The smell of a good book

It's official. I'm a turn coat, a traitor, and insipid betrayer of my species. I'm not even sure how I can look myself in the mirror.

I've given up books.

I haven't given up reading or writing books, just buying them. After years of swearing I wouldn't convert, I'm reading books electronically and I have to say, I like it.

I like carrying my library with me wherever I go. I like going on holidays and carry  two weeks supply of books in my handbag, I like taking my favourite recipe books shopping, and I like living  in a house the size of a couple of postage stamps and still have space to walk down the corridor because it's not lined with bookshelves.**

But the other day I was reminded just how much I'm giving up.  I was walking past the Fisher Library, a collection of over 5 million books (and 300 000 e-books) on the University of Sydney campus, and as I walked past, the glass doors slid open and the whole library seemed to exhale that better than baked bread smell of old books. I love that smell. And it makes me sad that there are kids born today who might never know it.

Still, I've hardened my heart and I'm not going back.


** This is a lie, we have our bikes stacked on a two-story bike rack in the corridor, and so have to sidle down the corridor anyway.

Crazy for Kale

My husband and I bought Kale the other day. It was on special. We had no idea what it was or what to do with it, but it was large, cheap, green and kind of crazy looking and so we bought it.

Turns out Kale is a superfood.

Now, having been caught up in the Goji Berry, Acai super food (read super-marketing) fads of 2011/12, I'm a little wary of the claim to the title 'super food'. But in this case it seems like this food may actually be faster than a speeding bullet and more powerful than a locomotive.  In fact, one cup of cooked Kale contains:

• 2.5 grams of protein
• 354 percent of your recommended daily allowance of vitamin A (beta-carotene)
• 89 percent of your recommended daily allowance for vitamin C (move over orange juice!)
• 1328 percent of your recommended daily allowance for vitamin K
• 27 percent of your recommended daily allowance for manganese

It's also  loaded with phytonutrients that protect against many kinds of cancer including breast and ovarian.

But best of all ... you can turn it into a that illusive of all foods ... the healthy chip.

Now, outa my way, I need to cook ...

People are amazing

People are amazing. You me, them, everybody - we all have an enormous capacity to grow and change and learn and his capacity is much greater than we think. I’ve always believed this but now I know, and this is how.

My husband and I like to do the cryptic crossword at night.  The love of the crossword is something I inherited from my fiercely intelligent mother and foisted onto my husband. We usually do pretty well too, finishing the crossword most nights.

But there is one crossword compiler who is just so fiendish that he leaves us with the majority of the puzzle blank. DA (as he is known in the crossword world) is known for setting clues so cryptic, they are clues within clues, within clues. Never have I been able to solve more than four clues of a DA crossword which appears every Friday in the Sydney Morning Herald. In fact, lately I’ve just stopped trying. I have better things to do on a Friday night anyway. Right?

Monday’s crossword, however is the opposite. Maybe the Sydney Morning Herald has taken pity on us poor workers, but the Monday crossword tends to be a bit easier to solve than others. Until last Monday when my husband and I solved just over half of the clues, but were struggling to get anymore. I went to sleep worrying that our crossword capacity was much diminished and it was with much interest that I checked Tuesday’s paper for the solution.

Except, the solution on Tuesday didn’t match the puzzle on Monday. At first I thought the SMH had made a mistake until I checked the date and on Monday we had accidentally picked up Friday’s untouched crossword.

Without knowing it we had actually completed more than 50% of a DA puzzle. Instead of being a disappointment it was a great triumph.

I believe  we only managed because we didn’t realise it was DA and approached as we would any other puzzle. We didn’t let our brains, our fears and our preconceptions get in the way.

There are two lessons to be learned from this.

1.       What can seem to be a disappointment can actually be a great triumph, depending on the way you look at it

2.       Our fears and preconceptions hold us back unnecessarily and all too often we let them get in the way of our successes

Darkest before dawn

On Sunday afternoon I was ready to give it all up.

I'd just seen my time for my latest triathlon and, after months and months of training, it was slower than it was a year ago.**

It's enough to bring a girl to tears, and, in fact, it did. But after soaking through my husband's shirt, I decided I'd give it another go.

And then today, a breakthrough.

Anyone who has tried it will know that running after you've been cycling is not fun. Your legs are smashed, and, used to cycling, not running, seem weak and kind of floppy underneath you - kind of like the puppeteer is pulling the wrong strings.

To help train in the transition from bike to run triathletes have 'brick sessions' whch bring two of the disciuiplines (usually cycle-run) together into one session.

My  tunning pace during brick sessions, is normally pretty slow, just  over 7 minutes per kilometer. 

This morning I ran just over two kilometers off the bike. The first was at 6.11 per KM. The second was at 5.55 per KM.

Like I said a break though, and just in time too.



** There are lots of reasons for this, one is that I've been training for endurance for a longer distance triathlon, not for speed in a short distance triathlon. Also, later that afternoon I found out my tire had a slow leak, which would have impacted on my bike time and also how much energy I had for the run. But then again, maybe it was just 'one of those days.

Scales and Justice

This is the thing about scales.

They are a measure of how much mass you have at one particular moment of time. That is all.

And I mean total mass. The water you’ve drunk, or retained, your fat, your muscle, your blood, your bones, your clothes and shoes if you are wearing them.

As a measure of mass they can be useful for providing cheap and easy feedback on your weight loss, particularly if you’re someone with a lot to lose. However, the scales should never be your sole measurements.  Most don’t measure the percentage of fat or muscle in your body. They can’t measure your fitness, or your health, or come anywhere near defining your worth as a person.

This is why, when I'm setting health and fitness goals, I no longer just rely on weight as a measure. Now I'm in fit and February mode, I'll be weighing myself weekly but I'm also bringing out the tape measure and measuring your waist and hips and find an item of a dress that’s feeling a bit tight that hopefully will feel looser by the end of the month. I've also learned to ensure that my goals include some measure of strength or cardio fitness.

I’ve been a slave to the scales before.  On a ‘good’ weigh in day I’d feel on top of the world, but it would only take a 200 or 300gm change for me to feel low again. I let a single, somewhat unreliable, number define me. And I’m never doing it again.

The champion

I have a secret. I haven't told anyone else. Ever!

Each time I line up to start a triathlon I beg for a flat tire along the way.

You see, while I love training for triathlon, and love (and adore) the feeling when I finish. I hate the moment before the start, when all there is in front of you, is a long swim, cycle and run. And, at that time, I'm looking for any excuse that will get me out of it and I thought a flat tire might be it.

But this morning I witnessed something quite extraordinary.

There is a woman at my triathlon club that I very much admire. She is an awesome athlete and more often than not I see her collecting her age group medal for her efforts. She also puts time into training new members. And, if that's not enough, she's really nice too.

Today, after starting in a wave ten minutes or so after mine she zoomed past me on the bike. Sadly, I then zoomed past her, as she stood on the side of the road by her inverted bike changing a tire.

"Oh no!!" I yelled to her, expecting I wouldn't see her again in the race. Thirty minutes later she was passing me on the run leg. And what do you know, she ran on to get a medal.

So, I no longer have my excuse. If you get a flat, you fix it and keep going. But I do have an awesome new role model of courage and determination.

The green thumb

Earlier this year the lovely Alistair and I downsized so we could move back to the Inner West. One of the consequences is that our house is smaller than some of those American trailers you see on TV and our garden is even smaller.

But despite it's size, our garden is blooming. The Gardenia's are bright green and pregnant with new growth, the star jasmine is spiraling up the front of the house and the frangipani, put in only months ago, looks like it's been in for years.

As I walked past our tiny patch on the way to train this morning I thought to myself. 'That husband of mine has such a green thumb.'

The mind -numbing hour I spent on the exercise bike (thank you, rain, for spoiling my Saturday ride) gave me time to think. 'Green thumb' intimates some special, innate ability, a talent, a quality that somehow makes it easier for him to grow a garden than the rest of us.

The truth is he works hard on that tiny patch of greenery. He is always out digging and watering and generally tending it. In fact when I got into the house he was reading up on pruning gardenias.

So, what does this have to do with fitness? Well ... it's pretty easy to cop out of things by thinking that you're 'just not that type of person' or even 'it's easier for  XXX (insert name here) they are good at that kind of thing'.

The truth is that we never see all that is behind people's achievements.

I'm no 'green thumb' but I'm sure I could make a garden grow if I put the effort into it. Labels like 'green thumb' and 'natural athlete' and 'naturally slim' are veils that hide the slog that goes into achieving goals, and they make people think they are somehow not capable, when, with effort, they are. And all too often they are used as reasons not to try.