Snotty

I was a croaking, sneezing mess yesterday, so some yoga was all I did.
I know they say you can exercise as long as it's your illness is not below the head, but I just want to get better, so I've been filling myself with vitamin C and zinc, and about to leave for a run now before work this morning, aiming for 4 miles at around 10.30 each.

And last night I was tucked up in bed by 8pm with my hot water bottle, laptop (so I could talk rubbish to my friends and lol at pics of a grumpy cat) and watch the most excellent 'Centurion', a film featuring Michael Fassbender (all films should feature him.)

He runs around the Highlands and gets beaten up a lot.

  
I find films like that quite motivational. Ditto 300. And Gladiator. I quote them at work when things go wrong, along with Lord Of  The Rings. I'm a joy to have in the office.

Huzzah!

I couldn't cycle yesterday, and it's all gone a bit pear shaped this week with stuff getting in the way.

I will go for a little run tomorrow morning before work, and it's not like I never cycle so won't hurt me to have a few days off from it. There's a sore throat rumbling and I need it to piss off, pronto, definitely before Saturday, cos no one wants to go with a girl who sounds like the illegitimate offspring of Marge Simpson and Les Dawson. Although he is aware of my normal voice, too. Maybe I should record myself speaking now before things get too bad.. It'll be like in Home Alone 2 when Kevin plays previously recorded answers rather than actually speaking to people.

I have decided to do some focusing on certain areas. Next week will be swimming heavy.
I'm not good or fit enough to be trying to get good at everything at once, but I don't want to neglect anything too much either. I just want to slow down a bit and concentrate on what I'm doing, then when I'm better at it, then get good at doing three things at once.
I have some leave next week so will only be biking the once, and will do two runs, and three swims.

Kona 2012 is now on Youtube. Huzzah!

 

Very scary how these people being interviewed at the beginning, these people who live and breathe Ironman, are paid to do it and seem so confident can, like Chris McCormack, end up dropping out. Or like previous 3 time winner Craig Alexander, not even make the top ten.

Just finishing is a very nice goal to have indeed, getting a reasonable time will be an awesome bonus.

Poo

Well I didn't cut 40 seconds off.
It was exhausting, cold and windy, and I was tired to start with. And what's worse, I had to stop as there was a gritty feeling in my shoe, and was MOUSE POO!. I stopped and shook it out, but there's nothing like running along with a mouse toilet on your foot. I have to stop keeping my shoes in the porch. The cat drops mice off in there and they hide in my shoes until she's bored and leaves them alone long enough for them to flee the premises.

I usually only run about twice a week, and this was my fourth run in 7 days, and 9 seconds faster was all I could manage. My next 10k will be on Saturday, and all I'll do between now and then is 60 mile bike. Maybe a bit on my cross-trainer on Thursday night.

And I did get a new dress, but it was only £3.19 on eBay so totally doesn't count. Just hope it arrives in time for Saturday.

HMS Lucy

Well yesterday is going to count as a rest day, as although I went swimming, I wasn't able to do much.
It was heaving, and I took my own kid with me just to make matters worse. The few lanes for proper swimming were mental. Kids. Old people stopping halfway. People who really shouldn't be there.

However, pull buoys, what the bloody hell???
I felt like the good ship Lucy.
And in danger of capsizing, as my rotation was all over the place to start with.
I kept crossing my arms in front of myself, but once I'd calmed down, I realised I was shifting. The end of the pool approached like an iceberg. I was nearly 15 seconds faster! My cadence was higher too, the whole thing felt like a bit of a panic and my arms were burning after 100m of that.

Still, it was fun, and while dodging the kids, I also tried side kicking drills again, but this time without a kickboard, and was much quicker, probably as my body was lower and legs higher, so I was in a straighter line.

Then I came home and fixed my bike chain using a proper pin, which went well. I took pictures to demonstrate this, but they were so boring I'm not going to post them. So here is a pic of a crocheted scene from 'The Exorcist' instead.

10k again today, hoping to cut the 40 secs off.
Yeah.

Week 6

So I thought it was my rumbling stomach waking me up yesterday morning.
I am a real morning eater, if I didn't have breakfast I'd faint on the way to work.
As I came to, I realised it was a bit of an odd noise for my body to be making, and in my confused state, looked out my window to see this lovely lady.

I thought about going and trying to sort her out, but she seemed quite happy, and I have experience of trying to catch a livestock, it doesn't always end well.
Luckily when I went running I saw the sheep man and just told him where she was. He's about 90, but surprisingly nimble.

So I tried my 10k, with an eye on my Garmin, and managed to average 11:04 minute miles. Could have been worse, I suppose, but was 40 seconds slower overall than I had been hoping for.
I have now set the pace alerts and the little man virtual training partner thing for next time.

Today I am going swimming. It's an inset day so hopefully the place won't be crawling with kids. I have been reading this book to get some ideas on drills, and have my pull buoy all ready to go.
It's occured to me that my kicking is so poor I might actually be faster without it....

I also hope the pins arrive for my chain. I have found a calcuation formula for how long a chain should be with lots of diagrams that I can't make head or tail of, and really wish I'd kept the old one!
However, I have also found a video that is a little easier to understand, that says chains should be the length of the distance around the big chain ring and the largest rear cog (missing out the derailleur) plus 3 links, so I'll try that.


So, Week 6

Monday - Swimming

Tuesday - 10k

Wednesday - 30 mile bike

Thursday - rest

Friday - 30 mile bike

Saturday - 10k

Sunday - 1 hour bike of varying intensities - 30 min run

Bit of a crap week as work is all over the place.

Try On ALL The Clothes!

On my bike yesterday I tried out some stuff from the Selene Yeager book, doing intervals of different intensities. She has training plans for all kinds of stuff, and it was interesting to try and apply some ideas and feel the different zones, dictated by something other than terrain.

Then I came home and ripped a load of clothes out of my wardrobe, as I'm out next weekend and need something nice to wear, and as I expect a mechanic's bill to fall through the door soon, I must NOT buy anything new. I also wanted to monitor my size according to my clothes.

I assumed none of my jeans would fit me, but there are one pair that just do, and a pair I can do up if I lay down (but not breathe, or walk, or sit in) and a few pairs I can't even get over my hips.
I can get into the dress I want to wear, but again, I don't look good in it. Yet. So more clothes were hurled out the wardrobe. Plus I need different options as I don't know where I'm going yet. And there's two possibilities of who with too, but I still haven't decided, delaying on both.

That makes me sound like I'm flakey and indecisive. Which is pretty accurate right now. 

Anyway, thought it would be better to illustrate the pile of clothes rather than the squeezing into jeans thing. No one wants to see that.

Today's challenge is an evenly paced 11 min mile 10k. It should come out at 1:08:02. Hmm...we'll see.

Runnin' Along, Lookin' At My Wrist.

PROPER Garmin action yesterday.
I decided to run 5 miles, and to try and average 11 min miles. I picked a route with no stupid hills, and watched the thing like a hawk, and it was much harder than I thought. I'd look and I was doing 10.15, then slow it down, and find I was 11.30. However, it worked out fine as I averaged 10.59, and did 5 miles in 54:54:00 exactly. On Sunday I shall do 10k at that pace, hopefully keeping it a bit more steady, and speed it up from there.

The bike cassette thing went surprisingly well.

Before (In my experience, a Lisa Simpson duvet cover is an ideal floor protector, and Youtube on standby is wise)

 During. Very hard to get off, hurt my finger.

After. Ta daaa! Not sure if it's on tight enough. I'll soon find out if it falls off.

 On.

However, when I was running it I noticed it's still slipping, and it seems the link where it joins is opening up, and not bending correctly. I think the chain could do with losing a link or two as well. The derailleur seems higher. I wish I'd counted the links on the old one! I've just read they are usually a couple of links longer than necessary, so at least I can ditch the bent one.

I weighed myself yesterday, too.
I initally thought I'd be happy to lose about a stone and half. I have lost just shy of a stone since starting Iron training, and there is no way I have just half a stone to go. More like another stone and half, that might be possibly enough. We'll see. Depends what size I'm wearing,
I can hear my mum now freaking about about this, as she always says I'm too thin or too fat.
However, I hereby pledge I will have shifted that stone and half by my birthday in February, and more than half of it by Christmas.