3 Weeks To Go

It's three weeks today until my first triathlon.
Eeeep!!
I  need to do more brick sessions. My training in general needs more structure.
I need to be faster. Thinner. Stronger. EVERYTHING!!
As of next week, I am going to start doing things a bit more seriously.

I will do one good brick a week. This week will be a 12 mile bike with a 5 mile run after, and I will increase the bike by a mile or two a week, and the run by half a mile, three weeks out of four. That will have me up to the half-iron bike and run distance in good time, also allowing for a taper.

I will do one long run a week until the marathon (with a dialled down week inbetween, and a taper towards the end) then after that I will start concentrating on more long bikes.
I will also do a medium size run of 10 miles or so once a week as well, which I hope will get quicker and quicker. With the long run and the brick run, that's three good ones a week.
And my swim needs some structure, too. I will alternate between speed, drills, etc one week (the week I am working more and pushed for time) and then distance the following week.

Today I am just going to go on the cross trainer for 40 mins or so, and do lots of core work and press ups. My knee is a lot better this morning, but the last couple of days were a bit heavy, so need a little recovery.

Tomorrow I have to wait in from 8:00 to 18:00 for the Autoglass man to come and fix my windscreen. I really hope he comes early, or at least in the afternoon, I HAVE TRAINING!!

New Shoooooze!! (again, dammit)

I am learning things about weighing myself.
If I weigh myself after a long run, I am, unsurprisingly, lighter (dehydrated).
If I weigh myself the next day, I am heavier (probably water retaining, swollen muscles, again, dehydrated)
If I weigh myself after an easy day of exercise or rest, I see a loss, so tomorrow I'll just have a quick jog after work (not before, some crap about the clocks changing will already be making me get up an hour earlier than I'd like for work) and weigh in on Monday morning.

I biked to work today, and man, how hard are mountain bikes??
I had forgotten, it was like pedalling a breeze block.

There was a fresh layer of snow, and in some of the rougher tracks where the deep puddles were icy, I had to walk a bit after a frightening but spectacular slide, which made things even slower.
On the way there (which was mostly downhill) my cadence was insane, as I couldn't get into the big ring. On the way home (uphill) I finally managed to get it in there, which was crap. I did change down again on a huge hill, and managed to get it back in the big ring just before home. I think I need to keep it moving, stick a load more oil in. The problem is, when I have it in a big gear, I'm scared to take it out again.

Cycling home was also stupidly hard as I bought some things in the supermarket while at work, and managed to jam most of it into my backpack, and in all it's pockets, till it was bursting. My back hurt like hell when I got in. Moan, moan, whinge, etc.

And finally, my trainers have been giving me jip. I've been pretending to myself it's OK as I am a bit skint right now, but the top seam hurts and makes me run funny. I just about have enough time to wear in a new pair before the marathon, so went for some Nikes, as I've them before and they were ok, and I don't have the time or the money to gamble.

Anyway, they are poiple!!!!!

I'm Stupid, But It Worked Anyway

Today I ran 15 very slow miles.

When I got up this morning, my knee hurt immediately. I have been reading up, seems it's probably down to weak quads, and also running on a road with banked sides, exacerbating the imbalance I already have.
It was also less than a week ago I did my fastest half marathon ever, and a few days since nearly getting back to my 10k PB. I have found some exercises and will be doing them diligently.
However, I'm working all weekend, so no time for a long run, so it had to be today. My legs kept saying 'Oh hell, no!' even though I rested yesterday.

What made it work was to keep my knee happy, I had to run slow. I started out at 10:30, and although it did creep up and get slower, until I ran out of drink, I was quite comfortable. Tired, but OK, and running on tired legs is something I'm going to have to get used to.

I had a gel at 7.5 miles (the bit where I turned round) a High-5 one, which didn't make me ill, but did taste a bit crap. It was snowing when I left, the whole run was on trail/gravel, and some patches of snow, but as I went towards Peterhead (and the sea) the sun came out and I was too hot.
I ran out of drink at 11 miles, and as I headed back into the bad weather, I wished it was possible for my feet to suck up water through osmosis, as I ran through puddles. The last two miles were hideous. I went from 10:57 average miles to 11:05, but on the bright side, I did 15 miles a few weeks ago at 11:18, so 13 secs off each mile on a sore knee isn't so bad.

But I am disappointed with the site I used to plot the run (Bike Hike Run) as it showed 7.5 miles far closer than it was. According to their map, I only had to go to a bridge in the village of Inverugie, but that was only 7.1 miles, so I had to run on nearly half a mile, almost to the main road. I could see Peterhead Asda ahead of me. I wasn't mentally prepared to go that far. I wanted to cry.

However, I really wanted to walk in the last couple of miles, and battled hard not to. When it came to the last mile I could see my house in the distance, and my bathroom window, and I knew I would be shortly in my bath up to my chin in water, with a big drink, and that helped.

Stupid Hoover

Kind of a rest day, today. Had to go into work early, so it seemed the best day to take it easier.

I will still be doing my press-ups. It's got to 3 x 14 now, which I do not find fun to do in a row. I'm having to break them up a bit. I have arm and boob DOMS. I will also be foam rollering like a mofo.

Other things that had happened today-

* My boss has yet to confirm I can have the day off for the standard triathlon I want to do, which makes me antsy. I really want to get it booked.

* It seems it will take more then duck tape to hold my hoover filter in. I will have to buy another one. Which annoys me as I don't want to spend money on a hoover!

* My knee is sore and I have my long slow run tomorrow. I do hope it behaves.

* After insisting on the phone to the Autoglass man that my cracked windscreen is clear glass, I agreed to go and check it with a piece of white paper, and what do you know, it's either a slight green or grey tint (or very dirty), so had to ring him back. Like an eejit.

* I hate my tri shorts. They are too short. I want longer ones. If it weren't for the damn hoover, I could probably get some. Boo!

Chuffed

I'm rather happy with my progress today.
I have to do a 5k and 10k each month to see how I'm improving, and the March 5k was about 30 seconds faster, but the 10k done early this morning, was 1:28 faster. I do the same flat-ish course each month, so I can see an accurate progression. Here's the Garmin link for it.

What makes me happy is there is no more than 15 secs difference with each mile, and in the final 0.2 I had the energy to speed up to nearly a minute a mile faster.
And what really makes me happy is my fastest 10k race EVER was only 20 seconds faster than that, two years ago this May, and I was well over a stone lighter back then. I really feel like if I keep shrinking and training I could be a proper runner, like all those other proper runner people, who run at speeds beginning with 8, and even 7.

Then I went swimming. It was a bit busy, and I only went with the intention of working on my stroke, so did 50 lengths of what I hope was improved swimming, and then got changed really quickly as although I started work later today, I was still pushing it time-wise.

Then I saw my boss, and begged her for the 4th of August off (my annual leave for the year has been booked, so this will require jiggling things), as there is a standard tri at Knockburn with an open water swim that I REALLY NEED TO DO!!!
She's going to let me know.
I need to buy a wetsuit.
I have ordered tri bars.
It's all very exciting.

Getting Stuff Done!

Today has been very productive. The house has been cleaned. Both bikes cleaned and oiled (and one repair attempted), and the car cleaned, and hoovered out (and then I broke the hoover, and then duck-taped it), as the car will need to go to the garage next week, and there's nothing like the threat of a grubby man who couldn't care less sitting in my car to make me want to clean it. I'm back at work tomorrow, which always motivates me to get stuff done.

I also did a gentle brick session, which I actually enjoyed. Between snow showers (and once the sun even came out briefly) I cycled 10 miles, mainly focusing on changing gear, at a steady 14 mph, with lots of climbing. I get lazy. If I in a low gear going up a hill, and there's another hill coming, I tend to stay in the low gear and just coast down the other side, but today I was all about changing-changing-changing all the time.
I then reasonably quickly changed my shoes and ran 2.5 miles. I had woken up with a twingy knee and hip, but nothing hurt whilst running, and the usual jelly legs didn't last long. 9:30 min mile average was easy to maintain, even post bike.

The weight thing is a top priority.
One of the reasons the Moray Half was more hideous than the Garioch is that I was about 7 lbs heavier then, and this time last year I was a stone heavier. I put on just over two stone with injury (and mucho eating) and now I really want to be 20lbs lighter for Edinburgh. The thought of running with a 2lb weight in my hand seems horrible, let alone ten times that distributed about my person. And I have to order a wetsuit soon, and that's a purchase I'm only making once, so it's going to have to be small.

So Pam said there this thing they do in 'Biggest Loser' where they write the amount of pounds they want to lose on their hand. She wants to lose 3 this week, so wrote a 3 (which looked like a bum, so then ended up with a gust of wind coming out of it.)

So I have drawn a '2' on my hand. In CD writer pen, which is reasonably permanent, giving it the air of a prison tattoo.

Every time I reach for something, the '2' is going to shout 'CAREFUL!! Keep your EYE ON THE PRIZE!!'

Pukey Swim

I woke up with aching arms and upper body.
It must have been from holding my upper body too tight in the cold. Also feeling quite woozy and ill, and so I ate quite a large early lunch (for some stupid reason) and went swimming (the reason for that, being fear).

It is now officially less than 4 weeks until Turriff. I am actually more scared about that than the marathon.
If I fall apart during that, the worst that happens is I walk and get a slow time.
If I mess up during the tri, I could drown, or fall off my bike. Both of which would be embarrassing. And my bike might get damaged.

Anyway, felt weird and crappy at swimming, but really did work hard on not pausing. I pretended my arms were gannets, diving into the water. It made me feel like my arms were turning over quicker, and must have been working harder as I had to stop a the end a couple of times, mainly as my lunch was threatening to come up again. And there was this old man doing some diagonal back stroke crap. He was there on Saturday, too.
He's always there.
One of these 'I'm old,  you move' types. I should have set my gannets on him!

Sundays will be my one day off a week from the press up challenge, so today I am resuming, 3 x 11.
And I'm doing a lot more swiss ball core work, too. I want a solid core. People could be punching me all day an I wouldn't feel a thing. Yeah.