My first circuit went well. Unfortunately, none of my clients could make it so I was left with 12 people I did not know and trying to learn 12 people's names while trying to run a class was not easy. I'm not good with names. (Once at the gym I offered to help a new lady with her step and she introduced herself to me. We still talk to this day but I'm too embarassed to ask her name again - I'm so hopeless!!) Anyway, it was a little boring to be honest (standing there blowing the whistle every 45secs and 1min), I much prefer to DO the class than teach it! Good music though!
I'm going out for dinner tonight and very excited at the prospect of dessert (I'm thinking of it as extra carbs for the race, heehee). Whatever it is, it must be chocolate!! My birthday is actually tomorrow but my husband has already bought me a new Polar F11 heart rate monitor (mostly because he wants to use my current one for himself!). I really wanted the red one but only the silver and orange ones were on special so I chose the silver. I'm not about to pay $61 extra just for the colour!!
I have my Saturday group session tomorrow and I am making them do the fitness test they originally did at the start to see how much improvement they each have. Hopefully the weather holds out (at least between 10 and 11am). Rain is good at the moment, my grass is green again!! It is so cold though, I've had to dig out all my winter jumpers.
Anyway, after the session I will try and relax for the rest of the day so I am fresh for Sunday. Hopefully I wont get called in to the shop to work (they have dramas at the moment - long story) but if my parents knew what was going on they'd be straight back on the plane to Melbourne. They only left yesterday!!
Oh well, have some stuff to do now. Have a good weekend all!!

Hooray for lat soreness!! I always have real trouble feeling sore in that area. It doesnt happen often but i've definately got it today!! I thought I'd get some triceps soreness too but it didnt happen. Its weird coz at the time my triceps were on fire and I thought I'd be sore for sure. Anyway, we went for a run round the Tan on Sunday morning. My god, there were so many people!! Dont people sleep in on Sundays?? It seems every runner and their dog (literally) in Melbourne were there. ANyway, weather was nice and at least I got to see it coz I've never been before. It was soooo green!!! The run 4 kids is on Sunday and to be honest, I'm feeling good about it (today, that is). Yesterday I was worried, the day before I was fine, you get the picture.... My hormones are raging (TTOM) and I always get up and down moods beforehand. I think I'll be OK but I keep having this recurring dream that I get to the finish line and everybody has packed up and gone home!! Just for fun, I input the figures into Calorie King and it said I would burn 1000 calories if I jogged non-stop for 100 minutes at about 9km an hour. Does that mean I can have 1000 calories worth of chocolatey treats afterwards?? Only kidding!! I can just picture your faces and the looks of horror!! Heehee.
As for work, tomorrow I have to take the circuit class (about 12 people) and I can pick my own exercises. They have to be hard of course!! They dont call me the Nazi for nothing! Beforehand I have to go and pick up a step platform I found cheap and also get to the hairdressers for that much needed colour retouch! My 4 year old said my hair was "yellow" the other day!! I hate to get it done before the circuit but I'm busy on Thursday and Friday. My birthday is actually on Saturday, but as I previously mentioned, I'm not about to go out on the town the night before the race!! I need my Zzzzzzzzzz's!! So we will have a quiet dinner with a few friends on Friday.
If anyone's wondering why I have a picture of the beutiful Beyonce Knowles, its because I am counting down the days until her concert (25th April). The last two were fantastic! She is such a good live singer and soooo pretty! 29 days to go!

I keep checking behind me to see if there is anyone prodding me with a red hot poker! No, its only my bottom protesting about all the step ups/lunges I did yesterday. Thanks Kerryn! My saturday group session girls have labelled me "The Nazi", but I respectfully hand that title over to you. No, only kidding :) I wanna hang on to that!
Weights went well today, the gym was quiet again, weird! Been eating good and I must step it up a notch this week if I want to have a nice dessert for my Birthday next week.
Had a busy week and its still not over. Work today, have a fitness assessment at 8am tomorrow, then the girls at the park at 10am. Want to go to the Adidas sale after that and then back to this place formerly known as my home (at the mo it looks more like a tip!) If I dont tidy up tomorrow, I aint going anywhere!! Best go do some work now!!

Whinge session

Yesterday I was asked by my boss how many sets/reps I had an overweight client doing. When I replied 3 sets of between 10-12 reps the look of horror on his face was priceless!! This is how it went:
Boss: How many reps you got her doing?
Me: Between 10-12, depending on which exercise and a lot of supersetting with cardio in between. I try and keep her heart rate up for the whole session.
Boss: WHAT? HOW MANY?? Why on earth would you have her doing THAT??
Me: Um, so she can build some muscle and strength so she can raise her metabolism and burn more calories.
Boss: No, no, no - not good. She is a big girl, you dont want her to bulk up. Make her do about 16 or 18.
Me: But she's not a beginner, she's been lifting weights for yonks!
Boss: Trust me, she'll put on weight.
Me: Uh, OK, whatever you say, you're the boss. (Secretly plotting how to make him think that I've taken his suggestions on board)

Is it just me or is this completely ridiculous? I've been lifting heavy for ages (3 sets of 8) and I havent turned into Arnie! Shouldn't he know that women dont "bulk up" that easily. Ok, I know she has a lot of weight to lose, but she is freakishly strong and it took me ages to build up to the weights that she's doing. Somebody tell me I'm right, pleease??

Slowly getting better but still feel off. Have not done any weights this week yet but will get back into it tomorrow or Friday. I took the day off on Sunday when we were supposed to do the run and I also didnt do my Body Attack class on Monday morning. I did however play netball on Monday night so that was OK. I played as a substitute for a higher grade and I was impressed with myself coz I didnt look like a total spaz. Its amazing how much better you play when the other players are so good (or maybe it just seemed as if I played better). Anyway, I did still do my cardio yesterday and today and tonight I have the disco circuit at work. The boss said he would take the class again - I think he just didnt want me to contaminate his whistle with my cold germs. He's very germphobic if that's a word. He wont even touch people who are sweaty! He seems as if he's forever carrying around a can of Glen 20!
Anyway, after a not so good weekend of food, I am back on the wagon and eating well. Here's yesterday's food:
*Hi-lite cereal with rev
*carbless bar with a sml almond biscuit (Ok maybe it wasnt that good)
*egg white & vegie frittata
*green apple
*lentil, bean & veg soup, salad
Today will be something along the lines of:
*oats/protein crunch
*carbless bar & sml banana
*sweet potato & chicken patties
*yoghurt with berries & crunch
*chicken & vegie soup
I think I may be going horse riding on the weekend. I've never been before so I'm really excited. Is it that hard? Everyone said that I would be really sore but I think I've got enough extra padding on my bum to cover any of that type of soreness. Any tips?

Oh no, I'm fading......

I woke up this morning perfectly fine and went to train the girls at the park. We had a lovely session with lots of laughs and a good workout and now, whaddyaknow? I'm sick!! It just started coming on about an hour ago, and when I first felt that funny feeling of an itchy/tickling back of the throat I ran to the fridge to pump myself full of whatever I could find (Vitamin C powder, multivitamins etc) and shoved a few down my gob. I know what you are thinking, I should have been taking them already but I was just so sick of pills since last year....well, I've managed to avoid illness until now and its March. So that serves me right! Hopefully it goes away, QUICK!
Anyway, I was just worrying last night about this Run for the kids because when you train for an event I think its a good idea to actually attempt the full distance at least once before race day. Well, looking at this training program, the most we ever will do is 14km (1.2km short of the race distance) and that's scheduled for tomorrow. I'm seriously panicking now because I will probably miss the session if I'm feeling like this and I dont really get time during the week to run that far.
Oh well, on a better note, I am sore in the shoulders and hamstrings from yesterday's session so that's good. I think I better go and rest now - I'm feeling a bit run down and soon I'll have the kids (daughter and husband) yelling for their dinner. SIR YES SIR!

I'd like to thank Kerryn for my throbbing bum (was definately the backward lunges that did it) and I'm pretty chuffed at myself for my aching biceps! After the session at the park, I went home and trained chest and biceps. Unfortunately no chest soreness but yay! I finally got my biceps to hurt! Its just one of those body parts that I really struggle to get DOMS (as well as back). MAybe I'm not working hard enough?? Anyway, it was the dropset that did it because normally I just do heavy sets of 8. Today I trained legs, shoulders and abs at the unusually quiet gym - has everyone already headed off for holidays??
I'm in a good mood today, I hopped on the scales and lost half a kilo this week. Not much you say but at least its heading in the right direction. I also put my name down as an emergency for other netball teams who are short of players and I've already got a few games set up, the first being on Monday. All's good in the food department too. Yesterday's eating consisted of the following:
*oats/protein crunch
*protein cookie, 1 peach
*tuna, rice & spinach
*chicken & sweet potato patties
*lentil, bean & vegetable soup
*diet jelly
Today will include this (hopefully):
*oats/protein crunch
*carbless bar
*tuna salad
*fruit
*chicken & salad
*diet jelly (only 20 cals - yay)
Better get back to work, have a good long weekend everyone!

RIP CBF TEAM

Needless to say, our mixed netball team has dissolved. A combination of bad umpiring and a draw instead of a win has made my teammates want to quit. I guess I will have to put my name down to play in another team as I quite enjoy it. The game ended in a tie 14-14. We should have won because the rules state that if a team doesnt have enough players to start then the other team receives 1 goal for each minute they are late. The quarter goes for 9 minutes and the other team did not come on until there was 3 minutes to go. We should have already had 6 goals on the board but they were lenient towards the other team and only awarded us 3 goals. This was not the breaking point - these two umpires in particular have something against our guys and when they talk back or question a call then they are unfairly picked on for the rest of the match. It doesnt happen with any other umpires. One of them told us to "shut the f**k up" - I thought that was out of line as even the other team agreed that there were a couple wrong calls. Oh well, I still would like to play as its a fun game and you get a workout without even realising.
ANyway, my hip flexors were quite sore yesterday from the hill training that we did on Sunday morning. 1 hour of hills was not my idea of fun but I got through it. The actual run is in four weeks and thankfully only has two hills (apparently) so that's OK. Still havent run the full 15km yet so I dont know how I'll go with that.
Food has been good over the past few weeks but still no drop in the scales. I have increased my dumbbell shoulder press to 3 sets of 8 at 10kg supersetted with forward raises and then a further 3 sets of 8 at 12.5kg supersetted with lateral raises. I have noticed a little difference in my arms but nothing's happenning with my bottom half. Other weights have been increased too. I havent done any HIIT lately because of all the distance runs, hopefully that hasnt affected it. I have set myself a four week goal because I would like to look better for my birthday - and 2 or 3 kilos off would help me significantly in the run (which unfortunately is the morning after my birthday). Doesnt look like there will be a night out for me this year. Didnt think to look at the date when I signed up. Duh! Another incentive is that I have two weddings (in the one weekend) in mid April. Have to work hard! Speaking of which, I better get moving!

DISCO NIGHT
Hard Work! But fun! Some of us didnt stop at all, some of us were on the verge of throwing up and the rest were taking it easy and having fun which is what its all about. There were about 12 different exercises set up (one of which was the speedball) FYI - I am completely hopeless at this! I'm just so uncoordinated when it comes to those things - I looked like a drunk! Is there a trick to this stupid hanging thingy? After a couple gos, I sneakily bypassed this station the next time round and went directly to the next exercise which was skipping (now there's something I can do without looking like I'm having a seizure). Overall, good music, a good night (got home at 11pm) but I couldnt get to sleep for ages after! Next time I have to take over the supervision duties because my boss wants to show off his endurance, stamina and strength (and biceps) *rolling eyes* MEN!!
Sorry, I didnt take any photos. I know you wanted to point and giggle but it completely slipped my mind. There was a disco ball - how's that for a laugh?!