'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!"

On the run again - yahoo!

It's happened.
Yesterday I ran and oh, how good it felt.
We were on the Te Henui walkway and heading back down a gentle slope, when I felt the urge to stride out a little.
"I'll run to that seat," I said out loud to Warren, my husband.
But it was so easy I kept going.
And going.
I ran for about five minutes, which may not seem a lot, but it's just the start.
In fact, that's how everything starts - just one step, one stride, one rotation, one stroke at a time.
If I do five minutes of running during each long walk this week, I can up it to 10 next week, then 15, 20, 25, 30... you get the idea.
However, I won't be pounding the walkway because that's concrete, so it'll be streets and Pukekura Park. Even writing this, I feel the desire to get out there again.
When I was younger, running and skateboarding were the two activities that made me feel like I was flying.
For years now I have had vivid dreams of skateboarding and flying.
I also had these nightmares about not being able to run away from something or someone chasing me. My legs simply wouldn't work.
Other times I'd have horrible dreams about being in a race on sand and not being able to lift my feet.
It's only five minutes, I know, but my living nightmare is over.
A few hours later I went for a swim, but only managed 30 lengths. Not because I was tired, but because I ran out of time!
Several years ago a dear friend died of breast cancer and this weekend would have been her 50th birthday. We had dinner with her parents and friends, lit 50 candles all over the garden and remembered this beautiful woman with love and tears.
She's one of the reasons why I've got a fundraising page for breast cancer research as part of my misison to complete the Tri-Woman race on January 29.
I always wanted to be running that race and now I think I will be. My aim was to be down to 100kg by the end of November and I'm on target. I also wanted to be running by then and I am - just.
As this journey has continued I have realised that more and more, my aim is to be an athlete again.
Another friend of mine says she's having a midlife crisis, so has returned to her love of speed - the fast pace not the drug.
When I was young, sport was everything.
So yes, triathlon training is the result of my own midlife crisis.
One that also aims for balance in work and life.
On Friday and Saturday I was totally out of balance.
After a lovely lunch with a friend (a healthy salad), I felt out of kilter and realised it was my ears.
When I got home, I put my head down and the world tilted - confirmation that swimming without earplugs for a week, days of walking in strong winds and nights of being plugged into audio books had affected my inner ear. I've had it before you see.
That's why Friday and Saturday ended up as rest days - hence no blogs.
My big aim this week is to get on my bike!

Yesterday, I:
Walked for 1 hour 40
Ran for 5 minutes
Swam 30 lengths of 50m pool
This wasn't a wonderful food day - I grazed, mostly wisely, and then ate home-made sponge with cream at a potluck dinner. Mmm it was good though.
Drank lots of water
Drank 3 cups of coffee
Drank 1 cup of tea

No place for "if only" regrets

By Virginia Winder
Positivity is my motto in this quest for life balance and fitness.
I might come across as a Pollyanna, but yesterday I wasn't seeing rainbows; I was seeing red.
The anger I felt was purely at myself for over-committing myself to so much work I was forced to miss the Ireland-US Rugby World Cup match. Grrr.
My walk was an air-punching fury march round a few blocks - I ran out of time for a power walk through Pukekura Park. If you're reading this from afar, the park I'm talking about is one of New Plymouth's great treasures. Even writing about it lifts my spirits.
Anyway, back to life balance and inner ire. The walk did quell the fire, but questions have to be asked about saying yes to so many stories. What was I thinking?!
Yet, when I worked through from 3am to 3pm today and tapped out 10 stories, I felt an overwhelming sense of satisfaction that I had completed so much.
Looking back at my life though, I won't remember that I met deadlines (that happens every day), but I will remember that I missed the rugby.
You see, I more often regret what I don't do, rather than what I actually do. I hate lost opportunities with a vengeance.
Which is why I don't want to get to 50 and regret not getting fit and making the most of life.
So there you have it - I don't want my life to be an "if only". I wrote a poem with that title once and it won me a prize - my husband.
Anyway, I'd rather my life was one long, long bucket list with big ticks beside every dream.
Hmm, that's got me thinking...

Yesterday (Sunday), I:
Anger-walked for 20 minutes (too short)
Ate three balanced and healthy meals
Worked for 7 hours
Slept for 8 hours

Today, I:
Walked for 20 minutes (still too short)
Worked for 12 hours
Ate three balanced and healthy meals
Watched a movie (The Adjustment Bureau - it deserves 5 stars out of 5)
Had a soak in a jetted mineral pool
Drank lots of water
Did some stretching (think yoga might be an idea)
Started dreaming...