Sharla's New Log - Attempting to Avoid Becoming A Slovenly Pig

[Sharla]

I have been elected as my sister's personal trainer.

It all began when i found and bought some online nutrition software - will get the name later yesterday morning. It should be handy once it's set up properly as it keeps a database of food so you just add it to each meal in the diary and you can track your consumption.

At the moment it's a bit fiddly as it's American and a lot of things I would consider normal are not in the database like Weet-Bix and skinless chicken breast . So i have to use CalorieKing to google the figures and add it to the database. I don't have a lot of patience for the fiddlyness of it but I'm persisting with the hope it become manageable.

So Rachel looked interested so i added her as a user and she asked to go swimming with me and we used that as her first training session.

It took an hour to get her to burn 325 cal. That was really hard work for her. It's much less than I would've suspected according to how much people are supposed to burn but i did get her puffing occasionally and she did a lot more than she really wanted to do.

Tuesday
Morning walk/jog with Rachel. We did my little cicuit (3 laps around a few local blocks). It took almost an hour. Completely walked the first one and walk/jogged the 2nd and third. She found it really hard and I couldn't leave her at all otherwise she wouldn't keep going. I don't know why she seems to find it so hard yet her heart rate is not so high. Perhaps it's because she's so over-weight it's almost more anaerobic rather than aerobic .

I learnt after the second lap that I couldn't push her to jog for 20 m very many times before it all felt too hard for her. We cut the jogs down to about 5 m and did them more often. Even her fast walk was slower than my normal one.

It makes swimming seem like more the thing for her. At least in the pool I can get her to do kick with fins and do it myself without and she can woop my arse making some cheeky comment as she passes me. It's easier to find things she can enjoy in the pool and feel less useless doing. The dog loved the walk though so we can't stop that completely!

So it was exercise for her but not for me - will get to road runners speed training tonight for myself and tomorrow morning I'm considering taking her to the gym to do some cardio on the rower and we can both do some resistance training etc.

[Sharla]

Last Night Made it to speed training -

I can't say there was much speed about the way i was running though!
2.2 km warm up followed by the following intervals -1600m, 1200m, 800m and 400m.
The others were timing their breaks but i didn't have my watch and felt I wasn't running fast enough to justify much of a break so i generally left at the same time as whoever i saw finish just a bit ahead of me.

Walked about 2 kms to the bus stop to warm down. Overall felt good and the group was a friendly bunch. Told one of them i'd pay him $5 if I didn't show up next week. He looked a bit confused until i told him i needed to blackmail myself.

Wednesday Morning

Cycled to the gym. Planned weights with some cardio between to help kick up my heart rate.

15 mins on the rower - 5 mins easy - last ten with 30 secs hard alternating with 30 secs easy.
One set of shoulder press and seated row (underhand grip to relax my shoulders)
2 mins on treadmill at around 12 km/hr but foot didn't appreaciate it.

Then did the following with 2 mins on the rower between each set (1 set - 2 exercises):

• counterweight lat pull down and tricep dip X 3
• shoulder press and seated row
• shoulder press, Bicep curls X2
• Shoulder press, bicep curls and seated row (got a bit confused there as other people hop on and off the machines bw my sets and i couldn't remember where i was up to but it's all good!)

After the last set above i did the following without cardio between as i was running short on time:

• hamstring curls & leg extensions X 3 sets
• hip raises on mat with extra weight on my abdomen for resistance & squats on 2 medicine balls X 3 sets

Medicine balls were a little awkward. Had none very similar in size so one leg was bent noticabley more than the other. One was more 'squishy' than the other too. Did first two sets of 20 with those balls with them the opposite way round for the second set. Found that the 'squishy' ball was too soft and it made the exercise easier than it's meant to be by absorbing all my wobble!

Then swapped the squishy one for a harder one and did 15 reps with the balls each way for one longer set.

Finished with fit ball hamstring stretches, psoas stretches and band chest stretch. Found my right side is a little tighter than my left.

Didn't get abs in this morning but will hopefully cover them tonight - am going to a kickboxing gym - my first ever kickboxing coach has a gym I need to visit.

[Sharla]

First Session at the new kickboxing gym -

Was good

The coach was actually my first ever coach who I happened to run into at the supermarket before christmas. I was putting off going because of the price of the classes on the web but when I arrived I found out they are changing it to $10 a week with no contract from $13 a session - much better!

There is no sparring as far as I can see and no ring - it's all classes which would've turned me off at one stage. Now it works well as I can concentrate on technique myself but tend to get paralysis by analysis. Here i get good technical coaching but also a really good workout with good stretches etc at the end.

Also since it's kickboxing and I haven't kicked for years I'm a long way off of feeling co-ordinated enough to spar in kickboxing anyway. Boxing would be different - this however is kickboxing with knees and elbows. When I kickboxed before it was without knees and elbows at all!

Now I'm working the bag in combinations using knee and elbows as ordered - bringing me into a range I've never deliberately moved into before. It's quite foreign but i think that's what makes it fun - i'd probably get bored of the equivalent boxing class without sparring.

My shins need toughening up again - they didn't appreciate being slammed into the bag. My balance needs work too. I will enjoy trying to build that up again!

Rachel had a pilates class today and worked tonight so I haven't checked in with her though. I'm impressed with her attitude though - until now she's always been very reluctant to consider eating healthy. Today she went out and bought diet cordial .

[Sharla]

Thursday

Swam with Rachel. She sat down on the steps at one point between laps and noticed a heart symbol with an up arrow next to it on her heart rate monitor. She showed me thinking it meant something like her heart could explode at any moment. I told her no it means you need to get it higher - it's too low.

Geez did that work well! It was like something had bitten her on the arse then and she pumped out 357 cal worth of exercise ten minutes faster than it took her to burn 315 in the pool last time!

I swam with her without fins while she used fins. We also incorparated some running, squats, pull-ups using the pool ladder and push-ups at the shallow end on the side of the pool. It was an easy workout for me but I'm still sore pretty much everywhere from yesterday's effort so it was good to loosen up.

Rachel's food consumption si going well. As she is heavier her resting metabolic rate is higher at the moment than mine. I'll need to be stricter than her. I'm not eating any individual thing that's really bad but dinners cooked by other people are not always great. Will have to attempt to dominate the kitchen a bit more. Probelm is other people who cook at the moment are too helpful and make more than one night's worth at a time so if it's a bit fatty we're stuck with it two nights running.

Fri morning

Rachel came with us to burnside for Road runners session. I started with the main group to do a hillier run but my foot really hated it this morning. I think my trail runner which i was wearin exacerbate the problem a bit. So i turned back and did a walk-jog session with Rachel. She's getting better at pushing herself which is awesome!

Ken who organizes the runs and follows people on his bike was really warm and encouraging to her. We went for coffee with the group afterwards and people we're really friendly to her - even though most of them are disgustingly fit they didn't look down their nose at her at all. It was really nice of them.

I have kickboxing tonight which should be ok for the foot as that didn't bother it last time. Wednesday at lunch time I got around to buying a really cheap pair of supermarket shoe sport insoles and just put the left one in my bike shoes. That helped a bit I think. There is one thing left to try though.

I need to fiddle with the pedals so they release the cleats more readily so I don't have to twist as hard. This bike was my mum's before it was mine and she always uncleats on the right when she stops at lights etc whereas I uncleat on the left so i can put my foot on the curb. It's possible she's loosened the right over time but the left is tighter and being the one I use the most giving me trouble.

[Sharla]

Friday night I didn't manage to get to kickboxing - I decided to try finding a route with less traffic on the bicycle but just got lost - so did a longer than normal ride but didn't get there. That is probably not a good thing as my foot needed some time off.

Also rested it over the weekend and tried to get organized with uni stuf - why oh why did i put so much crap on random pieces of scrap paper!!

Went to see a physio on the weekend. Actually heard about them during a running clinic last year - they find your weaknesses and give you drills etc to improve your running and prevent injury. I like this idea - why wait until you're injured to go to a physio if you can prevent it all together! Still I put it off for financial reasons and because i wanted to know i could stick to a routine enough to do the exercises given to me before i started.

He did have some good things to say like I hold side plank higher than most people are able to, my form is good from T1 up and my ankles and feet are good - even though my standing arch is a little flat i have good arches in movement (i think from barefoot running).

The area I knew let my down though is my hips. I also have a very tight left ITB which suprises me. On video he showed me when i run my right hip drops which is bad but even worse my left hip just floats sideways past my left foot. This has the knee pointing in which si not good for that either.

This explains why i couldn't bring my left foot up easily when i was on Scrap's verti-run. It's not something i notice so much in normal running until i'm shown and now i notice it all the time. I'm using the wrong muscles to bring my left foot up. I have been given a program to follow 3 times a week and have another appointment in 2 weeks time to make sure I am doing everything correctly and get some running drills. He's also goign to measuer my calf strength then incase that is another factor.

Monday
Cycled to work, cycled to kickboxing - did the hour class and cycled home.
Some things still feel very un-natural and the combos are often very weird.

I'm still trying to work out how much of that is because i have been stale, because it involves knees & elbows and in a few cases possibly it's just not very realistic for most actual sparring circumstances and more of an exercise in balance etc. I'll reserve my judgement for now because some things that feel very awkward to begin with but then get easier.

What is very good is the stretching and the fact that whatever we do in orthodox we do in southpaw - each side is worked evenly which is exactly what i need! The atmosphere is also very friendly and I like that no one is really trying to prove anything to anyone but themselves here.

Tuesday Morning
Cycled to the gym - did my physio routine - took ages as i need to control things fairly precisely. Didn't get a sweat up but I figure as it becomes more familiar i will and it's worth it.