To Bed to Bed Sleepy Head!

So, Sunday was a total bust, as mentioned, except in the field of cooking and baking. I made vegetarian sausage rolls, lasagne and three loaves of bread. I didn't exercise. I was tired, and bummed out by the weather and Mat had to take off to Perth, so plans crushed. However, the house did get a nice once-over, which is always needed, so that made me feel good.

Monday morning, despite plans to do a horse ride and a cycle as well, I only ran. I was tired and finding it hard to get started. I knew if I got going I'd be fine, but was struggling to get off the blocks. Finally, after 10:00am I finally did an outdoor 13km hill run in 1 hour 19 minutes, and was REALLY pleased with that time. It was all hills and seemed much more uphill on the way back than the way out. I was just over 38 minutes to the turn around, so only took 41 minutes to come back. That's pretty good considering that when you turn around you've got 1.5km of hill to get up, and also that I was wearing out and my last kilometre took nearly 10 minutes! I had slowed down a lot! Did I mention it was mostly uphill? :)

I worked that afternoon and felt thick and groggy most of the day, and taught Balance that night, where I did a sneak-peak at some of the new tracks that I will be teaching at the launch on Wednesday, and then home to bed.

I was SO SO TIRED all day. And can honestly say that I have been really really tired lately. Like sleepy tired, not sore or worn out tired. I may have even mentioned this complaint in passing recently. I put it down to not feeling well (I might have something going on with my gal bladder) and to training while not 100%.

So, this morning at Circuit I spoke to Mia, who is a kick butt runner. She is fast, efficient, and super fit. She recently did a half-marathon in 1 hour 44 minutes, and held back so her husband could keep up! That's an average of 12.12kph over 21km! Oh yeah, that's fit! Anyway, I asked her if when she started running if she felt tired and sleepy. And she said, "Oh yeah! Even when I started upping my distances to run the half-marathon, I had to make sure I took a nap after a run. You feel kinda crappy when you wake up, but you feel so much better the next day!"

Oh what a relief! I thought I was losing my mind, that I wasn't tough enough that I was doing something wrong! Well, yes, I guess I was! I was denying my body the extra rest it needed after doing endurance exercise and should have not been resisting my desire to sleep. She recommends a 30 minute nap the day of your big exercise.

After Circuit Kirsty and I did some Attack and Balance training for the launch. That was heaps of fun. Man, I felt uncoordinated, but Kirst was able to see the foot strike I was missing in the warm up combo and we nailed that muther! Awesome! Only took 15 or so tries! hehe I did not too bad in Balance. It's great to be able to discuss some cueing options with another instructor. "That seemed to work well, but what about..." it's so nice to be able to bounce ideas off one another! I think we'll have a great launch!

So, after that training, I had lunch and then taught my Seniors Gym class. Really, I don't teach anything, I just visit and supervise. They're all really capable and have been doing the class for so long, I feel like I'm more of a token element. But it's a nice class!

After work I came home and had a nap! When the cat woke me up, like the efficient alarm clock that he is, I did feel a little groggy and 'ugh, really do I have to?' but now, a few hours later, I feel so much better! Oh my goodness, I am such a dork! It's okay, I can take it, you can tell me!

Seriously, why did I think I needed to stay awake when I felt sleepy? I go to bed early, sleep in late, I'm obviously tired! So, why, when I could fit it in, haven't I listened to my body!? Oh dear, when will I learn?

Tomorrow will be a great day, and I will include a horse ride and a bike ride and a nap!

Massive Monday

I had the day off work on Monday because I worked Saturday and Sunday, so I took the time to make up for a few missed workouts.

I went for a ride on TK and it was PAINFULLY slow! Oh my goodness! We went somewhere new! The shock of it all nearly did his little walnut brain in!

We went out at a walk and a trot (thank goodness I'm carrying a crop now!) along the railway line for over 30 minutes, until I could stand it no longer!  We turned around and walked home. Of course, pointed in the direction of home, he was Mister Speedy Gonzales, and we got back, at a walk only, in less time than it took to get out there.

His hesitation at going somewhere new was a bit of a surprise. I can ride him out alone with no problems, but have been riding similar trails each time - we have a nice 7km loop we do regularly - and he goes along very well.  We've also ridden unknown trails with a friend, and had no problems. Even if he wasn't familiar with the other horse, he was happy to have a buddy and carry along at a nice pace.

So, I didn't realise he would be so silly out in a new place alone. He might not be a very good endurance horse after all!

But presumably if we trek down the same road each time he'll get comfortable with it and we'll be able to pick up the pace and increase the distance. That particular bit of track is a pretty nice 20 km with a few wet spots, but not too bad overall.

After I got him home and undressed, I headed to the shops and bought a few things, including a thermometer. Poor TK. To be vetted through an endurance ride, he needs to have his vitals taken. That's pulse and temperature. Wait, POOR ME!! I have to teach him to accept a rectal thermometer!

Anywho! That afternoon I went for a bike ride with Helen and Nic down Police Pools. I am still a lot slower than them, even with my tuned up bike, but I was doing much better than usual. My average was 24.7km/hr and this includes the warm up 3 km that I do at maybe 18km.

When I got home, I paddled for 45 minutes. I am really glad I am doing this practice. As ridiculous as paddling the air in the lounge room might seem, it is developing my arm and shoulder strength. Without this bit of a base of strength, I'd never have a chance of making it through the race. Paddling for that long is tough!

I was going to do a run and then go to Balance, but then thought that I should help Amanda with the stereo settings before Pump (the stereo is often out of whack after events), and I might as well stay for Pump and then do Balance. As it turns out Pump was a bit of a bad idea. I really made my shoulder ache, and it's been pretty good and getting stronger. I avoided the exercises that I knew would hurt, but was really surprised when my arm started to ache when I was holding my bar on my back for squats. Really unfortunate about the shoulder, because it was otherwise such a fun and challenging workout!!

My legs were still shaking in Balance after the killer lunge track! It's the first time in a long time that I've sweated through the whole class!

I crashed and burned that night, and did not get up in enough time to run before work on Tuesday. I could barely open my eyes!

Note to self: five hours of exercise, even with breaks in between, is still a LOT of exercise!

So today, Tuesday, I've done an hour of spinning, but that's it.

Tomorrow, back on track with a horse ride and a run - aiming for 10km.

So, it would seem that this week I am not quite doing as much "everything" as last week, but I haven't gotten too far behind at all, and am still feeling really great! I was tired early in the day on Tuesday, but perked up, and ended strong.

I was afraid of over-training, but right now I seem to be 100% on top of things! Woohoo!

Oh, hey, if you've never cooked with fennel, do try braised fennel. I made some the other day and what a yummy simple light dish. Delicious! It's essentially diced fennel bulb and a small amount of the fronds, onion, garlic, rosemary and chopped tomatoes. Heat it all up till the fennel is soft and then dress up the fennel sauce anyway you like, such as baked with breadcrumb and parmesan cheese topping. Lovely!

Hope to post an update tomorrow after my ride and run!

Good Food

I did some cooking today! You know, follow a recipe and make something special! And that's a relatively rare thing for me. And I was so pleased with the food I made I wanted to share the two recipes with you!

Mexican Chicken Lasagne from the Australian Institute of Sport's cookbook Survival for the Fittest. I added a whole heap of spinach leaves to this and also had some tofu left over so I chopped that up and added it as well. This recipe was easy to prepare and there is so much of it. They divide the nutrition information into 4 and 6 serves and you'd have be awfully hungry to eat this in 4 servings! I love all AIS recipes because they do make lots and we always have leftovers. They are also simple and fast and so far, none of them have sucked!

(For the Canadians out there, capsicum is a bell pepper, and minced = ground)

The other recipe I made was Susie Burrell's version of Banana Bread. Banana Bread is a delightful treat in my opinion, but can be a bit bad for you, so I like that this is a healthier version with less sugar and fat than usual, but still tastes great! And again, quick is good!

(For the Canadians out there, self raising flour is just plain flour that has 2 tsp of baking soda per cup of flour. I have noticed that the flour in Canada and Australia are a bit different, so I don't know how successful this will be without a little experimentation.)

Anyway, hope you like these recipes and I do recommend you browse the sites. The cookbooks from AIS are awesome for non-cookers and really active/busy people and worth the approx $10. They also tend to be pretty nutritionally complete on their own, so you don't usually have to fuss with a salad or extra side dish if you don't have time.

Bon Apetit!