Michelle Bridges and the 12WBT

Summer has arrived and with it has come motivation in overdrive!

I'm pretty happy with how my training at the gym has gone this year but the two things giving me the most trouble are consistency and ensuring I am working out my body evenly.

So often I have a really good few days / weeks where I get to the gym frequently and have great workouts and feel fantastic. And then something comes up (usually work) and I don't make it to the gym for a few days, and because I'm busy I start eating take away because it's convenient and I can't be bothered going to the shops, start drinking red bull or coffee because it gives me a buzz when I'm tired, and then because of all the sugar I've consumed my energy plummets and the last thing I feel like doing is going to the gym at all. So I don't, and then all of a sudden a couple of weeks have flown by, I haven't done any exercise at all and the nice muscles that were starting to build go all wobbly and I feel like I can't fit into my own skin anymore, let alone my clothes.

It's usually at this point after a bit of moping around that I manage to rustle up some motivation and haul myself off to gym. I always feel heaps better afterwards. I try doing work outs that I've pulled out of magazines or read in books, they always wear me out, make me sweat like a pig and for the most part I go as hard as I can. However I can't help but feel that I'm not working my whole body. I find some exercises far easier than others and tend to go hardcore with the easy ones, and struggle my way through a set of the difficult ones. The cycle starts all over again and I train well for a few days, and then I get busy.

This is where Michelle Bridges comes into it.

I'd seen an add for the Michelle Bridges 12 week body transformation a couple of weeks ago. I clicked on the link and had a bit of a read through the site and it sounded fabulous. I don't see myself as fat, but I'd certainly like to shift a couple of kg's and tone up all over. This program sounded like it could help me to do just that in a really straight forward format and more importantly in a healthy way. So long story short I'm all signed up and ready to start the 12WBT www.12wbt.com on 16th January 2012. What appealed most about the program is that thousands of others are doing it so there is plenty of support, lots of emails relating to weekly nutrition plans, exercise plans and motivational plans. I think the stream of incoming information will give me the push I need to remain consistent and am less likely to give up after a couple of weeks.

Anyway, since signing up for the 12wbt I've been super pumped about getting fit and having a toned bikini ready body for the summer. I've decided to give myself a head start and do what I can prior to starting the program to get into the best shape I can be in. I've been going to the gym or utilising the environment available to me to do some form of exercise every day, even when I feel tired and would rather crash on the couch. Sometimes it can be hard to force yourself to do it, but once you get going its much easier, and I do love that feeling afterwards knowing that I took the time to do something good for me.

Michelle has already set one challenge, and that is to take 1 step towards a healthier lifestyle. She listed lots of different suggestions, but the thing I have decided to do is eliminate soft drink from my diet. I'm not a huge soft drink person normally but I am certainly very partial to drinking coke zero a few times a week, red bull when I get tired and on a really hot day lemonade.

So yes, I'm off to a great start.

And an even better start, when I happened to be in the right spot at the right time and met Michelle Bridges and got a personally signed copy of her Crunch Time Recipe Book. She was so lovely and had the most amazing body. Meeting her has spurred me on even more to really give this whole thing a go and come out at the other end looking FABULOUS!!





So over the next few weeks I will be reporting on how I am going with the pre season of the 12wbt. I think by writing about my experiences will also help to embed what I learn along the way and down the track help me to define my areas of weakness. I will be loosely basing my training on the principles of Bikini Bootcamp and also Loosing the last 5kgs by Michelle Bridges.

So here's to the new me! A lean and strong Running Cat.

Merry Christmas.

RC.

Melbourne Marathon Completed!!

Goal achieved. Run the whole 10kms without stopping.

While at times, walking may well have been faster than my running, I still kept going.

Despite the gloomy start to the day, the weather conditions were pretty much perfect for a long run. Cool, not raining, not too sunny and a light breeze. Unfortunately for all the other competitors in the other races they would have copped a down pour at some stage, but lucky for me I'd already crossed the finished line and had gone inside the MCG to pick up my bag.

The first couple of kilometers went well - A little frustrating that so many of the competitors decided after only a few hundred meters that running was just too hard and decided to walk.... with their friends.... in a long line.... and block the path of all other people behind them... who were running... which was the point. ANYWAY!! After zig zagging around these people, I was feeling good, just easing myself into it knowing I still had a long way to go. I'd miss-timed my pace slightly and was travelling at 7min 30 secs per km, instead of 7min p/km.

The 3- 6km part went well, slight uphill but mostly flat. I caught up the time I'd lost in the first part of the race and upped my pace to around 6min 40 per km. Still slowish, but I was happy with this pace - comfortable, legs not too sore and good steady controlled breathing.

I'd started to fall into a good stride (I call it my robot legs), where I feel like my legs are on rotating hinges and whip around in circles like clockwork with limited effort. Unfortunately due to more people slowing down / walking and so many people on the course, it was difficult to maintain my stride as I couldn't go in a straight line the whole time. However, this was the part of the race I felt the most comfortable in.

It was around the 7km mark that I started to struggle. I could feel my hips really stiffening up. I tried to counteract it by speeding up, but I wasn't able to maintain the speed. I was spurred on knowing I only had 3kms left. With a drink station at the 7.5km mark I decided to try and get ahead of the people getting in my way - I knew they would stop for a drink, so I just kept running straight through the drink stop which worked a treat. From this point on, those bloody walkers were behind me and fortunately I found myself at the top of a hill which I took full advantage of and tried to pick up full speed to get to the bottom of.

After this, there was a lot of uphill. A lot. Ugh.

Everything hurt and everything was stiff. It took all the strength I had just to keep running. "Just keep going" was my mantra - I kept repeating it over and over in my head. I think in my exhaustion I even said it out loud at one point. Then all I could see was a huge long straight that just seemed to go on and on and on forever - Hundreds of runners in front of me - wishing I was one of the ones further up in the distance I could do nothing except keep running. Finally I reached the turnpike at the end, and had to run this forever stretch again, only the opposite way. It was somewhat comforting that though all those people were ahead of me, there were plenty more behind me too.

After that I heard one of the volunteers yell out, "you only have 300 meters left". That was music to my ears. Despite seeing another uphill stint ahead, faintly in the distance I could see the giant blow up finish arch way. I have no idea where it came from but somewhere deep within my robotic legs kicked in. All of a sudden I could feel myself propelling forward toward the finish line. I could hear people cheering - "Go go go".... so I did. And then all of a sudden I was there. Finished.

And then after giving it absolutley everything I had, all I could do to keep myself from vomiting in front of all those spectators was to stagger the 100 meters to the drink table to replenish my energy. And I did, and I felt so much better.

I'd done it!

Total time 1 hour, 8 minutes and 41 seconds!

Melbourne Marathon 2011

So, like many other things, blogging was not something that I have been very consistent at, hence why it is nearly 12 months since my last post! However, I am proud to say, despite some lull's in my enthusiasm (mostly in line with crappy weather), I have managed to maintain my interest in running. Go me.

On Sunday I will again be a part of the 10km Coffee Club race in the 2011 Melbourne Marathon. I can't say I'm at my peak, but I'm doing ok considering my wavering enthusiasm for the sport! In fact I'm actually super proud of my efforts - I think I've been doing this for around 18 months now and it feels great!

Well done me.

I'm not betting on beating my time from last year, but something close to would be great!