Finally got my training plan for the next month or so. This will get me started (after my recent two months of Boot Camp) on my journey to completing the half marathon in October.

By the end of the month, I’ll be doing:

• Four jogs a week of 5kms each
• Two bike rides of 5kms each
• A series of strength exercises for my legs, back and core muscles

The sarge has got me exercising 5 days a week and I’ll soon be riding and/or running to and from work in Mt Eliza. It’ll definitely be a challenge but I’m committed to doing it. Gotta start on Monday!

The Boot Camp physical
This morning we had our end of month physical. I didn’t go to well with the strength exercises. I beat my previous scores for both the Beep Test and the 2km run.

Now that I got past 7 in my beep test, I’m officially a Boot Camp “Alpha”! This is the group which gets the harder exercises and longer runs. I’m not looking forward to running with Bertha on the next hell week!
Here’s my progress over the last two months:

Beep Test (VO2 Max)

• Started at: 3.8
• After the first month: 5.8
• Today: 7.1

2km run

• Started at: 14m 52s (walked a lot of it!)
• After the first month: 11m 49s (ran all of it!)
• Today: 10m 51s (ran all of it except for a 5 sec breather half way)

All in all, I’m pretty happy with the progress. Let’s see how I rate in September when Boot Camp proper starts up again!

This is totally my kind-a-thing. A little morbid, but something we gotta think about one day.
I’m gonna be stuck in the ground somewhere for no-one to ever see again. Or, as I prefer, I’d be burnt into a smouldering pile of ash and shot out into space Star Trek style.

So … why should I burden people with the expense of purchasing an ornate, body-preserving coffin?

Well here are a few options I might enjoy. Recycled, paper based, eco-coffins.

• Eco Coffins
• Life Art (an Aussie company)
• Another blogger’s perspective
• DIY Ikea Coffin
• This is not my style at all

Hat tip to Boing Boing.

Why ride when you can run?

That was the conclusion I came to with my Boot Camp trainer last week. One of my goals was to ride to work twice a week (5kms each way). Much to my surprise, we had just run 7kms in under an hour that morning at Boot Camp so it seemed like my original goal had already been achieved.

Here’s what we came up with:

• Lose 10k by the end of this year
• Ride to or from work twice a week (5km)
• Run to or from work twice a week (5km)
• Complete the half marathon in October

Aside from getting myself fit, I’d be saving 0.19 tonnes of greenhouse gas each year (according to Greenfleet). That’s not much at all actually. Perhaps I should be working up to running to Carlton three times a week?