Saturday, March 31, 2012

On course for Taranaki

By Virginia Winder
There's been a change of venue for my half-ironman dream next year.
It's home and hills I want - so I will be tackling the Wells New Plymouth half-ironman in February. Can't yet find the date online, but will be writing it down in ink and telling you all when it's announced.
The other day I had lunch with Irena Brooks, who's done the Mt Maunganui race (my original aim), and she said riding 90km on a straight flat course meant no respite for the leg muscles.
My favourite parts of any biking course are the hills and, believe it or not, the ups. I just love the hard work, the gutsy power of it, the digging deep and the achievement when you get to the top. It's beyond these mantras I tell you about; it just taps into the core of my being.
Now I'll be able to constantly train in reality - not a distant place and a distant dream.This is solid ground stuff. I have to bike 90km, so now I can map out the course and aim to do 30km of it, then 40km, then 50km, then 60km - you get the idea.
Also love the idea of training at Ngamotu Beach from spring through to tri-time in the place I'll be racing.
In between all that, I'll be training for the Taranaki Daily News half-marathon.
Idelle Hiestand is one of my main inspirations for doing the home-grown race because she talked to me about supporting local. She also did the race and did it well, so I know it's possible for me.
Had lunch with my sponsor and co-conspirator Bryce Barnett yesterday and he's all for the switch in venue, so am feeling buoyed about it now and can put plans into action.
Yahoo!
However, I am heading away for an event soon - the last Tri-Woman race of the season. That will be at Pt Chevalier on April 22 and I'll be heading there with my niece Rebecca and daughter Clementine, who will be a team. I'll be doing the whole thing again, but this time I'll be running, not walking!
Back to Irena - she put me on the spot about my weight, asking why I haven't updated my blog for months. That's because I've been hovering between 90kg and 91kg and I wanted to write that I'd made it to 80-something and make a big splash.
She reminded me that back when I was teering on the edge of 100kg, she said I just had to relax and let go and the weight dropped and it did.
So this is it, I'm saying out loud, well in writing, "I'm letting go!"
Let's see if that works.
Other changes - I won't be having cafe lunch dates with friends during the week.
Don't be annoyed or sad. You can still see me - at the weekends or come for a "walking meeting" with me. I'll still have time for a coffee on a Monday too, but other times I need to have shortened lunch breaks to finish work early to get to training, or meet on the move with you, which will produce energetic, creative thoughts and great conversations. Naturally, I'll make exceptions for injuries or if it's snowing.
Yes, I'm starting to sound rather militaristic. These new moves are for me because I need discipline to achieve what I aim to do, because these are big goals.
Because, as you know, I've just got 2 do it!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Losing and laughter - the skirt fiasco

By Virginia Winder
The evolution continues.
"Hello person who doesn't look like you any more," a woman I know quips as we cross paths.
"I still feel the same - just fitter, healthier," I yell over my shoulder.
But things have changed.
No 1 problem is that my clothes are getting too big. Way too big.
I know some of you may think this is a great thing, but there are two downsides to downsizing.
1. I love the clothes I had and they were chosen with love and care.
2. When clothes get too big it can be downright embarrassing.
Let me paint you a scenario of a hapless, hurrying woman on her way to a meeting last Wednesday morning...
The lift doors open and I rush out, pen and folder in hand heading for a gathering on the top floor of Puke Ariki. I am a few minutes late, so I break into a light jog.
If this was a movie, that jog would turn into a slow-motion scene so you, the audience, know something disastrous is about to happen.
Hold that thought... me jogging in slow-mo strides, and there you can start to see what's happening, see the slip of the material, see my eyes open wide... switch to the woman manager in the glass office, see her look up from her desk in astonishment, then there's a shot of a woman in the lift putting hand over mouth in gleeful horror, and then back to me...standing there in a puddle of black cloth.
Yes, my skirt fell off, straight down, on the floor, leaving me stranded in my black underpants! This is the stuff of nightmares.
I whipped it back on and headed to my meeting, hot-faced and guffawing inwardly at the absurdity of my life and terribly thankful the boss wasn't having a high-powered meeting in her office.
"That's one of the funniest things I've seen in years," the woman in the lift told me later.
We laughed together.
So, yes, I've still been training, especially biking and running.
I've also been eating well - mostly. But when I'm busy, and overworking, I crave carbohydrates and sugars, especially chocolate. That's when I try to have unroasted nuts on hand because protein staves off those cravings.
Drinking water still isn't easy. I forget. My husband, Warren has even taken to texting me "drink water" messages, which works. It's all about reprogramming.
It's amazing what the mind can do, what changes can take place, one step at a time.
Just remember to laugh at yourself on the way, because if you don't, everyone else will.
Live lightly if you can.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Womad wildest workout of all

Dobet Gnahore
By Virginia Winder
Dancing at Womad has to count as a major workout.
All up, there was probably about eight hours of up-the-front wildness over three days and lots of chilling out with friends in between.
Add walking around the site, including hill climbs and Womad adds up to a lot of exercise.
Best of all no ACC claim this year. Oh the weird ones I've had.
Last year, I raced off in the middle of the Topp Twins to use the loo in the VIP area, went over in pothole and fell, saving myself by grabbing on to the front of a young security guard's belt. I was mortified, he looked terrified. My ankle was badly sprained, my embarrassment even worse.
At an earlier Womad a friend wrenched my shoulder while we danced to Hava Nagila and at another festival I hurt my left Achilles jumping to Blue King Brown.
Tonight I was desperate to get back out on my beloved bike, but the wind ruined that.
Biking is now officially my favourite of the three triathlon sports, running is second and swimming third. Do you hear that - running!
This life of fitness is wonderful, especially because it means I'm getting out there in nature. The other day I biked along the coastal walkway to Hickford Park at Bell Block and then back the other way and up to Paritutu and home.
So when the wind gets up, I not think about all the people who have orchards or those who might lose a roof or fences, but I also selfishly think, "blow it, no biking for me".
What I have been doing too much of lately though is working - way too many hours.
That's taken its toll on ... this blog, but not my body.
Now it's time for sleep and to recover from Womad.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

'Love this life!' yells the crazy woman

By Virginia Winder
My blogging may have gone off the boil, but my training hasn't.
Went biking for more than an hour yesterday, the day before I went for an even longer walk and ended up running and on wild-wind Saturday did a gym workout.
Have decided that I need an indoor alternative when it's just too nasty out there. Also bought some long lycra tights that will help when winter sets in, because I refuse to be a fair-weather athlete. Wind, however, does put cycling off the schedule for safety reasons.
I have been clocking up the hours and the kilometres on our roads, parks and streets, have been walking to work and have added a sign by the lift on my stairs. It reads: "No Virginia, use the stairs."
Why? Because I need to reprogramme myself. "I'm not going to use the lift today," I announced to my floor at Puke Ariki.
Thirty seconds later, I pushed the button and was rising mechanically to the next floor like an automaton. The sign changed that.
Today, I noticed I've slipped again so the sign will have to go back up again tomorrow, much to the amusement of my work colleagues.
You see, I'm trying to be extremly active in my daily life and have been trying even harder on the food front.
Every now and then I find myself slipping into bad habits, like buying iced coffee. No, not the stuffed with cream and icecream kind, but the type you get from the dairy in a plastic bottle. Not a sensible choice.
Better to make a cup of tea and have some fresh fruit and nuts, to sustain me through an afternoon.
Have been doing some research on low-carbohydrate diets and while they work for losing weights, you do have to be careful what protein you eat. Check out this story, I wrote using research from Harvard University.
Now, here's another confession - I haven't got the work-life balance thing going so well.
Have had some days where I have been back to my old appalling habits of working 13 hours.
Don't for a second think that's a good thing.
It's not admirable. It's obsessive, self-centred and unhealthy on all fronts.
I've still managed to fit in training sessions on those days, but nothing else. I've been exhausted and it's my poor family that misses out.
So from this moment on that stops.
Oh, I sound so serious, so earnest!
It's all so much fun though, this exercise journey. The joy of it! The freedom of biking, the flying of running, the meditation of swimming...
Last night, I was biking along the walkway, the rolling Tasman Sea on my right and the snow-dusted Mt Taranaki on my left and, like a crazy woman, I yelled at the top of my voice: "I love this life!"