Tuesday 30 July 2013

'Cleansing'

Oh lordy.
The 108 day program requires three days of 'cleansing' for the end of each 36 day cycle.

It starts off as a vegan no-crap type thing for the first one (I can do vegan rather well, it's the no crap part) and by the last cycle, it's 3 days of juice fasting.(Gah!)

Anyway, I'm not there yet, but as my calorie-burning powers are scuppered at the moment with the ankle, I am going to do a mini cleanse thing now. I have decided to base it on brown rice, fruit and veg.
Especially brown rice banana and cinnamon porridge, as it's damn lovely, and like eating a brick.
A lot of the no-crap things seem to leave me hungry for stodge.
This is healthy stodge.
If the rice is cooked the night before, and just needs to be warmed through with the mashed banana and cinnamon (and some raisins are nice too) in some almond milk, it's quick stodge, as well.

Tonight I will be trying the 'Vitality' yoga disc in the set.
Sounds sweaty.

Monday 29 July 2013

Elephant Ankle

I put my foot down a hole on Saturday, and went over on my ankle.
It's now a fat ankle, with weird red bruising streaks climbing up my leg, that are becoming a bit more purple today. It seemed a bit better this morning, but walking around on it all day has made it hurt again.

Seems so ridiculous to be injured when just crossing a road and not doing anything sporty.
I wasn't even wearing girly shoes, it was just a really deceptive hole.

Anyway, so I'm modifying my yoga a bit. Last night I did the 'Hardcore' disc. The idea being, it gives you, a 'hard core.' I couldn't finish it. It was so damn difficult. Most of it was on the floor, so I thought it would be a wise choice for the ankle. About a third of the way in I was a red shaking mess on the floor.
I then did some seated stuff from the strength disc, and today I did some other modified stretching and things. I've discovered my left side is very, very weak, but more flexible than the right.

In general this program is making me feel very weak and pathetic, and I damn well need not be. And I need to stop falling over, as well, both in the street and on the mat.

Friday 26 July 2013

Ha! Nope.

Well, I won't be out-growing this yoga program any time soon.
 I tried the strength DVD last night, and nope. Not a chance. But that's good, as I know by the time I reach 108 days, I will be able to do it. I was reading another woman's experience on the blog, and she was saying how she laughed at the TV to start with as it was just too impossible, but of course, by the end, could do it. Consistency is the key.
I managed the first few sequences, then I was shaking, and falling over. And unable to breathe.
Arm balances are something I've never been able to really do, but I want to. And this will do it.

So today is day 8, then just 100 more to go!


Wednesday 24 July 2013

Foundations

Life is so much harder with car problems.
Buses and crap. Listening to frightening noises. It's draining me.
And I've been feeling ill. And fighting it. And I could really use some time off work.
And a good moan, obviously.

Yoga is still awesome. I did the 'Yin' disc today, which is all about holding poses for a very, very long time, on average 3 to 5 minutes. It amazing how much lower and deeper I could get into the pose after a couple of minutes, and able to pop my forehead on my shins and such.
And I swear he's hypnotising me. He lets me get into a deeply relaxed state and talks about getting rid of things I don't need, tells me how great I am, how I am making my body so much better. I bought some Hula Hoops at lunchtime today, ate a few, and then thought 'I don't need these' and binned them.
I swear he made me buy a pineapple the other day as well.

Anyway, I need to stop thinking about competing.
I'm shattered. My speedy swimming efforts have resulted in a hurty shoulder. I thought I needed to enter things to keep on track, but I think I can do that by myself. I hope I get into London. I will do some winter duathlons, and I have signed up for Edinburgh marathon next spring already, so that will happen.
In the mean time, I need to get a decent plan. A long term set of goals to get done over the winter.

So far I have -

*Run everyday for the month of August. A minimum of 5k.
* Ten miles. Before next year's marathon training starts, I want to get my ten mile time down to 1:40.
*Do an hour of yoga everyday. Just everyday, man, no matter what. I am hurty. And I need not to me. And I need to be thinner. I'm expecting a lot from a very crap to average body.

I think I need to start again.
Build a better body. Start a year long program. Base training for next year's half iron distance starts now.  



Monday 22 July 2013

Day 4 Of Yoga

The fire alarm went off when I was in the pool.
I had found a good time to go, and hour after opening, so the early birds are gone, but still a little early for the kids. I did 30 lengths, then the noise started. There was about 8 of us in, and they made us stand by some open fire doors. It was about 15 mins before we could get back in, and then loads of kids started to file in. I then concentrated on swimming super fast, in 100m bursts, and then 100m burst of breathing every 5 strokes. Then I got out of there, and went and bought loads and loads and loads of fruit. Cutting up a pineapple is hard work!

I then made the kid go for a run with me (she did more walking) and I did another couple of miles while she came back to lay on her bed and moan about how evil I am, and tonight I will do Day 4 of the Ultimate Yogi.
It's apparently a day where I have to do the hardcore and the strength disc too, but after swimming and running, I'm going to do the gentle one, and do more kick-ass yoga tomorrow.
I also plan to get in the sea again, which isn't too trying, so should be fine.

This is Travis. He wanders about in his baggy shorts, saying 'Downward daaa-aaa-aawg'.



Saturday 20 July 2013

Oh Crap

But it's just a cold, that's all. And just the beginnings of one, plus some dehydration and also being run down, as I have been working a lot.
I'll be fine, and it's made me look at what really needs to be done.
I have done these triathlon distances all separately before, and then some, there is nothing new and scary. I will have the energy on the day to do all three together, and the adrenaline.
However, I am slow, and I am bad a swimming. When I went yesterday I felt shattered after 10 lengths, and caught a few breaths and then felt fine and could have swam more than the 32 I did it's just a warming up thing, but my cardio is crap right now.

So, I have 2 weeks.
Last night I started the yoga program, it was pretty intense. It's power yoga, and it was nice to see some of the people wobbling and they were all sweating by the end. I am looking forward to the flexibility and strength days. I have a feeling he will make me ache.
I will do this hour of yoga a day.

I will also concentrate on speed.
I will run fast, and cycle fast, and it will be all about increasing my lung capacity, and swimming, lots. Things like intervals that I don't really understand.

I was going to run this morning but I woke up feeling cruddy, and after a day of work where I was a bit useless and forgot stuff, I came home intending to run then, but nope. I was getting into my running gear and thought I'd just lay on the bed for a few minutes and woke up an hour later.

I'll try again tomorrow before work.

Friday 19 July 2013

No! I CAN'T Be ILL!

Today was going to be my AWESOME DAY OF SPORTING!

I went to bed at a reasonable time, and woke up at 7am feeling ill.
Bollocks.
Sore throat and sneezing.
I have been very busy, and the most I've managed to fit in this week is a little running.

Swimming is the most important thing at the moment, so I went to pool and fought my way through a hideous amount of kids and managed half a mile before feeling really rather ill, and so sick of being hit by kids and their parents.

The plan was to then come home and cycle 20 miles and run 4.5.
But as it was I came home, felt woozy, and watched DVDs.
I intend to make myself better today. I have eaten very well, and am going to start a new yoga program Taff sent me. It's an 108 day DVD program. I am going to do it start to finish in 108 days. This is highly do-able as I do yoga every day anyway, and it's OK to do it after running and such

So tomorrow I hope to wake up feeling a whole lot better, and want to run 5 miles before work.
Yeah.

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Distractions

There's a 3 year old in my house, and a 5 year old, and this has made today impossible for sporting, an ditto tomorrow. I have decided to just have a couple of days rest, and then Friday will be a SUPER sporting brick session.
I re-did the half distance again on Sunday, and in spite of the heat, managed 16.7 mph for 13 miles, and my 3 miles were at 9:45 min miles. This Friday I will add 50% again to the distance, meaning the next week I'll be doing a brick of the standard distance. It's a bit late to be doing all this tri training as it's just around the corner, but it's the last event, I'll do my best, and then over the autumn and winter, proper stuff will happen.
I will run 10 miles each week and my goal is to get to nice 10 min miles for that.

There's just so much going on right now. Work is crazy. And people here. I need a good few days off soon in which to just please myself. And sport. Lots of sport. Cool early morning runs and fresh juices and generally behaving myself. I have been eating better these past few days. So yay, go me.

Saturday 13 July 2013

6 minutes

See, now, when I was trying my wetsuit out in the sea, I noticed my legs were really high up, right on the surface of the water, so did feel rather like swimming with a pull buoy. Today I went to the pool when I knew there would be adult lanes available, but as it was there were only three people in the entire pool. I'm not sure what that was about, probably as there was a giant inflatables session at 2pm, so all the horrid children were planning on attending that. I did 60 lengths in 44 minutes (well, 43:50) with the pull buoy, which would give me 6 minutes before the cut off. I really hope that happens!

Yesterday I did the first brick session in an age. It was only a short one as the heat was utterly, utterly miserable. The air I was breathing in was hot and dusty, but there was only a tiny breeze, so did 13 miles on the bike at an average of 16.4 mph, then a short 2 mile run just for the purpose of upsetting my legs. I will do a  longer one tomorrow.

My 'no added sugar' thing is going okay. I have found I need to have access to salted popcorn and banana flapjacks to survive, and I got some fruity lip balm from the Body Shop that helps also.

And I'm thinking we should call it the 'Lone Wolf  Training Pack' as opposed to club (see what I did there?)

Tuesday 9 July 2013

Piss Off, Sugar

So I christened my wetsuit today. I went to Cruden Bay with my daughter, leaving her to paddle and keep an eye on me in case I disappeared out to sea.

The suit is weird. With most wetsuits I have felt the water soak through as I have walked in, but this one is so slow, the only place I could feel it seep in from was the back zip. My hands and feet were frozen, but my body was great. I could have stayed in all day. However, swimming with my face in the water was really hard. The water was like ice, and I found it hard to breathe out properly. I could do maybe eight strokes before my face hurt like hell.
I think I'll need to cover it with Vaseline before the next beach trip.
And I keep thinking about how much warmer the loch is compared to the sea.

But the wetsuit is not a good fit. it's a bit too tight, so I need to be smaller.
My vice always has and probably always will be refined sugar.
I need to cut it out (again).
For the next four weeks the nearest thing to a treat I will have will be dried fruit and frozen bananas.
And everyday I will read scary articles on how deadly sugar is to keep me on track.

Today is a day two of Operation No Sugar.
Twitching like a crack addict.
Thinking healthy thoughts.

Sunday 7 July 2013

Scattered Wolves

On the morning of the Edinburgh Marathon I got a text from Sarah, not just wishing me luck, but pointing out how much harder 'lone wolf' training is.
People who belong to clubs have programs, support, access to coaches.
People who don't belong to organisations just have access to internet advice, books and in my experience, generally just cobble this crap together and hope for the best. Clubs don't guarantee success, plenty of lone wolves do exceptionally well. However, as I would benefit from coaching and support, but don't have the time, money, and especially inclination to mix with other sporty people, it's not going to happen.
They have really expensive kit and they speak in numbers.
They know what they're doing, and the fact I'm rather rubbish becomes glaringly, blindingly obvious.

So I thought lone wolves should band together. Scattered lone wolves. People whose location, jobs, childcare issues or even the lack of urge to mix with sporty others means training is a solitary affair.
I told Cat and she said we should get T-shirts.
I'm pretty sure if we do they should have this kind of design.




We could get together and have wolfie conventions. Everyone have to wear the shirt.
I don't care how embarrassing they are.
I thought wristbands might be cool, too. We could wear them all the time.

It's 4 weeks today until Knockburn.
Now it's the only even in my calendar, the next 4 weeks are all about triathlon training, getting my swim quicker. My bike quicker. My run a damn sight quicker.
I did manage a slightly faster bike the day before yesterday. 15 miles in an hour, and it was hot and hilly but without my work back pack, a lot more fun than usual.

Thursday 4 July 2013

Change Of Plan (Again)

So I swam 1500m in 47:31. The cut off is 50:00.
Very worrying. I know I'll be a bit quicker on the day, so add another minute to the two and half minutes, and I have 4 weeks to concentrate on swimming, and maybe knock another minute off. That still has me not far enough from the cut off. Must swim. Lots.

This got me thinking, to get damn good at swimming at the same time as training for a marathon seems like a recipe for exhaustion. My constant race entering and medal lust may be going too far. If I were fit for these things then it would be fine, but I have to reach for every damn one of them.

So, I am going all out for the standard triathlon, and the next 4 weeks are about speed, getting my running faster, not longer, and the same with my cycling.

Then I will be about training, not racing. The winter will be weight loss and gaining speed, and especially strength and injury protection. My sciatica hurt after yesterday's ten mile run, my hip is sore today. My imbalance needs dealing with. I need to religiously complete exercises every day to combat this.

My next running race will be the Garioch half next spring, and hopefully I will get into London (I met a bloke the other night at this dinner thing, and he has got in on the ballot the last two out of three years trying) and if not, I am booked for Edinburgh. I want to be under 5 hours. I will train better. I will be wise.

This year was about entering lots of stuff and trying out duathlon and triathlon. Next year will be more about selective entries but aiming to improve substantially on this year. Next year I will have a decent marathon and a decent half iron.

In other news, so many flies, man. The sun has brought them all out. It's mainly when I pass fields full of animals, but it feels like there's a cloud of them following me. Like Pig Pen.



Tuesday 2 July 2013

Praying For Rain

I did a super hot run on Sunday. Nine miles of agonising heat. It was slow. However, I have needed to up the miles, and feel I've started to get my head around long runs again.

Yesterday I did 2.5 quick miles before work, and today (also before work, so pressed for time) I swam half a mile. I feel I was swimming faster, as I overtook people, and was exhausted.
Swimming harder is, well, harder. I need to do it. Harder.
And I need to get into the sea soon. 4 weeks till D-Day.

This standard length triathlon is do-able for me. I have done all those distances many times, sure, they were slow and crap and there is a real risk of coming last with this one, but I'm sure I'll finish it in one piece, and may actually enjoy it.

This week I will get a decent size brick session in, a timed proper swim, and also a long run of 11-12 miles.
I just hope it's a cold, wet, dismal day for that bit.