Sometimes you have to laugh...

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

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!

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

'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 :)

Three Things Thursday

So I thought I'd not get too carried away so I missed a post yesterday...

• ...but did get in my Long Slow Run before work (well no chance of getting it done after!!)... it was a cool morning for a 70min (7.2miles) run/ walk.... now this isn't long long yet and some 19miles short of marathon distance that I'll need for the IM but I'm pleased with my pace... I'm planning on a run/ walk strategy for race day which is why I'm training like that... currently 1mile run 30 seconds walk... I think I may extend that to 1.5mile run and slightly longer walk. I'm sure the aid stations are about 1.5miles apart and plan to run between them and walk through.

• I've been moaning recently about work. Don't get me wrong I'm grateful for the job and the people I work with are great - but the last few weeks (or is that months now) have been ridiculous (high stress and long days) for a variety of reasons (it's quarter end, auditors, financial systems which are so archaic they are not good at either effective or efficient work, and demands from the top which don't marry the ridiculousness of the systems... not that I wasn't warned about that at interview....) HOWEVER with the news of more military fatalities over in Afghanistan it kind of puts a reality check on things for me, particularly given I know quite a few poeple out there at the moment..... after all my work is not going to kill me. I'll keep it under review - what annoys me about the job at the moment is the work/ life balance is not what I want it to be, and that's why I made the changes I did last year. So either I get this sorted or I sort it by looking around for something new, but 6 months in a job probably isn't long enough for the CV!!

• Had a good catch up and chat with my coach last night. Despite my lack of mojo the other week he's reassured me that I'm nicely on track for Barcelona and we talked a bit about the big goal for 2011... which is just so exciting, but I'm not even close to being at that one yet, so I'll share that with you on a later post!!

OK looks like that's my three things! Today's training plan is to have a nice long swim at the lake this evening which will be nice and fresh given the rain we've had overnight! HAPPY THURSDAY PEOPLE!

Two things Tuesday

Well it's two in two days so may as well make it two things Tuesday!

• Bou has just worked out the catflap! Hurrah, although I'm concerned he won't work out the way back in.... time to find him a collar ahead of him being chipped!

•  I was thinking of getting up early and head to the lake for a pre-work swim. But I slept with really weird school reunion type dreams (and they were weird), I think that was because I've had new doors which have just been painted - so they were paint smell induced dreams. Anyway, so I woke up and decided to blog instead! ;o) ..... I'll take my swimming kit (which I didn't use at the pool yesterday!) and my wetsuit and see if I can make it to the pool or lake after work. This of course presupposes I get out of work at a decent hour - I've had enough of 7pm finishes, and enough of the w word before I get on a full rant mode.

Two things Tuesday = Done 

Return of the Mo of Jo

Well I'm glad that that little period of MoJo MIA is over... phew

Back on it which feels good.

and what's more this IS the second entry in under a week (ok only just but still)....

... .on another note have any of you ever had a kitten... a couple of observations about CariBOU (Bou for short)

1. How does he manage to sleep in such weird places and angles and still manage to defy gravity by not falling off arm chairs, backs of chairs (although sometimes he does)
2. Why does he want to climb up the wall - he doesn't seem to have worked out that there is no grip on painted walls
3. Just don't mention joint selant and his love for peeling it out and playing with it. Once he's through this stage I'm going to have to reseal all my windows and my front door
4. Why does he want to chase my laptop mouse pointer around the screen (and climb over me and the keyboard at the same time).. .you'd think his toy mice were enough - but not for this little kitty!

At least he's grown some so is fitting his ears and eyes better!

Oh and as for my weekend of training....

Let's not mention the bikey hill reps in 80+ degrees (we are clearly in the middle of summer, I shan't complain as it'll be autumnal again next week knowing English Summers)

.... and let's not mention 5 * 15' bike intervals after an hour warm up on a just as hot sunday.... with a 20min run off it... just glad I saw sense and let my previous nights curry and beer go down and do the workout in the early evening!!!

This week is much the same (one day of swim, bike and run) a sports massage somewhere and then bike stuff at the weekend, and at this moment in time I can honestly say I can't wait :o)

Two Weeks?

So where did the last two weeks go ... .and how come I've not blogged in that time?

Honestly

Did I get taken away by aliens or something?

I couldn't even tell you what I've been up to!! That's not great ...I do know that last week I lost my Irongirl mo-jo; partly due to late cancellation of my 100m TT which I had been getting syched up for, partly because work was quarter end and partly because I know not what. My coach sort of said a couple of months ago that this may happen... so I kinda went with the flow and have tried not to stress about it :o) !

Did manage to find myself a triathlon to do (instead of the TT)... it was a great day, great race,  and for the first time this season I actually finished! Did have a spot of Asthama which is continuing to irritate me now (can you tell I'm a bit grumpy?!?,... Humpf!).... but established I can exercise as long as it's early morning as that's when the asthma seems more under controlled, by the afternoon simply forget it.

It's frustrating.

But still.... here's June total... not too bad given I had one weekend of nothing and entered the month injured... Now I look at it actually it wasn't a bad month; Run was UP (great to be running again, fingers crossed that I keep injury free), swim was UP (I'm going to the lake more now, avoiding the pool so don't niggle my foot injury); Bike was DOWN but that's ok, I had one weekend when I didn't get on my bike which would count for that!... and if nothing else it has been the world cup so plenty of excuse to sit on my backside and watch footy (although not necessarily quality footy in the case of England.. ha ha ha)

Here's the numbers;

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

May

• Run - 11 - 22.3 mi - 4.9 hrs
• Swim - 4 - 5.2 mi - 3.1 hrs
• Bike - 16 - 484.5 mi - 32.8 hrs
• Cross - 8 - 0.0 mi - 3.3 hrs
• Total - 39 - 512.1 mi - 44.0 hrs

I'm 6 days into July and it's time to get back with it :0) ... assuming the footy doesn't distract me too much...

... and yes ... a race report is due ;o)