Starting to ....Go Long....

Trying something different

2012-01-30T13:36:00.002Z

Well as I urge myself to get back into regular training I quite like the idea of trying something different, both in my training regime as such and also event wise.

The event thing in the near term in is kind of taken care of with another grueling EnduranceLife Coastal trail event in Devon next month. I shall no doubt record a personal worst for 10(ish)k's but the terrain I expect to be ridiculous, muddy and possible treachorous... so definitely not the standard swim, bike run type of thing. One day I would like to try one of their longer distances (they do a "half", a "marathon" and an ultra too... losely as they will usual exceed those distances simply because it is off road trail events).... but for now the shorter distance is ample enough - when I did the one in December I couldn't actually walk for several days!!!... I think next winter season I'd like to actually go do some cross country events locally too - missed this winter simply because of the rest after Vegas and the whole returning to full time work thing gave me an excuse not to bother!!

On the training front by all means I will ensure I get a longish run and bike in each week, however I'd also like to venture into some newer (or at least revisited) exercise experiences.

With that in mind - last week I made a welcome return to body balance (which is funny as I really didn't balance at all well in that part of it), and also to body pump... which was awful in its own way... having learnt the lessons from over a year ago I opted to put as low a weight on the bar as I could ... and at times even that was a struggle...confirming what I suspected.. that I am indeed a weakling from the planet WEAK!

I quite liked both these classes... and whilst not going any way to giving me mileage stats on the SBR front (which will be like some form of drug withdrawal when I start freaking about Y-o-Y stats) I did enjoy the workout they provided and the class atmosphere they came in. With that in mind I'm going to see about going to classes more regularly and trying some new ones... even if that forsakes a SB or Run - enjoyment is the name of the game... and as I say .. as long as I am putting in the odd long swim, bike or run then so what? I am not a top competitor so where I come in the tri field is not a big driver but how I enjoy my fitness is. Over the last couple of years of going longer it is apparent I've become addicted to stats!!! Time to go cold turkey!... and find pain in muscles I never knew I had!!

Tuesday Commute

2012-01-25T07:51:00.003Z

In an attempt to get my return on investment on my commute bike I have taken to commuting to work on a Tuesday - despite the fact there are no showers at work..... no wait... I'm no stinker.... I'm trying a product called "no rinse".... So I can at least feel like I've attempted to freshen up when I get in to work..... So far I have had no complaints.

The ride isn't a bad one, a mixture of fairly busy roads and then some cycle paths. Currently I'm starting in the dark but finishing pretty much in daylight, although my road home is in the pitch black... My bike is a cross bike - I did try riding my normal roadie once before but frankly feel too exposed in the commute, my cross bike gives me a "get out of jail" type card as I can bump it up a kerb or through a pothole without as much danger. The ride in seems to set me up for the day, increasing my energy at work, whilst my ride home I find a really good wind down from a hectic day.

So far this year I had been lucky with the weather - one day of mild bright winter, and another day of freezing (-3) but bright weather..... then yesterday I got rain. Now I don't particularly mind the rain so much actually - if you gear up for it it should be no problem - alas as I was phaffing yesterday, on "I'm leaving now" take 3 or 4 I decided I couldn't be bothered for another round of phaff whilst I put my overboots on.

This was a mistake.

By the time I got to work my feet were soaked - literally had to wring my socks out in the sink! My other layers worked fine though.....

... I think this is what the office cleaner may have looked like had he found them.....

Of course - riding in means riding home.... putting on the wet socks was not too pleasant for my journey home - but at least I took the time to put my overboots on - my theory being that whilst the socks and shoes couldn't get any wetter at least my feet would be protected from the wind chill!!!

The slightly weird thing I'm finding is that in the dark (very dark) commute home drivers are much more cautious and thoughtful overtaking me... whether this is due to the fact that I am lit up like a Belisha Beacon or because drivers are calmer driving on the way home from work I don't know - but it is most welcome. I guess once the days get longer and I start commuting home in light I'll soon find out.

Not much Sunday

2012-01-15T21:08:00.003Z

Well I've spent a happy Sunday, mainly chilling out with the odd bit of baking (banana bread!), and some family time as it's Dad's birthday on Wednesday - celebrated with a roast chicken and various samples of local (yes I said LOCAL) wine (and beer)... it was surprisingly all rather palatable (the wine that is - the food is always scrummy at my parents)!

Anyway - so any attempt at physical activity had to be done early - does hoovering count? Ummm.... lucky the only thing I planned for today was a blog review (I've spent ages phaffing about with not much in particular), and starting (for the nth time ), the 100 push up challenge - there is now an app for the phone and everything so what more of an excuse do I need!!??

So did my test and did manage more then I thought - although still only a measly 7!! HA HA HA ... 93 to go...

Saturday Mojo

2012-01-14T10:52:00.000Z

So I got inspired this morning.... Whilst reading a fellow bloggers blog.... And this is part of what blogging is about in my opinion.... One of the reasons... To inspire and be inspired.....

Anyway, I digress ... As you will have noted my blogging was rather random and sporadic last year.... For no real reason other then, well maybe I was bored with it and maybe I lost my blogging mojo.... After all I've been blogging for a few years now and I think I kind just lost my way and my reason.....

But this morning I kind of saw the light I think (it would have been hard nor to, it was a lovely bright winters day).... But I saw the blogging light... I think I stopped blogging so much, not because I didn't have anything to say, just maybe nothing new. Maybe ive been bored, and maybe i bored you, My sporting goals have been so focused on big events, I probably felt I lost my blogging direction, my blogging mojo, and so my blogging habit. Sometimes I had so much to say I simple said nothing.

So time to turn a new leaf, or at least actually form a new habit.

This year is about regrounding and refresh on the sporting front, trying new things, having less focus on a single target and more focus on the bigger picture (which sounds like a contradiction in itself!!)..... The bigger target being FUN with FITNESS... And so I won't say I will commit to blogging more but you may find I do as I rediscover my blogging mojo.... I love being inspired by this community.

So with my inspiration apparent with the bounce of my step, I visualised a slow but enjoyable 70min run around the local countryside earlier today... Got on some winter layers (it was -1 when I ventured out) .... And headed out to the great outdoors, following some known and well stomped on trails and discovered some new footpaths which I ventured up, along, jumping over fallen trees and leaping over the odd stream. I had fun out there today. I came back feeling refreshed and happy. We should be more grateful for what we have outside our door - the great outside on a cold and bright winters day is, well, awesome.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Cafe Nero Wokingham

2012 Plan, well kind of.....

2012-01-13T07:23:00.000Z

So what next?

Actually I haven't figured that out the big picture exactly yet... BUT for 2012 I'm thinking at least more triathlons - 2011 wasn't too successful given I actually only took part in two races... one I DNF'd and the other the swim was cancelled!!

So in order to ensure I get at least ONE triathlon in I'm going to do at least one sprint!!! I may even push the boat out and do an olympic distance as it's been a few years since I did one of those too!!

I've entered the local Reading Half Marathon which I've not finished (either DNS or DNF) the last couple of years.. and actually given that is only 12 weeks away on Sunday I really had better think about getting some more focused training in - rather then random but enjoyable training I'm doing now!

I also want to do a couple of other running events - the New Forest 10 - an off road trail race which I did last year... a really enjoyable trot in the countryside..... and I may try and target a late half marathon for a PB attempt... my current half PB is something like 1:58 done a few years ago at Reading.

I'm eyeing up a relatively local (so no extensive travel) half ironman distance event - which would be late June....

I oddly find myself thinking about Ironman.... but not this year, probably not next year... but sometime when the memories of 2010 and the training required for going long have faded a bit more (and my family and friends have forgiven my absence from last time!!!)

The key aspect to 2012 is to enjoy what I do - which is always my aim - but to ensure my life/ work/ tri life is all in balance, stay healthy and hopefully injury free.

Given I'm a stato geek I've been reviewing training diaries and will probably stick with ZoneFive's SportTracks software and am looking at downloading the latest version to test and pay for (it has been freeeeeeeeee in the past and I've used it extensively - but the plugins now cost £££ and so it all adds up - just want to make sure it is VFM compared to other things on the market - such as training peaks etc)

Online community wise I have dipped in and out and in again on RunningFreeOnLine but think I may just stay with DailyMile for something light and easy... whatever I end up sticking with I'd like it to be light and easy, not clunky or prone to hangs.... so if anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears... I like online community "stuff"....

I'm also going to help out some friends of mine who are doing an awesome bike ride for charity - 200k in two days, whilst aiming to lose 50kg between them! If you want to read more take a look at Jen's blog and Sarah's blog..... this will be a real, but very achievable, challenge for them both and a fabulous journey I'm sure!

Time to dust of the cobwebs and start having fun - who said Friday 13th had to be unlucky!?

ITU Long Course World Champs - Race Report

2011-12-30T09:35:00.000Z

Having arranged a "take out" breakfast from the kind and helpful staff at the Hilton the day before, I awoke at 4am and got up about 4:15 to stuff my face with bread and jam, apply copious amounts of anti-chaffing cream (being careful not to accidently swap the jam for the anti-chaff pot)... and hoped in a fellow team-mate's car (Chris who was racing and Sarah his support crew) for a lift to the start, leaving at 5am promptly as we had some pick-ups to do on the way.

The race was due to start at 7am (pro wave) and my wave was off at 0720.... with Jules starting in a wave 10mins before me I had but one chance of trying to get ahead of him during the race (my aim was to get him in transition as we know he is the master phaffer).... So with a belly full of food and a crouch full of lube we arrived to Lake Las Vegas... now when I say it was chilly let me tell you that the car was telling us it was a mere 2 degrees C (36 F)... which was COLD especially given 6 days before it was over 80 at 5pm at night. Now lucky for me the weather had been deteriortating during the week temperature wise (which suited me for the run)... however we weren't expecting rain on the Friday and then temperatures plummeting overnight.

What did this all add up to?...

Well we got to the race venue and walked towards transition, as we went I mentally noted that they had moved the bike mount mat about 30metres from inside the parking area to on to the main road. I thought at the time what a strange thing to do so late on but dismissed it as immediately as I had seen it. Then we got stopped by a marshall... "Have you guys been told about the change this morning?".... Bleary eyed we replied "no...".... "Oh... Well there is no swim. It's a timetrial start at 5sec intervals wait for further instructions. The start will be delayed"....

I beg your pardon?

The poor marhsall must have seen the same blearly eyed gawp from many people as the words slowly computed the competitors brains.... "Yeah, the swim has been cancelled due to the conditions. Go wait in the change tent it should be warmer in there".

And so that was that. All those 4k swims (ok I did about 4), but long swims sets... my dreams of getting ahead of Jules even for a milisecond... ruined.... ha ha ha... oh... so off we plodded with something like amazement and disbelief to the change tent to sit and wait. Of course your nutrition and hydration plan doesn't counter for such things. I soon ran out of water to drink and sitting just made the bread inside me bloat a bit. So we waited to hear the start would be delayed to 7:45 and they eventually decided to then race off in number order (this order was changed several times), given I was number eight hundred and something this meant I wouldn't be getting on my bike for some time! So we huddled in the change tent, putting on every layer available... at this stage I for one was happy with my 25% body fat, those 10%ers were suffering I tell you ;)... bizarelly whilst wrapped up some of us then decided to strip off and get some sun lotion on (this would have been planned for T1 and despite the temperature only planned to be 16/61 the sun is strong and I am fair skinned so lotion was a good idea). Finally our number range was called forward. By now there were rows of empty racks - all the boys having gone off... the woman now starting in age group order - young to old.... So the good thing about this was at least not so many people a usual would overtake me on the bike - not only was I not ahead on the swim but also there were fewer people behind me... probably only about 60.

As we were starting in number order this meant the GB ladies in my age group (of which there were 3) were off together, with team USA first (as hosts), and I think most other countries before us it did mean we were at the rear of our Age Group BUT it did mean I was to be 5 seconds ahead of Anita at the start (Yesssssssss)....... as her surname starts with a J and mine a G!....

As it was still cold I opted for arm warmers, club bike top and gillet for the start, figuring I could strip and hand over the gillet and top if necessary at an aid station.

We were orderly marched/ carouled up the T1 exit ramp (at least we were dry)... and shivered as we waited in the shade to get to the front timing mat. Given I have never done a time trial before this was going to be an interesting start. I moved forward, we weren't be held static but had to have a foot in a pedal and one on the floor. My count down began..... 3, 2, 1 .. GO!

I pushed off with my left foot and down with my right, missed the cleat with my left which span around ridiculously (never done that before) and pretty much stalled the bike... HA HA HA.... within 6 seconds Anita came past me...It had taken her a whole second to make up the 5 second gap!!.. Oh how we laughed..... and we really did :)

Now the bike course was always going to be dramatic. Dramatically pretty and dramatically hilly! Dramtically fast and at times dramatically s-l-o-w.... Actually if I'm honest it was pretty awesome, although there were times I felt far from awesome.

The highs - without a doubt descending from the top of Lake Mead Parkway and into the National Park. I'm not a confident speed monster on the down hill, but with little to no side winds and with a spectacular vista ahead there was nothing but tears of joy (and you know your eyes do leak when you hit 40mph, in cold wind even with glasses on)..... pretty amazing. Here was little old me with Team GB emblazoned on my bum at a world championships in a spectacular place.

The happiness soon descended in to a huff of huffiness as "what am I doing here" at around the 20mile mark, about 1hr and half or so into the race. I was in a bit of a miserable place, after some navel gazing I realised I needed to get logical about it and then soon worked out one major thing... with no swim and a stack load of jam and bread in me, plus my standard 30min nutrition and carb drink I was over carbed... this always makes me grumbly and miserable on the bike.... So I decided to miss my next food intake... my mood soon lifted (YEAH) and by mile 30 I was smiling again :) I also took off my gillet in case I was overheating a bit (didn't feel like it but I didn't get cold afterwards either... A few miles more and this marked the end of the south shore road, happy days!

Next onto the North shore - whilst the South shore was undulating the North shore was pretty much a swift sharp descent followed by a 4 or so miles of gradual climb, nothing too steep or even noticable in places - but up up up it went. At Mile 40 on the way up a sudden sharp pain happened in my right knee (just on the side of my knee cap)... I initially dismissed it... but as I carried on cycling everytime I put some power through the bottom of the pedal stroke it hurt. This was not a good place to be with 35miles still to go, and knowing the last 20 were pretty much up hill including those damn sisters.... hummm.... So I peddaled on with putting as little power through my right leg as possible ... I thought about quitting and thought of my family who had travelled a long way to support me and how I would feel if I quit and for no reason...... So I wasn't going to quit... not unless I physically couldn't carry on.... I got to the turn point and coasted back down to an aid station and got off my bike for a moment. Asked if there was anyone who knew about knees... despite there being a paramedic there there clearly wasn't anyone. It soon dawned on me (I was being a little slow this day I feel)... that given I had only recently been studying anatomy and physiology and had just sat my sports and remedial massage diploma exams that I ought to be able to help myself out!! Given when I wasn't peddaling hard I had no pain, and walking off the bike was fine I decided that actually I was ok and I had probably just twanged a muscle somewhere, which meant my knee cap was pulling slightly and that was causing the ouchiness of the knee. So nothing serious... and so take a couple of the stashed painkillers and carry on. I decided to get to the three sisters, see how I felt before and after... if all ok I'd start the run and see what happened. If it was the knee it would not work for the run, if it was a small something else then I would probably get away with it.

So onwards I went.... whizzing down the hill at high speed only being scared by the large American campavan things which always seemed to be towing an abnormally sized people carrier......

Mile 55 and the three sisters were upon me. The support at the rise of all hills was great - especially the third which by now necessitated a moment of out of the saddle cycling... I was more then happy, what with the knee thing and tiredness, of my gear choice - thank you granny ring! Whilst the sisters themselves only last for about 7mins, there was still another 30-45mins of gradual climbing to be done.... a descent and then ... you guessed it... more climbing.... so another hour of racing.

Arriving back from the foothills into civilsation though was great. It was at this point can you truly say the organisation of this race was second to none. There were marshals and police at every road junction, lanes were coned off and competitors had right of way through every junction. The local Police did a great job of managing the traffic it has to be said.

With little left in the bike legs and with my sense of humour failing over yet another sodding hill... we climbed up the final rise towards transtition..... A mixture of relief and excitement mixed with concern as to what my legs (particular the right) would do on the run. But at least it wasn't scorching hot :)

Happy to be off the bike I completely forgot to take my feet out of my shoes, so I dismounted slow style and handed my bike to a helper and clip-clopped my way to the aid tent.

I decided there was no point in hurrying but took my time to get my socks on, shoes on and nutrition stuffed in my trisuit. Left T2 and decided I needed a loo break - proceeded to almost lose my entire nutrition store down the toilet as I undid and took down the tri suit!!... Luckily I managed to avoid that disaster, did my thing and carried on... Popey was right by the tent/ transition exit fencing which was ace..... I staggered out wondering about whole knee thing, up a small dirt track and then a left on to the course. Looked at my watch and realised I was going down hill and too fast as it was registering 5:15km pace.... I concentrated on slowing down, getting into a rhythm and getting my cadence up to the right range. As I hit the turn and passed the aid station I was in a comfotable place, both legs and pace seemed to be ok.... The transition from bike to run done, now all I need to do was run for a few hours.... Oh how we laughed... especially as I saw the gradient of what I was supposed to run back up (no wonder my pace had been 5:15).... I got back up to the main thorough fare which I had joined out of T1 and saw the rest of the clan gathered... Mum, Dad, my cousin Sarah (who had flown in from New York the day before - amazing to see her), Enid and Popey... all wrapped up and with GB flags to wave... The support through this main bit was great, the GB and Kiwi supporters certainly giving the most cheers. Through there and on to the "long drag" ... This wa a big wide road, a lane of which was for the race, up one side and we came back down the other. Now whilst I had done quite a bit of hill running in my training I need a coping strategy for this beast.... so decided the best bet was to run to the aid station, walk fast through it and run again to the top of the road... where we turned left and went slightly down hill for about 50-100m... before turning back... the turn back was another walk break for me before running back down the hill... and so the war of attrition started... there were 4 laps to do in total...... Lap 1 done in something like 46mins ... this was to be the peak pace wise !!

As is the norm I think on these long races I now only see myself enjoying the run, but I'm pretty sure whilst on it I was a miserable sod until lap 3 or 4!! The dodgey leg seemed to be less dodgey and holding up well... bottom half of the course I tended to run down and tended to have more walk then run stages on the way back up (it seemed considerably steeper)... the top half of the course - the long drag - certainly seemed to get easier as the race went on... The feed stations were well manned and well placed, all the volunteers were extremely enthusiastic and helpful with a good selection of food and drink options... my favourite ended up being chicken boullion... ummmm... I loved that stuff.... it was served particularly warm at the long drag feed station as I recal. On the final run down the long drag towards the finish shute I my right leg almost decided enough was enough with my quad going into a crampy spasm.... but really I wasn't having any of that and it wasn't like I was going to finish walking now was it... as I turned towards the finish shute I saw a GB supporter who had a couple of little flags... so I asked if I could grab one and headed in to the finish.... There weren't many people left supporting out there by the time I finished, it was all a bit of a blur.. but I was happy as could be waving my flag with some glee... I trimuphantly crossed the finish line with my arms held high... had my picture taken and was grateful to receive my space blanket from a rather cheery chap... Popey was over at the fence so I reached over for a big hug and promptly burst into tears... saying "if I ever say I'm thinking of doing one of these things again you may shoot me and stop me at all costs"... to which she replied "yeah which is like a drunk saying they will never drink again when they have a big hangover. You'll soon forget and want to get back on it".... HA HA HA... OH!

All in all - despite the highs and lows..... I did have a good race (from a results point of view). The best time I expected to do for the bike, given the several thousand feet of climbing was 5hrs and I came in on 4hrs 46mins (the lack of swim probably helped that slightly).... For the run I somehow managed to ekk out a 3hr15min for the 30k which in itself had over 900feet of climb.... which I'm actually very pleased with. This time beats anything I've done over that distance before (ok I've only ever done one 30k race which was this one... but marathon wise I did 4:45 on a straight marathon and 5:30 on an ironman marathon, and his pace is far ahead of where I was on both races... ).... Also whilst I did walk during the run I did this much more tactically so then I've managed on long run events before.

I came 32nd in my age group from 37 starters... so also completed my aim of not coming totally last!

I couldn't have achieved all this without the support of my family and friends leading up to the race and the support on the day was immense.

There were some inspiring people at this race... the elites who finished several hours before me are simply amazing..... but more amazing still were the athletes of all ages taking part and the parathletes are all the above and then some.

Race photo's can be found here

ITU World Champs - Preamble

2011-12-30T06:37:00.002Z

As in all things this year this race report is long overdue, some would say late......
So here it is ... The preamble.....

Anyway..... So myself and the support clan arrived a whole week before race day (mainly to help with the jet lag but also take in some sights and sounds of Las Vegas). The journey from the airport was fairly straightforward (not too many u turns) and we got to our nice little hotel, the Hilton Garden Inns at Henderson. Unlike most hotels in Vegas this had no slot machines anywhere in sight (thank fully), but if we needed one desperately enough we were pretty much located in the parking lot of SunSet station so all was not lost if we fancied a little gamble!

The jetlag barely happened (which was a good thing), on Sunday late afternoon I went for a little run in the surrounding area (basically I ran up a fairly long hill and back). It was still over 80 at 5pm. I hadn't really settled on my expected race pace for the 30k run, but the weeks before I was knocking out 10ks in an easy 5:50/ k... but with the hills of the race course I expected this to drift to 6:00 and then with the race fatigue probably nearer 6:15s..... however when faced with the prospect of 80 degree heat I thought I simply wouldn't worry about it and see what happened!

The days preceding the race I got my bike set up and headed down to what was the main talking point of the 120k bike course - namely the "3 Sisters". These are basic 3 rather nasty lumps one after the other which we would hit at about the 85k point of the course.... and when I say nasty I mean it, I believe the final lump had a 20% ramp in it. However having read all about this and finding some youtube footage I had geared myself (literally) for it, having had something like a 13-29 put on my bike - this would have been good enough to see me up a alpine mountain - and indeed probably saw me overgeared for these little beauties - however I was thankful of gear 28 on race day!! So - I bimbled out a couple of times to the three sisters and got less scared of them pretty quickly.

The other days before the race we spent doing some sight seeing:

Hoover Dam in truly awesome and an inspiration ... Amazing to see what past generations have achieved with little in the way of what we know as modern technology. If you are ever near it you really should go and find out about it.

Red Rock canyon - whilst geared up for tourism this seems to have been done so without any real invasion to the area which is an achievement in itself. Taking the 12mile scenic drive after a stop at the tourist information centre is well worth the short trip north of the strip. Spectacular scenary for sure - I would love to have had the time to walk and maybe camp around that area.

The Strip - well a trip to Vegas simply wouldn't be complete without a journey along the strip (at least the section from the Luxor down to the Belagio and on to the Venetician). Doing this the day after the flight in may not have been the greatest idea (as we were all tired and grumbly bears by about 6pm), but still an interesting if somewhat completely different spectacle from the above two.

I also did the usual thing (dragging the support crew around) of race reccie - taking a look at Lake Las Vegas (the swim), and driving the south and north shores of Lake Mead (the bike). Wasn't so worried about the run, I knew it would be hilly so why make it worse for myself by actually looking at it beforehand?!

Venue for the 4k Swim. Nice!

Prior to race day I had seen many svelt like athletes around the expo .... and I mean the fat free type. Feeling a little bit out of my league (like what was I doing here type thing), I decided my best coping strategy come race day was to pretend I was the equivalent of a lottery winner at Kona. ie love the experience, be amazed you are there and don't worry about all the people coming past you, they are allowed (afteral they clearly didn't enjoy life as they don't have any body fat ergo do not dring beer and indulge in chocolate....)... now I'm sure this isn't the case, the fact is they train hard and are talented - but it helped me mentally speaking to think this!!

Anita looking in pain but actually this was excellent treatment!

The day before race day the inevitable phaffing took place when it came to bike racking - and without going into too much detail by this time the usual tri race buddies of Jules and Anita had arrived, although staying at another local hotel and yours truly had agreed to give Anita a lift down to the race start (it was a 12mile split transition) for bike racking. Significant amount of PHAFFING nearly led to me blowing a casket and I ended up taking Jules and Anita (incl all three bikes) and the every so calming Popey (sherpa) in our rental "car" (said losely as it was a substantial vehicle - to fit 4 adults and 3 bikes in with only taking off one front wheel (of a bike!!) you can see what I mean. We got to the lake and I had to phaff quite a bit (although not entirely my fault as my racking block didn't allow my back wheel in to rack my bike)... we finally said goodbye to bikes and got back to our respective hotels for some rest before the inevitable 4am wake up on race day.

Anita, Myself and Jules - race briefing D -2. READY NOW!

Never Enough

2011-10-16T10:11:00.000+01:00

So I'm three weeks away from race day.... well actually I'm 2 weeks and 6 days to be precise and I'm having that moment when I consider what I've done and panic about what I haven't done.

I could have, should have but didn't do more training. Although I've not been working and I didn't want to become simply obsessed and my life ruled (ruined?) with just training I seem to have put in less hours per week of training then last year - but then last year I was training for an ironman and this year I am not.

For the ironman I averaged something like 9 hours a week of training. This year I'm guessing I'm around 8. ... and let's not forget in this training cycle I missed almost a month of training due to the flu/ virus during June. At least that was nearer the start of the training plan rather then middle of worse still now (crosses fingers and touches wood that I stay bug free for the next 3 weeks!).

So although I'm stressing I know I needn't or more rightly shouldn't. What is done is in the bank, what hasn't been done shall not be deposited in the bank and that is that. I think I should finish before the cut off - dependant on how long it takes me to get up that darn hill at the end section of the bike (http://ridewithgps.com/routes/525327) ... and then there's always the hills on the 30k run course which I won't mention either.

Whatever.

I have done what I can. I don't think you ever feel you've done enough. So I just need to have faith that what is in the bank is enough for me to withdraw come race day to see me to the finish line.

One more week of some good quality sessions then on to taper... and travel. Vegas awaits :)

September Stats

2011-10-12T08:26:00.012+01:00

Ok so what happened in September... well I guess the biggest feature was a holiday to Lanzarote... I say holiday although clearly I took my bike!! Think I got the balance on the trip right - some good training and some good down time by the pool. Alcohol was on the menu as was ice cream - so not the diet of champions but I did have a lovely time. Thanks go to Jules for the invite and the Pope for sharing a lovely time... and the rest of the gang of 9 ... we all had a lovely time :)

Anyway..... So stats for September;

September

Run - 16 - 64.0 mi - 10.1 hrs
Swim - 7 - 9.9 mi - 5.1 hrs
Bike - 14 - 254.4 mi - 17.1 hrs
Cross - 5 - 0.6 mi - 2.4 hrs
Total - 42 - 328.9 mi - 34.7 hrs

Swim: Thanks to one long swim and several shorter ones in Lanzarote my swim meters are still holding good. My focus for October is getting at least weekly 3.3k+ swims in.... The race distance is 4k, but last year for Challenge Barcelona I didn't got over 3.2 and found the almost 4k I swam there ok.

Bike: I had a couple of good rides in Lanzarote and certainly felt the strongest I've ever felt on the hills over there (this is relatively speaking - usually I am worse then weak, I still would not say I'm strong on the bike). My mileage was down for the month but I'm ok with that given the run time went up which is my biggest concern really.

Run: So my hours/ mileage was back up after my calf strain in August. I feel like I've lost some of the speed (not that I am fast) that I was finding earlier in the year before the injury. My main concern is how I am going to somehow get by body around 30k of running for the race. I did a horrendous run at the end of September, barely managing 1hr 20 (8miles) ... but it was at the end of a high volume run week, straight after a 1.5hr easy ride and also in perhaps the hottest day of the year (I am not joking, it was over 80!).

I have about another week or two of "panic training" before taper. Nervous for the big one for sure but at least I have casino's to drown my sorry arse in and family will be there to weep on after ;)

It's been a month.....

2011-10-12T07:39:00.000+01:00

Aha... so I have just written this blog utilising bloggers new interface and it didn't save and lost the lot. Rubbish. Although I have no excuse for not blogging recently! I am not back to the trusted previous interface and have successfully "saved" this so far... so I shall continue!!!

Have you ever had one of those training sessions which just weren't meant to be? I think sometimes you can take "signs" to mean something like "stop" or "forget this and try something different".

Yesterday was a prime example... honest...

I had planned a 2.5 - 3 hr bike (with some hills for fun) and then a 20-30min run off the bike. The weather forecast was for grey skies and bright spells and the remote possibility of occasional light showers.

So I looked outside whilst getting my bike stuff together to note there were grey skies and wet roads but no rain. Still I took precautions and put on my shower proof light bike jacket just in case. I stepped outside and it promptly started to rain. SIGN 1.

I took my usual route out of Finchampstead, through Arborfield Garrison and up on to the A327 which can be busy but usually not too bad. Just going up a slight incline a lorry decided that this would be a good place to overtake me. Given there was a white van parked on our side of the road towards the crest of the hilll which we were approaching fast, I wasn't so sure. To compound this a 4x4 appeared from over the hill and thus left little room for either a lorry or me, and certainly not both. The lorry driver thankfully realised that squashing me wasn't such a good thing and backed off until the crest of the hill (and white van) and overtook - I'm glad he could see more of the road ahead then me as I didn't have a clue what was coming. Still sort of close but not really but enough for SIGN 2.

Just after the lorry went past I felt a gradual squishyness of my rear tyre, luckily there was a shop with some parking spaces up ahead so I glided into the car park and indeed my rear was flat. So I calmly set about replacing in the inner tube. It was still raining (ie this was no quick "shower")... SIGN 3

Having reinflated my inner tube (quite successfully using a gas cannister which is a first for this year), I discovered a rather deep and long gash in the tyre. This was the sort of thing you can't ride on without a puncture happening. I guess I must have rode over some glass or something. Despite the face that I still had another spare inner tube (I usually ride with 2), I decided that this was the final sign to head back home. Having ridden for a whole 11mins!

Rather then riding straight back the way I had come I decided to "risk it" and take a rather circulative ride back and managed to get in 30mins. I then headed out for a quick leg stretch around the local "new" park/ woodland for a nice 3.4k 17min run... and then for good measure got out the turbo for a rather boring 30mins.

So my 2.5 - 3hr ride + 20-30min brick turned into a 1hr ride with a 17min brick. Oh well.

Less then a month to Vegas so still time for some more panic training :)

August Stats

2011-09-09T09:45:00.001+01:00

Yes - I owe the Little Woody DNF race report... but first as it is quicker ;) .. August Stats!!

This reads pretty good, despite the calf injury and subsequent days off...

August

Run - 11 - 38.7 mi - 6.7 hrs
Swim - 9 - 12.3 mi - 5.0 hrs
Bike - 10 - 340.7 mi - 23.3 hrs
Cross - 3 - 0.7 mi - 0.2 hrs
Total - 33 - 392.4 mi - 35.2 hrs

My main concern coming in to August was the distinct lack of swimming which had plagued my training, either through laziness or illness or fear of getting ill from catching something in the water... So I wanted for August to get back in the water and get some consistency. I am having some issues with my Garmin in Open Water mode since the last software update (it defaults back to "other" not swimming each time I turn it on and thus doesn't use the algorithm to calc the distance properly as I forget to set it up... so the distance is probably more like 10+mile rather then 12).. but still ....5 hours of swimming was 3 hours more then July so progress, the distance probably more like 10miles then 12. Anyway, I'm happy with the swimming still conscious I should now be swimming longer as I have yet to do anywhere near to the race distance (4k) in training.

I'm happy also with the consistency I achieved on the bike. With the most monthly time spent in the saddle this year. My focus for September is to maintain this consistency whilst introducing some more speed work and also some continued work on the hills. The course in Vegas still daunts me with the stats of climbing, they are saying 7000ft in the 73ish miles.... although every map I see that people have tried to recreate in mapping tools shows less then that. Still it is going to be hilly so hills are the order of the training, going to Lanzarote for a week should help with that :)

On the run side, clearly with the calf strain the stats are down, which is fine. The calf is on the mend and I managed a long run of just under 10miles yesterday with no strapping, no gimp calf guards and with no reaction today. So I just need to carry on with the program of tempo, brick and long slow with intervals. The one thing I must do though is to restart my core & stability routine. I neglected this somewhat through July into August and I think the weakness in the stabilisers may have contributed to the problem with the calf (that and wearing new trainers on a 10k tempo session.. ha ha ha)

I'm expecting my stats for Sept to be flat with August, maybe slightly down as a results of the week of complete rest I took off after Little Woody.

The way I see it is I have 6 weeks of focus before 2-3 weeks of gradual taper now leading to the race .... Long Course is nearly here... GULP!

Blenheim Palace Sportive

2011-08-26T08:22:00.001+01:00

So Sunday dawned and I was pretty much already up-n-atum... The reason... Well us band of three TVTers (my local tri club) were off to Blenheim Palace to ride the 60mile Sportive, entry fees largely going to Breast Cancer Care.... So at the unearthly (for a Sunday) hour of 7am Alistair turned up, we loaded my bike and headed off to pick up Paul... The three Amigos were formed and we headed off to deepest darkest Oxfordshire.... With the promise of sunshine it proceeded to plop with rain a couple of times as we went through Oxford although thankfully this soon dissipated.

We arrived to a hive of activity, there was quite a good expo, and several bike things going on... From the Sportive, TimeTrial and Pink Ribbon Ride to the much acclaimed "Brompton World Championships" .... As we parked up we soon realised (given the number of cars already parked) thatbwe were perhaps a tad late. A quick unload of bikes and into kit, Alistair kindly offered me a handful of cream from his chamois pot (I thankfully had already done my own at home!!!)... And we hussled over to pick up our timing chips we scappered through the expo (quick portaloo stop!) and got to the starting pens to see they were all indeed empty! The pink ribbon ride looked like it was getting (or had got underway) .... So we went tot the start line a little apologetically... The marshals were very welcoming and said no bother and the three of us got on our way with the sun shining behind us.

The initial mile was through the grounds of the palace and was rather epic, lush lawns, fields and a view ahead of the wonderful lush countyside.

Having negotiated the cattle grids (I hate those) and a splash of cobble stones on the exit gate we headed out to the open road.... Any cyclist ahead being incentive for us to push on, we would rather find other riders (not that the three of us mind each others company), but a good carrot. After about 10mins I realised I hadn't switched on the timer of my gamin, *shock* promptly corrected thus ensuring I could pour over the stats later.... Just 2 mins after that we were hussling down a hill, Paul leading out pointed out a pot hole to avoid so I did the obvious and went straight for it, tried to jump it but succeeded in merely splatting my rear into it which immediately hissed at me... Hurrumph a flat. We pulled up (Alistair and Paul were consummate gentleman not only waiting but also helping with the repair) .... 10mins and dirty hands later we were just putting on the rear wheel when a support car turned up.....apparently there had been up to 10people in one go having puncture repairs at the same spot (damn that pot hole)... Anyway... They offered a track pump, which I quickly said yes too to get the pressure back up. Not that I think Paul's efforts were wimpy but you simply can't get the same pressure in a tyre with a hand pump compared to a track. So rear on, pressure up and we were quickly on our way again.

We were soon passing through some old old Oxfordshire villages and passing into Gloucestershire.... Mostly the roads were off the beaten track so with little traffic. We started to catch and pass some riders meaning it felt like we were in an event and even managed to "pick up" one girl from Bray (i think that is what here bike club top said), Alistair and I took the front with Paul chatting her up behind ;) ....

We soon reached the feed station at about the 24mile mark, greeted by the smell of frying bacon and stopped for a short break (largely for me to refill my water bottle which had emptied itself when I had punctured!).... We declined the bacon butties (I just can't imagine scoffing one of those and cycling another 36miles)... But did partake in some rather nice flapjack.

Off we went again, back down to the three amigos as the lady who had been cycling with us had caught up with her crew at the feed station. The rolling hills came and went, we passed through some villages i vaguely remember my Mum and Dad taking us to when my brother and I were very young... Then on one memorable climb we lost Paul slightly. But Alistair said never fear he'll be back with us in a short while.... And sure enough on a long straight I looked back to see he had burst from the group behind and was tucked in on his tri bars bearing down on us.... Alas a road junction ahead saw Alistair and I cross and Paul not as he got held up by traffic. We were then in to a long and fast descent (with another hill on the horizon)... Alistair and I cruised on and we were suddenly at the second feed station, no bacon butties here but some more lushous flapjack, which I gladly took an extra large slab of to stow in my bento box. Paul wasn't much behind and we set off again, immediately on to a hill.... And then another long fast descent where tragedy happened as my bento lid came unstuck and the morsel of flapjack I had stashed flew out... Sob...

The last 5-7 miles became a bit of a smack down, with Alistair (mainly) and me (not as often) hitting the front and dragging each other forward, we picked up some guy on the way who was grateful for the tow and apologised for not being able to lead!! We passed back through the cobblestone gate and onto the long drag back to the palace. It was awesome and Alistair did the gentlemanly thing and let me lead us home.... We literally hammered it down the path, me slightly crapping my pants at hitting the cattle grids at such a pace! The hills weren't quite done with us though and at about the point where lactate threshold was being passed we had a cheeky steep short climb, at which point we got caught up behind a pram!!! Bahhhhhhhhhhhh.... All momentum was lost and a quick shift to the granniest of granny rings and a great deal of huffing, puffing and "aaahhhhhing" saw us up and the finish line in sight. Alistair grabbed my hand and we crossed the line with great big grins! Paul came through soon behind us and so it was to the table for a cup of tea, a juicy peach, banana and of course flapjack!!

Stato...
Last 5 mile average speed was around 19mph (I didn't know I could go that fast!)
Clock time was 4:02:30 for 60miles which included feed stops and rear flat repair

My scores out of 10...
Feed stations ... 10/10
Organisation .... 10/10
Mechanic support 10/10 (it felt like we saw a support vehicle every 15-20mins)
Race hq Venue .... 10/10
Marshalls.... 10/10 .... All very friendly and helpful
Road condition .... 6.5/10 .... There were some really rather badly cut up roads... Not the organisations fault and pretty much the norm for this area at the moment it seems. If the local councils had been looking to repair the roads at least the pot holes would have been marked.

I'd definitely do this event again.

Next stop... little woody tomorrow... It has been raining for days and the forecast for tomorrow is pretty awful.... I may well be wearing a rain jacket for the race!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Oxfordshire

Take a day off...

2011-08-18T11:02:00.000+01:00

WHAT! A day off.... but I feel so energised?!....

But yes this is what I am to do today.... energised because the weekends training didn't go exactly according to plan when I gave myself a slight strain to the right calf so haven't done as much as normal....( it feels almost like I'm on taper!! ).... this calf thing seems to be catching .....

I have to take a fair degree of responsibility for this I must admit.... as you may or may not be aware I decided earlier this year to take a self look at my running style (or lack there of)... and with the help of Brain training to Runners (a book in case you wondered) and Core Endurance , I set about ditching my orthotics and working on my core and stabilising muscles and little by little move my foot strike from out in front to more under my body in a pose-esk style, whilst upping my cadence..... I have done this gradually and have found that my Asics Cumulus shoes which I have used for years now feel, well too cushioned. I have gradually introduced an old love, Mizunho Wave Riders (I think) which are a bit flatter and slightly less cushioned (at least that's how they feel).

Things have been going really well and my running seems to be feeling stronger too .... no doubt mostly related to my increased mileage but up until now I haven't found a niggle which is a relief after last year.... BUT THEN...

Well because I'm fully into the swing of my training hours I have neglected the core/ stabilising work for about a month.... THIS IS BAD.... but not entirely the problem

No.

Last week I received a nice LOVELY pair of K-Swiss K-ona shoes.... Ummmm..... now I had done some research and loved the look of these when I got them, after all they went with my recently purchased K-Swiss tri gear... ha ha ha ha ... obviously the main reason to buy them yes? ..... Anyway, I figured these would be a good race shoe (slightly lighter with the air holes and drainage holes looked ideal for tri).... soon as they were on my foot I could feel the difference, they felt firm and yes with less cushioning but comfortable.

So with the excitement of a kid in a candy shop I promptly used them for a tempo run. 15mins easy, 2*15mins tempo and 15mins easy home. I have to say I loved running in them but did feel the difference in the cushioning and wondered to the wisdom of shoving these on my feet for an hour straight away. But still. The run was GREAT!

Got home and as I expected my calf muscles tightened, the K-Swiss shoes are definitely good race shoe material for 5-10k.... but I really ought to have transitioned to them a bit more gradually.

Not to be outdone I got Jezza, my sports massage guys to sort out the stiffness the day after so the day after that a 4 hr ride and 10min run was no problem... but I knew the calfs were tight.... So cliff top runs were probably not the order of the day for the weekend... but boy the runs and walks we had down in Dorset were brilliant.

A cold seaswim on Sunday and straight transition to a run was a struggle... However after 10mins I warmed up and had really got into a good steady stride and then that "Oh" what was that sensation.... followed on the next step with "uh oh" ..... and abrupt stop.

The GOOD news to this though is a I did not sharply pull up and I didn't try to run on (which I did a few years ago when I had something similar which really was a stupid idea but if you don't know what a calf strain feels like then this act isn't so stupid, kind of).... and I have managed to rest, I have compressed (to the thanks of some compression socks and stuff), I have managed to contrast treat (ice and heat) and bearing in mind I am a trainee sports massage ninja I have treated with some different techniques which should help with the repair work!! So 4 days on, I'm confident if I manage this ok then I should be fine to run at Little Woody in 9 days (this is a middle distance event, the run is just short of a half marathon although it is mainly off road...)..

So I'm taking today as another rest day (I rested Tuesday).... but will continue the rehab work.

Things to note:
1. Still do your core/ stabilising work, even if this feels like a "nothing" work out it really isn't
2. Introduce new shoes slowly (DUHHH !!)
3. Be patient in recovery (if I hadn't been told to rest today I would have gone out on my bike or sort out the x-trainer)......

On other news - I have already swum 2.5miles more then last month.... so at least I've managed to swim more as planned :)

July stats!

2011-08-03T08:26:00.000+01:00

Well at last! Despite a sinus sniffle at the beginning of the month I have finally put together a month of training.... hurrah for that.... had enough of bugs and lurgies so fingers crossed and touching wood I've finally kicked them in to touch :)

Here's the highlights...

Most biking miles put in since July last year :)
Most running miles since August last year :)

The lowlight was definitely in the swim with a paltry 3 visits to the pool/ lake (I seem to be missing one off my log below but I couldn't have miscounted... could I?!?).... and I can feel it both in my arms (weak) and see it in my times (slow)... I can see some irony in this given the swim on my 'A' race will be the longest I've ever done at 4k... hummmm .... so I have some ear plugs (keep the bugs out of my ear at least)... and aim this week to go and swim three times... which will mean then that by the end of Saturday I will have swum as many times as the whole of July!.... oh...hummmm... this time last year I was swimming between 10-14 miles a month so I shall give myself a target of say 12 miles and see where I can get to this month.

So here's the totals.....

July 2011

Run - 10 - 58.2 mi - 10.0 hrs
Swim - 2 - 3.7 mi - 2.0 hrs
Bike - 10 - 308.8 mi - 21.1 hrs
Cross - 6 - 4.6 mi - 1.6 hrs
Total - 28 - 375.3 mi - 34.7 hrs

So for August my aim is to maintain the consistency... and attain some consistency in swim!! I have a middle distance (1.9k, 100k, 20k) race at the end of the month (Little Woody), which I won't be tapering for.... so that will be interesting!

Race Reports, Caffeine and other stuff

2011-07-27T07:13:00.000+01:00

Ha ha ... like a sprinter I've just dipped before the line to ensure that it's not quite a whole month since I last posted ... phew!

I'm going to keep this short.. yeah like you've heard that before... but I am... because I have rubbish in the garden which needs to go to the tip (green waste for the green waste recycling pile.... I also have wood and a rather large box of empty wine bottles .....so I may be going to the tip but I actually only have one bag of true rubbish the rest is for recycling.... but I digress)...

Soooooo.... since my horrid bout of flu it sort of went like this...

Got over flu, felt good for 4 days
Got up to fly to Klagenfurt for Ironman Austria (sherpa duties mind not a sneaky race) and felt bleah with a sinus/ throat "thing".. Felt bleah for about 5 days and did little training (miffed)

Nearly throw my toys out of the prame for feeling bleah for so long and not able to train... but luckily my body did me a favour and I got over myself so got better and thus enjoyed an outing down to the New Forest for the New Forest 10.

Feeling good again, I'm pleased to say normal training has resumed (phew, I was beginning to really annoy people through being a miserable non-training triathlete... which is never a good thing... you can call me Hedgehog if you like.. I was prickly..)... anyway... threw in a rather hilly half marathon (it was a "race" but as I wasn't race fit it was a training run...).... and have had some lovely rides....

.... and the worst of it all.... well since I got the lurgies I seem to have developed a reaction to coffee!! Seriously. People this is bad bad news... I was a particularly prickly hedgehog when I withdrew I can tell you.... since the lurgy whenever I have coffee I get a spotty rash on the back of my throat... I am hoping this is a temporary thing because my defences are low... There should be support groups for this sort of thing... for my friends and family if nothing else. I WANT MY ESPRESSO!!.... GIVE ME A CAPPUCCINO... uggghhhh .... currently drinking some herbal "cleanse" tea if you are interested.....

Anyway.... So basically I owe you all the following race reports;
Ironman Austria - experienced as a sherpa
New Forest 10
High Wycombe Half
and probably a wrap up of July training somewhere too....

this could be a busy blogging week ..... of given my current blogging prowess... month/ year... ha ha ha ...

Righteo... must go ... I have bags to load and a man at the rubbish tip to go see!

Recovering from flu...

2011-06-28T15:03:00.001+01:00

Well that should read "recovered" if I'm honest.... I say flu.... I think it was that or some other virus ...yes I had a fever, yes I did barf, yes I did ache and no there was little to no snot.. And i ended up with a nasty dry chesty type cough... Suffice to say I did not have a simple cold.....

I knew whilst I was throwing up at 2am that the standard "having a cold" protocol whilst training (ie ok to train easy Z1 when you have symptoms above the throat and no fever), was out the window... And I knew whilst sweating later that night I was looking at complete rest for at least a week.... I was quite accepting of this as I knew it was what it was, and better to recover properly.

My temperature went with 48hours and my appetite came back in 72, but that was way too late for me to be able to do the cycle Sportive I had entered, not that I had any energy for that anyway.... So a week after the worst bit I went out for a nervous jog, just to see how I reacted.... 15 mins in z1 left me wheezing and frankly knackered.... So I knew then that I was still in the midst of the lurgy, the fact I sounded like I smoked 40 a day and spoke several octaves lower then normal should have given it away.

My coach had already said to me not to panic, my "A" race after all it is not until November, and I know from my own scary experience that if you get a virus you have to rest and recover properly before embarking on full training, as the risks of not doing so are far greater then the rewards of getting back on it 5 days too soon.

Still.... It is frustrating....

With a flutter of energy I resumed some effort of training last week, two weeks after it all started.... I did an easy 45min last Monday and happily told my coach I was back..... Ahhh but he is WISE! I woke up to my weekly programme and thought it looked quite light, then I stood up and felt washed out! Wisely my coach had given me a recovery kind of week which was just what the doctor (ok Doris) ordered. So I did a 30min easy swim on Tuesday, which felt ok but tired after. Same for the gym (row and XT) session on Wednesday, with the power of stato I could see my HR was marginally up compared to the same efforts several weeks before... Telling me I was still recovering... A 40min run Thursday and then a 1.5th turbo with intervals Friday, some massage school at the weekend and an easy, building to effort hot run for 35 mins Sunday saw the end of the week... And me fairly knackered from it but HR zones more or less back to normal, even if perceived exertion was up!

I rested up yesterday to check for my reactions and FINALLY fully 3 weeks after I began to feel ill I think I am better! And about time too....

Now I know my race is weeks, no months away (although there is the small matter of a half marathon in 2.5 weeks!), but this has put me back, not just by the 3 weeks of full training I've missed but back probably the same number of weeks before I was ill (in terms of training load and fitness etc)... So realistically i'm back at the beginning of May in terms of fitness!

I'm fortunate though that this hit me now, so early in my training cycle. And I'm fortunate i'm not doing IM Austria this coming weekend unlike my good friend Jules (so excited about going to watch him lose his IM cherry.... So to speak )

Focus for the next few weeks is consistency. Would like to start building my swim times up, rebuild my bike and run. I entered Little Woody (half ironman distance) which is at the end of August, which is far enough away to be ready for but near enough to get excited about ... Hurrah!

Footnote: my coach is telepathic.... Next few weeks programme has arrived with guess what... Endurance swims!! Ha ha .... Yippppeeeee!

... You can call me Dory...

... On that note I'd better get on with some exercise!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Etape Caledonia Event Report!

2011-06-21T11:14:00.000+01:00

Yes this did happen over a month ago - who said I was fast at getting my reports in... not me ;)

The first question of the day concerned was how on earth do you get about 5,000 cyclists to start an event in an orderly fashion?! Well I have to say the start of this was incredibly well organised. Essentially the road was cordoned off and into two lanes (also with barriers), and there were start times every minute per wave... with alternate sides of the road going off... so with I guess over 300 people per wave and a wave start pen of about 100m this lead to a busy start area! Jules and I having stumbled out of the hotel on the start line could see people and bikes for as far as the eye could see! We shuffled down the road to find an entry barrier about 200m down the road which we could get in... timings worked well and we entered exactly when our Wave letter was being called and fortunately found ourselves pretty much at the very front (give or take 6 people), which given the slight incline and need to clip in p.d.q. was quite a relief :)

We headed to towards the starting gate and didn't have to wait long before the horn went and the tape went up (well sideways to be honest) to release us.... as you can imagine this was HIGHLY exciting... and this was reflected in my HR which my garmin was telling me was 206... WTF... like yes - that was wrong or I was dead already... ha ha .... we set off at a nice excitable pace and soon caught up with the rear markers of the previous group. It quickly became obvious to me that (a) I had had breakfast far too late (my porridge was threatening to erupt out of my tummy) and (b) that Jules really was race fit and I really was not.... I clung on to his wheel for a bit but soon dropped off on the first incline.... he looking svelt like and me feeling more like a giant sea lion... bloated, full and a bit big to be flapping my flippers on a bike... STILL... I caught up with him and was having fun... then there was another hill and I was dropped again... and so the pattern began!!

The weather wasn't helping my cause too much, although it wasn't actually raining it was blowing a complete hooley .. in to my face (ok and everyone elses but I had bigger thighs so reckon was catching more then the majority).... I got to admit after the first mile of enjoyment I settled in to a sensation of utter DOOM... what the hell was I thinking doing exactly 3 training rides for an 81 inclement ride in the highlands... oh how I laughed (mwah ha ha ha).... my spirits were briefly lifted about an hour in to the ride, cycling up through a woodland suddenly the ghostly sound of a piper could be heard in the wind... it was somewhat magical and took away the feeling of porridge heave for a brief moment.... on reaching the brow of the hill the pipers came into view and have to admit I shed a tear ... not sure what it is about Pipers but often the sound will make me cry (no it's not just the noise of them).... must be genetic or something I am a bit Scottish after all.... ahem...
.. moving on...

My watch alarm was going off every 30mins, which I had set up from the Ironman last year as a reminder to eat.. by the time in went off for the 2nd time, I really was ready to rip it off my wrist..... like I was going to eat anything when my belly was fighting to digest my breakfast (still) and my HR had been showing over 180 for the first hour (WRONG - don't know what is going on with my Garmin at the moment).... and settling in to 150 (err right... I was huffing and puffing a lot).... still I knew I had to get something in me so opted for small regular drinks from my water bottle, had one with carbs and one with electrolytes and swamped between the two - this helped I think.

After about an hour and quarter we exited a woodland area and found ourselves at the bottom end of what on a normal day would be a very picturesque loch... Loch Rannoch... but on this day I couldn't think anything but "sod me that wind is evil and WTF I've got to cycle around this monster.... woe is me".... We literally almost halted the wind felt that strong trying to blow us back... There were white tipped waves of at least several inches... it was around this point that I said to Jules that I was dieing and that, given this was supposed to be a training ride for him that we ought to split up... he hesitated and chivalrously said no as this was to be a social ride together... I quickly told him I could blow up any minute at this pace and he was hardly even getting a workout (given he was having to sit up in the saddle for me to catch up every few minutes)... so semi-reluctantly but with a secret smile of a dog off the leash he pinned his ears back and went off. To some relief to me and my heart rate!! I spent the next few miles trying to stick to any peleton coming past for brief few seconds of relief from the wind, whilst allowing my HR to lower and my porridge to go down.... about 30mins later we turned the head of the loch and 30miles done... everything then quickly got better, faster and easier as I literally got blown back down the other side of the loch - did I mention that it was a windy day!?

Before I knew it I was approaching the 40mile marker and my spirits were feeling much better - "already" half way and finally feeling in control and not about to barf or anything - I'd even go so far as saying I was now fully enjoying it !!.. There was a pit-stop at 42miles which I decided to utilise... Quick stop in the porta-loo... I grapped a banana (I had my own gels and bars but figured how full and sick my tummy had been feeling a banana sounded good)... stuffed the banana down and then decided to eat a lovely looking morsel of flapjack .... as reward for not feeling sick anymore and being half way you understand. Now Jules and I had had this conversation earlier about the "hill".... King of the Mountain section... he thought this came at 40miles and I thought 60miles.... now as the feed stop was at 42 I thought he must have got it wrong... imagine my surprise then having stuffed my banana face with a morsel of flapjack too when I crossed a timing mat about .5 mile after the feed station... UH OH ......

Sure enough ahead of me was a 10minute climb.... ohhh how I laughed again... the challenge here was not going to be the climb but keeping my banana down!!! ha ha ha.... The climb wasn't too bad, several rises with slightly flatter bits for relief... I managed to overtake quite a lot of people - I'm not a particularly fast climber so not sure why, surprisingly too I managed to come 5th in my age group on this section (must be the power of banana yes?!)... Surprisingly got to the top without losing my stomach contents and despite the chilling wind was dripping with sweat down through my helmet! Nice work Karen!.... Tempted at this stage to remove my outer showerproof jacket I soon decided not too having unzipped my layers a bit and heading down hill only to freeze!

Having "summitted" the hill the ride became a fast largely down hill or flat affair... for me some descents were scary fast, I am still nervous about downhills for some reason since coming off my bike last year, although by the end of this event I have to say I was more confident and not riding the brakes as much. I saw one rather nasty looking accident, the guy just being loaded into an ambulance in a neck brace - later this was reported as a serious (although non fatal) accident . It did freak me as I cycled past though as I had to check it wasn't Jules... relief that it wasn't but the guy didn't look too good at the time. I got into a relatively good tempo and managed to hook on to several packs on the way back (this is not hard given the number of people on the course)..... We were skipping along at a pretty descent lick - partly because of the wind coming in from behind and partly from the fact we were group riding - by now it became a rather enjoyable affair and I was in fact overtaking quite a lot of people and feeling rather comfortable (by now I was even eating on the required 30mins intervals :)...) .. I knew from my coach and from Jules that somewhere around the 70mile marker there was a left turn with a short but sharp 1:4 climb... paranoid that I'd be caught out by this I elected to stay in my compact gear at the front with a nice gear on the rear - I was literally spinning down the hill ... I caught a guy and got into conversation with him about the turn ahead - he said it was about 3-5miles away!! ha ha ha... so I changed up to the big ring and had a great time on the fast straight and ever so slightly downhill road from Aberfeldy.

As it happened the dreaded sharp left turn was pretty obvious... having spotted it I quickly shifted to small rings and turned the corner - yes it was steep ... quickly up and out of the saddle I hoofed it up the only danger coming from the guys in front who hadn't been as prepared and were 4 abreast almost stalling up the hill... A little encouragement from me in the form of "come on fellas"... (I usually find a girl shouting at men to hurry up a hill makes them find an extra gear)... ensured I didn't crash into their stalling rear wheel as they found enough puff to get up and out of my way.... I stupidly thought this would be the last significant hill of the day and proceeded to put the pedal to the metal as I knew I was now in the last 10miles.... HOWEVER there were a few little cheeky climbs waiting which became real thigh burners!!

The final ride in to Pitlochry was brilliant, I cruised up the hill with nothing to prove. I had hoped to do this event in around 5hrs 30 which I thought was optimistic given lack of training... I did however manage to come in in 4hrs 52 (including the 4mins at the pit stop)... which I was somewhat chuffed and amazed at..... to be fair I do think the drafting involved in the mini peletons which formed helped a lot!.... My coach said I would have a lot of endurance this season off the back of the IM last year - I hadn't believed him but as I crossed the line I did... although I don't want to fall into a false sense of security and think I can get away with this event distance again without the proper preparation!!

Having crossed the line some nice person removed the timing chip from my wheel and someone else gave me a bottle of water and hung a deserved medal over my neck.... I dismounted and somewhat staggered up the road towards the hotel to find Jules just finishing his run, having done a brick session after finishing in a staggeringly awesome 4hrs 28mins and that having been hindered by my slow arse for the first 1 and quarter hours!!

Reckon we both deserved our medals!!

All in all I rate this event as first class - excellent logistics, excellent support on the route (mechanical, marshalls, food stops and supporters), good road conditions (being closed roads was brilliant), atmosphere was great and the medal nice and chunky!!

10/10 on all fronts :)

Some interesting graphs;

Heart rate - I tried to flatten out the abnormal readings at the start so not sure if this is a true reflection or just dodgey readings.... you can see where the king of the mountain section was about mile 43!

And you can distinctly see my speed go up around mile 30 when we turned the head of the loch and got a tail wind!...

You can also click here for the official event route

Pleased to see I came 31st from 110 in my age group and somehow 5th from 110 in my age group on the KOM section! ha ha ha ... Even more pleasing was that I took people in the 2nd half of the course (overall I was 2218 from 4200 competitors but placed 2012 for the course section after KOM) proving my endurance was indeed better then I anticipated!

Participant Summary

No	2141
Cat	F40-44
Cat Pos	31
Time	04:52:12
Pos	2218

Stage	Time of Day	Elapsed Time	Position
Start	07:07:23		0
Finish	11:59:34	01:57:34	2012
KOTM	10:02:01	00:09:30	1137

Etape Caledonia Preamble

2011-06-13T15:08:00.000+01:00

So sometime last summer my good tri-buddy Jules had this great idea that we have an outing on the only closed road cycle Sportive in the UK mainland... Namely Etape Caledonia... So with little training in recent months and hopeful that indeed my late season ironman would have left me with a little endurance still I set off last Friday 13th on another little 'road trip'. This time to the land of my grandparents on my Mothers side, Scotland... Edinburgh, Stirling and then to their homeland itself Perthshire.

The journey started off with a flight from Heathrow to Edinburgh, I did look at doing the Eco right thing and catching the train but frankly the phaffery involved with booking a bike on to three different (at least) train operators and getting these bookings to coincide with the the ticket purchase was well, just completely pathetically involved .... Which I'm sure would be a good topic for a full on 'why is this so hard in the modern era' type of rant on another day.... Anyway.. So I started my journey with a journey to LHR, a flight on friday the 13th no less (clearly no room for superstition) and got picked up by Jules at Edinburgh... who had announced that open water swimming was due to start that very day so we'd take a dip once the bike was unpacked. I think his perverse idea was to use this as some sort of acclimatisation ritual or something. We headed to the Loch for the session leader to announce it was fairly cold temperature (so that would not be the 18 degrees I had enjoyed the day before at home then), and so we were limited to a 10min swim on health and safety grounds!!...humm...

Having not had the weight allowance to squeeze in my wetsuit to either my hand luggage or bike box, I found myself squeezing in to Jules old one, that would be the one with a couple of little holes on both armpits then. Nice. I tiptoed across the pebble beach (note Jules sauntered over in his beach shoes, not that I was jealous... Much) and dipped my feet in... Frankly the stones and rocks were that uncomfortable I didn't feel the intense cold and was actually rather hoping that the cold would numb my feet sooner rather then later.... Having staggered a whole two paces I decided that a better way in was just to get on all fours (safer as less chance of slippage and also a way of acclimatising my hands to the ice bath like temperature of the water) ... So with not a lot of grace I must confess, I plundered in on all fours and took a wave right up the nose and gasped as I really did feel the cold blast of water seep into those holes in the armpits....

Looks pretty.... Pretty darn cold that's what...

Buoys had been put out about 50-100m apart and after a slight splash of something akin to breast stroke in the fashion of a black labrador I decided to put my head in and have done with it and get on with some crawl.

Thankfully the waters were crystal clear and actually rather tasty (I managed to inhale some off a breaker) .... Having competed several laps I decided as I was beginning to feel comfortable that clearly I suitably acclimatised to the cold of our northern lands.... Getting out though was slightly problematic... Having tried to stand on my feet and realising I couldn't feel them, which was good because the stones no longer hurt, but bad because I lost my balance... The best thing to do was beach myself... In true black wetsuit, queen seal fashion.... I landed on my tum, turned onto my bum, flipped back round on to all fours and staggered rather ungracefully out.... I was just beginning to gingerly attain vertical and make my way up the pebble beach to my much required woolly hat and warming towel when Jules shouted nicely at me if I could possible throw him his shoes (so he didn't have to hurt his delicate feet on the sharpe pebbles, he is an ironman in training I guess and I am not...).... Now despite my parents bringing me up to be a thoughtful kind person I did have two rather mean thoughts... First I thought "ha I'll put them on" and the second was "or I could throw them at him but just out of reach so they fall in the water" .... But I did neither... No.. I gingerly fought my way across the shingle to them and threw them in to his welcome hands. A mark of true friendship I think you'll find (Jules feel free to agree at this point)

We got home to the welcome warmth at Fionna's pad who kindly laid on some lush pasta and sausages ... Just what was needed... That and a glass of wine.

Saturday was a day for me to test how well I had put my bike together and Jules to take his sparkling not so new but somewhat unused TT bike out for a spin...... It turned out that Jules' and his bike flew, whilst I grunted and groaned and not able to stay in his draft... then with the slipping of the seat to a really rather too steep a downward angle at least I had found a good excuse for not just being dropped in the space of 2 metres but completly blown and spat out with clear disdain. With some cooing from me about how good Jules was looking and some tinkering with my seat clamps I took a well earned rest (we had been going all of about 20mins) before heading back - somewhat relieved we had a tail wind I managed to stay with Jules a bit longer as we hit a top speed of 25mph on the flat (it was a very big tail wind!)... with that done I was already feeling my legs from my earlier in the week training run for the event and was beginning to feel a little bit (more) worried of the prospect of 81miles the next day in what was forecast to be changeable and blustery conditions.

Still.... got back, found my bike measurements (would have been more useful in the morning when I had rebuilt my bike), tinkered some more with the saddle height and stuff and we packed the bikes into the car (a borrowed/rented car which is too long a story to go into!)... and set off ...

Jules ready at the wheel with the stead's in the back!

... and despite it being a one and a half hour drive in a straight direction we managed to go the wrong way at Perth and take a bit longer.... whilst waiting at a roundabout I did however manage to snap a picture of the local wild life;

Not sure exactly where the hotel was we parked at the event parking (clearly signposted as you got into the race HQ town of Pitlochry) and wandered back up for packet pick up. There was a hive of activity and we bumped into some friends of Jules and managed to somehow not hook up with some friends of ours we had met on a tri camp some years ago (well other then me seeing Susan in a car and diving over for a quick "hi" and hug!)...

We found our hotel with ease which was situated just off the high street and even managed to bag a parking spot in their car park (which had about 8 car parking spaces)!... all that was to be done was eat and get a good nights sleep.

Pitlochry High Street

.... sleep we did, early we woke, breakfast we ate (a little late and not the prescribed 3 hours before race start), dress in as many layers as I had with me I did (no thanks to Jules omitting to tell me he was still wearing thermals in May on the bike!), stumble out the door with bikes we went... right on to the start line more or less (excellent positioning of the hotel) to see the first wave start!

Event start line.....

What the...

2011-06-12T18:13:00.000+01:00

OK so I hadn't actually appreciated it's been over a month since my last blog.... LIKE WHOOPS!

But I have no excuse today as I'm supposed to be doing a lovely cycle sportive I did last year but am a DNS due to a vicious bout of the dreaded lurgy, over the worst but currently sound like I smoke 80 a day and so exercise is probably off the agenda for another couple of days yet - probably as well as I should be getting on with some study!!

However - that is not the topic of this brief post... NO... I thought given the last post I did was monthly stats then I may as well do some monthly stats again (as it's been that long!!)... and yes Jules, before you say.. I do owe the race report for Etape Caledonia (I did say I'd take a month yes?!)

So here goes... drum roll please..... (assuming these graphs come out this time...which actually they didn't.. so no pretty pictures just numbers....)

May
Run - 8 - 27.2 mi - 5.4 hrs
Swim - 6 - 5.4 mi - 3.7 hrs
Bike - 7 - 264.7 mi - 16.4 hrs
Cross - 12 - 0.0 mi - 8.2 hrs
Total - 33 - 297.3 mi - 33.6 hrs

Swim: Surprised to see that I did increase my swim mileage and feel quite pleased for that. Clearly I'm not setting any records but swimming more is a plus. What I ought to be heading for now is at least two swim sessions a week, I would say that would have been my aim for June but given I'm completely under the weather then this is not going to happen. However I shall make it a target for July.

Bike: An increase in bike mileage is good to see but done over less sessions, whilst this means I'm cycling further per session I am not getting consistency with only 7 bike sessions in the month. Again I should be having 2 if not 3 bikes in a week. July this will be my target.

Run: OK so I'm quite happy that the running is picking up again.... ok small increase from last month but the runs are getting longer and feeling ok (not GREAT but definitely on the better side of ok)

Cross: I did achieve a couple of body balance sessions during the month as well as some core, flexibility and hip/ hamstring stabilisation/ strengthening gym sessions. Also contains both receiving and giving some sports massage (which all counts in my book). So whilst this may not by a tri event as such I think I should be benefiting from this.

My aim for June now is to recover from this virus properly and get back into regular sessions, 5 days without training already feels too much and I doubt I'll be up to much for the next 3-5 days other then maybe some low level core/ flexibility work. Patience is a virtue and all that. I also need to concentrate on completing my Open University courses too as these are due fairly soon!! .... and to get about 4 sports massages in a week... so anyone want a free one of those just drop me a line!!

... oh and as for the nutrition bit - humm well I'm writing this with one hand in a pack of Minstrels... enough said ;)

April Stats

2011-05-09T09:25:00.000+01:00

So the end of my maintenance phase/ getting back into regular training really .... clearly somewhat interrupted by the pre-Easter road trip a little bit, my main aim was to try and get back on the bike - given I hadn't really been on it much at all during the winter months and since Challenge Barcelona in October... and given I have the small matter of Etape Caledonia errr next Sunday I thought I'd better at least ride a couple of times!

The numbers speak thus;

Apr

Run - 9 - 25.9 mi - 4.1 hrs
Swim - 3 - 3.1 mi - 2.2 hrs
Bike - 11 - 203.5 mi - 14.1 hrs
Cross - 6 - 2.1 mi - 3.5 hrs
Total - 29 - 234.6 mi - 23.9 hrs

Clearly topping 200 cycling miles falls into the category of "ok"... and actually was more bike miles then January+February+March!! Ha ha ha! However my max ride was a measly 43 miles, and given Etape is 82 I think I shall find this outing a little bit emotional !!!.... Nevertheless if all else fails I shall be lassoing my bike to the seat post of Jules and getting a tow (just don't tell him that yes?!)...

Probably best not to mention the run hours as these halved from the previous month - but then I did have a silly weekend of running lots in March and also I've been trying to concentrate on the bike and also gain a better running style/ technique... so 4 hours of running I guess falls into the category of "satisfactory"

... Probably best not mention the swim then which definitely is in the "must do better" side of things. I'm happy though that my swim sessions are now of the 45min + variety so base work ok.

Cross training has been some intense body balance sessions, the last couple of weeks of April I clearly missed out on. I've found these really helpful though for both core stability and flexibility so where as I may not feel I get an aerobic work out (something us triathletes long for), I know these are very useful and so am going to make a concerted effort to get in at least once a week once my Vegas programme starts up.

May has started a bit slowly if I'm honest - but with the bike ride on Sunday my bike mileage for the month should be at least 82miles!!! :)

Aim for May is consistency in all 3 disciplines + body balance + review of nutrition

Beginning to feel the rumble of excitement, let Project Elvis commence :)

First time...

2011-04-26T08:07:00.001+01:00

So having been on a mega roadtrip this last week I thought I'd do a quick blog on all the things I've done for the first time... Just to show no matter how old we get we can still do 'new' things .... In no particular order....

Went to spectate at the London Marathon... And saw the first men and women fly past before going on to support the masses and in particular Kirsty Dawn 'the Reemanator" as she undertook the challenge of her first marathon.

Next stop was the road trip to the south of France...
First time on the chunnel in a car. (strangely weird being in your car with the engine off and moving)
First time driving a right hand drive car on the "wrong" side of the road
First time stayed overnight in a budget French motel, the wrong motel it turned out... But given it was €40 for the three of us paying it twice was not a problem!
Next day first time Betty (the car) had gone that far in a day with about 8 hours driving shared between Popey and I.

Then... First time I've stayed in the south west of france, very pretty.
First time I've cycled in france (I had packed the bike).
First time I had wine twice a day (lunch and dinner) for two days in a row (I must have had wine twice in day before now)
First time I've run in france (which hurt plenty i suspect due to to the wine consumption)
First time i've eaten leek tart (surprisingly yummy!)

Then there was simple the most epic car journey ever on Good Friday, a drive so utterly epic I can't believe we did it... With Popey and I sharing the driving from the lovely tranquility of Labretonie up through France, through Paris... In to Belgium, around Antwerp, on towards Amsterdam before finally getting to Haarlem (northern holland) some 15 hours after starting and 1200 km later... Epic .... And we didn't get lost either!!!!

Which brings me to my current location; Bloomendaal (which is close to Haarlem) where we've been watching the last 16 and quarter finals of the euro hockey league to watch my old club Reading play as well as the best from Holland, Germany, and Belgium (we missed the Irish teams on Friday and there have also been some other English teams playing)

I'm sure there have been plenty more firsts among this journey which is nearly at it's end (only the 6 or so hours to drive home after two games of hockey... One of which will hopefully see Reading win and through to the semi's next month)

On the tri front, well once home tonight or early hours of tomorrow morning I have a week to detox and reawaken my body before training proper commences for the 6 months ahead.... I'll be getting a right shake down and reality check next Monday with a 10k 'race' which the only expectation I have is one of immense pain and suffering!!!!

Update: In an epic game of hockey the Reading Boys got through.... Conceding an equalising goal with about 30seconds to go in normal time leaving the score 2-2, no goal was scored during silver goal extra time so down to 1 on 1's with the keeper.... Which we won by the whisk of a whistle blow. Amazing!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

March Stats

2011-04-15T13:17:00.000+01:00

OK so this is ... err .. a little belated!!

I was supposed to do a half marathon in March but, quite sensibly I think, I withdrew. So March focus was really more about getting back into an exercise routine gaining enjoyment and not worrying too much about the session intensity or length.

Here are my summary stats;

Mar

Run - 14 - 50.5 mi - 8.7 hrs
Swim - 5 - 4.6 mi - 3.3 hrs
Bike - 4 - 77.5 mi - 5.5 hrs
Cross - 13 - 0.7 mi - 6.2 hrs
Total - 36 - 133.2 mi - 23.6 hrs

March started off slow - well it was my last week at work in the first week of the month ;) ... and then started to build... my weeks went something like this;

Week Starting	Running	Biking	Swimming	Cross Training
DIST (Mi)
28 Feb 11	11.3	0.0	0.0	0.1
07 Mar 11	3.6	23.5	2.0	0.0
14 Mar 11	18.9	13.6	0.8	0.0
21 Mar 11	9.3	40.3	0.6	0.3
28 Mar 11	7.3	14.5	1.2	0.2

Week Starting	Running	Biking	Swimming	Cross Training
TIME (Hrs)
28 Feb 11	1.8	0.0	0.0	1.1
07 Mar 11	0.5	1.6	1.4	0.0
14 Mar 11	3.5	0.9	0.5	2.4
21 Mar 11	1.6	3.0	0.5	1.7
28 Mar 11	1.2	1.2	0.8	1.0

Now this all pales into insignificance compared to my Ironman training but hey - I'm on early season/ maintenance mode. Having said that I do have this small matter of L'Etape Caledonia coming around in less the 4 weeks which is an 82mile ride in the Highlands of Scotland... given my complete lack of cycling this is going to come and bite me in the arse I reckon... so I'd better get out on to that saddle or I may well cry!!!!

This month so far is definitely feeling more consistent, although my bike is still lacklustre... MUST TRY HARDER.

My swim is coming along ok - getting back into the swing of it - I've set myself a target of a minimum of 2*30min swims per week although lately I have managed to get to club swim for a longer session.... surprisingly I posted a new 200m PB at club swim on Wednesday night... 3:25.. which is dreamy... !!

Running I have much work to do on... I am redefining my running, having been enlightened from a variety of sources (especially Brain training for runners), I'm focusing currently on technique more then I am either pace or distance.

So March was a nice bit of maintenance/ habit forming. April is about consistency and re-establishing my base for the start of the official 6month programme leading to Vegas!!

Right - with that I think I ought to get out on my bike... ;)

My Roly-Poly Nan

2011-04-15T09:40:00.001+01:00

As some of you may know a month ago my lovely Nan, Vera Gallantry passed away. Despite Nan's age she was a vibrant, vivacious and fun loving person and it feels like she has been taken from us shockingly quickly - although indeed she led a wonderful life and I think we are all in some ways grateful that there was no long lasting disability or illness.... Still... a shock.

Anyway - whilst in the midst of some declutering (which is one of my mini-retirement goals) I found some old school books and within one a little ditti I wrote about my Nan. I thought I wrote this when I was about five but clearly from the cover of my English Language exercise book I was 14.

This was written with the innocence of that age and I shall not change... it was written with some bemusement and some humour... I think that perhaps it was supposed to be a poem but it doesn't end up like one and was written in the past tense... maybe I was writing it at the age of 14 of the memory of her when I was a young child of 5 or 6 - that would make sense I think.

Here you go;

My Roly-Poly Nan

My Roly-Poly Nan and her waddling walk, acts like a child in my presence.
She wants to play games, ball games in the garden the back of course.
She would jump for it, but not too often.

Once we had finished that it would be inside to either play monopoly or cards.
My Nan has even got a trophy for badminton.
I can't exactly imagine my plump Nan playing badminton,
but life always holds surprises and this was certainly one to me.

My Nan's hair often changes colour.
Whether it's meant to be blue, orange or pink I don't know.
My Nan's hair was like an ever changing rainbow of colours.
Every-time I saw her it seemed to be different.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My family and I have been blessed with such a lovely person in our lives... and so fortunate to have only recently, before she died, have such a wonderfully large and loving family gathering for my Dad's 65th birthday.

I will miss my Nan, her infectious laugh, her wise eyes and knowing smile.... but I have the memories of those special moments between the two of us which will last for my lifetime. I love you Nan xx

Reading Quarter++ Marathon Report....

2011-03-21T12:55:00.001Z

So I had entered Reading Half Marathon which took place yesterday.... and decided a couple of weeks ago that actually I had not been doing anywhere near enough training to warrant my entry, wouldn't be close to achieving a PB and actually would probably risk an injury if I tried. I did what can only be described as the worst 7miles easy of my life a couple of weeks ago just to make sure and decided that it would be foolish to even attempt the half.

With that in mind I did a comfortable easy - tempo 5 miles on Saturday down by the river before watching a rather "bitty" game of hockey.... You can imagine my surprise then to find myself getting up Sunday morning and digging out my race number....

Underprepared??? Absolutely.

BUT with the request from a friend (little Westie from the hockey club) to have some company and someone to pace off (or she'd be endanger of going off way to fast), I decided another little tempo effort would be in order and that I would have the discipline to invoke PLAN A - ie to stop around the 5mile mark and jog back to the finish for a total of 8 mile-ish long run. Popey on the other hand had the CRAZY idea that she would pace little Westie the whole way round (this from the person who was less prepared then me, although a much finer athlete then I, and who none the less had done a 3mile tempo on Friday and had played a game of hockey in the heat of Saturday).... and so it was... a lovely little morning for a "jog" ;)

This is us at the start... little Westie looking pretty in pink (and white) leading the charge at the start with me in the cap in the foreground and Popey just the other side smiling at the camera. We were smiling here as it was the start.... I think mine lasted about another 10 paces ;)

It was clear from the start that little Westie was indeed capable of getting totally caught up in the excitement of it all as we had to reign her back in several times in the first few miles from an 8min 20s mile pace back to 9min mile pace ... even on the steep climb out of Whitley!

I have to say during my little stint at times I did think the LUDICROUS thought of carrying on to the end.... although this wouldn't have been a PB kind of day and my heart was already in my mouth by Mile 4 ... despite this I was enjoying the feeling of a mass running event... it's been nearly 2 years since I did one of those at London Marathon in 2009.... we hit the 5mile marker bang on cue at 45mins... However, a little twinge on my hamstring warned and reminded me that this year is not about doing a "little" (ha ha that's like A LOT at the moment).. 13.1mile run this weekend and that actually that probably wasn't too sensible a thing to do...

..So with a little reluctance I decided that PLAN A was indeed a good one... so I handed Westie one of my gels (she had none!) and told her if she could stomach it throw it down around mile 8-9 and I peeled off to the side of the runners with the noise of the band playing a deep beat under the Reading Ring Road and came to a brief halt... time enough to turn my t-shirt inside out (I didn't want people to think I was cheating so wanted to not show my number)... and took a little solo jog down the canal (which was filled with a surreal peacefulness given how hectic and crowded the run route was).... I re-emerged onto the run route at about mile 11 (as I need to get back to the start/ finish area) and found myself jogging near runners who would be hitting about a 1hr 20ish half marathon. AWESOME. They so blew me away ... and there was me barely 7.5miles into my little Sunday jog... ha ha ha...

I made my way to the stadium (although clearly not into the stadium for the finish!)... and managed to get into the runners exit so I could hand my timing chip back and pick up a foil blanket (as I was a bit cold by then).... I did get offered a medal but clearly and rightly refused it!!! I did see some of the usual gang of Reading Half runners, with Steve posting a 1hr 22 time, Dan (with no training.. how very dare he...) post a time of 1hr 36 ... missed Keith post his 1hr 53. ... With some sneaky help I even managed to get a press pass for the finish area in the stadium only to completely miss both Popey finishing in 1hr57'58 and Westie doing what was the aim.. a sub 2-hour and a PB with it of 1hr59'09 .. which was BRILLIANT!

So a good day was actually had by all..... Followed the run with good company and a lovely pile of Fish and Chips (in my case) in Henley and celebrated in the evening with a fishfinger and chip butty accompanied with a glass of champagne (if only I had such discipline in my diet it would make this running thing a whole lot better/ easier!)

Anyway - give my decision to not run Reading I had already entered a few other races... .so here is the current swim/ bike/ run race calendar (thus far) for 2011, will probably be sneaking in the odd bike TT and maybe a shorter distance tri at some point (just to remind me what transition is!);

02 May: Shinfield 10k (Run)
15 May: L'Etape Caledonia (82mile Cycle Sportive)
12 Jun: Magnificat (82mile Cycle Sportive)
10 Jul: New Forest 10 (10miles Run)
17 Jul: High Wycome Half (13.1miles Run)
21 Aug: ETU Long Course - Finland (Expecting 4k/ 120k/ 30k)
05 Nov: ITU Long Course - US of A (Expecting 4k/ 120k/ 30k)

Such an exciting year ahead.

Fearless

2011-03-04T20:03:00.001Z

... Or should that be fear less?

I did it today. I stopped. I've got out of the rat race (well at least momentarily!!!). Tomorrow is the start of something new, I know not what exactly. But that is the point.

So rather then wittier on about what I don't actually know yet (other then for my immediate future I plan on having some fun, education, take joy from my surroundings and be thankful for each day) ... I thought I'd just post the lyrics to the song which aptly was playing on the radio whilst on the way home from my local minimart (coop)....

Pink Floyd - Fearless

You say the hill's too steep to climb
Just climb it
You say you'd like to see me try
Climbing
You pick the place and I'll choose the time
And I'll climb
The hill in my own way
Just wait a while for the right day
And as I rise above the tree lines and the clouds
I look down
Hear the sound of the things you said today

Fearlessly, the idiot faced the crowd
Smiling
Merciless, the magistrate turns 'round
Frowning
And who's the fool who wears the crown?
And go down in your own way
And every day is the right day
And as you rise above the fear-lines in his brow
You look down
Hear the sound of the faces in the crowd

You never walk alone, you never walk alone
walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
and you never walk alone, you never walk alone

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Forest of Dean Park Run

2011-02-26T18:06:00.000Z

As I starred out of the window of the hotel last night and the rain lashing down and the flag flapping the breeze I thought to myself that off road shoes would probably be a good option for the Park Run in the Forest of Dean in the morning. Shame then that I had left them at home!

If you've not heard of the concept of Park Run before it's pretty straight forward. Register once (this gets you your bar code) and you can turn up for a 5k timed run at 9am at a park near you. They are free, you don't need to register for the one you're going to do, the results are posted on line within hours, they are friendly, they are welcoming and likely to be held at a park near you. .... in the case of the Forest of Dean run it's a woodland, which at this time of year is a little... err... muddy.

Anyway..... got up early enough to have breakfast and got in Betty (the motor) and zoomed up the road to the run via the National Dive centre to drop the Pope off. Such sweet memories of the Dive centre, that being the place for the epic Little Woody race last year.

I got to the car park up at Five Acres (venue for little woody race hq - so more memories) and found other newbie FoD runners. I looked at their footware - I had already decided that Asics racing flats were not a suitable choice and so opted for a pair of *new* Asics Gel Cumulus that were lurking in the back seat.

They looked nice, shiney and new.....

hummmm EVERYONE was wearing off roaders.....

Got to the race start and the organiser turned up pushing his mountain bike and proceeded to state that it was muddy out there today - in fact so much so he had got off his bike!! HA HA HA!

Now I wasn't expecting much from this "race" ... just best effort... I've not done a great deal of running (I am ignoring the fact I have a half marathon in ...err.. oh dear about 3 weeks...)... and then when someone said to a slim, runner looking lady "what time do you usually do..." to which she replied "21mins..."... he replied she'd more likely be 23mins on this course. ... so that was good actually as I'd have wanted to go sub 26mins and maybe poke towards sub 25... but I had already decided that was unlikely given the likely muddy situation and so now I was figuring something around 27mins would be ok - this was good as had the effect of taking the pressure off (not that there actually was much pressure!)

Anyway - the small gathering gathered, the organiser gave us a quick talk about following the signs (it's a looping, in, out and around the dusty windows type of course)... and we were off.

There was the usual stamped up the first 50m (and only 50m of solid ground) before we bank/ slide right and were into the rhythm of a 5ker.... somewhere in the first k I rounded a right/ left bend, lost my footing completely and done a bambi-esk skid, slip, slide with arms and legs flying. How I managed to stay on two legs and not brake or strain anything is beyond me (I was commended for my "holding it" after the race)... This was definitely not a day to worry about run technique (pose or not)... but a day to try and control my lateral movement whilst trying to attain forward momentum. It was a hoot.

After what felt like an age I dared look at my watch... HOLY MOTHER OF ***... I had only been going 10mins... and clearly I had gone off way to fast (I will download my Garmin later next week)... to say I was blowing out of ever orifice would be about correct. Oh how I have forgotten about how tremendous 5k's can be!!

There were 2 laps for the run - although lap 2 was a totally different configuration to lap 1 - completely disorientating at one point people were coming back in my direction (that would be the fast ones!).. there was a guy running with his dog - clearly a regular (both the dog and man)... made me laugh when the guy came past me only for the dog to protest and stop for a quick doggy doo moment.... they came past me again only for the dog to have another moment yards later!! ha ha ha... they past me for the final time on the home straight (damn that dog - he looked like he had had lots of fun!!)

I was pleased to finish and stop my watch on something just under 27mins... the fast girl from the start looked like she had been back an age... and had virtually no mud on her legs.. I could not say the same for either my legs or my trainers..... I said thanks to the organiser and then all that was left was for me to squish my way to my car, get back to the shower and scrub my legs clean!!

I have NO idea how I got that much MUD above my knees on my inner thighs....!!

3hrs 36mins

2011-02-16T18:53:00.001Z

Umm yes I'd love to do a marathon in that time but that is not the meaning of this quick blog!

I was playing around with an iPad app the other week called "think it" .... I'm sure you can do plenty with this app (I'm not terribly proficient and finding out how to utilise apps to their strengths), but I have for now concluded this app turns my iPad into a big expensive scribble pad (useful if you have a pointy thing thinner then my finger)...

So I got to scribbling (with my finger) about why my working week was so ridiculous last year; yes work was ridiculous, I was training for Ironman (but to be fair I rarely did more then 5 hours during the working 'week').... I basically wanted to understand where time had gone; so scribbled with my fat finger some numbers of approximately what i thought I did on average. These may not be entirely accurate;

So I worked out out that on average per day, after sleep, work, work out, eating breakfast and dinner that I had on average 3hours 36mins a day for other 'stuff' including going to or from the gym, setting up the turbo etc, talking to my parents or few remaining friends who tolerated my crazy ironman indulgence, soaking in the bath, feeding and cuddling the kittehs, blogging, reading, shopping, waking up, going to sleep, other household chores, let's not forget general monging etc

It's no wonder on longer working weeks then that I got a bit overwhelmed.... There was one time I had no food, absolutely none (well other then recovery powder!!,)! that was about the time my laundry basket was so overfull that I actually had no pants to wear either.... These situations clearly were resolved but often at the expense of sleep, which as we all know is a vital ingredient to not just athletic recovery but normal every day happiness and energy.... The second area which was forsaken was exercise; another sound ingredient to the energy balance of life....

So the question I now find myself asking is why did I do that? Why did I work 45 or 55 or even more? To what end? Did I save the planet with this time? Did I aid society with this work? Is the company thankful to me for doing this? Was it time well spent? Am I passionate even about what the business does? Was it really necessary? Why.. Why... Why... Why and why again?

Now had this been my own business, or one which I loved, was passionate about, valued it's worth and which had meaning to me then I don't think this would have been such an issue after all it would no doubt have been part of a bigger personal goal? So I would hope at least a sense of worth and satisfaction would have been derived from those sacrificed hours at the least.

A balance in life for me is key to both happiness and success, however one defines that success to be (and let's face it we as individuals change our own definition of what "success" is to ourselves over time; it's bound to change). And balance for me comes in the form of time to work, time for family and friends, time for me and time for 'stuff'.

What I do know from this is 3hours and 40mins of 'other' time is, for me at least, not enough of a balance. Particularly I guess when the thing your dedicating the majority of your time doing leaves you only feeling drained, with little sense of it being worthwhile.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Book Review: Core Performance Endurance

2011-02-10T09:33:00.001Z

I got this book just around about Christmas time having read about it on some blog (I can't remember the one, it was one of those days I bounced around blogs and links and links and blogs). I recognise my core is poor and thought this was (yet another) way to get some inspiration and attack the problem head on!

Anyway - I finally got around to picking up the book whilst on a business trip (it fitted in my hand luggage). Somewhat inevitably I skipped right to the session planner towards the rear.... I kind of already knew some of the moves and exercises, there's a good section on foam roller/ tennis ball "regeneration" moves which initially I thought useful too. I turned the pages back to the program page (there is but one) and thought "huh" what is it talking about here... there was nothing for it - I'd have to read the book from the front!!

So I took the book down to dinner (as you do when you're travelling on your own); gorged myself on the contents of the book whilst eating a rather below par hotel meal (I should have been more adventurous and headed out but I'd been up since 4am and couldn't be arsed!).... I was soon engrossed and fascinated to the principles laid out in the "Introduction" by the author Mark Verstegen. Although I thought, I am not one of those "endurance athletes" who suffer from any form of chronic injury .... but errr wait a minute ok I did actually have a f**cked up foot most of last year and didn't run which was completely acceptable yes?!.... OH GOD THIS COULD BE ME WITHOUT ME EVEN REALISE... so I read on.. Whilst not all of the paragraphs were apt for me per se they could have been and perhaps they would have been in my future?

I read on with an ever increasing interest. Chapter 1 "A call to change" starts with a very interesting test/ observation before talking about the ability to store and release energy efficiently (surely an endurance athletes goal). Chapter 2 gives some key self evaluation activities.... these were an eye opener - not necessarily surprising but an eye opener!!

These two chapters really lay the foundation for Part 2 of the book "Core Endurance Movement" where the key chapter for me comes in chapter 3 "Building your pillar"... without barking on about the principles too much my main take away from this was BEFORE exercise it's pretty darn important to awaken your pillar of strength (this is not just your core) in order to get the right muscles firing straight away when you start... I am a nightmare ... my warm up is the first 20mins of run/ bike or swim... at least it was before I read this book. Don't get me wrong I've always aware of the need to warm up... BUT I've never (not even with our hockey SAQ warm up although that is the closest) awoken my "Pillar of strength" as referred to in this book. This is not just your "core" girdle but hamstrings, glutes, pelvis, hips, back etc (read the book)..... and done via a suggested routine (which are those towards the back of the book which is where I started!)

So without further a do and my head buzzing I decided I'd get up early the next morning and test out the theory.

I have to say whether it was a placebo effect or genuine I went for my run the next day and it felt GREAT... I was buzzing along felt extremely comfortable, relaxing and much more enjoyable then a standard early morning grunt run in a foreign country.

I'd certainly recommend this book to anyone wanting to engage in swim/bike or run activity (in fact it will transfer to any sport I'd think although Verstegen may have written a different book for these??? )... There are further parts to the book; Part 3 discussing "Core Endurance Nutrition" (which I found I knew much of because I've read into this before but it is all good information) and then with Part 4 "The Core Endurance Workout" being the very useful guide to the exercises (how to, key coaching points and what you should feel) as well as the session planner itself.

You can currently get this book on Amazon in the UK for under £9 - and I'd recommend it for that money.

Ease of Reading: 5/5
Value for money: 5/5
Met Expectations: 5/5

Big thumbs up!

Walnut Hemp Burgers

2011-01-31T17:30:00.000Z

Yes you read correctly!

To put this blog entry into context; well I purchased "The Thrive Diet" for fellow "349a" gang members Jules and Anita... not that any of us particularly need to go on a "diet" as such - that's not what this book is about. The book is written by the long distance triathlete, Brendan Brazier, who also happens to be a Vegan. Now none of us are Vegans, indeed I am a meat lover. Jules on the otherhand is a vegatarian... Anita and I have long mused and been concerned about the variety of beans he has been including in his diet so when I saw this I thought it would be a good addition to his vegatarian cook book shelf - and particularly apt given he's doing his first Iron Distance race this year.

So the comedy Christmas present was purchased and duly sent to Anita and Jules:

Now on getting this present I explained to Anita the reasoning... to which she replied "You know Jules may not get it.. he could take one look at it and put it to one side".... so I asked him after Christmas... "Jules - what do you make of the book then"....(ha ha ha) ... the reply came.... "well yes I looked at it but I've put it on the side at the moment"... DAMN.. Anita knows Jules well... oh how we laughed!!... So the poor book had been propped up on a shelf in Scotland... Humm not to be outdone I have thus set us all a challenge... We would all take it in turns to do a receipe from the receipe section (Jules this is the section towards the back of the book) and give each other a debrief on it... and so Jules and Anita... this is for you... My debrief on the Walnut Hemp burger.

Sourcing Material;
As you may soon see the "normal" ingredients in the thrive diet book are not the kind of ingredients you would not normally find down your local Tesco (or Waitrose for that matter). I have done some internet scurring around and found a good website in http://www.naturallygreen.co.uk/.... (so Jules has no excuse as they deliver to Scotland...), anyway having done the research I had my "comedy" Christmas present from Anita... the ingredients no less for the Walnut Hemp burger (this is the only reason I'm writing about it now let's be honest!).

Ingredients:
Walnuts, Hemp Seed, Cider Vinegar, EFA Oil Blend, Basil, Oregano, Salt and Pepper I set about it

Process
Chuck it all in a blender and blend!

Cooking time
Can be eaten as is (although I found this slightly heavy on the vinegar) or bake for 30mins in a moderate over, I did the later.

I decided to eat this with a little salad (I didn't bother adding any balsamic vinegar but did drizzle in extra virgin olive oil) and cooked some rice (I cooked the rice with a half onion, a cinnemon stick, some stock and blackeye beans; basically golden the onion, put in the rest of the ingredients boil up, lid on, temp right down and wait for 20mins).

The Walnut Hemp burgers were actually quite deliciously... clearly a little nutty but not overly so. The vinegar had calmed down in the baking process so actually could have gone with Balsamic in the salad. They were quite crunchy but strangely wholesome tasting.

I'd score this dish as follows;
Ease of making: 5/5 (as long as you have a blender)
Ease of baking: 5/5 (you don't need to but if you want to just put on a baking tray and bake!)

Taste: 5/5 (suprisingly)

Appearance: 1/5 (resembles something a cat with bowel trouble may have left in a litter tray)

Here's a picture after the salad was added (looking more edible now rather then cat crap....)

Ummmm Walnut Hemp burgers... I'll be doing that one again (although I think I need another bag of Walnuts as I went through the bag Yones got me...)

Week in summary

2011-01-18T21:42:00.001Z

Well usually I may consider a summary involving time, distances and possible in a fit of stat to madness, heart rate measurements too...

But not last week. Last week was the reawakening of that thing called .... exercise..... And so to be stress free little to no watch reading (unless I felt like I was well and truly past the red zone and about to have a heart attack).

So what did I do... Hum... Let me recall... So Monday I swam (YES) with no watch at all. It was fun to be in the water! Tuesday I ran, easy outside. It was nice to be out there in a little light drizzle for the awakening of the first dawn light.

Wednesday I was hoping to swim or do a body balance class after work, but that being the place of all consuming, time eating, financial year end that it is left me on my bum at my desk at 8pm.... And the class was long since missed and I had lost the will to live, let alone swim. So Wednesday became a rest day... Not that I resented that (what would be the point) and i wanted a little rest anyhow.

Thursday morning then I got up and swam.... And that felt nice too. With little idea before I plunged in about what "session" I'd do I decided to do a 30mins or min 1000m total and just feel the water as it were. Turned out to be a lovely swim, I could have carried on beyond the 30mins but the evil monster of foot cramptons made an appearance.... So it was time for me to leave the water ... And I left feeling pretty good with that too.... Why be stressed at a foot crampton, it was nice to close feeling full of spirit rather then knackered and my arms feeling like they were about to fall off.... After all I'm sure there's plenty of evil sessions to come this year!!

In my spirit of adventure I then decided to get to the gym in the evening just before my 7.30pm 'watershed' (after which time I don't believe in training unless it's stretching!).... Well gym dreadmill intervals was never going to be nice... And I was expecting to feel pretty rotten... But actually they were worse then evil and after I simply felt like going to bed for the rest of the winter..... Never got that post interval work out 'shine' from the effort.... No instead I got a great big migraine. Oh. But fear ye not, this was not the intervals fault but more my body throwing a hormonal imbalance wobbly at me (thanks then).... So good news really.... Intervals don't kill me even when my hormones are off the scale! I think that was only my 3rd migraine type experience of my life... Glad about that too...Let's hope for a nice big gap before the next one!!

So Friday was a right off which we will call a recovery day. I had originally thought saturday would be nice for a 5k time trial (stack up evil workouts in one week why not), but due to the headache Friday i thought better of it and went for a bike ride instead. Did briefly think about turbo session instead because the wind was blowing a bit then figured actually (a) I had probably ridden in much worse wind in Lanzarote and (b) it was mild enough to get out, so should strike whilst I can as one never knows when the winter may return and make me turbo! So I promptly went out and nearly got blown over by a gust of wind! Ha ha ha ha..... A nice easy 1hr 30 ride done I decided to throw in a comedy run straight after... Just 15mins of hilarity whilst my legs screamed "waaaahhh what are you doing" at me.... And I was running "easy" too.... Quite entertaining and in just before the sun went down and the rain came!

Sunday I was taken for a nice gentle "jog" up the Kennet canal... Who'd have thought a canal would have so many hills .... Ok ok... So there weren't any right.... Just felt like it.... But that was probably the red wine being filtered by my liver right? Anyway, I did wear my watch for this one, which was wise because this was supposed to bean easy "jog" which saw my hr peak to 170.... Very funny that then..... Note to self; for first long run since..... Errrrr.... Who knows when.... Do not play poker whilst drinking red wine in a smoked filled room the night before. It is not conducive to performance, although does provide some form on "entertainment". To be honest though the run was great. Running in daylight, on a windy day next to a stretch of water smelling the fresh air was GREAT.

So that was the week. No idea of hours logged. No ideas of distances swam, biked or run (although that could be because have not downloaded my garmin yet... Ha ha ha ha..) but I got some decent time in doing "stuff". More of the same this week may be challenging as I am in holland for a couple of days then excitement of excitement start my Diploma this weekend.... I think this week will be mainly about running.... And stretching... Oh and at the weekend.... Sports Massage!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Getting back to it!

2011-01-11T13:24:00.001Z

Well well well...yes I'm here again and so soon too!

Having had a nasty bout of the lurgy over the Christmas period, which is doing the rounds, I find myself at the beginning of year with big plans and next to no fitness! But I'm quite cool about it... After all sometimes you need to get unfit to get fit if you see what I mean and the rest has done me good.

Physically I may be a lard arse but mentally I'm excited about the year ahead and the challenges which await!

So with a fresh and frosty day on Sunday I grabbed the moment and headed out on my bike for the first ride in an age! It was a beautiful day although the roads remained on the brink of treachery with the odd patch of ice, slush (from burst pipes) or pot holes to keep me on the edge of my seat (well that and the fact my seat was not quite on at the right angle!!... Ha ha)... still I thought I'd go for 2 hour ride.... Ahem whilst aerobically I felt fine my legs were a little surprised to say the least! .... But it was a lovely day and felt good just getting out there.

I celebrated my bikey feat by putting in my application for entry into the long course european and world championships!! Ha ha ha... Ummmm a lot of training and stashing of fitness required then!!

Having now 'started' back then I thought this week I'll look to re-establish some form of order and routine. So yesterday morning headed to the pool for what would have been during last season, a recovery swim. The pool was pretty empty when I got in, I had no plan and no swim watch. The freedom this afford was about spot on, I consumed my allotted 30mins of no pressure swim with 10mins of warm up mixing up crawl and breaststroke, followed by 10mins of drills (mainly single arm, my left still being pathetic!), some sprints and then a mixed stroke warm down. Back in the pool in week 1 = done!

Today (Tuesday) would have been (last season) a long swim day but (a) as 30mins constitutes a long swim at the moment and (b) I have a half marathon in less then 9 weeks and have done NO running of late I thought a little trot was in order. Hummmm... Not terribly impressed with myself that I got overtaken my a man with a rucksack, ha ha ha ha... Although yes I was fiddling with my iPod at the time... And yes he didn't drop me (also figured out that even with the rucksack he weighed less then me ... Ha ha ha) still... He spurred me on a bit as I tracked him up the road, interesting tat he like me didn't like staying on the undulating path (due to drive ways) but at every opportunity ran in lane. Anyway, was with him for about a mile before I took a left up the hill or nearly doom... Which was challenging but entertaining! Ran back feeling like it was good to be out, can't wait for the mornings to get lighter and appreciate the rising sun as well as the first light of dawn!

The trick now is to get into routine without getting carried away - must remember it's been over 3 months since the ironman and I am in no position to do a 'normal' volume of training in my week!

And yes... I have every intention to make the blogging a little more consistent along with the training helps keep me on the straight and narrow (well kind of)

Happy 2011.... It has begun! Whoop!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Happy 2011!!!

2011-01-01T21:46:00.000Z

Yes a new year is here already.... Like yikes.... Doesn't time fly!!

And before you ask no I have no resolutions as such.... Last year seem to work fine without any New Year rules so I thought I'd go for it again this year!

On very quick reflection of my 2010 tri year I conclude I had my longest injury period ever ( stopping me from running for months!) but still managed to do my longest race ever!! I swam a lot, biked even further and wished I could have run just a little bit.... I also had the biggest case of road rash I ever had.... And so the biggest scabs.... I also had the most grossly infected big toe ever.... All in the name of going long... In summary I had a FAB year :)

Next year, what am I saying THIS year is going to bring change (I quit my job and have about a month left to go).... Some time to give back (I'm hoping to do some voluntary work), some time to learn (I've enrolled on a sports and remedial massage course) and some excellent tri adventures (both as support crew and fingers crossed a big adventure State side).... It will be a thrill and a year on enlightenment (at least that's what I'm hoping for)

I'll leave it there and wish you sweet cheers for a wonderful, healthy, wealthy and prosperous new year.... And this little bit of comedy which I got forwarded yesterday.. You may have seen this already.... I found this sadly hilarious.... And please note I never ever got up at 4am for a work out last year!!

and yes I am an idiot... and truly insane....

Challenge Barcelona 2010 - the aftermath

2010-12-28T10:23:00.003Z

First off... SEASONS GREETINGS!... So you thought I'd leave the race report there did you.... Well I'm not quite done yet ;) ...Here's the Christmas bonus... THE AFTERMATH... Hey it was a big day you know so may as well capture it all.....

Err guys I was in the water not in the air...

Ta Da!

So having crossed the finish line and burst in to tears I was carolled around into the athletes finish area.... A place of worn out bodies and big cheesy grins, of knowing looks and weary smiles. I took a look at the food.... A big long lushous line of melon, pizza, sandwiches and stuff which would normally seem appealing... But frankly it made me want to barf. I took a couple of slices of melon tentatively just to see if I could... I turned around to the massage area to see bodies strewn everywhere, had a quick chat with some south African guys (apparently I had talked to one of these on the run... Did I mention I talk to anyone), anyway the wait was 30mins for a massage and I couldn't be bothered with that....

... It was at this point though I realised that everyone seemed to have something I didn't.... Namely a nice warming space blanket! 'hurumph' I thought.... 'where's mine?' .... And 'surely I need one, I'll probably get cold in a minute' .... Clearly I was thinking more like I was in the UK rather then 20something degrees Callela... But I couldn't let it go... I wanted a blanket!!! More then anything else... Where was my god damn blanket (just call me Lional) .... I hunted around, went back to the finish line and found that they were no longer handing them out there but at the medical tent.... Well a competition wouldn't be complete without a trip to the medical tent now would it... So I staggered my way around there... They tried to herd me in for a drip but I managed to convey that I only wanted a blanket :)

And so clutching my blanket as if it were a winners trophy I made my way back around to my afterwear bag.... I had just grabbed it hunting for my protein powder (which I should have been more concerned about 30mins earlier rather then then bloody blanket but still).... It was about this point that I heard my name being shouted by Dan the man.... Which confused me, I was in athelete only area wasn't I?... But there was no doubt that was his distinctive Leicestershire bellow, followed by several higher pitched calls... I looked around towards the noise.... The fence and looked up to see about 5 grinning faces pulling the top of the tarporline covers down ... "what you playing at? You've been ages.... Come on!!"

...err good point I thought, they had afteral suffered my day too!! I grabbed my bag, my beloved blanket and some more melon and left the area.... Being careful not to trip up on the bottom of exit ramp!!

Yeah hugs all round.... Did I say I have great friends... I mean they've got to be given I must have really really honked by then!!

HAPPY CAMPERS - They had beer I had my blanket

With some help I managed to get my rego recovery drink mixed and consumed that whilst the gang consumed beer!! I sniffed a little beer but was convinced by the sniff alone that wasn't quite the right thing to be drinking!

Cheers!

Having had some happy snaps taken and some general high pitched excitable female natter (poor Jules and Dan)...I realised my day wasn't quite done yet.... Not only did i have to stagger back to my hotel but I also needed to get everything out of transition too.... Bleah!

Thankfully both Elaine and Pikey volunteered to be helpers and came back with me....

Karen - you smell get to transition

To find only one was allowed into the bike transition with me to pick up the kit. So Pikey patiently waited as Elaine and I went to gather my belongings. We got to the transition tent where I found some spare socks..... Yeah that would be nice I thought, shame I can't bend down to reach my feet!! Ha ha... Then Elaine (bless) volunteered to swap then over for me... The socks not my feet..... Did I say I have great friends... So after 6.5 hours of pedalling, 5.5 hours of jogging and walking Elaine did the unthinkable.... Yes people she touched my feet... The thought of which is almost making me barf.. They were not a pretty sight.... But that's friendship for you.... So sitting there with clean socks on I realised I had yet to phone my parents!.... I grabbed my phone and called up.... Both Mum and Dad were so chuffed and thrilled, in was great talking to them. Popey had done well with twitter or facebook updates which

Popey taking her twitter duties seriously

Mum had been following... She said she'd never 'watched' the internet so intensely :)...... it was then that I suddenly felt, well faint... Uh oh.... Having experienced this feeling
before I recognised that actually I had to stand up and get moving or I really would faint and I really didn't want to end up in the med tent!! ... So with haste I pretty much put the phone down on Mum and told Elaine we had to hussel or she'd have a lump of 11 stone passing out!! So we gathered by bags, picked up the bike and left transition handing the bike to Pikey on the way out.

Getting back to the gang there was talk of food....

Is it beer o'clock?

It was then I realised not only was I starving but actualy had to eat immediately!! So despite the fact everyone had supported all day and were hungry themselves, well that didn't matter I quite selfishly needed food immediately, like right now, no waiting, not queuing .... There was only one thing for it.... I went back into the athlete's finish area and filled a plate up with as much of everything as I could carry... The look of which made me feel sick an hour earlier I now couldn't get enough of!!

As this was clearly all about me I then asked if someone could forgoe their meal a little longer to help me get back to the hotel.... I have to admit it gets a bit vague from this point in.... But I got back, apparently showered (without assistance getting in and out I may add) and was left to my own devices for a bit. Dan and Leanne went back to the finish line to cheer in another member of my club we had got to know whilst were out there, the girls grabbed some food and came back for natter and massage (they took instruction well and gave me a good calf massage ... Did I mention I have great friends!).... At some point everyone left me, I had recovery drink, some food, some bars, some salt tablets and lots of water... Somehow though I don't think I slept too well.... I actually didn't feel too tired, just excitable from the days events!

Monday consisted mainly of eating; I felt hungry about every 2-4 hours, drinking plenty; a mixture of electrolytes and some more recovery drink. In the afternoon we gathered down the beach, I had a little recovery swim and laughed a LOT at KirstyDawn trying to get in the swell... There had been a storm over night and the waves were pretty big! To say it was funny watching her get knocked back time and time again being washed up the beach would be an understatement I laughed and cried until my cheeks hurt! I felt surprisingly well, yeah I was getting hungry and thirsty every couple of hours but other then that and a couple of blisters on my feet I felt 'ok' .... But then I got a text from Jezza the king of sports massage (at least he has been for me this year).... He congratulated me and warned that he was always ok the day after a race (he's done an ironman and several ultra's) what with the euphoria of the situation, but warned that tomorrow may not quite be the same....

... And so it came to pass... I was woken up at about 4am with pain!!... Nothing serious just achey pain, but like from every joint in my body!! Ha ha ha! Lucky then I had a morning trip to the spa planned with Jules and Fionna.... I'm sure that helped plenty. Tuesday afternoon I chilled out on my own, with everyone bar the hockey contingent having already gone or on the way to the airport ... I had time to chill, pack my bike down and try and comprehend what I had done. I still to this day can't quite believe it... Just the most awesome sensation!

Tuesday night was the final night in Callela; we found a really nice tapas bar just close to the hotel when Jules, Anita and I had raced in May.... So Pikey, Popey, KirstyDawn and I went down there and said 'just bring us Tapas!' and the owner did just that... We had a delicious spread of gambos, manchego, beef, bread and other such delights.... Washed down with some nice Rioja and later some Cava (my alcoholic taste buds had been restabilised).... A perfect final dinner in a place where a dream had come true.

Vino Tinto anyone?

Ah a nice little bit of celebration bubbles :)

Most of the pictures on this page today come from Hannah - so thanks Hannah for being such an excellent and happy snapper - well it is your profession but still.... thank you thank you thank you... Some other FAB pictures from Hannah (http://www.hannahmornement.com/portfolio/topics.html )

This is one of my favorite - not that I'm in it. But the guy to the right with the runners coming and going kind of this distance to me and the struggle you have to reach journeys end.

Coffee break

I could have done with a nice coffee at some point during the event - glad to see other peeps got that sorted ok as well as bagging themselves a couple of freebie drink bottles!!

No idea who this man is but WHAT a shot!!

I know who this man is... it's DAN (also known as the actor Damian Lewis look-e-likey)..

Bikey action shots - I even got me some cornering going on there...

Note the man in the distance on the right coming to the camera... white top, dark shorts - you just got to keep putting one foot in front of the other fella....

The carnage of the run!


Leanne, Elaine and Pikey show off the Doris t-shirts

A completely gimp picture of me, a smile reminiscent of that taken when I was 18months old... which was probably the last time I pee'd my pants prior to that day ;)


Did I mention I had a pain in my bum on the bike?

Challenge Barcelona Maresme Race Report

2010-12-23T20:11:00.000Z

and so the hooter went off.....

SWIM

Well the hooter went and it took me a millisecond to realise, in fact I think it was the main pack to my left running that made me move. Knowing that it was hardly worth a sprint to the sea with such a long day ahead I kind of 'ran' Phoebe still in to the water and was grateful for the one practice of a 'run'/dive start in Lanzarote during my September break! I pulled off the dive without any mishap and somehow found myself in free water.....

......This was largely due to the fact the main bulk of my wave had started to the left with what they thought was the racing line....

.... Actually the current was slightly right to left so I soon found myself with the bunch although surprisingly clear water. We had a 200m swim out to the turn buoy, I tried my best to contain my excitement but still swam too hard. One slap in the face nearly lost me my goggles but that was about it - getting to the buoy with only a couple of people ahead I figured I'd better steady off a bit, not worthy of such an advance position (oh and of course there was another 3.7k to go).... We turned the buoy for the longest straight line swim I had ever done, the thought of which made me smile in water. I settled in to a steady rhythm with no feet to really follow whatsoever. This is what makes the Challenge races a little different from a mass start - with the pro's off in front, the women next then a 10min gap to the men it would mean no feet to follow...I was pretty cool with that... afterall you do this by yourself right..... There was one or two peeps clearly out in front and then a little shawl of tri fishes.... Lucky for us the sea was pretty flat and the very well spaced buoys were not too difficult to spot, although to be honest we could have done with more of them. I was not always getting as tight as I would have thought was ideal to the buoys - it was pretty difficult to spot the next buoy so easy to drift off the line. I had a little chuckle as I swam past my hotel about a mile from the start, this meant I should be spotting the turn buoys soon.... There were a few boats down this end of the swim which were needed.... It was too easy to spot the top turn buoy in the left and not see the right buoy which we had to get around first (it was like the bottom of a rectangle with a 100m gap between the two).... The boats did a good job of herding me around the correct buoy. Doing the turn felt good. I felt really at ease and was holding a nice effortless swimg.... All those horrid swim sets my coach had me do about pacing were paying dividends. So I set about the swim back.... Having done my longest ever straight line swim i was immidiately about to emulate it with an even longer swim!!.... It was soon after the turn that the first swimmers from the wave behind came past, to be honest I had expected them sooner, I tried to hook on some feet but these boys were quick!!.... damn the organisers for not giving me any feet to follow ;).... The way back felt good, spotting a few jelly fish was just surreal, the waters were so clear and still it was just wonderful swimming out there.

During the way back I set about the second most important task of the swim, after getting the pacing right that is.... And that was trying to have a pee!! Now this was an area of my training I had focused on during the summer (I kid you not the boys at the lake took the piss a lot with week after week of failing to do this...) ... Anyhow, the trick for me is to slow the stroke rate down and go for it... Well I did but I didn't if you get me.... This was very disappointing!! Ha ha ha.... I gave it a couple of goes but failed and then got a little paranoid that if I tried too many times that I'd come off the pace too much!!!

Finally got to the end of the straight and it was a turn left and start to spot the exit some 300m away.... By now I knew I needed a pee so was figuring how I'd achieve that without going to the portaloos, which in my mind was an unacceptable delay... hummmm.... Distracted slightly then, I spotted what I thought was the swim exit which was lined up with another buoy, keeping the buoy to my left me and close to another swim fishy swam on, it was then that I saw a few peeps off to my left and heading to somewhere else to exit...uh oh... Yep... Although I had spotted the transition tent the actual swim exit was 50m to the left... Damn! And knowing the tide would be pushing me right this made the swim in quite a bit tougher and further... I was a little annoyed at myself and still needed a pee!! I dug in to the exit ramp and figured to solve I other issie that I'd have to do a "Leanne" (so named after my friend Leanne who pee'd in her wetsuit once whilst running in to transition) ... So I upp'd my stroke rate and got a bit excited about having completed the swim.... I had been hoping of a time between 1hr 10 and 1hr 15... And maybe faster if conditions were good and I had some feet to follow. On the swim in anticipation and excitement was rising.... I had little idea if I'd actually be able to stand without getting that giddy head thing let alone run.... As it turned out I didn't ... I even managed to exit the water fairly smoothly without just being chucked up the beach in a heap! Stood up, starting jogging and stripped my wetsuit top down no probes whilst pulling some really rather unattractive faces to the support crew!!

A very unattractive squint at the crew....

With lots of cheering and the sound of Kirsty's vuvuzala ringing in my ear I jogged around to the transition tent, stopping short to have a quick pee in my wetsuit (I know gross!!!! But needs must) .... I did strip my wetsuit off outside the tent and shake it out... I thought it perhaps a little wrong to do that in the tent and cover everyone and their kit in my wee!!!

Happy that the swim was done!

I know when I came out of the water it had felt like a tough swim, but I think this was largely down to the swim in ... The last 300m felt long and harder then that because I had swam off course and then had to correct against tide... However overall I was happy...

When I lapped my gamin my swim recorded as 4km in a time of 1:13:43 .... Official race stats 3.8km 1:13:54 .... Good pacing I'd say about where I should have been if only I could have swam tighter to the buoys and hadn't gone wrong at the end.

Anyway I was happy and excited about getting on the bike!

Well I did what need to be done outside the transition tent, whipped off the wetsuit and moved inside. There wasn't a ladies section so much - but we were all down one side of the tent - not that anyone really cared about stripping off.... I had chosen to swim in a sports bra and swim shorts which was a good choice. Stripped off the shorts and put on the bike stuff... made sure my bike top pockets still contained the emergeny stuff (couple gels, pain killers and epipen!)... Glad for the bottle of fresh water I had stashed in T1 - so I could rinse my face and mouth a bit from salt and more importantly to sluice myself down a bit (there was no way was I going to risk additional chaffing from having had a dry land pee in my wet suit!! HA HA!).... Sun cream applied I put on my helmet, gloves and shoes and clip-clopped out to my trusty stead.

Having bagged me (well more like been allocated) an end slot on the bike rack I was surprised and glad to get a big cheer from the support crew who had dashed from swim exit to the bike rail.... WHOOP!... To say I was a little bit excited was an understatement.

Max racked and ready day before the race!

I grabbed the Max and turned to give the crowd a cheeky wave and made my way out of transition!

Swim job done and out onto the bike...

T1 = 7min 40something... I had never planned for the transitions to be fast. Having never raced this far before and having not really raced this season I figured I would have a nice relaxing time in transition and didn't bother with worrying about the time. I figured anything under 10mins would be acceptable... so .. happy with that....

BIKE

Oh my 112miles of bikey bike bike on a pretty flat and so unrelenting course. As soon as I got on my trusty stead I knew something was up!! Somehow either getting in the water or getting out I had pulled something in my right butt cheek... talk about ouchy.. this only manifested itself when I started to pedal. Not good when you're thinking "uh oh" in the first mile. Still I headed around the first few kilometers of the course which are based in town before heading out to the "course proper"... I was amazed to see the support crew had some how managed to dash from their transition position to the course by the time I zoomed through (clearly taking care on the speed humps!)... to be honest I may have missed them had it not been for the defeaning blast from the Vuvuzela which alerted me to their presence ;)

The "in town" part, start of the bike course

My plan for the bike was built around keeping my HR ubba low (other then the small climbs at the beginning and end of the long loops), to not worry about speed - just focus on nutrition, hydration, cadence and heart rate. Having a pain in the bum though was very distracting.... Figuring I'd see if it warmed up or not my back up plan was to stop and lower the saddle.... Another kind of expected failing in the first 8 miles was my Garmin. Having worn the HR strap in the swim so I didn't need to bother with fiddling with it in transition meant, like earlier in the year at the mishapped Half Challenge race, that I didn't get a HR for about the first 30mins... so officially I had a pain in the bum and was dead. Not a perfect start to the bike.

Still having expected the HR to be playing up I just got on with it based on perceived effort (ie I wanted to perceive no effort!!) and got about riding the familiar bit of the course (it's the same course as the half Challenge at the start except you go on further to the turn point). The bum pain was not settling and making me wonder if this was going to ruin my day... I didn't want to stress about it but as it was I couldn't get on my drops or my aerobars so something had to be done. So I stopped.... yes stopped!! When I got to the first aid station I pulled over... a man at the station checked that I was ok, then a support motor bike stopped and asked the same (they are well organised at this event!)... I got my tool kit out and lowered my seat, only a fraction, probably no more then 3-5mm. BUT BOY WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!! Immediately my bum wasn't pulling so I could pedal fine and better still I could get down on my bars, despite that I did something I never do in a race and took some precautionary pain killers.

BIG SIGH OF RELIEF! I CAN DO THIS!

In order to combat my tendancy to forget to eat regularly I had an alarm on my watch go off every 30mins and this worked really well, alternating between a third of a bar and an energy gel with some carb drink or electrolyte drink in between. When I made it down to the far end the first time (approx 22miles) I found Jules and Fionna waiting! Great to see some friendly faces at the far end of the course! It was quite empty down there! The great thing about the race is it runs alongside the main train line... well great for supporters as they can get between spots really easy!! At the bottom turn point there was an aid station well stocked and ready to hand off whatever I wanted; spot my rookie mistake;

Bottle pick up at 22miles....

Heading back up the course I soon realised I now had a tail wind as my speed picked up (I had been wondering about that) which gave me reason to smile. I then got back to about half way back on the loop (which is also the turn point for the Half) and was happy to see more Team Doris supporters in the shape of Elaine and Hannah.... Did I already say my support crew rocked!?

Girls at Party roundabout; Leanne had clearly got bored with her t-shirt and Dan had disappeared for breakfast (no lasting power!)

By the time I got back towards Maresme and the "party roundabout" I had bagged 44 miles, had no bum pain, was pretty much where I needed to be. As I approached the roundabout I nearly got blown off by KirstyDawn's vuvuzela again - made me laugh anyhow!!

On the way out on lap 2 something began to feel - well weird really. I couldn't quite place it. I felt like power was dropping, but couldn't figure it out.. maybe the headwind was stronger. I felt so strange I began to think something was wrong with the bike... and actually I then started hearing weird noises from my front wheel.... So I did the unthinkable again and STOPPED!! Yes got to that same feedstation half way down the long loop and stopped to have a look at my front wheel. The kind man asked me again if I was ok (as I poured water on my brakes - no idea why I did that)... I said "yep everything is fine" as I picked up the bike and spun the front wheel... he must have thought I was a right weirdo. I then figured out the strange noise coming from the front wheel was actually the noise of the wind cutting through the spokes... ha ha ha.. humm.. I'm such a loser... so got back on .. but still felt odd.

I got down to Jules and Fionna for the second time of asking now 66+miles into the bike and so halfway. As I got near to them I shouted;

"Something's wrong"

to which Jules replied

"EAT!"

and Fionna replied

"DRINK!"

... "it's not that I'm doing that ok".... From a food/ nutrition stand point I was sure I was about on the money. I had a sensation that I just hadn't experienced whilst training... couldn't figure it out and felt a little confused, a little concerned and began to doubt. It was then some form of miracle happened. As I made the dead turn and passed through the aid station I asked for some water and instinctively just poured it down the back of my neck and through my helmet. This wasn't a planned move. I hadn't even thought about doing that. I just did it.

"UH OH" ... I thought... "I AM BURNING UP"... Humm having had heat exhaustion once before I know it's a pretty unpleasant thing. And I knew as soon as I poured the water on myself this was the problem. I was just getting too hot under my helmet!! Thankfully though I caught it in time - later found out that it was around 30degrees (over 86 c) ... yep folks that would do me in. Anyway... the tri gods or my guardian angel took care of me... so from then on at every water station I grabbed a bottle and poured half on me and half in my aerobottle. I could also unflip the lids on the water bottles really easily so could add some squirreled away emergency salt tablets into them. Once I got this sorted the rest of the bike was, well not a breeze but more comfortable.

I stopped another couple of times... once to pee (although I didn't actually need to go - don't you just hate phantom pees!) and once because when I grabbed a gel from my back pocket my epipen went flying.... couldn't risk the wasps around not to have that - so had to stop and wonder back up the course!

Head down and getting tired - 90miles done.. heading out on the final half loop of 22miles

Only once during the bike did I allow myself to think about what was to come.... I wouldn't recommend that - unless you want to have a comedy moment to yourself.... I thought "shit after this I'm going to run a marathon! A marathon! That's a fucking long way (scuse my language mother)... I must be bloody mental... How on earth am I going to do that.... this is mad" ...cue mad laughter .. ."ok you've had your little joke - don't think that again Doris ok?!" ... and then that thought ended!!

Popey at the Party Roundabout - is that some Union Flag bunting?

The last half loop of the course was a lot lonelier then the first two big loops.... I think the majority of the field overtook me on the bike! At least it felt that way. The marshalling was good - I did see a bike train come past me a couple of times and I did see the marshal do everyone in one of them with yellow cards... which was good to see....I also saw some people in penalty boxes... No drafting means no drafting... really pee's me off when I see people "cheating" like that, it's not difficult to keep the distance (well I don't find it is but then maybe it's because I'm s-l-o-w!)

I had figured that I was probably capable of doing the bike in 6hours... but also figured that 6 hours would probably be a little risky on my first long distance effort, particularly when I'd only ran 2 hours (12miles) in my longest run. I figured a reasonable time for my bike, if I paced well and were to feel relatively "fresh" at the end was somewhere around the 6.5hour mark.

I was very happy to see my lap time coming in then on 6:28:small change..... Job done.... Needless to say I was ubba careful coming down through the town and into transition - this wasn't a day I fancied coming off my bike on a speed hump

BIKEY = JOB DONE!!

T2

Whilst the support crew were taking a well deserver refreshment break;

I re-racked my trusty stead and sauntered into the transition tent. I had planned a complete change of kit (apart from bra which just forget about trying to change one of those!),a thorough covering in sun cream, a drying of feet and some vaseline application to toes followed by clean pair of socks (nice feeling)..... had the delight of a transition marshall/ godess appear from nowhere and apply sun cream to my back!! Had a quick natter to a couple of English ladies in there who were getting changed too, grabbed my gel bottles (not that I would need that many), hat on and sunnies back on and away I went.

Again I wasn't bothered about the transition time so another 7min 40something time.

Dan had said to me the day before something like "it's really weird, but when you get to the run... you will actually be glad to be running".. I thought he was crazy.....

RUN DORIS RUN!

... but he was right! As I trotted out of the tent I settled into a rhythm of sorts I guess this was the ironman shuffle!!! Surprised myself to be comfortably going along with HR in the easy zone and pace at what I had trained at around 9:45 per mile... I had a little chuckle to myself.... I knew if one thing was certain that I would not be able to hold that pace for 26.2 miles but I would until I couldn't.... I just didn't expect that I couldn't only 4 k up the road!!! HA HA HA!

So the thing about this ironman distance thing is that, as I was discovering and as I was expecting, weird things happen. Your body just does stuff which you just don't know or expect - I guess the more experience you get the more you get to know. Still....the course was nice even 10.5k loops.... the first 1-1.5miles were busy and fairly vibrant - not just the lovely finish area but there were bars, restaurants and people - so quite atmospheric. This could not be said for the top end of the course. From the aid station at half way to the top turn was barren and derelict. Nothing to the left and a train track and sea front to the right on the way up and merely reversed on the way back. I wouldn't say it was soul destroying... but it was part of the experience. It was on the way up out on my first loop that I experienced my second "body surprise" of the day (first being the weird sensation on the bike).... I had got the the aid station, had my walk through and got back into my 9:30-9:45 pace no problem. I actually felt remarkably fine at this point.... and then my tummy just went... well "WAHHHHHHHHH" I think would describe it... I jogged along and thought "well that's not right".... now it wasn't the sort of discomfort and dread when you think you're about to crap your pants (I had been expecting that may happen what with all those gels!! HA Ha!)... Nope it wasn't that sort of cramp... it was just weird and really not very nice. So I slowed to a walk and it went... "Hummmmm" I thought... "OK I'll try a jog again".... did that... and no sooner..."WAHHHHhhhh"... my pelvic region really wasn't terribly happy with me... so I walked again.. Really couldn't fathom it... and then it came to me.... OHhhh maybe I need to PEEEeeeeeee.... See... your signals from your body are really srewy on this long distance stuff!... I hadn't actually gone since wetting myself on the way out of the swim!! HA HA.... ok but where to go... I was in the barren wasteland of the top of the course and there was no cover in sight... hummm... only choice I had was to walk with haste to the 5k turn point and aid station and hope there was a portaloo (or failing that a train station with a public loo!).... or bare my big white butt and scare everyone (this was not an option!)... .So managed to get to the aid station and like some holy coming there indeed was a portaloo... occupied.... bahhhh... so I waited (and waited... and waited... why couldn't they have had 2 loo's)... anyway after about 3-4mins this guy came out and apologised (clearly from the noise he had bigger problems then I - but didn't he know what this delay was doing to my lap time... LOL)... Anyway... suffice to say BOY DID I NEED A WEE... I was really a little taken aback about how much I needed to pee but hadn't sort of realised - I guess this is what comes from being folded up on a bike for 6.5hours!! Next time I shall hit the portaloos in transition - just in case!!

Job done... I headed back down the track... by the time I neared the feed station half way back Jules and Fionna had got there to offer some welcome encouragment!

My plan was to walk the aid stations which I duly did.... about half way between that and the finish area I came across Elaine and Hannah.. again welcome support.... Winding my way around the transition area, bike racking and a variety of little slopes and trip hazards I finally had the reward of running through the finish zone...

1 lap done, only 3 to go... ek...

....THIS WAS FAB! Despite the fact you know you have to go do that lap all over again (another 3 times) it was brilliant to have this little bit of cheer as reward for 10.5k done. The crowd were great and it didn't take me long to hear then spot Kirsty (and the Vuvuzala), Popey and Pikey... Yippee... Clearly I had to milk the crowd a bit to get more applause ;)

Making my way out for lap 2 I heard the male winner go down the finishing shute... the three things I thought...

"WOW!"...."At least I got a lap of the run done before he finished" and "Lucky bugger!"...

On the way out I got a big cheer from Dan and Leanne with Dan telling me with all seriousness (he is quite a good actor) that I was "looking strong"... ahem...

Any excuse to walk and high five was fine by me...

The next lap was somewhat unremakable.... mainly because I don't remember much about it!! My run pace by now was nearer 10:30s with slighltly longer walk breaks at the feed stations. I was pretty much determined to carry on the jog/ walk through feed stations until the half marathon was up... I had already lined up in my mind my own little reward for doing the half marathon of having some coke and bit of banana. I know at one point I was on for a 2:10 - 2:15 half marathon. I don't know what happened then for that to become more like 2:30.... I think things were fine (as they can be) for 15k, then they kind of weren't.

It was time to remove the sunglasses......

Each lap though I had fab support. You guys just don't know how great it was running from group to group. Elaine ran with me for a bit attempting a hand cam run interview.... well she tried that twice. Jules and Fionna convinced me I looked "great" and but I think the pictures tell a different story!!

Half marathon complete I became aware of more then just my buddies shouting at me from the crowd of onlookers.... I was getting "Go Doris Go" (like how did they know that was my name?) as well as the more obvious "Go Karen you can do it".. (do they know the competitors numbers and names?)... kind of confused me at first as I thought I ought to know these people but when I looked at them I didn't have a clue..... Anyway - in transpired that due partly to the support crew and their matching t-shirts and due to my hyperactivity on the Friday (talking to anyone who would stop for a milisecond near me)... meant I had a lot of new "friends" to encourage me on... Brilliant :)

"Honestly Karen you look great" .. Half Marathon done!

I was always thinking lap 3 would most likely be the most challenging.. still a long way to go, within touching distance but a long way left... so it was at the start of lap 3 that I "jogged" (I say that losely) passed this guy who was looking a little beaten up... I asked if he was on his last lap ... He wasn't... he had 2 to go also... so I said same here come on... let's run for a bit, walk for a bit... let's do it together... apparently we made a good couple as some peeps asked me afterwards where my husband was ROFL!!!!

Between us (I can't remember his name for the life of me) we encouraged each other on.... after the top turn I had been ahead of him a bit when I had a mini melt down... not emotional just totally whacked... anyway he ran up to me and gee'd me on... trouble was once I started jogging again I couldn't stop (it hurt too much!)... So I ended up jogging through his next walk break.

Evidence of attempted "jog" in lap 3

It was coming under the railway line (a small slope which was now resembling a mountain) for the end of the third lap, that my left knee had a sudden nasty painful moment. I had a really really big scare there... No way did I want a "incident" now... Shit what would happen if I strained a calf, tour a hamstring..... shit shit shit.. it wasn't so much doubt but fear that crept in ... Fear that something out of my control would ruin my day. I went through the finish zone for the penultimate time. Tried a jog and figured that actually the speed I was going was such that I may as well do a fast walk - I had the presence of mind to work out my run speed versus my walk speed would only save me something like 15mins of time...but actually the whole thing wasn;t about time. I wanted to finish, enjoy it and be injury free...If I stayed focused I could tab out the last 10k in an hour and half (15min mile pace)... I made my decision. It wasn't failure, it was strangely sensible and completely acceptable. I decided to speed walk my last lap. Despite Dan telling me I looked really fresh (ha ha ... he is such a good liar) and that I looked like I could run... my mind was set... Stay injury free, start eating a bit more food (I was starving!!) and walk it in. I told the guys of my decision and said "have a beer I'll be an hour and a half!"

From there on in I was truly on my own. The support team were congregating back at the finish area, the sun was down, most of the competitors were finished or finishing and the crowds were dispersing. Somehow though this all seemed highly appropriate; to be alone with my thoughts, my reasons for doing this, to remain focused on my walk pace... all seemed to be a good beginning of the finish. The barren area had become a dark wasteland interspersed (!) with the occasional traffic cone with flashing light on top (there were no street lamps around the top end of the course). Some point in the last lap my "husband" caught me and jogged past checking I was ok... I confirmed I was fine and told him to see it home - I'd be right behind.

I can't begin to articulate all the feelings and emotions flowing through my body on that last lap. For the first time I began to think of the enormity of the task I was almost completing. And then when negative thoughts of possible torn calf muscles crept in I banished them away to the wastelands nearby. I saw some fellow competitors I knew heading out on their final lap as I was heading in... we high five'd each other, whispered words of encouragment and continued on. I thanked and clapped every person still out supporting on the course. As I came into the beginning of the end, winding my way towards to the transition tent and beyond and Irish guy from my hotel jogged past - he, like I was about to finish... As he came past his Dad and Uncle who were jogging with him shouted back some encouragement... I thought "heck I can't end this walking... if they are in their 60s and running in flipflops I'll be buggered if I can't give this a go"... so, for first time in almost and hour and half I asked my legs to jog for one last time... the last 800m started off as quite painful and ended up being some of the most jubilent metres I've ever staggered along!

The crowds had dispersed somewhat by the time I hit my home straight... but the people who counted were there! With a terrific VUUUUUUUUU from the vuvuzala my arrival into the finish arena was announced.. .I looked up to spot the girls and almost didn't see they had split up with half the group at ground height for high fives on the way in.....

Jubliant can't sum it up... Just thinking about those seconds as I finished brings a tear (or several) to my eyes. I crossed the line in a state of disbelieve as I stopped and thought about what I, little old me, had done today.

I went down the slope was hugged and kissed by some guy, handed my medal and my finishers t-shirt then I burst into uncontrollable tears.

With big shoulder shudders I just stopped and cried. The poor Spanish marhall lady looked at me really concerned and said "Medical"... I looked at her and smiled and just said "no I'm just emotional!!"... ha ha .... she got it right away and smiled (or she just didn't understand and thought I was a loon!)

Challenge Barcelona Maresme 2010 Race Preamble....

2010-12-18T14:05:00.002Z

It may be two months since - but it doesn't take much for me to go back in my mind and remember how it felt. So now - for you -

RACE REPORT .....Well the preamble at least!!!!

So I woke up early hours (like 3am) of Friday 1st October to begin my journey to Espanola! I was travelling on my own (ok I did have my bike) with the support crew following from a variety of airports (although to be fair the advance party of Elaine and Hannah were already there). Airport checkin was eased by the decision to go and pay an extra tenner to check in via the Sleazy jet "speedy borders", which meant I queue jumped considerable and thus got to offload my bike and kit quickly and go and chill out with a coffee and some porridge.

Fortunately there were some other competitors on the flight - something I didn't discover until we arrived and waited (and waited and waited) nervously for the bikes to arrive - it took a ridiculous amount of time for them to come out in the excess baggage area to some extreme sigh of relieves (or should that be sighs of relief... discuss)!! Anyway - kit all arrived safely, transport to hotel was easy and I was back in the familiar surrondings of Meresme and the Hotel Maritam. I was thankfully that Jules, Anita and I had raced out there earlier in the year (even though I crashed and got injured - like I've not mentioned that before). Friday consisted of registration and the delight of finding out my race number was "123" .. Did I mention I loved that number... talk about perfect (it felt like the Tri Gods were smiling upon me). I had some considerable issues with my bike on my test ride - rear cassette was all over the place and my gears were slipping like no-ones business.... I tried not to panic... but did anyhow... Thankfully though with some putting on and off the rear wheel and some tweaking with that twiddle thing on the gear cable I resolved the issue by the time I went out on my second test ride Saturday morning. I had a quick dip on Saturday too with Jules - the water temperature if anything was a little warm, but the seas were lush. I prayed for calm weather the next morning.

As you can imagine I did little on Saturday after my swim, ride, bike rack other then eat pasta and drink (no alcohol involved before you wonder).... I had my "last supper" with Dan, Leanne, Jules and Fionna... took me some while to decide what to eat;

So I just decided to have the same dish ... TWICE.. YUM....

The support crew arrived, despite missing flights, late planes, missed trains... by midnight on the Saturday I had the best support team a girl could ever wish for and certainly (well I'm sure) I was the most supported person in town..... Here's a little picture of the crew (although Dan seems to be missing and Popey was behind the camera);

From left to right; KirstyDawn (aka The Reemanator), Spikey Pikey (aka Katharine), Jules, Fionna, Leanne, Elaine, Hannah... DAN is MIA and Popey is behind the camera! You can just make out they were wearing appropiately themed t-shirts with the words "Run Doris Run", or "Swim Doris Swim" or "Bike Doris Bike".. ha ha ha... with associated Pics - well done to Leanne for organising both the t-shirts and caps! Certainly got you and me noticed :)

And then it was time to "sleep" so we'll just call that rest then... sleep didn't come easy and when it did was extremely light.. I was sort of expecting that so didn't stress and figured as long as I was relaxed and my heart beating slowly and stress free that that would do.

4.30 am on Sunday 3rd arrived ... alarm sounded... I went nervously to breakfast and forced some bread and jam into my apprehensive stomach... a cup of coffee... back to the room for a 20min power nap... Made the HUGE mistake of (for some reason) when brushing my teeth of brushing my tongue I knew this would be a mistake on a nervous tum.. and boy did I nearly barf!! Yes the brush tickled the wrong bit and I had to sit down for many minutes to gain control of my retching stomach - there was no way was I losing my breakfast and valuable calories!!!!

It kind of worked out well after that near misjap with Dan, Leanne and Jules joining me for the walk down to transition and race HQ

I don't think I'd have coped with everyone but these guys I've raced with and they kind of know the zone you get in to... so I was quite happy that everyone else was choosing to have a lay in - after all it was going to be a long day for them too!!

I had a very nervous moment on seeing the race clock at the finish line.... and seeing it was counting down... WHOLLY MOLLY THE MOMENT WAS GETTING CLOSE .... It clicked down through the 1:00:00... to 0:59:59... I had to get transition and get my shit together...

I left the guys, went to transition, sorted my bike went to the bag tent... hooked up the bags checking my lists and contents one last time. I took my after race bag, my wetsuit and swim cap and googles and went back to my bike. I sat down with my iPod on .... getting in to the zone..... I thought about what had got me to this point; the reasons, the training, my family and my friends who despite thinking I was largely completely crazy had supported me in many different ways... I didn't think what lay ahead (cos that was just toooo freaky)... but sucked in the atmosphere.... stretched a little and tuned in. I got mentally ready and excited without being over excited (need to conserve that energy after all!).... I swapped my tracksuit bottoms for my wet suit and headed back out to join the gang - relatively chilled and relaxed considering;

Jules gave me some last minute instructions... "you get in the water over there" (the start line);

... thanks Jules... so where do I finish... "Oh I think that's over there";

Cool.... not much more to do then.... forget the warm up....

Let the sun come up...

... Let the Pro's start....

......... Line up....(find out who was shouting my name... look for the taller person arriving near side of the line with the dark goggles next to the other tall person with red on her wetsuit and dark goggles ... I hear my name but I don't know from where - well eventually I get it...)...

............. Let it begin.... Leading the charge near side... well for a very short while!

Ta da!

2010-11-29T07:37:00.000Z

Sorpresa!

Yes I am still here - alive and well.

I have had a very exuberant and indulgent "recovery" 2 months and have gone from Iron(wo)man fitness to a lump of booze soaked lard!! HA HA HA

But the main reason for the silence is from a bit of self review and decision making - I always go quiet on the blog front when things are going on like that... anyway... as most of you FBers will know I handed in my notice at work about a month ago - given the stress and long hours I finally had enough and consider my health and wellbeing to be of more important... and certainly 9-12 hour days does not consituent a health life work balance.... so as I said to my Mum recently... "If I have a heart attack and die whilst I'm on a swim, bike, run or just walking outside then that's fine and be happy for me... If I have a heart attack and die at my desk at work through stress and overworking then I'd be pretty flippin annoyed".

So tough decision maybe but in some ways an easy one... Life is too short to not have a certain degree of balance and reason with it. Don't get me wrong; the people I work with were and still continue to be ace but the company and the culture is not a fit and recognising that and doing something about has been a little challenging for me to get my head around. Still done now and I'm happily working through my 3 months notice.

Plans for next year are also taking shape.. I have some rather ambitious (perhaps overly so but still) aims... Which will culminate hopefully in a trip to either Finland in August or Vegas in November but first I want to think about getting back into some sort of training regime and healthier lifestyle... I say thinking about it because the Christmas crazy season is almost upon us!!

On another note... I have a friend who is on her first journey to being a Marathoner and has started a blog to capture her thoughts - so if you have a moment take a peak at her blog here

Now... where is that race report....

Once upon a time

2010-10-12T07:46:00.000+01:00

Some 4 and a bit year ago....

(a good story always starts with once upon a time right?)... and yes this is the pre-race report pre-amble so feel free to skip it all (but then you'll just have to wait for the full race report.. ha !)

Anyway 2006 London Marathon I watched... probably the first time I had watched the event without getting really bored to be fair. On the occasion I was gripped - wondering how and why people did this event. How did they endure and how was it possible. A marathon. A very long long long way to run. I thought it was both pretty amazing and pretty ridiculous (in terms of distance). At the time I was considering what I was going to do next season (hockey season that is) because well I had missed that year due to being away and I didn't have the fight in my belly anymore. I watched the TV and thought "what about that"... to which I thought back to myself "don't be ridiculous - that is a flippin long way" I couldn't comprehend running that far.

So then I thought what else.... now someone I had known had done a sprint tri some years ago and I vaguely remember watching the end of a very big triathlon on world of sport (it transpires that was the finish of one of the first Kona's).... so I took myself to the library and to the internet cafe to do some research....

There were different distances, from sprint (which seemed reasonable), Olympic (which seemed difficult), half ironman (like yowsers how do you do that) to full ironman distance (jaw dropping - how is that possible?)

I read some more and had a thought - let's call it the 4 year plan. Given it was the end of April I figured I could do what needed be done to struggle my way around a sprint, the year later an Olympic, followed by half ironman, a year where I did a marathon and a half and the ironman for the big 4-0... (a little present to myself).... it was a crazy idea. Having started off thinking a marathon was impossible I had fouled myself into scheming my way to iron distance. It was a stupid idea and one which I kept to myself until this year - no one else knew there was a bigger plan then the "current" race.

The enormity and ridiculousness of iron distance is still beyond my brain power to compute. Yet I sit here now having finished one a week ago. That is just weird, ridiculous and slightly wrong ;)

The build up this year has been hardly ideal - but I think for anyone going long you sort of expect that. People told me how they knew few people who hadn't got injured or were nursing niggles during their training. And so it was for me. A run on Friday 19th Feb (not that I've fixated on that date ahem)... got me nice and injured and so I couldn't run until the beginning of May, only to crash on my bike and have a 2.5 week pause to training and moving of my "A" race from Challenge Copenhagen to the later date of Challenge Barcelona. Dragging out the season yes but allowing me to build some more and actually get a little more running in (ok I only got to 12 miles but 12 running miles better then none and I had biked by butt off to make up for the lack of running anyhow). Work has been challenging, and I would not necessarily recommend a stressful job with 10-12hour days whilst training for iron, in fact I would not recommend my job to anyone regardless of what you are doing if you want to have any sort of life. But that is a different story!

Taper came and a re-introduction to things like "bejeweled" on facebook. As I tapered I got more energized, trying to keep a lid on the mounting excitement and energy was a challenge!

The week leading to the race I did a stupid working week - some 44 hours in 4 days it was lucky (a) that I had known this was coming so had started packing at the weekend and (b) I had so much energy maybe it helped with my taper.

Finally I got to Friday 1st October 2010 - Woke at 3am.. the day I left Blighty for the warm weather of the Costa Brava... Callela, Maresme. Time for my journey to Challenge Barcelona. Time to see if the ridiculous could become a reality.

13:30:53

2010-10-07T07:00:00.000+01:00

One of the most amazing experiences!

Most of you facebooker/ twitterers will know that.. I did it... and I GOT A MEDAL!!!

My cheeks (face ones) are aching from the permanent grin. I had the most brilliant time with the best bunch of support crew a girl could ask for!

Clearly I shall be writing an EPIC race report - no doubt in a couple of parts... for now though I need to get ready for WORK (WTF - bad planning or what!)....

So I'm home, I can walk with no problem (although am finding the blister under my big toe which keeps bursting somewhat gross). I am still a little tired (like I feel like I could power nap all the time) but do have very excitable moments (especially after half a family bag of peanut M&Ms it seems).... I'm generally eating and drinking everything in sight - although when I did this Tuesday night when the only drinking thing in site was booze is perhaps a questionable recovery strategy (MWAHHHH!)

I am hugely excited about what went down on Sunday and actually can't quite get my head around it!

I'll say this though more then once over the coming weeks - thanks to all you guys... both near and far... in person and in the virtual world.... I could not have done this without your support, encouragement, patience and stamina :)

Time to go and grin :)

In summary...

2010-09-30T21:57:00.000+01:00

Other then "WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" I'm not too sure what else to say!!

Bike packed = tick
Kit packed = tick
Nutrition packed = tick

(the miracle being with that amount of gels and powder I'm still not over the luggage limit!)

Other clothes packed = tick

Passport and tickets in bag = tick

So all that is left is for me to crap my pants..... only kidding... at least I hope I'm kidding, I've heard all sorts of things about this Ironman malarky!!

I've read a lot of blogs and articles over my taper period (as well as playing a great deal of Bejeweled on Facebook... but still).... the two most memorable and which are clearly suitable given what is about to happen to me (fingers cross all my luggage arrives in one piece of course);

First from Wes's ex (coach that is .. mwahh).. the elf... http://elizabethfedofsky.blogspot.com/2010/09/iron-time.html .... it was whilst reading this that a couple of weeks ago I thought "SHIT" I haven't been noting my nutrition anally enough.. it was with that I did my final 4 hour ride with my intended plan and discovered that would have been oh so wrong as I over carb'd gloriously. I small tweak and a week later and everything was perfect... so to the Elf... you may not know it but you saved my bacon! I thank you for your post!

The next came from a link sent from a EverymanTri which I get news flashes of on Twitter. It seemed appropriate to read the article "The Ironman Marathon"..... now this got me laughing and laughing A LOT (particularly the longest run I've managed is 12miles... ahem... )... here's the quote direct from the article;

"I'll tell you what an Ironman marathon feels like," says 37-year-old Australian Chris McCormack, a 12-time Ironman winner. "Go out and party all night, dance all night, get on the drink, come home and sleep for two hours, get that little slight hangover in the morning, then stand on the start line and run a marathon. That's the feeling -- your body feels sick, your body feels run down. That's how you're running these marathons, so when you're halfway through it, it's like you haven't slept, your body wants to stop, your body wants to sleep. It's depleted, it's empty."

I read this and thought "shit - I should have trained more ...drinks on a Saturday night and a run the next day... should have done it at least once".... ha ah ha....

On that note time for me to sleep - up at 3.30am for trip down to Gatwick and excitable flight to Sunny hot Spain... WHOOP!... see you on the other side whatever lays ahead!

3 week silence

2010-09-20T07:49:00.000+01:00

Clearly writing race reports take it out of me ;)

Ha ha...

So given I'm now I guess in TAPER (like HOLY SHIT SO SOON!).... AGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH

I'm pleased to report I'm not panicking (HA HA HA.. such a crap liar).... but it's ok.. it's controlled panic as I know more then anything else I couldn't have done much (any) more then I've done given the demands of my job and my injured foot and those couple of weeks lost to skin regrowth when I came off my bike. So the hard work is done and now we wait. We keep away from anyone with any signs of a cold, eat healthy, exercise a bit... and try not to get too excited and/ or scared all at the same time ;)

Last three weeks have been good and bad. After little woody I went of to Club La Santa in Lanzarote for a mixture of holiday, chill time, good biking and nice swimming (in that lush 50m pool)... and yes ok a fair amount of oggling at the athletes which visit the complex (well why not ...ahem...)

I followed the La Santa trip up with one of my crapest bike rides ever. The plan called for a 4 hour ride + brick and I pretty much got the nutrition so wrong (over carbed) that it couldn't have gone much worse. Still I small tweak and I yesterday had a FAB 3hr ride (well actually went that fast it ended up being 2hr44) with a chilled 30min run off and everything felt A-OK.... phew! Actually yesterday was an awesome day - took myself down to the seaside to hook up with Anita (of La Santa camps and the odd race). We swam in ridiculous seas - at times I likened myself to a seal (but without the swimming grace) as I bobbed up on the waves hoping to get a sight of a buoy (or beach for that matter)... we had a hoot for 35mins or so and that was enough. Learnt a very valuable lesson for sea swimming - if you see green when you turn to breath likelihood is a wave is crashing over your head so DO NOT INHALE... umm I swallowed a fair amount of sea water yesterday - but the positive of this for race day is I won't need as many salt tablets ;) .... After that we became team CANNONDALE (bizarelly we had chosen the same top to ride in) and went out for a great rolling ride around Brighton and the south downs. I followed up with a 30mins run on the cliff underpass, Anita joined on her bike which clearly took her bike average speed down hugely ;)

Today I don't feel too whacked either, in fact I just feel tired and could happily swim/ bike/ run today if I had too. I'm taking this as a good sign.

Right - clearly not blogging for three weeks means a lot of witter on this one.. more to follow .. two weeks to go... actually one week 6 days (EEEEEEEEEEEeeekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk)

Little Woody 2010 Race Report

2010-08-30T21:00:00.000+01:00

So when I suggested this race to the gang several months ago (after all and being completely selfish it fitted well with my revised "Challenge" schedule) I got one reaction from Jules "err sorry it doesn't fit with my plans" (yeah right....)... and from Anita hysterical laughter followed by "you've got to be kidding!? The course is ridiculous" (followed by more laughter).. , humm "wimp" I thought. Fearless to the end Leanne did step up to the mark but not her husband Dan who claimed work as an excuse (pah I say!).... Anyway, on reflection perhaps I should have listened to Anita slightly more and not believed the course website that "The Bike course is best described as undulating to hilly but its not extreme. Taking in the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley this bike route is both scenic and testing."...hummm

ANYWAYS.... on to the report.

Couple of days before the race we all got an email saying the swim venue had to change due to some lethal algea or other - so the new venue was to the the interestingly named "National Dive Centre". A quick check on google maps gave the first inkling that it was a large gravel pit, with ahem potentially big sides.

Getting to the race briefing I bumped into Rose, who was a coach from my Beginners Tri camp a few years back from La Santa... she asked if I had seen the swim venue yet... "err.. no..". to which she said "I hope you have some spare shoes cos you'll need them"... hummmm... Registration and race briefing done Leanne and I headed to the pit to find out for ourselves.....

We headed down the revised bike route which we'd take up to race HQ the next day... dusk was falling, it started to drizzle and this is what we found;

View down to the lake from T1

Little Woody was to be this guys FIRST ever triathlon. He was a little bemused!...

Leanne was not too pleased but did bag herself a nice spot on the rack (they weren't numbered)

Leanne thought she'd take a look what the road out from the lake to T1 was like... talk about action shot!

... and the bottom of the same road just got steeper (grapple hooks anyone)

I have found this picture from the web - the cars in the front are where T1 was and the "roadway" to the left was the swim exit... ha ha ha..

Another stolen web picture - the ladders to the left was how you got out the swim... oh HOW I LAUGHED!

So yes - we'd need shoes. Fortunately as I was heading out to work Friday morning with all my gear in the car at the very last minute I remember those fateful words from the email "you may consider having shoes at the swim exit, they will be allowed".... so I grabbed a pair of old trainers... just in case.. how lucky was that (Leanne had to make do with her beach wear pink flip flops!!)

OK OK so preamble over already!!

OK so this was a training race (is that an oxymoron, or maybe just moronic).... anyways... having blown myself up the weekend before I was warned that I would feel "tired" during the event, so approached the "race" more mentally as if it were training. Looking to learn "stuff" for the big one!

SWIM

Jumped in and was surprised to find the lake slightly warmer then anticipated. Now when I saw "warm" I mean less cold really as it was pretty darn cool. Flapped around a bit then found myself a bit too near the front but it was too late as the bloke kinda said "Ready! Go!".. and the normal mayhem of 250+ people all swimming in the same direction commenced. Surprisingly got into my stroke quite quickly and soon found myself in a nice rhythm heading directly for a buoy... oh.. so directly I swan into the first one (there were some floating around in the middle of the route just for amusement I think)... managed to avoid at the last minute only to find myself heading directly towards a pair of pink buoys.. humm with someone tight on my right and left I had to decide if I was going to veer left or go for the center of the two.... Last minute I slipped right so the person next to me slipped left perfect synchronisation!! We came together the other side. Before long the field started to lengthen out and I found myself swimming along quite comfortably. Could have swam harder/ faster at the start but this wasn't a race remember... it was training... ahem... strangely (for me) I found during the end of the first and into the second lap I was overtaking people (yeah and amazing all at the same time)... some peeps came back at me during the last 300 or so metres but I wasn't in any worry about that. This was my training race after all so I didn't care for them :)

Turning the last buoy I spotted my ladder of choice - a guy in front selected the same but I didn't really have to wait more then a millisecond to launch myself up the ladder. Thought the swim felt short and this was confirmed with an exit (of the ladder) time of 29:30, I reckon for a 1.1 mile swim. I legged it to my cunningly placed shoes and ripped my wetsuit off - as best I could with numb hands, toes and buttocks... seems the lake was a bit cooler then it had felt.

Still with wetsuit over my shoulders I got caught up in the adrenalin rush and began to leg it up the "slope"... got as far as the concrete bit (ieLOL... so I took to a slow trundle and made my way to T1.

Mat time (and hence official swim time ...............) 0:32:33

Yeah - happy with that (and queue a little happy dance)

Was a bit of phaffery, decided to put on socks (as I will in Barcelona) and not elastic band my shoes (given the terrain this was not the place to run any part bare foot!! LOL)... I managed to put my Asthma spray in the pocket which got shredded in my bike crash in Barcelona in May. So it promptly fell out which I only noticed when I was already underway on the bike. Lesson here - attach the spray to the bike!!

.. time for T1 a rather tardy 0:02:33 but hey I wasn't racing ;)

Bike
So the real entertainment was about kick in... straight out the swim it was left left and up up up... The first hour I looked to contain my effort and make sure that I started getting food in (remember this is a practice for the big one.... If I keep saying that I'll convince myself right?!)... A few peeps came past me in the first hour (which is nothing new) but not many beyond that (which is new!).... I got up to race HQ and onto the loop in about an hour. Now there used to be one thing I hated riding over on a bike.... and now after Barcelona in May there are two. Namely; cattle grids and speed humps (BAH to both)..... you had to go through past T2 to mark the start of the loop, alas this meant navigating in via one cattle grid (BAHHHHH), going over two speed humps (EVIL) and exiting out over another speed hump (WAHHHH), luckily I held on to the bike over all obstacles (phew). I also took advantage of the portaloos in T2 (as I'm not "racing" right!?)... and confirmed to myself that my arse cheeks were still frozen! LOL.... anyway the bike was true to it's word. Undulating and hilly... Not in the 20% slopes I've seen on a sportive this year but still it really felt quite tough.

Lesson 2 of the day was picked up with the ride... whilst my nutrition in the first hour was perfect I got to the 2 hour and suddenly felt a bit crap oh and then I realised I hadn't eaten (like major WHOOPS!), I think I was just having too much fun watching people with serious race faces on ;)... anyway having realised my mistake I set about eating everything in my little box thing to discover one of my gels had exploded and eugh gone everywhere! Wasn't too stressed though as I knew the feed station (where ever that was!) would have both gels and drink which I know I can take. So I scoffed and drunk what I could to play catch up. It was clear the race was going to be a longer one then the flat fun of the Barcelona half in May, in fact nearer 4 hours for 60miles. So nutrition was key to feeling less grumpy!!!

The hill at the 55 mile marker was a little rude... Mainly because once done you were in to T2 and little time to recover ...but still when you were on it you knew it was the end. Photographers were placed in evil places to catch all the grimaces!

Came off relatively knackered and kind of hope that this was down to the undulations and the 100miler from two weeks ago still hanging around a bit. But was well pleased and mega surprised to have, ahem, "chicked" some guys on the route!

Bike split 03:51: 20 ... kinda happy with that, little baby shuffle dance rather then a big bottom shaking rumba.

Bike Elevation - Normal Compact Cassette used

Having navigated the cattle grid (again) I bimbled in to T2 (note NO flying dismounts!!) bike got taken from me and I got handed my T2 bag. Found myself a seat and got about changing my shoes... one shoe on I looked at the socks in my hand and remembered I meant to change them!.. so took the shoe back off, sock off sock on, forgot to vaseline my toes but figured they should be ok. Helmet off, hat on, shoes laced, gels in hand and in pocket and I was ready to rock 'n' roll.... 'cept I figured I may want to go to the loo (so my hydration had worked then!).... checked with the support crew in T2, and yes, no portaloos on the run.. So I exited T2 and headed straight for the portaloos which were there for a quick pit stop!

T2 time no PBs there = 0:02:36

Run

Humm now given my longest run since the injury in Feb was like - err last weekend at 11.5 miles and the wheels came off my cart big time I wasn't too sure what was going to happen. Broke the run in my head into sections... the down hill out, the up hill back and repeat. Started off feeling like my hamstrings were on fire (from the climbs on the bike) and pretty scared about what may happen to the dreaded tendon because (a) this was going to be my longest run of the year (b) I have done NO hill work, (c) my physio back in May said to avoid both hill work and uneven surfaces... Humm so an undulating off road run was probably not on the "go do" list but still... it was what it was and I was having FUN! :)

Lap 1 went well... down, hydrate at the half way point, gel at the turn, hydrate again at the half way and back to race HQ to pick up my band! I like bands :) Unlike other races I got no band envy at all but was simply saying well done to people who passed me .. :).... Thought I was ok until about 10mins into Lap 2 and then I felt like, well... I was about to have a serious bout of tummy issues.... I was thinking several things, other then "can I hold on to this"... I was repeating thing like "pain is temporary, a Little Woody Medal is Forever!"... or "pain is weakness leaving the body", and with the tummy problem a little chuckle to myself as I contemplated using the Woods as a porta loo..."if you go down to the woods today you'll be in for a big surprise... yeah like a big white Doris arse surprise"... humm anyway figured it was Coke or bust so hit the middle aid station and asked for some. Except they didn't have any. Didn't want a gel. Didn't want water. Did want Coke. They said they had energy drink so figuring that would be something like High 5 or Science in Sport or something I gulped down a few mouthful's... only to go "Eugh what was that" to which the little Scout replied "energy drink it was watered down!"... "like what energy drink?" I asked and that's when he pointed to a Red Bull like drink... like major UH OHHHHHHH.... that stuff really does give me wings. So I trundled off to the turn, the tummy sorting itself out kind of to be replaced by some zen like calm - safe to say I felt a little off my face and was expecting pixies or fairies to come out the woods at me at any moment!! I tell you that stuff is lethal!!

No idea what was going on for about 20-30mins but some how managed to jog (slowly) back up the single pathways, the firetracks, the road and finally (FINALLY) back to the field where race HQ was. Final lap of the field and the finish line! YIPPPPPPEEEEEEE

Finished with no issues with my foot/ ankle/ tendon = do the happy dance

Run was short by a bit... Garmin had it at 11.9 (someway short of 13.2, but given the undulation I reckon that's ok)... in a time of 1:59:25 ... Definitely a happy dance moment! Although not on the times I was at in Antwerp last year I'm ok given I've only been running again for 2 months, I'm knackered and I've always been a slow runner! HA HA!

AFTER

Well the fun didn't stop there. I finished with a club mate, Alistair about 10mins ahead so he was waiting for me to give me a big hug and we waited for another club mate, Paul to come in about 5mins after me. I was wondering where Leanne was as neither Alistair or I had seen her on the run and it was at this point a St John's Ambulance lady came to me and said Leanne was in the medical tent. For a moment I became Beaker from the Muppets and then established she had fallen coming out of the swim, had done the bike with a bashed up back and DNF'd - she had asked for St Johns for some painkillers only to have been taken in because (a) she couldn't feel her toes and they could find no pulse there (cue panic over serious back injury and a call to the ambulance with blue lights on) and (b) she was it turned out extremely cold (like 35 degrees cold!).... By the time I came in she had been warmed up under space blankets and the paramedics and confirmed that her back wasn't spinal (if you get me). Leanne was relieved to have to not go in an Ambulance and I was relieved that things weren't too serious. .. So relieved in fact that I fainted there and then!! HA HA HA ... lucky I was in the med tent!

We finally left the med tent gathered stuff and headed back to the B&B, staggered to the pub at the end of the lane for a well earned steak and chips!!

Statto

7th from 14 in Female 40-49
17th from 44 Female finishers
116th from 204 Finishers

Swim 10th Female
Bike 16th Female
Run 23rd Female (drat! Not quite half way)

and the results are in...

2010-08-29T18:51:00.000+01:00

and I'm a bit chuffed :)

Little Woody 2010 was yesterday...

With a change in swim venue and the daunting prospect of swimming in a very deep gravel pit (80m at its shallowest) followed by a 4-500m jog up about 50-100m of vertical to T1 this was never going to be an easy 'race'.... and believe me when I say it only went UP from the swim, well it seemed that way!! LOL!

With my training head on and just wanting to get through this without picking up an injury I am pretty damn surprised and pleased to say I came in on 6:28:30 17th from 44 female finishers and 7th from 14 in the ... ahem.. VET 40 category (!)

Full race report to follow.... Right now I just want to eat :)

Reason for the silence

2010-08-24T07:12:00.000+01:00

Not much of a reason - but I did my first Century ride the hard way a week ago Sunday (like a whole 10 days ago) and, well, it wiped me out!! LOL!

I say the hard way for the following reasons;
1. Opted to NOT to the time trial (just why would you) and went for a Sportive instead... note to self... if you're going to do this perhaps choose a route which does not include a mile of vertical as that is a long way up!

2. Having Opted for the sportive thought I'd better wash my bike down - found that the bracket holding the front mech was split through and through - lucky I found it the night before as the bike was unridable. So got out my trusty Biancha, a bit of a heavier stead but hey I've done H.I.UK on that bike and that's a hilly ride too

3. Having to swap bikes I had to swap saddles on and fit tri bars (not that I was going to be aero really at all during the ride with all those hills but I wanted to practice nutrition from it)... note to self, if you're going to swap make sure your fittings are done tightly and to the correct measurements (a couple of pit stops with allen keys were required on the ride)

4. Having the tri bars fitted and quickly checking with a new bottle that the width was ok to fit the bottle was a good idea. Not checking that the bottle was empty prior to filling it with drink was not so good. Note to self - check water bottle does not have elastic bands in (to hold the bottle in place) and some heavy duty velcro with industrial strength glue attached. Two hours into the ride I figured there was something in there, three hours into the ride the overpowering taste of glue (like when you lick an envelope) stopped me drinking from the aero bottle period!

5. Knowing you are doing your first Century you'd think it would be a good idea to check you had enough of your favourite food bar.... ummm.... in my case I hadn't so grabbed some other bars... it wasn't until the glue induced sick feeling did I bother to check the use by date.... Ummmmmm...... having consumed 1.5 I found they were well out of date (several months)... lucky I had one in date bar, several gels and a pit stop to stash up on bananas and flapjack coming up!!

I was pleased to have done my 100.08 miles.... I even managed to run a mile off (that was hysterical!)... at least I know in Barcelona the course will be flat! It's taken me a while to get over it which is as well as this weekend I have a rather hilly H.I.M to contemplate!

Several things Tuesday

2010-08-10T07:21:00.000+01:00

Tuesday already - where did Monday go? Yes yes, in to the past...

Had a super few training days. Feel a bit beaten up and under the weather, know the symptoms now well enough that I didn't get my hydration right. If I feel like I have a hangover (which I do), have had coffee (which I have and yes perhaps not conducive to recovery) and sweated a bucket load at the weekend (which I did, especially my interval turbo session on Saturday)... then it only means one thing - get plenty of fluids in (with a Nuun or High5 tablet in) and pop a couple of multi vitamin (with iron) tablets in... of course will also probably turn to the pea and mint soup as that also cures all!!

Have entered my first race for 2011 (WTF!)..... Yep - already looking forward to returning to my "homeland" (despite being born and bred in Reading England I get a kind of peace in Scotieland...)..... So a.n.y.w.a.y.... have entered Etape Caledonia = YEAH!

Am getting some balance back in my life this week - no not from the triathlon perspective, but from the work perspective. I have put an alarm on my phone at 5.30pm everynight in an attempt to leave work before 6 and not nearer 7.30 as has been the regular leave time of late. Yesterday I scored and was home and fed by 7pm!! Meant I could even write up my reports for my coach :)

This weekend is the big bikey. Either 100mile TT (I'm entered but the organisers didn't seem so impressed when I said it would take me 5.5+hrs.... frankly I have not been too impressed with my slim exposure to the world of cycling TimeTrials in the UK - thus far it seems to me to be behind the times ... everything is done by snail mail, no online entry ;) ... and actually a little bit stuffy - it's definitely a sport for the boys ... but maybe I'm being harsh after all I've only entered 2 races one of which got cancelled) .. where was I... Oh yeah... more likely to enter a sportive and add on the extra mileage as I think it's 90miles.... the problem with the sportive is it will be mega hilly so not conducive to a "time" but it will have plenty more peeps on it so could be more fun.

Right - off to make me some ginger and lemon tea and mix up a bottle of water+tablet and get arse in gear and go to work!

Let it shine! Long run Friday....

2010-08-06T14:23:00.000+01:00

Well today (yes it may be Friday but I'm not at work so it's ok)... was the day. The day for the longest long run since valentines day (which was a 12 miler) and the longest post injury run.

To be honest I was a little apprehensive. I had had my porridge I had had my coffee. I had delayed the run by playing fetch with the kitty..... I wanted to go run. But wasn't sure what it was going to do to me. But pyschologically both I really wanted to go over the 10mile mark before my HIM distance race at the end of this month, and also in preperation for Challenge Barcelona in Oct I felt I wanted to go longer and yes maybe risk the foot.

I had a 10mile route planned (used SportTracks to look back at my previous longer runs from last year to find a suitable 10miles).... I set my watch to the 1.5mile intervals with 30s rest. I went out with a small gel bottle type filled with some High Five sports drink with extra salts, and also a High Five Iso Gel. It was mid morning. I was ready to go.... I was worried. I headed off.

No sooner had I started my phone rang, I figured as I was just warming up (and not out of breath) I could answer it whilst running... LOL... it was a nothing call but then I saw a text from Jules whilst the phone was in my hand... Jules is my virtual Tri training buddy (he lives in Scotland - and probably doesn't realise he's a virtual training partner until he reads this...ha ha .... )... anyway he was resposponding to a text I had sent him about my procrastination of getting out on the run... the text read; "Run Doris run, and stop visualising the worst - you'll be fine"

Umm so this got me thinking... he was right.. I was being fearful of the worst. I was thinking too much about it. And the visualisation comment got me thinking to what I should be thinking... and what I should be visualising. So as I headed out in the first mile I started visualising and thinking the following; "Run tall. Run Easy. Keep HR low. Relax." I visualised me running easy in the breeze. I visualised me finishing easy and strong in the last mile of the 10 ahead. Prior to this I HAD been thinking it WAS going to hurt so "just get on with it".

I changed my thinking. I made it more positive. I visualised and imagined comfortable running. During the run I hooked back onto this several times and the feelings this invoked.

I have never really followed this approach before. I've usually concentrated on HR/ Pace/ intervals or something else. Not this time. I tried not to worry about my pace. I just wanted to run tall, comfortable, free. I did look at HR - if it got too high (ie in the low 150s I relaxed and backed off the pace, unless I was heading up a hill which was fine).

I had some fluid every 1.5 miles and on the break at approx 4.5 I took my gel. Felt like I could have done with another but as I was nearing the 10mile marker I got a great song on the headphones;

Take That - Shine

This has some pretinent lyrics in here for all sorts of reasons...

It made me smile.

I was on my last mile. I was running free with the breeze. I was running easy. How I visualised this run had turned into reality. I hadn't worried about the foot since reading Jules' message. I had had a BRILLIANT run. I upp'ed the pace just because I could. I finished strong with a perfect smile on my face (well in my imagination, I'm sure I probably looked pretty awful actual but still)...

"Don't you let your demons pull you down
'Cause you can have it all, you can have it all"

Let it shine is what I say!

And here's a pretty picture (well graph).... the pace spike at 4.75 miles is where I stopped to take a stone out of my shoe!

10.5miles done in 1hr 45 with my HR in my IM zone 2 for the most (except for a couple of hills and my burst home at the end)... FAB! :)

Monthly Roundup

2010-08-03T07:34:00.001+01:00

Well it was a mixed July, had a bit of a lull, bit of missing mojo..... Didn't do the 100mile TT as planned (it was cancelled) which was disappointing, but did squeeze in a tri (800m/ 30.5k/ 7.5k) and despite finishing with rather horrid asthma I did finish which was good.

Last week was a good training week, planned and executed well and I have to say the weekend was the toughest in a while... although not heavy on the hours it was a killer... Saturday involved the bike; an hour warm up then 4*90%effort on 5-6mile straight TT with 6mins recovery after each then spin home... Needless to say I went off to fast in rep 1 and by rep 4 I was in tatters - good tatters though.

Sunday I marshalled at our club triathlon "Concorde" which went off well (despite a complete power cut in the swim centre which only got fixed 30mins before the start - a bit of worry!) then in the afternoon I had a 3 hour steady ride followed by a 30min run. Because my asthma was a bit annoyed from sitting pool side for several hours and my ex-injured foot a bit niggly - oh yeah and because I wanted to catch up on what had happen to Denise in Eastenders - I choose to do a double brick from home. Doing an hour of turbo in front of the box (talk about sweaty), then a 1.5mile run, another hour on the turbo and a 3.2mile run.... by the end of that I was completely whacked - aerobically ok but my quads were pooped! Still a good weekend of training I reckon.

Monthly stats then;

Jun

Run - 9 - 36.6 mi - 5.8 hrs

Swim - 10 - 14.4 mi - 6.3 hrs

Bike - 16 - 340.9 mi - 22.4 hrs

Cross - 10 - 0.2 mi - 3.2 hrs

Total - 45 - 392.1 mi - 37.7 hrs

Jul

Run - 12 - 47.7 mi - 7.7 hrs

Swim - 9 - 10.4 mi - 5.3 hrs

Bike - 20 - 344.5 mi - 22.4 hrs

Cross - 9 - 0.1 mi - 3.0 hrs

Total - 50 - 402.7 mi - 38.4 hrs

So SWIM was DOWN (although I wonder if perhaps I my June was artificially high from a screwy Garmin up load). I'm ok with the swim; my focus for August is to get a few full distance swims in with even pacing

My BIKE was surprisingly UP (ok so not my much), it didn't feel like I'd have cycled that much but then June was down quite a bit on May. I'm ok with the bike. Focus for August is a 100m TT or Sportive (if the TT gets cancelled)

My RUN was UP = YEAH... my ex-injured foot is holding well. It's a bit niggly to be honest, but with ice, stretching and the sports massage I feel like I'm keeping on top of it. I have to say I'm worried about the run but accept it is what it is. Ideally I'd be up to over 2 hours running by now, but my longest is 1hr 20min... So come IM day I suspect the second half will be mainly walking but it is what it is so I'm not stressing about it. The good thing is despite my lack of running this year I've managed to keep my pace which I surprised and pleased with. Focus for August is to continue the build but more importantly stay injury free.

And now for some fun. Have you ever seen a cat play "fetch".... well here's the kitten, he's growing up fast and is certainly going to be a mouser.....

Yeah like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.... and yes this was a clean sheet on the bed... BAD KITTY!

He quickly passed out when he decided to sniff my bike kit which I had casually thrown on the bathroom floor before getting in the shower;

Sometimes you have to laugh...

2010-07-27T21:09:00.000+01:00

So thankfully my Sunday lurgy was just that... .a lurgy that lasted 24 hours.... and with the benefit of Marmite on toast and some pea and mint soup I seem to have recovered swiftly.

To make up (kinda) for the lack of 4 hour ride on Sunday and the fact I really didn't need a recovery day yesterday I took myself for an easy jog for breakfast, just to see how I was .... well.. turned out I was good and I was rewarded for my efforts with seeing a deer run out right in front of me on the bridle path... Nice!

Given there were no bad side effects and I a good full day of work I decided to head on to the turbo for a spot of Tour De France recap inspiration and spun my legs for an hour. Nothing too strenuous. So that was good too!

And then we come to today.... so I decided given my freshness of no long bikey at the weekend I'd do a commute on my cross bike, having recently repaired my rear flat it was all good to go....

... I woke up, got myself ready, got my bike ready, packed my mini work bum-bag... looked for my bike shoes. Bike shoes... cross bike shoes... I have roadie shoes.. but where were my x-bike shoes... I hunted hight and low... Kitten tried to help (aka hinder)... I was at the point of thinking I'd have to either drive or ride a roadie in (gasp in that traffic - talk about scarey).... and then for some reason I thought I'd just check that the weren't in the car... as you do after looking in every room twice... clearly they were there... (WHY!? I can only put that down to a karenism)... oh how I laughed... so I hopped on my bike and off I set for work (VERY LATE).

Got to work = GOOD

Was parking my bike up in the bike locker and heard what I thought was a snake hissing at me. I turned round and thought... "wait that ain't right... you're in an office parking garage in a bike locker"... I locked suspeciously at my bike, bending my ear to the rear (as it were).... yep hissing Sid was in fact my rear.... GOD DAMN! There's me thinking I had done well with that puncture repair the other day.... I then quickly located a stone chip piercing the tyre... so I pulled it out only for the hissing to go up a notch or three... Ho Hum I thought... at least I know how to get the rear wheel out now......

So I left the bike to flatten and headed up the elevator to work, having carefully stashed a suit (skirt and trouser option..... luckily).... I grabbed my shower bag and then I realised.... UH OH.... Ummm yep I'd forgotten to pre-pack or take with me any... well ... pants (aka underwear not trousers for you Yanks).... Oh dear.. So I had intended to wear the skirt... but clearly this wasn't going to be a Fatal Attraction kinda day..... So I had my shower and ahem... put on my trousers commando style... Clearly I did not tell anyone what I was up to (or why I had no VPL!)... gasp....

Lunchtime came and I thought I'd better go and see the bikey to make sure I could fix the puncture, thus ensuring that if I couldn't I had plenty of opportunity to pester someone for a lift home. So armed with a road bike inner tube and a small hand pump and a tyre lever I set about it ...picture the scene.... office underground car park, smart suited lady (Austin Reed no less) in high heels enters the bike cage.. expertly removes the rear wheel, gets the tyre loosened, rips out the inner tube, replaces with another (although skinnier).. replaces tyre, replaces wheel in bike.... bends over and gets pumping.... pump! pump! pump! Blinkin pump... I cursed my decision not to have packed my gas cannister.... I was bent over my rear (wheel) for some considerable time pumping away I can tell you ... and in my high heels and suit I did work up a bit of a sweat.... it was only a matter of time before the security guard turned up..... which he did ... I don't think he was checking out my arse - just what I was up to in the bike cage.... sigh.... I got back up to work, with a certain glow about me and dirty hands. Job done (so to speak)

The rest of the day has thankfully passed uneventful.... I even cycled home and the rear wheel (with the wrong size inner and hand pumped) survived the journey home.... and just for good measure as I cycled down the bridle track in the last mile home I saw some wild horses over in the park :)

And for the record - I'm not putting down last weeks training stats... too depressing, single digit laziness... it was not a week of Iron last week that's for sure!

Sick Sunday

2010-07-25T12:31:00.000+01:00

Well I was thinking just the other day how I had been pretty lurgy clear with all this IM training.... did I think too soon? I hope not....

So Thursday I was a little late leaving work which meant my long swim at the lake turned into a frantic paced short swim. I squeezed in about 1.9k in my alloted 35mins..... got home with a nose completely blocked, figured that the pollen must have been laying low on the lake so had a bit of hayfever like... ummm slept badly because of the stuffed nose.

My Friday bike (1.5 hours) didn't get done, mainly because I was a bit disorganised and by the time I got home from the Tri Committee meeting I felt really pooped. So headed to bed early for a knocked out 8 hours of sleep. Because the swim was cut short Thursday I decided to head to the lake again for a longer dip on Saturday morning, before my 3 hour ride (with blurgh intervals and run off). This was non-stop swim; well 400m warm-up then 3*800m (yeah so non-stop that would be 2400m!..LOL).... My laps were something like 14:20, 14:58, 14: 50..... which I was quite pleased with. Headed home, felt pooped and despite a caffeine hit felt whacked and so went back to bed for more zzzzz's!!

Got up in time for the start of the ITU Dextro race coming from Hyde Park in London - which was a great distraction from the bike. Finally headed out on the bike; coach called for an hour warm up the 4*20min intervals with 5mins recovery. The first two went ok, but started the third and, well I just felt like I was going to barf. Not like my HR was high, not like my legs felt weak, I just felt sick... parched and sick... had been good with my water bottles... so decided to listen to myself and spun the wheels home rather then any intervals and as for the brick... huh.. yeah like right... not... so . Got back and felt really shivery (given it was in the 70s this wasn't right), so headed into a bath and then to the shop for some "I don't feel quite right supplies"... despite the kind offer of a bozzy night with the neighbours I declined and headed to bed early.

This time a net 9hour sleep before up for breakfast to see how the tummy held together.... had the food, felt tired so guess what.. headed back to bed for another 2 hours!!

Today was supposed to be a 4 hour steady ride. It's midday and I'm still in my PJs... don't feel as bad to be honest, just tired, really really tired which is weird. So I'm waiting to see what happens - either I'll head out for a gentle hour spin later or I won't.... at least it's given me the opportunity to do a blog ;) ... maybe it's something in the lake because Leanne has gone down with a similar lurgy overnight... hummm

On another note I'm now into the final countdown for Challenge Barcelona.... it's less then 10 weeks now (LIKE EK!)... and less then 70 days... (like double ek)... Flights are booked, accommodation is booked.... Excitement is building!

It's Thursday!

2010-07-22T07:31:00.000+01:00

So I was going to go with the "Three things thursday" title but figured I may go beyond three... hummm.. but it is Thursday so here's some points;

I had a really good training weekend last weekend. Coming off the back of probably a couple of "easier" weeks and the fact I had a FLAT on my commute to work Friday so my bike didn't get done that day, probably meant I was quite fresh... but on Saturday I did a good 4 hour ride which included a couple of killer climbs - thanks to Leanne (who came up with the ridiculous suggestion of getting up on the bike at 7am), well thanks to Leanne and her hubby Dan we all headed out early (nearer 8.30 by the time we went).... we did a great 4 hour ride which I felt pretty good throughout and then a 3.5miles run after, which felt pretty comfortable too.... so all in all an amazing Saturday morning. This must mean my training is working :)

Sunday we had a street BBQ where I live which was due to start being set up at 11am - this meant I had to get up early again to get by bike hill reps in.... so I was up and out by 8am for a 2hr ride, again not a bad one. Then got home, popped to Tesco for supplies, cooked a bit of couscous up and headed all of 3metres from my front door to the party. It was great fun, and went in to the night and perhaps I consumed a little too much beer and wine and cupcakes!! but was fun!

Caribou the kitten is still proving very entertaining, although I'm glad to be seeing that Soros the cat is now not putting up a fight to the kitty, and now regularly slam-dunking him wrestler style and putting the kitty in his place.... although this is not stopping the kitten from regularly attempting a mugging!

I'm trying to change my training plan a little to get my long run in on a Tuesday evening rather then Wednesday morning so when I get my sports massage in on Wednesday evening the legs have had a little longer to settle down.... however this does rely on me getting out of the place of earnings at a decent time to get it in. So I'll see if I can pull it off or not, something to consider as the runs get longer though.

I'm really happy with my run pace; yesterday I lengthened my run period to 1.5miles and lengthened my rest to 45 seconds...... I still managed an average pace of 9.41mins per mile, I'm wanting to achieve around a 10min mile pace for the marathon if I can so this run/ walk thing may work yet

I've been giving tweeting a go these last few weeks - what is interesting about it is not the stuff I tweet (clearly) but the people/ tweets you can follow. I follow and thus get regular updates from DCRainMaker who does a really interesting blog, as well as the latest news in the world of triathlon from EverymanTri ...as well of course a couple of friends having the odd tweet.

From a tweet I picked up on this guy who is making a really interesting swim, bike, run journey to Everest base camp. He started at the top of the river Thames and has already swam through my home town of Reading - he's currently nearing the end of his river journey - still a long way to go!!

I'm part way through giving my blog a face lift.... I have the day OFF tomorrow (mega YIPPEE WOOT) ..... so will try and find a couple of minutes in my hectic day of shopping schedule to do some housework on it.

So that ended up being eight things thursday then ;)

Five things Friday

2010-07-16T07:27:00.000+01:00

'K so that wasn't going to be the title and I may struggle with 5 - so you can blame JulesR's comment on the last blog for this ;o)

I did a 3k swim (well 3k according to the lake as it should be a 750m loop - but my Garmin 310XT (which I've now done the Firmware upgrade so it does the niffty open water swim reclac...) reckons it was 3.5k..... and actually I'm sure the loop is nearer 800m when you bake in the width (as I think the 750 is a point to point measure)... ANYWAY... it was a good swim; 400m(ish) warm-up, 3*laps on 45s rest, 400m(ish) warm down.

I'm cycling to work today. I usually have a 1.5hr ride to do on a Friday and getting this in via my commute to and from work is really great in relieving the training pressure. Sometimes this ends up being just an hour in total (I can do the commute in about 30mins) as I have a rule that if I leave work after 1830 then I just head straight home rather then extending the ride.

This weekend I have more dreaded bikey hill reps, and I see the coach has snuk up the reps from 6 to 8... EK!

Ummm two more things..... Have amazingly runny runny nose this morning - I think I have half the contents of the lake up my sinus cavity from the swim last night!

It's CHALLENGE ROTH this weekend... and the CHALLENGE FAMILY announced a new half challenge in the island of Fuerteventura

Surprised I made 5... now better get a wriggle on, into my bike gear and head to work :)