The Week that was – Birthday Week

Posted on February 24, 2013 by admin

So Monday I was given the day off training as my amazing PT Ian from Pioneer Fitness had completed the Long Course Triathlon which is half Ironman distances, 2k swim, 83k ride and 20k run, crazy or amazing a little bit of both I think, but he did really well. So he deserved a day off which in turn gave me my Monday night training off.

Tuesday I wanted to get to a Buggy Fit class run by EnVie Fitness which involves a lot of running, mostly because my run leg let me down in the Triathlon. After our warm up run we then had to do hill sprints, the goal was to do the 3 times up the hill at a similar speed, which I did each lap at about 2min 30sec, the hard part of this class is that I run past my house every lap of the hill and I just want to quit and go home, but the trainers kick my butt and keep me going. We then headed down to the beach to do sand sprints. I had Miss 3 follow me down as she got bored playing with the other kids and we were doing Nippers type sprints where you start laying down with your chin on your hands and feet facing the way you wanted to run. We started on the hard sand and had to run up hill through the soft sand and did 6 of those, Miss 3 and I made it a game of chasing and she was having fun. We finished the class with some abs and stretching. After grabbing a Skim Chai Latte with some of the girls from the class Miss 3 and I headed out on our tag-along bike set-up and went for a big ride for her little legs. We stopped in to my trainer to hear all about the Long Course Tri, I was in awe hearing all about it. By the time we got home we had been out of the house for about 4 hours with 3 hours of that on and off doing exercise. Both of us were a bit worn out.

Wednesday was “B” Day, the big 4 0, Four Ooooh. I should have planned my day a bit better and given myself the day off work and somehow I had scheduled hubby to be away for work without realising what day it was. Well I accepted my malfunction and planned a girls night, with a great group of girls, a nice BYO Thai restaurant and I had a couple of glasses of champagne to celebrate this day and of course CAKE. Cake for morning tea at work, cake for dessert at dinner, lots of CAKE. To be honest I loved it but was all caked out. I got some great gifts, vouchers for sports stores, pedicure, some cash and gorgeous flowers. I had a great day.

Great group of girls who I am lucky to call my friends.

Thursday I made my first stop of the day the gym to burn off some of my celebrations and did a weights session, my new program of weights takes about an hour, so to make sure I got variety before Miss 3 got feral bored in the play area I did 2 sets of every exercise, this turned out to be a good decision.

Friday I had a bit of a lazy day, let’s call it an extension of my cake hangover. I did wish that I took my gear to work because by the middle of the day I felt like a run. I didn’t get time to do it after work.

Saturday still with the urge to run and a super hectic day ahead I crammed in 30 mins on the treadmill and PB’d with an interval run and playing around with my nemesis the INCLINE did the entire workout on 2, except for a brief moment of weakness where I bumped it down to 1.5 for about 10 seconds, I called myself a “pussy” and forced myself to put it back up. I was having a good self-talk day. I even finished the last 2 mins of the workout at speed 9, all together doing 3.28k in 30mins on incline 2.

I was pleased that I squeezed a workout it in, but it did make me late to everything else, so I raced home, showered and took Miss 3 to a birthday party, (more cake), exited there and went home to grab hubby and then we drove Miss 3 to my bro’s for an overnight sleepover. On the way back from there we dropped into see my Bro-in-law at his first Weight lifting competition, very interesting to watch.

Hubby and I were going out to celebrate our 5^th Wedding Anniversary, which we did with a little bit of style and dined at a “hatted” restaurant Caveau in Wollongong. It was a 7 course degustation menu with matching wines, modern French cuisine, very classy, very nice and very expensive.

The first course ‘Salad’ very fancy and tasty food.

Sunday I really wanted to do a workout but we had to do the 2 hour round trip to pick up Miss 3 and I mowed the lawns and just didn’t feel the urge after all that to get motivated.

To give myself a nudge to keep up the training I signed up for Tri the Gong Enticer on 9 March, so less than 2 weeks to do it all again.

So all in all I had a fabulous week of celebrations and because of that I saved myself the torture of a weigh-in this week and will do it next week. Look out for a blog name change coming soon, “Fat to Fit and Fabulous AT Forty”.

BirthdayTri – the gift that keeps on giving

Posted on February 18, 2013 by admin

Getting ready to start the swim. That’s me in the RED cap 157 from the back left.

What crazy 39 year old decides to do a Triathlon for their 40^th Birthday? Yep that’s me.

A year ago I tentatively marked the calendar with an event, Husky Triathlon. It was very very tentative booking, but what caught my eye was that it was 4 days before my 40^th Birthday and I had a crazy idea that maybe in some alternate universe I may just be able to do this.

You may or may not know from my previous post about my 1^st triathlon, that a year ago I was in no shape to tackle any of the Tri elements on their own let alone doing all 3, (I may have managed the cycle). So doing a “proper” triathlon was a freaky thought. I say “proper” triathlon because 1^st one I did was Triathlon Pink which was a women only fun event fundraising for Breast Cancer, plenty of people in fancy dress and a more relaxed atmosphere.

The Husky event was from the Elite Energy series with a variety of different distances ranging from the Long Course (half Ironman distances) to the Enticer which I was having a go at. The Enticer distances are 300m ocean/bay swim, 8k cycle and a 2k run.

When I arrived I headed off to register and collect my timing chip and numbers and was pleased to see they gave you a free swim cap. I preferred to swim in my own yellow cap, so grabbed what I needed out of the pack and handed the rest to my mum to mind (good ole mum’s handbag still being used even at my age). I went to the bike area with my dad and racked my bike and set up all my gear and then wandered back to all my supporters (mum, dad, hubby, Miss 3 and Aunty Mar Mar) to give them a kiss before I headed off to the start.

Mid swim, rounding the last turn.

I ran into some friends at the briefing area and got chatting and noticed they all had their matching caps that came in the pack and I said I was going to wear my own, they then informed me that I had to wear the “coloured” cap that I was given in order to start at the right time. At this point I had no idea where my family were, I needed what was in mum’s handbag desperately. I found myself an Event Marshall and explained my situation and he confirmed I needed my swim cap to start, so I kindly asked if I could borrow his mobile phone and I called dear ole Dad to bring it over to me. So he sweet talked other Marshall’s to be allowed through restricted areas, hurdling barricades to get to me quicker with the red cap. Success! I got it just in time and missed the race brief but at least I was able to start.

So everyone competing in the Enticer headed down to the beach for the swim start and they had groups starting at about 5 minute intervals corresponding with their cap colour (pretty important to have the right colour cap now that I think about it). The gun went off and I went out fast and then settled down a bit and I was remembering my pep talk from Miss 3, “big arms and lots of kicking” and from Hubby “if you get crowded in, use the People’s elbow”, I do tend to use mostly arms so the pep talk came in handy to remind me to kick. The swim was hard but I felt good, my arms were tired at the end. As I was coming into shore I overtook a lady wearing flippers and as I ran up the stairs to my bike I looked back at the water and there were still a lot of red caps, so I must have done ok.

I took it easy heading back to the bike, it was up hill and stairs and I heard my trainer yell out to take it easy so my decision was right.

I took my cleats off my bike before the event because I didn’t think there was enough advantage for an 8k ride to warrant using cleats and a 2^nd change of shoes, so I put my socks and joggers straight on, sunnies and helmet and off I went. I wanted to go hard on the bike and try and get as much advantage as I could, but my legs felt like concrete stumps, the ride seemed to take forever until I got to the turning point and by then my legs had limbered up a little bit. By the time I headed back down the main street of Husky I was going hard and overtook a few people, rounded the last turn and I heard my family cheering me on and it spurred me on to finish hard.

The last turn on the bike leg, I look happy….. happy to be getting off my bike.

I threw my bike back on the rack and headed off for the run, my leg muscles were burning, I had really lacked the transition training leading up to this event and I was feeling it now. I wonder if I went too hard on the bike or if I would have felt like this anyway, it is hard to know. I ran (so slowly) as much as I could but it did walk a bit, I think my mind let me down in the run, I need music to keep my mind off the pain and next time I will be packing my Ipod. Once I rounded the half way mark my mind joined the event and I managed to run more on the home stretch and even had a sprint to the finish line. I was exhausted and a bit wobbly.

So my personal goals apart from finishing this race was to not come last and to complete the race in under 1 hour, the official times and placings are on the web and I came 3^rd last in my age group 35-39 year old females and I scraped in with a time of 58:01, yay.

Finally about to cross the finish line, the run felt like the longest 2k.

My one regret was having Gatorade a few hours before I started and I sipped the last of it on my bike leg, By the time I hit the running leg, my tummy felt like it had a rock in it, not a good idea, next time will be water all the way.

After getting congratulated by my family I headed back to collect my bike and they were not letting anyone in yet as there was still a cyclist out on the course, it was announced that it was a 79 year old lady who was competing in her first triathlon, so inspiring and she got the loudest cheer as she got off her bike.

My biggest supporters…. love these 2 with all my heart.

We were staying in a house nearby and the plan was to have a little birthday gathering. When I arrived back some friends of mine had decorated the house with Fit Fab Forty picture collages and it looked amazing. My brother also arrived with his 3 kids and my family and friends prepared a fantastic seafood feast with some salads and after guzzling some water, having a shower I had a well-deserved glass of champagne, in a specially selected glass.

It was a lovely relaxing meal, great company and I received some of the best presents. I had a fantastic birthday weekend, I am one lucky girl.

The Right Stuff – Sports Bra Extraordinaire

Posted on February 13, 2013 by admin

When I was verging on my heaviest I was playing competitive Paintball (there will be a whole story on that another time). The position I played didn’t involve a whole lot of running, but I wanted to be able to, so I embarked on the search for a Plus Size Sports Bra.

Finding a bra in my size (24DD) to begin with was a challenge in itself and I spent a lot of money on crap sports bras just because they came in my size. A miracle happened one day when I was watching Oprah (a rare thing for me to watch TV in the middle of the day) and she mentioned the Enell Bra. I knew I had to find out more, if Oprah wears them then I too should be sporting one myself.

Front view.
This is not me nor my image, I borrowed it from www.enell.com

I madly googled and found out more, measured myself figured out my size and found a stockist in Australia and boom bam, cha ching I ordered one from online store Bella Forma. Once it arrived I was soooooo happy, this Bra had the most amazing support, nothing moved. They come in sizes that suit big cup sizes or big body sizes (I would say up to about a Australian size 28-30 or 52DD in bra sizes). You really need to check out the website to believe the way this Bra is designed and operates. It comes with a brief instruction leaflet as to how to put it on.

Back view. Image from www.enell.com

I have been a convert and preacher about the Enell Bra since that first day. Unlike the many other bra’s out there (sports or otherwise) the original Bra I purchased has lasted me over 7 years (still looks amazing) and only this week I put it in the “too big” pile and it still has many more miles left in it. A few years after buying the first I purchased one in a size smaller because I had lost a little bit of weight. During my love-in with Enell I was shown another brand of sports bra which I purchased only to be disappointed. Had I found this bra prior to the Enell I may have thought it was pretty good compared to the previous junk I had been wearing.

Since embarking on my Lapband Surgery and my current fitness regime I have lost more weight, and the need to buy a bra in a smaller size was imminent, Enell was my only consideration.

Because these Bras retail at $99 (still worth every penny), I hit good ‘ole google again to see if I could find them cheaper somewhere. I managed to find an Ebay store that sold brand new but Factory seconds of the Enell bra for around $38 each, the reason they are factory seconds is there are either some snags on the outer fabric OR the band that goes around your rib cage was manufactured 1 inch smaller than that size should be (read the description of each to see what the problem is). I don’t know about you but I have no problem with a little bit of snagging on a bra that nobody will see. So my 2 new bras arrived last week and I’m again loving really good boobie support and the flaws are very minimal, crazy really. The only disadvantage buying via Ebay is you may be limited by colour choice and they may not have your size straight away but be patient more sizes pop up every few weeks.

Newer purple colour Enell.
Image from Australian Stockist http://www.bellaforma.com.au

Or if you want the funkiest colours and your size straight away, find your nearest stockist off the Enell website.

I’m sure you will all do you own research but I have never regretted buying my Enell Sport bra.

* I was not paid nor given any product to write this post, it is purely my own experience, research and opinion.

The Week That Was – as normal as normal can be

Posted on February 10, 2013 by admin

Monday – would have been my first week back this year to my normal Monday night session which mainly focuses on Indoor Rowing, however hubby was running a little late back from a course he has been doing and it would have been a tight squeeze to get there on time, I opted instead to have some quality time at home, something that hasn’t happened a lot lately.

Tuesday – headed off to my gym EnVie to do a cardio session and wanted to start getting some incline on the tready. So with some guidance from my new program I was doing to do a 30 minute interval. With the incline between 1 and 2, I did 5 min warm up, 2 mins running, and 1 minute walking, initially I found the incline quite difficult and had to reduce my speed, after a few intervals it started to get easier, so I upped my speed, then a few intervals later I realised that the incline was not working, hence why it was getting easier, I had a little chuckle to myself. Anyway I still did the 30 mins and completed 3.2k.

Wednesday – I was wracking my brain to remember what I did and then I remembered; my poor little munchkin was sent home sick from Daycare with a vomiting bug. When I went to pick her up she was asleep quarantined to the far end of the room and I picked her up and she was very cuddly. As I was taking her out of school she started vomiting again. Once I got her home she had 2 more upchucks and after the last 1, she said, I’m hungry and she was miraculously better. They say it goes as quick as it comes and luckily for her and all of us that was the case. I didn’t even contemplate abandoning the family for exercise; I wanted to make sure she was ok and to be readily available for cuddles.

Thursday – another session at EnVie and I did a 5 minute warm up on the treadmill and then I had another go at a 1k time trial, my last attempt just over 2 weeks ago was 6min45 I managed to beat it and did a 6min38, gotta love a mid-week PB. I finished off with some of my new weights program but only managed about 30 minutes before someone got a bit whingy in the unsupervised kiddy area. I snuck in a few abs including planks before I left.

Friday – I got out of the house a bit late in the morning and after Daycare drop-off went to the Continental Pool (where naked old ladies have a chat with you in the change room – read about it here) and did a quick 20 minute swim. I wanted to get in and do 300m straight off (same as the upcoming Triathlon) and then I did another 300m and tried to speed up a bit every 2^nd 50m, not a big workout but I was contemplating not going at all.

Saturday – I had a busy day out and about no time for exercise

Loving the Tag-along bike, only her 2nd ride and she is getting the hang of it.

Sunday – Miss 3 and I got up and went for a bike ride with her new Tag-along behind my bike, we had breaky at a Café and then had a big play at a park and then some more riding before heading home, when we got back we headed down the beach for cool off. A lovely morning. Later in the afternoon when hubby got home from a weekend of Paintball, I headed out to go for a swim (too windy for another ride), drove to a nice ocean pool only to find it was empty and being cleaned, then I drove to another pool and it was really dirty and so windy that the car was getting blown around in the carpark, I know there is a saying “if you wait for the perfect conditions you will never get anything done” but it just didn’t look appealing, I felt a bit guilty for not just diving in, I might have another attempt in the morning.

And so this now begins what all those in the know call “taper week” leading up to my triathlon next Saturday. Now I don’t have a real clue about tapering and I think for my distances it’s not extremely important. My understanding is don’t overdo it this week with hard exercise sessions and especially not eat too much food, slow and steady workouts and my personal thought (from all I have read) is no workout after Wed, which means 2 full days of rest before the event.

Making the most out of the mundane

Posted on February 5, 2013 by admin

So today I mowed the lawn, “so what” I hear you say! I AM one of those weird people who enjoy mowing the lawn.

For the past 18 months the lawn mowing had been outsourced to The Lawnmower Man (that is not his real name) and not a buff young lad like the guy out of the movie of the same name, just a regular dude. And it is a wonder I knew what he looked like, I never saw him, it was mowing magic. I would go to work, come home to a mowed lawn, an invoice would pop up in my Inbox, internet transfer and voila transaction complete.

The reason for the outsourcing is we live on a main road and our now Miss 3 was very erratic with her day sleeps, getting her to sleep during the right weather conditions on a day when the lawn actually had to be mowed was becoming a challenge. I preferred to get it done during the week to free up the weekend for family time and our hectic social life. I did not trust her to sit on the front step and watch, to be honest what toddler is that trustworthy? Now I still don’t trust her entirely to sit and watch but I can trust her to be in the house quietly (sometimes) watching TV whilst I do SOME things.

Then 1 day I get a call from a new mower man saying he had taken over my lawns. Then he started to say he was coming to mow and never showed up, this was beginning to annoy me, so this was the little push I needed to bring things back in-house. I dragged out the mower and edge trimmer 1 day, fuelled them both up and neither would start, I was so frustrated.

After getting them both fixed I had success, they started and away I went. So today was the 2^nd time since the outsourcing that I did the deed.

Love it when all the equipment works.

The purpose of this post is to show you how you can use everyday chores and make a “workout” of it. Today I chose to mow in the heat of the day, sweating it out for about half an hour. Maybe I should try doing more housework as well …. hmmm I will think about it.

Now to go off on a tangent, when I decided to take back the mowing duties I wanted something to protect my legs from the line trimmer that was easy to put on, so I cropped off the legs of some jeans that were too big (yay) and did a wide hem on the top and added elastic and there you have the perfect pull on leg protectors. Now hubby’s response was “why don’t you just wear long pants”, well the thought crossed my mind, but this way I can pull them off when the mowing is done and carry on in the rest of the gardening in shorts if I desire.

Protecting my less than lucious legs from flying debris.

So think about things you could do around the house that could burn some more calories and maybe even save you some money too. The savings I make by doing the lawn mowing myself pays for my Gym membership.

The Week that Was – Cranky Pants

Posted on February 3, 2013 by admin

Monday – a public holiday here but I was supposed to attend my last week of Circus class, I really didn’t feel like it so I plonked on the lounge and didn’t go. I was disappointed with myself as I did enjoy the previous weeks.

Tuesday – after Miss 3’s swimming lesson, I headed off to my gym EnVie to do a cardio and/or weights session, when I got there it was packed because the mums and bubs outdoor class had been moved inside due to rain, I joined the group and the class was modified to a combine boxing and abs, due to odd numbers I had the blessing (or curse) of boxing with 1 of the owners Alex and where everyone else was getting a bit of a rest when they alternated between boxing and catching with the pads, I was getting a double dose of boxing. The 2^nd part of the class was squat jumps on the Bosu ball, planking with a buddy whilst slapping opposite hands and then sit-ups whilst throwing a few punches. As the Class Trainer Alita wandered around whilst we were doing abs, she was poking around making sure each persons’ abs were doing their job. As she poked at mine and said “engage those abs” to which I replied “if they were any more engaged they would be married”. Yes I made a funny. Everyone had a chuckle and it made it onto the EnVie Facebook Page.

Wed – Swimming was cancelled due to pollution in the harbour.

Thursday – I headed to EnVie to tackle 5k on the treadmill. I had never done more than 3k continuous running on any treadmill. My goal was to do it non-stop and in 40 mins. Well I managed a 40:36, not too shabby for a first attempt. I also did my good deed for the day. Whilst my darling Miss 3 was behaving herself in the unsupervised kids area, there was another little Miss 2 who was whinging non-stop, upon enquiring with her mother it was her first time, I said it should get better in 2-3 months and laughed. I hope for her sake that she settles in quicker. So after my run I went into the kids area to finish off with stretching and entertain the children so that the other mother could finish her workout in a tiny bit of peace. It was very cute as the 2 girls watched me and tried to copy my stretching moves.

Friday – was my 8 week review at EnVie, I was given a kick-ass and (a little bit confusing for my simple brain) weights program and some new cardio progams to tackle. Jem (trainer setting my program) asked if I knew the benefits of doing weights, I am sure then are many, but she said weights provide an ongoing calorie burn of up to 80 extra calories per hour for the following 36 hours. I think I will research this more, stay tuned.

Saturday – I took Miss 3 to EnVie to have a go at my new weights program, she was in the kids area and I packed her a stack of stuff, put on a DVD, gave her a Galaxy Tab with all her games loaded on it (I swore I wouldn’t give her a gadget, bad mummy), also packed food and colouring pencils. Well she just was not in the mood to entertain herself. My new program consisted of 3 different weights or exercises for 1 muscle group and then doing each 3 times. It involved a bit of set up with bar bells and dumb bells and benches and all sorts of new stuff that I was not used to. I was a bit lost. Then with Miss Whingy Pants not coping well in the play area, I quit, my earlier good deed in the week had come back to bite me in the butt, she wanted me to go into the play area and exercise in there. She just didn’t get it. I got through about 2/3’s of my program and was in a suitable amount of pain.

For some reason every little thing Miss 3 did for the rest of the day just pushed my buttons, I turned into cranky crying mummy. I would hear a song on the radio and cry. She would spill some food, I would yell, she would cry, we would cuddle and all was good for 5 mins and then something else would happen and we would go in a vicious circle, this went on for hours. Then we had to go to a kids’ party at a Play Centre, HELL, if you are in a bad headspace. I sat like a cranky pants just wishing it to be over, which was a shame because I really wanted to catch up with my friend whose daughters party it was.

Best not to rule this out as a possible cause.

By the time hubby got home at about 6.30pm I was more of a basket case if that was possible, Miss 3 was put to bed at 7.30 and I enjoyed some Champagne, chocolate and dip, I hope the other parents out there will understand when I say “it was just 1 of those days”, please tell me this happens to everyone. There were comments on Facebook that suggested it was PMT, well since I have never suffered from it before (in my honest opinion) I don’t know much about it, time for more research, must prevent near death of a 3 year old at the hands of her mother.

Sunday – after a nice Breakfast with the Outlaws, Miss 3 fell asleep on the way home and I took off for a bike ride and swim. 2 hours of me time, something I clearly desperately needed if yesterday was any indication. My cycling was difficult on the way out super strong headwind, but I guessed that conditions will not always be perfect on race day and I must train in all conditions. Then I stopped at 1 of the local Ocean Pools to do a few laps of training before a short ride home. I was happy to get a bit of Tri training under my belt.

So with less than 2 weeks until my next Tri and 16 days until my big 40^th birthday, I am beginning to wonder if I am ready.

Fit and Fabulous after Forty

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Monthly Archives: February 2013