'She turned her can’t into cans and her dreams in to plans’

What. A. Week. #epic! Follow me @tritheworldover

 

 It. Went. Like. This:

1. Decide what it is you want - Austria Ironman 2015

2. Write that shit down - (Here it is – the form of a blog)

3. Make a fucking plan (sorry Glenda, that’s another 50p for the swear tin) -plan is get a professional coach (he can take care of the training plan). Check.  Other plans included researching into getting a new bike. Check.  Being more social with the training. Check.  Getting to some more of my wonderful tri club (Tuff Fitty not Tuff Titty) coached sessions. Check

4. And work on it. Every. Single. Day -and yes, yes I have! And boy does it feel good! #eatsleeptrainrepeat #eatsleeptrainrepeat #eatsleeptrainrepeat yes, yes you get the picture!

For those of you who know me well you will know that indecision has let me down in the past year –This House of Prayer quote describes it well: (PS I’m not f@@king religious)

‘Indecision is debilitating – it feeds upon itself, it is, one might say habit forming.  Not only that – but it is contagious – it transmits itself to others.’

I am forever asking people – what do you think I should do – and why do you think this is?  Because I bloody doubt myself, when really I shouldn’t.  Hence the bumblebee/racehorse post.  Now we have that sorted and the self-belief bandwagon up and running hopefully indecision will no longer be an enemy of my progress in all areas of my life.  It may sound like I am talking in riddles.  I probably am.  But my dear friends will know what I am on about.  One thing I have learnt from the various mistakes I have made in the past year is that:

‘Time does not wait and indecision will only let opportunities slip by’ so, now I’ve picked my Ironman path I can walk confidently with my heart behind every step. Yada, yada, yada! Grab life by the balls people! JUST do it – whatever it is your heart is telling you to do! Go for GOLD!  Time waits for no, ironman!

So the first week of my Ironman training plan is done! BOOM I won’t forget it – all the threes 3thirtythree3.  One down 3thirtytwo2 to go and it. Went. A. Bit. Like. This:

Swim hours: 1hr 35 mins Kilometres swam: 6.1km

‘Home is where the pool is’

Swimming is a great love of mine – chorine it runs through my veins, I could swim all day every day – but not the channel ha-ha.  I think I used to be a dolphin or a mermaid in a past life because being in the water just feels natural to me. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t get much pool time this week. It started off well with a 4km endurance set with Mr Latham.  But the long monotonous cool down set got to my shoulders and I had exam revision guilt so I bottled it and got out after 3.3km.  I do loathe a long drill set - I tend to switch off past 400m. Also managed to get to a Tuffy coached swim session on Saturday, which was very good Lardy mixed it up with lots of tempo, speed and drill efforts.  And you can’t beat training with others.  A bit of banter in between sets always helps to keep motivated too!

Cycling hours: 7hrs 40 minutes Kilometres travelled: 244

‘Cycling releases a chemical that makes you feel utterly smug and superior for the rest of the day’….DISCUSS

Not sure I ALWAYS agree with this quote.  But this week the riding has been pretty awesome.  Yes, there’s been wind and rain, but no tantrums or toys thrown out of the pram and I even managed to keep up on the Sunday Tuff Fitty club ride (notoriously known for dropping people out – sorry @Totallyfuelled - had to be mentioned). I was hanging on for dear life at one point and was amazed to look at my Garmin and see I was managing to push 38kmph at one point on the flat. WTF! So my cycling in Lanza paid off and I have a very special person to thank for that. #DM

Anyway, being an amateur cyclist I have been known to cop the odd strop– quite simply because in the past I have not been fast, or good enough to keep up with this group riding malarky. Last year my quite simply legendary friend Jon C earned himself a medal in my Sam’s wall of awesome triathlon people.  He just put up with my teenage outbursts as did Kevlar. I will never forget my first 100 mile ride with the Bognor lot when I boinked at 70 miles with no nutrition and became snappier than a crocodile - he was there with his energy drink and dear words of encouragement.  Who could forget that fateful 100km Tuff Fitty winter ride where I got dropped and I wanted to throw my bike in the hedges.  I can laugh about it now, but at the time I was ready to tantrum that man is such a calming influence. So, thank you Jon!

I truly believe if it hadn’t been for all those long fat burning IM Bolton rides he invited me along to (and I’m sure dropped his pace) I would still be plodding along at granny pace.  Building speed on the bike is quite simply down to time in the saddle.  And this week I banked some great hours on the bike . (if you want a funny triathlon book – read  Sex, Lies and Triathlon by Leib Dodell – unfortunately there is nothing in there about how sex improves your triathlon times, or indeed anything about sex.  But sex sells, so think that’s why it’s in the title.  However, it talks about the importance of banking good bike and run miles when the weather is good - it’s also quirky and you can really relate to everything he writes about!)

Run time: A disappointing 29 minutes Kilometres ran: 5:13km

‘Running  - cheaper than therapy’

So why the hell aren’t I pounding the pavements!? After all I need all the help I can get! HA. Hands up if this weather has caused you to lose that running mojo of yours, or is it just me? – I did, however, manage to claim a bit of it back.  But let’s face it -This weather is hardly run inspiring and it’s only going to get worse.  I thought about it a lot.  I looked outside. A lot.  I thought about it again. And the excuses came too easily: ‘It’s too cold, it’s too wet, it’s too dark.’  In the end I tweeted for inspiration @thisfatgirlruns told me to just get out and put one foot forward.  So after a glass of #manthefuckup I donned the trainers and opted for a safe promenade run.  Slow and steady. Next week is run week – I promise!

Other training activities worth noting:

A rather entertaining Insanity Class at David Lloyd, with the original coach, Paul P.  You can’t beat a bit of side shuffling and burpee-ing, and deep squatting – after all this functional sh#t strengthens those muscles. After all I need to be a #fitleanfightingmachine

Bodypump and BodyBalance

1000 rep challenge. 10 sets of 100 exercises! Go me! Lunges, squats… you get the picture!

All in all a very active and social week!

Total training hours banked: 13 ish

Thoughts for week 3thirtytwo2:

The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday

1.       More running

2.       More swimming

3.       Less biking!

The power of THREE!

It will be interesting to see how much training I manage to fit in with a full on week of SEP exams and returning to the skies.  Roger that. Over and out.

PS: I am not powered by fairy dust – but …. www.totallyfuelled.com  CHECK. IT. OUT! @totallyfuelled