TourdeForce

Thanks friends!! Hopefully I can keep pushing myself on the running without too much agony - main focus is definitely building stamina for longer runs/walks!

Thanks, twas good Ha! Starting to get slightly nervous about doing it, but you walk really slowly a lot of the time, so hopefully I have the stamina... They should TOTALLY do one, but at least you got a cool map to follow too! Thanks! Thanks! Yes, getting there slowly but surely! YAY!

I'm still here!!! The 'weekend' (Fri/Sat) was chaotic, so no time to post, but quick recap: We had a visiting winemaker from South Africa to do wine dinners on Friday and Saturday, which meant 12 hour days for me and a lot of stress. Happy to report that everything went off really really well, but no time for workouts or running, although there was plenty of walking speedily all over the hotel, so definitely exercise of sorts. I was conscious of my water intake on Friday, but no time to think about it on Saturday (or food for that matter), and replaced it instead with some wine, grappa and chocolate truffles with the winemaker at the end of the evening, which was totally well-deserved! On Sunday, even though I could have happily spent the day in bed, I went to the shops to get food for the week and then made myself go for a run in the forest. I did 5K in 45 minutes, 3 mins faster than my last haphazard walk/run a month ago! It was great following the Zombies! Run training and listening to The Beatles and just being out in nature and sun and fresh air. Whoop whoop! Then I went home and sat in the sun on my balcony and read for about an hour until I had to retreat to my bed for an afternoon nap! Cooked for the week whilst watching some truly excellent EPL kickball and had a little wine as well to celebrate the fact that the dinners were over... Week 1 Update Running Training - 3/6 BWW - 1/3 Water - mostly very good Not the best start ever, but feeling my way back into things so I'm happy. Today has been productive at work, and then went to gym. Did BWW2B which was great, didn't push myself too hard as I'm still wary of overdoing it and then being in agony for the week. There were a coupla douchemonkeys who decided to hog the Smith machine the minute I finished my first set of incline rows, but I just did dumbell rows instead and ignored them for being dumbells themselves. Then I did another Zombies Run mission, but skipped the initial 10 minute walk, and jumped straight into interval runs, then 10 minutes free-run took the form of walking on incline 5. So total of 2.2k in 21 minutes, pretty good. Week 2: Running 1/6 BWW 1/3 Water 5.5, will get to 8 by bedtime

you are killing this! Whoop! also hooray for visiting the bf and WINE! Yum

oooh I am!!!! are you there yet? are you there yet? are you there yet?

gah, sorry you're not feeling well! I'm sure the referendum took something out of everybody, even I was tense sitting in my office in Kenya and following the news! Hope the chicken broth is working its restorative properties for you! Have a good week 2

apple-picking sounds like so much fun, and definitely counts as a workout! And I love the criteria for rewarding yourself, I'm going to do something similar as I also have a pair of too-tight jeans, so will base progress on that! Good start to week 2! I find doing interval training cardio keeps me more focused, so feels less like mindless jogging forever. Whoop whoop!

whoop whoop!!! well done on the race and the timing and having fun! Sounds like you had an awesome first week getting back into training and habit-building. And you've definitely inspired me to keep up with the running, so exciting to see your times improve!

great week one! nice lunchboxes make all the difference! keep on wizarding!

Holy Batwoman there's a lot going on in here! But yes, basically what everyone said about you being awesome and inspirational and it's pretty cool that you can use being a role model to push yourself further. Plus picturing you running along repeating 'I am Batwoman' to yourself made me smile! Knowing you were doing all the running this weekend totally inspired me to do the same, so thanks!

Holy Batwoman there's a lot going on in here! But yes, basically what everyone said about you being awesome and inspirational and it's pretty cool that you can use being a role model to push yourself further. Plus picturing you running along repeating 'I am Batwoman' to yourself made me smile! Knowing you were doing all the running this weekend totally inspired me to do the same, so thanks!

ooooh olive soup nomnomnom! kneading is such a relaxing thing, I love going home to my folks, my mom and I always make fresh pasta, I love the kneading and rolling part almost as much as eating it!

yippppeeeeee! Omg Disney and Universal that's just awesome! plus you'll get loads of walking in! and all the rides. and vacation! (although I can't complain as I'm also going to be on vacation for like the whole month of November *little bit guilty face*) Did you stay home last night? Workout today with synced (sp?) fitbit? Keep on flyin Hurley!!

well done on all the bass-playing, so glad that's coming along...also on getting to yoga and jujitsu although I must admit I think I understand more about tetrahedrals than martial arts have a great weekend!

That painting is awesome, good job! Can't wait to see the one's you're going to give to people! Also, great work on going for the run even tho your buddy cancelled and you didn't feel like it! I hope today is a better day!

Today was a good day. I was going to go to gym before work, but could not wake up. I need to work on that. But it was fine, because I did get up in time to make breakfast smoothies and pack lunch and dinner and gym bag. And after a late afternoon meeting I was feeling ready to go work out! I downloaded the Zombies 5K app onto my ipod last night (thanks for inspiration Bats!) so followed session 1 today. Walked on incline 5 for 10 minutes, might as well prep my legs for that ginormous mountain while I'm at it! Then did the run/walk on incline 2 and free-form jog for 10 mins. Because my ipod, while amazing, is just an ipod it doesn't track distance on the app, but I did 4kms total on the treadmill!! wooot! felt fantastic too, can't wait to get into more of a story. It does track (estimated) steps tho, so now that I know what 4km looks like I can compare. Doms not too bad today, except my quads which always seem to be worst affected - hopefully the run and better stretching after will help tomorrow! Week 1 update Jog - 2/6 BWW - 1/3 Water - 5 so far.Got another on my desk now and will get in another 2 before shift-end/bed. here's beautiful Mt Kenya for added inspiration:

thank, yes, just getting feet in the gym is the first step! OMG that kid! awesome!

Flossed before bed last night...this challenge has been slow to start, but I think I'm getting into my groove

much lols

haha I hate it when you have crazy dreams about all the crap you have to deal with in real life! Like, dreams are supposed to be fun and relaxing, sub-conscious! Let it go! Hope you get the workout in later..

I will definitely keep going on my weekly Sunday forest run, but I might have to work up to running on the road, it's a busy area where I live and the road is full of potholes and there's a lot of other people walking on it trying to dodge cars and bikes so...it's kinda an excuse but also a fairly valid reason, can't climb Mt Kenya with a broken limb...but maybe in a week or 2 when I'm a little more comfortable with my running I'll give it a go. Last night ended up another one of those random crazy nights where EVERYONE wanted to come for dinner, and so there was much running around trying to wine and dine all of Nairobi. It was actually great, made me remember why I do love parts of this job, the adrenaline and team work and interacting with people is kinda fun and awesome. Today I packed my gym stuff, but as my break approached I felt so sleepy and lazy and was contemplating going home and reading my book instead, but then I remembered I had you guys on here waiting for a positive update, so I stopped thinking and went to gym. And as soon I walked in the door I felt better. BWW2A Knee pushups 10/10/7 Squats 10/20/15 Incline inverted row 10/10/10 Step ups 20/20/20 Plank (s) 20/20/20 Jump rope (s) 30/30/30 oh.my.god was I weak! Combination of not having eaten much in last few days and a month of no exercise took its toll, but I did it. Now to eat more (good stuff only) and keep at it! I also did 15 mins jogging on the treadmill, and 5 mins walking, which got me to 2km. hmmmm. I started to panic and think I'll never be able to do 10 WHOLE KILOMETRES and I should just give up but then I stopped over-analysing. This is only day 1, if I keep up with the training everyday I will improve, and if by 15 October, when the submission for the race is due, I don't think I'll make 10km, then I'll sign up for the 5k. I will be able to do 5k by then. DON'T PANIC Week 1 stats: Jog: 1/6 BWW: 1/3 Water: 5, will get in another 3 during the night shift.

glad you pushed on through the meh-ness, I managed it today too and now feel like a million bucks. Well, body feels more like a wet rag, but brain is buzzing so yay! hope Wednesday has been better!

That's a crazy "warm-up" but awesome for doing it AND then all the dancing on top of it. It's great you have something you really enjoy doing to get you moving!

OMG I love that picture! you're doing awesome, 160 pushups is simply insane!! I also struggle to hit protein targets, so let me know if you discover other hidden secrets besides 'eat all the steak!'

awesome start to the challenge! Woot!