Monday, September 12, 2011

Day 14 - Cold and miserable.

It was windy, cloudy and rained alot in the afternoon. I didn't do anything except arm exercises. I suppose tidying the house, can be considered exercise since I cleaned out a major room that needed cleaning.

I realise how much more relaxed I am when I do actually exercise so I need to do it, even for just half an hour in the rain.

Bad me...slap on the wrist

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Day 13 - Kiwis are sleeping and swimming pools

We set out today to the Riccarton Bush Market for what I had been promised - a custard croissant. Ever since I heard the pie guru exclaim over the Custard Croissant, I have wanted one, and that was a week ago. We cycled in for about 20 min,  arrived and looked around for the beer tent. Which amazingly, was not to be found. We found our friends, and set about finding out what is good. I purchased a cupcake (since the custard croissants were not there), and a fish pie, and we had a nice social time watching some Western Swing dancers who were promoting their dance school. Pity that they didn't put any effort into looking the part. With ripped jeans and a t-shirt too small for the lady they danced on the grass, while the wind blew their flyers away.

We'd not been to this part of town and discovered that they had a kiwi sanctuary which is fabulous! It is however a bit of a pointless exercise to allow public access because sadly, kiwis only come alive and start to do things when the sun goes down. Which means that if you ever want to see a kiwi, well the gate are locked at 6:30pm and that makes me stamp my feet in frustration. Coz how cool would it be if people could see a real kiwi up close and personal. This would definitely give the kiwi an advantage. Poor fellas with no flight ability.  We took a long walk about 20mins through the Kahikatea trees and then came out. We decided to go to the mall and look for the swimming pool for our Hawaiian party. We were at the mall really quickly, and walked straight to the shops to find the pool. We are actually considering buying one that we can actually reuse. Laps will be slightly pointless though!  We browsed for a bit looking for a hawaiian shirt and instead came home with some much needed props for the Rugby World Cup. I got a sparkly gold hat and some green pompoms for my Green and Gold team - The Springboks!

Then we hopped back on the bikes and rode home! It was a lovely day out and good exercise. Shorter distances like today's meager 8 km are starting to not actually feel like enough. But I feel good and will probably do some running tomorrow, if I can resist hopping on a bike tomorrow.

This week is Conservation Week, so I have today, visited a kiwi sanctuary, and also rode my bike instead of ride the car. Good hey? What have you done for conservation?

http://www.doc.govt.nz/about-doc/news/newsletters/canterbury-doc/archive/canterbury-doc-august-2009/riccarton-bush-home-to-weta-and-kiwi/

Time accrued : 13 hours + 1hour = 14 hours! :)

x
N.

Picture from: http://www.dullneon.com/randomnotes/2011/08/kiwi-kiwi.html




Friday, September 9, 2011

Day 12 - Rest day needed

Ok, so my legs feel like jelly, and everything hurts. I figure. It's time to take it easy and just to let these poor muscles recuperate. So, instead of going to do the rail trail today, we took it easy. I am not going to get angry at myself because I worked hard this week and muscles need to regenerate and grow in the rest phases. Apparently the day after a full workout spends about as many calories because the process still continues after exercise while you rest.

So I am still at 13h20mins and I am still pretty proud of my current achievement. :)

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Day 11 - City Plan Day Mission

Yet again I set out on my bicycle to Hagley Park. This time it was to check out the city plan for Christchurch in the rebuild. The presentation of information was quite good and I also did a little stroll around the botanical gardens for about 20 mins.

I took a photo for my Facebook profile of the SA flag for the rugby.

So in total today I was active for about 2 hours.
This is pretty good!

Accrued time:11h 20m + 1h40m = 13hours :)


Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Day 10 - I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike!

So I got a phone call this morning from my friend who's a fella, and he said to me, do you want to go for that walk on the beach with the pooches. We set a time and I was just about to leave when HRH (Kings of Leon) says he is coming home from his meetings and wants lunch. So I had to make an impromptu lunch, and made chillibean and cheese toasted sandwhich, which in the scheme of things, desprite the cheese is a pretty healthy lunch. Beans are great for fibre, protein and carbs all in one. So I eventually left to do the 8+km cycle to his house and then we hopped in the car. I was dripping and pretty sweaty once I actually got to his house. We got the pooches in the car, and drove down the very bumpy road out to the beach which was the most affected area in the Christchurch Earthquakes. The roads have been repaired but will never be flat again. We got to the beach, the dogs went for a nice long explore while I took some pictures of them and the friend I promised to go walkies with. He showed me some photography tricks, got some really nice shots and still got a good long walk on the beach. It was kind of overcast and so the shots I got were really very moody, it was gorgeous. We walked back, and then when we got back I had to take a cycle to the place I call home.  On the way home, I stopped and took a photo of the church that was munted and unhappy. I am soaked, feeling flushed and pretty tired, someone's gonna sleep well tonight!

So to sum up. 45 min cycle there, 45 min cycle back, 30min walk on the beach = 2 hours. OMG!
9h20m + 2 hours = 11h 20m (So on day 10 I am 1h20 min over)

I think a pooch is a great tool for exercise.
I want one!



Day 9 - Shaking that thing!

Day 9 went better, I was supposed to cycle into town but writing CVs is an art that I am just getting the hang of. I am making each one individual and unique and tailoring each CV is an art. So instead of hopping on my bike, I drove, which was naughty.

But then I am actually glad I did because tonight's belly dancing was intense. So shaking your booty for an hour is pretty good. And I think Wednesday is the night to get back on track because I get to watch my baleen body in the mirror that WHOLE hour!

Accrued time: 8h20mins + 1 hour = 9h20mins!
Yippee, still on track! Tomorrow I will have to go for a run in the park and cycle there!


Day 8 - Oops!

Well lets just say that the only exercise I did yesterday was walking to the fridge and back. Work is getting me down and so I couldn't find the motivation. But back on the horse we go!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Day 7 - The morning of and Banana Milkshakes

So, again I am sitting at home, waiting for life to happen. I woke up this morning and have discovered that approx 1 kg has melted off. This is great because within a few weeks I will be fitting comfortably in my jeans again! Will head out for a run and a cycle later this afternoon. I am thinking of taking my friend and his dogs for a walk. :)

Well, the friend wasn't keen on being walked and was planning a measly romp around St Alban's park, very uninspired. Instead I headed off on my bicycle and cycled to the hospital to get my friend there so she could have a bit of time away from the office. The wind was pumping hard again my direction and it was a challenge to make the bike move in a forward fashion. I arrived at the boat shed and collected my friend and we went to the Museum for a milkshake. I figure I can afford to have one little milkshake. I was very pleased that the museum is re-opened. Slowly but surely things are returning to normal.  We had a good rant, and then I cycled back home.

It took me 40 mins to get home and I think about the same time to get there so I am going to say it's an hour and 20 mins of cycling. Thing is that when you go for walks or bike rides, you have a final destination. Your house. And if you walk too far away, tough, you just have to keep going till you get home. It's a little trick I learnt which adds exercise to your day whether you want to or not! Works out to be about 14 km. :)

So time accrued: 7 hours + 1 h 20 = 8h20mins!
That's one weeks worth of exercise and a bit more. only 51 more weeks to go.

Day 5/6 - Re-cycle and Halswell Quarry Walk

Heya!

Me again!
So Saturday, I was feeling kinda bruised and battered from all the exercise this past week and so I took some time out to let my muscles rejuvenate. I slept in, watched movies and had a generally girly day. Leon came home from Snowboarding and then we decided to go for a bike ride to our Saturday Night destination. We both cycled there as the sun was coming down and then parked our bikes just outside and walked to the Vietnamese Restaurant where the unsuspecting staff were expecting a crowd of people. It was an assault to the senses with 40 people converging onto the same little place and the poor people who just wanted a quiet night out, well that was not how things went. I sat next  to a girl called Anna and she and I had many things in common that she runs and also has issue with keeping the weight off. We both agreed that we would rather die than give up food we love. The restaurant got very noisy as we played people bingo asking everyone a question till the right person matched the right answer. On the list was "afraid of mice" which I thought it would be easier to just yell out "Mouse" and see who jumped up on the tables. On cycling home, I realised that the cycling was pretty good exercise and I put that down to a 20 min bike ride.

Sunday, hubby and me, decided to head out to the Halswell Quarry for a walk around the crater. It was a lovely day and we enjoyed the lambs and the sunshine and the snow-capped mountain views, all the while we were walking and talking and just enjoying being outside for a bit.
We walked from 12:15 to 2pm so that puts me at about 1:30 walking around and the rest of the time sitting on benches and talking. I still think that works for me!

So on the weekend, I managed about 2 hours of exercise and romantic time with my hubby, so that make s 7 hours in total!  I think!

Time Accrued: 7 hours


Thursday, September 1, 2011

Day 4 - Run walk walk.

So this morning, I am a little stiff. My alarm clock went off at 3:30am (oh hang on that was mother nature). 4.7M aftershock which was pretty strong. Woke up again later and got ready to possibly work and then decided at 9 ish that I wasn't gonna get that call and started to plan a route. I planned to do the 2nd running day of week 1 of the Couch to 5k plan and I did. I ran along thinking about the nice pretty parks in the area. I did 30 mins of the C25K and then continued to walk for an hour and 10 mins, which puts me at a total of 1:40 for the day.

I did need the loo along the way and it occurred to me that had I been living in the worst hit side of town, I would have access to a portaloo wherever I went. I was tempted to knock on someone's door at random and ask to use the loo. Luckily, I came across a lovely park called Ferrer Park and they, hallelujah, had toilets. So I could continue my walk without having to do a continual cross over step.

Came home and stretched a bit, and now I think I will collapse on the couch for the rest of the afternoon. I am thinking about snowboarding but still not sure, I have a few more hours to decide if I will risk rehurting my arm.

Time Accrued: 3hours + 1h40 = 4h40. Not bad going. My Runkeeper said I did 9 km and burnt 560 calories.
Ok, now for a snooze!

Day 3 - Rest day?

Ok, so two days of doing 1 hour every day and I am a tired bunny. My body is tired, and waking up early helped little. I sat at home considering going for a lunch time walk and decided to keep designing a logo. So, the day slipped by, it became dark and damp and yuck. So when hubby got home, I organised to go to the swimming pools which are about 2 km away. In future, we will bike there and that will add to the time exercising. Today, due to rain and Leon doing heaps of biking already, we didn't.

My arm is still gaining strength after my snowboarding accident, and it is really feeling it. Leon did 20 laps in the pool and I did 14. Leon is a better swimmer. 20 mins of swimming is more intense than biking and I do feel tired physically now. The gym is actually lovely and I really do like it, so now I just have to save some money to actually go use the treadmills, cross trainer and the weights (which I know nothing about.)

So including in 10 mins for dancing in the kitchen to the belly dancing music I just got last night, I think 30 mins is still better  than no exercise at all! But if I want to drop the 15 extra kilograms I am carrying around on me, i need to keep going on and on and on, plan being, to get into an exercise habit!

I will have to do a yoga work out now. Using my trusty dvd.

Any suggestions for more interesting exercises?

Time Accrued: 3 hours.