Success?

Last night was awards night. We had spent 20 weeks training hard, being active, watching our food (in one way or another) and persevering, focusing on the goals we had set ourselves, either out loud or just inside our own heads. Wednesday night was the finale, the celebration, the awards!

Awards are a funny thing for me, because I really, really like winning, but I don't mind if I lose. I had hopes for a win in a category tonight, but I had been to these awards nights 3 times previously (as a spectator) and I have seen some success stories that were mind blowing. What these people did, with the help of their personal trainers, was absolutely awe inspiring. I knew tonight would be no different, but I wasn't sure I fit into that category. Had I done well enough? Had my personal trainer pushed me hard enough?

One of the categories I had entered was best change in abdominals. Now I know I had lost a lot of gut in the last 20 weeks, and my core fitness had improved, but I still wouldn't want to take my shirt off to show my tummy to people. Yes it still needs work, no there is no 6-pack, yes it has dramatically decreased, yes I will continue to work on it, but no, I do not think I will win in this category. On a good note tho, at my table were Sharon & Darrell from Tauranga. Their PT (Dan) had been 'mentored' in the 20 week challenge by Tracey Butler, my PT and Darrell won the best change in abs award! Darrell is a big advocate of boxing training, not necessarily the sport of it, more the fitness aspects of it, and it has kick-started his journey back to good health and great fitness. If I had to lose to someone in this category, I'm glad it was him.

The other category was Best Increase in Strength (male) and was the category I felt I was better suited to win. Not because I am super fit now, but because I am now so much better balanced and have so much extra upper body strength that my improvements seemed much greater. I have gone from an upper-body strength of 'well below average' to 'not too shabby' and still improving. When Matthew from Diamond Mine got up to present the award I was listening intently. He started mentioning some of the stats of the winner, and they were sounding familiar, especially the chin-ups! I realised that it was me. Yup, I was going to win. It was then I started listening to the people in the room as he mentioned my results and increases in strength. While they weren't leaping up in shocked amazement, they were genuinely impressed. Really? Squats, push-ups, chin-ups and sit-ups had all improved, but in this room full of people who had undertaken the same journey as I had, they could understand where I had come from, and how hard I must have worked to get to where I am now.

And that's the funny thing. Had Steve Gurney knocked on my door and said how well I had done, I'd be chuffed. He's a funny little super athlete who does all sorts of stuff I'd like to do. But the 120 people in that room that night had all started at similar, or worse levels than I did, and had all worked hard to improve, and really did understand what I had achieved. Their applause and congratulations really did mean a lot to me.

My name was called, I got my trophy, I said a few words and I sat back down. Sounds anti-climactic, but the real trophy for me is the memory of the murmuring of the crowd as my results were being read out. That made me feel real good.

Sharon and Jody, one of my hill walking buddies (human, not doggie) were both finalists in best overall body shape change so Tracey's haul was not to shabby for the evening really. I'm pretty proud of her and she deserves some praise for taking a rag-tag bunch of humans and making their lives better. She's not a twig-thin, blond, 18 year old fitness freak who's never been overweight a day of her life. She's been fat and lazy and has turned her own life around using a PT and the 20 week challenge and is now sharing her skills, compassion and training with others to make their lives better as well. If you are in Christchurch and looking for a trainer who will understand you're not trying to become a body builder, then I can fully recommend her. I once mentioned that a session with her was like being whipped by marshmallows, and while that was often true, sometimes it was a whip, so don't think you can get away with slacking about. But if the PT's in a gym scare you, physically or mentally, then give Tracey a call. She can come to you, burn fat, build muscle, improve health and fitness and make you a much better person.

Would I do it again? Yup. I'm carrying on the training with regular PT sessions in the park at lunchtimes and paying more attention to my upper body rather than just my cycling legs. As we push through winter and are targeting summer, I'm going to carry on losing my gut and extending my cardio fitness. I want to be able to ride up a hill, swim lengths of a pool or run for some distance without my lungs exploding. Here's to future challenges and training!

It's all over (or just beginning)

The final stage in my 20 week challenge was an ascent of Rapaki Track.

Last done almost 20 weeks ago, with dog in tow, we managed the somewhat unbelievable time of 30minutes exact. On that occasion the sun was shining, the skies were blue, and the dog pulled me up half the hill and I dragged him up the other half. We were overtaken by joggers, runners, cyclists and my heart rate was scarily high for the entire thing. It's just a hill right?

I've never been great at hills. Be it on foot or on a bike, lugging my weight up a hill has always been a tough mission. This was one of my challenges, to increase my cardio to make this sort of thing easier, and maybe even enjoyable.

Saturday dawned with grey skies, chilly temperatures and a sense of excitement. There were three of us heading up that hill - myself, Tracey and Amanda who was only just recovering from a strain and had just days before stepped on a nail, so was in perfect condition for a hill walk. We wandered up to the start point of the track, the top of Rodgers Track, and looked up into the gloom that was our destination. I'm not sure if it's easier to do a challenge where you can't see the finish line or not. Most of my MTB races have been long and on unknown territory, this is short and well known to me, the the low clouds, damp air and chill add another dimension to the endeavour.

With watches synchronised, we head off. My plan was a simple one - jog and walk. I know I couldn't do the entire hill at a jog, but I could probably do half of it. It's about 3km long and I know my shins blow out at under 4km of soft, flat ground. I'm a realist, I know I can beat my power-walk of last time if I jog any of it, but I don't want to have my shins explode before I get to the top, especially when I have to walk down again as well. I set off at a jog, not a sprint or a run, just a jog. There's a cyclist ahead of me spinning up the hill much like I do. I'm plodding away, watching my heart rate go up, trying to control my breathing, and all the while reminiscing about when I first started riding up this hill - walkers would overtake me! Then I realise that I'm catching the cyclist. Yes, a target!

I maintain a steady jog for a few minutes, catching the back wheel of the cyclist, then stop and walk for a bit. There's a plan here you see... I don't want to overtake the cyclist as I don't want them to know I'm there and using them. If I overtake them, they'll go faster, or stop, and that's no use to me. So I walk, catch my breath, lower my heart rate and think about my legs for a bit. On Friday I did my fitness test in the morning, then a PT session in the park at lunchtime which was a punishment session - txt challenges had been sent and not obeyed and the entire crew were to suffer, and suffer we did. The 20 minutes session on Friday seemed to take an hour and my legs and butt were aching. This bloody hill wasn't helping either!

I considered my legs. My calves were aching but my shins were fine. Physically I seemed to be doing OK. Admittedly I was less than a quarter of the way up the hill, but spirits were high. A slurp of water then back into a jog to catch that bike again.

After a few minutes I had their back wheel and slowed to a walk again. I was quietly smug about this. I had caught them twice now. But, as we were nearly at the top of the first hill before the flat section, I was pretty sure I'd be left well behind. Even an extremely slow cyclist can ride faster than I can jog when we're both on the flat! So I wandered until the flat started, then jogged to the gate in the middle of the track. A mental halfway point - you can see the finish line clearly from here, you can see the huge hill too. I check my watch and it's just slipped over 10 minutes. I dare to hope I can do this in 20 minutes. With that unrealistic goal set, I plod onwards.

On the flat section I break between walking and jogging. Rather than clock watch, I count my breaths. I jog for 60 breaths, walk for 30. I know I'm failing, my calves are getting tighter and tighter, but no real pain as such. My heart rate hasn't soared, maintaining 160-170. My challenge is mostly mental and controlling my breathing. As I start up the final hill section I feel defeat descend on me. This is my body trying to convince my brain to take a rest. It's not sore, but is all out of energy. With no ability to produce insulin, I can't get the sugars from my blood to my muscles, and they are running on empty right now. Push on, push on. It's a mental game, but trying to convince your legs to jog when you just want to sit down is a tough one, and I'm only just over half way! I check my watch, there's no way I'm going to make it in 20 minutes, so I plan to make it under 25 minutes, a more realistic goal.

As I ascend the final hill, the clouds lower, the visibility drops even further, and lethargy stops any jogging for a majority of the hill. I manage two short bursts, but instead focus on maintaining a fast walking pace. And then I'm at the last 'corner' which I know is about 400m from the top gate. I burst into a jog for about 15 seconds, then back to a walk, then when the gate comes into view, start jogging again, focussed on the gate and nothing else. I touch that metal bastard and check the time - 24:18.

The next few minutes are spend cooling down, which is not hard when it's this cold and damp and the southerly is blowing over the hill behind you. I monitor my heart rate which drops towards normal again and await Tracey and Amanda. Due to the gloom, I can barely see 100m down the track, so sit and wait and wish I had a hot coffee. The do emerge from the mist moments later, another victim of the hill touches the gate and swears blindly.

We chill on the hill, and before we freeze on the summit, we descend and chat and say hi to the hundreds of people who are restricted to using this one track in the bad weather. The rest of the weekend is spent indoors, hiding from the wet and cold, watching bad telly programs and moaning about my sore legs and butt.

What's next? Well, Tracey has done an awesome job of getting me fit and active, but there is still some work to be done. I will continue doing the 20 minutes group PT sessions in the park as they are just awesome, and I'll get back on my bike and have some wet and muddy fun too. In just over a week (7th July) is the awards night. Typically, I'm unsure if I'll win either of my categories, but there is hope. I'll be going along and supporting those who do win tho, it's pretty bloody inspirational listening to the winners on the podium - ordinary people, extraordinary results. Highly recommended. I'll report back, maybe with a trophy in hand?

A testing time

I'm all about numbers, so this morning I did the first stage of my testing, the main tests really. Strength and girths. I think I have done OK, I was surprised in some areas, and not actually disappointed in any, which is a bit of a shock.

	Time	Start	Today
Push Ups	1 min	7	33
Squats	1 min	31	53
Plank (prone hold)	to failure	34 sec	1 min 6 sec
Crunchies	1 min	22	49
Chin Ups	1 min or failure	0.75	15
Side-to-side	1 min	67	143
Wall Sit	to failure	33 sec	53 sec

Probably the biggest improvement was the chin ups. Going from almost being able to do one to being able to do 15 is pretty dramatic. Push ups rising from 7 in a minute to 33 was above the goal I set myself a few weeks ago (of 30) but I want to get that to 40 before I'm happy. My plank (prone hold) is still embarrassing, but I have doubled the time I can hold it so want to push for 2 minutes next. Gulp. In fact, looking over the results, the majority of my improvements have been about double what I had 20 weeks ago. Not too shabby.

My body fat has dropped 2.9% and my weight has dropped by 7.9KG. I have managed to lose a bit of my guts too - 6.5cm off my waist, 14.5cm off my abdomen and 5cm off my hips. My muscle measurements have seen my thighs drop a bit (they were over developed) and arms remain the same, but my chest has increased by 2.5cm. So my plan of balancing out my body seems to have worked. My arms are stronger, my thighs have reduced so my calf muscles can develop and I have better symmetry and balance.

On top of this, I'm even more flexible too! In a sitting hamstring test, I was 10cm away from my toes, now I can touch them! I have always had good shoulder flexibility, but this has improved even more! With one arm up and over, and the other down and under, I can grab my hands behind my back. I have always been able to do this, not just touch fingers, but actually perform a hearty handshake. I have improved this even further, I'm able to grab wrists!

Tomorrow morning I head up Rapaki to try and demolish my time of 30 mins. I'm thinking I'll go too hard and bomb before the top, but it's the last challenge I'll be doing for a wee while, so might as well leave it all on the park (or side of the hill) right?

Healed, fixed, ready?

Thankfully I am almost back to 100% fitness after a few days of disability. My final fitness tests will be tomorrow and Saturday, with Friday being the big one, the one I have been cramming and working hard towards. Saturday will be a re-run of the Rapaki hill to see if my cardio has improved enough to get me up there in under half an hour.

We're at the 99% mark now, and I know I could have done more, eaten smarter, tried harder, pushed further and so on. But this 20 weeks has been about more than just getting a result. Yes, I'm lighter, smaller and more muscular, but I wanted to improve myself in a sustainable way. The goal was to get some results, and be able to maintain those results with little or no adjustments to my life. Kinda like living the 20 week challenge full-time. That was my goal, and I have succeeded there I think.

Case in point - last weekend was a write-off for food, exercise and health in general. I weighed 101.5KG on Monday morning, and yet with a few days of managing my diet and staying active, I'm back down to 98.9 this morning. While I have been 105-110KG forever, I now intend to be in the 98-99 bracket and celebrate my double digits. I do not want to drop below 95KG, and with the muscles I'm putting on, I don't see that happening. The more my tummy goes away, the more my muscles pop out. I like that trade-off and weight has no relevance in that way.

This week my activity has been low, but not nil. I'm trying to convince myself that it's resting my body before the final push. Tuesday and Wednesday saw me doing the sessions in the park as per usual with the time passing extraordinary fast. Tomorrow will see me do a fitness test either at lunchtime instead of the PT session, or in the morning in the snug warmth of home. I will also have my 'after' photos and measurements taken. Tomorrow. Wow. 20 weeks sure did fly by!

All pain, no gain

What a weekend. We had visitors descend from the north and they stayed for several days and we ate food, drank wine (and limoncello) and did very little. OK, not quite true.

On Friday I still did the session in the park at lunchtime, dragging one of the visitors along for the ride. They enjoyed it, despite it being more than they had done for a long time. We followed that up with lunch out, which was only slightly naughty and dinner that night was roast chickens and cauli-rice, so nice and low carb. Dessert was a low-carb version of a fantastic French chocolate cake. Yummo. So food-wise it was not too bad at all, but the beer, wine and limoncello sure added a few carbs and other unnecessary calories. I did over-indulge but not to excess as I didn't want to be a wreck in the morning.

Saturday rolls around, and I'm up fairly early, even after a late night. Some of us decide to go for a walk in the hills, so a quick & easy breakfast is prepared - fruit salad and yoghurt. Sigh, not a low carb breakfast, but at least it's full of fibre and other goodies. We head off to the hills and spend about a hour admiring the views and chatting. On arrival home I whip up a quick frittata packed full of protein and yummie goodness. With a salad on the side it fills a gap and is a nice hunger buster until dinner. More wine and limoncello follows, I do a nice Asian chicken noodle soup for dinner which is chased down with a chocolate cake from the depths of hell! Another day of over indulging. Isn't it easy to fall off the wagon and just keep bouncing along? To be fair, I am trying my best with the food, but when everyone else wants to participate and provide, results become mixed and varied. Another late night, feeling seedy from the food and this is the first day of my pain that could be a horrific end to my 20 week challenge.

Sunday morning. Nothing planned today as people are heading home at various times and it's raining. My blood sugars are way high and get dealt with pretty quickly. I haven't had a high morning like that for weeks and weeks, so it felt like a hangover but was resolved with a glass of water and a decent dose of insulin. The real issue is a recurring 'injury' I have which has flared up during Saturday is is fully painful on Sunday. I won't describe it to you as it's not pleasant and if it's bad enough to stop me talking about it here, you really don't want the details. Suffice to say that any activity is exceedingly painful. Sunday is quiet, we slowly empty the house of people and dispose of the evidence of a weekend of excess. I begin to panic a bit.

This is the last week of the challenge and if I can't do my final fitness test at 100% then has it been a waste of my time? Obviously not, as once I'm better I'll still be stronger and fitter and so forth, but that's like knowing all the answers to the final exam the day after you take it! I have less than a week, 5 days total, including today, to get prepared. I'm going to take it real easy today, put my toe in the water tomorrow and see what happens, then re-evaluate from there. Hopefully things will be much better and I can look forward to the end of the week and the final exam. I know that even at 80% I'm still going to blow my previous results away, but it won't be the real results, and that'll piss me off.

Sigh.

Cramming hurts

Week 19 of 20 and I fully intend to almost do myself harm this week.

• Sunday - hell session, weights @ home
• Monday - even heller session, more weights @ home
• Tuesday - DropAndGiveMe20 session in the park, focus on upper body (ouchies)
• Wednesday - Bike to work (and back) + another session in the park, focussing on legs (more ouchies)

And in-between I have been sneaking in some dumbell raises before bed and when I get up, plus some chin-ups. I'll go for a run tomorrow, plus another home session, and another park session on Friday, then I have a weekend of laziness due to visitors descending on us from northern isles. Sigh, a weekend of sitting, talking and drinking limoncelo. Thankfully I'll be doing all the cooking so can limit the food-based damage so as not to have too large a hurdle for the last week.

Am I happy yet? Yes, not perfectly happy, still not as fit and trim as I'd like to be, but I'll need a lot more discipline to achieve that. Once the 20 weeks is up I can slow down, steady my pace and see what happens. If I can maintain and improve as the year goes on, I'll be a happy boy come summertime. 

Cramming has begun

On Saturday we started the last 2 weeks of the diet plan, meaning I could eat some dairy again, and have a glass of wine with dinner. I don't miss my potatoes, pasta, rice or bread, but it's often damn hard to snack without the carbs. Stupid convenience. We did some measurements and I'm still losing my tummy, which is good news, and my weight has remained under 100KG, which is also good news. My head cold is pretty much gone, and fitness levels are way up.

Sunday was supposed to be a hill walk/jog up Rapaki to compare to our times 18 weeks ago, but just as we were about to head out we got a phone call saying it was hailing and minutes later we received a downpour as well. So, we postponed. Instead, I asked Tracey to give me an upper/middle body workout. Her eyes lit up, she rubbed her hands together and made a weird cackling noise and slunk away to the exercise equipment. Moments later I was give a short circuit to do. Just 3 laps, 60 seconds on, 15 seconds off. I only have a hazy memory of the order of the activities, I was pretty busy sweating and swearing at the time. 15 seconds to collapse, recover and relocate is nowhere near enough time!

I started with mountain climbers, an exercise that is easy for 30 seconds, and not so easy from that moment on. Being that it's a prone hold with actions, I suck at it, but managed it for the full 60. From there we moved on to some kind of squatting, dumbbell swinging thing which wasn't too bad and allowed a bit of recovery time. Then a new one, push-up T's where you have a dumbbell in each hand, using them to do a push-up, and once up you lift one arm up into the air as far as you can, then back down again, alternating arms each time. This was tough. Then we have barbell raises/rows using a bar with a ton of weight on it. Again, 30 seconds is fairly easy, 60 is unbearable. Back down and doing more push ups, but this time raising the dumbbells to your chest after each one, left then right. My core was screaming at this point. Almost impossible... Explosive squats with dumbbells, ahhh, only mildly painful, almost peaceful. Then it was pull-downs, an exercise I find relaxing, until 45 seconds have rolled by, then I find it painful. Then the last exercise of the circuit, inclined push ups. With feet on the bench, hands on the ground, do push ups. Stupidest exercise ever. Despite it being actually impossible, I managed to do several, about 15, before I expired. 

Then I had to do it all again.

And again.

3 laps was deadly. My arms and guts knew I'd been working them hard, very hard, and were advising me they wanted to rest now. During the session I hated it, but afterwards I couldn't help thinking that it had been over pretty quickly (under 30 minutes)

Would I do it again? Yup. Tonight in fact. When I get home I'll be back on the floor sweating and swearing. I think a week of hard-out sessions like this, then a week of more gentle sessions should have me well prepared for the final weigh & measure. Hopefully I'll retain the use of my arms, time will tell!

It hurts so good

Wow, two weeks left. Much like when I was gaining my 'higher education' I think I may have left it too late to get a 100% pass mark. For the next two weeks I'm going to be cramming for my final exam!

The two categories I entered were Best Change in Abdominals and Best Increase in Strength. While I know I have improved (dramatically) in both these areas, I'm not sure I have done enough to warrant 'best change' or 'best increase' yet.

Strength: I have gone from zero chin-ups to 13, that's cool, and from 7 push-ups to 23, also cool. I know I have improved in other exercises too, but unsure of the numbers as I'm usually crying by the end of a session anyway. Unsure if my legs are stronger, but I can do more crunchies and sit-ups than I used to, so defiantly an increase. But best increase?? I'm not too sure... I'll have to really add some extra session in over the next 2 weeks.

Abdominals: Now here there has been a change. My gut has dropped drastically. I look back at my day zero photo and I know I see a different belly in the mirror now. The measuring tape will see me right there, but there's more to lose in that department still. Likewise, I need to really focus on crunchies and sit-ups, get my core strength up more. Maybe some more of those awful prone holds I hate so much. 

It's just two weeks, suck it up! Once I'm weighed and measured I can chill out for a bit, have a glass of wine and a custard square. Until then, pain and sweat and tears are in my future... Thank gawd I'm not on a low calorie or low fat diet! In fact, my average calorie intake this week has been 1,599 calories a day. With an average of 40g of carbs each day, this is good fat and protein power!

	5th June	6th June	7th June	8th June	9th June	10th June	Average
Calories:	1,614	2,207	1,192	1,571	1,560	1,448	1,599
Fat:	115	174	72	98	104	92	109
Carbohydrates:	25	35	29	60	46	45	40
Protein:	117	122	106	113	110	130	116
Fiber, total dietary:	3	6	7	10	8	8	7
Effective Carbs	21	29	22	51	39	37	33

Next week I go onto a less meat-focussed diet plan, hopefully meaning I can have poached eggs on a slice of grainy toast (yum) or yoghurt or a flat white. The last 4 weeks has changed the way I look at carbs, that's for sure. There are essential fats, essential proteins, but no essential carbohydrates. And, as a diabetic, carbs does not equal energy. But damn they taste so good!

Can you have too much of a good thing?

Nope.

Depending on what that good this is of course.

I only have two and a half weeks left of my 20 week challenge, and also my 6 week gut-buster diet plan. It seems like I've been doing this for ages... Well, that's not quite right. It feels like this is a habit that I have always had. It's not like I have been dragged kicking and screaming out of bed each day to climb on my bike and ride to work, or brave the cold/wet/wind/hail/sleet for my PT sessions in the park, or climb a hill on a frosty weekend morning. These things are just in my daily schedule and occur. My current diet has restrictions but it's not making me crave poor food choices, or go hungry, so is easily achieved if a small amount of planning is performed. It also occurred to me today that I haven't had a single beer or wine for over 3.5 weeks now, which is saying something as I was a regular 'bottle of wine in an evening' consumer.

When the 20 weeks is up, do I go back to custard squares, pinot noir, mashed potatoes and sloth? Probably not. I'll maintain my current activities as I enjoy them (yes, even in the hail! At least it hasn't snowed yet) and my diet will remain forever altered. You see, having discovered what I can achieve in 20 weeks, I'm wondering what I can achieve by my birthday. This year will be my last 30th birthday and after that it's all middle-age! When I turn 40 in 15ish months time, I want to be fitter and healthier than I am now. That's going to take some consistent effort.

When summer kicks in, I'm going to spend a month doing studies on food, exercise and blood sugars. That may sound boring as hell to you, but a month of rigorous testing and monitoring may mean many, many years of benefit to follow. I'll be testing various combinations of pre-exercise food, pre-exercise insulin, exercise intensity and post-exercise food. Like some kind of lab rat, I hope to find what is the best conditions for me to be able to have short intensive activities, and long, endurance ones. Sometimes being a diabetic means just not being able to do stuff, or in my case, trying stuff and failing my own expectations. I'm hoping this month-long test will help me decide what activities I am better suited for, and how best to prepare for them, and what to do during and afterwards. I'll write it up for anyone who's interested, but it sure ain't gonna be published in any medical journal. Sadly there is almost no information on type I diabetics and exercise out there, and what info there is tends to contradict other information. I shall ignore it all and just see what works by trial and error. If others find it useful, that's cool, but it's really all about me.

The sun is shining, I pong a wee bit after my lunchtime session and I am feeling full after my sausages and eggs for lunch. I may just have a cup of coffee and watch the last 20% of my download happen. Sigh, such is life.

Delicious, nutritious and it damn well works!

The week has been filled with many goings on, most of them have been good too!

Meat week #1 has passed pretty much without incident. We have consumed a truck-load of eggs, knocking off over 70 in a few days between the 3 of us. Lots of sausages, lamb chops, chicken every-which-way, bacon, mince, seafood and more. I likes me meats, so for me it has been a tasty and fun week. Thankfully the markets sell free range eggs by the tray for economical prices. I even stuck close to it when I spent a day in a training session and lunch was delivered. Typically it was sammies, mini-bagels, sausage rolls, pies, koftas, cakes and slices. My lunch that day consisted of koftas and the inside of a sausage roll. Would rather have eaten more, but I didn't need to in the end. Eating nothing but meat & eggs & veg not only keeps me full, but is satisfying too. As my carb input is below 50 grams per day, my insulin use has dropped dramatically too.

The better news is that I can drink coffee again! Not the same amount I was drinking a few weeks ago, just 2 (or sometimes 3) a day. As we're avoiding dairy during the 'meat weeks' it's regular plunger coffee, not flat whites, still wonderful though. I have missed my daytime coffees so it is very pleasing to have them back again.

My energy has been way up this week as well. It was instantly noticeable on Monday when riding to work has has been high all week, despite having a head cold. My normal solution for this sort of thing is regular doses of Nurofen cold & flu. However, I have to abstain from drugs, so couldn't do that. Some research pointed to using large doses of vitamin D instead. We grabbed a couple of bottles and I consumed 100,000 IU over 48 hours and the effects were dramatic. Yes, it was somewhat over the recommended dose but well short of a lethal one. And it worked! It's going to be my winter cure of choice now! I was sick as hell on Thursday, and by Friday lunchtime I was well enough to endure a DropAndGiveMe20 session in the park. On reflection I shouldn't have done it as it was a massive session and my thighs and butt still hurt today.

Yes, Friday's session in the park was a gruelling one. We arrived to see Tracey with her whiteboard looking contemplative. We had been set a challenge (and a half!) and as a team (of 4) for the next 20ish minutes, we did 50 bear crawl up/crab crawl down the hill, 100 burpees, 150 push ups, 200 squats, 150 step ups, over 100 lunges and 50 tricep dips. My heart was still pounding 10 minutes later and it took over an hour to cool down, despite the climate! I'm glad every session isn't like that!

And to further spit in the eye of every dietician I have spoken to, I have been using a bean-counter to monitor my carb, fat and protein inputs and seeing that 60-80% of my calorie intake each day (between 1,600 and 2,400) has come from fats. Here's yesterdays breakdown:

Orange: Fats 64.5% Green: Carbohydrates 6.2% Purple: Proteins 29.3%

Which brings me to my last point. I finally broke the 100KG barrier some days ago. I was dehydrated at the time so took it with a grain of salt. However, I have been under 100 for several days in a row now, and weighed in at 98.1KG this morning! Reduced fat? Nope, I have increased it actually. Low GI grains and cereals? Well, none except those from my veggies. Massive increase in protein? Well, an increase for sure, but not massive. And did I mention I'm feeling stronger and fitter than I have for years, even though I have the dregs of a head cold? This diet works for me. I have another meat week coming up, then I get my dairy back again. My weight has been of little consequence, but I can tell it's body fat I'm losing and it's not making me crazy with food cravings, weak with hunger, or creating funky blood sugars either. My BMI is 25 which is still overweight, however an even larger grain of salt is taken here as I'm not a fatty. Lets look at someone like Richie McCaw for example. He's 1.87m tall and 106KG so his BMI is 30.3 which makes him obese! Hence, BMI is bullshit for healthy/fit people because it's math, not mass. To be fair, I would only need to lose another 400g to drop from overweight to 'normal' weight, but if Tony Woodcock can get away with bordering on morbid obesity, then I can suffer on the fringes of overweightedness.

Roll on the next few weeks! Muscle tone is increasing, fitness increasing, tummy reducing, weight dropping, and all of it is bacon flavoured :)

Done shaking

Now we're bacon!

Yes, with a sigh and a heavy heart, on Saturday morning we pretty much ran out of the protein shake mix, and decided that rather than dashing out to buy a couple of days supply, we'd get a head-start on the 'meat weeks' instead. I was rather excited, as 'meat week' also means coffee is back. And the occasional glass of wine too! I did celebrate this news with a nice hot cup of coffee, my first in a dozen days, and enjoyed it immensely. I'm only allowed 2 a day, but I'm going to enjoy them both, that's for sure.

Exercise wise, we did a freezing cold session on Friday. While it wasn't as wet as the Tuesday or Wednesday sessions (nothing could have been as wet as Wednesday was!) it was very cold and windy. It was just a hard-core couple of us there braving the environment and Tracey kept us moving the whole time, mostly off the ground but focussing on keeping us warm while she barked orders. My hands almost froze off within 5 minutes, but were actually quite warm when we finished. Again, no excuses for not going out. You might regret going out and getting cold or wet for a wee while, but when summer rolls around again and you find that you've spent winter at your desk because you were too scared to go outdoors, you'll regret it. I'll have a head-start on the hibernators!

Back to the food! 'Meat week' is not just meat, but is a focus on protein and fat with low carbs and little dairy. So, we popped out to the Riccarton Markets on Sunday and grabbed a couple of trays of eggs and some fresh veges and planned a few days meals. Easy choices for lunches are cold roast chicken and boiled eggs (yum) which of course can be last nights dinner :)  Breakfasts are going to be egg based as they are quick and light and easy - omelettes, poached, scrambled, fried - and dinners nice and warming on these colder evenings. There's a nice meaty soup I want to make for lunches as well. Plus, still having plenty of veg to balance it all out (we're loving the mushroom & leeks at the moment) and plenty of dark greens sneaking in as well.

One other advantage of 'meat week' is that my energy seems to have improved. I had noticed in the last couple of weeks that I was not performing at 100%. I wasn't tired or lacklustre, just lagging behind what I thought I should be performing at. This was kind of to be expected, but was annoying. However, my energy levels are back now. I went for a jog around the block last night (2.3km) and this morning was riding hard, back to my previous speeds and fitness. I feel energised again, only downside is the sore throat I seem to be developing :( Damn bugs.

As the 20 week challenge has a 'sprint to the finish' challenge tossed in to the mix, I'm keeping a food diary, along with my insulin use and blood glucose readings. This will make for interesting reading by my doc and the diabetes centre next time. The diabetes centre will freak at my lack of carbohydrates, but be amazed at my decrease in insulin and of course, my control will be near-perfect as usual. With the amount of energy I have now, I'm almost convinced I convert fats to energy better than carbs. I even woke with a low score on my meter this morning, something that hasn't happened for a very  long time. Too early to celebrate, but fingers crossed for a fitter and leaner future with low insulin use and stable blood sugars!

Weight? Well, for the past week it has been stable. And by stable I mean I have ranged in weight from 100.0 to 100.6 kilos. Yup, Chris does it again, diets don't make me lose weight, and I'm not concerned about that in the least. Part of the move from shakes to 'meat week' was doing some measurements and that's where the real story is being told. Lots of decreases there and I can see my shape changing. I first noticed it a few days ago while brushing my teeth - shoulders more defined, ribs visible, spare tyre greatly reduced giving more straight lines down my sides, and the hanging over tummy is melting away. It's nice when you see the changes in yourself.

And the madness seems to be increasing. I'm about to head off and go for another jog in the park, about 3.8km. If I can do 3 sessions like this a day (commute + run or PT session + commute) then it's bound to do me some good. I want to build my running distance up substantially, but need to take it easy so as not to damage my shins, so will add a few hundred meters on each time, and stop when the pain starts, not when it reaches critical levels. Must remember to buy some new shoes too...

It's raining, it's pouring

The golden weather has well and truly come to an end this week:

• It's probably rained more in the last few days than it has for the entire year
• Temperatures are holding in the low teens, and sometimes struggling to achieve even that
• Sunrise and sunset seem to coincide with arriving at work and leaving work
• People are adding more layers
• Less people are seen out jogging or riding
• Moods darken

So, with a smile, my shorts, t-shirt and vest, I jumped onto my bike in the gloom and raced to the office. The traffic was busy, as expected, and I was thankful that my commute each day uses very little of the road, and where it does, it has a well defined cycle lane and less busy sections of the streets. I hate riding in the traffic.

In short order I was in the wide open cycle path, devoid of children and dogs. Odd really, as this is the perfect weather for them - puddles, leaves blowing around, worms, ducks, and water everywhere! A dream environment for a child or dog! Sadly, most parents will drive their kids to school, and the poor pooches will be left indoors for the day.

I arrived at the office, wet and happy. Riding in the rain is good fun and I don't understand why people dislike it so much. I got changed into dry clothes and sat at my depressing desk for a few hours, counting the minutes till I was heading out again!

Yup, rain, hail or shine, or snow, lightening, floods, earthquake or any number of disasters, natural or otherwise, there is no reason to postpone the DropAndGiveMe20 session in the park at lunchtime. I re-donned my cold, wet clothes and we trotted to the park feeling cold, and a little stupid. But after some running about, random ball games (ever tried shooting hoops with a medicine ball?) and not too much mud wallowing, the 20 minutes flew by and I was quite warm again.

Back to the office, another quick change to dry clothes and another boring few hours at the keyboard. When the end of the day arrived, I was hesitant, as this would be the second time I had to climb into cold, wet clothes. Urgh. I jumped on the bike and cycled off into the dark. Man, the paths are deserted when it's cold and wet. And it'll get quieter and quieter as the temperature drops. I love the cold, everyone else seems to hate it.

I arrived home, removed the leaves from my hairy legs and arms, dried off, changed into slouchy clothes and prepared for dinner. What a day.

When I look back on it, it was good. Because I went for a ride in the rain. Because I went for a PT session in the rain. Because I didn't just hibernate and grump. Because I did these things, my day was filled with laughter and success. If I didn't, it would be all spent grumpy in the car, grumpy at my desk, and arriving home grumpy. But, I'm in a good mood. Are you?

So, how do you spend a rainy day?

[UPDATE - the very next day]
OK, so while it was wet on Tuesday, Wednesday was a whole new ballgame. The session in the park was so wet, I gained 4KG. I was drenched through my jacket and holding a litre of water in my shoes. But you know what, it was still damn good fun!

The dark blue is torrential rain, the yellow is just heavy rain.

Weight a week and see

7 days of shakes and dinners and have I gone mad yet? Well, maybe... Depends on your definition I guess.

I have been attending the regular 20 minute sessions in the park, doing some weird and wonderful things, and continuing to commute every day (and it's getting colder and colder in the mornings too!) plus I went for another jog with Logan one evening. We picked a larger park with an almost 1km loop and managed to knock off a few laps before my shins gave way, but our technique is good and our pace is pretty even as well, which means we'll be able to build to the 19km required for the Hard Labour weekend in October. We have a couple of runs planned for this week, hopefully my shins don't give way on me and we can get more of those laps done in an evening. I still find it amazing that he can follow me around a field attached by a stretchy cord and know where we are after a lap, and be able to predict when we're going to be cornering again on subsequent laps. Blows my mind.

What I have noticed in the last week is weight loss. My tummy has finally started to shrink. Yup, flabby belly is now just jelly belly! I have lost about 5kg without starving myself, although I have been missing my coffee and red wine. The first week of this low-carb diet is dull as hell. Shakes are fun for a day, maybe two, but now I'm on day 8 they just plain suck. But, in less than a week I'll never have to have another one and I get to start on my fantasy fortnight - meat meat meat!! Oh yea, low carbs and meat flavoured. I'm gonna like those 2 weeks.

With my dropping weight, and increasing strength, my power to weight ratio is going up as well. On Friday we did 'crunchie club' in the 20 minute session, doing crunchies, prone holds and side raises, with (for me) a set of 5 chin-ups in between each loop. I managed 5 loops, which means 25 chin-ups as well. A good sign of improving upper-body strength.

I was back in the park on Sunday morning with Tracey and Jody doing a double-session instead of a walk up the hill. It was cold and wet, but I soon warmed up. A short jog, then Tabata intervals, followed by another short jog and then a random game of 'run up the hill and grab a cone and bring it down and do that exercise while the other person runs up the hill and back' - a game I seemed to suck at because I kept coming back with squat-based activities. I'm sure it was rigged. In hindsight, I should have checked the cones at the top of the hill rather than on the way back down! Squat-hold, twice, hurts.

My blood sugars have been sitting high off and on for the week, mostly because I'm having trouble guessing how much to account for when drinking these shakes. I have been getting better, but so long as it's pretty well controlled, I'll wait till the meat weeks before I start really knuckling down on it. It's not bad for me, but it would be bad for you, however I have had much worse weeks (or months) in the past and once my internals get sorted it'll be back to strict control again.

I'm off to fantasise about dunking biscuits in my coffee now. Enjoy your next cup of coffee, it'll be a week before I get to taste one again!

Liquid food and enforced laziness

I went for a night jog with Logan last week. We only did about 2.5km around a small park, but it was to try out a lead and follow approach, and see if I could run at his pace. While I didn't race away, I did hold a good pace and kept it up for the whole time, only being distracted by the blind bugger behind me potentially going off-course due to his following-by-ear. A new method required, which we will trial on Thursday. We need a safe and non-annoying method as we're going to be using it for hours as we traverse 19km of mountain roads. Thankfully we have a bit of time up our sleeves before it happens. After 2.5km on grass at a steady pace, I was starting to feel my shins, but it was a very manageable pain.

On Friday however, doing a short jog to my lunchtime torture session, my shins flared up real quick. Sadly, this was the day Tracey had decided to do running drills. 50m jaunts doing all manner of hop, skip, frog march, high knees, butt kicks and other weird walks straight from the Department of Silly Walks. About half way through my legs were in agony, but I pushed on. Why? Well, I need to know if they will explode, get even more sore, or just reach a point and hang there. I don;t want to find out half way up a mountain that the answer is explode! So I did the rest of the session, keeping up, but not rocketing along, and the pain held. It was sore, very sore, the worst my legs have been in fact, but it tells me that when I get to that stage of pain, it's not going to get a lot worse, nor is it going to snap my legs in half. It's an awful pain tho, and one I do not like. A combination of more training and some foot-doctor visits should help, hopefully.

The weekend was to be filled with activity, sailing, bike rides, hill walks and more. However, sailing was cancelled (despite the fantastic weather) and I spent most of the day being lazy instead. On Sunday Logan said he'd melt in the rain, and cancelled the ride. The hill walk was cancelled too, except it was replaced with a circuit session in the garage. Amanda, her 2 girls, me and my girl were under the instruction of Tracey for almost an hour. 10 stations, 45 seconds on, 10 seconds off. 2 loops, then a 'rest' session of squats, then another shorter loop. It was great to see how much fitter Amanda is getting and having a crowd of us laughing, crying and swearing in the garage and in the rain would have made for a rather unusual site to passers by I'm sure.

Monday was an off day, but the first day of the ultra-low-carb 2 weeks. Yep, protein shakes for breakfast and lunch, a yummy dinner (no stodge) and another shake before bed. Despite eating pretty much no carbs for the entire day, I didn't crave anything, but my blood sugars remained high. It is almost defiantly due to fat being converted to sugars, so time will tell... Weight has remained static since the challenge started, but this diet may well help, and probably do my blood and organs some good too.

Tuesday I woke with a headache. A detox-like hangover. Not a skull piercer, just an annoying one in my left temple. Another protein shake for breakfast and at lunchtime a session in the park again. As part of an ongoing fit-test, Tracey had us run a mile (literally, 1.6km) and then do push-ups, crunchies, squats, side-to-side jumping and chin-ups. None of it was fun, starting from 100m into the run when my headache doubled in size, and with about 400m to go, my shins started to groan. I still managed under 9 minutes which is an average of about 10.5kph, a speed I'm happy to maintain for a while. If I can hold a speed of 10kph for a distance of 20km, I'll be a very happy man! My crunchies and push-ups were on-par with the last test, but I managed 9 chin-ups when I wouldn't have been able to do 1 a matter of weeks ago! More time to work on that tho, more improvements to be made, here's hoping the diet, running, cycling and workouts combine to produce immediate results!

Steady as she goes

In the early weeks of this 20 week challenge I was being hit left, right and centre by new ideas, new food options, new schedules and new ways to do what I have already been doing. We're well past half way now, on the ragged downward slope to the finish line, and it seems that routine has started to set in. This is both a good and bad thing.

It's been over a week since I last updated, and I have done 5 more sessions in the park since then. Some have been pretty hard, involving repetition of an exercise to enable pain in targeting of a single area of your body, to running about and exercising to Hairy McLeary, to resistance exercises that have made my butt muscles ache, not to mention buckets of toys and trading exercises. So far there has not been a single session repeated, Tracey is doing damn well there, and none of the participants have been trying to find excuses to skip the sessions (so far).

I'm still enjoying these short bursts of activity, and while I don't notice it all the time, there have been a few occasions where I have seen some muscle popping out to say hi, or looking a little more defined than when I saw it last.  While I don't feel stronger yet, I know I am. I can do chin-ups now! I can do way more pushups in a minute than I have ever been able to do.

My cardio is still pretty bad and needs a lot more work. I find that I tend to slacken off once I start puffing and blowing. I need more mental training in this area, as I know my body will work harder than my mind is saying it will. For example, when riding up a hill, as I start to blow, my mind starts trying to convince me that I should slow, or stop, and soon! Sometimes I can get around this by asking questions of myself - "am I gasping for breath?" or "are my legs screaming with white-hot pain?" - if neither of these (usual causes) is a definite 'yes' then it's my brain not my body that wants to stop, and far too often it demands a reassessment and rest over and over again.

Tonight, I go for a jog. Yes, it's gonna hurt my shins, and when the pain is bad I will stop, but it's going to be a little different as I will be jogging with a companion. Tonight Logan and I go for a run to size each other up. He might be too fast, or get his second wind before I do, or want to do a lot more distance than I can, but either way, we'll both be jogging in the dark tonight. This is part of the training for the Twizel Hard Labour weekend in 5 months time. By then I'll have to be able to run 19km, in the hills, and follow it up with a 90km road ride, and follow that up with a 44km mountain bike ride. Gawd I hope I can learn to run.

So, what about the bad thing about being in a routine? Exercise wise it's fine. More fitness for not much extra time commitment, however my diet is shabby again. I blame Tracey (as you would) but my incidental junk-food consumption has built up to pre-20-weeks levels. Cupcakes, banana bread (with choc chips) and Belgium slice have all featured in my daily food diary over the past few weeks, more than once. My weight is still over 100kg and my tummy is still there, and diet is the only real fix for that. Alcohol consumption is way down, carb consumption is down below previous levels (despite the cakes) but both of these are still too high. I might have to do a very restrictive diet for a few weeks to knock a few kilos off and trim the gut, avoid all of my favourite ingestibles and see if there's improvement. If there's none, then it's back to cakes and pies as diet is obviously not the cause of my wobbly tummy :)

If you have 20 minutes, why not join me in the park one lunchtime?

More work required

Last week was a bit of a blur. The days keep coming and going so fast it's hard to keep track of them. I'm up to my eyeballs in work and the piles never seem to diminish. My knees got real sore, so I attempted to rest them as much as possible for a week, and thankfully by the weekend they had mostly recovered.

The sessions in the park last week were the usual hard stuff, with a squat & pushup day having us do 165 of each of them. Seriously tough, but we did it! Friday saw us playing cards (thankfully I only drew the joker once, poor Len got it 3 times!) and earlier in the week we were made to run for the next exercise, collecting random (or were they?) tasks from a collection about 100m away. 

One of the reasons I was resting my knees is because I had a couple of races lined up on Saturday. The Christchurch Singletrack Club Fiesta! I had entered in 2 races - the Tranquilo and the Velovidad Solo. The night before I attempted to get both my bikes into the little convertible, and failed, so borrowed a friends cars to transport us to the Living Springs track.

I had of course forgotten to take my insulin and meter with me, so was possibly running a little high in sugars on arrival, but was feeling OK. I registered, prepared and got dressed in my '404 Mexican costume not found' set of plastic overalls. Man, it seemed like such a good idea the night before. We watched the Rapido race for a wee while and then Tracey headed off to marshal at the bottom of the very long downhill. I took the track down to the start line (bottom of the hill) and remembered very little of the track from my one and only lap of it about 6 months ago.

We started up the 4x4 farm track, a steep little climb that sucks the wind and energy out of you, especially when you hate uphills anyhow. Then it's a gradual but pretty constant grind up through 'the pines' to get to the top of the course for about 1.5km. By the time I got to the top, and began my descent, over 15mins had passed, not a good sign when the lap times are under that for the speedy buggers. The downhill was fun, lots and lots of fun, but I was hot and sweating like a piggy in my plastic bag and temperatures were ranging from roasting hot to briskly cold as I navigated the descent.

As I passed Tracey at the marshal point I stopped and stripped off my top, leaving just skin and plastic overalls. Yuk, man it was horrible in there. I realised I was losing a lot of water, more than usual and was getting very thirsty but more importantly, was getting very tired. I knew in about 200m I'd be climbing the 4x4 track and 'the pines' again. I was not mentally prepared to do it again. At this stage I had been overtaken by most of the field and could see Mel about 100m behind me. I rode half of the 4x4 track, pushed the rest, and continued uphill, stopping on occasion to have a rest. I wasn't panting massively, nor were my legs screaming, I was just exhausted, and the ride up that hill the second time had me thinking that I may have to retire before the finish - a DNF I never want to see beside my name. But after what seemed like an eternity I made it to the top with mad buggers with megaphones and soft toys and encouraging words had me revived and descending the hill for the 3rd time that day. 

I passed Tracey again, mentioned my exhaustion but carried on, dreading the uphill again. It's sad that my memory of this event will be the uphill section, because I'm pretty sure I loved the downhill bits! But as I turned onto the 4x4 road again, I immediately dismounted and pushed the entire road. I remounted and started riding 'the pines' knowing it was going to be long, hard and mentally challenging. This was however the last climb, and that thought alone kept me trudging up. Corners I had managed to ride in previous laps were now pushed around, steep pinches were pushed up, and when I knew I was almost at the camp again I was ready to collapse. Still, no major cardio blowout, nor were the legs in pain, just knackered. 

As I passed by the camp with about 500m to go (only half uphill) I was encouraged along again (cheers for the push Scatter!) and made it to the finish line in position 17 of 21 starters. A pretty poor show and very disappointing. I must have thought about giving up on that race 100 times. But once I was descending instead of ascending, I was OK. My last downhill had been sketchy but apart from one overly close encounter with a tree, it wasn't any slower than my previous one.

I met Tracey at the finish line (she must have run up that hill pretty fast!) and put my top back on (urgh! wet? Dripping!!) and sunk a couple of bottles of water pretty quick, and a couple of pies too. I decided there was no way I was going to cope in the singlespeed race, which was disappointing, but I could do that another day! Spectating that race was damn good fun as many singlespeed races are. 

Sunday was spent inside. No hill walks, no weight sessions, just relaxing in front of the computer again. Sadly, was up till after midnight working, so something has to give there. I need more time to do more fun things or I'm going to burn out mentally rather than physically.

This week will be back to usual, hopefully we'll have more participants in the park at lunchtime too. My next big event is no longer Tekapo, it now the Twizel hard Labour weekend - all 3 events, on tandem, with Logan. Gulp.

Past the half way point

I'm over half way towards my 20 week deadline. This whole exercise thing has become a bit of a habit now, and without it I get a bit sad. The same thing happened when I started riding to work each day. After doing it for a few years now, I tend to be a grumpy sod if I drive to the office, even if it's raining. I'd much rather ride my bike on a cold, dark, cold, wet, windy morning than drive with all the other angry commuters. Luckily, I get to use the cycle paths and park for a majority of my daily commute, so I don't tend to mingle with the traffic much, and as the weather gets wetter and colder, the number of other cyclists, runners, walkers and school kids reduces dramatically. In about 4 weeks time it will be rare to even see another person not in a car.

Over the last 2 weekends I have done some more hills. We went up Bowenvale Ave to Victoria Park, then further up the Harry Ell track to the Sign of the Kiwi, then behind Sugarloaf to then come down the Bowenvale track again. The number of people out walking on the Harry Ell track was enormous, more than I have ever seen before. Pity it is almost flat and requires no effort to walk at all. Never mind, at least they are out getting some fresh air. Last weekend we went to the dawn service in the square, then headed off to Taylors Mistake and climbed up Godley Head and down to the tunnel and gun emplacements on the other side. Landmarks like these tend to get forgotten about for the rest of the year, so it's nice to get out there now and then and reconnect with our past. And sweat a bit while we're at it.

My knees have been getting quite bad over the last couple of weeks. I have swapped my singlespeed commuter for my mountain bike so I can drop to lower gears when stopping/starting, and I'm restricting the jumping and lunging I'm doing, which hopefully will help. Some non-professional (anecdotal) advice is that it's my muscles growing faster than the connections, and to just keep going, but gently. It's not a pain I've had before, so I'm paying particular attention to it. If it gets worse I'll rest it completely for a week (no bikes, no squats) but I'm hoping a reduced impact week will help, as I have a race this weekend! Two races in fact. I'll need my knees for them, so fingers crossed for a pain-free weekend!

Sessions in the park have continued, and maintain the madness and chaos that I enjoy. Today, in the drizzle, we did a game of fetch, last week we had circuits and an awful (painful) prone hold test. Man I suck at those. Core strength? Yea, give me a big jar of that please cause I'm almost out! There's a few of us who attend these sessions 3 times a week now. It's nice to share the pain, and the blame.

Results? Over half way now, so should be seeing them right? Well, sore knees aren't helping, but I know I'm fitter, or at least faster. Yesterday I got a txt from Tracey making me stop, drop, and give her 20 pushups. Now! So I did, 20 pushups in about 30ish seconds under my desk. 10 weeks ago I could only manage 7 in a minute. Way better! While I still have a tummy that sticks out further than I am happy with, my pants are getting looser. I intentionally purchased some shorts before the challenge that were a bit too tight to wear, especially when sitting down, and now I can wear them comfortably. In the mirror I see the same person as always, so won't notice any physical changes until I see the before & after shots at the end of the challenge. There's another eight and a half weeks to go, so time to improve even further! I'm getting happier with my upper body strength, but I'm sure I can double the improvements so far. I'd love to be able to do 40 pushups in a minute, that over twice my previous max, and almost 6x my initial test. Not impossible I know, so something to work towards for sure.

It's funny that 10 weeks ago, I'd have been happy to be able to do 20 pushups in a minute, now I want to do more than that. I have always set my goals too high and been a bit sad that I don't achieve them, but this time I may have set them too low! Roll on the next fistful of weeks!!

Pains and plans

It's was a (now) typical weekend and early week.

We climbed up Castle Rock on Sunday from the track that starts half way up Bridle Path, ascends hundreds of meters skywards, then loops around Castle Rock for magnificent views. And then we came down again. And then we went to the French Bakery again. So long as Tracey goes with me, it's part of the training OK!

This week I have been suffering on my bike. Sore knees. It could be a mix of cycling and exercises (too many squats and lunges) or my bike setup (had to alter location of the seat when I broke a rail and awaited new seat's arrival) or just the fact I've started using more muscles than previous.

Tuesdays session in the park was leg focussed - lots of squats and jogging, and yesterday we (only two) were subjected to the circuit from hell, attracting comments from passing joggers. A mix of circuit, blood shunting and cathartic ketonic short hard restless activity left us gasping and tired with 90 seconds to spare. We opted to rest rather than jog it out.

So today, I rode gently to work, have no lunchtime activity planned, and will ride gently home again. If my knees are not better by the weekend, I will spend a week resting them, as I need all my leg power for the Singletrack Fiesta in less than 2 weeks time. I have entered 2 of the races, so will need all my leg power and none of the knee pain! Hey, do you have a sombrero, poncho and bandoliers I could borrow (and possibly destroy)?

DOMS and magical numbers

Tracey has always been annoyed that she can put me through my paces and exhaust me physically (and often mentally too) and yet the next day I am fine. No sore muscles, not aches, no pains. Her other victims clients all seem to be in some lesser of greater stage of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness but I have been getting away scot free. Well, not this week. I'm not sure which exercises did it, but after the Tuesday session I was a bit sore in the calves, and after Wednesdays session it got worse. Yesterday and today they have been seizing  up whenever I'm idle, like sleeping, or sitting at my desk, and causes much hilarity when I stand up again, like going for a coffee. So it was with a small amount of happiness when I saw Tracey in the park at lunchtime and she informed the ragged group (5 of us today) that she had a treat for us, and my sore legs wouldn't be tortured.

So, a quick warmup jog, then 12 pushups, then 12 squats, then 12 pushups, then 12 lunges, then 12 pushups... Hmmm... spotting a trend here. Sure enough, over the next 20 minutes we squatted, lunged, jumped and jogged, and between each of them, dropped and did 12 pushups. At the end of the 20 minutes I was shattered. My shoulders were screaming, I could barley hold my weight in the pushup position any longer, but we had made a pretty big achievement - 120 pushups! Crikey. That's a lot. So, I'm thinking tomorrow morning I'll be suffering DOMS in my legs and arms. Cheers for that.

A semi-midway goal update. In the first week I did the fitness test and managed to do 7 pushups in a minute (7! pah!) and on Tuesday I managed to do 23 in a minute. That's a pretty good improvement. I wonder how many I'll be able to do at the end of the 20 weeks? While my tummy isn't shrinking, my strength does seem to be improving. I don't really notice it though because I always work to 90% of my max anyhow, and I've never done the same workout twice so have no comparison between then and now. But that's a good improvement in my pushups, so something is defiantly going right. Roll on the next 10 weeks!

An April fool

Welcome to a new month. One filled with challenges and hurdles.

This month is the half-way month - where we'll cross the 10 week mid-point, and maybe do a retest on our week 1 fitness test and see if we're improving.

Daylight savings is over, but that's not so bad. Logan is keen to do a lot more riding, which is great news! Easter (or zombie jesus day, you pick) has passed, and I ate way too many eggs and buns. Way too many. Less than previous years where nothing else but chocolate was consumed for the entire weekend, but still a lot more than I should have eaten. Just as well there's none left now. Well, some crème eggs in the fridge, half a block of chocolate in the pantry and a pack of buns in the freezer, but it's still way less than I had on offer on Sunday!

The weekend was mostly sedentary, despite planning on a hill climb twice, neither happened (Tracey was unwell, then it was too wet/cold) but I did get a tandem ride with Logan, so some movement at least. The rest of the weekend was spent on the couch watching Penn & Tellers Bullshit. Funny stuff. Sometimes I almost choked on my butter laden hot cross bun as I lounged on the couch contemplating dinner.

So, short week this week, but 3 x sessions in the park planned, and fully intend to get some more km's under the wheels too as Tekapo is looming!

Not really looking forward to this long weekend

It's a short week - yay! I have done 2 x 20 minute sessions in the park - yay! I had my diabetic checkup today, and the doc is very happy indeed - yay! It's Easter this weekend - gulp!

I'm an eater. I like to stuff food in my face well after I'm full. I don't crave food, I just eat it when it's about. I don't have hankerings for things, I just swing open the fridge or pantry and consume. I can skip the chocolate, chippie and biscuit isles of the supermarket with ease, but if it lives in my kitchen, it's going to get gobbled.

Easter is my kind of holiday. I'm not religious, so for me it's all about the eggs! White chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, nutty, caramel, hollow and solid, I love 'em all! They live in my cupboard right now, and if given half a chance I'd consume the lot in a single sitting.

I know people who have Easter eggs that are over a year old, just rolling around in their desk drawer. They eat one of those small caramel eggs and are satiated. Or maybe they have two. I don't. I finish the pack.

It's not just chocolate eggs, I'd do it to a pack of Girl Guide biscuits too, dunking them one after the other into my coffee. A bag of chippies is never half eaten, it's opened, consumed and the empty packet is tossed in the trash. I have memories (pre-diabetic days) of opening a family-size pack of jet planes and scoffing them all while watching the telly. I always want another scoop of ice cream, a larger slice of pie, another sausage roll, the bigger muffin and extra helpings of whatever is going.

So, why am I not the size of a house? No idea frankly. My weight for the last decade has been between 105KG and 110KG. Even now, I have lost almost no weight since starting the 20 week challenge 7ish weeks ago. Not too surprising I guess seeing as how I haven't gained any weight being lazy or active in the past. The only time I have lost weight was back when I was diagnosed as a diabetic, and I was losing about half a kilo a day. Yea, that's rapid weight loss, and I don't recommend it, especially as it went on for several weeks!

When I pack my lunch in the morning, it's huge. It's not full of bad stuff - lots of proteins, salads, some fruit and nuts, maybe an egg or two, but it's a large amount of food, and it's usually gone before 3pm, sometimes it's gone by 1pm. 

Is it my mother fault? Did she force me to finish my dinner before I could go and play? Did I have to compete with my brother for a second helping or the bigger dessert? No, or at least I have no memory of it. Mum's not to blame.

Is it psychological? Does eating replace love? Do I feel prettier when I eat? Does it combat depression? Does it give me a secret thrill? No, it's just food.

Is it biological? Am I deficient in amylin? Do I have a high/fast metabolism that requires constant feeding? Do I have a second stomach? Well, maybe to points 1 & 2, but no to #3. Diabetics are often deficient in amylin (the bodies major satiety hormone) which may explain why I still want to eat when I'm full. And I'm rarely ever cold, even in the cooler winter months, which means a faster metabolism right? 

In reality, I have no idea. It could be some or all of the above, or none of it. But with Easter on the horizon, the fistfuls of nuts or fruit will be replaced with chocolate. Boiled eggs will be replaced with chocolate eggs. And I will want to consume all of the time because I won't get full, or happy, or satisfied until it's all gone. 

I wonder how many kilometres of hill walking I'd have to do to burn off a 6-pack of marshmallow eggs? I wonder if I could possibly burn the Easter calories off in the same weekend? Maybe I should head to the hills now? There are a lot of eggs out there, and only 4 days of the weekend to burn them off again!

Sigh. Wish me luck!

Sleeping in versus clambering hills

It was quite a few months ago, maybe even a year ago, that I last scaled the giddy heights of Bridle Path. Back then it was because Tracey was doing the 20 week challenge, and now it's me. It's a damn boring track. Long, steep and not much fun. Especially if you just head up from the gondola, ascend the 280m to Summit Road, cross over, drop down the 200m descent on the other side, then turn around and head back again.

As I said, a year ago I did this, and man it hurt for days afterwards. I hadn't done any walking for years before I took it on, and I discovered my calves big time. Today we planned to ascend to Summit Road, but then take a sidetrack along Wahareraupo Track which jutted out over Lyttelton and Governors Bay. According to my map, it didn't drop down as far as the southern side of the Bridle Path did, but had a sharp wee climb in it somewhere.

So, using the best preparation possible - a bottle of wine and chocolate cake and ice cream the night before, then a lateish night to bed - I awoke to my alarm and the sound of rain pounding on the roof. And it was dark. Summer was gone! Much procrastination and hoping for cancellation didn't pay off, and at 7:30 we were heading to the hills, and I was trying to convince myself it would all be worthwhile, I'd enjoy it more than a sleep in, it would be more satisfying than a hot coffee and a newspaper. 

At the foot of the hill it was cold and windy, but drying out and the skies were clearing. There were just three of us today (and Austin) with sickness or other lame excuses keeping the others tucked up in bed, and we struck out for the top of the hill. It was nowhere near as bad as the previous time, and once on top, we headed along the Wahareraupo track, to a couple of awesome lookout points with gray, but magnificent views of the harbor and hillsides.

After taking in the views, we followed the track around the western side, then up the vertical path to the ridge of the spur we'd been tracking along. Then it was mostly downhill back to Summit Road, and down Bridle Path to the car.

On the way up I had noticed some people on the track that kicks off half way up Bridle path and heads up quite sharply to Castle Rock. I saw a different group heading up on my way down. So, I'm now trying to convince Tracey that next time we do a Bridle walk, we head up there! An even bigger challenge!!

Normalish transmissions resume next week. Last weeks sessions in the park will be replicated this week, as well as a better diet (maybe) and more km's on the bike. We're approaching the halfway point of the 20 weeks, so it might be time to step it up another gear! 

Crippling self and colleagues

I did four of those 20min sessions last week, and felt I deserved a weekend off. Thankfully, I had plenty of work to do, so spent most of it hunched over my laptop smashing the keys randomly.

Tracey had organised for some of her clients to do the annual City 2 Surf walk/run that weekend, and I was roped in as courier, chef and welcoming committee on the Sunday. What I envisaged as being a relaxing snooze on a blanket in the park while waiting for them to arrive turned out to be a 2 part session that left me aching for days afterwards. I had 2 x chilly bins loaded with food and drink, and a large bag filled with tarps and blankets and more. Sadly, the closest I could get a park was quite a distance away, and combined with a long-cut, a mis-direction and a wandering about aimlessly, I was carring those damn bags for 2.3km! My shoulders were aching and I was beat. I almost gave up on a couple of occasions, ready to throw it all on to the ground where I was and damn them all! But, I managed to set up camp and quaffed coffee till they all arrived, ate, drank and then we were heading off again. This time I had 2 helpers to carry the bags, but within 500m they were complaining about weight, so I was a gentleman and left them and the bags at the side of the road and jogged off to the car. It was still about 1.5km away, so I was determined to jog the whole way, and I did. Sweet. For the rest of the day, and all of Monday, my shoulders were in pain, reminding me that an exercise session doesn't have to be planned, and incidental exercise is sometimes harder than planned stuff.

This week we have been back in the park, but with company this time. Several people from my office had registered interest in the lunchtime sessions, so were ready to rock over on Tuesday. Well, one pulled out because she had meetings all week long, and another had massive blisters on his feet from the City 2 Surf, and another forgot (pregnant, so shrinking brain at fault). So session one was just 3 of us, and it went really well. It was similar to sessions I did the week before, but different again. All of us were exhausted, but happy, at the end of the session and still keen to return the next day. 

That next day was today. Both of yesterdays companions were complaining about soreness, and underperforming in netball or jogging after work that day. A sure sign they had been working hard. Tracey was most pleased. Today we were four and did lots of jogging/running, boxing (which I can already feel in my arms!) and cards. Yes, the dreaded deck came out again with jumping, squatting, lunging, running and pushing options dealt out with no compassion at all. Finishing off with a prone hold was cruel, but it's kinda nice that when they were over you don't have far to fall. I felt this session was a little easier than yesterday (I may have got lucky with the cards) but it sure wasn't a stroll through the tulips.

Tomorrow is a rest day, possibly a morning session or a shin-test jog for me. Hopefully no upper-body action as my arms may not recover from today. 

Ahhh, that's what they are talking about

Tracey's clients often mention soreness of their muscles on the days following their sessions with her. I have not experienced this after any of the sessions we've done, much to her extreme disappointment. It could be because I'm super fit and an exercise machine - highly unlikely.  Or it could be because I also ride to work & back, thereby keeping my muscles moving and fresh - plausible, but really? Or it could be because I don't push myself hard enough in the sessions to get to that DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) stage - but I do try, honest!

However, yesterday my calves were almost locked solid with DOMS. They still hurt today, but more of a dull ache than the pain of yesterday. Why? Not sure, but it has to be the 3 x sessions in a row in the park earlier this week. I also have a bit of soreness and tiredness in my upper body. Not as bad as the legs were, but noticeable. I have run up hills (kinda) and pumped iron (or lead) and skipped and lunged and crunched at home, but these park sessions, they are a new thing altogether... I hurt after them. My body is telling me that yes, you are working hard.

To be sure that she is actually killing me in the right way, we're having another session today. That will make 4 sessions in a week. I'm just hoping to survive, especially as we'll be joined by Glenn who is a baton wielding shift-worker (guess the profession!) and 10x as fit as I am, so my competitive streak will be well engaged just to keep up with him. 

If this is my last post, let it be known that I did have fun, and even though I died doing these drop and give me 20 sessions with Tracey, I still highly recommend them. After all, seeing others in similar pain for the 20 minutes is like a soothing balm when you're going through it yourself. The session starts in an hour, I'll make a note here if I make it back. Wish me luck, and strength!

[Edit @ 2PM]

I survived! Glenn took it in his stride, as expected, but I managed to knock off #4 for the week. Phew. No helicopter rescue required :)

It ain't no walk in the park

Tracey is planning on doing lunchtime intensive session in the park. In just 20 minutes she can work you harder than an hour in the gym could match. A warm-up brisk walk or jog to get there, 20 minutes of hard out, relentless activities, then a jog/stagger back to the office. Nice, compact, fun.

Today we had the 3rd session in 3 days. Each day has been completely different, like some kind of power-circuit devised by Satan herself.

As previously reported, Monday was tough. The seconds crawled by, but the 20 minutes flew by.

Tuesday was a little harder. The sun was shining hot and heavy and water/hydration was on my mind. I jogged there and arrived with sore shins, which pained me throughout the session, and I ended up with very sore calves at the end of it all. A quick jog back to the office didn't ease the soreness and I knew that they had worked hard this time.

Today, day 3 of 3, 3 in a row, bad news comes in 3's, 3's company, we did it again. Today we were joined by Amanda, my willing accomplice in vertical shortcuts, who had no idea what she had got herself in for. Also, today it was a roaring southerly, bitterly cold rain and grey skies. As I waited at the lights to go into the park I had to convince myself this was the right thing to do as my hands were going numb in the cold. I knew soon I'd be warm. And how right I was!

Due to the wetness, we sheltered under the trees and did more running/lunging/stepping this time, keeping a good safe distance from the wet ground. Amanda did bloody well. I would have told her at the time, but I was puffing and panting so hard my lungs were otherwise occupied and speech was not possible. We slaved away for 20 minutes, leaping and lunging and stepping all over the place, and ended with some standing jumps (hoops shots) and another 20 minutes had passed.

Verdict? 3 sessions in a row is very painful. Mentally I can cope, but physically I think I'm pushing the limits... These sessions are intense, fast and afterwards you know you've been working hard. I love them. Not sure if we'll get another one in this week, but have 3 planned for next week with several others from my office along for the experience. They have no idea what they have agreed to!

Now I feel like I'm being pushed, exercised, tested and working hard. Mentally, these sessions are doing more for me than an hour of weights, or a bike ride, or a hill walk, or anything else I've done so far. Highly recommended.

Fun in the park

Today was the first of what I hope will be many more session in the park.

One of the goals of DropAndGiveMe20 is to do power-session for 20min in the park for small groups at lunchtime. I was the guinea pig today, putting my body on the line to further Tracey's desires to make grown men cry. The concept is simple, get there, do 20 minutes of hard exercises and then go away again. With a different routine each time, and a hard task master in control, these will be short and tough, but fun. 

Was it fun? Well, kinda. As I have said before, I like the unexpected, I like the circuits, I like the constantly changing activities, even if it does start to get hard. Very, very hard. At the end of 20mins, having run, crabbed, stepped, sprinted, lunged and jumped my way through a myriad of activities, I was spent. Completely exhausted. Perfect.

It was so good in fact, that I think I would go every day. With a different grab-bag of tasks each time, some fun and games, plus sunshine and fresh air away from the office, this could easily be my new daily activity.

So I hope these do become more regular, and I intend to attend as many as I can. You can too!

Twin Peaks? Lady Humps?

Ahhh, the weekend. The birds chirp as the sun gently rises on a calm and still day. You can hear gardens growing, flowers opening, and a day full of promise beginning. Or rather, on this particular morning, I awoke as the sun pierced the curtains sending a dagger of light into my skull, erratic and jittery due to the cold wind shaking them apart randomly with the early morning cold snap. The dog was licking my face with his enormous, slobbery tongue, breathing his hairy breath into my airspace, and the neighbours were chainsawing a tree down on the fenceline.

Saturday dawned somewhere between the two of those. I wished for the former, but it was probably closer to the latter. Today was a 'work at home' day, and that's what I did. I went outside maybe twice, but for less than a few minutes, and spent the rest of the day on the couch hunched over my computer and watching TV and doing nothing much else. The good news was that despite thinking it might happen, I never did get sore from the Friday session. Phew.

When Sunday rolled around, I was ready and rearing to go. The suggestion of a timed march up the Huntsbury/Vernon lump, then down and up Rogers Track and back had been accepted by all the Sunday walkers. They didn't seem to realise that as the crow flies, both tracks were 100m elevation over about 250m distance. The track however was not direct, thankfully, so the distance travelled would be different, and longer. We met at the table where the tracks start, and as I had the dog, I started on the other hill to the rest of the group. Yes, Austin was back and keen as mustard to go, but would be permanently distracted by people if we hung with them. At about 8:10am we struck out, they went Huntsbury way, we went Rogers way. 

Feeling a bit bullish we decided to jog the first bit, which got the lungs burning very quickly and i was gasping for air all the way up. Austin was great on the tracks, only becoming a burden at the stile where he had to be carried over (and he's pretty close to a wriggly 40kg) and a quick poop on the way back down. We managed to keep a good pace all the way up, but legs were hurting and lungs burning by the time we saw the seat, and hit Rapaki Track after nine and a half minutes. I could have sat in the sun and recovered, but instead, I turned tail and we pushed down again. 

We got back to the table and I quickly gave Austin a drink (time stopped) and I realised it had taken about 30 seconds less to come down than it did to go up. I knew at that point that I had started too hard, and resolved to take it easier on the climb next time!

Dog watered, we struck out for the 2nd hump. I had seen the others heading up as I was on the other side of the valley, all heading in different directions, some getting lost, some taking the easier path, some the not so easy path, but they all made it and we crossed paths towards the bottom of the hill. Based on that, I assumed this hill would be as long and hard as Rogers was. We took the short cut track up the hill, steep but more direct, and by the time we were back on the trail I was gasping for air, legs were screaming in pain and I knew I was about half way there. Austin was heaved over the stile and we recovered on the fairly flat bit of trail, then pushed up the last steep section to the table. I almost gave up with 50m to go, but pushed on knowing that the downhill would be easy in comparison, a real walk in the park. I reached out, grabbed the table, climbed on top of it and sat and looked across the valley at the others walking up Rogers track. They were about half way, up which surprised me, and checking my time showed that this hill was indeed much quicker than the other hill. 

Once the stars had stopped spinning we started the descent. Slowly and gently down the first section, then once on the trail we jogged along at a good pace. Over the stile and a decision to keep on jogging rather than go down the shortcut. I was fairly sure I could make better time going faster and longer than I could going slower and shorter. Plus, I was enjoying the jog, so we kept on going. We hit the bottom gate and moments later were back at the table. Time stopped. 33:41 - crikey!

Yes, I was way faster than I thought I'd be, it was also a lot harder than I thought, but I set a good time, one I am going to be hard pushed to beat. I will beat it tho, however to keep things fair I will take the same paths as this time so my times are a direct comparison. No cheating.

The others arrived at the table over the next 20ish minutes, all relieved to be back and not have another hill to contend with. It was our shortest hill walk, in time or distance, but it was the hardest by far. A great wee outing. I love challenges like this.

This morning I got away without doing a session, not sure how I managed that, but my legs were a bit tired so happy to ride to work unmolested by lunges or curls. I may do a lunchtime session in the park - the first of many I hope. It could be great fun, it might be bloody awful!

Hyper-something

Things got harder. I'm not sure if she was tired and angry, or just got up on the wrong side of the bed, but todays morning session was maybe the hardest one so far.

Blood shunting was fun, circuit was fun, but after both of those I was still fully functional. Even as the day(s) passed I was not feeling drained or in pain. Today will be a different story. 

Focussing on the upper body today. A warm-up was doing one round using a lighter set of weights, consisting of pull downs, bench press, inclined rows, bicep curls, reverse grip pull downs, upright rows, incline bench press, side raises (standing and on a ball!), dips, crunchies, prone holds and more. The easy loop set the scene and got me good an warm, then it was one rep of something, then on to another thing, then back and do them both again.

It's funny (now) that lying down and doing crunchies was my 'rest' period, and actually felt like it. Today I did more than I had done previously, and found it difficult, but not impossible. However, unlike previous sessions, when riding to work, I was feeling drained and even though all my arms had to do was to hang on, they were like lead weights for the entire ride, and even now complain when I sip my coffee or scratch my nose. It may help me stop putting food in my mouth if it's too painful to lift the food that high! And she's looking for more weights too, so future sessions will only get harder :( At least I'll only need my legs for the hill session on Sunday.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed todays session as well. I need to be pushed beyond my comfort level, otherwise I'll just coast along, being the lazy sod that I am. A session like this proves I physically can do well in excess of my mental barriers. Roll on the weekend!

Shunting ain't as easy as it sounds

It's been a bad week. Filled with sadness, madness and red wine. When you mind is occupied with stresses and disasters, it's hard to focus on doing exercises, or even finding the time to do them. It almost feels rude to do them when you know that time could be better spent, or at least it seems so inside you head.

First, the sadness. Last week we lost a good friend, Sam, and on Monday, Tracey took our old boy Max to the vet as he was acting odder than usual over the weekend, doing stuff that was strange even for him. The news wasn't good, and so we spent one last night with him at home before taking him to he vet for his last time on Tuesday. Some will say "hey, it's only a cat" whereas others will know the sadness I felt, and how draining it is. Max had been with us for almost 14 years, and he was an adult when we 'acquired' him from the neighbours, so he must have been 16-17 years old, which is a damn good innings for a furry friend. As I have often stated, I've had him longer than I've had my daughter. He's been a permanent fixture in the house, so I was devastated when his time to go had finally come. No exercises on Monday evening, or Tuesday morning, and as for Tuesday evening...

Well, we had some tickets to the Ellerslie Flower Show Garden party, and swanky fund raiser event for the opening of the show. At $125 per ticket, I was very happy to have some gifted to me. I met Tracey and we talked about Max, and entered the show, grabbed a wine, and began the naughty sorrow drowning session. I had several wines, about 6 glasses I think, and some nice hors d'oeuvres as we mooched in the sunshine being completely underwhelmed by the show and displays. Possibly tainted by Max's departure, but also because it was just plain old boring. But the wines were nice. We wandered, sipped, munched, then headed home for some bacon & eggs before bed.

Wednesday morning arrived, and fresh as a daisy I got Tracey to do something fun. Circuit she says, OK I reply, and go for a run. 1km later, I'm ready and we do a rapid session. Pull downs, push ups, raises, crunchies and more, in a loop, 45 seconds on, 15 seconds to recover and move to the next thing. 3 laps of that and I was a write off. Great fun, although 45 seconds is a bloody long time on some of the exercises! 

Thursday morning and having enjoyed the circuit, I'm introduced to 'blood shunting' - or possibly 'bloody exhausting' would have been a better name for it. I went for a jog, and decided to see if I could go further than 1km, test my shins out. Sadly, at about 1.25km the pain started, and at 1.4km I stopped as the pain was getting quite bad. Still not ready for the 6.5km jog to work, but still hopeful before the end of the challenge. Back inside, and it's shunting time - swapping from killing the legs to killing the arms, no rest in-between, just go go go! I hardly remember all of the exercises as there was little gap between them. 10 different things done in 15 minutes, ending with a painful, gut searing prone hold. While it was short, it was fun. I would love to try it for a full 30 minutes, or even 45 minutes. However, I may not be able to walk after that.

I made the mistake of telling Tracey this morning that I haven't actually suffered after a session. I hope this is because I'm slightly active, riding to work and back each day, plus the occasional evening session too, so no real lactic acid build-up taking place. She thinks it's because I'm not working hard enough. Her theory is easier to test than mine is to prove, so I'm expecting some bloody hard session in the coming weeks.

Am I fitter? Probably, although I'm still depressed at how crap I am at what seem to be very basic and easy exercises. And I leaner? No. Still have the gut, but now that some normality has returned to life, I may be able to focus on food a little better too.

This Sunday's walk might be fun, in a crying in the gutter kind of way. Double-peak time trial. From the carpark in the valley, we head up to the top of the Huntsbury/Hilsborough hump, touch the table, then down and up Rogers Track to Rapaki Track, then back. Two very steep climbs with the clock ticking. I'm hoping for under an hour... Each climb is 100m ascent (or more) so not quite a walk in the park!