Things I am somewhat proud of

At the start of winter I posted about my goals for the season and listed a few things I wanted to do - this was part of a challenge my personal training group were doing.

I'm trying to stay accountable to myself, hence me blogging about it here. If you're just here for the tasty eats, feel free to skip this post.   :)

My 12 goals for the twelve weeks of winter were:

• 5km run in 30 minutes (usually 40 minutes, including a few walking rests)
• Do a back bend in yoga stretch class (still getting stuck on my head )  :)
• 50 push ups on toes (currently doing about 20, then dying)
• Hold a hover for 2 minutes
• 20 burpees in 60 seconds (we rarely do these at training so really need to practice!)
• No sugar for 4 days each week
• 3 training sessions a week + stretch class, every week, no excuses
• Bed before 10.30pm on week nights
• Swim with the kids every Friday (when we are are the pool for lessons anyway)
• Run the entire City 2 Surf without slowing to a walk (very slow jog is ok! - just no walking. This will be my first C2S so I don't have a goal finishing time, but hopefully under 2 hours.)
• No alcohol (not that hard - I'm not drinking much these days anyway)
• Go indoor rock climbing (never done this!)

So, now that here in Sydney we're well and truly into Spring time... did I get through that lot?

5km run in 30 minutes - well, pretty damn close! I managed 6km in 38 minutes too. Backbend in yoga... well, I got a little further off the floor, and off my head at least but still not a proper back bend. 50 push ups - not all in one go, but I'm pretty sure I've done well over and above that some nights at training, considering we often do 3 or 4 sets of 20. 

I did hover for two minutes, I haven't drunk alcohol since maybe April / May? And I took the kids indoor rock climbing. I even tried it myself, even though there were so many professional looking people there, even though I had nobody to belay me, even though the auto-belay thing was pretty scary, and the kids were having a punch up right underneath me as I was coming down - I still gave it a go.

The kids section there was pretty cool, both Holly and Ty loved the butterfly wall.

The no sugar thing? Well, I'm working on it. I had zero sugar for a week. But I was much more mindful of my intake overall. I also noticed how much my eczema plays up when I eat sugar. 

But the biggest achievement, that I'm still pretty stoked about, is completing the 14km City2Surf in August, without stopping, in 1:25:03. In fact, it was such an achievement for me I think it warrants its own post, so I'll cover that later. :)

Mostly, over the course of this winter, I've learnt that I'm a lot stronger than last winter. I've learnt that getting up at 5.30am and running in the dark when it's 3 degrees Celcius out is tough, but I'm tougher. After 2km I'm too warm and wish I wasn't wearing a jacket. 

I've learnt that motivation comes and goes, and a sluggish patch doesn't mean I've fallen off the wagon, it just means my body is going through a rest patch. I stay home for a day or two or three, eat some cake, beat myself up about it - but I'm learning that I also have to let it run its course, and when I get out the other side my renewed excitement and anticipation about tending to my health is so much more acute.