Blogging Is Reeeally Hard

I have been a bit lax recently.

Since have a dental/sinus unpleasantness to deal with, running has been very hard.
I should have let everything heal, but I went back to running too quickly, and ended up with a bleeding mouth and nose whenever I went out the door, and came home looking like I had snacked on some roadkill en route.

So, I am taking a couple of weeks off from running to let everything really settle down.
In the meantime, I am doing lots of walking, no swimming (as if it bleeds in the pool, that would be too awful) and I'm still doing at least an hour a day of yoga.

I am keeping this blog going, especially as the lovely chilly marathon and triathlon training season will soon be here, but am also doing a Badass Blog. With two other Badasses.
The cool thing being, with three of us doing it, there will be regular posts.

Tales Of Unexpected Badassery

Shut up, that is totally a real word. And we are real badasses.

Sunday

I had planned to do the yoga 'Detox' disc again today, but woke up with very sore legs. It did feel hard work when I did it yesterday, lots of chair pose (like a wall sit, without the wall) standing splits and other things that involve standing on one leg. So, I went for  my run this morning, and will do the 'Hardcore' and 'Gentle' discs tonight.

And I'm juicing.
It feels good to juice.

I've been reading about gall bladders. I know so many women how had had their out. I know it's more common for women to have issues due to the all the hormones, but eating fresh fruit and veg and nuts in particular, have been shown to lower the risks.

I don't want my body to be crap and give up on me. So juicing. Rawness. Fitness. Yeah.

Weekend Of Awesome

Too much work recently.
This is my weekend of being super, super healthy. I will be going back to running everyday, and although I've been doing yoga everyday, this weekend will be extra yoga, mountains of fruit and veg.

Also, I am the Citrus Queen!
I am knocking back lemon and lime water by the gallon.  

This morning I ran just over three miles, taking it easy to see if everything was OK with my sinuses, and it was. No spitting blood  or nosebleeds.
Good to go.

I then did the yoga 'Detox' disc. Travis talks about how it's all about twists, lots and lots of twists and core work. And I did the 'hardcore' disc before it, so my abs were pretty much shot before I started it.

Dinner will be rice based, then I will body brush and have a bath with sea salt.

Tomorrow will be along the same lines, I need to be sane and healthy again before I go back to work on Monday.

Health!

Up until 10:30 this morning I was feeling DAMN healthy. I have been so very, very sensible with food.
SO much green stuff. Juices and smoothies in almost insane proportions.
Green-ness!
I am the Green Ness Monster! Nothing more junkie than a square of organic dark chocolate has passed my lips in over a fortnight. If I'm having orange juice, I'll just whizz some spinach in there too.

But then today I had to have a root and the assorted metal bits that were attached to it removed from my jaw. But even then, I'm a bit sore, and have taken some painkillers, but it could be worse.
I have been running 5 k at least every days this August, and doing a minimum of 1 hour of yoga a day. The one hour of yoga is what's really making the difference, that and all the veg. My skin is looking good.
I am sleeping a lot, but I think I'm de-toxing a bit, too. The other good thing is my daughter has taken an interest in healthy recipes, and so when I presented her with a brown rice and broccoli bake for her dinner last night, she didn't sulk.

I should now have far less problems with my sinuses, what with the root being taken out, as it was intruding on them, and my glans on that side were often swollen, so I think I've had an underlying infection for possible, erm, months? Years?
Now I will be will bloody well glow!

Kick-Ass Improvement

Lat night was the first time I did the yoga 'Cross training' disc and kept up, all the way through. No stopping and slipping into child's pose while skinny Californians on my television keep going like it aint no thang. It was hard work, but I felt good.

Today I ran for 4 miles, and also went on a 3 mile walk with the kid. And tonight I will do the strength training disc. That IS hard. I WILL NOT be able to complete that. Yet.

I want to become a hippy type person and live in a bubble of healthy food and yoga and hemp underwear.
As such, I am going to add a slightly tree-hugger element to my posts, and so-

Today I am : Healthy, slightly lazy, wishing I had a Moomin keyring, drinking herbal tea and generally optimistic.

If today was my last, would it feel wasted?: No. But, after thinking about that, I've decided to not bother doing any more work today, and will crochet an owl, instead.

Two Solid Hours

Of yoga last night.
That, it turns out, is a long time. Really feeling it today. My core is not my friend.
I did the 'Vitality' disc, the basis of which is backbends, and then I did half of the 'Yin' (holding stretches for a super-long time) disc. That comes to two hours. That also made my run this morning very hard work. My legs are a bit fried, and my wrists are tender too from all the downward dogging (oo-er). I will do 'mountain pose series' tonight, which is half an hour, with half an hour meditation on it as well. Or the 'cop out' disc as I call it.

I'll have to get up very early for my runs for the next few days as I'm working, on the upside, it will be cooler, and I'm absolutely not cut out for running in the heat. The thought of doing a summer marathon or triathlon utterly horrifies me, to my aching core. It will take some serious getting used to.

More Baked Porridge

My life is currently revolving around backed porridge, running and yoga.
I haven't cycled for a couple of weeks or swam, but I am still just about managing 5k each morning. Today was less uncomfortable, so I'll try a little further tomorrow.

And this is mainly what I'm eating. It's more fruit than porridge.

I put fruit in a bowl.

I pour on rice milk, with cinnamon, oats and a spoon of Stevia mixed in.
I put it in the oven.

The gentle cooking in the oven, as opposed to getting mashed about on the hob means the fruit is lovely.

Tonight I'm doing yoga 'Cardio'. I don't want to. I've only done it once, so it has to be done again this week or else, but I am not looking forward to it.
Just have to focus on how amazing I'll feel afterwards.

More Muscle

I did the strength dvd tonight. Last time I had to stop before the end, as missing out some of the repetitive cycles was not enough, I had to stop. This time I stayed with it to the end, just collapsing occasionally and slipping into child's pose when the shaking got too much.

I also ran 5k this morning, as I did yesterday morning. It was stupidly hard. It's the heat, I'm sure, as the one I did on the 1st of the month was great. It was pouring with rain. It was great.

There is a definite physical change going on. I suppose I have now done 15 hours of very regular and challenging yoga. When I made up my own practise, it wasn't hard.
I honestly do think there will be a massive change by the end of the first month, and can't quite comprehend how much stronger I will be by the end of the 108 days.

Back Fat

I have less of it.
My back feels different, as do my shoulders.
Firmer.

Tomorrow I will have done 14 hours of yoga in 14 days. The vitality one was indeed sweaty, and there were lots of breathing exercises too. I did the mountain pose and meditation series yesterday, which was quite easy physically, and the cross training one today.
The cross training disc was the first one, and it was nice to see the improvement between now and the first time I did it a couple of weeks ago. Some of the flows I had to sit out, I could do one or two sets of sequences but was then done. Tonight I was able to complete all of them, and just struggled a bit with the amount of time I have to hold chair pose (like a wall sit without the wall).

I also managed to run on my ankle. Just 5k, but it didn't hurt at the end, just mild discomfort. And it was pouring with rain, which was just wonderful.

And I'm really into baked porridge.
I put some oats, rice milk, strawberries cinnamon and little agarve nectar in the fridge to soak overnight, and in the morning add some chopped banana and bake it for 20 mins. It's like a really soft, moist, not-too-sweet milky flapjack. Just lovely.

'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.

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.

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!

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.  

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'.

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.

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.

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.

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?)

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.

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.