12WBT +56

Today was to be the triathlon day.  Guess who was so oblivious to that as he was trying to work out what to do this weekend?  In my head, I had a mini-milestone challenge (for which I was going to use the 10km fun run last weekend but changed my mind as I thought of that as cheating too much).  I'm nuts!


During the week I'd been plotting what I could do.  In the end, I decided I'd go for another walk.  The last mini-milestone saw Wifey and I walk from Taronga Zoo to Balmoral, which was about 13-odd kms.  I had to top that - mainly because I'm figuring I must be getting closer to being fitter than I was (given I'm a wee bit less fatter).  My idea - to do my old walking route (that includes steps, hills, off-road and...umm, pavements) not once.  Not twice.  But three times (and I know one shouldn't start a sentence with 'but' - sue me...not literally, unless you want to pay off my student loan debt in NZ; I'd happily part with that).  Three times.  Say it like that and it doesn't seem a lot.  I guess it's not really - but, one lap of my route is 10kms.  That's 30kms all up.  Sounds a s**t load more.


Alarm set for 5.45am (I wanted to do this as early as possible, which unfortunately didn't sound too appealing to our house guest who would've otherwise been happy to come along for a stroll) but I was clearly looking forward to this too much as I woke up at 5.30am.  By 5.50am, I was walking out the door for my mammoth effort.


Lap one.  Fine.  No probs.  Well, no probs if you ignore the fact that I'd forgotten to put my glasses on and on one of the bush tracks (about 30mins - if that - into the walk) went for a six.  Tripped on a tree root or something, rolled my ankle and grazed my knee.  I was most grateful that at not long after 6am there wasn't anyone around to see me do it!


Lap two.  Not quite as quick as lap one.  The sun was starting to get hotter and I could feel myself waning during the bits in the shade and picking up the pace in the heat of the sun (just to get out of it).


Lap three.  Knackered.  Pooped.  You're getting the picture.  I did the first lap in 1hr 15min, the second in just on 1hr 20min - the last was about 1hr 35min.  I see a pattern.  Still.  I'm happy.  Scarily, I felt that I had a wee Mish sitting on my shoulders (though she would've been flying off when I tripped earlier on) telling me to get a grip and get on with it.  She was showing no mercy with me the whole way around.  I could hear her saying silly little things like, "suck it in" or "shoulders back, chest proud".  It was weird.  Perhaps I was still sleeping.


All up, I was walking for 4hr 05mins.  The only stops I made were to fill up my water bottle.  What I think impressed me more (other than the number of people who seem to go for walks/runs/jogs around 7am on a Saturday) was that I, possibly for the first time in my life, have finally gone into calorie deficit! Huzzah!  In fact, if I stick to my usual eating plan, I'll be in calorie deficit for the whole weekend - even if I don't do anything else for the rest of it.  I burnt off a massive 3006 calories in the 4hrs.  Go me!  Doubt I'll ever be able to do this again, but hey, most people who climb Everest only do it once too ;)

Non-stop walking, baby!

Oh, bugger.  Not quite 30kms then - 29.5.  Close enough.  If I allow for a margin of error there may be a chance of it being more than 30kms...  This doesn't show the elevation, but it's not all on the flat.

Whilst on the topic of burning...after getting home, showering and having a shake for brekkie (I don't think my stomach could've coped with anything heavier), I threw some laundry on and thought I'd have a lie down in the hammock and read until the laundry was done.  1.5 hours later I woke up...my legs are slightly red.  Ouchies.  So are my arms...and my face.  Moral of this story, don't lie in the lovely warm sun with a book and tell yourself it's only for 15-20 minutes - especially if you have a known knack of falling asleep quickly (including a witnessed time of literally falling asleep before your head hit the pillow!).


Aside from that, an uneventful day.  I hope my legs will be less stiff tomorrow.  PT sent a text asking if I wanted to do a weights session tomorrow.  Hmm...  Over 4000 calories in two days?  What would you say?


Food: 1 whey shake, 1 bowl of puffed wheat with Greek yoghurt & honey, 2 slices of banana bread (that nice stuff from week 1 or 2's menu) and some rice crackers.  Had almost zero appetite today.  Did drink litres of water though - could explain the lack of appetite?


PS:  today is exactly 2/3 of the way through...only another 1/3 to go.  Would you believe I'm already getting excited about the next round?  :)