Angel Voice

This is less of an exercise post than most posts, but it has applications to sports.

I go to church most weeks.  Every week, at LEAST one person tells me that I have an amazing voice, that I "sing like an angel" and that I should be leading the worship.  Most weeks people STOP ME in THE MIDDLE OF WORSHIP to tell me that I sing like an angel.  Last week I was stopped by one person FOUR TIMES in worship because I sing so beautifully.

They then usually tell me that this is an amazing gift from God (which is why I should be at the front singing).

This always makes me really angry.  For a lot of reasons.  Aside from the rudeness of being interrupted in the middle of worship, and the fact that they probably don't know what an angel sounds like (I'm always tempted to tell them that the angel suffered a little when I took the voice off of them).  Also, I know that while I'm good, I'm not THAT good.

But really what annoys me is that they assume that it's all natural.  That I didn't do any work to have the voice I have.  Which is completely not the case.  I took private singing lessons for 5 years then was a member of a national level children's choir for another 7 years, including touring nationally and internationally.  I've put a LOT of hours into improving my voice.  It is NOT something I was just born with.

I get it occasionally with exercise.  As soon as people find out that I run they assume that I'm good at it and that I've always been good at it.  Again, that's a long way from the truth.  I work darn hard to be as good as I am at running, weights, and other exercise.

It's not natural.  It's hard work.

May Goals

For May I'm doing something different.  Instead of having general month long goals, I've worked out a schedule and will be aiming to follow that.

I've included speedwork (which I hate), have made my long runs longer, and have schedule a day for only active recovery (Monday) and one day as a complete rest day (Thursday, where I'll just do foam rolling in front of the TV).

I'll be doing one legs session, one upper body session and one abs session a week, and 2 PT sessions, and a few sessions of Bikram (3 scheduled most weeks).

My aim is to improve my running speed and endurance, especially in regards to racing.  I also want to minimise the aches and pains that I have so that I can continue to train hard for long into the future.

April Goals

So how did I do with my April goals?  Mostly pretty well!

They were:
1. Run 135km
2. Successfully complete the Bikram challenge
3. Add in once weekly stair climbs
4. Row 30km
5. Save to $2000
6. Complete the Sealfit basic training in one month


1.  I did it!  Finished with 4.5km on the second last day!

2. I did it!  I had to do a lot of doubles, sprint from work to class nearly every day, but I did it!  And I've already spent my voucher (I got a long sleeve run tech shirt!)

3. I didn't do this AT ALL.  It's on my list for May

4. I did it!

5. I did it!

6. I did the first 3 weeks pretty much exactly on schedule.  And then I cracked mentally.  I couldn't face the workouts that I've done before and know are hard when I knew that I still don't have the strength to move on to the next level and would have to do it AGAIN and possibly AGAIN because I have no upper body strength.  In May I'm taking a break from Sealfit and doing some more traditional weights work.

SMASHED IT!

Today I had my first half marathon for the year.  I've done 4 half marathons before, and my previous PB was 2.17.38 at my first half marathon.  From there my half marathon times got worse, with me developing syncope along with the associated pre and post-syncope symptoms.  To be honest it was disappointing when I trained hard for an event and didn't do as well as I had previously.

Today was a different story!  I did the Geelong Half Marathon, which I've done previously (my time was a 2.25.20 last year), and OH MY GOODNESS I SMASHED IT!

You may remember that one of my goals for this year was to run a half marathon at 2.15 or less.  And again, I SMASHED IT!

So what was my time?

The time on my watch was 2.08.48!  Obviously official times may vary by a few seconds, but certainly not by much, as the start time clock was at 2.09.  So that was a SMASHING of both my PB and my goal race time for the year!

I'm super stoked by this!

On other goals for the year being smashed, I've already reached my goal for the year on the leg press (250kg, or 5 times my body weight).  Hooray!

April Goals

Here are my April goals:

1. Run 135km
2. Successfully complete my bikram yoga challenge
3. Add in once a week daily stair climbs for 10 mins
4. Row 30km
5. Save to $2000
6. Complete the SEALfit Basic program in one month!

That's it!

My March Goals

Finally publishing my March goals and how I did with them.  They were:

1. To run 120km
2. To row 30km
3. To complete my SEALfit program
4. To work on my (8 week) Bikram yoga challenge.

I did pretty well with all of these goals.

I SMASHED the running goal, running just over 124km with a few days to go.

I also SMASHED the rowing goal, even though pretty much none of the times that I set aside to row actually eventuated.  I had to be very concious to row when I had some spare time, but I did it!

I completed my SEALfit program.  (I will be repeating this program, and at the moment I've both completed and am going back through the basic program).

I didn't do so well with my bikram challenge.  The first week I had gastro, and then in the 4th week I had the week of everything happening (I saw the ballet, got my shift changed, had an appointment, had plans at church, and something else that I can't remember... all in one week).  So these two weeks I only did one class, and I needed to do four classes a week.  I did a few extra classes in weeks two and 3, but I wasn't able to get back on track with the classes in March.  (It's on my goal list for April)

Bellarine Rail Trail Run

Today I took part in the Bellarine Rail Trail run, a 17km run "against" a steam train, with a free train ride or shuttle bus (depending on the time) back to the starting point.

It's my first 17km, so it'd be an automatic PB.  Given that I ran the Spartan last week, and I managed to completely smash myself with my workouts this week, I figured I'd go easy and not push.  Just go the distance, you know?

At a little past 12km a man just ahead of me had a heart attack.  I have CPR training, so I joined the CPR line.  There was a ambulance officer, anestist, and a nurse (all off duty) who were doing the run who were able to offer more detailed first aid and help everyone who didn't know CPR perform it in an effective manner.

The ambulance came and they were able to restore a heart beat.  Everyone who helped was then offered to leave to race or continue, as they chose.  I continued.

So that was an eventful day!  Very thankful that the guy is okay, and that I was able to help!

February Focuses Review

Sorry that it's been a while since I reviewed how I did with meeting my February goals and focuses.  Here they are:

1. To do SEALfit workouts consistently
2. To run 100km in February
3. Save to $1000
4. To do a cumulative half marathon on the rower
5. Bake once a week

I did the Sealfit workouts fairly well for the first three weeks, and then we had assessment at work, and then I just didn't.  Which isn't really okay, and I'm going to be getting back into it ASAP.

Running - I ran a little over 97km in February.  Which was a tiny bit short of my goal, but all in all pretty good.

I met the savings and the cumulative half marathon on the rower.  The rowing target was really easy to meet, and I'm aiming to do more in my March goals.

The baking mostly didn't happen.  February was just too hot.  I baked once in February, and on the 1st of March.  Both were delicious.  I mean to continue to bake more often.

Spartan Super

So today I did my first ever Spartan, a Spartan Super! I did pretty well, and am fairly happy with my results. I finished in a little under 3 hours (I'm waiting on the official race times).  I failed 3 obstacles, so had to do 90 burpees.  I failed the spear throw, the traverse wall, and the wall ball.

All in all, I did pretty well.  I know the things that I want to work on in order to improve:
- Running times and consistency.  And being ready to run after doing an obstacle
- Burpee times
- Rucking in order to improve my times on the different carries
- The spear throw
- Continue to develop my upper body strength
- Including some rock climbing skills

I did well on a lot of the upper body style obstacles, which is a good sign.  I've worked a lot on developing this, and it's great to see that this has paid off.  I did well on the monkey bars, the rope climb (and I've never climbed a rope before, none of the gyms I've been a member of have had them), and even on the rope traverse.

You might remember that running all three Spartan races this year.  So now I've done my first one!

And here's my favourite photo of the ones that Dad took of me! (Official photos yet to come)

River Run

On Sunday the 22nd I competed in the River Run which raises money for SIDS research. I competed in the 10km run.

I ran the race in 1:00:00 (I know, right!) which is 3 seconds more than my PB for a 10km. It was also very hot and humid on this day, so that made things a bit more interesting. I didn't do as well as I had hoped (I'm hoping to get to 57mins by the end of this year) but given the weather and the general state of my health I did pretty well.

Here are some of the photos!