How is the exercise going now?

Wow, it has been over a month since I last posted, so much for blogging once a week.

It is 7:17pm on a Friday evening, I am sitting in bed on my laptop eating cereal for dinner which is a little sad but mostly I am TIRED!!! So the exercise is going well.

The football season finished a fortnight ago, Caversham came dead last (unfortunately). We had the team break up last weekend and I got a certificate! For my dedicated and enthusiastic support (Go Cavy, you're so savy!!!). I think it is my first sporting award ever! Last Sunday was my first Sunday without football although I did go and buy myself my every one football boots, shin guards, training cones and a bag for my boots. I have yet to try them out and I am itching to. I want to get real good before next season.

Last year at work we did a 10,000 step challenge where in teams of ten every one had to walk around the coast of New Zealand with the goal of walking a minimum of 10,000 steps every day. I came in half way through the challenge so I made it my goal to walk 20,000 steps every day. I have started that up again unofficially and this year (as individuals) we are walking around Ireland and North Ireland, starting in Dublin and heading South so for the past four weeks it has been all about the steps.

My general plan was to start with 10,000 steps a day and each week improve on my average or the average of whoever was leading the challenge which until the end of last week had been me but one of the girls went skiing on the weekend with a grand total of 163,000 odd steps (I am still dubious about her numbers) which has pushed my average from 17,000 steps a day to 23,400 steps a day and I am really not happy about it.

Plus I have been swimming every day this week. Monday and Tuesday were light days step wise due to other commitments but Wednesday and Thursday were massive. I spent all of Wednesday evening just walking around. I biked home from work, no one was home and there was no dinner, since I cooked the night before, I didn't much fancy cooking two nights in a row so I went for a 40 minute walk (about 4,000 steps) in the hopes that when I got home dinner would be started. When I got home Dave had only just put meat on to defrost so I went for another walk in the hopes that when I got back dinner would be ready (about 20 minues, 2,000 steps). Then after dinner, I took the dog out for about 50 minutes (5,000 steps). I feel I safer if I take the dog with me, it means I can go for a walk in the evening, I think the dog would protect me. It is not so great taking the dog for long walks though, it was good for a start, she wanted to run so the pace was reasonably fast but then she either got tired or bored or got that we weren't going to go any faster and then she just wanted to sniff EVERYTHING, then I got tired and I really had to pee, I wanted to get home and the dog wanted to sniff EVERYTHING. So I made it home with a whopping 29,000 steps for the entire day. Today is very low, I am too tired but I plan to go on a mission tomorrow.

Who would have thought that I liked sport so much?

One of my biggest childhood tragedies is that when I was about nine or ten I decided that I would play softball. I went along to one of the practices and one of the older girls took me under her wing and taught me how to bat and stuff and I remember I wasn't bad but the boys laughed at me, I went home and I never went back.

This week is the official start of my triathalon training. A couple of years ago, Kat, Liz and I did the the Blokefree Triathalon at MacAndrew Bay. I have decided that this summer I am going to do the whole series, I think there are three of them.

This week I have been quite active. It also helps that I have rebelled against public transport. As I have promised people that I won't bike to work in the snow or the frost I have been getting up at 6:30, checking the weather and deciding on my mode of transport from there. So on Monday, it was very frosty. I walked to work, it took me 25 minutes longer.

On Tuesday, I walked to work, went for a swim after work then walked home again.

On Wednesday, it was fine enough to bike to work. Because I had got up earlier to check the weather I started work at 7am. I went for a 4k run with Lori at lunchtime and biked home.

I walked to work on Thursday (I probably could have biked but better to be safe than sorry). Brett, Lori and I went running at lunchtime. I did my first non-stop 4k and shaved 1:47 off my previous time. I had worship team in the evening and walked home after that. I was exhausted.

I walked in on Friday, I was going to go for a swim after work but ended up having dinner with my workmate at his flat. Tradition American cuisine - medium well done cheese burgers, potatoes with sour cream and Pepsi. I was going to catch the bus home, Charles lives in North East Valley so we walked to the Gardens corner. It was 8:45, the timetable said that the Normanby bus left there at 8:15 and 9:15, my bus left the Octagon at 9:30 so I decided to walk to the Octagon, I ended up catching the Normanby bus on my way to the Octagon. Really!?! That took me to South Dunedin and I walked from there.

Yesterday I went for a 23k bike ride.

Today I biked to church. Football was a home game against Dunedin Tech. I was so prepared, I played bass at church this morning, I was wearing my football gear under my dress pants and jersey so as soon as the service finished I was ready to go.

I played the second half today. I am loving football. Today I was in the backs. The game was a draw 1-1. I am keeping up my tradition of one ball to the head each game. It was kind of funny actually, I think it was half fluke/half defensive, the ball hit me in the hand, carried on and hit me in the head. The other team kept yelling 'Hand ball, hand ball' and Gala yelled back 'it was defensive, it would have hit her in the head' and I yelled back, 'it did hit me in the head'. I found it amusing, actually I don't really know what the outcome of that was. I still don't really know how to play football but I love it.

I am trying to get a group of people together at work to start our own 10,000 step challenge like we did last year, put in an entry fee and have prizes for the best individual, best team, most improved, most consistent so I am going to dig out the pedometre and start counting my steps.