Bad Blogger. Good PhD Student.

Tags

health, PhD, Running, Student

I’m still here. I have been pouring all my words and energy into my PhD. Four weeks till submission. Four weeks.

Haven’t run. Have put on weight. Am so close to finishing this crazy thing. Just. Want. To. Finish.

Hungry

Tags

healthy-living, Jillian Michael, Running

Is it just me or do all the ladies out there get ravenously hungry before Lady Time??

All I wanted today was something salty. I stayed away from junk and made a killer beef and black bean dish with steamed veg and rice for dinner. It totally solved my cravings. I’m planning to have a peppermint tea and some strawberries with yoghurt for dessert. Strawberries are in season here at the moment and they are stupidly cheap. We cannot get enough 🙂

So in my quest to get back into running, I did a quick Jillian Michaels workout this morning with husband. It feels good to have done some strength training as its been ages since I worked out properly. There was enough leg work to feel the burn but not enough to blow out my legs. Good thing as I cannot wait for tomorrow’s run……

 

From little things…..

Tags

Running

I have been so so so LAZY.

I ran the 14km race, felt pretty chuffed with myself then curled up on the couch. For months. My 12WBT ended up a mess, no real commitment and I fell behind with the running schedule big time. I gained weight instead of reaching my goal weight. UGH.

So this morning, I jumped on the treadmill. This is embarrassing but I could only manage 1km. Yep. 1 freaking km.

Its shocking to realise how quickly cardio fitness declines. But it was also a great wake up call. Gotta get back in the game….

Here it comes, the 14km…..

Tags

healthy-living, Running

Yikes!

Its a week away. Have I prepared. NO! Am I excited? YES!

The City to South, the big one (for me anyway) has been ramped up now that I am fundraising for this race. I am raising money for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation that helps Indigenous kids access books and learn to read. Its a fantastic cause and already we have raised $2500. If you want to support us the link is http://www.everydayhero.com.au/anita_heiss

So, this race is the longest I will have run EVER! I want to finish it in under two hours. I will need to combine walking and running but no matter what I want to run most of it. This week will be preparation, lots of water, lots of stretching and taking care of myself. Pasta for dinner on Friday night (YUM!) and to bed early on Sat. Its a mind over matter thing. I know I can do this.

Look out for a race report next Sunday (wow that sounds so real…..!)

A 12 Week Body Transformation coming my way

Tags

12WBT, healthy-living, Michelle Bridges, Running

So, last year, when I first started taking better care of myself I relied heavily on the cookbooks and eating programs by Michelle Bridges – star personal trainer from the Australian Biggest Loser program.

Um… no thats not me, its the banging body of my fitness idol – Michelle Bridges  (Source)

Since starting work full time I have been full of excuses about why I have not been sticking to my plan. All of them are bullshit. You know them: the lies we tell ourselves to stay in a rut. To not do the work we need to do to reach our goals. To have another beer. To have another chocolate. To sleep in instead of smashing a run. Yeah, I have a drawer full of them.

I am so sick of carrying around this extra weight and gaining (?WTF?) what I worked so hard to lose last year.

So I joined the phenomenally successful 12WBT aka 12 Week Body Transformation run by none other than Michelle Bridges. Im not going to bang on forever about how good it is, if you want to know about it look here.

It started on Monday.

Like her books, the program consists of a sensible yummy eating and workout plan that is already smashing me and its only day 2! I started this to do two things: 1 Lose the last 15 kg between me and my goal weight of 65 kilos. And 2 to up my running game. I selected the Train for 10KM run program to really focus on building my running back up again. The bonus for me is the strength workouts are tailored for runners, so finally I am doing a strength workout that will actually improve my time and duration.

Kids, Im excited!

So, I’m getting back into tracking here. I got so much inspiration from all of my WP friends last year – your stories kept me so motivated. Im looking forward to sharing this transformation with you all. Maybe at the end, I will be brave enough to reveal my pictures to the world. I gotta tell ya, that before shot is NOT a good look…….

Cant wait to share my first weigh in tomorrow, yeah its only three days in but that is the rules and I am playing by them.

FYI My start weight is  79.8kg.

Running, not running, and life

Tags

Hal Higdon, Running

So, since I bought my treadmill, I have barely been on here. Life has been mental. Working full time is hard enough without a phd thesis that is still not written hanging over my head. Getting time to blog has been near impossible.

But I am still here.

On the running front, I have been very haphazard with my kms this year. I started off with big ambitions, and then a series of excuses got in my way. I know I could have run more, I just didn’t feel like it. The runs I did weren’t great, they didn’t suck either. I just didn’t have my running mojo. Till I had to do one of my races….

Yeah, remember me bragging about my race calendar last year ? Well, so far I have done 2 of my 5km races.

Twilight Run

Here is my first ever race bib. Cute!

Twilight run was an event at St Lucia, where you could register for 5km, 10km or a half marathon. I sensibly chose the 5km. I met up with a friend there and we went for it. 41 sweaty exhausted minutes later I had completed my first official race. My time was crap (because I had not been training) but I was elated! I even got a medal.

Participation medal anyone?

Tragically, as the half marathon was about to start, a huge storm was bearing down on Brisbane. Without knowing the details fully, all I can say is that the race continued despite extreme weather alerts, and sadly a man lost his life. He was hit by a falling tree and could not be revived. I am sure that everybody who ran that day feels sick in their stomach like I do that this could have happened. Absolutely terrible.

Team Pinkie

Team Pinkie is an organisation that, in order to raise money for breast cancer research, hold fun runs and triathlons. Again, I chose the 5km. Went slower than the twilight run. In my defence, there were hills, which you all know are my nemesis. And lets not forget the lack of training. Ahem…..

This is what they look like hanging in my living room. Yep, I am that proud of them!

So yes I have been running but no I have not been running. Its weird.

Last week I started a nifty little running program I found to prepare for my upcoming 14km. Don’t forget I have never ever ever run further than 5km and with the freakishly slow race times I am pulling, this 14km could take half a day. So, after a mini freakout, I sought advice from Hal Higdon and commenced a training plan. Everything was going swimmingly till this week (I do realise this is week 2 – SO LAME!) when I was struck down with a nasty head cold that kept me out of action all week. I am so bummed. Next week, I need to smash it. Seriously there is like 8 weeks till I have to do 14km and right now I am struggling with 5….. YIKES!!

In other news. My new job is a royal pain in the ass. I love my job but one of the people I work with is doing my head in. Its gotten so bad, I had to seek advice from a manager and now its a HR issue. Poo. I really hate being in this situation. And the PhD is like a bad dream that I just cant wake up from. I am going to see my supervisor soon and see if I can change the format to publications only. Im desperate about it. Ugh. But really, these things are just things I have to deal with, the rest of my life is going well, I really look forwards to my weekends and chilling out with husband. We have been a bit lazy with all my dramas going on, but it has been awesome to take time out and talk things over with him – he is my best friend after all 🙂

Husband and I are going to Melbourne next week. Its a gorgeous city in the south of Australia, which means it will be colder than here. Good for fashion! Im excited!

So, tell me, what do you do when you really need to train and everything is getting in your way? Any Tips? Suggestions?

 

 

At a Marathon? Really????

Tags

Boston Marathon, Marathon, Running

Yesterday, I woke up and did what I always do, check the news.

Unbelievable. A bomb. At a marathon. What kind of fucked up is that?

My first thought was, who would target runners? Then I realised, the injured and killed were spectators (correct me if I am wrong….). Friends and family supporting people finishing one of life’s big achievements.  It’s so many kinds of awful.

There are already much more eloquent words out there expressing the thoughts we all have inside: our pain, our shock, our disbelief, our anger, our bewilderment.

All I can say, is: Look after one another.

My love affair with the treadmill

Tags

Lower Back Pain, Running, shin splints, Treadmill

I know that many people hate the treadmill. People call it the dreadmill. I love mine. Here is how I came to love a piece of machinery that many people despise….

You might remember that earlier this year I was moaning about my sore back. Then we had some terrible weather. Well, dear readers, it has basically been non stop raining here. When I say that, I mean it. Almost every day we have had rain, some days heavier than others. Record breaking rain some would say.

My sore back took its sweet time to get back to normal too. I was diligent with my exercises, but to be honest, the rain was a great excuse for me to delay training for my half marathon later this year. So I sat on my arse, and did nothing.

And then I got bored. So so so sick of not running. But every time I was ready to hit the road again, it would rain. So I did not run – for weeks…. It sucked

The thought came to me. “What I need is a treadmill.” This thought would not go away. So I started looking on Ebay. And I found one. Last Sunday, I picked up my treadmill after parting with a measly $220. The guy we bought it from forgot to give me the power cord so it wasn’t till Thursday this week that I took it for a spin.

This is my beast.

OMG, this thing is amazing. I have been running so much faster than on the ground, which is to be expected. But it is making me work so much harder, and I am loving it. Today I got out a quick 2.5km before breakfast with the intention of cranking up my speed. At one point I was running at 9km an hour, which for me was FAST! My heart was racing, sweat pouring off me and I felt invincible.

The best part of running on this is the reduction of impact. After a big hiatus, two runs on the road would have me sore and tender, but apart from the usual running niggles, there is no pain. Not in my shins, or my back. Which makes me confident that I can get some more kms in my week than I can on the road.

Wow, I am so much happier now that I am running again. All hail the treadmill.

 

Life is telling me to slow down.

Tags

health, healthy-living, Running

I hurt my back. AGAIN. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to do this. It was my fault and I am pissed cos I have been in agony for days. I went to see a massage therapist and got some acupuncture which always helps so much. I have been eating Voltaren like lollies. I AM SO OVER HURTING MY BACK.  I feel like my body is telling me to chill out, take some rest and recuperation. So I am bonding with my new heatpack and chilling out.

I make this promise to myself here and now. I will do my strengthening exercises every day to prevent this from happening again. There, its a wordpress promise now – you can’t break a wordpress promise …..

In very excellent news, I got my blood test results back and I am not celiac nor do I have any other issues. I got a clean bill of health and am pretty stoked. Cholesterol, kidney function, liver function, all great. I can thank my cleaner living lifestyle for that. Thanks healthy eating.

No running cos of stupid back pain. I am going to try some deep water running on Saturday to get some exercise in without aggravating it. Then another massage on Tues.

I can’t wait to have a post where I am not complaining. It feels like all my recent musings have been negative. I have to say, its been a weird month for the first part of 2013. I know it is just a phase, but I want to see some “YAY” get back into my life.

Is anybody else having a weird 2013??

RB.

An Ex Cyclone, A Flood, A PhD Meltdown and A Run

Tags

Ex Cyclone, Flood, Meltdown, PhD, Running

So remember my last post. I was relatively optimistic that the ex cyclone bearing down on us was no big deal. How naive.

Turns out we got smashed. Sideways rain for a day and a half. Winds up to 120km an hour, minor flooding in our living room, trees breaking in our backyard. The neighbourhood looks demented even now, even one week on. There is so much dead tree vegetation everywhere, trees fallen over, huge branches everywhere. It needs a massive cleanup.

To add insult to injury, our city and neighbouring city Ipswich flooded again. In 2011 there was a big flood that damaged thousands of homes and in comparison, this one was small. But a flood is a flood and lots of businesses on the river front in Brisbane city were badly damaged. There is nothing like that weird waiting to see how high it will go. Eery.

Our fellow Queenslanders north of us in Bundaberg, Rockhampton and all the small outback communities have really borne the brunt of this. Bundaberg north has only today allowed citizens in to inspect the damage, Rockhampton is bracing for a 8.7m flood. Its so heartbreaking to see all these people in evacuation centres and the frightening images of homes swept away by floodwaters. Literally floating away. So sad.

Its the same up and down the east coast of Australia, and many places have been damaged. This type of weather event is super weird and it really took everybody by surprise; in intensity, duration and reach. In my opinion, these weird events confirm that Climate Change is real, happening now and inescapable. My hope is that world governments can agree on mitigation strategies for communities that will suffer the most from rising sea levels and unpredictable extreme weather events.

In other news, I experienced a ‘rite of passage’ this week concerning my PhD. I got feedback on my first two chapters. Not bad, but not great. I completely lost my shit for a day. Bawling my eyes out. Major self doubt. Felt like giving up and running away from it all. My darling husband talked me down. I recognise now the classic symptoms of a meltdown but yesterday as it was happening it felt too real, too raw and too huge to enable me to calm the fuck down. My eyes puffed up and I looked and felt like shit by the time I crawled into bed last night.

My standard advice to anybody feeling bleh is to go for a run. So I took my own advice and hit the streets this morning, dodging tree debris and just running for the sake of it. It has been weeks since I last ran due to bad weather and flooding so it was not fast, nor lovely to watch but it was so cathartic. I needed to sweat it out, have some time for myself and to recognise that a PhD crises is a very unique first world problem and I need to get a grip. I feel much better now. Much better.

So in all, a mental week. I am happy it is over – for me at least.

I hope you all kicked some goals this week and had fun:) That is going to be my motto for next week….

Over and out: Runninbear

PS There is going to be a Color Run here! You know I am going to enter. Yes I am!!