Fitness Editor Blog

If you live in Cape Town you’ll know that the past few days have been horrendous as far as the wind goes. And Saturday morning, the day of the Avbob 15km race, was no exception. It was howling like a banshee.

That’s what I woke up to on Saturday morning at 5am. Then I tried to get out of bed and almost crushed my poor pooch on the floor when I ever-so-elegantly stumbled like an old drunk man at closing time towards the dressing table where I clumsily landed and knocked everything over… all this because we had done some serious deadlifts on Friday morning at CrossFit and I hadn’t realised how sore my lower back and derriere were when I got up.

So after gathering myself I decided that I was too sore and it was too windy to run. So I climbed back into bed.

But then the guilt took over and I started thinking that maybe I should just run since I hadn’t managed the triathlon because I was sick.

So up I got, more carefully this time, and went to the bathroom. I stood and stared at my running shoes for a while, listening to the howling wind battering the plants against the window and whistling like a madman through any nook and cranny it could find. It did not sound inviting.

So back to bed I trotted.

By then hubby was awake and getting frustrated so practically booted me out of bed again.

And that’s how I found myself 20 minutes later standing at the start line trying not to shiver in the cool morning air and contemplating how well a 15km run could really go in wind like that. The answer was ‘not well’.

We took off and the first 5km were running down the R27 towards town – which was directly against the wind. It was horrible, felt like I was running with someone strapped to my back pulling me in the other direction.

I tried to run behind some bigger people but when one of them kindly spat to the left and the wind whipped it around and into my face I decided to take my chances with the wind rather.

Disgusting old fart, as if it’s not bad enough running in that wind without someone’s spit splattering across your face.

I still shudder at the thought.

Anyway, it proved all the motivation I needed to get as far as possible away from everyone else and once we got up to Koeberg Road and the wind was behind me it was MUCH more pleasant.

I felt like Forrest Gump sprinting all the way.

I was determined to finish in under 1 hour 45 min and managed to do it but only just. If the wind hadn’t been so bad for the first 5km I think my time would have been a lot better.

However, it was still 10 minutes faster than the last 15km race I ran so I was happy.

Happier still to get out of the wind….

As promised, herewith some pics from the Cape CrossFit finals in the Nutrition and Diane Challenge:

 First place in the biggest Dianne work-out improvement, Katherine, second place me and third place Liezl (who has only been doing crossfit for 8 weeks so big-up to her!!)

 First place in the biggest improvement in the Nutrition challenge: 1. Frank, 2. Mark Boonzaier, 3. shared spot with Grant and Jo.

 Jo doing a handstand push-up in the Diane Challenge.

Hmm ok I don’t know EVERYONE’s names here cause some of them train at different times from me, but on the end is Jo, then me, then Grant, then Katherine, then Liezl, then Ellie. Not too sure about theother three, sorry!

Eight weeks ago I took part in two challenges at Cape CrossFit. One was a nutrition challenge which meant we had to eat as paleo as possible for the eight weeks… the other was the Diane Challenge (which is a workout consisting of dead-lifts and handstand push-ups you do eight weeks apart to measure your improvement inbetween).

Last night was the finals of both (drum roll….)

I came second in the Diane Challenge! Ye-freaking-ha!

The competition was stiff as well but I managed to improve my time from the workout eight weeks ago by 101% and took it from 5 minutes 21 to 2 minutes 40!!! 

Not to brag (ok, maybe just a little)… but that was on antibiotics because of this damn sinusitis.

I didn’t however beat Joanne in the nutrition challenge, she was a machine that I could not catch. You’d think I’d be upset about that right? The thing is I still lost a whopping 6kg and 6% body fat in those eight weeks. Which is staggering.

Considering I have been eating delicious ‘real’ food and working out not much more than usual it just goes to show how a clean diet together WITH regular exercise really is the only way to go if you want to shape up.

According to Jobst’s calculations, my relative fat loss was 23.1% compared to Joanne’s which was 28.6%. Both are quite awesome results methinks!

The best part is that it doesn’t have to be over either.

I don’t really want to go back to eating the way I was before, because clearly this works. I have never felt healthier (apart from the sinusitis of course grrrr…) and fitter.

So hopefully the results will continue until I reach the point where my body is where I want it to be. Right now though, I’m stoked that in just eight weeks there has been such a dramatic difference.

Almost makes up for having to miss the triathlon on Sunday J

I’m SOOO bummed out, you have no idea.

On Wednesday I started feeling a bit sick, sore throat and all. By the time I got home I was floored and later that night I couldn’t even talk my throat was so sore (much to hubby’s secret delight I’m sure )

By Thursday morning I was man down – it felt like I’d been run over by a big-ass truck that had reversed back and forth over me a few times. I was so out of it that even a light breeze hurt my skin.

This morning I wasn’t so bad, I had a horrible fever during the night which broke this morning so I started feeling a bit better. Except my glands were sore. Since the meds I had were not working and I was in danger of turning into a garlic clove if I ate any more of the stuff, I thought perhaps it was time to hand things over to the professionals.

Turns out it sinusitis and a middle-ear infection. FAB.

That means antibiotics and a strict talking to from the doctor that I could under NO circumstances participate in the triathlon this weekend.

I cannot even begin to tell you how bummed I am about this. I have trained really hard for this and it was going to be my first triathlon. The swimming might not have been going according to plan, but I figured with all the upper body weight training at CrossFit I had been doing it would help a lot.

Now I’ll never know.

I’m SOOOO upset.

Added to that I had to miss our work Xmas party and the West Coast Athletic Club’s annual pub run because of this. It couldn’t have happened at a worse time.

Anyway, I’ll still go support everyone else who is doing it this weekend, and hopefully I’ll be better in time for the CrossFit Diane Challenge finals on Monday.

Seriously though, I’m quite bleak with Mother Nature right now….

So today i can’t wipe the smile off my face – why? Cause this morning at CrossFit I did my first unassisted pull-up!!! Can I have a hell-yeah!!!!

It might not seem like much to anyone who’s never tried before, and judging from some of the blank “so what” expressions on some of the faces I excitedly told, not a lot of people have tried it.

It was almost by accident, if that’s possible. Y’see my CrossFit challenger and all round super-fab lady, Joanne, managed her first pull-up on Monday. A feat which I thought showed just how much stronger she was than me.

So when I got there this morning and our trainer Jobst was all “so are you gonna do a pull-up today” my first thought was ‘oh cr@p’.

Then when we got to the pull-up bars I tried a few times but couldn’t do it.

Alas, I thought, the pull-up will forever separate sweet Joanne and I. So when the girl next to me pulled herself up into one with ease I thought that I should just keep trying.

Imagine my surprise when I pulled myself up and my chin popped up over the bar, it was like slow motion as I realised I had done it!

It was quite funny watching Jobst’s face too cause he saw me and smiled and then saw I was doing it without a band and the smile faltered a bit as he realised I was doing my first pull-up and then he rushed over the give me a high-five.

I think it’s pretty awesome, and I’m hoping it’s an indication of how my upper-body strength has improved – because it was rather depressing before. It should also help with my triathlon on Sunday (*breathe*) given that I haven’t been able to fit in my swimming between physio on my hip and Mother Nature’s recent gale force winds. Strong arms and shoulders are what I will need to get through what could very well be choppy sea water – proving again why CrossFit is such a functional form of training.

Speaking of which, it’s the finals of the Nutrition Challenge and the Diane Challenge on Monday. So this is the last official week of eating paleo.

So how has it gone?

Well. Very well actually.

In fact in the last two weeks I have actually felt a physical change in my body and other people have started commenting on how different I look. So clearly something has changed.

My parents, who arrived from the UK for a visit this week and who I last saw in March, were very taken aback by my apparent change and cannot stop commenting on how healthy I look and even how much more relaxed I am in general. Which is always nice to hear, even if they are a bit biased!

Other people haven’t been quite so kind, but I have learned to deal with the haters. Ignoring them works best, along with silent pity.

Most have said “Bet you can’t wait to be done with your diet so you can eat cake again!”

Which is wrong on SO many levels – apart from the fact that I never ate cake in the first place, I have always had more of a savoury tooth than a sweet one. Secondly, paleo is not a diet… it’s a complete lifestyle change. And it’s clearly working for me, so why would I want to ‘change’ it?

I think at worst I might be a little less rigid on the things I have ‘missed’ – although, I haven’t really missed too much if I’m honest. Sure it would be nice to indulge in dark chocolate more often, or have that slice of cheese with my omelette. But I haven’t felt like I have been hard done-by at all. If anything I am eating more different types of food than I was before, and finding far more creative and healthy ways to eat and cook, too.

I have also become WAY more fussy about the ingredients in certain things and quite often will walk out the shop without the stuff I wanted because the ingredients list started with all the ‘bad’ things and listed several that I couldn’t even pronounce. Too much effort there. Better to stick to real food that’s got the ‘what-you-see-is-what-you-get’ look about it!

 So while I will in all likelihood continue to eat paleo for 90% of the time, and that means a lot of dry salads at restaurants (cause you try eat out when you’re paleo and see how accommodating most menu’s are.. not!), I think the results in the end speak for themselves. After all, you eat to survive, not the other way around. Or at least, you should!

We will see on Monday when I’m measured and weighed and the challenge is over just how much of a difference this has made. I know there will be big results though – because in a moment of madness at the weekend I came across the dress I wore to my 21^st and tried it on.. and it fitted.

Now THAT is enough to make me stick with it!