Day 24: Seeing progress

Summary

Monday was a public holiday here in Australia, celebrating the arrival of the first fleet, or Invasion Day as the indigenous people view. Either way, my family and I headed for the mountains to spend some time at the highest peak in the state I live in.

I did my first trail run while out there, and finally the penny has dropped as to why people love trail running. It is simply awesome. The views, the trails but most of all just being on my own with nature.

Peak of Mount Buller, Victoria, Australia

I did the peak climb twice, which was nice. I am feeling great overall, my fitness level is improving and I am increasing my volume of running to 1.5 hours. Time to step up.

Also I have chosen my first major run that I would like to do. It is a trail run for 50km on November this year.

Exercise

1.5 hour run
1 hour bike ride (evening)

Diet

Breakfast - Karl's Energy Boosting Smoothie 

Lunch - Sweet pumpkin salad
Dinner - Roast chicken an mushrooms, with a side of salad

Day 17: A great day to be alive

Summary
Yesterday was much of the same, lots of rest, though I still managed to go for a run. However, this morning, I woke up feeling absolutely awesome. I have been thinking of my career a little and often that gives rise to anxiety. But I managed to put all that aside and focus on my only goal for this year - run!

As a tribute, I have decided to up my running time. I will still maintain my heart rate, but am planning to increase my running time each day by an additional 30 minutes to 45 minutes. This will mean I will be running for 1 to 1 hour 15 minutes with the normal 15 minutes of warm up and cool down.

Let's see how I cope. The weather has not been great either with the thermostat reaching 39 degrees Celsius the past 2 days. Hoping for cooler weather.

Exercise

1 hour 30 minutes (including 15 minutes of warm-up and cool down)

Day 15 & 16: Man down! Man down!

Summary
I have been unwell for the last two days. It could be the common flu or perhaps it has been the over exertion from my climb on Saturday. I have been sleeping quite a bit and needless to say am feeling a little sorry for myself. Perhaps tomorrow will be better and I will be able to go out for a run back again.

I have also not lost as much weight as I expected after 2 weeks of diet change and exercise. I was expecting to lose at least 500g, but not even that. I am cutting down on the fat in order to force my body to use the vast stores of body fat I possess!

Exercise

None for the last 2 days

Diet

same for the lsat two days, minus added fat into my diet. I am sticking with the coconut cream for breakfast, but no additional (except cooking oil).

Day 14: A New Hope

Summary
As mentioned, I am not one who gives up easily. Today is a brand new day and I intend to continue pursuing my dream. Though my legs are a little sore, I decided to still go out for a run. I took it easy and came across Bill.

Bill is an 81 year old man, who used to box as a young lad. As he has gotten older, he has taken up sweeping the street he lives on, which is close to where I live. Every morning, Bill sweeps his street, going door-to-door to clear the driveway of his neigbours of dead leaves and fallen twigs. He never asks for payment or any reward. He does it because it keeps him healthy and he says helps him clear his mind. After more than an hour of this, he takes the neighbour's dog for a walk. Amazing and such an inspiration for me to keep going!

Bill, 81, sweeping his street

Exercise

15 warm-up
1 hour run
20 minute cool down

Diet

Breakfast - nothing

Lunch - Goan Fish Curry (may need to post the recipe - it was delicious)
Dinner - Roasted cauliflower and Sweet Pumpkin salad

Day 13: The Day I almost died

Summary

The family and I decided to do the Kokoda Memorial Walk (1000 Steps) on Mount Dandenong. It is a beautiful part of Melbourne with mature gum trees and amazing ferns. I felt confident heading to the walk given that I have been training a little and generally felt good. But was I wrong.

The trail itself starts off gradually on a well worn path. It takes about 800 metres or so before reaching the foot of the climb... all on stairs, totalling 700+ steps with steep gradient. The walk itself is dedicated to the soldiers who perished in World War 2 in Papua New Guinea's Kokoda Trail. The entire path is littered with plaques and boards telling of the story of these war veteran and their journey to fight for freedom.

Freedom is one thing I didn't feel. By step number 100 or so I was struggling. My 10-year old son who was behind me had had enough trailing and decided to speed up and run all the way up. By this time, my wife also decided to take the lead. By the half way mark, I was literally grasping on to the limited oxygen that was entering my body. My heart was pounding and sweat was poring down from my bald head. I thought I was going to die.

Thankfully, my wife was kind enough to encourage me all the way to the top. I was panting when I reached the peak, with my son grinning from cheek to cheek loudly proclaiming for all to hear that he was no.1! But other concerns were raising through my mind, such as if I can't even do a 15 minute climb, how am I to survive 100km? How did I allow myself to get so unfit? Will I ever be able to achieve my goal?

I don't know the answers to any of these questions, but all I can hold on to are, like the soldiers at Kokoda during World War 2, courage to believe in what I am doing, endurance to persevere the next 487 days and sacrifice the comforts that I have grown accustomed to like lazing around.

The Kokoda Memorial

Breathing again at the top

Downhill time

Exercise

A walk up the Kokoda Memorial walk

Diet

Breakfast - Karl's Energy Boosting Smoothie 

Lunch - Nothing
Dinner - Roasted cauliflower and Roast chicken pieces

Weight

87 kg and 26% body fat
Looks like I have not lost any weight, or more importantly body fat. I will have to fine tune my diet further, and perhaps cutting down on my fat intake a little to kick-start the usage of my own body fat as an energy source. I will have to lose weight if I am to succeed in running 100km!

Day 12: The MAF Test

Summary

I always like Fridays (now who doesn't). I look forward to the longer runs and also the quality time that I get to spend with my family.Today, I have scheduled to perform a test on my maximum aerobic function (MAF). I have written the purpose of performing the MAF test here.

I have decided to use my stationary bike for the test. Using the bike allows me to ensure that I can control as many factors as possible, such as distance, terrain and ease. Further I can accurately measure many of these using the bike computer.

I have chose to test my MAF based on how much time it takes me to ride 5km and I time this three times, as in collect three data points. I will perform this test once a month to determine my progress. I expect a few things to happen:

1. The time taken each round should increase
2. Over the months, the time I take should decrease
3. I may need to adjust the intensity if my current intensity setting (at 3/10) becomes too easy.

Exercise

MAF Test:
15 minute warm up
3 x 5km
20 minute cool down

Diet

Breakfast - Karl's Energy Boosting Smoothie 

Lunch - Nothing
Dinner - Roasted cauliflower and Morroccan Lamb

Weight

Will have to wait till weekend

Maximum Aerobic Function

Many people have heard of VO2max, beep test or even sprint test as a benchmark for fitness. But have you heard of Maximum Aerobic Fitness (MAF)? If not, you should!

The test was developed by Dr.Phil Maffetone to determine how well an athlete is progressing in developing the aerobic system. According to Dr.Maffetone, the body is made of two key muscles (there are others, but these is the primary muscles that make up our body) which are aerobic muscle also known as slow twitch muscle and anaerobic muscle also known as fast twitch muscle. Both muscles enables us t perform tasks the most efficient and effective way.

An endurance athlete will need to maximise the usage of aerobic muscles which have the ability to keep performing for long periods of time. Of course training using the 180 Method is an essential approach to achieving this. However, Dr.Maffetone also recommends testing the development of this aerobic system at least monthly to determine if your program is working and whether there are any other stress such as chemical (think food and environment here) or mental (yup! how you feel and the stress you face at work or home for example) stress that is hindering your progress.

The logic is simple. As you develop your aerobic function, you should in theory be able to run faster at the same heart rate compared to when you first started out. To do this we need to hold the heart rate as a constant (in my case 132bpm) and another such as time or distance. In my case I have selected distance, hence I measure the time (variable) taken to ride my bike in 5km.

Ideally, you will need to collect three measures. So I have chosen to cycle 15km, measuring the time taken every 5 km. Once you have decided the approach to measure your MAF, stick with it as that's the only way to demonstrate progress. Over time, according to Dr.Maffetone, the time will reduce. Mine to-date are:

Date	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
16 January 2015	15’05”	15’15”	15’21”