What's going on, Tori??

Well I haven't posted in over a month. Almost two months!

I have continued running, the problem is that I've had some health issues along the way. 

I rolled my ankle. Twice in one week, in fact. That was fun. NOT.

Then my appendix exploded. That was really fun. NOT NOT NOT.

So I'm on the countdown to recovery. I'm going to start running again tomorrow morning, two weeks post-op, and do a really easy one, just to get myself moving again. I can't keep sitting around.

THE GOOD NEWS?? I've been watching my eating really tightly and I'm down to 82.1kg! GO ME.

Week 7

Next week I will be able to say I've been running for two months! That's pretty exciting!

5km again this morning. Like when I started running, my body is kicking up a stink at the extra mileage but we need to do this. So to avoid injury I have been hearing some key areas 20 mins before I leave and icing the same areas when I get back.

Key areas are:

Lower back

Hammies

Ankles

At night sometimes I heat my neck before bed because I've always had spinal issues there, but it's crazy.... Most of that has gone away!

Time: 43:43 mins

Progress?

When I couldn't run 5KM:

Regularly running 5KM

I can't see a huge improvement yet... But there are subtle differences:

Muscle-wise, I've toned up quite a bit but the weight loss hasn't blown me away.

I have put it down to the fact that you can't outrun a bad diet and have started eating accordingly. This week I have lost 1 kg (yes ... The one I originally lost and put back on... It's gone AGAIN) and hopefully more will drop off next week. I need to stick with the diet of lean foods and no sugar.

The End of Week 6

Hi all! On Friday I ran 5km in the morning (TERRIBLE timing, but at least I got to the end) because my PT said that it is time for me to amp up the distance I was running, especially if I'm aiming for 12km at the City to Bay.

So I've run a 5km course twice this week, and TODAY, I beat my personal best!

5km, Time 42:44 mins, average pace 8:31/km

Im feeling pretty confident that I will be under 40mins and heading down to 30mins per 5km in no time! Peace out, stay excellent.

Week 6 so far

So this is what happens after a long weekend of terrible eating and minimal exercise... Maybe I took on too much by extending my track? I will try my old track tomorrow and see how I go.

I am sweating like a pig!

Week 5... Mission: Complete

I wrote a whole big post about how I upped my track to 3km (as apparently I should be running 5 now) and how my average pace was 8:49/km but the stupid phone deleted it! Grrrrr

Anyway, week 5 is done. Unsure on the weekend 5km as I have some friends coming to stay with us but we will see!

Week 5 so far

Going well!

I'm paying attention to my pace and trying to figure out what a 9:00 pace feels like so I can always try to go a little bit faster than it and gradually lower my time.

Today I managed to run mostly at 8:32 perkm but because of my cool down walk at the end it averaged out at 8:55. I'm running 2.5km in under 25mins though ... The goal is to be able to do it under 20mins, then 15mins.  

Back in the game!

Last week I had some time off due to being sick and I figured now was the time to get back into it. The good news is that a bit of time off can do wonders for your pace! I felt lighter on my feet (after the initial push, of course) and managed to maintain a good pace.

Average pace was 9min10/km. If I hadn't walked the parts I did, maybe it would be under 9mins! I will find out tomorrow.

Speaking of, it's my birthday tomorrow! I asked Michael if I could have a Bluetooth pair of running headphones so I could listen to my music without cords getting on the way of my arms. My current ones are great but Bluetooth would be awesome!

5km#2

Today I did parkrun! Parkrun is a nonforprofit event run by volunteers who time and help others run a 5km course every Saturday morning. Ours is in Victor Harbor.

I was right at the back, and yet I still beat my first 5km time. I felt so heavy and worn down though, like I dragged my body through it the whole time... FOr the first time, running wasn't enjoyable.

This may have been for several reasons:

1: I havent been eating too well the last two days... 

2: I've been overdoing it a bit with the running this week

3: I ran after seeing my massage therapist the night before. My leg cramped up something chronic.

However, the good news is that I beat my original 5km time. Not by much, but I beat it. Just got to keep pushing through... And eat well. 

Time: 46:37 minutes.

Medication Issues

Having some problems with medication at the moment. Took this morning off and will be going to the doctors to see if there's anything she can do to help ... It's impacting on my training.

Also, I didn't go running this morning because it's bucketing down with rain. Frustrated...

I've spoken to a lovely lady at Anytime Fitness, Victor Harbour and I will be going there this afternoon to suss out whether I need a personal trainer for some guidance due to this weight fluctuation and my technique. The PT I talked to is training for the Kangaroo island marathon... I looked it up, it looks like it could be a bigger and better goal for after the City to Bay run!

Yesterday I signed up for Parkrun as well. A group in Victor have been running a 5km course every Saturday morning. A few colleagues from work are doing it so I thought I would join in!

Weight Gain?

So this is the bit about exercise that I don't get... I've been eating crazily-well for three weeks and training two and a half weeks, almost every day (no joke, 6 days last week) and I went from 86.5kg to 84.9... But when I weighed myself this morning after my 5km run on the weekend and still training Monday, I weigh 86.0kg.

There's no way I could have put on more than a kilo of muscle in 2.5 weeks is there?

I know I was very busy yesterday and didn't drink my full 2L (in fact I barely got a litre down). Maybe that's it?

Either way I just have to remember that although I'd like to lose weight, this is about the fitness goal... The running. The weight will come off on its own. Results will be seen eventually...

Week 3, Day 1

I started back on the training program today... Very surprised how easy I'm finding the running parts of Cto5K. I may have to run faster? Unsure.

Noticed I have a few followers! I'm so glad you're reading and I hope my journey helps you with your own yearly goals. 

The first 5km

I did it.

I jogged 5km.

I jogged it slower than a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter, but I jogged it all the way.

Now its just up to me to use the Couch to 5K program to work up to RUNNING it.

Current Time: 5.16km, 49:57 mins.

The "Before" Shot

This is embarrassing... But I thought I should post a "Before" Shot so that I can compare it after the Couch to 5K program is done. After that, I should be able to keep taking progress shots in the same bra and shorts until 2016, when my year is up.

Hate comments will be deleted... I know it's not pretty.

This is two weeks in. I've lost 2kg at this point but it doesn't matter... I don't think I'd like to post the before shot. I feel comforted, at least, knowing that I've improved so much already.

2 Weeks down

I did something incredible yesterday morning.....

I had completed the second week of Couch to 5k, and thought I should just go for a light jog of my own. See where I get puffed out, how long I can jog without feeling exhausted... I wanted to see where my fitness ended.

I kept jogging. I stopped a few times because I was worried I would start to feel tired, rather than actually feeling it. It was amazing. I've never been able to do that before.

The only problem was the intense back pain that followed in the hours afterwards.

It started an hour after I had already finished working out, in the car on the way to work. My right ankle started, and then my lower back. It was unbearable.

So I stopped at the supermarket, grabbed some pain killers and some elastoplast sports strapping tape and was strapping my ankle up in the staff room, when a student teacher called Steve who had been doing his practicum at our school, stopped me and asked what I'd done. He then revealed that he was a musculoskeletal massage therapist and he could help me that night if I didnt mind a late appointment... And proceded to give me the most amazing foot massage ever. It felt loads better until I got to the appointment.

After the appointment, he left me feeling really good. I made another appointment for a week (he told me I have crooked hips and I asked him if he could monitor/massage me through the initial month of my running program), I drove home, got a good night's sleep and then when I woke up the pain was back. He told me that would happen, so I expected it. Thankfully the ankle was ok.

I put a heat pack on my back and it was amazing. INCREDIBLE. Most of the pain is gone.

I can't wait to try a free run tomorrow... I marked out 2.5km away from my house so that I could run exactly 5km every day. So far I've been running an average of 3.1km... I really want to work up to that 5km.

5am

I have decided that I am in love with being awake before the sun is.

There is something incredibly magical about my little country town of Milang, at 5am. Every one is asleep, the lights are off, and the stars swim in clouds of glitter above my head. And I run.

Well, I jog/walk. I'm not quite there yet.

First week down

So I did the first week of the Couch to 5K program and smashed it... I tried to do the first one of the next week but I'm changing medications at the moment (to better the weight loss potential) and I'm tired as hell. It was really tricky, which I'm sure was due to the med change. I'm cranky and tired. And I have a headache.

Beginning

Hi everyone... My name's Tori. If it's alright with you, I'd like to share with you my story:

A few years ago, I lost a tonne of weight (40kg, to be exact) bringing me down from 105kg to a lovely small 65kg. I was a size 8-10, was verging on being a "small", and had replaced all of my clothes.

Then I started teaching.

Don't get me wrong, I love my job. But I was so dedicated to making sure I had every lesson, every minute, planned perfectly and that I knew exactly what I was doing... So dedicated and obsessed that I stopped the diet and the little "workouts" I was doing... If you could call them that. I really wasn't that fit. Just thinner.

Over the last 4 years, I have put on 20kg. I feel disgusting.

When I first noticed the weight returning, I tried starting the Couch to 5K program. I got a week in, then I got a cold and stopped. A month later, I tried again. I got a week and one day in, and then got glandular fever. I was then told I could not work out anymore.

Glandular fever left me bedridden for weeks. I couldn't work, I slept all day. I took about a year to recover and even after that I had chronic sinusitis and tonsillitis until I had surgery to remove my sinuses 5 weeks ago.

Yesterday

My partner and I have recently moved house and I thought that it was time to get myself into a routine. I weighed myself over the weekend and began to cry... I weighed 86.5kg. I have put on over 20kg. You see, 20kg was one thing, but OVER 20kg? That felt like a whole new level of weight gain to me... Failure hit me like a baseball bat to the stomach.

I started talking to a colleague yesterday and he put me onto some great ideas... He had lost 19kg over the last year and had gone from being a couch potato to fit in 365 days. I wanted to do better than that... He inspired me.

I asked him what I should do about being so tired after work... It had been so hard to get into any fitness routine because I was always exhausted after a long day of teaching.  He told me... "AFTER work? You should do it BEFORE work. I get up at 5am to work out." I looked at him in disbelief.

"I'm so tired in the mornings, there's no way I could get out of bed that early." I said.

That's when he suggested Oxy-Shred...

I know loads of healthy organic people tend to think that pre-workouts loaded with caffiene don't work, or if they do they are bad for you... But seriously. You don't know how much it helped me this morning. This morning, I got out of bed, put a scoop of this magical caffienated beverage in a shotglass of water, shotted it, and SMASHED the first Couch to 5K workout. The last time I had tried, it was extremely hard... This time, it was a piece of cake. I couldn't believe it. I literally spent the walking parts of it dancing down the street.

Most importantly, he told me I shouldn't set a weight goal... I should set a FITNESS goal. Set something to achieve with my body, and the weight will come off on its own.

So I looked at my 5K app... And I think I can do better than that in a year.

The Goal:

Today was my first run, and in a year from today, I want to go from NOVICE to EXPERT... I want to run the City to Bay in Adelaide.

The course is about 12km long and the average person runs it in about an hour. People tend to aim for less than an hour... Loads of people walk it for charity. My friend and I walked the course one year and the winner that year ran it in 30 minutes. I'm pretty sure it was a new record.

I don't want to just be thin again... I want to be fit. Excuse my french, but... I want to be fit as fuck. I want to be strong and lean and able to run as long as I can without feeling exhausted. I don't want to be a certain weight. I want to be at my physical peak.

I thought I'd start this blog to record my journey... So I hope if you're reading, you are also inspired by my story.

This time, I'm not giving up a week in. I'm going to go for a full 365 days.