General Exercise update

Hockey
I've been playing hockey once a week when I'm in Canberra. I played a really good game last Sunday and followed it up with another one today. It was the last of the social season. I've decided to play the winter comp and it looks like I'll be a regular in the grass team and fill in for the turf comp. The grass team don't train, but I've decided to go along to turf training as my skills are incredibly rusty.

I bit the bullet and bought myself a new stick today. I've been borrowing a stick but it's about time I had my own. These new composite sticks are so different to the old wooden stick I used to have and to the one my friend lent me. The guy in the shop told me I'd hit the ball much harder. I love his optimism! I checked out the shoes, but I decided I'd wait until the grass season started before I bought them. On my way home I realised that I'm playing a Vet's carnival in a couple of weeks and so I guess I'll be buying them sooner than I thought.

Personal Training
I'm still training with Julia on Tuesdays and Krissi on Fridays. I am absolutely loving it. I ended up buying myself a book to record what I'm doing because I'm not getting to update my blog enough. I love measuring my progress. For example, I did one and a half sets of 12 Chest Presses using 9 kg weights the other day with Julia. When I'm on my own I don't trust myself with that weight, so I tried 8 kg weights and managed to get three sets out comfortably. I was really pleased. I've been working hard on them. With Krissi, I do the chest presses with 7.5 kg weights, but we do them after she's already tired my arms out. It's great to see all the hard work paying off.

WOW program
This one is up and down. I'm not getting to the gym as often as I did with the Biggest Loser Challenge, as I'm doing the bike program (Tuesday evening and Saturday morning) and playing squash (Thursday evening) and playing hockey (various times on Sunday). I'm still managing to get there once a day on weekdays. The Group Slim session is on Tuesdays, so I miss out on that 50 points. I've been going to Trivia late to get to the Group PT session but I'm not enjoying that at all. I don't have much confidence in the instructor. She's a fairly new PT and just doesn't have the presence or experience to run a group session.

We had some drama there last week too, with one of the ladies having what appeared to be a mild fit. We ended up calling an ambulance (that's the first time I've spoken to 000) and she had recovered her senses by the time I left (half of us went back to the gym instead of all hanging around the poor woman). I haven't heard how she's doing as yet, which I am hoping is a case of 'no news is good news'.

Squash
This is my favourite activity of the week. Murali beat me in three the other week, so this week I was determined that wouldn't happen again. It was a real relief to win the first game. I ended up winning 3-1 and then we played two more games so I was ahead 4-2. We are both getting a much better workout as Murali is much fitter. He has been doing a lot of treadmill walking and it's really made a difference.

General Cycling
I'm trying to ride my bike more to toughen up my backside for Yass. I'm nearly ready to ride to work again. My knee is feeling much better and is handling all my various activities really well. I tried out the paniers the other day. They make the bike a lot heavier to handle, but it's great to be able to take so much stuff with me! No excuses like not having work clothes to change into now though.

Overall health and fitness
We have a new guy at work and he was telling me after a couple of days that I'm a really active person. I looked at him in surprise, because I think of all the things I don't do, like missing this morning's run. I also know that while I get to the gym I'm only there for a workout. I don't do these back to back classes or work myself into a lather of sweat like some of the women. Anyway, I thought about it and realised that from his perspective I was a really active person. So I agreed with him!

I've put on weight lately but I've obviously lost size. I was at a wedding yesterday, so I got to wear my black dress again. The first time I wore it the style consultant helped me to zip it up. There was no way I could have zipped it up on my own. I tried it on yesterday, feeling all sorts of trepidation. I knew I'd changed shape but I also knew I was a few kilos heavier than when I wore it before. Well, the zip just did itself up. The dress looked even better on me. I was so pleased.

I think that the WOW program is probably what makes the difference. Because I'm going to the gym so much more to collect my points, I'm doing more different types of cardio so I don't get bored. I'm also managing to do weights at least three times a week, which is great for toning. I just have to remember to keep it up.

Oh, and someone at hockey today remarked on how much faster I've become lately. That's a combination of getting out there and doing some real running and the cardio work I've been doing at the gym. I don't think I'll ever be a fan of the cross trainer, but I think I'll try to work it into my schedule on a regular basis from now on.

All I really need to do now is find some time to go swimming! (That was a joke!)