The return of winter

After stating how wonderful and spring like it was last week guess what. Yes today it has snowed - didn't I say it would!! So it has turned for lovely fresh spring days to a cold Northerly wind blowing really unpleasant weather - at least I live in the south of England as it looks grim up North - well grimmer then usual!! ;o)

I shall now attempt to show some of those spring pictures I took before the snow...

..oh now that seems to have worked....

Would love to say what these are... primrose perhaps... I was told earlier today but can honestly say I've forgotten already...






So here's a picture of something I do know........

Yes a daffodil!.... Yes it seems a bit droopy but then it was a cold morning and it's in a pot with no other daffs (think I must have put it there my mistake).. so it must be feeling lonely?!!?






And finally no spring garden picture would be complete without the main character of the garden. He who watches over the house, brings too the odd present in from the garden and generally gets spoilt by me (yes despite the gifts from the garden...)

The one - The only - MUFFIN the cat....


OK so on to training. Got a couple of gold stars for my bike and run but a bit of a black mark "must do better" for the swimming. Overall for last week I managed to do +15% of running (distance), +6% bike (distance), and let's not worry about the swim. Didn't do anything Weds/ Thurs which is why I missed on the swim really. Had one session done Monday then failed to get one in Friday, couldn't Saturday and although I planned a swim on Sunday I was attacked my the dreaded cold lurgy monster and felt it wouldn't be a good idea for me (or other swimmers - eugh!) to go yesterday afternoon. Which is why by the way I'm writing my blog now which is when I'd usually be doing a club swim night.

Hopefully I'll shake this cold of pretty pronto. I've been dosing up on Vit C, Echinacea, Sinutab, throat lozengers and lots of water. Typically of a cold it's got me in the nose and throat and is annoying me most when I'm asleep (or not as the case may be). Why do colds do that - all day you feel better then the sun goes down you feel worse and then by the time you get to bed it leaves you awake all night....must be to do with the whole horizontal thing in bed I guess.

I like to think I've been sensible (or maybe used the cold as an excuse) and not done any training today. Plan for the week is to add at least another 10% on to my bike and run from last week and get at least two swims in. Some of this is dependent on the cold I know but I'll see how it goes all the same. Besides this is my final week of "prepare to train" 4th post-plaster week - hurrah!

Speaking of which - Rightie got to see the hand quack today and

HURRAH!

The MRI was clear so all seems well in the world of the right wrist. I have another follow-up if I want in about 6 weeks. In the meantime continue with the physio and in the words of the doctor - don't fall off the bike again as that may hurt! So with a big sigh of relieve I shall continue to diligently do my wrist exercises and can now look forward to my Beginners Tri camp which I've just booked on which is in the warm weather location of Lanzarote at the end of April. Can't wait - although am slightly concerned I'll be at the back of the pack all the time.. but hey at least I'm in the pack to begin with and let's face it someone's got to come last!

Right better go and feed the cat before he tries to eat my arm!! ;o)

... and all was well in the house...

Claustraphobic

Hi! A good training week so far... ok until today when I've stalled a bit and ate some cheese instead ;o)

So I plunged into the pool again on Monday. Some more splashing with the kick board and a bit of doggy paddling before crashing out a few lengths (yes lengths!) of front crawl.... and yes technique has left me in my injured weeks (some would say I never had it in the first place ;o) )...but I didn't drown and did a few double lengths without crashing into the end with rightie or drowning! Now rightie isn't quite comfortable in the pull section underwater but I'm sure in time it will get strong!

Yesterday was a lovely spring day and would have been great to go for an early evening run as the sun was lowering in the sky..... at least that's what I thought as I lay in the MRI machine like Superman (ok woman) with my hand firmly clamped into place. Now for someone who isn't too keen on small spaces being face down with an arm clamped above my head in a small tube thing for 40mins is not my idea of fun. However I did think of the run as the scanner churned on like a pneumatic drill for 3.5mins a time.... I also thought what a good opening scene for a Bond movie - I mean how do you get out of that one if the baddy was trying to get you!!! So missed the early evening spring run as I was having some warming cups of sweet tea at a friends house after the experience!!!

However I did manage to get home and go out just before 8 for a really nice run, although it was on the road and in darkness rather then footpaths in fields in daylight. I seem to have discovered how to run "easy" again..... 6.2k without a break nice and slow and I mean really slow, something like a 7min/k pace (wouldn't it to be good to do 7min/mile - ahhh I can but dream!). However I'm really pleased, not too sore today at all and 42mins straight is something I didn't think I'd be up to for another couple of weeks yet.

Did "plan" on doing some turboing today but decided to just chill out this evening. Unlikely to be up to much tomorrow either as I have a company medical in the morning and am out tomorrow night watching a play which is interestingly called "love puke"... hummm

Still aiming to be 10% up on SBR for the week, will have to go some Fri, Sat, Sun to get to that target!

Happy days!

Two step forwards and one step back

Rehabing is really quite frustrating sometimes isn't it.... but still I've had a good week despite work trying to spoil it ;o) oh and me dropping my laptop and smashing my infrared dongle thingy which uploads what I've done from my watch to my POLAR HR software diary thing.

So before I go on to give the low down on righty I'll quickly summarize the week... week T -3 (two more weeks to go before I start back with proper Training - BASE1!)....

SWIM:
Yippee! Managed to get back in the pool last week. Very tentative at first, spent some lengths with a kick board splashing my way up and down with the odd daring right arm stroke. Scary! Turned this into some sculling work and finally managed a couple of lengths front crawl. Which was even more scary particularly when approaching the end of the length so learning to spot the end wall early for fear of swimming into it - not that I've done that before!! Still really really good getting back into the pool.
Two sessions (mon, thur) 30-40mins each. No idea about distance as was really just seeing how it went.

BIKE:
Got a couple of good turbo sessions in. Again nothing too strenuous but some good spinning. Must be quickly getting fitter again as this was much easier then last week, lower HR and slightly faster. Obviously all on the turbo trainer indoors. Still need to get some aerobars and nerve before I venture outside with righty!
Two sessions (thus, sun) 12.5 k in 36mins then 10k in 28mins. More to come here.

RUN:
Painful!! ;o) My thinking is the run will get my fitness back the quickest and it's such hard work that it's good mental preparation for the run section of a tri!!!! Still I've now managed a couple of "longer" sessions without the run walk thing. One a mere 28' and the other 22'. But am really pleased that i've got to be doing this so quickly. Obviously my pace is dire and still resembles a very slow slow thing on a slow day. But at least I'm moving which is exciting! Am going to see if I can crank out 6k today in one go, but will allow myself a breather if my HR gets too high!
Four sessions (tues, thur, sat, sun) total of 15km

That's enough of that then. The task for the week is to increase all activities by another 10%. I got 4 hours training done in total which is great and I do love sleeping after your body has been active - FAB!

OTHER EXCITING STUFF
Spring is definitely here (it'll now probably snow tomorrow), the flowers are really blooming in the garden. Now I'm not a really good gardener, ok in fact I don't garden at all... but I have a friend who does (my garden that is). Anyhow - she's done a great job, loads of things coming up - would say what they are but as I said I'm not a gardener and so it's all looking lovely and colourful outside. Even the birds are coming into song, although that is at the crack of dawn and really rather loud. If I tell myself enough how lovely their song is then I'm sure I won't mind being woken up at increasingly earlier times! Maybe I should get up at the same time and go for a run or ride.. then again.... I'll try to get some piccies of the plants - then perhaps someone can tell me what I've got!!

My *new* car was "born" last week! Now that is exciting. I don't generally believe in spending huge amounts on a gas hungry vehicle... however when I broke my hand I really did need some serious retail therapy. So traded in my Megane for a nice new Audi! Should be getting the new car in a couple of weeks. Will obviously take some pictures of that too and blast out on the blog - will have to introduce my bike to the boot in due course and get it down to the bike shop for a service and aerobars!

Final bit of exciting news - I've booked a holiday for the end of April! Yippee.... Off to Lanzarote for a Beginners Triathlon training camp in the sun. Looking forward to the break from work and the resort looks fab, will have to balance the training with some serious sun bathing and retail therapy!!!! :o)

OK on to righty then. So the physio/ rehab etc has been going really well and am getting quite a bit of flexibility and strength back in the hand/ wrist/ forearm. I really think time in the pool has helped, both the swimming and some hydrotherapy have felt really healing - if you see what I mean. I had what I hoped would be my final outpatients appointment at the orthopedic clinic yesterday and pointed out a problem I'm still having which the physio took a look at on Friday. Anyhow there's some suggestion that some sort of cartilage in the wrist joint was damaged at the same time as the fracture and hasn't properly healed..... humm... so am off for an MRI scan this avo and see a hand specialist consultant blokie next Monday for the results. I'm obviously, given how much better my hand is feeling, hoping that they won't find anything really wrong and if they do it doesn't need surgery (now referred to as the s word as I don't really want to go down that route). Still can do nothing about that right now so will continue to do my stretches, squeezes, flex and more stretch with righty as figure it seems to be getting better then worse so what further harm can I do... well as long as I don't fall over.. lol!!!

So that's it for now. Will *try* and do more blogging this week!!!! Adieu!