Running struggles

Last week I watched some videos online on running technique, and I've done about 4 runs since then and I think I've managed to change my technique. My legs seem much better for it.

On Sunday I did a lake run, did the entire lake in about 33:07, just a tiny bit over my fastest 5km! Damn!

Today I did 3 x 1km 'sprints' which a magazine told me to do. My goal was to do all of them under 6 minutes, and I was able to do that. The last km was really hard, the first 2 I managed to do a faster sprint at the end but the last I was struggling enough at the speed I was doing, I just couldn't go any faster.

Times were: 5:47, 5:45 and 5:55.

My weight loss was down to 3.3kg, but after a McDonalds lunch, Portia's dinner and Koko Black dessert yesterday it was at 2.5kg after the run. Can't wait to get it to under 4kg. I'll get there.

Think I'll do another lake run tomorrow!

Slack

My leg was quite sore after my last post, so I had a break for about a week and a half.
Did my first run yesterday, 1km in 5:47 I think it was.
Today I did 3km in 19:15, took it quite easy so that's not a bad time for that.

Weight loss is about the same, definitely not less!!

Ouch

Went running with a tinee tiny leg soreness, and made things significantly worse. When will I learn?

Anyway, took 17 seconds off my best 2km - 11:30!

More success!

Did a 3km run today - while warming up and stretching I made the decision to do 3km. I also decided about 0.20km in that I was going to do intervals. This worked very well, managed to get my 3km time down to 18:20. Only 20 seconds off the pace I need to be at.

Very pleased!

Starting to have people commenting on my weight loss, also very pleased about that.

Will go for another run tomorrow, might just do a quick 2km. I was able to run at 11 speed for a good couple of minutes today, I even got up to 12.

Did a 5km run this afternoon, was fairly easy and managed to take almost 3 minutes off my best time so far (35:51) to get 33:04!

Really could've done better... but that's okay, I only need to take like 37 seconds a km off my pace to get to my goal of under 30 minutes! So doable in the next couple of months.

Weigh in this morning was well under 3kg, but the weight loss has consistently been at 3kg so I'm leaving it as that until I see consistently under it.

Woo

Managed to get under 12 minutes with my 2km!

11:47!

After the run I weighed in at -3kg. Woohoo.

Faster

Did another 3km yesterday, took 59 seconds off the day before - 19:02

Today I am going to either do 5km or a very fast 2km...haven't decided yet.

Slack

I've been pretty slack the past 2 weeks. However I did a 3km run yesterday, and just discovered I took 59 seconds off my best 3km time. I had no idea when I was doing it what my best time was. I managed to do it in 20:01. Should've tried harder to get under 20 minutes. It was a pretty easy pace for me too, I should be able to manage a 5km at that pace, which would be about a 32-33 minute 5km, which is a huge improvement.

I bought some new scales, which tell me my muscle and fat percentage. At the moment, according to the scales, my body fat percentage is 28%, and my muscle is 32.5%. The booklet that came with the scales say that 20-30% is okay for women my age for body fat, yet the scales tell me 'overfat'. What the hell is overfat? And apparently the ideal muscle percentage is at least 34%, so I've got a bit of work to do.

I brought my gear into work today, hoping to leave the office by 12pm and attempt a 5km.

Super sore

Yesterday afternoon I did a super fast 4km (26:12). Very pleased.

Later on I did a tiny bit of pilates and some arm weights.

All this effort, plus the pilates on Saturday night has made me so sore today. Today is definitely a break day.

I bought some expensive running shorts and a good running top (sleeveless) yesterday afternoon, it made the run much easier. I'm pretty keen to get some more running gear for summer.

Weight loss was incredible after the run, but has eased up to 1.7kg this morning.

Slacker

I haven't done any running since Tuesday. I have been really tired. I think I have been over doing it and not eating well enough.

Anyway, tonight I started doing a Pilates video by The Hollywood Trainer, yikes. I thought it was going to be easy, like the yoga ones I've been doing. I started doing it in my PJs, in the end I had to do it in my underwear. The toughness plus the humidity of today made it very difficult. I pushed through and did it all. The ab workouts are great. I'm pretty sure my abs are awesome. The leg workouts were TOUGH, I think it's what I need to do to improve my running.

I watched some show today about the limits of the human body, and how we can push our bodies to do insane things if we condition our bodies. It said the more muscle you have, the more fat you burn. Then I read an article in Cleo of all places telling me the same thing. Apparently you can burn 40% more calories if you do weights sessions also. I'm now convinced I need to spend more time on weights. I think if I set myself a plan to do 3 runs a week, one of them being a 5km run, and 1-2 other sessions of either weights or pilates, then that'll be good. I'm definitely going for a run tomorrow, it might just be a 3km run with some intervals.

My eating has been okay. Today I had eggs, mushrooms and toast for breakfast, no lunch, then lamb rack with small amount of potatoes and green vegies for dinner, and lemon meringue for dessert. I ended up being lighter after dinner than at the beginning of the day... hmmn..

Anyway, the weight loss has bounced the wrong way, and now I'm only at 1.5kg. I think that's okay, I read everywhere that if I lose weight too fast, then I'm just more likely to put the weight back on. I'm happy to do it slowly and the right way. Even if it takes me 6 months to lose my 10kg, that's okay.

Boo

Terrible food day:

* Breakfast Bar
* Leftovers (sausage and potato)
* Trufle
* Almonds
* Thai Food

No exercise. But enough stress. Must run tomorrow.

Sleep

Didn't get enough last night. For some reason the police visited the neighbours at 1:30am, and then the neighbours kept leaving/coming home. Noisy.

Weigh in this morning - 2.3kg, at least it's better!

Exhausted

I did a lake run today, hoping to find out that the treadmill is so inaccurate and I'm a lot faster than I thought. Was totally wrong, I did the lake run in 36:14, which is about what I do 5km on the treadmill in. Boo.

Was a terrible run, my legs and back started hurting pretty quickly, but I pushed through and ran the entire way. Ouch.

When I got home I ended up on the phone to my mother for a good 1-2 hours, so was ages before I ate dinner/drank something. I am suffering now, really bad headache and just exhausted.

About to get ready and crash in front of the couch. Zzzzzzz

Had some more almonds today and Devilled Sausages with potatoes for dinner.

Food update

Monday:

* Meal Replacement Bar
* Meal Replacement Bar
* 10 Almonds
* Burnt chicken kiev (barely any) and green vegies
* Lemon Meringue (only 200cal) and small scoop soy ice cream

Tuesday

* Half meal replacement bar
* Salad (Baby spinach, carrot, cucumber, tomato, avocado) and one tin tuna

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Weigh in this morning only had me at 2.1kg loss, but that's okay. It'll go up and down.

Running tunes

I'm always on the lookout for new running songs. Without music, I would not run. I recall times where my ipod ran out of battery (and once broke all together because I sweated all over it), and I just stopped running and walked home.

When I am pushing myself really hard to finish a long run, I have to have the right song playing. At the beginning of a run I don't care as much..

Some of my favourite running songs are:

* Come With Me - Puff Daddy (I finished my first ever 10km to this song, in early 2006)
* What are you Waiting For - Gwen Stefani
* Pump It - Black Eyed Peas
* Do You Want To - Frank Ferdinand
* Nice Bird - Custard (a new favourite)

There's definitely more, but that's all I can think of at the moment.

Monday sore legs

Just did my fastest 2km in 12:29! Was good!

So far I've only eaten a meal replacement bar, and I plan on eating another one for lunch. I'll also top it off with some almonds and maybe some fruit. Not sure what is for dinner, maybe a salad. Might let myself have a weight watchers pudding too.

Monday success

2.3kg total loss this morning! This is even after a carby dinner and dessert.

Sunday food
* Meal replacement bar
* Coffee
* Meal replacement bar
* 3 x cheese and crackers
* Paella and 2 x bread with butter
* Chocolate pudding and ice cream
* Gingerbread thingy

Weekend struggle

Saturday:

Food
* Omlette and mushrooms
* Coffee
* Lean Cuisine
* 4 x little chocolates (NAUGHTY)
* Lean Cuisine

Exercise
* Zilch - rest day

Sunday

Food
* Meal Replacement bar
* Coffee

Exercise
* 5km in 35:51 (record!)

I'm tempted to do some Pilates also today, but I might wait a little while.
I don't have anything in the house for lunch, so meal replacement bar it will be again.

This morning I weighed in at about the same as yesterday, after my run it was significantly less (I sweated A LOT), if I would believe the weight loss after sweating, it brought it down to 2.9kg!

My end of day with clothes on weight is now less than my morning naked weight last week. Good times.

Friday update

Food
* Mushrooms and omlette
* Coffee
* Vegie stir fry (small serve)
* Salad with tuna (small serve)
- Other than water, I had 2x filtered down grapefruit juices

No snacks, no desserts!

Exercise
* 1 hour of yoga

Saturday morning weight loss total:
2.1kg!

Progress!

Last night food

* Vegetable stirfry (with tofu)
I managed to avoid dessert! Yes!

Exercise

* 2km in 13:44, then I noticed my shoelace was undone. I took it as a sign (my legs were getting sore)
* Weights
* 1km in 6:02 - That's gotta be my fastest km yet. I've got to run at this speed to get to my 5km goal.

Thursday morning weigh-in

Lowest weight since I've been running I believe.
1.8kg loss so far! 8.2kg to go!

Having eggs for breakfast. The leftover stirfry for lunch, and salad for dinner.

Hungry!

Really trying to cut back on the calories and food intake today. Had a pretty small snacky lunch. Just topped it up with an apple.

Read somewhere that eating an apple will just make me hungry, and I'm better off having some dark chocolate. Too bad, I had an apple.

However now I'm feeling quite hungry, but that's okay, last time I did calorie counting the first few days were hard in terms of being hungry.

Not sure what to do before my run tonight though, I was going to go to the lake, but it's too cold, so I'll head to the gym on the way home. I probably should eat some almonds just before I head for a run. That should be okay.

Not sure what's for dinner, I think I'll make a salad.

Thursday update

Weigh in this morning took weight loss to 0.8kg. Depending on where I put the scale it sometimes even goes down to 1.4kg. I'll stick with the less option to be safer.

Food today:

* Meal Replacement Bar (breakfast)
* Coffee
* Half Meal Replacement Bar (lunch)
* 20 almonds (part of lunch)

Will grab some fruit later to finish off lunch.

Plan is to do a lake run today, weather pending. If weather is no good then will do a treadmill run tonight.

Have been attempting to drink grapefruit juice. The yellow juice I have is disgusting! Fresh is much better.

Am wearing my work pants today, they seem to be getting too big for me. Yay.

Wednesday afternoon

Food

Couple of almonds (pre-run energy)
Lean Cuisine
Grapefruit juice mixed with mineral water
Handful of almonds
3 course dinner (skipped on potatoes!)

Exercise

4km in 30 minutes
First 3km were done in 21 minutes, then I did walk/sprints for the rest of the 9 minutes to make it to 4km.

Going out to dinner tonight, will be interesting to see if I can find something healthy.

Wednesday Weigh-In

0.5kg lighter this morning. Better than being heavier. I really don't trust my scales. I think I should buy a new one, one that has the body fat calculation also.

Going for a lunch time run today, hopefully can do another 5km.

So far today I have eaten:

Half a meal replacement bar - 100cal
Coffee - Need to work out the cal
Banana - 100cal

Introduction

I've been attempting to lose 10kg for the past couple of months. So far, I have pretty much lost nothing. I've yo-yoed up and down over the past 2 months, and am pretty much exactly where I started.

Even though I haven't really lost weight in terms of kg, I still have achieved quite a bit over the last couple of months. I can now run 5km without stopping, my best time so far is 36:11. My best 2km time this year is 12:44.

Other than the 10kg, my goals are:

• 2km in under 10 minutes
• 5km in under 30 minutes
• 10km

I can only blame the lack of weight loss on my diet, it's the only thing left that must be the cause. I could probably also add more variety to my workouts. I need to do weights more often, and maybe yoga or pilates will also help.

I'm going to use this blog to record my exercise, food intake, thoughts, challenges, celebrations, etc.

I started a similar blog years ago, it can be found here: http://juliegetsfit.livejournal.com

So far this week:

Monday

Food
* Biggest Loser meal replacement bar
* Coffee with soy milk (from now this will be 'coffee')
* 2 x small slices of banana bread
* Bean curry with rice and raita
* Small handful of almonds
* Meatballs, pasta and garlic bread (smaller serve than I usually have

Exercise
* 2km in 12:55

Tuesday

Food
* Biggest Loser meal replacement bar
* Coffee
* Chicken, salad, bread rolls, salami, strawberries
* Small handful of almonds
* 2 x Darrell Lea chocolates
(No dinner tonight)
Exercise
* 1 hour of Yoga

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My goals/plan for the week (ends Sunday)

• Eat healthier and less
• Run 2 x 5km and 2 x 2km (on top of the 2km already done)