In the last 24 hours I have:
* got sunburnt in extremely weird fashion (half of one arm, next to my watch on the other arm, and half of my back) (need to pay better attention to application)
* had a strawberry smoothie
* cringed at myself swimming on film
* had my first openwater swim of 2013
Yesterday afternoon's swim was very hot and sunny, hence the sunburn. We were in the 50m pool for technical endurance, the focus of which was a mainset of 50m, 10 seconds rest, 100m, 10 seconds rest, 150m, 10 seconds rest and so on up to 400m. I know I didn't swim as well as I can so felt a bit flat after that. However, we were in the pool at the same time as Hannah Miley, so that was pretty cool.
Then we went and watched our video footage from the morning. I cringed more than usual at seeing myself on screen, I'm not really sure why. Key points for me are that my head is still a bit high (although I'm good at keeping it still), I need to try to keep my fingers apart a bit more, and my right arm still isn't quite close enough to the body. Still, plenty of time to work on that this week.
Back to the hotel for a quick rest before dinner, lots of food and then the obligatory early night. Stayed awake until 9:10 pm though!
This morning I was awake at 6am, and up at 6.45 for our first openwater swim of the camp. Unfortunately it was very windy, so we weren't able to swim across to the little cove where we swam last year, we had to walk there instead :( It felt cold initially getting in but actually it was really toasty and I didn't get cold at all. We used to time to practice getting used to swimming in wetsuits again and doing some siting practice. We finished off this morning's swim with some drills. Breastroke arms with FC legs; fists for 6 strokes and then normal for 6 strokes, and finally 1 fist for 6 strokes (other hand normal) and swap to the other fist for 6 strokes. Not done the last one before but that was good.
Came back and had breakfast and tried to have a nap but got woken up by a cleaner. Hope I can stay awake for the rest of the day! For the rest of today, it's off to the centre later for a run workshop with Vicky Gill, an elite triathlete who was also world age group duathlon champion the other year. She is from a running background so an excellent person to learn from. Then almost immediately we're back in the 25m pool for another 90 minute technical endurance session. The weather's not so great today and it might rain later, but at least it's warm!
Monday, 18 February 2013
Sunday, 17 February 2013
Tenerife #2
As promised some pictures, with apologies for the poor quality. Mr Tuna text me just as I got on the plane to tell me I'd left my camera in the car. At least I had my idevice!
Here is the view from just outside the hotel yesterday.
Decided to take my pink toenails for a walk on the beach and a quick paddle.
Amazing to be standing in the sea, in the warm in February!
This is the view from the training facility at the end of the day yesterday. There is a lovely terrace cafe with this view one side and the pool the other side.
View from my hotel room this morning at 8am.
25m pool where we swam earlier.
I have got lots of food! We had a goody bag which included a lot of powerbar products to try (sadly most have wheat so I'll be taking those home for Mr Tuna!), and a t-shirt which I'm sure you'll see me modelling at some point. I brought a load of snacks from home too, and in the supermarket I spotted Ritta Sport which lots of the top triathletes seem to rave about. If it's good enough for Rachel Joyce, it's good enough for me. I got two flavours to try, had to have the one with the pink packet obvs!
Should there be downtime, I've got a great stack of reading material. One book down, 11 to go, but I do have my kindle too as well as 3 Tri magazines!
Here is the view from just outside the hotel yesterday.
Decided to take my pink toenails for a walk on the beach and a quick paddle.
Amazing to be standing in the sea, in the warm in February!
This is the view from the training facility at the end of the day yesterday. There is a lovely terrace cafe with this view one side and the pool the other side.
View from my hotel room this morning at 8am.
25m pool where we swam earlier.
Tenerife #1
I've been in Tenerife for less than 24 hours and so far I have:
* swum twice
* knocked 3 off my 25m stroke count (down to 18 and a half!)
* developed freckles
* SEEN HANNAH MILEY WHO IS TRAINING IN THE SAME FACILITY AS US [I was in swimming costume at the time without my idevice or would have asked for a snap]
* been chatted up by a Swiss footballer in German (he was a bit bemused when he realised I was english, I was a bit bemused when he realised this as I really only have schoolgirl German).
* been paddling in the sea and got my trousers wet
Here I am on Tridynamic's Swim Faster Camp with Dan Bullock, for the second year running. It's good to be back on the camp and there are some familiar faces. Vicky and I are set to see who can out-pink each other this year! Yesterday we swam in the 50m pool for 1.5 hours, we did some black line swimming work where you use the line to help you align your body. We did some drill work as part of a "technical endurance swim" and by the end of the session I was already feeling stronger.
This morning we spent half an hour doing warm up work in the gym. I was pleased thati had remembered the warm up routine correctly from last year, which is good as I must have done it over 200 times in the interim as I have been using it for my own warm up routine! There was a little bit of time before we hit the pool so I did 5 minutes of my own pilates exercises. I will take my instructions next time and then I can do all 5 exercises (could only remember 3 of them!). We then hit the 25m pool for some technical work, and I was really happy that after doing some drills and then counting my strokes, I hit 18 strokes for a length. I was swimming about 21-22 in the UK, sometimes worse than that. The drill that was new to me today was a variation on the extension drill/superman position, where you extend your forearm; today we added in raising the following arm . It was interesting for me to see how much weaker I am when my right arm is leading.
It is really warm and sunny which is a great tonic. Coming away with my depression is a bit of a struggle if I'm honest, and there was a bit of a meltdown after dinner last night, as this is the first time I have been on my own since being ill without Mr Tuna around to look after me. I was overtired and probably hadn't eaten enough (as evidenced by managing 2 powerbars, a flapjack and a bag of maltesers after speaking to Mr Tuna on the phone!). Anyway, I'm going to have a nap now and then head back up to the training facility for some juice (or maybe even a banana milkshake) and have a verity-friendly snack for lunch.
Big thanks to everyone who has sent me lovely texts over the last 24 hours, the internet here is a bit rubbish so it's variable as to whether or not I can get online. I want to try to blog each day, and because I forgot my camera, Martin, tridynamic camp director has promised to pass me some pictures for the blog to make up for the paucity of idevice!
I'm going to put some pictures in a separate post for now, just because it's easier with the internet/lack of camera issues!
* swum twice
* knocked 3 off my 25m stroke count (down to 18 and a half!)
* developed freckles
* SEEN HANNAH MILEY WHO IS TRAINING IN THE SAME FACILITY AS US [I was in swimming costume at the time without my idevice or would have asked for a snap]
* been chatted up by a Swiss footballer in German (he was a bit bemused when he realised I was english, I was a bit bemused when he realised this as I really only have schoolgirl German).
* been paddling in the sea and got my trousers wet
Here I am on Tridynamic's Swim Faster Camp with Dan Bullock, for the second year running. It's good to be back on the camp and there are some familiar faces. Vicky and I are set to see who can out-pink each other this year! Yesterday we swam in the 50m pool for 1.5 hours, we did some black line swimming work where you use the line to help you align your body. We did some drill work as part of a "technical endurance swim" and by the end of the session I was already feeling stronger.
This morning we spent half an hour doing warm up work in the gym. I was pleased thati had remembered the warm up routine correctly from last year, which is good as I must have done it over 200 times in the interim as I have been using it for my own warm up routine! There was a little bit of time before we hit the pool so I did 5 minutes of my own pilates exercises. I will take my instructions next time and then I can do all 5 exercises (could only remember 3 of them!). We then hit the 25m pool for some technical work, and I was really happy that after doing some drills and then counting my strokes, I hit 18 strokes for a length. I was swimming about 21-22 in the UK, sometimes worse than that. The drill that was new to me today was a variation on the extension drill/superman position, where you extend your forearm; today we added in raising the following arm . It was interesting for me to see how much weaker I am when my right arm is leading.
It is really warm and sunny which is a great tonic. Coming away with my depression is a bit of a struggle if I'm honest, and there was a bit of a meltdown after dinner last night, as this is the first time I have been on my own since being ill without Mr Tuna around to look after me. I was overtired and probably hadn't eaten enough (as evidenced by managing 2 powerbars, a flapjack and a bag of maltesers after speaking to Mr Tuna on the phone!). Anyway, I'm going to have a nap now and then head back up to the training facility for some juice (or maybe even a banana milkshake) and have a verity-friendly snack for lunch.
Big thanks to everyone who has sent me lovely texts over the last 24 hours, the internet here is a bit rubbish so it's variable as to whether or not I can get online. I want to try to blog each day, and because I forgot my camera, Martin, tridynamic camp director has promised to pass me some pictures for the blog to make up for the paucity of idevice!
I'm going to put some pictures in a separate post for now, just because it's easier with the internet/lack of camera issues!
Sunday, 10 February 2013
Wokingham Half
In a nutshell, it was pouring with rain, I had dreadful IBS, but somehow, after a man with a Dennis the Menace t-shirt told me at Mile 6 that we were on course for sub 2h, I negatively split it to a 1:58:34 finish.
Look!
Mile 1: 8:57
Mile 2: 9:18
Mile 3: 9:02
Mile 4: 9:11
Mile 5: 9:11
Mile 6: 9:20
Mile 7: 9:03
Mile 8: 8:57
Mile 9: 8:39
Mile 10: 9:05
Mile 11: 9:11
Mile 12: 8:51
Mile 13: 8:40
(I took these times off my watch by pressing it each time I went past a mile marker).
I'm trying to think what to say about it. I'm a bit sad that they didn't manage to get any photos of me as I was so proud to be wearing my Mind Charity vest. It was VERY wet, I wore a bin bag for the first two miles but then decided that I wanted to show off my Mind vest (and make sure that my number was showing for photos of me!). I just kept chipping away at the miles, started eating my veggie jelly bears at mile 5 (put them in two at a time as kind of difficult to chew), made sure I took water each time it was offered, and just tried to keep putting one foot in front of each other.
I definitely didn't have a race plan. If I had, I doubt I'd have achieved what I did today as I think I'd have been trying to stick to 9:30 minute miles. I enjoyed looking to see what other people had on their tops (previous race top/club top/charity top (like me!) or just plain). I put out a call on facebook for people to send me texts, and I got a load of really kind ones, including several from my fellow Supervisor at work such as "Go, go, relax your shoulders" and "....theme to Chariots of Fire" which really made me giggle and gave me something else to think about.
Now it's over, my IBS is still horrific, my legs are in agony (no idea how I'll walk tomorrow, let alone cycle to work), but at least I'm dry and warm. I knew that I probably had a sub 2h half marathon in me at some point, but I didn't think it would be this time, as I've not done nearly as much running as I thought I should have done in the last two months. Well, it proved enough! So I might not ever have to do another stand alone half now :) What is scary is that the next time I attempt that distance I will have swum 1.9k and cycled 90k first...
Look!
Mile 1: 8:57
Mile 2: 9:18
Mile 3: 9:02
Mile 4: 9:11
Mile 5: 9:11
Mile 6: 9:20
Mile 7: 9:03
Mile 8: 8:57
Mile 9: 8:39
Mile 10: 9:05
Mile 11: 9:11
Mile 12: 8:51
Mile 13: 8:40
(I took these times off my watch by pressing it each time I went past a mile marker).
I'm trying to think what to say about it. I'm a bit sad that they didn't manage to get any photos of me as I was so proud to be wearing my Mind Charity vest. It was VERY wet, I wore a bin bag for the first two miles but then decided that I wanted to show off my Mind vest (and make sure that my number was showing for photos of me!). I just kept chipping away at the miles, started eating my veggie jelly bears at mile 5 (put them in two at a time as kind of difficult to chew), made sure I took water each time it was offered, and just tried to keep putting one foot in front of each other.
I definitely didn't have a race plan. If I had, I doubt I'd have achieved what I did today as I think I'd have been trying to stick to 9:30 minute miles. I enjoyed looking to see what other people had on their tops (previous race top/club top/charity top (like me!) or just plain). I put out a call on facebook for people to send me texts, and I got a load of really kind ones, including several from my fellow Supervisor at work such as "Go, go, relax your shoulders" and "....theme to Chariots of Fire" which really made me giggle and gave me something else to think about.
Now it's over, my IBS is still horrific, my legs are in agony (no idea how I'll walk tomorrow, let alone cycle to work), but at least I'm dry and warm. I knew that I probably had a sub 2h half marathon in me at some point, but I didn't think it would be this time, as I've not done nearly as much running as I thought I should have done in the last two months. Well, it proved enough! So I might not ever have to do another stand alone half now :) What is scary is that the next time I attempt that distance I will have swum 1.9k and cycled 90k first...
Saturday, 9 February 2013
Catching up again
Not a great week in training terms. Came down with a sore throat on Tuesday, having had swollen glands for two days, which has resulted in a mild cold. Busy week at work and continued low mood has made it difficult to motivate myself beyond the bare minimum, but there is also the little matter of my first half marathon on my mind. Which is tomorrow. The weather is currently pretty grim, so at this stage I'm not promising to get out of bed and do it!
Anyway, 13.25k swimming in the bag at this stage, plus a pilates class. Mr Tuna and I should have been practicing the exercises we were given after our private tuition last Sunday, but we haven't. :-/
In other news, I'm packing my suitcase, or trying to, for Tenerife. This time next week I'll be there, hopefully in the sun. Can't quite imagine it. It's very difficult to pack for temperatures averaging 20C when they currently average nearly 20C less than that. Can't logically decide how many jumpers I need, and whether or not I should pack tights! Also unsure as to how many event freebie t-shirts can get away with packing, I don't want to look really sad. Fortunately this year I'm travelling with Jet2 rather than RyanAir and my reward for this is a 23kg baggage allowance which is helpful. I'll be taking my laptop and hoping to blog while I'm away as I'd like to try and record some of the stuff that we do so that I can go back and revisit it once I'm back here, but also for the obligatory (hopefully) blue skies and beautiful swimming pool pictures :)
Anyway, 13.25k swimming in the bag at this stage, plus a pilates class. Mr Tuna and I should have been practicing the exercises we were given after our private tuition last Sunday, but we haven't. :-/
In other news, I'm packing my suitcase, or trying to, for Tenerife. This time next week I'll be there, hopefully in the sun. Can't quite imagine it. It's very difficult to pack for temperatures averaging 20C when they currently average nearly 20C less than that. Can't logically decide how many jumpers I need, and whether or not I should pack tights! Also unsure as to how many event freebie t-shirts can get away with packing, I don't want to look really sad. Fortunately this year I'm travelling with Jet2 rather than RyanAir and my reward for this is a 23kg baggage allowance which is helpful. I'll be taking my laptop and hoping to blog while I'm away as I'd like to try and record some of the stuff that we do so that I can go back and revisit it once I'm back here, but also for the obligatory (hopefully) blue skies and beautiful swimming pool pictures :)
Sunday, 3 February 2013
Weekly catch up time!
So another busy week at work has meant no blogging in the week. Sorry!! The good news is that despite continuing low mood and a hectic workload, I've still managed to get a fair amount of sessions in.
There was 13.5k of swimming (5 sessions), 9 x 4.5 mile cycle commutes, and 2 pilates classes, but I think the running has been the highlight of this week. I've only been out twice, which by runner-standards is very little, but I'm very pleased with the two runs that I did. The first, on Thursday was a 7k run (which is a fairly long distance by my standards up until a few weeks ago), but I managed to hammer the pace and averaged 5:33 minutes per k (normally I average about 5:45, and looking back at my times in the summer I was averaged about 6:26!), so was pleased with that, even if my legs hurt a lot. On Saturday, I went out for another long run (a proper long run), and like last week managed to beat the distance and the length of time that I ran for. Unfortunately my GPS only kicked in after 7k, so I don't have terribly accurate data, but I ran 16k (definitely) in about 1h40. 16k apparently equates to 10 miles!
Also, on Friday late afternoon, I made an appearance on local radio. I was ostensibly invited in to talk about the Bicester Triathlon which I am doing at the end of March, but I agreed to go on in the hope that I might get to talk about Mind, the mental health charity. In fact, the resultant discussion covered triathlons more generally, and open water swimming, as well as me seeing how many times I could mention Mind. If you want to listen (and a friend from Australia managed to listen, so hopefully works internationally...), the link to the show is here (it will only be up until 8/2/13), and I'm on at 40 minutes in.
As for next week, the half marathon is next Sunday, a week today, so I don't think I'll run again until then, as I'd like my legs to be itching to run. I'll continue with the swimming and some pilates, including a private lesson next Saturday with the lady who runs my pilates classes. I also must start packing as it is less than a fortnight now until I go to Tenerife and time is getting short! I wonder how many race-freebie-t-shirts it is acceptable to pack?!
There was 13.5k of swimming (5 sessions), 9 x 4.5 mile cycle commutes, and 2 pilates classes, but I think the running has been the highlight of this week. I've only been out twice, which by runner-standards is very little, but I'm very pleased with the two runs that I did. The first, on Thursday was a 7k run (which is a fairly long distance by my standards up until a few weeks ago), but I managed to hammer the pace and averaged 5:33 minutes per k (normally I average about 5:45, and looking back at my times in the summer I was averaged about 6:26!), so was pleased with that, even if my legs hurt a lot. On Saturday, I went out for another long run (a proper long run), and like last week managed to beat the distance and the length of time that I ran for. Unfortunately my GPS only kicked in after 7k, so I don't have terribly accurate data, but I ran 16k (definitely) in about 1h40. 16k apparently equates to 10 miles!
Also, on Friday late afternoon, I made an appearance on local radio. I was ostensibly invited in to talk about the Bicester Triathlon which I am doing at the end of March, but I agreed to go on in the hope that I might get to talk about Mind, the mental health charity. In fact, the resultant discussion covered triathlons more generally, and open water swimming, as well as me seeing how many times I could mention Mind. If you want to listen (and a friend from Australia managed to listen, so hopefully works internationally...), the link to the show is here (it will only be up until 8/2/13), and I'm on at 40 minutes in.
As for next week, the half marathon is next Sunday, a week today, so I don't think I'll run again until then, as I'd like my legs to be itching to run. I'll continue with the swimming and some pilates, including a private lesson next Saturday with the lady who runs my pilates classes. I also must start packing as it is less than a fortnight now until I go to Tenerife and time is getting short! I wonder how many race-freebie-t-shirts it is acceptable to pack?!
January data
Looking back at my training data for January, it was quite a good month. I only managed one bike ride (74k), but biking was never going to be the priority for January/February with a half marathon coming up and with horrible, icy conditions.
Swimming wise, I swam 73.75k which is the furthest I've been in a month since July.
Running wise, I ran 55.99k which is the furthest I've ever run in a month, including my longest run to date of 14k (a distance which I've already surpassed in February).
I also took up pilates and have now been to four classes. I find it really helps with relaxation and my posture and flexibility is already improving.
So, overall, I'm pretty pleased. My mood may have been low and I may have been really busy with work, but I managed to focus on both my swimming and running which will help enormously for the swimming camp coming up on the 16th, and the half marathon before that on the 10th!
Swimming wise, I swam 73.75k which is the furthest I've been in a month since July.
Running wise, I ran 55.99k which is the furthest I've ever run in a month, including my longest run to date of 14k (a distance which I've already surpassed in February).
I also took up pilates and have now been to four classes. I find it really helps with relaxation and my posture and flexibility is already improving.
So, overall, I'm pretty pleased. My mood may have been low and I may have been really busy with work, but I managed to focus on both my swimming and running which will help enormously for the swimming camp coming up on the 16th, and the half marathon before that on the 10th!
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