Breakfast 12:150 2 weetbix,. 1C lowfat soy milk. 1/3 C tinned peaches. 1 slice wholemeal toast with plum and cinnamon jam. Boiled egg. 2 C coffee with 40 ml Hilo milk.
Lunch 1:00: Toasted sandwich: 2 slices wholemeal bread. Lowfat hard cheese. Coffee with milk.
Snack 3:30 Snow peas
Dinner: 7:15 125 gm grilled veal. Ratatouille: capsicum, celery, onion, garlic, black olives, ~ 2 tspns EVO olive oil. ~ 10-12 gm lowfathardcheese. 100 gm potato, ½ C broad beans with a smear of margarine, lots of broccoli.
Snack: 9:301 diet apricot yoghurt. 1 C green tea.
Exercise: 2:05 35-40 minutes, stair climbing at the DNA tower.
5:25 Local walk. 45.5 minutes 4.3 km (2.6 miles)
This was my first stair climbing since May, and my first truly intense exercise in quite a while (Wow I guessed 3-4 weeks – but looked back in my diary and see it has been much more. At least 6.). I realized yesterday that today might give me this opportunity and I was looking forward to it.
For the stairs, I did a couple of stretches, then started walking up at an easy pace. I remember dying before the top on the first set once before, when I misjudged the distance, and I didn't want that. Despite the gentle pace, half way up the first set of steps I was wondering why I had looked forward to it. It actually felt very unpleasant and I was thinking that to look forward to it, I must have remembered some sort of previous afterglow or feeling of virtue, rather than the actual stair climbing. However I didn't get any real fade in my legs until about the fourth set. Then I managed 3-4 sets where I actually felt like running until half way. The first of those was a run til half way then a real lactic acid thing starting at ¾. From then on, whether running half way or not, they were all killer lactic acid legs from half way onwards. On the last set they were legs that felt like they hardly could finish. Despite that, I would have done another set at the end, if I'd had a different number in mind, and if I hadn't needed to get the girl home. I still had legs enough for the beginning of another climb – even if maybe the end would have been dodgy!! Frankly though, I was glad to have a reason to leave!!
Despite all that, somewhere in the middle of it all I was noticing that I was puffing and sweaty and focussed and taking great lungfuls of air and actually enjoying the walks down at least (despite the jelly legs that come with walking down), and enjoying the sensation of having pushed myself. The scenery at the top is good too. 360 degree views - to the city and hills one way, to the coast and Rottnest Island the other. Fortunately, though there were a few tourists, there was no one who actually made me have to stop and restart on the way up, which is a total killer. However, I probably should have had more of a cool down – I just drove straight home, then hobbled inside!
I finally found out how to use the stopwatch on my phone properly, so I'd like to record my times. I was able to check my diary today for a rough idea of what I was doing before and I think I am just as fast as I was which was a pleasant surprise. However, I used to have trouble using the stopwatch so don't have much to compare it to. I don't know what it is about timing these things, but I somehow find it motivating – helping me feel as though I'm achieving something, and giving me a measure of whether I'm improving. Today I was just hoping to find that I hadn't lost too much of my previous gains while I'd been taking it easy. Disclaimer: Maybe the stairs today would have been harder but I had had a muscle spasm in one hip for a couple of days so took 2 ibuprofen before I left home.
10 sets. 1:08 2:15, 1:00 1:38, 1:00 2:17, 1:03 2:15, 0:55 2:11, 0:56 3:20, 0:56 2:22, 1:11 3:06, 1:17 ?, ? ?.
Standard local walk. I realized this is not the same as a couple of my older “standard local walks”, cos I kept extending them. Also I did sometimes do this particular standard local walk and add bits on to try and get an hour's worth. Today was the stock standard with the loop up towards Warwick, the wiggle at the local park, the loop up to the top of the hill, and once around the oval!! Anyway I have checked the length and am now confident it is correct. Today it took 45.5 minutes, including the time it took me to stop and pay the lawnmower guy, and say hi to the gasmeter reader! It wasn't all walking though because my thighs were soooo stiff, that I really felt like jogging a fair bit during the first part of the walk. And I did. And then I thought I'd stirred up my heel spur! I oughtn't complain. The knees have been good and the ankle has become a specific issue which I can mostly avoid by not twisting. Actually that whole 6 miles on Sunday was without knee grief. And by now the ibuprofen at lunch must have worn off but the muscle spasm is gone. He he. Something worked.