Tuesday 29 April 2014

I Can Do Burpees!!

From the beginning my training program has included some drills of burpees which I haven't been able to do correctly. It has felt impossible to jump to the men's push-up position because I feel that I don't even have the muscles that are needed to do it. Earlier I have only stepped back from squat to the push-up position and then stepped back to squat. I decided to try jumping instead of stepping when I can do men's push-ups so after the latest fitness test I have tried jumping every time. At first I stepped back to the push-up position and then jump back but now I can do few repetitions correctly by jumping both directions. I'm so happy! These small things motivates me all the time try harder. And it is easy to see from these small details that I have proceed a lot after January.

Sportterfly

PS. PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO LEAVE COMMENTS EITHER IN ENGLISH, FINNISH OR SWEDISH.

Sunday 27 April 2014

Long Run of 50 Minutes

The flea market weekend is now behind and this evening it was time to concentrate on the project again. I did my long run of 50 minutes + 15 minutes walking. My weekend was otherwise so busy that I was sure that my heart rate is hard to keep down but despite the fact that I have lack of sleep and I have been hurrying everywhere all the time, running was easier than I thought. And it was so relaxing to finalise the busy weekend with very slow long run in warm spring weather.

Btw. I'm sure that the scales of the weight losing people hate to break round numbers. On Saturday morning the scale showed the 79.5kgs which is not now of course counted because it happened a day too late. Well, this means that I'm not that late in my weight losing schedule after all.

Sportterfly

PS. PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO LEAVE COMMENTS EITHER IN ENGLISH, FINNISH OR SWEDISH!

Friday 25 April 2014

Weigh-in

The weight of this morning was 80.5kgs. No weight change in too weeks and no more comments on that. I'm having silent conversation with myself about the reasons for this.

My flea market projects has keeped me busy this week. This time I'm going to sell things in two different flea market events this weekend. And in addition I have a huge lack of sleep. Baby is working nighttime to have the first teeth, I guess. Now I'm going to forget this project for a weekend and concentrate on prober eating next week. There will be weigh-loss in next weigh-in, I promise!

Have a nice weekend all of you!

Sportterfly

PS. PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO LEAVE COMMENTS EITHER IN ENGLISH, FINNISH OR SWEDISH!

Thursday 24 April 2014

10+ Tricks for Slow Run

Slow exercises develop the backbone of the running condition. It's good to do 80% of the running exercises with low tempo. And the beginners can forget the faster style totally for a few weeks. Even if the slow running looks ridiculous at first and walking people goes by staring at you it is most important exercise for runner. Why?

  • It's the best way to build your basic stamina
  • Your body gets use to running. With low running your leg muscles work as least as much as with fast running but injuries are avoided.
  • With low running you teach your body to use fat instead of carbohydrates. When you are having long run or running event it is important that your body can use the fat after the stores of carbohydrates are empty.

I think anyone can run 60 minutes even if you have never ran. I'm an alive example of it. The question is how to run enough slowly in order to avoid tiredness in the middle of the way. After running and practicing slow running couple of times with the same training program as I, 60 minutes running is reality. I collected here list of tips which should help to run SLOWLY. These tips are tested along the way of my running years of snail style. Tips follows in random order.
  1. Peace! Select a peaceful route. I have experienced that fast driving cars or lot of people going by doesn't help to run slowly. And for me it is embarrassing to run slowly so it is much easier to select peaceful route and face less staring eyes.
  2. Don't run distance, run time! Don't listen how long distances your friends can run. Select time you want to run and try to do it without exceeding the Heart rate limits.
  3. Spend time on a route. If you are anyway running distance remember that the more time you spend on running route the more exercise you get.  
  4. Forget Music. Leave music home. Or if you are listening music select genre that you would use in yoga class or in relaxing exercise. Too fast tempo in music and favorite songs makes you to run too fast and makes difficult to concentrate on slow steps.
  5. Wall Behind your back. Think that wind is keeping a light wall or curtain behind your back and you need to lean gently back to avoid it coming over you.
  6. Breathing. Concentrate on breathing. Breath in during four steps and out during four steps. If it feels that you have to breath faster you probably run too fast. Four steps works for me. You may have to test what is the best number of steps for you.
  7. Avoid Dreaming! Don't dream too much. Dreaming of running events and better shape keeps you motivated but at least I end up running faster if I'm dreaming of the running event of my life.
  8. Friend. Take friend with you. You are running too fast if you cannot have conversation. Ask a friend with you to walk slowly by your side. Or take a friend who would like to learn slow running too. 
  9. Pram or bicycle. Take your children with you to exercise. It's good way to spend time together and pram or bicycling kid with you is a good excuse to run slowly and look ridiculous.
  10. Heart rate monitor. It is just the best tool for running in right heart rate.
  11. Alarms. Use heart rate alarms with annoying sounds to keep the heart rate slow.
  12. Good Morning! Run morning time if possible. Usually in the morning it's easier to keep heart rate down and concentrate on relaxed running. Morning time there is usually less other people around disturbing the running.
  13. Enjoy! Sometimes it is just hard to keep the heart rate slow. Especially after the stressful working day. Then it is just OK to forget all the tricks and enjoy the running. Running training without thinking anything gives motivation to return to low tempo running exercises next time.
Running is like yoga for me. It's relaxing and there is time to think things on the route. It should feel in the end of each basic running exercise that you would have power to do another exercise right away. So in the end basic running training should feel even too easy when it's done perfectly hard.

Sportterfly

PS. PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO LEAVE COMMENTS EITHER IN ENGLISH, FINNISH OR SWEDISH!

Tuesday 22 April 2014

I Look Like a Fast Turtle Already!

It's week #14 of my project ongoing and I have already done my first long run, aerobic session with Nike+ Kinect Training and this morning I did my basic 30 minutes running training with pram. And Oh Wow, how surprised I am all the time about the running that has started to feel so easy so soon. I don't say that my pace is anywhere near from desired but I'm so glad that I can go already like a very fast snail or a turtle.

I'm more afraid of the Friday's weigh-in result than ever, thanks to the chocolate eggs and Finnish Easter pudding, mämmi. But I still have many days to affect to the result. Yesterday I started by doing an extra round in aerobic session of Nike+ Kinect Training. I wore my heart rate monitor for the first time during the aerobic session and in the end my average HR was 165 and maximum HR was 189. So, totally different heart rate levels are in use during the aerobic home exercise than running and that's why I don't need to hurry to do any faster running training yet. Time for that comes later and now I'm learning to enjoy the snail style. 

Week #14 further includes a muscle training and a running session on Thursday before it's time to be more nervous about the weigh-in.

Sportterfly

PS. PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO LEAVE COMMENTS EITHER IN ENGLISH, FINNISH OR SWEDISH!

Friday 18 April 2014

Training, Easter Delicacies, Training, Easter Delicacies, ...

I have a couple of exiting days behind. I published my blog to a few friends of mine and this far I've got only positive feedback. It was so exiting to wait reactions. Welcome to read my blog all of you!

Yesterday I did the muscle training at home before my running exercise. The muscle training felt still a bit stuffy with sore muscles I had due to fitness test I did twice earlier. Still I had a bit lower heart rate levels than during the first double training but this time I ran without the pram. This time I felt that running was easy and my pace have started to improve. I could run the whole route without concentrating on too fast run or too high heart rate.

yesterday:

  • Muscle training: HR max was 180, HR avg was 145
  • Running training: HR max was 151, HR avg was 134

The first double training couple of weeks ago:

  • Muscle training: HR max was 186, HR avg was 152
  • Running training: HR max was 170, HR avg was 138

Today I have concentrated only on easter food and tomorrow it is time to do the first long run of 40 minutes before eating a bit more delicacies.

Have a nice Easter!
Sportterfly

PS. PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO LEAVE COMMENTS EITHER IN ENGLISH, FINNISH OR SWEDISH!

Monday 14 April 2014

Fitness Test & Home Training & Running

Today I did the fitness test to restart training program. I don't know how can I avoid doing the fitness test twice without losing the achievement of just ended training program. Does any of my followers know? I have to first finalise the program and then reset it and then do the fitness test another time as a start of the new program. This is the only problem that I hate about in Nike+ Kinect Training at the moment. 

Last time I tried to straighten and I just restarted the new training program after all the training sessions but the game didn't register at all of my second training program to my achievements. I have now solved the problem that I replace the first training session of the program with the fitness test and 15 minutes quick start training but I cannot receive very good result of the test if I have just couple of days ago done my best in the test and muscles are still sore of that.

Today I got fitness score of 49 and athleticism score of 37. Then I did the 15 minutes aerobic session. I planned to run also today because tomorrow morning I'm going to visit a friend. I ran very slowly but heart rate was up because of all the effort I used in home training. Anyway, it was a good recovery exercise after the home training. My average HR was 140 this time and maximum HR was 162 this time.

The next training I'll do in Thursday and then it's time to run also. I should remember to stretch a bit before that. I have also collected my tips that I use to keep the speed low in running and blog posting about that is coming soon. Now it is time for shower and stretching.

See you!

Sportterfly

PS. PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO LEAVE COMMENTS EITHER IN ENGLISH, FINNISH OR SWEDISH

Saturday 12 April 2014

Long Break was Worth It

Today I planned to carefully try running again. A week ago I could see it in my heart rate level that I'm not in shape. It was hard to keep the heart rate down even in walking and I thought then that the very hard aerobic home training I did in the previous evening affected. Now I ran after the fitness test and muscle training and my leg muscles felt sore before I left to route. Still the training felt good from the beginning. There were no difficulties to keep the low pace and low heart rate in warm up and I think this was the first time now that I could keep my heart rate under 130 very easily in running part. Last week my heart rate didn't decrease in cool down but now when I walked it stayed under 120 in the end. Today I didn't want to do any spurts so the maximum HR also stayed in low.

Summary:
  • Last Saturday my average HR was 140 and maximum HR was 154
  • This morning my average HR was 129 and maximum HR was 140
  • In one of my first week running the average pace was exactly the same as today but my average HR was 138 and maximum HR was 187
Maybe I see a bit progress in running too..

Sportterfly

PS. PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO LEAVE COMMENTS EITHER IN ENGLISH, FINNISH OR SWEDISH!

Friday 11 April 2014

Snail Style Rules

Weigh-in

I get the result of 80.5 kilograms in the weigh-in this morning. This means that I managed again to lose a kilo in two weeks and I'm still half a kilo ahead of the schedule. I'm very happy with the result because I have had difficulties to focus on correct eating and I haven't been able to exercise as planned.

Fitness Test

My throat feels a bit stuffy still but I had to try exercising that I don't go mad. I did the fitness test and finalised my training program doing the last muscle training for this four weeks period. I was a bit concerned that how fitness test results will look like because I haven't done so many hard exercises lately but concentrated mainly on slow running. But obviously snail style of running rules. I felt that my endurance is so much better when I did the running with high knees. And I could better the score of the strength from 34 to 51 because I did record of the one leg squats and I could do three acceptable men's push ups. So now it is official that I'm able to do men's push ups that counts! Details of the different sections of the test is shown below (and earlier results in the brackets from newest to oldest). The fitness score is now 51, which means 31 units improvement from the beginning and 7 units in four weeks. The athleticism score is now 34, which is 1 unit better than four weeks ago and it has improved 8 units since I started. 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Endurance 53 (earlier 52, 42, 01)
Flexibility 55 (earlier 55, 55, 27)
Strength 51 (earlier 34, 21, 09)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Balance 50 (earlier 45, 36, 58)
Power 54 (earlier 53, 24, 01)
Speed/Reaction/Agility 9 (earlier 10, 37, 12)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have a nice weekend!!

Sportterfly

PS. PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO LEAVE COMMENTS EITHER IN ENGLISH, FINNISH OR SWEDISH!

Thursday 10 April 2014

Rain is coming

Rain will help?

I haven't exercised now for five days but it feels like forever. Baby swimming is the hardest exercise I have done lately. Luckily the weather forecast showed rainy days coming and hopefully it cleans up a bit the dusty air. There is pollen and traffic dust a lot in the air because it haven't rain for weeks now and I have so try throat that I keep coughing after spending time outdoors. I didn't know that dust has so bad affect on me nowadays. Anyway, I'll try running again on Saturday and home training carefully tomorrow before it is time to do the fitness test again.

Diet

It is also time for weigh-in tomorrow and I hope the scale shows some nice numbers because I mend my diet after the one shocking day I had. I have remembered to eat my five handfuls now and I have drunk lot of water and I feel lighter again.

Training program plans

I have been thinking now the continuation of the training program and next four weeks I'll add running training but only a bit. Now I have run every three days but next four weeks I'm planning to run three times a week, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. All the running training is done as slowly as before but Saturday is going to be the long run day and there I'm going to increase running part ten minutes every week from 30 to 60 minutes. Training sessions with Nike+ Kinect Training continue as before on Mondays and Thursdays.

Sportterfly

PS. PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO LEAVE COMMENTS EITHER IN ENGLISH, FINNISH OR SWEDISH!

Tuesday 8 April 2014

A Break in Training

Time to rest again

I have waken up now couple of days without my voice. Even if I don't have any other symptoms of common cold and I have got my voice back quickly by drinking water I'm going to skip again the exercises I was planned to do in the beginning of this week. Basically it means that my double training day is cancelled and I'll try it again later. I still have spent a lot of time outside walking slowly with the kids so I'm not totally inactive even if I can't exercise.

Project

Already week 12 have started and on Friday it is time for weigh-in #7 and fitness test #4. I have to check my condition and then plan how to exercise before the fitness test. I'm sure I'm fine then because there is no more than my throat problems. This week I have to plan also how I continue my trainings in next four weeks period.

Diet

Yesterday was the worst day of my Five Handfuls a Day project. I realised in the evening that I haven't eaten any correct handfuls. I have choose to eat lot of bread, pancakes and candy. Now I should do something about it. I have still three days to affect the result of the weigh-in so now I really need to eat lot of vegetables and drink more water. It is always awful to have flu in the middle of the hard exercising. It makes me to drool over unhealthy food if I don't exercise for couple of days.

Sportterfly

PS. PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO LEAVE COMMENTS EITHER IN ENGLISH, FINNISH OR SWEDISH!

Friday 4 April 2014

Something Else Than Breastfeeding

Today I'm going to theatre to see one musical and tomorrow I'm going to theatre too. This evening I'll go with the friends and tomorrow together with husband. Tomorrow is the first time when someone else puts our baby to sleep than me or my husband. Grandparents are going to look after all of the three. These two theatre evenings are coincidentally at the same weekend because we planned to go this musical at first in mid-March but then there wasn't enough adjacent seats so we planned to go this Friday. And I had already bought tickets to tomorrow's act in December.

I think I have to make changes to my training plans because I have all the kids at home, husband is at work and I don't have time to do both muscle and running training when he returns and before I have to leave to the downtown. Maybe I do the running training tomorrow. In that case I'll try double training another time next week.

Anyway, it is nice that there is something else going on this weekend than my trainings and breastfeeding.

Have a sunny weekend all of you!
Sportterfly

PS. PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO LEAVE COMMENTS EITHER IN ENGLISH, FINNISH OR SWEDISH!

Thursday 3 April 2014

Saying Goodbye to Maternity Clothes?

Today I took box from the storage where is all my regular clothes. I have still used maternity clothes because I have thought that no any normal clothes fits to me yet. But today I planned to try them on and decided that if I have any trousers I can wear, I will sell all my maternity trousers away. This is already traditional clothes fitting day I have had on all of my three maternity leaves and it is very good motivator to lose weight because if I don't have many clothes that I can wear, I have to lose weight quickly to get more clothes to my wardrobe.

It is nice that when all the regular clothes has been in the storage about a year now they feel like new ones. There is always lot of clothes in the box that I don't remember that I have. Now I made three heaps where I shared not-yet, soon and fitting clothes. The major of the clothes had to put to not-yet heap but I found one pair of black trousers and few shirts I can already wear. And then I found few trousers I bought to office after previous maternity leave when I wasn't yet lost all my pregnancy kilos. They didn't fit yet but I could put them to soon heap. Then I found trousers and T-shirt that I have bought after the first half-marathon from Helsinki. And I didn't venture to try them on because they looked so small that I would only have broken them.

There is one pair of white trousers I don't ever want to throw away. I wore them in that summer when we got married and I wore my wedding dress where I have decided to fit at the end of this project. They felt a bit uncomfortable then but after one or two kilos they would have been perfect. Now I took them to my wardrobe that I can try them on every now and then. I'm sure they will fit me when (not if) this project succeed. Maybe I add some photos of me in my target clothes here in my blog as well on the way. With this 30 kilograms yo-yo-weight I have had due to the pregnancies I need a lot of space into my storage. There is always those regular, not-yet and soon clothes and then there is maternity clothes in between. Now I'm so happy that I don't want to get pregnant anymore and now I really can but all the too big clothes away, forever!

Btw, It's a bit strange to exercise only two days this week. Luckily I can go to the baby swimming today to have at least a bit activity.
Sportterfly

PS. PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO LEAVE COMMENTS EITHER IN ENGLISH, FINNISH OR SWEDISH!

Wednesday 2 April 2014

Thanks to You My Lovely Son

Thanks to my very lovely son that this project is possible. If this was a maternity leave either of my daughters this project wouldn't be possible. If some mum of a newborn is now reading my blog and has guilty conscience that you haven't exercise or you don't have time to do any own projects, I totally understand. Stop feeling guilty now. My first baby was hard one, the colic baby, and the whole maternity leave was almost like a nightmare. I used all my time to survive each day and the running route was my place to escape the chaos we had at home. For long time afterwards I was so tired that I was thinking that I won't have more babies ever. I wouldn't have power to do it. The whole maternity leave I used for searching why my baby cries so much. And three weeks before the maternity leave ended we got diagnosis of milk protein allergy. If she wasn't the first baby I would have tried to have help earlier but we just didn't know how much crying is normal.

But man happen to forget bad things soon and after a while we planned to have another one. First two or three months were easy with the second daughter. I felt that I have really earned to have the easy baby after we had experienced the colic. But then we had a flu and baby started to have ear infections. I think that it is much easier to cope with the baby that has stomach problems. At least you can carry her/him around and there might be silence, even if you don't sleep. But if your baby has pain in the ears no any home knacks help. For example, there is no any position that necessarily helps to the crying. You can give pain killers to baby and only hope that they help even for a moment. Four months we fight against the infections, I woke up every night at least every hour to hear the crying. It was a bad nightmare. And it took one more month after the infections by waking every hour because it had become a habit. The crying wasn't because of the pain anymore.

Now I have so lovely son and yes, he keeps me awake night time. He haven't slept nighttime more than four hours periods during his five and a half months life but he is amazing daytime. I totally forget the bad nights because the days with him are so easy. And I have learned to tolerate with less sleep. I'm surprised how rarely I need naps. Daytime he sleep long naps. 5.5 hours is a record. And even in the evenings when he is tired and cannot concentrate anymore on anything he lays in the sitter in bathroom and let me go to shower. Bathroom is his favourite, usually if he is upset he calms down when he can go to bathroom to look around. So this kind of lifestyle change project can be possible with the baby if the baby behaves. And I really wish that we don't get any big problems on the way and mummy can concentrate to this project till the end. Now I feel that after all I have experienced with the babies I have earned to have time to my project this time.

Sportterfly

PS. PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO LEAVE COMMENTS EITHER IN ENGLISH, FINNISH OR SWEDISH!

Tuesday 1 April 2014

Or Is It Triathlon Training?

If you do muscle training, then go to run and push pram at the same time is it triathlon instead of double training? Anyway, this morning I tried it. Average heart rate of my muscle training session was 152 and maximum heart rate 186. I don't usually keep my heart rate monitor on when I do home training but today I already put it on for running so I planned to check my heart rate levels with muscle training too.

Then I went to run, and did the same route as first time when I had pram with and my average heart rate was 138 (earlier pram run 138) and maximum 170 (in earlier pram run 186). Heart rate increased very easily even in walking, maybe because the machine was already warmed up, but at the end it was easy to run with low heart rate. Maybe at first my body tried to return to the same tempo I had while home running. I have done one or two spurts even in my slow tempo runnings just to wake up the body little bit which increase the average and maximum heart rates.

Hard to wait until Friday to have next training sessions. Today I have felt energetic again and survived without naps. And still I dream of junk food all the time but I have tried to drink glass of water every time I think candy or chocolate. and it have helped.
Sportterfly

PS. PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO LEAVE COMMENTS EITHER IN ENGLISH, FINNISH OR SWEDISH!