Beautiful boys in the pram

This morning I attempted to go for another run with the boys in the double pram. After some stern words on Thursday and this morning I think I frightened them into good behaviour. They have missed out on going to the park afterwards for a couple of times in a row now (due to their behaviour), so I thought I'd give them another go.
They were beautiful. They were such good boys. If Clayton started doing the wrong thing, Connor would tell him to stop it because he was being naughty and wouldn't get to go to the park etc. They sang, and talked, and played games and kept their hand off each other. They said hello to people we passed. I was sooooo proud of them.
I ran the usual bridge to end of path and back, felt good and thoroughly enjoyed it. And the boys got to go to the park again.

Naughty boys in the pram

Well most of my run this morning was spent refereeing the 2 boys. They were yelling at each other, hitting each other, pulling heads, throwing items and anything else you can imagine. That's the only problem with the double pram...that they sit right next to each other within easy reach. I was fuming and boy did they know they were in trouble.
I somehow managed to do the usual bridge to end of path and back run, but did not enjoy it at all. In fact I hated it.

Wednesday Sprints

My wonderful husband Chris worked right through today (without any breaks) so he could get home in time for me to go to Wednesday night sprints. I was feeling good. I got there a little bit late and everyone was already off doing a warm-up, so Anton and I headed off to do a shortened warm up on our own.
We missed the first sprint, but got there for the rest. I went in the first group with the others a few seconds behind. Overall I was really happy with how I went. I managed to put in a bit of effort without losing my balance, and was generally coping well...other than at the start calling out "I can't stop, don't make me wait too long, lets go...etc". Anyway, it was getting dark quick, and it was starting to affect my balance a bit. By the time we did the group start for 500m I was feeling pretty nervous. I managed ok until everyone came past me and I had their wash. I did ok at first, but had to slow down and hang back becuase I was just going to fall in otherwise.
By the last sprint which was another group start at 250m I lasted about 50m, then called out "I'm out", and headed across the river until most of the wash was gone. I can only just cope with it in good light, but at dusk there was no hope. Pretty disappointing really.
It's really only at dusk that I have the problem. Years ago I had laser vision correction which has been wonderful. One of the best decisions I've made. The only problem I have is with my night vision at dusk. It's still heaps better than it was before the surgery and driving and everything else at dusk is great, but paddling is difficult. I did notice it last year when training for the Hawkesbury Classic. I even found it difficult paddling the Mirage at dusk and in the dark. But with practice I got more confident. I guess I'll just have to practice in the Stealth at dusk and in the dark too. Hopefully I'll get more confident in this too.

The boys are getting heavy!

I did my run this afternoon with mum - from the bridge to the end of the path and back. I pushed the boys in the double pram and wow are they getting heavy. It's quite hard now pushing them and I feel every incline. Mum was also running quicker than she has been over the last few weeks, so I think I was feeling it more because of that. I really can't run fast pushing them because of only having 1 hand on the pram, having to keep swapping hands, and basically not being able to run normally. The system I've got worked out works well, but I think I'm at the top of my speed limit now.
Anyway, at the end of it we'd done a pretty fast run, and I was happy with the effort I put in.

1 lap time trial (kind of)

After a debacle with lost car keys, and thinking that I was going to have to miss the session, they were eventually found and I headed to the river. I thought that everyone would be well on their way by now and I had resigned myself to paddling on my own again, but when I got there Anton and Mark were still there. Thanks guys.
This morning I woke up in the mood to do a hard paddle (much to Anton's horror - I think he might have wished that he hadn't waited for me after all). Anyway, I put it to the guys "Hey guys... I'm in the mood for a hard paddle today...I want to see how fast I can go in this thing", to which Anton looked in horror and Mark looked intrigued. The reply from Anton was "really?" and from Mark "Oh yeh". I think I surprised them.
Anyway, we headed to the bridge first and then back up towards the lake. I was going hard (maybe 25km pace) but Mark (in his Rocket) and Anton (in his TK1) were keeping up easily (though they may argue that point. Anyway, Mark was just toying with us - he could have dropped us easily if he had wanted to, but Anton was pushing it but keeping up without any dramas really. By the time we got the point it was 31min. I was pleasantly surprised as I thought I wasn't paddling that well. The last part towards the lake had been pretty nasty for me...the wind and chop had picked up and some nasty gusts had hit us. I was very happy that I stayed upright. But there was no way I was going to go out in the lake and around the markers so we pulled into the beach, turned around and headed back. Anton left before us and jumped on a boats wash. ]
Mark and I headed off together and I was all over the place. We had a tiny bit of wash from the boat (and rebound wash of the sides) but this was enough to make me unbalanced. Seriously - I was all over the shop. There were some very close calls, but I did make it back without falling in (just). Our time back was 12:30 min. So for the 7.5km (short lap) we did it in 43:30min. Adding another 3 minutes on (according to our average) if we had gone out to the second marker would have given us a 46:30 min 8km lap. I was pleasantly suprised again. The fastest I've ever done the full lap is 47:10 in the Van Dusen. Cooool.
When we got back we were just getting off the water and it bucketed down. Mark and I sheltered under our car boots whilst waiting for Anton to come back...he had decided to paddle a bit further. We got soaked putting out kayaks back on the car...but I didn't care. I had a great paddle and I'm glad I decided to go hard.

Finally losing weight again

After months of going between 77 - 78.5kg, I decided to make a few changes with my eating plan. I've basically been doing "The biggest loser club program" using meal replacements (and lots of healthy food). I love this program - it fits in well with my lifestyle and I'm rarely hungry. Since I just couldn't break through the plateau I decided to change my target calorie amount (down to 1500cal) and the weight has started coming off again. The plan is to stick with the program (2 drinks plus food) until I get to 68kg and then gradually cut back to 1 drink (breakfast) plus food. I think I'll always keep having the drinks for breakfast (or make my own liquid breakfast) because I love doing this and it works great for me in the morning.

Anyway, I've lost over 1kg this week and took the following measurements this morning...

Weight: 76.4kg
Fat: 29.4%
Water: 48.8%
Muscle: 30.4%

To compare with my progress since starting this blog...

Measurement, Before, 6, 7-9, 10, Today (wk21), Total
Weight kg, 82, 77.3, 77.8, 76.8, 76.4, -5.6kg
Fat %, 31.6, 30.0, 30.2, 29.7, 29.4, -2.2%
Water %, 47.2, 48.4, 48.4, 48.6, 48.8, +1.6%
Muscle %, 29.4, 30.2, 30.1, 30.3, 30.4, +1.0%