I feel like something out of Cigarettes and Alcohol and Rollerblading right about now - where is Sr Assumpta (and my red vest) when I need her to keep up to date on this blog!
The plus sides to keeping a training diary-of-sorts is that I can look back on my previous days worth of eating and working out and see how I'm progressing/slacking! I progressed on diet, slacked on cardio... I know I need to up the cardio, trust me I'm trying! But, with a penchant for a sadistic cardio session aka Spinning, sometimes, you are not in the mood for a punishing hour's worth of cardio!
So, for Lent '15, being the good Catholic lady that I am, I made my Lenten Promise to myself....
I decided to give up carbs and refined carbs in all shapes and forms! So far, I'm 95% carb free!
Hey, I still live at home, that 5% has to be left alone to prevent queries as to why I'm not eating my dinner!
So far, I'm sailing through this little challenge I've set myself! No bread cravings as of yet, no yearnings for pizza + chips, no longings for scones... YES!!! The only carbs that I have allowed myself to prevent me from collapsing with no energy is sweet potato, brown rice and oats for breakfast!
The first few days were the hardest, I won't lie - when you are used to consuming a certain amount of food in a day, the sudden downsized portions can leave a girl hungry! But, trust me, the rewards alone of being carb free make it so so worth it! Carb-bloat is really a 'thing' and a bad thing at that! I've noticed that along with a mainly protein+veg diet, my weights and whatever cardio I'm doing currently, the bloat is well on its way to being gone! My tightest jeans are starting to feel loose, my workout tights fight properly/are loose in places, the tummy bloat is nigh-invisible! Heaven!!! My work pants are even loose, that is always a bonus - seeing as there is a designated bread press in my job! :P Let see if I can last longer than 21 days carb free this time around!
Downside to this whole experience - as small as it was - was that I stepped onto the bathroom scales for the first time in possibly 7 months! I was not a happy girl at all - i try and go by the fit of my clothes, which have gotten looser over the last couple of months as my body has changed, but why do we, as humans, still become a slave to a number that flashes up on a battery operated machine and take it as Bible?! My bathroom scales could label me a heifer (as it did that most recent morning) yet your bathroom scales could compare me to Karlie Kloss! It, along with society, really knows how to make a girl feel beautiful... Yes, I was being sarcastic!
My self-esteem is low enough on a regular day, so I don't know why I put myself through those kind of experiences, or rather choose to put myself through them! I'm lifting weights 3 times a week, I'm building muscle and eating to try and help to build the best kind of muscle, muscle weighs more than fat so, of course, the scales won't be accurate for how I will eventually look - but still, i yearn to see the scale drop not rise!
Sr Assumpta never made me feel that bad about myself... Onwards and upwards!
Now if you shall excuse me, I've got a pair of loose skinny jeans that need some help being pulled up! ;)
Wednesday, 25 February 2015
Sunday, 25 January 2015
Um.... Let Me Explain!!
I know, I know.... it's been almost a year! Let me help catch you up!!
So - my training wasn't the best last year on reflection, that I know! I mean, an exercise bike parked infront of your tv and a few spin classes doesn't equate to a 'training regime' but it helped me out! I know I should have done more road work in preparation for my cycle, but I didn't! Sue Me!
But - I did make it to Malin Head! On one leg - so to speak!
When we were heading from Westport to Sligo, everything was rosy! I was after figuring out my flow, I was able to keep up with the lead car for the most part - then we stopped about 19km outside Crossmolina, lack of water on one of the hottest days of the year is not the safest thing to have while cycling. So, after topping up on water, we carry on - myself, Fionnbar, Paddy and a few others whose names now evade me.
I start feeling a pain in my left knee, thinking nothing much about it other than it was uncomfortable and that I'll be able to massage it out in Ballina on lunch break. Paddy asks how I'm holding up - myself, himself and Fionnbar are in a little trio for a few kms at this point - 'I'm starting to feel a pain in my knee, Paddy', I remember myself telling him, to which he offered a reply of support to keep me going. I could feel myself starting to flag behind them not long afterwards...
About 3km outside of Crossmolina, I remember hitting a bump and the pain shoots through my knee - FCUKING HELL!!! Tears flow out of my eyes, I pull up to a house to try and 'stretch it out', the van pulling up beside me. Im crying in pain now, not able to stretch it out as I thought and have to accept the lift in the van to where the rest of the peloton are. A quick chat with the medic leads to me heading into Ballina in the van, to see if a rest will help my knee. Needless to say, in Ballina I couldn't pedal around the little court in which we were dining. I had to sit in the lead car from Ballina to Sligo and watch the rest of my peloton from the car. I was down, but not out. Or so I thought...
After taking a half day the following day, and getting a lift to Donegal to meet the rest of the team with one of the physios, I ask for my bike, feeling a bit confident that I'll be able to join in with them from Donegal to Letterkenny! I'll test it out in the Diamond, I remember saying to myself! One push down on the pedal with my left knee, the pain shot through in, the tears start again and then I realise 'Shit, I can't cycle!!" I was heartbroken! Richard, one of my fellow cyclists and a former Munster/Ireland/Lions rugby player, spots me and comes over to me to ask me what has me upset! I nearly break down in telling him that I've hurt my knee and that I can't cycle with it, and that 'Now I know how you guys feel when you get injured!' He helps console me, tells me Im better off in taking the rest of the day off and not to beat myself up about it! A couple of other cyclists spot me in the lunch hall and query why I'm upset, and i explain what happened and why I was in the Diamond with Rich, 'Yes, we saw you two chatting alright and we were wondering why you were so upset!'
It killed me having to go to Letterkenny in the lead car! At the dinner that night, while I was chatting to some other cyclists, Richard came up to me to see how I was feeling after that chat at lunch... It really touched me the way he thought to seek me out to ask how I was feeling - His wife is one extremely lucky woman to have a man so kind to love her! All in all, I had to take another half day on the final day when we were en route to Malin Head! I could only cycle the flat surfaces - and that was hard enough when you have taken 2 anti inflammatories to numb the pain but could only really cycle with one leg! I walked up Malin Head hill with my bike at my side, but I made it - not the way I wished to make it, but I made it there!
So, 4 months later, I was able to get back on a spinning bike with no pain while pedalling! The feeling was amazing! Im still a bit weary but I just take a break if I feel that my knee could risk getting hurt again! But, the glutton for punishment that I am - signed back up for the same cycle again!! But I'm doing this year what I should have done last year - training properly with plenty of weights, spinning and road practice, working up to long distance cycling to help get myself accustomed to the distances once again! I am also watching my diet, if only all the goods from christmas time were gone out of the house, it might be a bit easier to do that part! :P
So - my training wasn't the best last year on reflection, that I know! I mean, an exercise bike parked infront of your tv and a few spin classes doesn't equate to a 'training regime' but it helped me out! I know I should have done more road work in preparation for my cycle, but I didn't! Sue Me!
But - I did make it to Malin Head! On one leg - so to speak!
When we were heading from Westport to Sligo, everything was rosy! I was after figuring out my flow, I was able to keep up with the lead car for the most part - then we stopped about 19km outside Crossmolina, lack of water on one of the hottest days of the year is not the safest thing to have while cycling. So, after topping up on water, we carry on - myself, Fionnbar, Paddy and a few others whose names now evade me.
I start feeling a pain in my left knee, thinking nothing much about it other than it was uncomfortable and that I'll be able to massage it out in Ballina on lunch break. Paddy asks how I'm holding up - myself, himself and Fionnbar are in a little trio for a few kms at this point - 'I'm starting to feel a pain in my knee, Paddy', I remember myself telling him, to which he offered a reply of support to keep me going. I could feel myself starting to flag behind them not long afterwards...
About 3km outside of Crossmolina, I remember hitting a bump and the pain shoots through my knee - FCUKING HELL!!! Tears flow out of my eyes, I pull up to a house to try and 'stretch it out', the van pulling up beside me. Im crying in pain now, not able to stretch it out as I thought and have to accept the lift in the van to where the rest of the peloton are. A quick chat with the medic leads to me heading into Ballina in the van, to see if a rest will help my knee. Needless to say, in Ballina I couldn't pedal around the little court in which we were dining. I had to sit in the lead car from Ballina to Sligo and watch the rest of my peloton from the car. I was down, but not out. Or so I thought...
After taking a half day the following day, and getting a lift to Donegal to meet the rest of the team with one of the physios, I ask for my bike, feeling a bit confident that I'll be able to join in with them from Donegal to Letterkenny! I'll test it out in the Diamond, I remember saying to myself! One push down on the pedal with my left knee, the pain shot through in, the tears start again and then I realise 'Shit, I can't cycle!!" I was heartbroken! Richard, one of my fellow cyclists and a former Munster/Ireland/Lions rugby player, spots me and comes over to me to ask me what has me upset! I nearly break down in telling him that I've hurt my knee and that I can't cycle with it, and that 'Now I know how you guys feel when you get injured!' He helps console me, tells me Im better off in taking the rest of the day off and not to beat myself up about it! A couple of other cyclists spot me in the lunch hall and query why I'm upset, and i explain what happened and why I was in the Diamond with Rich, 'Yes, we saw you two chatting alright and we were wondering why you were so upset!'
It killed me having to go to Letterkenny in the lead car! At the dinner that night, while I was chatting to some other cyclists, Richard came up to me to see how I was feeling after that chat at lunch... It really touched me the way he thought to seek me out to ask how I was feeling - His wife is one extremely lucky woman to have a man so kind to love her! All in all, I had to take another half day on the final day when we were en route to Malin Head! I could only cycle the flat surfaces - and that was hard enough when you have taken 2 anti inflammatories to numb the pain but could only really cycle with one leg! I walked up Malin Head hill with my bike at my side, but I made it - not the way I wished to make it, but I made it there!
So, 4 months later, I was able to get back on a spinning bike with no pain while pedalling! The feeling was amazing! Im still a bit weary but I just take a break if I feel that my knee could risk getting hurt again! But, the glutton for punishment that I am - signed back up for the same cycle again!! But I'm doing this year what I should have done last year - training properly with plenty of weights, spinning and road practice, working up to long distance cycling to help get myself accustomed to the distances once again! I am also watching my diet, if only all the goods from christmas time were gone out of the house, it might be a bit easier to do that part! :P
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