RobinLost Posted August 18, 2020 Report Share Posted August 18, 2020 Greetings Fellow Rebels, welcome to Robin's Flight Plan. 3 weeks ago I found out I weighted over 94 kg. I was shocked, and decided to take a more active approach. I went back to the Gym, the first time since I came off my bike last year and was told by the physio that I shouldn't stop running and weight lifting until my shoulder was back in action. Now, I know weight lifting might have been better to start, but if I want my gym habit to be a habit I'm going to start with something I enjoy. First target: Coach to 5k. There's lots of plans out there, but I'm a number cruncher so while I have looked at them, I've developed my own plan, keyed to keep my interest. I've signed up to a 5k race in November, and I'm going to the gym every other day, getting a bit faster and going a bit further every time. On Saturday, I did my first 5km. It took my 53 minutes, since I'm interval running, but the important thing is I did it, and I now have a target to beat that isn't from Robin of bygone years. My current running target is a sub-30 5k, but for the day to day I'll take 'I did better than last time' Second Target: Lose the weight. According to my height, and the BMI chart, my healthy weight would be between 48 and 63 kg. Those are scary numbers, and going to take over a year before I can reasonably expect to land in there, if I ever do. So current target is 80kg. I'm at 90.5kg after 3 weeks, I'm off to a good start. Sugar has gone bye bye from my teas and coffee, sweet things are mostly off the menu, and I'm planning to start batch cooking sensible meals for lunch rather than grabbing left overs or sandwiches. At some point I need to seriously cut down on cheese, so I'm inching out meals that contain a lot of it, like baked potatoes. Quote Link to comment
RobinLost Posted August 18, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2020 My record so far. Monday was an effort, it was a struggle to run for 3 minutes so some of run was more 2.5 run: 1.5 walk. Not sure how much a strain it was, but my heartbeat was rather high according to the treadmill, so I'll see how I do later this week. If I can't maintain a 3:1 ratio , I'll repeat next week rather than increase to 4:1. Quote Link to comment
RobinLost Posted August 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2020 Lunchtime, and I've been a good Robin. Went shopping on way home last night, and cooked up a batch of healthy lunches. Silly me messed up the portions, I think in kg so 3/4oz got translated in my head as 300g rather than 100g. Hopefully extra chicken isn't going to throw me out that much. Can't say I'm too impressed with the taste, so better seasoning will need to be added in the future. Quote Link to comment
RobinLost Posted August 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2020 Downloaded Fatsecret app to keep track of my food. Not sure if I buy into the calories tracker, but I'm in the green. Although I'm sure mum's Moussaka is a little more calory heavy than shop brought. I run 3.6 km in the gym, it felt harder today, but that might be lack of sleep (there might be a mouse in my bedroom, thank you Angel-kitty) Quote Link to comment
RobinLost Posted August 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2020 Fatsecret is telling me I've been good, but I can't help but look at the calories remaining and think, I must be hungry. I don't know if it's in my head, or if I'm actually hungry... I'm keeping to my new diet, no sugar, and smaller portions of my mum's cooking. I know I should think of it as my new normal, rather than new diet, but in my head 'my diet' means what I eat normally, not the new experiment I'm running for weight loss. Mental gymnastics aside will power is a limited resource. My batched Chicken and Veg was a lot tastier once I dumped a load of spice on it. Got up early today so I could have Bacon, eggs and mushrooms for breakfast. Planning to have a tuna salad for dinner, as parents are having Curry. I wish my Dad had said something before I was heading out the door or I would have gotten a batched chicken meal out of the freezer. Finally got a lunchtime walk today, weather's been awful this week. And I'm once again off to the gym after work. After some thought about ways I could decrease the difficulty, I've decided to see if the incline makes a difference. I've been steadily ramping up the incline and speed and interval time, and I don't want to reduce my speed or run interval. All in all, I'm struggling with minor things, feeling a bit low, but continuing on with my plans. My burning obsession with couch to 5k has faded like I knew it would, but hopefully that just means I stop running the numbers through my head rather than stop running. Listing the benefits/achievements to remind myself: I've already lost 3.5 kg It's been easier to cycle up hills I've improved my current max speed to 7 km/h from 5.5 km/h I ran 5 km on Saturday in 53 minutes. Quote Link to comment
RobinLost Posted August 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2020 Today I ran 3.86 km. Yay! The incline was definitely increasing the difficulty too high. Not sure what to do going forward, on one hand I want my focus to be on increasing my speed and run time, but the route of the 5k I signed up to definitely has hills. I suppose I can vary the incline once I'm happier with my speed, or I could gradually increase the incline, like 0.1 per week. Quote Link to comment
RobinLost Posted August 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2020 It's my long run today, and I'm feeling happier. I did my 5 km in just under 50 minutes, and my scales tell me I've lost 1.1 kg. My run speed was 7.1, walk speed 4.0 and I was able to keep to my 3:1 ratio until I started flagging a bit towards the end. Now I'm going to enjoy a nice hot bath, then prepare my batch lunches for the week. Quote Link to comment
RobinLost Posted August 26, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2020 Yesterday the weather was awful, I kept getting warned to be careful cycling home, and I almost burst into tears when excel and idiot who kept poking me lost my last hour of work. I got to gym, and crowd! Every treadmill was taken except the mile one. As well as nearly every machine. I guess bad weather drove them in. So I ran 2.5 miles, which I think is just over 4km. Almost kept to 3:1 ratio, added 10/15 secs to walk time towards end but no idea speed wise comparison. 4.5 miles per hour? Nope sorry, vaguely hope it's around 7.2 km/h like Google said. Quote Link to comment
RouleurBaby Posted August 26, 2020 Report Share Posted August 26, 2020 Nice little conversion (on a calculator) is to times miles by 1.6 to get km. The other way you divide km by 1.6 to get back to miles. Great start to your journey Robin especially the weight loss! Maybe consider using myfitnesspal is you're unsure of your current calorie counter, it's super easy to use. Keep it up! Quote Link to comment
RobinLost Posted August 27, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2020 On 8/26/2020 at 9:52 PM, RouleurBaby said: Nice little conversion (on a calculator) is to times miles by 1.6 to get km. The other way you divide km by 1.6 to get back to miles. Thanks Rouleur, definitely not something I'm doing without a calculator! Especially after a run, I have trouble enough with addition when I'm running let alone multiplication XD (I have a list of times to hit the interval button, because I can't keep numbers in my head while exercising) And thanks for the suggestion of a different calories counter. It's not the app I'm doubting but the idea of calories counting to lose weight. Yes I know it works, except when it doesn't, and I think it's too simple an explanation for the human machine. I'll stick with it, because it's useful to keep a record of what I'm eating, and because it makes me think twice about taking second helpings, or snacking. Anyway, I'm here to say I ran 4.1 km in 40 mins, speed at 7.3 km/h run, 4.0 walk, with my 3:1 ratio. And a measly incline of 0.1. Diet is going well, apart from my mum worrying about me eating too many chicken meals. So might switch over to pork next week to vary things a little. Waiting on the scales to declare if the week is a success. Good point of success, I've just realised I've not even looked at the sugar pot this week. A week or 2 ago I was starring at it and telling it "No" 1 Quote Link to comment
RobinLost Posted August 29, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2020 Today was my long run, and I did 5 km in 47 minutes! An improvement, but still a long way to go. Weight is a bit disappointing this week as I'm holding steady, at 89.3 kg (well, it's a tiny loss, but I'm not sure it counts when I'm wearing different clothing) Still, weight loss has it's ups and downs, I can hardly expect to lose 1kg every week. Plus, being a woman, I know that my weight should flux a bit over a monthly period. My target is 80 kg by Race day, which is still achievable. Quote Link to comment
RobinLost Posted September 1, 2020 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2020 Good lunch time peeps I've had a bit of a busy weekend, but still fitted in time to meet my targets. I tried the scales again and my weight is 88.8 kg. Sunday I went swimming, which included a cycle to the only open swimming pool I could find locally. It took longer than I expected, so I only got to swim for 40 minutes, but it was nice to get back in the water. Monday, I was back on the Treadmill and did 4.2 km in 40 minutes, run speed 7.5 km/h walk speed 4.1 km/h and a run:walk ratio of 4:1 with a little more walking towards the end. Quote Link to comment
RobinLost Posted September 3, 2020 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2020 Sadly, suffering from a migraine this week, so decided against running until it's gone. Still being good food wise, but more because I'm nauseous than anything else. Trying to work out how to add food to my tracker the day after, because I'm sure I've done it before but I'm blaming the migraine for my inability to remember how. Quote Link to comment
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