flat out and then a 2-3 minute rest and repeating 3 times.

Friday I was ordered to rest, apparently no housework or strenuous activity of any kind.

Saturday was the NSW Indoor Rowing Championships at Blacktown, Australia. We had a great team of 12 from the Pioneer Fitness crew. I was competing in the 4 minute race, and the 500m as an individual and then in the Relay team.  I was in the A-team for the Relay but once we got there it was found out that they do not require a mixed team (as at some other events) so my trainer stacked 1 team with guys, the big guns, to give our group a great chance at a medal.

All smiles before my first row.

My first event was the 4 minute race which entails rowing as far as you can in 4 minutes, my previous best (last year) was 1021 metres and my goal was to beat that distance, unfortunately or fortunately (whichever way you look at it) I equalled my PB exactly (currently puts me at 4th in the World Rankings which finish in April 2013). My next event the 500m my previous best time was 1:46.4 and I only managed 1:50.2 (currently puts me no. 21 in the world rankings which finish in April 2013), I was disappointed but I know my training focus was taken off Indoor Rowing for a bit and put towards Traithlon, really hard to keep the balance right to make you feel like you are doing enough. I did scoop the pool in both these events winning gold, but unfortunately there were no other competitors in my age group. I find this a little disheartening and believe this may have contributed to not racking up PB’s. The final event was the team Relay, we had 3 teams for the Pioneer Fitness contingent. As a team we managed to win the event with our Gun guys team “Pioneer Storm” and my team “Pioneer Lightening” finished 4th, we were the best placed Mixed team in the event out of 8 teams.

As per usual the Indoor Rowing event was great and I look forward to competing again next year in this state competition and the National Indoor Rowing Championships.

Sunday was a well-deserved day of rest.

This week’s goal is to get back on the food track after holidays and I now have my progam from my Exercise Physiologist to get started on bright and early in the morning. Have a great week everyone.

Here are some pictures from the Indoor Rowing event, including funny rowing faces.

The truth about Indoor Rowing

When I talk to some people about Indoor Rowing, they often look at me quizzically and ask where I go to do something like that and how far do I row, when I say we row 2 kilometres they are astounded that there are “Indoor” venues that can accommodate that kind of thing. They thought that I rowed on water indoors and that there are massive lakes or pools undercover for us rowers. Pretty funny, when you think about it. So to dispel any myths you may have, Indoor Rowing is contested on a stationary Rowing Machine.

At my first Australian Indoor Rowing Championships in 2007 with my bronze medal. I was “Fat and Fit”.

I have learned that being fit in 1 exercise does not make you fit in another. Since starting with my Trainer in 2006 our focus has been on Indoor Rowing on the Concept 2 Rowing Machine. Getting fit in Rowing does not give you the fitness to run, swim or do anything else you desire, it helps. You must train in the sport/s your desire. Likewise if you can run, swim, cycle it doesn’t mean you would be “row fit”.

Indoor Rowing has been great for me; it gives you a great Cardio workout, using more muscles in your body than all other stationary equipment and is low impact.I have competed in numerous events in Australia over the years, winning 2 Bronze Medals at the Australian Championships in 2007 and competing again in 2008 and recording 2x PB’s, I was “Fat and Fit”. In 2009 I went to the NSW Indoor Rowing Championships at almost 9 months pregnant, I went along to support the team and found out there were only 2 others in my age category, so I decided to have a row, I was huge (nearly 150kgs) and wasn’t there to break any records and of course secure last place ie a Bronze Medal.

Indoor Rowing @ 9 months pregnant, 6 days before Ella was born. Blossoming at 146kg’s.

I have racked up well over 1 MILLION metres on the Rowing machine which is quite an achievement, for which you get a T-shirt and a Certificate from Concept 2, unbelievable, all those hours on the rower and that is your reward.

Post baby and lap band surgery I got back on the rower and trained to compete at the NSW State Championships in 2011 and scored 2x Gold Medals and both PB’s in the 4 minute event (placed 4th in World Rankings for 2011-2012 season for my age category 30-39 years*) and the 500m (placed 22 in World Rankings for 2011-2012 season for my age category 30-39 years*), I was also part of our team relay who secured a Bronze medal in a highly contested Open Relay event.

So my next challenge is the upcoming NSW Indoor Rowing State Championships on 17 November 2012 (only 3 sleeps to go) where Pioneer Fitness has a 10 strong team. My goal is to do PB’s in my 2 events the 500m and 4minute and for our Relay team to place in the medals.

I am also on the Event Committee for the National Indoor Rowing Championships being held 14 Sept 2013 in Wollongong Australia. Don’t think you have to have years of experience to contest this event, it is open to all levels, all ages from school kids to 80 year olds. The events for the NIRC are 500m, 4minute (how far you can row in 4 minutes), 2000m and the relay event where 4 competitors each row 500m and change over. There are many online training programs out there, especially on Concept 2 websites including technique videos. If you are interested in learning more feel free to contact me and I can point you in the right direction or follow NIRC on Facebook. Next time you go to the gym, get on and have a row.

*Researching these Rankings have just blown me away, never looked at them before, 4th in the World – wow.

The Week that Was – Rowing full speed ahead

This week my focus has been on Indoor Rowing, with the NSW State Championships now less than 2 weeks away. In saying that, I probably have not done as much as I should.

Monday I went to my normal PT session and focused on Rowing, 2k warm-up then 4x 500m sprints and 2 minutes rest in between. It was hard because my nose was still a bit blocked, each rest consisted of blowing my nose. My trainer has put me in the No.1 Relay team for the State Champs so I hope my head cold is all cleared up by then I don’t want to let the team down. (I’m pleased to report that I am feeling much better).

Tuesday – had IT problems and had to go into work to get it rectified, missed my Bosu and weights session.

Wed – got up early and squeezed in a weights session and 10mins on the X-trainer.

Thursday – I did an extra session with my trainer for indoor rowing, after a 2k warm up I trained at race pace, short bursts, 2 mins at race pace and then 2 mins rest. I always wonder how I will keep up the pace for my 4 minute race when I can barely do it for 2mins, well it won’t be long to see if I can do it and get a PB.

Friday – I had a girly night out with a friend seeing a band and that is where the weekly wrap up will end, I had a hangover of epic proportions on Saturday and could not drag myself off the bed/lounge and Sunday was not much better, feeling very lethargic. Disappointed in myself to say the least.