Battle of the Badges 24 hour treadmill challenge!

Anyone who walked through Garema Place between 2pm last Friday and 2pm Saturday would have seen the Battle of the Badges - Firies v's Cops - in a 24 hour treadmill challenge.

The Coppers won - beating the Firies by 30km having pushed through to get a total of around 280km - they ran an average pace of 5km minutes (or 12km/hr) over the 24 hours! How did they do it? Teams of four ran 2-5 hour blocks with 5 mins on and 5 mins off. How did they do that? They train hard and often!

Women and Girls Jogalong

Women and Girls Jogalong is on the first Sunday of every month - next one is this Sunday 6 June.

3km walk or jog or 6km jog in beautiful Weston Park, Yarralumla. Staggered starts for the 6km run based on your running pace, which is great because you can pace yourself against others in your group.

Get there at 8.30am to register ($6 entry) and be in time for the warm up aerobics at 8.45am. The 3km course starts at 9am. Fruit, tea, coffee and biscuits at the end as well as some lucky prize draws.

This event is run by the Canberra Cross Country Club.Check their events page for other running events - and if you go to the home page you'll see that they have some Canberra Road Running Festival running shirts for sale!

Kefir in Canberra

Home made kefir

You can now buy Kefir in Canberra - no need to make it yourself anymore - Kefir is a cultured milk drink (kind of like yoghurt, a bit like buttermilk, but arguably much better for you) which you can get all through Europe and until now I've never seen it for sale here.

The Belconnen Delicatessen at Belconnen Markets have it in stock. It's produced by Blue Bay Cheese in Victoria and is simply milk, ABC probiotic cultures and kefir culture. Good and wholesome - I add a little warmed honey to my kefir and have it just like that or add it to my home-made muesli.

Tiina's home made muesli recipe (for one person for 10 days)

Mix together:

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup dried fruit (preservative free preferably. Goji berries, turkish figs, dates, cranberries and sultanas are usually all preservative free) - chopped in large pieces
• 1 cup unsalted raw nuts (any nuts you like and any combination), break large nuts by wrapping them in a tea towel and hitting them with a rolling pin.
• 1 cup seeds

Store in an airtight container.

Portion size is half a cup a day. I'll have 1/4 cup with a tablespoon of kefir or plain yogurt half an hour before morning exercise then another 1/4 cup after exercise.



The muesli pictured above has barley flakes as well as oats (if you're on heart medication check with your GP about eating oats), goji berries, cranberries, almonds, linseed meal, pepitas and sunflower seeds. I never make it the same twice!

Bike maintenance courses Sunday 30 May 2010

OH NO! The intermediate course postponed till August. Until then we'll have to keep using our friendly bike mechanics at our favourite bike shops...

A reminder that Pedal Power's Beginners and Intermediate bike maintenance courses are on Sunday 30 May.

Details on their events calendar.

These are really fun and useful courses if you ever get out on a bike - the beginners 1 course gets you confident in changing flat tyres on both front and back wheels, beginners 2 course gets you doing diagnostics on your bike including fine tuning gears and brakes and I'm really looking forward to the intermediate course where we'll really get our hands dirty!

And remember to register for Bike NSW's commuter challenge - it's free! -

Clock up 500km by 17 December 2010 by riding anywhere and everywhere (not just commuting). I'll be starting my challenge this Tuesday with my 4km commute to work.

The Mediterranean Diet

On Tuesday June 1 have lunch with a lecturer as part of the University of Canberra Tasty Ideas Occasional Lecture Series. See poster above (click on it to see a bigger version).

Catherine Itsiopoulos, associate professor of nutrition and dietetics and creator of the ‘10 Commandments of Mediterranean Eating’, will explain the Mediterranean diet and reveal her latest research.

The lecture will be accompanied by a delicious three course lunch reflecting the principles of the Mediterranean diet.

Yum...

Motivation Tips

Need Motivation?

Now is a great time of year in Canberra to be getting outdoors and enjoying the scenery. This is the view at the half way mark on my 10km run:

The run back home is nice too, I get to pass the vineyards again...

We are hugely lucky in Canberra to have lots of parks, green and open spaces close to our homes - so get outdoors and explore!

How about some Inspiration?

Living a fit and healthy lifestyle just to survive? With less than 50% lung capacity my friend Walter walks, runs, cycles or kayaks every day and does his best to get a big dose of adrenalin whenever he can to manage his Cystic Fibrosis. So where's Wally now? In training to climb a mountain in Borneo!

Walter is Running with the Hash House Harriers while he is in Port Moresby -Papua New Guinea- visiting friends. He took this photo, and the runner is not Walter...

Walter's doing this to have fun, promote Organ Donation, to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis Tasmania  and to give inspiration to people with CF and other disabilities. Walter moved to Tasmania from Canberra because the clean fresh sea-air is so much better for his lungs.To receive a postcard from Borneo donate <here>!

Take up a challenge!

Bicyle NSW invites invites individuals to register in the 2010 Commuter Challenge and accumulate 500km of cycling - registration is FREE! and you have until 17 December to get there; that's less than 100km a month from now, too easy!

Try a little Salsa & Million Paws Walk

Ever wanted to learn the Salsa?



There are free beginners Salsa lessons at King O'Malley's in Civic on Monday nights 6-6.30pm.

If you like it then why not pay $12 for a good 45 minute lesson from 6.30pm and stay on for a social salsa?

And once you've got the hang of it you can simply turn up for a social salsa dance at 7.15pm and pay only $7!

http://www.salsabor.com.au/Social.aspx
(No classes on public holidays)




Million Paws Walk - 11am Sunday 16 May 2010

The beautiful Lake BG two bridges walk, starting at Stage 88 in Commonwealth Park - and other beautiful venues around the country. A wonderful opportunity for lots of socialising for all well behaved four-legged and two-legged people! Proceeds go to RSPCA.

http://www.millionpawswalk.com.au/

Bike! Ski!

Go to the Pedal Power events calendar to see what's on - http://www.pedalpower.org.au/events/index.asp

There are social (road) rides every weekend:

Saturdays

• 8 May from Gunghalin
• 15 May from Acton
• 22 May from Woden
• 29 May CAPITAL PUNISHMENT (see below)

Sundays include a couple of come and try easy rides

• 16 May from Lake Ginninderra
• 30 May from Tuggeranong. 

And the bike maintenance courses on Sunday 30 May - bring an old crusty bike or ride in. I'll be riding in for the intermediate course.

For the adventurous - Capital Punishment endurance mountain bike 50km and 100km rides Saturday 29 May 2010: The Capital Punishment course will take in the best of the Canberra single tracks including Sparrow Hill, Kowen Forest, Majura Pines, Black Mountain and Mt Stromlo. These famous single tracks will be linked via fire trails with only the minimum necessary bitumen.

http://www.arocsport.com.au/MTB_Capital/mtb_capital_home.html

Check out Canberra Off Road Cyclists http://new.corc.asn.au and http://blackheartevents.com.au/ for more crazy stuff. I'll be riding in from Belconnen to the Mothers' Day Classic on Sunday 9 May (and doing the 5km walk) unless I think up a really good excuse not to...

The snow season is just around the corner - snow's been predicted on the ranges around Canberra so we may get some snow to ski on this year!

Time to get fit to ski!

1. Work on your base level cardio-vascular (aerobic) fitness.Whatever you're doing now, add another walk/run/bike/swim/ session into your week. Don't have time? Yeah, right... call me.. 
2. Once you've got your base fitness it's time to work on specifics.

Okay, I'm not a skier but I have tried

• Cross-country skiing - ankles and knees
• Downhill - ankles and knees
• Snowboarding - ankles and knees
• Cross-country skiing is my type of skiing :)

This calls for my favourite exercise of all time - the SQUAT:

A simple exercise every 2 year old can do with ease and which we all too quickly get out of practice.

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Quadriceps/BBFullSquat.html

You won't be able to do a full squat (bottom to the ground) like this unless you have good flexibility and strength in your ankles, knees and hips and have strong abdominals, back and pelvic floor - so start with squatting, with no other weight than your wonderful self, in to and out of your chair.

http://www.ronjones.org/Coach&Train/BodyXerciseLibrary/Legs/Squat-Chair.html

Performed correctly nothing should hurt, twinge or ache. Maybe the front of your thighs will feel sore after a day or two but that should be it.

Lunchtime Public Forum: 'active transport' in the ACT - Wed. 12 May

'Active transport' means physically active travelling. In particular, it
refers to walking and cycling. When more people travel by active transport,
a city becomes healthier, more vibrant, as well as more economically and
environmentally sustainable.

http://canberra.climatexchange.org.au/public-forum-on-active-transport-in-the-act

To RSVP for the forum, provide feedback on the Active Transport paper, or
to find out more, email: lecouteur@act.gov.au

A quick question - do you live within 5km of your work place and drive to work? Just something to think about...