12WBT Wonder Woman: Week 7 reflection and FUN

What a laugh this week was...anger too as stated in my last post ( You said WHAT about my children?) but let's not let that dull the weird and fun from this week!

Menu plans

YUM! This was the week of the meatballs...so it seemed! We had veal 'koftas' which I made into meatballs and asian chicken patties, which turned out to be like big meatballs :) The junior masterchefs were most impressed....meatballs a big hit here.

We also had a big winner with the basil and walnut pesto (homemade) spaghetti with roasted pumpkin and tomatoes. I used the new 'Slim' pasta, and it was good. I had to rinse the pasta under running water as it was stored in liquid but it literally takes on the flavour of the sauce. And hey, if the kids like it it's a winner :)

Breakfast had an old favourite, apple couscous with yoghurt and cinnamon....mmmmm, very filling and oh so good. Love the banana smoothies as well, quick, easy and I can drink it while I'm organising children ( ahem yelling) for the day.

Exercise plans

An interesting week for me, found myself feeling more weary than usual which could be a result of the extra cardio I've added to my program. Still working out a balance there. By the end of the week I was stuffed and felt a little emotional during workouts. I was more than relieved to see others on the Lean and Strong facebook page were feeling the same this week. I wonder if it's just a week 7 thing perhaps?

The cardio I added this week was an hour body attack class after a 30 min CX core workout class on Monday....both incredible for calorie burn and I can really feel my core working. Tuesday was running club, a 9-10 k run consisting of a 3 k warm up jog and cool down jog, 2X 1 km time trials and a relay race as well as drills ( high knees, butt kicks, skips) Man, it was hard work but I loved it. I was concerned I wouldn't keep up but while I was behind the group all the time, I finished with them (thank god for traffic lights!) LOL. But remember.....

On to the personal bests for this week......

Leg extension machine                      36 kg
Upright row standing with barbell 20kg
Rear deltoid raise with kettlebells      16 kg
Incline dumbbell bicep curls               7 kg
French press                                    12.5 kg
Bentover row with barbell                 30 kg
Side lunges with kettlebells                 12 kg
Adductor machine                             61.5 kg
Abductor machine                             47.5 kg

( I think I have those last 2 the right way round....I can never remember!)

A little bit of silliness but fun......here I am demonstrating how to workout with the family ( yes I know upside down, my 19yr old filmed it. You'd think she'd know the difference.)

SSS and Weekly surprise.

This week's weekly surprise was to design a workout....since I want to spend more time with my kids I designed one around that.....

Kipwil's Day at the Park.

This is a workout designed to work your strength and cardio fitness while you are with your kids at the park. You only need a towel if you'd like and a park with a bench and monkey bars. Children are optional.

Type: Metabolic

Level: Intermediate/advanced lean and strong

Warm up (5 mins)
Light jog or brisk walk around the perimeter of the park for 5 mins or until you go right around.

Workout. ( 55 mins to complete all 3 rounds)

Round 1
8x Pushups….on a bench or on the ground
8x step ups onto a platform on the equipment, each leg
8 x jumping chin-ups on the monkey bars
8 x squats…make your bottom hit the bench!
30 sec plank.

Round 2
Run around the perimeter of the park for 5 mins or walk briskly. You should feel slightly out of breath, able to talk in 3-4 word sentences. Take note of how many laps you completed in the time.
10 x pushups on the ground, knees or toes
Walking lunges for 10 steps out then turn and 10 steps back, knee to ground
10 x reverse pullups off equipment or bar
10x Box jumps onto a bench or step
45 sec plank

Round 3
Run around the park a little faster than before, try and beat the number of laps.
15 x pushups on knees or toes. Try toes first then go to knees if needed.
15 jump squats
15 jumping chin-ups or chin-ups if you can!
15 static lunges each leg.
60 sec plank

Final Blast (5 mins)
Finish with your fastest run around the park for 5 minutes. How many laps can you do?

Stretch (5 mins)
Hold each stretch for 30 seconds.

Childs pose
Back twist stretch
Hip Flexor stretch
Hamstring stretch
Quadricep stretch
Calf stretch
Chest stretch
Shoulder stretch
neck stretch
tricep stretch.

Now as for my SSS.......well today was the Melbourne Marathon Festival and I was signed up for the 5.7 km. I've been trying to increase my speed in doing shorter runs but this was not the right run for that. So frustrating with people who walked 3 or 4 across, leaving no room for runners to pass, and block access for runners trying to get through a couple of the bottlenecks on the course. I am going to email organisers and see if they can design a course that is wider and avoids the 2 main bottlenecks that occured under 2 bridges.

But!!!! I ran, in a stop/start/dodge/weave fashion and completed 5.7 km in 32min 30 secs by my watch....which beats my previous training run of 6 km in 35 minutes. When official times and photos are released, I'll be sharing on here! In the meantime....this is before the start......