Personal Training and Public Speaking

I had my first personal training session in weeks at 6:00 am on a really cold Canberra morning. I was glad I was headed to the gym rather than down by the lake. It was windy too, so I was hoping that Leanne didn't have a run planned for me.

We went through my weights program. Initially Leanne just wanted to see what progress I'd made on a few of the exercises she'd given me, before starting on a new program. After demonstrating some serious improvement with my abs exercises, I told her about my concerns with the knee, and she decided to see the whole program. I don't normally do the abs work first, so it seemed all back to front. It did mean that I was able to do the two sets of triceps pushups on my toes without faltering, which was a bonus.

I was saying the other day that I was a bit concerned about the leg exercises. My knee was really tired after training last Thursday, but it came good quickly. Leanne explained that the exercises were designed to strengthen my knee and so being tired was to be expected. I did them with her, and my form is fine. My left knee did make funny noises when I did the one-legged squats, but I got through them all (two sets of 20) without losing my balance or needing to take a break. The knee has been tired today again, but it doesn't feel injured. I had been going to go for a run, but I decided to rest it instead. I'll run tomorrow instead. At least, that's the plan.

One of the things I love about strength training is that I see measurable progress each time I do my program. It might be small, like understanding the exercise or it might be big, like increasing the weight or getting through both sets of the abs exercises without stopping, but the progress is there to be made. My core strength has improved out of sight with my running, and I love that too.

I wore a close fitting red top over my running pants this morning. Normally I wear something baggy over the top of it, but I'm working on changing the way I cover myself up all the time. I figure if I'm looking at myself in the mirrors in the gym, I'll get used to the way I look. I guess being prepared to wear close fitting clothes with people around is a benefit of wearing proper running gear. It's completely unforgiving. Every lump and bump shows but the technical fabric is so comfortable that I'm prepared to sacrifice vanity for comfort. Also, I've been telling myself if I get out there early enough, the only people who are going to see me are other runners.

Public Speaking

I love to speak in public. It was much more confronting for me to get on my bike to ride to the outdoor fitness challenge sessions than it is for me to get up in front of a crowd and speak. Why am I telling you this? I've been asked to give a motivational speech at the gym. In fact, I'm delivering it on Saturday, which doesn't give me all that much time to write and rehearse it.

Krissi, the Black Team leader and the person who inspired me to do all this outdoor exercise, suggested it to me while we were running up the hill yesterday. She contacted the manager at Fernwood, who phoned me today and asked me if I'd speak on Saturday at the Biggest Loser Challenge lunch. I jumped at the chance, so now I'm busy writing a speech. I'm really looking forward to it. I feel as though I have something to say that's of value to people, and it will be a way to give back to the gym some of the support that they have given me over the past two and a half years. I hope they enjoy listening to me.

Global Challenge Update

Our team has travelled 1000 km. We are in 38th place at the moment, with an average of 14874 steps/day. The leaders have travelled 1659 kms, with an average of 24,686 steps/day.

Response to comments

Thanks for all the encouragement. It's kind of you all to tell I'm not slow. The other girls who are running are faster than me, but that doesn't worry me, apart from not wanting to hold them up. I'm doing this for me, not them.

I'm really happy with the progress I'm making with my running. I like writing the times and distances down so that I can see how far I've come. When I started out, running a kilometre in under 6 mins seemed impossible, so I'm really pleased to have achieved that. I read other people's times and distances and I'm in awe. Still for me, it's not about running faster, even though I am pleased that I can. My current running goals are:

1. Have fun
2. Run without injury
3. Run three times a week, including a long run
4. Run outside at least once a week
5. Run for longer