Week 10, Sweating !

Wow, 10 weeks have passed and I haven't had a beer, not even a sip. Is that un-Australian of me? Maybe a little but just maybe for the sake of sensibility it's a good thing. Maybe we need to change the stigma that is "Aussies are pissheads" or maybe we don't. Maybe we are proud of it, or maybe we aren't, who knows. Either way I'm proud of myself for staying true to my promise that I wouldn't. It's a real sense of completion and a feeling you can only get from doing, not just saying. When I was younger my dad used to call me "Gonna Reid" because he said I'm always saying "I'm gonna do this" and "I'm gonna do that" but never see it through. How do you like them apples dad? :) 

This week on the training front I decided to take note of my poor 800m swim performance and pulled back on the weights a little. I dropped 2 sessions, so I only did 3 instead of 5 and really noticed the difference in the pool on both Tuesday and Thursday night. After not doing my regular leg weights sessions on those particular days my lower body didn't feel heavy and sink which in turn throws my whole stroke out. Just like my swim coach "Aldo" told me it would :) Whats that saying: "Old head, young shoulders". DOH !

Anyone that lives in Sydney would have noticed that Monday and Tuesday were bloody scorchers. Monday especially with the mercury rising to 37 degrees. I absolutely love hot weather and couldn't think of anything better than having a hard training session with lots of sweating going on, so I decide to do a little experiment with Chappy from Shift60. We decided to see how much sweat I could lose during an "Hour of Power" class. As well as being a fun experiment it also made me push myself that little bit harder. According to my HR monitor I lost nearly 900 calories and got the HR over 170 many times. Chappy even gave a couple of free sessions to two of ladies that guessed my sweat loss for the class. Doing things like that really keeps training interesting and exciting, give it a try at your next session.

Shift 60 Sweat Session

One of my favourite things about living in Bondi and I reckon anyone that has lived here will agree, is that on warm summer evenings you can pop down and have a swim at 7:30pm, its the perfect way to end the day. Below is a picture I took when I did exactly that. After my Shift60 sweat session on Monday I grabbed my hound and we made an appointment with the good Doctor, DR Pacific. Its the perfect medicine for a hard day at the office and as you can see from the photo there were many others doing exactly the same thing. One thing I must mention, and this is just the lifeguard coming out in me, the lifeguards on Bondi and many other city beaches go home about 7pm so if your thinking about having a late evening dip, please be extra careful if you're not a strong swimmer. The rips and currents don't leave the beach when we do and there is a chance you can still get into trouble.

Bondi, still pretty packed at 7:30 on a warm night. Great place for a swim !

As far as I'm concerned Friday's are dipped in gold and this one was no exception. It started with work early then straight to the gym at North Bondi SLSC for a very productive arm weights session. As I got home I ran into Phil (the very cool dude in the picture below). Phil was delivering my Hexey lunch and dinner for the the day. He does this Monday through to Friday and always wears a friendly smile on his face. Along with that smile and delicious healthy food he provides motivation and inspiration which could only come from someone as passionate about helping people as Phil is, he genuinely cares about his clients and their goals. Wether it be to lose fat or bulk up Phil is your man. Not only can he tell you what you should be eating, he can deliver it to your door fresh, daily. Over the past 8 weeks Phil has become a close friend of mine and I'm truly grateful for everything he has done for me.

My Friday didn't end there, with the sun shining and the water glistening there was no way I was missing a hot afternoon at Bondi on a SUP (stand up paddle). SUP'ing is really taking off in Australia, the amount of people I see out on SUP boards at Bondi is increasing by the day. My paddle was going to be a little different as I was using my new Vibram's from Barefoot Inc for the first time. Vibram's Five Fingers encourage the body to move naturally by allowing your feet to land the way they're supposed to, not supported by your regular running shoe. As I'm only in the first stages of wearing them I am restricted to only wearing them casually for short periods of time. The long term personal benefits I am hoping to see from the Vibram's is ridding myself of the pain from Plantar Fasciitis. I have had the problem for about 2 years now and its really hindered my running which I love so much. After my last half marathon in 2010 I couldn't walk for 4 days and the pain was so intense I swore I wouldn't run another long distance race until I had sorted it out. Now your probably wondering why I wore them paddling and the answer is grip. The particular pair I have are designed to get wet and allowed me to move around the board with less chance of slipping but still using the muscles in my feet and toes for balance. I found they worked great during my paddle and I am really looking forward to slowly getting used to running in them over the coming months.

That is a Canon 5D MkII in a Aquatec housing on the front. Pic: Cora B.

Saturday morning started early, I don't even bother trying to sleep in, my body clock just won't let me snore past 5:30am. I took the dog down the beach for a walk then headed up to Shift60 for my Super Saturday Session. Things got interesting when I was doing my first run set and found I could crank the Woodway treadmill past the usual 20kph its normally governed to. Woodway treadmills are some of the best on the planet and can reach speeds of 38kph. The boys turned them up a little to allow us to run that little bit faster. I got mine up to 25kph at one point and was absolutely flying. I only held it for a minute but I'm looking forward to more training and seeing just how fast I can push myself. 

After Shift I had to race home, chow on some healthy breakfast and get to work at Bondi for 9am. The weather forecasters predicted a hot one and boy, they didn't get it wrong. The beach and it surroundings were packed to capacity through out the whole day. Also blanket of ocean mist covered the beach for most of the morning making things very difficult to monitor swimmer. We were just very fortunate there was only a small swell running, therefore the rips & currents weren't causing us much trouble.

BSc Compression are a perfect way to help the legs recover after a hard session

The heavy ocean mist made it hard to see swimmers.

Once the mist slowly cleared it only got busier.

One of my weekly surprise tasks for the 12WBT was to design a 12WBT T-Shirt with a motivational slogan. It's 3 weeks late so I don't get to win any prizes but below is my attempt. It came to me Saturday night when I was kicking back on the lounge so I put this tee together. What do you think?

Today is Sunday and it's a rest day, well sort of. As you should know by now I have a little trouble sitting still so I grabbed the hound again and took him for a paddle in the bay at Bondi. We only did about 4km's but it was just awesome to be out on the water as the day was beginning. Another bound was getting to see the all the Sculpture's by the sea from a different angle, really wish I could of taken my good camera out there. As the sun was rising the big Tap looked so cool from out in the bay.

This mornings paddle course.

View from the bay.

Who left the tap running? Pic: Samantha Burns

Coming into week 11 It's set to be a big one. As well as my regular training through the week, on Saturday morning Im going to paddle in fellow lifeguard Ryan "Whippet' Clark's annual Bondi Big Paddle. Then on the Sunday I'm going to compete in the Coogee beach, Express Glass Island Challenge. Im not expecting to break any records, I'll just be stoked if I can finish the both of them.

Another thing I'm super excited about is the 12 WBT group training session followed by the finale party later that night. Ill be a quite sad that its all over but I'm really looking forward to seeing everyones transformations. I can't believe its 20 days away, bring it on!

Thanks y'all for for stopping by again,

"Don't just follow your dreams, chase them down till they become reality".

Reidy :)