That’s my lesson for the week!  Thursday has been my weigh-in day, but this afternoon (Wednesday), I felt like the planets were in alignment after my swim, so I jumped on the scales.  I knew I shouldn’t have done that.  Hmmmm, 100g loss for the week.  And we all know that scales/our bodies have a margin of error of +/- half a kilogram depending on the way you hold your tongue.    Bugger, I’ve even had my hair chopped off which I thought might account for 20g at least!  I’m now eyeing up my limbs and trying to decide which I could best do without.  I think the brain’s the heaviest organ isn’t it?

So I’ve reflected back on my week’s diary, and I see a habit forming.  A bowl of fruit salad has become my filler at around 8.30pm, just when I start to feel a bit peckish.  What started as a chopped up apple, has became a chopped up apple, chopped up kiwifruit, half a dozen grapes or a mandarin, some natural yoghurt, a sprinkling of toasted rolled oats and a drizzle of manuka honey!!  I’ve totted up that ’snack’ tonight, and it actually equates to over 400kcal, or for me, a 45 minute run.  Wow, I was really surprised at how it all adds up!

I set out to eliminate all the after tea snacking that I had been indulging in, but then started to sneak in what I thought was a healthy alternative (which it is), but it’s energy that I don’t need.  The bowl of rice I used to have as a late evening snack, actually only has half the energy of my bowl of fruit salad!  AND my chin has been a complete pimply mess since I’ve started eating more fruit (I’m not sure if it’s the sugar in the fruit, or a de-tox effect – Mr Google tells me it’s more likely to be a de-tox, but I didn’t think I ate that poorly before). 

Believe it or not, I’m not actually becoming obsessed, I’m just enjoying learning more about what I’m actually taking on board, compared with what my energy expenditure is, and developing healthier habits in the process.  I’m not doing huge training – around ten hours a week – so it’s a good time to try things out while my body isn’t crying out for more energy dense foods.  My lack of any real weight loss this week might be simply my body plateauing (or in other words, I’ve reached the ideal weight for me), or it might be a response to this last week of increased snacking after tea.  I’ll just see how things go.

Other than that, my swim today was GREAT, and it has surprised me how quickly I’ve regained some semblance of bike fitness, albeit doing just strength sessions on the wind trainer.  I’m feeling SOOO much more relaxed in the pool than I ever have before.  I think it’s because I’m now in my second year of swimming, whereas last year there was always a sense of panic about my training, because I had a huge goal in front of me, and I was afraid I was biting off more than I could chew.  Now I’m just enjoying hopping in the pool and swimming – it’s just a couple of times a week (plus maybe an additional session if I have time and the kids want to go), but it’s still a minimum of 5-6km a week.  Just enough to keep some swim fitness ticking over.

 Yesterday was the South Island XC Champs out at QEII.  There was a good turnout from Nelson, but that was about it really.  It’s always the same – a bit hollow when you think it’s never held anywhere else in the South Island, so it really is just a race for Cantabrians, and anyone else that can be blowed travelling from out of town.

It was an okay day of racing for the fandamily.  Well, Ella had a bad race because she has come down with yet another heavy cold.  She was 3rd last time, yesterday she was 5th.  She also had a wicked bout of pre-race nerves – hmmm, she never gets nervous.  We put it down to her bad race at Central Zones, and the fact she hasn’t been well enough to race since.  Louis had a great race… for someone who doesn’t train!  He would have been on the podium if a couple of Nelson lads hadn’t come in before him, so hopefully he’ll make the podium at the Canterbury Champs in a fortnight (bah… those out-of-towners!).

Graham and his relationship with his new Garmin/HRM seems to be blossoming.   He has worn it in every race since his birthday, just to give him an accurate indication of the race distance, and also to see what his HR actually does when under pressure!  For someone who hasn’t trained or raced with an HRM before, he’s found it pretty interesting.

The course for the big boys was 4.5 laps, or 9km in total.  In actual fact, according to Mr Garmin, it was 8.37km.  He was pretty pleased with his race – each lap only varied by around 1-2 seconds, so his laps were really consistent over the whole course.  But his HR got up to 199 – he puts that down to ectopic heart beats, which he has tended to get since his AF procedure.  It’s that sort of thing which scares him off using an HRM! 

Between Graham and Iain (Mr Zarnia), it was a really exciting race and came down to the wire, Iain crossing the line ahead by just three seconds.  Another guy that Graham used to key off over the past couple of years seems to have disappeared off this year’s XC scene, so hopefully Iain and Graham can use the remaining races to pace off each other which can only be good for speed development!  Graham was pretty pleased to average 3.40 minute kilometres for a XC race – hopefully Iain is pleased with that too!

Graham bridging some of the gap in the last lap…

…but he just couldn’t quite get there!

 Finishing straight

 Other than that, it was a great opportunity to try out the continuous “Sport Burst” on the new camera – really effective for steeple action!

Yeah, okay, I know there are some men out there who are right buggers too, but I’m a wife, so this is about wives (partners… whatever you want to call them).

Graham and I had a talk last night about a conversation that had occurred at his work yesterday.  He just worked half a day, as he had a race in the afternoon, but during the morning, there was a morning tea shout for his boss as it was his 66th birthday (time to move on I think – my husband wants your job!!).  Anyway, he said the guys sitting around the morning tea table were berating their wives behind their backs.  I think this sort of carry-on is just plain awful, but then maybe it’s because I’m not married to one of their wives!  I’ve seen/heard enough to make me realise that there are some one-sided relationships out there for sure, and according to these guys, their wives sound like absolute nags.  When Graham was telling me about it, he was incredulous – he was like, “Well, *my* wife isn’t like that at all!” – thanks for sticking up for me bud!

One guy is 50 and hasn’t long had twins.  He’s onto his second wife, who is in her 30s, and she wanted a second baby but struck difficulty conceiving so they went through IVF.  Apparently he was doing it for her, as he’s not terribly fussed about being a dad again at 50 (go figure!) (particularly as he has almost adult children from a previous relationship). 

Then there’s another guy who is into his running, but his wife complains no end when he goes out to train, and when he tries to enter any events because that’s just a waste of money apparently.  But of course she goes off to Housie or the Casino (I can’t get my head around a woman in her 30s who plays Housie – let alone any age, actually), and he is expected to go home each night (even if it means stopping work while on late shift) to cook tea for her and the family.  Oh, the 50 year old with twins is expected to do that too, because the wife can’t cope with staying at home all day with twins AND preparing a meal apparently.

Graham then had to go into Central yesterday and saw a guy he used to work with.  Turns out, this guy has started training for the South Island Half IM too, and wants to do Challenge Wanaka.  He’s just bought himself a carbon bike and his wife hasn’t let him forget about it.  Graham told him that I was trying to talk him into getting a new bike, but that he didn’t want one.  His colleague almost fell over that *I* (”the wife”) wanted Graham to buy a new bike, and that he didn’t want to take the money and go spend it!!  Apparently in his world, he has to beg for anything he wants!

Very interesting how the other half lives.  I guess it comes down to your interests, and what sort of a homelife you have.  Maybe if I was a stay-at-home mother with no time for myself, I’d be a nag too – thank goodness I didn’t venture down that track!

Meanwhile, I’m eyeing up my last kayak hanging on the wall in the garage, trying to decide whether I could bear parting with it, to free up some ‘gift money’ for Graham to spend on himself in his preparation for Wanaka.  He doesn’t want to spend any money on himself, whereas if I could free up $3k by selling my boat, he’d have no choice!  (Then again, he’s likely to throw it straight into our savings!)  Hmmm, to not have a boat would be a major hurdle for me to get my head around (even if I haven’t sat in it for 18 months!!).  Perhaps in this instance, I’ll let Graham stick to his guns about not needing a new bike!

 

Next Saturday (12th), is Quelle Challenge Roth!

For a potted history, Roth used to be an IM race, but the IM contract was terminated in 2001 and granted to Frankfurt instead.  Fortunately Challenge took over the reins and it has remained a success ever since, regardless of losing the IM branding.

After Wanaka, I think Roth would have to be the other long distance race I would have a hankering to do.  Not sure what it is about it – certainly the sheer volume of entrants doesn’t appeal (2,800 individuals and 470 teams!).  I think it’s the fact it’s the founding Challenge race (seeing as it’s quite obvious by now that I have a soft spot for the Challenge organisation!).  I guess it’s what Kona is to Taupo for the IM stalwarts out there.

Anyway, there are a few Kiwis going to be racing next weekend.  Representing Neuseeland we have…

• Richard Ussher!!!
• Coach Westy
• Gina Ferguson (3rd last year)
• Merryn Johnston (15th last year)
• Jo Lawn (1st in 2006) (although according to a one liner on her blog, she has pulled out??)
• Shirley Rolston
• Nick Kensington
• Maclean Quentin
• Scott Ramsay
• Grant Baird
• Glenn Russell
• John Smart
• Tim Berkel

Victoria Murray-Orr, the Race Director for Challenge Wanaka, is also competing in a team, but bugger it, I’m not sure of the name.

Grant Baird, Shirley Rolston and John Smart won their entries to Roth by placing at Wanaka this year.

Roth/Germany is ten hours behind us in New Zealand, and the first group (the Pros) starts at 6.20am on the Saturday (or 4.20pm NZT).  At this stage, the website doesn’t mention anything about live feeds during the day, but hopefully there’ll be enough updates to keep me happy!

Go hard Paul, and f**k that hill!

That’s the catch cry in our house whenever someone is hungry… thanks to Margery Dawes (the Fat Fighters consultant a-la Little Britain).  When Graham and I have a yearning to eat something after tea, we tell the other to have some dust.

Good job we have a plentiful supply of dust in our house.

Thursdays have become my weigh-in day.  Last week, I jumped on and was thrilled to see that I’d lost 1.1kg in the week since starting my food diary.  I’ve never been a fan of scales, preferring to rely on how things “feel”, but I couldn’t resist just checking.  I do know how fickle scales can be though, and figured if I rechecked my weight later that day, it would probably tell me that I’d put it all back on!

This morning I was a bit hesitant, but decided to check anyway.  Afterall, if my food diary was indeed working, I really did want to know about it.  If it wasn’t, then hell, I dunno what I’d do!!

I can now proudly report a weight loss of 2kg in the last two weeks!  The 1.1kg from last week, and 900g this week.  If someone had told me that they had lost an average of a kilogram a week, I’d probably suggest the loss was a little too rapid, but I really can’t say that I’m doing anything wrong.  My eating habits have just become very routine, and I’ve simply replaced less-than-ideal foods with healthy alternatives.  My food during the day at work hasn’t changed;  it’s just the snacking when I get home from work, and after tea, that has changed.  Pretty simple stuff, but obviously my body was crying out to be treated better!

But like anything I do, when I get passionate about something, I get obsessed.  For example, there’s a bowl of leftover cream cheese icing in the fridge from when I made a carrot cake for the kids’ lunches earlier in the week (healthy option I might add – yoghurt replaced the cooking oil!).  Yesterday I decided to stick my finger into the icing as a treat – but of course I had to write that bloody indiscretion down in my notebook!!  Then again, if I hadn’t have recorded it, what’s the point of having the notebook if it’s not going to keep me honest?

So I’m now the lightest I can ever recall being as an adult.  How far will I go with all of this?  Sub-60kg is tantalisingly close, but I’m not so sure that’s a healthy weight for my height and training.  I’m sure Ella will tell me when I’m about right (afterall, she told me this morning that I was pretty fat at Wanaka – thanks luvvy, I’m well aware of that!!).

We had an amusing moment at the weekend, when we happened to be talking about Michael Jackson’s death (goodness only knows why, because I think we’re the only ones in the world who aren’t mourning his passing).  For some reason, Elvis Presley’s death came into the conversation and eight year old Louis suddenly pipes up “What do you mean?  Has Elvis died too?”  We thought he was taking the piss, but noooo… “Oh man, I can’t believe no-one told me Elvis had died… what happened to him?”  And on and on it went.  So now we have an 8 year old in the house, who is grieving over Elvis Presley’s death.

Once again, the patients are running the asylum.

During the week, I installed Google Desktop on my work ‘puter.  It was an option that came up when Anita steered me towards using Google Reader to track people’s blogs.  Anyway, being far from computer literate, I didn’t really know what I was installing.  To cut a long story short (for those out there as ignorant as me), it installs a bar down the right hand side of the computer screen with handy gadgets such as calendars, calculators, local weather temp etc.  It also has a slide show that continually plays all day while I work away, pulling on all the images that are hidden in various files within my computer. 

It’s been quite exciting, as it has been showing lots of photos I don’t think I’ve ever seen before – pics that Graham took at Wanaka.  They have been hidden in a really obscure folder which I’ve now been able to locate!  There’s one in particular that made me feel all gooey when I saw it, and it’s now the image on my desktop (you probably have to imagine it screen-size to appreciate its gorgeousness)…

Oh what a spiggytacular place.  This was taken on the Thursday that we arrived in Wanaka before the big event.  Spooky how I ‘found’ all these photos right on six months since I did Challenge, and in the same week that I started started cross training.  Returning to a bit of swimming and cycling this past week, plus reminiscing over the pics, brings back all the feelings of ambition, hope, and pride that I was experiencing this time last year.  And while I endured so much discomfort during the event, I look at a photo like the one of the Lake and think “Wow!”  To the guys and girls who are training for Challenge Wanaka 2010, I think “Lucky buggers!”.  I can’t wait until January when I can be there as a spectator, but it’s going to be hard being on the other side, because I’d love to be doing it again (as I’m sure this year’s IM bods will be feeling in March 2010!).

Sigh.

Ahem, I mean “Rachel Does a Group Session”.  Actually, I think the former sounds less dodgy!

Thanks to Anita, she alerted me to a regular swim session that Barbara Miller was planning at QEII, with Roly Crichton at the helm – each Monday and Wednesday evening for an hour.  I managed to get myself a slot, and away I went last night.  I wasn’t sure what to expect – it was advertised as being suitable for beginners right through to swimmers who want their technique analysed/tweaked and to learn how to find some speed (pick me!  pick me!).

There was a pretty good turnout for the first night – probably around 20 at a guess.  We were split into three different groups, with a lane for each group.  Anita and I chose the third group, which was the most advanced.  I wasn’t sure whether that was the right move or not, but as it turns out, it was fine.  I knew I could do any distance work that might have been required, but I just wasn’t sure whether my pace was up to it.

I think the numbers were too great for Roly and his sidekick Glenn to effectively manage (in terms of offering stroke advice to each of us), but we did seem to have Roly all to ourselves which was good – no sharing him with the other two groups.  He said we were all doing really well, so I took from that that he would work with what he had, rather than try to change any of our techniques.

To improve (in Roly’s view), it would seem that it’s important to be able to billateral breathe.  I’ve tried it over the past week, but I submerge completely and end up swamping myself!  A few times last night, Roly said he wanted us to billateral breathe if we possibly could – and he looked at me a couple of times when saying this!  I happened to mutter almost under my breath “Awwww, I can’t!”, only to have another woman respond “There’s no such thing as can’t you know - I’ve learnt that!”.  That sort of comment is why I tend not to do group sessions. I felt like saying to her “And who are you, and what have you done?  Don’t talk to me about overcoming things we don’t think are possible!!”.  Actually luvvy, I wouldn’t have been able to billateral breathe last night.  Not satisfactorily enough to have completed what was required of us.  Give me some time to practise the art of billateral breathing, and I’ll be back to kick your arse.  Until then, I’ll be the judge of what I can and cannot do at any point in time.

Rant over.

The session was made up of a number of drills – sighting, kick boards etc.  I have to say that I felt quite hot and bothered at the end of the night – I’d used muscles that hadn’t seen the light of day for a while, particularly whilst breaststroking!  I think my technique is okay (freestyle, not breaststroke!!), I just lack the strength and kick to be faster.  If these sessions can work on that, then I think they will have merit. 

What I found disappointing, was towards the end of the session, Roly announced that he was going to push us, as he believed we were up to being challenged.  To that end, he advised that he wanted us to swim 200m without stopping.  I was almost like WTF!  200m?  Is that being challenged?  Hmmm, I’m now feeling caught between thinking the session might be too rudimentary for me, but then thinking that the drills will be really useful.  The jury is out, however, as to whether I should be spending two hours a week just doing drills!  I’m thinking maybe once a week will suffice, with other sessions for distance work.

Anyhoo, I’ll be back tomorrow night and the pool will be down to 25m in length.  He said he’d push us a little more given it will be a short course and therefore less initimidating.  I’ll make my mind up after that as to whether I think there’ll be a future for me doing these sessions.

PS  I really enjoyed Roly’s approach – obviously he’s more mellow with us old girls.

“You don’t eat much each day Mum!”

I’m not sure whether Ella’s assertion is a good one or not!  I don’t believe in starving myself, but I guess compared to the snacking culture of my children, I’m not eating a lot each day! 

The food diary is working a charm.  I get mocked by Ella whenever I scribble anything down in my notebook – she thinks it’s downright weird that I should write down every item I eat, but it’s working for me.  I don’t go back and review it, because I haven’t needed to.  Nothing has slipped in that shouldn’t be there, and my intake of fruit has grown hugely as a result of simply thinking more carefully about what I’m eating.  I used to have a muesli bar (low fat variety, but probably high sugar!) for morning tea, whereas now I’ll have a mandarin and banana.  Same again when I get home from work – no more bowls of steamed rice for me!  After tea, if I get peckish, I’ve been making just a basic fruit salad (banana, apple, mandarin) with some natural yoghurt. 

I was out of town today and even managed to pick myself up a healthy hospital lunch!  I’m not normally a fan of Eurest food, but today I got myself a very yummy fruit salad plus some yoghurt with toasted rolled oats for lunch.  I was well impressed – particularly given that it was just on 2pm and thought I’d be lucky to even get a cruddy toasted cheese roll!  (I would have opted for starvation, if that was the case!)

Watching the family consume my precious marshmallows is eating me alive, but each day I’m feeling more and more virtuous (read “stronger”!).  When I start to see and feel some results, I know it will have been worth it.

After a disappointing week in Ella’s life, it’s had a really exciting turnaround.  I emailed the coach of the Canterbury representative XC team on Wednesday night asking for information on how Ella should go about entering the Inter-Regional Cross Country Champs in September (as an individual representing her school rather than Canterbury).  Paul, the coach, is such a great guy – he’s also a teacher at Fendalton School, and a teacher extraordinnaire I’d have to say, based on his dealings with the children in the XC team.  Within the first couple of weeks last year, he knew every child by name in the team – and there was around 90 of them!  I don’t know how he does it – all children look the same to me.

Anyway, he came back last night with an email saying how sorry he was to see Ella finish down the field on Wednesday as he really enjoyed having her in the team last year, and given she was unwell on Wednesday, he’s giving her another chance at getting selected by running in the Port Hills XC on 8 August.  Wow!  I cried when I got his email.  All she needs to do is beat two of the girls from her age group that were selected on Wednesday.  We’ve seen the results from Wednesday, and we’re confident Ella would have come in 4th – instead, 4th place was taken by a girl who Ella normally beats by around 25 seconds (which is a big margin over 2-3 km).  So that’s around six people (out of the ten selected) Ella should be able to beat – better odds than we could ever hope for!!  No-one will get ousted from the team if she makes it in – he’ll simply absorb another person.  That is so cool!

I still feel a little uncomfortable about it, because Ella is just lucky that she was in the team last year, and has results from the current XC season that Paul has obviously referred to (as he mentioned that she has already beaten some of the girls who were selected, at the recent Holloway and Jane Patterson races).  If she’d been unwell on Wednesday but had no race form to verify her ability, then she wouldn’t be getting this opportunity.

But in this day and age of black and white rules, no discretion etc etc (which I admit, does need to be in place to avoid unfairness), I am just amazed that this guy can exercise such compassion and offer a child a second chance.

Life is set to get a little busier, as we have a number of official training sessions and races that she must attend in order to cement her place in the team if she qualifies in August.  And if she has another crap race, we will still be going to Nelson regardless.  A win either way!