Category Archives: Goals

Boot Camp: Fitness Testing & Progress!

Posted on by

2

20130409-211557.jpg
After a week’s break, the April boot camp sessions kicked off this morning. With more fitness testing!

My very first session as testing too – I wrote about it here. And I’m glad I noted my results, because it gives me a standard platform to compare my progress.

Progress indeed!

  • Beep test results: still ‘good’ (above average) per the normative data based on age and gender, but my specific score was a touch better than last time.
  • Push ups results: from ‘very poor’ (lowest score) to ‘average’ – an increase of ~10 push ups!
  • Lower body wall squats results: from ‘above average’, almost excellent, to ‘excellent’
  • Sit up test results: from ‘above average’ to ‘excellent’… by a fair bit.
  • Plank test results: ‘average’ – right in the middle of the ‘average’ band – no change.

After the last test, I mentioned that I was going to focus on my upper body and core. And I certainly feel like I’ve improved – though my planking results don’t show it.

Next focus will be on my mental stamina: got to improve those planking and wall-sits times! Maybe crack 60 sit-ups, too?

The Things We Do For Love

Posted on by

6

20130408-211406.jpgOh, the things we do for love (and to rock a bikini)!

Tomorrow has an early start – not only does boot camp start at 6am, but I’m planning to run/walk/zombie-shuffle my way there, across the other side of town. It’s not far… only about 6km, and I’ve walked home in under an hour before, but I don’t want to be too tired before I even start the boot camp session (Boxing – yay!).

Thankfully, work has a coffee machine that even I can use. And it doesn’t even taste foul! *

*just not particularly nice sometimes.

Teeny Weeny…

Posted on by

3

… yellow polka dot bikini.
20130331-213923.jpg
I bought my first bikini.

It’s not yellow. But it’s definitely a lot smaller than any swimwear I’ve ever owned. Teeny weeny even.

For $8 I picked up a mottled blue/red string bikini as a goal for next summer.

Out of curiosity, I tried it on when I got home. Holy heck guys – it fits! It’s an Easter miracle! Okay, it doesn’t look good I have a lot of work left to do. But I will do it.

I’ll be wearing it on the beach next summer.

Amy’s First Boot Camp Session

Posted on by

12

First boot camp training session done and dusted. And I definitely feel like I thrashed worked my muscles in the 45 minutes we spent on the Wellington waterfront.
20130312-194155.jpg
It was dark at 6 o’clock this morning when we started, under the various street lights littering the park. It was still quite dark when we head off to shower and get ready for work. This will take some getting used to….

On the way to the session, I joked that I’d be happy doing anything but push ups. I hate push ups. They hate me, too. It’s a mutual loathing and I’m okay with that. Guess what the first test was. Yup, push ups. Followed by sit ups, planking, wall sits and the most successful beep test of my life.

To keep me accountable as I go along, here is where I ended up from the session -

  • BMI: 26 = overweight [insert blurb about how irrelevant a BMI measurement actually is here]
  • Beep test results: ‘good’ (above average) per the normative data based on age and gender
  • Push ups results: ‘very poor’ (lowest score) per normative data based on age and gender
  • Lower body wall squats results: ‘above average’, almost excellent!
  • Sit up test results: ‘above average’ based on normative data for age and gender
  • Plank test results: ‘average’ – right in the middle of the ‘average’ band!

So as you can see – there are a few areas to work on, mostly upper body and core which makes sense since I haven’t done much in the way of training these areas before now. It’ll be interesting to see how these change over the next couple of months.

The next session is on Thursday – boxing. I’m looking forward to it!

Amy’s New Ride

Posted on by

11

20130306-213609.jpg
Ladies and Gentlemen, I bought a bike. Actually, I bought it in the weekend – but it arrived today.

Arriving home after dinner I found a pleasant surprise blocking my front door… A giant box! It’s not necessarily true what they say… The best things don’t always come in small packages.
20130306-213452.jpg
The box told me that assembly would be easy – so I sat and chilled with a tasty, tasty cider before opening the box and getting started. (Side note: have you tried this stuff? It’s fantastic!)
20130306-213804.jpg
Once I opened the box and tried putting everything together, it became abundantly clear that I had no idea what I was doing.
20130306-214353.jpg
Throughout my career people have constantly told me that accounting is a great path to start on because it helps build skills that are easily transferable to a lot of other professions. Well, I’m not quitting my day job any time soon.

Nonetheless, the parts are all attached now and resembling something of a bike. It’s very… Tall.
20130306-215800.jpg
Since I built it, and don’t yet own a helmet that fits, it’s going to hang out unused in my living room for a bit. That is unless you want to come and test it out for me? You know, to make sure the brakes work.

New Zealand’s legal system doesn’t let you sue me for personal injury, so I’m totally keen to cool with letting you take that risk all important first ride for me! (Except for the fact that I like you and would really rather you didn’t get hurt…)

And – that’s right – getting this bike was one of my thirteen new experiences for 2013. Boom! Another one to cross off the list!

Booting the Booty

Posted on by

8

de92e8fc159d6d84280c9811069e818fIn the midst of a bout of motivation (or weakness… I’m still not sure) I signed up for a beginners boot camp last night.

We start on the 12th of March,and continue for 3 weeks.  Nice and simple at only 2 sessions a week.

I’m really looking forward to getting in and amongst it.  To trying something new and hopefully seeing some (albeit very short term) results.

I’m not looking forward to the early mornings.  Sessions will start at 6am and it’ll take me at least 45 minutes to get there.

But I’m motivated to give it a go 100%.

And it’s one of my 13 things!

Thirteen New Experiences for 2013: Update

Posted on by

3

We’re almost two whole months through 2013 already. The year is flying by, and I’m really enjoying it so far. A lot has happened!

And there’s steady progress being made with the ‘Thirteen New Experiences for 2013‘ I set out for myself last year. Two down, 11 to go.

  1. Run my first race
  2. Try a mixed martial arts class
  3. Try a pole fitness class
  4. Try a spin class
  5. Go skydiving
  6. Try a beginners/intro crossfit course
  7. Try a yoga class
  8. Try a pilates class
  9. Go bungy jumping
  10. Try indoor rock climbing
  11. Buy a bike
  12. Sign up for boot-camp style group training
  13. Try an aqua/pool-based fitness class

“1. Run my first race”

Completed this last Sunday with a 7km run ‘Round the Bays’ with a friend of mine from work. Our official time was 50:32 – not fantastic, but we’re happy with it! And we had fun which is the main thing.

As ‘Nev’ from never2late4 puts it, I’ve caught ‘the bug‘ and I’ll definitely be doing more races.

Another friend and I are signed up for the Round the Vines race next month (the day after the dragonboating competition…so it might be another slow one). Our packs arrived in the post yesterday.

And the Wellington Marathon is coming up in June – I’ll be signing up for the 10km run once our work team entries open.

“8. Try a pilates class”

I did this one a little while ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Sadly, I haven’t been back since despite raving after the class that I would.

It was a well-paced beginners class held at the gym and I felt that I took a lot away from it.

And I certainly felt it in my core for the next couple of days – Pilates: It’s not for chumps!

So… What next?

Plans are in place to hit up a spin class next week (my legs are already crying), and I’m currently investigating bikes to buy (though I won’t be getting anything too fancy until I learn how to ride one!).

Bungy jumping is currently in the pipelines for May, and I’m waiting to hear back about possible dates for sky-diving.

I’ll make sure to keep y’all updated!

How are your goals progressing?
What have you got lined up for the next month or so? Anything exciting?

Wellington Round The Bays – 2013 – 7km

Posted on by

8

20130217-134631.jpg
Wow. First race run and it feels good.

The weather wasn’t as sunny and clear as it was forecasted to be – but the cloud cover and light rain actually made it a more comfortable run. And no sunburn!

Round the Bays was a sell out this year - 13,700 participants in a city of only 200,000 people (500,000 if you count the satellite towns). It was busy.
20130217-134657.jpg
We started somewhere in the middle (or, the back of the runners). For those of you who ran too, we were between Spider-Man and Batman. Wonder Woman was a little too ambitious.

The 7km went surprisingly quickly – with plenty to motivate us along the way. There were locals with sprinklers, a jazz band, this guy and Dominion Post posters along the way.
20130217-135737.jpg
Some of the corporate-sponsored t-shirts were pretty funny, too.

We crossed the finish line with the clock showing 54 minutes. Since we were so far back, I would estimate it closer to 52 minutes. But we won’t know the official time for a couple if days. Either way, it was under an hour and we walked a fair bit. I’m happy with that.

And, next year we’ll smash it.