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NTA

So after karate on Tuesday which I didn't mention, I wasn't doing a lot of exercise leading into the weekend, because I had a hike planned.
 
The last two years a mate and I, sometimes with others, hiked the trail up around Mt Kosciuszko which is quite a unique environment. Both times we'd done it in summer, and since then the prick moved to Adelaide (his missus has family there) so I had to recruit new people and go later in the year. Can be a bit of a risk with the potential for early snow but mostly it was the low temps and rain that were the issue. They'd had a couple of inches over the previous day so it certainly was damp underfoot.
 
This time, not knowing the experience levels of those involved, I was a bit hesitant, and sure enough a couple of them looked completely unprepared. Thankfully the two lasses along were pretty positive (not to mention HAWT) and took everything in their stride. The two guys along were pretty chilled too, and I could always play the trump card of "man up, princess" if needs be.
 
The weather was closing in a little though so I decided we should ditch the tents and stay in Seaman's Hut, which is an emergency shelter for people up that way (<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaman's_Hut'>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaman's_Hut</a>). To get there the road is pretty easy (the National Parks guys use it for access) so it took a bit over an hour to cover the 6km. Not before time either as cloud shut down all the way past us at 1600m. I was only carrying a fly and ground sheet for my shelter so would have gotten fairly damp I reckon. The hut has an old pot belly stove, so we stoked it up and my companions broke out the red wine, Sailor Jerry, and Honey Bourbon, and along with some random guy who was already at the hut for the night, cooked up a meal and didn't get to bed until after 10PM. He didn't know what hit him.
 
I was the only one of our group with an air mat, and I only got about five or six hours' sleep. Had to duck out for a piss at 3.30AM, and was disappointed that the cloud hadn't dropped enough to reveal stars. Still, when we woke up at 0530 (DST having checked out) it was well fucking worth it. Breakfast, then a walk up to the highest public toilet in Australia before hitting the summit. Then nearly 13km back to the car, with the last climb of 110 metres done in the space of about 600m (18% gradient). I have climbed that hill three times in my life and am unlikely to do it again. Particularly while carrying a pack.
 
Total moving time over the two days was approx 3 hours and 5 minutes, covering a distance of just over 22km. Lot of fairly gentle slopes but some of those big climbs with a 20kg pack on is a stark reminder just how hard that shit would have been to a fatter version of me.
 
The fact that I also had to do close to 7 hours' driving at either end was quite the mental challenge, but besides one instance of getting noddy behind the wheel, I blitzed it. The X-Trail seated all five of us and never had a bad moment.
 
Couple of photos: one is an old road marker from when the road was publicly accessible. Its had a twitter filter applied to it.
 
In the second one you can just see the red roof of the hut left of centre, then if you look just to the right of the rock outcrop above that, the tallest hump in the distance is Kosciuszko itself, a bit under 2km away as the crow flies.

NTA

On that hike I must have strained my left glute a little, as I was feeling it when I went for a run tonight. It started to really heat up, all the way down to my calf, about 400m in. Pushed through to 1km but had to stop at that point and walk home (which was most uncomfortable). No more road work until that recovers...

NTA

Glute feeling better, but decided to avoid overworking it and did some weights at home instead:
 
Deadlifts x 20 @ 45kg
Wood choppers x 10 each side @ 18kg (using a dumbell - shoulder to hip) 
Bent row x 10 @ 45kg
Weighted lunge x 10 each side holding 18kg in each hand - left leg struggled as I think the glute isn't keen on activating
 
5 pull ups
10 pushups
5 pull ups with full hang and pause
10 push ups with full pause at the bottom
10 half down pull ups
10 pushups
 
Then punched out a few of the Goju Ryu Kata: Chudan, Gedan, Kake Uke, Gesai Ichi, Gesai Ni.
 
Those kata really make you sweat when you haven't warmed up using actual karate.

NTA

Odd bit of exercise here and there, but mainly relaxing for the week off. Got out to the Royal Easter Show to reconnect to the farmer boy roots, but spent most of the time minding the kids while they went on rides. Can't complain - at least they're at an age now where we don't have to carry them or push a pram! So I stepped on the scales after what you'd call a pretty good week feeding in the top paddock, and have to say I was more excited last time I was 99 kg, as it was on the way down. Got on the bike and hammered out 21.65 km in 56:03 (23 km/h) and felt better. Lots of water and protein today, and severely limited overall intake, with as little sugar as I can manage. Time to get all Spartan again if I want to get back near 90kg by the time my birthday rolls around in June

NTA

Easter Sunday involved chocolate, but I only had one beer and plenty of water.
 
This morning did 3km in 16:27, which is crap but my left glute was giving me gyp again in the first km so I moseyed on and was happy to go under 5:30 per km.
 
Got home, stripped down to shorts and hopped in the pool. Which was fucking cold, but good for muscle recovery I'm told. I stopped sweating pretty much as soon as I got up to the calves!

NTA

Body weight without tonight using a 10-1 theme: sets of 10 then 9, 8, 7, etc Pull ups - cheated hard starting on 8. took 12 minutes anyway! Push ups - 6 minutes Tuck jumps - 7 minutes The hardest thing about tuck jumps is taking a break. Serious oxygen debt.

NTA

Run tonight was awful. 3 km but just never got going. Took 16:47! First two klicks were almost 5:40 but pulled it back one I got my second wind in the last km

NTA

Couple of weeks just getting back into things with the dodgy glute and eating whatever chocolate is left :) Bit of karate now school term is back, and a run tonight - 3 km in 16:23 which if back up to 11 km/h. Fairly happy with that and will look to extend to three days this week before starting to build into 5 km

NTA

Karate last night was good, except my calves were quite upset with me over Monday night's run and decided to fuck with me. Consequently, the run tonight not so much fun either. Got to 2 km in 11 minutes then decided to walk another km home.

NTA

Been a fortnight since last update. Not much going on except pushups here and there, abs, and a couple of karate sessions, including grading to my green belt which now puts me into intermediate levels. If I want to grade further I have to start doing tournaments and shit so we will see how that works out. Went for a run tonight - 3 km in 16 minutes even. Realise now how sick I must have been last time I went running.

JK

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Matt Dunning! <img src="http://www.daimenhutchison.com/rugby/public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif" alt="attachicon.gif"><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/rugby/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=1671'>uploadfromtaptalk1389318949284.jpg</a>
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Heard dunning on the radio today and he said he lost about 35kg over the first 4 months did it primarily due to diet which was a protein shake for breakfast and then another for lunch (said 240cals each) and then a proper dinner but restricted to 600cals..... no wonder he lost weight. 1100 or so calories is dammmmm low! Worked tho.

NTA

Yeah that is moderately insane. Still, if it shifts the weight you gotta be happy, provided you can deal with the maintenance once you're at goal weight. Weight has been going between 98-99 lately. Really got to sort myself out mentally, so this week I'm starting back on the calorie counting to rein it in, and planning the exercise better. We are having some fucking awesome autumn weather here so no excuses

mooshld

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="NTA" data-cid="429990" data-time="1400677889">
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Yeah that is moderately insane. Still, if it shifts the weight you gotta be happy, provided you can deal with the maintenance once you're at goal weight. 
Weight has been going between 98-99 lately. Really got to sort myself out mentally, so this week I'm starting back on the calorie counting to rein it in, and planning the exercise better. We are having some fucking awesome autumn weather here so no excuses
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Catch the slide before it gets out of control NTA. Its a long way back I use old photos of myself at my heaviest to convince myself I need to buckle down. Works every time.

NTA

Don't I fucking know it! Pushups tonight with one minute rest between sets, to failure: 27, 12, 9, 5, 7 Then straight into planks: 30s, rest 30s, 30s. Starting all over again!

mooshld

I meant the eating mate, even if your too broken to run or exercise. You know you can get a handle on that and still make progress.
 
Right thats enough hand holding now sort it out!
 
Mooshld

NTA

Yeah yeah I know that. Willpower is just a lot harder than I remembered, that's all ;)
 
So it is 11 weeks tomorrow until I run the City 2 Surf here in Sydney. 14km, with a big arse hill near the end, it promises to be a fairly good challenge and I'm aiming for somewhere around 77 minutes which would be 5:30 per km. 
 
Current stats:
 
97.7kg
Chest 112cm
Waist 103cm
Hips 108cm
 
My previous peak was 91.7kg back in September, and at the same time I was running 5km @ somewhere around the 5:15 mark.
 
So the aim firstly is to get some miles in the legs, as well as do some body weight workouts, and shed the fat for the run. If I could get under 90, that'd be sweet, with the aim of staying there.

NTA

Running last night before dinner - 3km in 16:26. Didn't have a lot of energy in the tank after doing some work in the yard and not having eaten properly during the day.
 
Had a couple of treats which I really shouldn't have, and should be getting to sleep earlier. All things to work on so I can perform better.
 
Plan from here:
 
 - Run three times per week (Mon/Wed/Fri), starting with 3km to get the joints and tendons happy again
 - After a couple of weeks running 5:30/km or less, move it up to 5km per run.
 - Once I start regularly hitting 5:20/km there, throw in a 10km run, aiming for under an hour on a Saturday evening
 - In the last two weeks before the event, put in a couple of 15km runs and maybe even a half-mara.
 
Course distance is around 14km so I reckon that should put me in pretty good stead.
 
On the other nights of the week I'll do some body weight - karate is Tuesdays but pull ups and pushups + abs on Sunday and Thursday will be quick and allow the legs to recover.

NTA

Push ups routine again tonight - though i did a set of twenty last night so was really feeling it. 5 sets, 1 minute breaks: 26, 12, 7, 7, 8 Took a minute at the end to catch my breath, then cat vomits, and meditation/stretching

NTA

Karate Tuesday night I was learning a new kata and my left trapezius went into full spasm.
 
It happened a couple of weeks ago too after a training session where I had two parties at 180 degrees, so lot of head turning. Visit to the chiro later and its coming good but can't really do any serious upper body. Back to the road work.

NTA

Took it easy for a few days to let the neck clear up.
 
Karate last night - including same kata that I did my neck on, but got through it. Still not 100% but nursing it through.
 
Been having a really good couple of days on the eating front. Stopping myself from opening the floodgates on the chocolate etc.
 
Run tonight - 3km in 15:57. It sucks how I'm happy to crack 16 minutes when really I should be aiming for 15 Early days back into it I guess, and need to keep up the running from here. Just over 9 weeks to City2Surf.

The Silver Fern

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