What, me pull up?

A good week last week - not quite as good as the one before but I'm still progressing in the right direction.

I'm once again training three days in a row this week so I can leave to visit my sweet nephew this weekend.  Recently we did what I call "mock pull ups" in the gym.  So instead of looking like this

In thin air, no less.

I climbed aboard a big machine, like so:

Trainer Tom was on the opposite side, which is where there is another platform, which looked to have a lot of weights on it.  Tom stood on his end, and I stood on mine.  I initiated the pull up, and Tom helped by levering me up when I could pull no further.  I then controlled the movement downward, again with assistance.  Four sets of ten with 25 squats between sets, and I thought I was going to die, even though I wasn't even close to doing it all on my own.

We've done a lot of routines to prepare me for this, such as something like this:

which, when you get to the third or fourth set of 25 is pretty darned hard all by itself.

Tom says I'll be doing pull ups on my own before I know it.  I believe him.  Also:  BIG incentive to lose weight.

I also accomplished a two-minute plank yesterday.  I'll bet I looked just like this girl

if she was dripping with sweat, red, trembling and whimpering.

We do a ton of planks, including ball planks

but again, with more sweating, redness, trembling, whimpering, and on the ball you can add sinking-into-my-forearms.

We have started doing roll outs

I couldn't find an image of a woman doing this.  Hm.

which Ted does at home.  I truly do not care for these.

Yesterday was pretty tough, I think because I did 40 minutes on the treadmill BEFORE training.  I won't be doing that again today.  Or any day any time soon.

So I'm off to the gym, because I want to be doing this all by myself:

A Great Week

All in all, a pretty great week last week:

That's right.  I give myself stars.

I got ALL my cardio done, and my nutrition was right there five days out of seven - carbs were good on the other two but I was low on protein.  This is the first week I've focused on the nutrients and not just the calories and guess what?  The calories took care of themselves - I was at or below my target every single day.

And I lost two pounds.

Training was tough this first week back from vacation, and Tom didn't pull any punches.  There were two times I honestly believed I would have to stop whatever we were doing in the middle of my sets. I don't know how I kept going, but I know at one point on those blasted kicks, I gritted my teeth and stared hard at the middle of that bag, determined to finish strong.  Once, when I was doing cable cross overs, I honestly thought back muscles were going to quit before I could even finish the second set - Tom just said one word:  "Focus."  So I did.  Truly, I am amazed at what this 54 year old body can do.

I'm very excited to be on this "roll" of success, and want nothing more than to keep it going.

Some more random pics from vacation:

Auckland - which, incidentally, has the largest
marina in the southern hemisphere.

I love road signs in foreign countries.  "Way Out" for exit!
"Give Way" for yield!  And this for "Heads Up!"

The sheep station near Queenstown, taken from...

...this boat.

Our Queenstown hotel is in the middle of this photo.

Ted and the Giant Sequoia

A tree on the Routeburn Track

Some of the wildlife we saw along the track

Our hotel view from the Franz Josef room

Pretty Australian money - with women other than the Queen
on it

The food was great pretty much everywhere

Sunset in Queenstown

Back!

A quick one - back Thursday, and just now feeling over the jet lag.  We logged a LOT of walking on our trip, which is probably why I only gained .2 pounds.

Back at the gym with Tom the Trainer today, and I acquitted myself pretty well, I thought.  When the planks feel like a break, I know I'm getting stronger!

Anyway, here are a few vacation pics that I don't think I posted elsewhere, just for my family fitness family:

The only way to fly, but it still sucks when you wake up after a few hours of shuteye
to discover there remains another five or six hours to go.

Many conveyances in New Zealand use the silver fern frond
as a logo....

...which is allegedly how the Maori would point their direction
on a path to their fellow warriors.

Which leads me to an interesting point:  In New Zealand, all signs, place names, highway posts, etc. are in both English and Maori, and we're told all kids learn both languages.  Also, everyone, even the pakeha (whitey) learn the Hoka, that polynesian war dance we were told was so sacred, Danielle and Cathy and Connie, at the UNLV ladies' day thing.  Huh.

Another interesting point, corroborated by more than one source:  Ted inquired of several people, Maori and whitey, why it was the Australian aboriginal tribes were almost wiped out by the Europeans, but the Maori were not.  The universal answer seemed to be that the Australian aboriginals were too peaceful and didn't fight back, whereas the Maori were slaughtering each other long before the first European arrived.  Abel Tasman (for whom Tasmania is named) is said to have not set foot in New Zealand because the landing party he sent ashore was massacred by the Maori.  So sometimes violence pays off.

America's Cup class yacht ride (pre-catamaran standard)

Auckland in the distance

Our Hobbiton guide, snapping a selfie before taking some shots of us
as I requested.  He denies that they make him wear his hair that way.

Because the only brew for the brave and truuuuuuuuue
Comes from the Green Dragon

There was much bus riding.  Ugh.

A garden in Queenstown

Hiking the Routeburn Track

This bathroom was in the middle of freaking nowhere.
Apparently they dropped it in by helicopter.  Spared no expense!

You'll note the Routeburn guide did NOT first
snap a selfie.

The drinking fountain at the Sydney Botanical Garden

Poor Christchurch!  Looked a lot like Sarajevo
after the bombing.  Over 12,000 buildings have
disappeared since the February 2011 earthquake that
killed 180-some people.  This is the site of one of the buildings
that just fell over.  In another, the stairwells collapsed!   On the upside,
there is now plenty of parking.   

I have some great ones I can't now locate, like Ted in front of a giant Sequoia, but I'll get those later.  Have a great week, everyone!