Things I Have Learned In The Last 24 Hours.

1) That I am a Hobbit. I am absolutely starving when I get up. I'm not very hungry in the evening adn could happily skip dinner, but the minute I wake up I need food, then I go straight out and train. Then I get back about 8am and need a second breakfast, or if biking to work, I eat my second breakfast behind the wheel of my staff car. If it wasn't for my pesky job I'd start having my main meal at lunchtime, too.

2) Fixing my bike doesn't always go well. :(

3) I don't know the name of one of my local pubs. A man with a big tattoo on his neck asked me if I wanted to go to the Garrett for a drink. I think of an attic when someone says garrett, not pub, and have never been in any Mintlaw ones. I image them to have swinging saloon doors, and the patrons would fall silent if an outsider came in. When I didn't know what he was talking about he laughed at me.
I was slightly hypnotised by the HUGE tattoo, though, it was truly ugly, so didn't really care.

4) I am a big liar. I told neck-tattoo man I wasn't single. It was then awkward as he was working out the front (he had passed comment on my bike fixing attempts) and I had to hide for a bit.

5) Having a Garmin makes me run faster. Knowing my speed made me want to get it rounded down to even numbers. After a while I realised I was seriously out of breath, but didn't want to let it drop.
And what I thought was an 1.8 mile loop around some fields near the house is in fact, 1.9 miles, hurrah!

6) Trying to sustain a bike pace of 17mph, including uphills is very hard, and would equate to burning over 900 cals an hour. That would make the Ironman bike section 6.5 hours, and not far off 6000 cals. Yay and yikes. Although that is at my current weight, so will be less cometh the day.
But still, yikes.

7) Starfish thighs. Coming in from the cold and getting straight into a hot shower made my freezing and bright red thighs itch like mad. I have ordered thermal running tights. 

 

Bike Luurrrve.

Swimming was fandabbydozy today.

I don't think I was much quicker, as I was concentrating on getting the breathing and lack of drift right, but it seemed to really slot into place, and most of all, it's nice to know I can change things about my stroke, and it will improve further.
For the last few lengths I made the effort improve my cadence, and just get on and swim faster. And I overtook lots of people. Admittedly, slow old people, but it still counts. There are 80 year olds that do Ironmans.

There were quite a few splashy annoying teens in the pool, as it was an in-service day for the big kids. I only found this out after my kid sent me a text saying she was coming home from school as she was the only one who'd turned up. Oops. I should probably read letters from the school a little more carefully. Or at all.

Today is all about a shorter bike and a longer run. I need to get used to running off the bike. I get the feeling the bike is going to be my strongest element, simply because I enjoy it the most.
When I think about my bikes, imperfect though they are, they seem  friendly, pure things, a joy to have in my possession. I need to sort the gears on my MTB, and I want another chainring on my road bike, but that's fine. I enjoy de-greasing my chain and fiddling with things.
I clean my car when I can't see out the windows. It needs two new tyres, exhaust, plugs and leads, suspension links and track rod end. It doesn't like me. It is a bitter box of metal. On a day I don't drive it I'm still taxing and insuring it. Even if I decided to keep it off the road I'd have to notify the government. Everything about cars is controlled, expensive and stressful.
My bike is happy.

  

Week 4

I think I need to eat more salt.
I've been good with the dried fruit and such before I cycle home, but have been reading about how much extra salt I need for this level of activity, and I've just not been eating it. Apparently at Ironmans they have Ritz crackers at the water stations, and I don't really add much when cooking, so when the weight has gone, I think I'll hit the salty peanuts. I like them. I usually avoid them like the plague as it's the quickest easiest way to down 500 cals in a couple of handfulls.

Where I think I've been messing up most is often I will do what's on the plan, but then in the evening, I'll go and do an extra hour on my cross trainer. I love the thing, and I've had a lot of new music come my way recently and it's great to just put my headphones and cross-train-away. And then I can't sleep as I do it too close to bedtime.

This is my plan for next week, please feel free to pass judgement. I'm currently sticking with using measurements of time to plan, like it says in the book, but will be keeping a close eye on the distance so I can see the improvement.

Monday - 1 hour swim

Tuesday - 30 min bike, 1 hour run.

Wednesday - 1 hour swim

Thursday - 30 min run

Friday -  3 hour bike

Saturday - rest

Sunday - 3 hour bike
 

The work commute is what really kills me, the up-hilly-ness of the journey home is horrible, I get a face full of mud and my MTB has no suspension, so a rest seems sensible between those days.
I'm off work on Saturday too, so will do something fun with my rest day.

And I got this book, that not only has lots of good advice, but makes me feel really enthusiastic about biking. She's evangelical in the way she talks about cycling, her love of it is infectious and intoxicating. I was reading it in the bath after cycling home from work and I wanted to go straight back out again.
It makes me want to sell my car and use the money, along with the constant MOT/Insurance/Crap that goes with it, to just buy awesome bikes and gear all the time.

Jiffy Bag Of Joy

I have a Garmin!
I shouted this from the rooftops yesterday, and now look forward to actually knowing how far and how fast I'm running, which is probably slower and less than I'd thought.
It was sent anonymously, but I sussed out it was the Taff man, and much standing outside waving my wrist at the sky followed.

All I did yesterday was eat, and some weights/resistance work. I'm about to get on my bike and go to work now and because of the clocks going back, it's going to get light on the way.
Back when I worked nights this was the worst night of the year. To re-live another hour in a Groundhog day kind of way was horrific, but now it means an extra hour in bed I'm all for it.

I have a very busy week ahead, very little time off, and I'm going to make this a well thought out plan that isn't mental at all. I think. I shall post it and everyone feel free to pass opinion on it.
I'm still not sure what qualifies as an easy or hard day, really. Is it a time or percentage thing? And I will plan meals, and supplements, and basically, everything.

And I'm also thinking of dialing it back a bit every fourth week, as I've been reading about that, and this is week 4 after all. I didn't like the idea of veering from the plan, but then this is the first of my two 10 week base periods, so the first should be easier than the second.

And I've been single for three and a half months, and saying 'no' wholesale, although in that time have only been asked for dates by scary or boring men or scarily boring, so not tempting.
One the other day -
'Do you want to come for a carvery?'
'Errmm, I don't eat meat.'
'Really? But you'll come for a carvery, right? You could eat roast potatoes. Carveries are the best.'

It was more than that that put me off, but it didn't help. And a couple more texts with the word 'carvery' in them followed. 

And so although this was going to be less personal blog, pah, that's no fun.
But there's no way I'll let ANYTHING interfere with my training.

The Risk Of Growing A Penis.

Firstly, thank you to all the people who nagged me by message, FB post and text yesterday.
I was bombarded with orders to eat, sleep and rest, as well as a threat which politely can only be described as a dirty protest, and an interesting warning that if I continue this way I'll grow a penis. And she didn't mean it in a good way.

The most effective comment was this-

'If you train yourself into illness you'll be confirming your mum's theory that exercise is unhealthy.'

Hold. The. Phone.
That would be a hideous turn of events.

Gollum in a wig would never hear the end of it. She would be constantly reminded of how awful she looked.
My mum has never been backwards in coming forwards.

I should probably start doing some other things. All I seem to do is work and train.
Go out. Wear my nice poiple dresses. Other things that are not made of lycra with a padded arse.
Yesterday was an exercise free zone. Went to see Skyfall and ate out in town. I came home and was in bed by 11pm. It seems doing nothing makes me very tired.

And it's time to break out the waterproof winter cycling clothes. I can't let bad weather put me off. I hereby pledge to cycle all year round, although not necessarily cycle to work if it's really, really foul weather. I want to arrive able to do a day's work. I'll do extra cycling on days off if need be.

I really need a way to cycle indoors, as well. I can't afford a turbo, it's going to have to be an exercise bike thingy from somewhere like Gumtree. 

Can Someone Come Round My House....

...and punch me in the face, please? Or at least slap some sense into me.

I am making a real mess of all this.
As it is I am technically coaching myself, and of all the people I should listen to, I am not one of them.
This is not my area. I know about anatomy and the social care structures. And a fair bit about zombies and cakes.
If anyone wants any advice of those things, I'm your gal. 

My loss of appetite is getting worse, mainly because the less I eat the less I want to eat. The kid went out last night and I so it was just me to eat, and I was going to cook (open a tin of beans and heat them up and everything!), but I totally forgot, and ended up eating cereal about 11pm. And a Fry's Chocolate Cream. They're my favourite.

And on top of that I can't sleep. I'm up till 2am talking rubbish on a Facebook and watching rubbish on Youtube. I know that's an overtraining thing, but I really don't feel like I'm doing enough, so how can I be overtraining? I feel quite energetic when I get up, but then I'll go for a run or something and like this morning, halfway through feel dizzy and lightheaded.

Any benefits I should be feeling from my lack of being on the pill is going to be lost at this rate.
And I have no wish to drop weight so quickly and be so weak the muscles don't build, that I end up looking like Gollum with a curly wig on.
But I don't want to take rest days. I know that's stupid and I'm acting like a 4 year old who doesn't want to go to bed, but sensible Lucy rarely wins these things. It's been 14 days since my last rest day.
The first thing I'm going to do is force myself to go to bed at a decent time, no matter how awake I am. Eventually I'll fall asleep, even if it's just through boredom.

I was thinking some kind of coach type person would be a good idea, but it would have to someone I respect and who I'm slightly scared of going against, and don't want to let down.
All the boxing coaches I've ever met have been really scary, and I've done everything they said, and tried really hard. I could use having one of them telling me what to do, except I'm not training to be a boxer and they have entirely the wrong skill set.

I think I need to eat and rest prescriptively, and make a point of not listening to myself.
And for someone to tell me what to do.

People Soup

Pool was awful.

So many people. And only a couple of miserable female lifeguards, and they weren't going to give me and the other two trying to do lengths our own lane.

My focus today was on trying not to glide for so long, which quickly seemed to become not gliding at all.
Then I was crossing my arm over on the pull.
Then my other arm hit an big float in the shape of a fish with two kids sat on it.
Then I was nearly drowning.
Then I moved away to a briefly quieter patch.
Then a boy in the region of 16 years old started talking to me about my tattoos (he was impressed)
Not the time, boyo.

I was also trying to do something Kevin had said about starting to breathe with the back arm, which seemed more natural than I thought it would, as it seemed to fit better with the rotation, but I had to constantly remind myself of it, which is hard when a kid has asked you to dive down and get their earring.

Lisa 'THE PRESTONATOR'  mentioned a triathlon that's held at night, in November.
I was thinking about this when surrounded by kids. Imagine being hemmed in by other swimmers, in open water, on a dark November night, being touched by odd things in the inky black water. Was that a person's arm that just brushed my leg? Or an eel? Or the Kracken?
I'm usually one to be girly. I've been in an armed robbery and even had a root canal work.
But yeah, no.

 Kracken would be a great name for a dog. 'Unleash the Kracken!!'

And one good thing! I saw someone at work I've not seen for a while 'You're fair disappearing, have you been ill?' she said.
I choose to take that as a compliment.