Shorter days, bigger effort

Ugh. Winter and its short, dark days. (Image source))

Whoa. Where did my week go? I swear it was Monday just yesterday...

You know those weeks where it feels as though all your days fly past in a blur of: Training, work, cooking, eating, sleeping, rinse, repeat? Yeah, it's been one of those.

I put it down to the effect of the shorter days. During the lovely, long days of summer, I seem to easily fit so much more into twenty-four hours than at this time of year. I mean, yesterday I noticed that the sun had set by 5:15pm. Blah. I have a natural urge to hibernate when it's cold and gloomy, not to mention dark for like fourteen hours a day.

So it's kind of strange that I've had absolutely no difficulty getting up early every day to train. A couple of times I've even found myself wide awake a few minutes before the alarm was due to go off. Mind you, I still don't like getting out of my warm bed when it's chilly out, but my commitment is holding firm.  I'm a woman on a mission, and that mission is to regain my former fitness and strength, however long that takes.

This week's training has really taken things up a notch. First, there was the weekend, where on Saturday I decided to treat myself to a Spinervals workout and on an impulse, pulled out one of the On The Road series. It was the Tucson Training Ride, and I picked Workout B, the Gates Pass ride (there are two), which is described like this:

Workout 'B' is a varied workout for aerobic development and power building and will have you ride up the front side of famous Gates Pass Road into the breathtaking beauty of the Saguaro National Forest where you'll buzz around McCain Loop Road. Then the suffering really happens as you climb up the backside of Gates Pass which kicks up to over a 14% grade! 

Sounds like fun, no? Good thing my idea of fun is different to most people's. This was an absolute killer sixty-five or so minutes of hill climbs, with some downhill sprints now and then for relief. The pretty desert scenery provided a small amount of distraction from the pain. ;o)

On Sunday, of course, I did the 300 workout.

Monday, I took it easy. No, I did not sleep in; I went to the gym and did an easy-ish thirty-five minutes of cardio, alternating between the treadmill and elliptical. Then in the evening I jumped on my spin bike at home and pedalled steadily for 40 minutes while watching a couple of old episodes of the Big Bang Theory.

Tuesday was my regular RPM class. I was extremely happy with my performance this week. I always do OK on the climbs, but sprints are my weakness. However, this week I managed for the first time to wipe the speed off the screen - there's an upper limit of 140 RPM on those computers, so once you tip over that speed, the cadence readout disappears. I have never done that before, but in Tuesday's class I did it twice. Go, me!

Wednesday, I decided I was sick of the same old thing for cardio; it was time for some FUN. So I hunted through my files and pulled out an old program that Liz had given me as part of my contest prep training back in 2007 or 2008. Who could resist a workout titled: Who's the nutter on the treadmill? I printed it out in a nice big font - cannot read less than about 16-point font without my glasses these days - and packed it in my gym bag the night before. It did the job; got me sweating and got me plenty of funny looks. What? Who doesn't do walking lunges on the treadmill? And then a series of Cathe firewalkers and BOSU squats? Pfft, it's not like they haven't seen that before...

On Wednesday night, I realised that my killer DOMS from Sunday's workout had finally subsided. And you know what that means... Yep, it was time to do another 300 workout on Thursday morning. I took a lesson from Sunday's effort and swapped in lat pulldowns for the inverted rows, plus picked a more sensible weight for my triceps pushdowns. I had to use a dumbbell instead of a kettlebell for my swings too because I was at the gym and: no kettlebells. Other than that, it was the same, and this time I got through it in 34 minutes.

This morning, I picked another of Liz's crazy workouts; this time the Psycho Bike Legs Complex. That was a fun little combo of seated climbs, Tabata-style sprint intervals, bodyweight squats and squat jumps (for time), repeated for just over 30 minutes. Now, that's how I like my cardio: Short, varied and hard enough to leave me in a sweaty, gasping heap. Also? It's over and done with early and I can get on with my day.

Tomorrow I'd like to get out on the bike, but that will depend on the weather. It'll have to be fairly early, because Bike Boy and I have a big weekend planned. It's our wedding anniversary tomorrow and we're off for a couple of days to enjoy ourselves with some of our favourite indulgences. :) Sunday will definitely be a rest day.

It's taken me a remarkably short time to get myself back almost to my peak cardio fitness, which just shows that solid planning and consistency in executing the plan are all that's really required. Well, there's obviously a bit more to it than that, but that's a whole other post.

The key to keeping myself interested in my training is definitely variety. I'm not a class person (I make an exception for RPM), so thank goodness I have dozens of Liz's workouts available, workouts from five Phat Camps, plus thirty or forty DVDs to choose from, and of course plenty of my own creations too. If I had to spend my days plodding on a treadmill at the gym like most people down there seem to do, I'd go insane.

Do you love variety in your training, or do you prefer to do the same kinds of things over and over?

Am I a Spartan yet?

Yesterday I did a 300 workout. Remember the movie, 300? The one full of buff, shirtless Spartans in leather undies, waving swords around and showing off their gleaming bronzed flesh? Nah, I never saw it either... but ever since it was released back in 2007, the training regime that got the actors into tip-top physical condition for their roles has been very popular.

It's a very simple (note: I said simple, not easy) resistance training program, where the basic idea is to do a total of 300 reps in your workout. The original program that the actors apparently followed can be found here and includes pull ups, box jumps and floor wipers, none of which I'm about to attempt with my various dodgy body parts. But that's OK, because you can do any combination of exercises you like, and break them down into however many sets it takes to get it done.

My task was to perform six exercises, which had to include:

• One whole-body exercise, preferably using weights
• Two upper body exercises
• Two lower body exercises
• One abdominal exercise

AND to complete 50 reps of each in a total time of between 20 and 60 minutes.

The first one took a bit of thought. Things like burpee pushups were out, because of my stupid shoulder. Can't do a single pushup at the moment. Push-press? Nup. Can't do any overhead presses, or actually any push movements at all with my upper body. *sigh* Eventually, I came up with a solution: kettlebell swings! So this was my plan:

1. Kettlebell swings: 25/15/10
2. Dumbbell squat: 25/15/10
3. Inverted row: 25/15/10
4. Stiff-legged deadlift: 25/15/10
5. Triceps pushdown: 25/15/10
6. Plank with lateral "walk": 25/15/10

Ideally, I'd have put a chest and a back exercise in there, rather than back and triceps, but you have to work with what you've got and my anterior delts are pretty well cactus at the moment, so there's no chest anything in my repertoire right now. Except stretches - and even those are incredibly painful. I'm working on it, but it's slow...

The kettlebell swings were fine. Not easy, but fine. The squats? No problem, apart from burning quads and glutes. I ripped through my first two exercises pretty quickly and started to think I was going to be done in twenty minutes....

Then about five reps into my inverted rows, I started wondering what the HELL I was thinking? My upper body strength is way under par, thanks to a prolonged period of basically not being able to anything much at all. I persevered, although I had to break the 50 reps down into six sets to get through it. Sheesh. The deadlifts went OK, as I knew they would - I do those pretty regularly, after all. Triceps pushdowns? I'd tested out a couple of different weights: one was too easy, the next increment I thought might be a bit tough, but I settled on it anyway. Turns out, I was right and again, I had to break my reps down into six sets, with the last one being a measly three reps. Almost there. I was sweating, my heart was racing and my arms and shoulders were letting me know they were NOT happy.

I thought the plank walks would be no big deal. Um, I forgot to take into account my banged-up left elbow, which doesn't like any weight on it at all, and the painful burn on my right forearm. Yeah, that was a really smart choice of exercise... But once I start something, I refuse to quit, so I adjusted my arm position as best I could, gritted my teeth and just did it anyway. When I was finished, I realised I could have done them with my hands on the floor and arms extended. D'oh!

The whole thing ended up taking me 44 minutes, thanks to the longish rests and multiple sets on my upper body exercises, but I got through it.

My verdict? It was an awesome resistance training workout, and thanks to the high reps and reasonably rapid speed required, I'm betting it got my metabolism pumping and burned significant calories. Would I do it again? Absolutely - only I'd choose my exercises a bit more carefully, and I think I'll wait for this burn to heal before trying any kind of plank again.

I may even make this a weekly "thing".

Having looked up the movie on Wikipedia just now to get the link, I'm reminded that Gerard Butler stars in it. And I discovered that Dominic West (of The Wire and The Hour fame) and one of my all-time favourite Aussie actors, David Wenham, are also in it. I may just have to get hold of a copy and watch it. Purely for research purposes, of course. You know, to assess the actors' physiques and judge whether or not the training program really did the job. Nothing at all pervey about it....

Have you ever tried a 300 workout? How did you find it?

How not to cook

This post is brought to you by my own stupidity.


Yesterday's Food Revolution Day posts showcased a couple of easy Jamie Oliver recipes, some local produce and featured me telling you how easy it all was. I did leave something out though ....I'm not known for my grace and poise, and true to form, in the course of providing those recipes and photos for your reading (and hopefully cooking) pleasure, I sustained a nasty burn to my arm.

I may have been cooking for forty years, but I'm still a bit prone to grating my fingers, slicing bits off my nails and dropping sharp kitchen implements perilously close to my bare feet. I generally manage not to injure myself too badly, up till last night, anyway.

I can't even recall what actually happened, but somehow, as I took the cooked fruit crumble out of the oven and went to set it on the stove top, the dish slipped. Instinct took over - I could visualise the heavy Corningware dish hitting the glass of the open oven door (yikes!) and/or hot food splattering all over the kitchen and ME and I just leaned in and quickly grabbed at it. Unfortunately, I was in the wrong position to grab it with my oven mitt-clad hands, and instead, managed to catch it between my body (luckily, I was wearing several layers of clothing), the stove front....and my bare right forearm.

I'll give you some free advice:

1. Don't do this.

2. If you ignore my first piece of advice, run the burn under cold water for a LONG time and then go get some Solosite gel and a clear film dressing from your local pharmacy.

Encased in shiny plastic and a bit crusty round the edges today, but otherwise OK. I realised
this morning that the green criss-crossy bit was supposed to have been peeled off. Stupid #2.

The gel killed most of the pain and the film kept my clothes from rubbing against the blister. I slept like a log and it looks pretty good this morning.

Please make me feel better by leaving a comment telling me all about your kitchen injuries, would you?

Food Revolution Day - Part 2

Food Revolution Day went - well, pretty much a lot like every other day in our house. Apart from the bit where I got off my butt and drove up the road to buy some local produce, which I blogged about earlier today. I flicked through our cook books and searched online and eventually chose to make two Jamie Oliver recipes to create a two-course dinner.

First up was his superb squash soup, which really was superb, and easy to make (Tip: If you use a food processor to chop the veggies, it's even easier).

The base: celery, carrot, onion, garlic - plus herbs from the garden

This recipe used the pumpkin I bought (or squash, if you're from anywhere in the world but Australia, apparently), plus fresh rosemary and sage from our herb planters and a few staples out of the fridge. I also used our home made chicken stock, instead of stock cubes, as we always have a supply in the freezer.

These plants have gone nuts. Anyone need some fresh herbs?

For once, I made no substitutions to the original recipe, although I didn't make the croutons, because: bread. I did, however, add some sliced pre-cooked chicken breast to my bowl to satisfy my protein needs. The flavour was magnificent, with just the right amount of kick from the chilli. And the fried sage leaves crumbled on top added a lovely finishing touch.

The finished product: superb! (No croutons, though)

To use some of my lovely apples and pears plus the raspberries, I decided to go for one of my old stand-bys and make a fruit crumble for dessert. I chose Jamie's apple crumble recipe as a starting point, using half apples and half pears and tossing in the raspberries once the other fruit was cooked. I really liked this recipe, which had oats in the crumble topping - although this time I did make some tweaks. 

I had no wholemeal plain flour, so used wholemeal spelt flour instead. And I swapped the caster sugar for some rapadura sugar, just because. I could have used coconut oil or coconut butter instead of the butter, and might do that next time. Some shredded coconut in the topping would be nice as well.

Sweet, sweet deliciousness!

The verdict? Easy, delicious and hearty. These two courses could just about make up one of Jamie's famous 30 Minute Meals, they were so quick to whip up.

Food Revolution Day wasn't a stretch for me, to be honest - we cook our meals from scratch 90% of the time anyway. But it did make me think about where my ingredients came from, and how to source more food locally. 

I know I'm lucky to have a fruit orchard nearby, and we have a number of farms selling fresh eggs too. It's only a short drive to Donnybrook Cheese, where I can buy cheese, yoghurt, cream and butter that's as fresh as you can possibly get. Their hot ricotta is a creamy dream come true. Mmm... And we have a few farmers markets that may be small, but offer quality products (like this one at Hurstbridge). I just need to be organised and make an effort to get to these places more often.

Really, these were super-easy dishes to make - you can't use the excuse that cooking is too difficult or takes too long with these two.

Did anyone else join in Food Revolution Day? Leave me a comment - and a link if you have one - and let me know. And you can check out what other people got up to if you scoot over to Emma's blog and scroll down to the comments. 

Food Revolution Day

Today, I'm taking part in Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day, along with a number of other bloggers, including Emma from The Scoop on Nutrition. Thanks for the heads-up, Emma - I might have missed this if not for your tweets. :)

What's it all about? The FRD website explains it this way:

Food Revolution Day on 17 May is a global day of action for people to make a stand for good food and essential cooking skills. It's a chance for people to come together within their homes, schools, workplaces and communities to cook and share their kitchen skills, food knowledge and resources. Food Revolution Day aims to raise awareness about the importance of good food and better food education for everyone by focusing on three simple actions – cook it, share it, live it. The first Food Revolution Day took place on 19 May 2012 with more than 1,000 events in 664 cities across 62 countries. Find out all about Food Revolution Day 2012 here.

One of the focuses of this particular challenge is to use local ingredients wherever possible. Luckily for me, living on the outskirts of the city means that we have actual farms on our doorstep. So this morning after having my pesky elbow x-rayed, I zipped up the road to Yan Yean to the local orchard and berry farm and picked up some goodies that were produced right there - only 6km from my front door. 

Today there was nobody manning the shop, so they had priced packs of fruit and veg on tables outside with a "leave your money in the tin" note. Cute. :) 

Butternut pumpkin, Pink Lady apples, Beurre Bosc pears & the last raspberries of the year.

Obviously, I have a fridge, freezer and pantry full of ingredients too, but these - plus some of our home-grown herbs - will be the feature of my meal. 

Not being very well at all organised, I haven't decided exactly what I'm making yet, but I will come up with something. I'm supposed to use one of Jamie's recipes - as we own three of his cookbooks and so many of his recipes are online, I'm sure I can easily find something using my chosen ingredients.

I'll be back later with my report.

You could join me and cook something spectacular yourself - if you do, please leave me a comment and/or a link to your blog post. Or just follow what other people are producing in their kitchens on Twitter or Instagram: the hashtag is #FRD2013

Nude food

HeartActive is a delicious, 99% fat free milk enriched with plant sterols, which are proven to help reduce cholesterol. Research shows that consuming plant sterols everyday in milk can reduce cholesterol by an average of 10% in three weeks.  HeartActive is currently available in a 1L carton with an extended shelf life (45 days from production) compared to regular white milks with a shelf life of 14 days.


I don't know about you, but I like the food I eat to be as close to its original, natural state (hence my use of the word "nude" in the post title. Oh, alright, it was also an attention-grabbing ploy. Busted!) when I buy it as possible. I'm not some extreme earth-mother hippy type, sprouting my own mung beans and weaving them into kaftans or anything, I just like my food made of FOOD. So I mostly manage to construct my meals of fresh meat - I'm including fish and poultry in "meat" - eggs, dairy products, nuts and fruits and veggies.

Realistically, unless you happen to own a hugely varied mixed farm and can produce your own everything, you're going to have to rely on some packaged items from the centre aisles of the supermarket. Some of my regular purchases are things like rolled oats, rice, tuna, a few canned veggies, nut butters, vinegars, oils and flours. The odd block of chocolate may also find its way into my trolley. I have no idea how it gets there.

Really, NO idea.....

Still, most of the stuff I use that comes in packages is also whole foods. But when I do pick up a bag, carton or box containing a mixture of ingredients, I want to know what's in it. Reading nutrition panels and ingredient lists has become just a normal thing for me; I've been doing it for years.

How do I decide whether or not a product is OK? I have a few criteria, and my first one is this: Ideally, all of the ingredients must be real foods. If the list descends into things that have numbers instead of names, or those that look like they belong in a science lab, not on a farm, then I'm immediately wary. I also use a LOT of common sense and don't get all angsty just because A Current Affair ran some dodgy story about a particular product/additive/production process.

Additives aren't all bad. Some are essential so that the food doesn't spoil. For instance, salt has been used as a preservative for millennia, and whilst we don't want to over-consume it, the mineral itself isn't evil.

My view is that stuff that's added to foods in this country isn't likely to be a problem for most people - but that reactions to certain substances are often dose-dependent. Which means that a tiny amount of additive X probably won't cause a drama for someone who's a little sensitive to it, but a large amount might. Which only backs up my approach of keeping those things to a minimum.

I'm not playing down the impact of some additives on susceptible people, but the folklore that often grows around these things can get a bit hysterical.

One additive that the rumour mill went a bit wild over in recent years is milk permeate. It's bad for you; it's good for you; it's just the dairy producers trying to save money by watering down our milk. Personally, permeate in my milk is not one of the things I worry about. And all of the sources I checked - which included registered dieticians, government health bodies, as well as the dairy industry - agree that there's no reason to worry. But if you do still happen to have concerns, relax. There is a wide variety of permeate-free milk available. Heart Active (my anti-cholesterol secret weapon) is one of them.

I'm a lot more concerned about consuming artificial sweeteners (or an excess of natural sweeteners, for that matter), trans fats, high fructose corn syrup and my list goes on. But whatever your concerns, it's good to know that there are products available that you can buy with confidence, knowing that they don't contain X, Y or Z that you're trying to avoid.




Sponsored Series by Nuffnang Australia

HeartActive is a delicious, 99% fat free milk enriched with plant sterols, which are proven to help reduce cholesterol. Research shows that consuming plant sterols everyday in milk can reduce cholesterol by an average of 10% in three weeks. HeartActive is currently available in a 1L carton with an extended shelf life (45 days from production) compared to regular white milks with a shelf life of 14 days.

Happy Mothers Day... and a race report

Happy Mothers Day to all the mums, grandmas, aunties, godmothers and anyone else who has anything to do with bringing up kids. You're all awesome and should receive chocolate for your efforts.

I don't know what Mothers Day is like in your house, but here's how my morning went, in pictures:

Up early in time to catch this spectacular sunrise from the front porch

Some gorgeous flowers from my eldest. The others were still snoozing.

My reason for being up so frighteningly early. Lovely Jose, I miss you.

Waiting for the starter's siren

Number One Son. I don't think he was fully awake. Scary, since he drove us there. ;) I was thrilled to have him  with me.

There was pink everywhere - also some fab and fun costumes.
These ladies were good sports; happy to pose for a photo.

The Anderson St hill is a killer! These girls cheering us on were exactly what was
needed. Other signs read "We love men in tights" and "Tight butts drive us nuts". Hehe.

More costumes. Fairies can run pretty fast, you know.

Just past the finish line. The number of participants was crazy - this doesn't even begin to show what it was like.

Keeping it real. No makeup, no carefully arranged expression, windblown
hair, flushed face... I may not look pretty, but I DO look like I just ran 4kms.

I didn't hit a PB; but that's OK because I wasn't even aiming for one. My goal was simply to finish and preferably to run the whole thing. That bloody hill got the better of me (mainly because I started out a bit over-enthusiastically. Oops) and I had to walk about 50m in the middle of it. But I'm happy with my effort anyway, finishing in 26:47 - that's a 6.6km pace, which may not be fast, but will do for a start. It's been a long time between runs.

Coffee was drunk post-race, then we headed home. I'm going out for lunch shortly with my mum and my sisters, and then it's a family dinner at home when the younger boys have finished work.

Whatever you're getting up to, I hope you have a great day. :)

Fitter, stronger, faster

THis morning I hopped on the mountain bike for the first time in three weeks. Last weekend Bike Boy was sick and I had other training commitments anyway. The previous week it was blowing a gale - vile weather for cycling.

Today was one of those clear, crisp autumn mornings. The air was cold, but I've bought up big in the online sales and now have base layers, arm and leg warmers, liner gloves and a wind-proof jacket, so I'm (almost) all set for the colder weather. I missed a bargain long sleeved winter jersey on Cell Bikes the other day because I dithered too long and they sold out. I'm still kicking myself. Anyway...

We headed to the park as usual and rode along gravel, dirt and grassy tracks, with Bike Boy leading the way. At the end of the main access road, he swung left. Uh-oh. That's a steep, narrow, downhill dirt track that I don't particularly love. There IS a platform at the bottom of the track, overlooking the Plenty River and the old homestead, which is a good place to take a break before heading back home. But there's that very steep uphill bit to get back to the road...

I love a view!

So after a rest and a drink, we started back up the hill. It's not that long but it IS really steep - and it kicks up just before the top. I told myself I could do it; that after that killer climb in Bright, this would be a piece of cake. I picked my third-lowest gear, and just spun my legs. I dropped down another gear halfway up, saving the last one for the final, steeper section. I was pretty pleased with myself as I powered up that thing!

I flew over the bump at the top onto the flat road and looked down at my gears to change back up ....and realised that I wasn't in my lowest gear at all. I thought I was using my small chain ring, but nuh-uh. I'd accidentally left that thing on the middle ring.

Seems I'm stronger and fitter than I realised. :)

Have you ever had a moment where you realised your fitness had progressed way further than you thought?

=========================================

P.S. I was grateful that I didn't fall off going down the hill. I'm still having issues with my left elbow from the spill I took in Bright. My GP doesn't think it's fractured (I can flex, extend and rotate with no dramas), but isn't quite sure what's going on with it, because almost six weeks later, it's still very swollen and painful, with a weird pocket of fluid right on the pointy bit. We're betting on a local infection - I did gouge a deep chunk out of it, which is all healed up now - and trying antibiotics. If that doesn't work, I'll have to get some imaging done to see what's going on.

I should post a photo - it's quite spectacular, in a gruesome kind of way...