The Months of Muscle: The cardio freak

I've been told that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. So, the half-marathon now behind me, I have moved on to the Months of Muscle. My aims: to get stronger and more toned, to re-discover my abs (actually not sure if I ever discovered them in the first place) and to climb that blasted over-hang at indoor climbing.

I've just finished week two of the month of muscle and this is what I've discovered - I'm addicted to cardio.  I love that 'I can do anything' feeling I get half an hour or so after a 600 calorie session.  I love knowing I'm burning off unwanted calories. And I love being in that mindset where I can't possibly think about my problems because I'm too busy thinking how I'm going to keep going.

Still, I've been told it's difficult to build muscle and keep up such intensive cardio (something complicated about the additional calories burned being taken from your muscle). So I'm going (almost) cardio-free for the next ten weeks. I'm eating (eek) more and concentrating on protein. I've thrown away the heart rate monitor **. I'm pumping iron, doing some yoga and some climbing, and that's it! Might not seem like a change (I've swapped going to the gym for ... err ... going to the gym) but when cardio is like your drug, giving it up is just like withdrawals. 

The first week I almost constantly felt like crying, like I was in a small boat heading for the edge of the waterfall, I kept paddling but knew that, with just one strong current,  I would be sent over the edge. The second week has been better, I upped my weights and felt it the next day ("please don't make me go  down those stairs"). But I still looked longingly a the treadmill, thought lovingly and perhaps with more passion than they deserve, of the days of treadmill intervals.

The Months of Muscle: it's a challenge, but I think I'm up for it ... 

** Actually I've lost the heart rate monitor, if anyone finds it let me know

This is why I'm hot 10: Half Marathon- It's the loneliness that's the killer

It's not the 21 km of the actual half-marathon that takes the courage and perseverance, it's the 400 and something kilometers you rack up in training for it. It's getting out of bed at 5 in the middle of winter when your family are still sleeping. It's the long Saturday morning run along the industrial banks of the Cooks River ** that lasts for more than two hours. It's hours doing interval sprints or rolling intervals in the treadmill. It's doing it, just doing it, knowing in the end there's no prize, no stadium no gold medal. ***

Was it worth it. Well, I rang my husband and blubbered like a baby at the end. I was so proud of myself and this achievement that marked three months of intensive focus on my health and fitness. I felt transformed, from the girl with all the consolation stickers in her little athletics book to ... well ... an athlete. 

They offer a service now where you can view yourself, from a couple of angles crossing the finish line. I've watched mine a couple of times, examined my face intensely. There was no joy, no punch struck into the air. Maybe it was because I was exhausted, but maybe it was because I knew ... a real athlete would complete a marathon. 

Bring on the next challenge: The months of muscle.  

** River is a euphemism, in many parts it is more correctly titled the Cooks Drain.

*** There was however a silver medal I refused to take off for 24 hours. It's still hanging in our bedroom where I can see it from bed.

This is why I'm hot 9: I think the world should be a fair place

The other day at work we were asked to write down our beliefs and values. My number one was that 'I think the world should be a fair place'. I think over my life I have done a few things to help make it that way.

But the truth is the world is far from fair. That's why I'm dedicating my half-marathon run to Amnesty International. This year amnesty, a worldwide movement of people campaigning to protect human rights, celebrated 50 years of human rights campaigning. Here are just three of their recent secesses:

Earlier this year they celebrated the Australian government’s announcement of a nationwide plan to combat violence against women and their children. They had been campaigning for such a plan for nearly five years, and it’s arrival marked a huge win in this campaign.

Amnesty International USA recently celebrated the abolition for the death penalty in Illinois, making it the 16th state to abolish this antiquated, ineffective and inhumane punishment.

Aung San Suu Kyi spent 15 years under house arrest after she peacefully protested to win power over the government's oppressive regime in Burma.  For years Amnesty supporters have been working tirelessly to bring about change and in 2010 the global campaign resulted in 110,000 actions, emails and letters calling for her release, together with the other 2,200 other political prisoners in Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi was released on 13th November 2010, sparking worldwide celebrations.

You can sponsor me simply and easily by clicking on this link.

http://www.gofundraise.com.au/page/Adrienne_Jerram

You will receive a receipt immediately and you can even leave a personal message on my page - please be nice! : )

I'll do the hard work on the day - your part is easy.

This is why I'm hot 8: I got it from my mama

There are many things I inherited from my mother. My fondness for a fireplace, that look I get when I don't really like something but will understand and put up with it anyway, my short stature. But more than that I got an ability to embrace change, when really all you want is to sit, in front of the fire, watching your favourite program on the TV, sipping tea like it is sweet comfort.

My mother grew up in less than prosperous circumstances in the terraces and tenements of post-war Edinburgh, raising two younger brothers, learning how not to parent (one egg and a pint of milk does not a dinner of scrambled eggs make!) and developing a passion for a life more comfortable.

My Dad came to her, with careless feet and Buddy Holly looks and a plan to go to Australia. A plan of which she wanted no part, but ended up buying, partly because my father was so persistent but also, more simply, because she loved him. As she stepped on that boat (plane travel wasn't for ordinary people then) she was leaving her friends, family, possibly believing she might not ever see them again. But she managed to pull her much yearned for comfort from the thought that 'she was saying goodbye to the cold and snow forever!

Move forward twenty years and still living in Sydney Australia, my mum has built a routine which enabled her to build and maintain a house, sing in the choir, coach softball and raise three children while working full time. Washing at our place was done everyday (towels on a Thursday, sheets on a Saturday) except Sunday, and there was satisfaction in just having it done. It is in the height of my Mum's new found comfort that my dad announces plans to build his own boat and sail it around Australia. And so, again, she gives up everything. But, through the churn of the storm and the flatline of the doldrums she pulls comfort from the maintenance of her routines. Dinner at six, lunch at 12, the floor gets swept everyday regardless.

It takes a special person to embrace adventure, when your sole ambition is for the comfort of quiet life. But hasn't my mother had some experiences as a result. She's coached a winning softball team,  sailed alongside a pod of dolphins, risen on the king tides of Western Australia, traversed Bass Strait, driven to almost every lookout to Australia, written a book, learned to cook (and then not cook) proper scrambled eggs - with cheese. She has experienced things, held ambitions for her children, that a poor girl from Edinburgh should never have been allowed.

It is a very special talent to pull comfort from the most uncomfortable of circumstances,  but this is my mother, this is her special skill, and I really, really hope I've inherited it.

This is why I'm hot 7: I am unwritten

So it's taken 43 and a half years and a 12 kilometre run but I've finally realised this ... we can be anything we want to be. Sound like a cliche? Yes it is, but maybe there is some truth in it. I can redefine myself by what I do today, not what I was yesterday, or ten, or twenty years ago. Too used to being the short tubby unco girl who couldn't colour between lines, it's only now, in my 40s that I've discovered what I was too busy in my 20s to find out. I can be what I want.

Those who know me will know I'm doing Michelle Bridge's 12 week body training program. In that program I've connected with people that have changed from 145kg and totally defined by their weight, to having smoking hot bodies and a whole new lease on life. When I started the program I didn't think I had much to learn, how wrong I was.

Thanks to Natasha Bedingfield on my run today I couldn't get these words our of my head

"I am unwritten, can't read my mind, I'm undefined. I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand, ending unplanned."

Haven't heard the song, its awesome listen to it on youtube 

Ten things I like about me: 6- I can run 10 km

OK, so some people are going to read this and think "10km, I do that before breakfast everyday". Others are going to think, "I have trouble walking 10 metres to the fridge". The fact is, we are all have our own goals, and while I didn't know it, this is one of mine.

I'm not a natural runner. I sometimes wonder if everyone else was born with some special spring in their feet that help them with running. At the amazing Cate's bootcamp it's always me tailing behind the rest of the group by some minutes.

But this morning I set myself a goal to run 10km, and I made it, without stopping, not even on the hilly bits on the way back home, despite the Cooks River smelling worse than an old pan toilet.

It's a cliche to say that we are all capable of much more than we know- but it turns out it's true.

I'm dedicating this blog to the awesome Fran who is an inspiration and a model for how much we can achieve. Good luck tomorrow Fran.

Ten things I like about me: 5 - I'm a great mother

Not so long ago this is probably something I never would have written about myself.

The proof of the pudding, is however, in the eating. And my daughter is everything I hoped she would be. Kind, passionate, beautiful, genuine, quick-whitted, and a great shopper. ***. And, while I didn't by any means do it alone, I know I put together a pretty good piece of her.

It's taken courage and strength to let her go and be her own person, to allow her make mistakes. Tempting as it was to cosset her, I didn't and I'm glad. There is so much pleasure in watching her grow and learn on her own terms, in her own way. 

She's a great teenager and will soon be a fantastic adult and I was one of the people that made the wise choices that gave her the space to be that way.

*** Well everything but clean, but clean came pretty low down the list.