One week down...

So, week one is done. That wasn't a bad week to start with - nothing got in the way of training, and circumstances actually conspired to help me out at the weekend with the social bike ride and additional rest day. I feel like I achieved what I wanted to, and needed to, and I feel like I might just about be able to say I am triathlete again. So after a small pat on the back (yay me! OK, that's enough...) it's time to look ahead to week two.

This week's going to be a little trickier, organisation wise. I have a weekend away that starts on Friday, although it involves a hotel with a pool (unknown size - probably 10m) and gym (also unknown), and I can always take my trainers. I thought there might have been a parkrun to go to, but there isn't (pull your finger out, Bristol!). I will manage, though - perhaps not the perfect mix of disciplines, but definitely enough activity to keep me ticking over and balance out the eating out and other assorted merriment with friends and family, which I am really looking forward to.

Edit on Monday: I've also just learned that the pool I use is closed for maintenance, with no reopening date/time as yet. Hopefully that will be fixed before tomorrow's swim!

Other assorted learnings from this week: I found various things I thought I had lost... my other running tights (just in time, since the older ones died yesterday), my gym card (too late, paid for a new one), and my cycling overshoes (too late for this week but there will be other chilly rides). I also learned how much I missed having a spreadsheet, aka The Plan.

Photo: One year on .... by Mrs Logic, on Flickr

Finding my feet again

I said at the start of the week that I hadn't been on the road bike for a while (OK, about 5 months). I felt it today! Not in terms of the saddle, or tired legs, but getting used to a smaller, twitchier bike (I missed you, Bluebird) and... (cue dramatic music) clipless pedals.

No, I did not fall off.

Where I seem to get bizarrely paralysed is starting off. Making that move to actually get going took a lot of mental effort this morning - I can't even put my finger on why, it just felt scary somehow.

Zelda by elana CXLIV, on Flickr

I need to practice, I think. It did improve over the course of the ride, thankfully! The ride was the Norwich sprint tri route, plus riding to parkrun beforehand (that was what made me give myself a mental kick up the arse to stop being a scredy cat, get moving and not be late). There were eight of us, all ladies, and it was just a nice, relaxed social ride, with a healthy helping of bloody long hills in the middle. The only thing missing was my waterproof, windproof overboots - when I finished the ride I half expected there to be a few deep-frozen toes rattling around in my shoes.

Parkrun beforehand, not much to say about that but two words: personal worst. But not by much - 30:27. With 5 days' training in my legs and trying to bear in mind I was about to go for a bike ride, that's OK. I ran the whole way and I wasn't last :)

So, I have cunningly combined both my weekend sessions into one day, and I can have tomorrow off. Yay!

What I learned today: I need to do some more work on starting off on the road bike. And I need new running tights as I wore out my old pair and suffered chafing as a result (ouch)

What lies beneath

"Short hills" on the bike poses a problem. There are not many hills that I can cycle up hard for a whole minute, where I can also turn right around and actively recover for 2 minutes (without being run over, at least). The plan actually acknowledges this and suggests a turbo trainer - I don't have one of those either. So I headed off to the gym...

...well, the session was an hour and that was about all I could endure. Which is bad as from here on in, the sessions get longer. It's the saddles they have - a big, wide, fat, shiny saddle that means I slide forward as my legs work, with a bump on the 'nose' that is a rather uncomfortable place for ladies (and I can't imagine it's much better for the boys?). I'm half tempted to wear cycling shorts next time but I think they would make the sliding worse.

Ride Upright by poetas, on Flickr

My legs are OK and just feel "worked", but... um... other bits are complaining. *sigh* This one needs a rethink - maybe I can shorten the total session, but still get the efforts in? Today was 20 mins either side of the effort set of 7 x (1 min max, 2 mins recovery). I'd rather do another short, moderate weekend ride to get the saddle time in if that's what it takes. And then I'd be on my own bike more.

What (else) I learned today: the maximum exercise period on the gym bikes is 20 mins before it defaults to cooldown. Cue faffing to cancel the cooldown and start again.

Oh boy - I'm not really this much of a whinger. It was a good session and I'm pleased with that. My playlist was chucking out some good tunes (no News Quiz today) - this was the last song, now stuck in my head but I don't really mind:

Wibble wobble, wibble wobble, jelly... in my arms

Jelly arms. That's what I have now... not the bingo wing variety (well, I have those too but I didn't grow them over lunch) but the puppet-stings-cut, boneless feeling that comes from A Good Swim Session.

Today it included:

• drills - working on catch and pull, especially on the left where it all goes a bit Pete Tong.
• 25m sprints / 10s rest - ranging between 25 and 27 seconds. I'd like to see that nearer 23s by the tri, but for my current state that's not too shabby.
• 200m threshold intervals / 45s rest - 4:11, 4:07, 4:14, 4:16. These should have been at a faster speed than the 100m reps from Tuesday, but weren't. Either I wasn't quick enough today or I was too quick on Tues. I couldn't have maintained anything faster for 200m so I'm putting it down to over-enthusiasm last time.
• kick - complete tedium, only did 4 (out of 6) and then another one to return the borrowed float to the other end of the pool. I'm not sure what I am supposed to be getting out of this... shall buttonhole a friendly swim coach and find out.

What I learned today: I should read the plan properly before I go to the pool. I wasn't supposed to do any sprints, but I was supposed to do one more 200m rep.*rolls eyes* Sadly I was not imagining the kick set!

Photo: Red jelly by net_efekt, on Flickr

New blood

No, not mine! I'm still in one piece...

I've convinced my swim buddy, new colleague Alice, to do the Waveney tri as well (it didn't take much convincing to be honest :), which will be her first ever triathlon, and so today she came out for her first run since school. I was down for a fartlek session of 30 mins including six 30-second sprints, so I fitted that in by running ahead and then back to her as needed. Not that it was needed much - I think she'll be beating me before too long - but it was good to have company! And boy oh boy those sprints felt foreign... wobbly legs ahoy.

What I learned today: I can't run my watch's interval timer and stopwatch at the same time. If I'm doing intervals, it's not counting up my total run time. Boo.

Settling in to The Plan

First swim session of The Plan today, nothing too taxing but a good one nonetheless - felt quite strong. I'd forgotten how quickly the session flies by when you are concentrating on reps and interval times rather than overall minutes.

The main set was 8 x 100m @ moderate intensity with 5s rests. I swam 1:59, 2:05, 2:06, 2:05, 2:05, 2:05, 2:07, 2:08, which I am pleased with considering my lack of focused training. Technique definitely tailed off as I got tired, especially catch/pull, and I could feel the residue of yesterday's gym session, although nothing as bad as it has been. I need to remember my float so I can do some pull drills next time.

With warm up and cool down, drills and kick, total session distance was 1600m.

What I learned today: it's like what they say about money - take care of the seconds (pennies), and the minutes (pounds) take care of themselves.

Week 1, day 1...

(I'm going to have to work on blog post title inspiration. So far it's either nicked or dull. Onwards and upwards!)

Started off gently with a gym session today. Static lunges, squats; biceps, triceps and lats; russian twists, abs and planks (very weak planks...), and half (kneeling) pressups. Not too many of each, nothing too heavy, paying attention to form, and finishing off with a good old stretch. It felt good!

Question of the day: what are you supposed to do with an mp3 player on an armband when you want to do bicep curls?

What I learned today: don't listen to the News Quiz podcast in the gym. Grinning like an idiot and occasionally chuckling out loud marks you out as a bit of a freak. But on the upside, you get plenty of room on the free weights mat...

Tomorrow: swim base intervals.

There will be spreadsheets

(OK, so I borrowedstole the blog post title from one of my favourite bloggers - but I like it and more to the point it is true :)

It's been too long. Last year was slack, slack, slack - apart from a trip to France and the National Relays, I barely got on my road bike. Silly girl. Time to rectify that and find some focus.

I've done a few editions of Waveney sprint tri in the past (1 - 2 - 3), and marshalled a few more, so when it opened to club members this week I figured it was time to race again, and signed myself up before I could come up with some lame-arsed excuse. I've been swimming and running regularly, so it's not like I am starting from rock bottom.

Plus race day, May 8th, is 16 whole weeks away, which gives me time to follow one of the 12-week plans from the training bible plus 4 weeks extra at the start to build up a really good base. My overall goal is to beat my Waveney PB of 1:05:23. I figure that along the way I should also be able to crack my frankly dismal parkrun PB of 28:35 (if not my all-time 5km PB of 24:38), and lose a few kg as well - plenty of those to spare at the moment.

So, the plan is this.

1. Follow weeks 5-8 of the level 4 sprint training plan ("modest initial fitness level; 6 workouts per week"), which is three "build" weeks and a recovery week.
   
2. Follow weeks 1-12 at level 5 of the same plan ("decent base fitness; not just finish, but finish well; three workouts per week per discipline"). That's 3 weeks of "base", one recovery, three "build", one recovery, three "peak", and one taper leading up to the race.

I have a big spreadsheet where I am putting the training plan elements into a quick-to-read format. (I'm also tracking calories in/out, and weight. I said there would be spreadsheets, didn't I?). Next week's schedule is:

• Monday: off-plan - hit the gym for some gentle strength and core work
• Tuesday: swim - base intervals plus drills and kick
• Wednesday: bike - (in the gym seeing as it's still dark when I'm not in work...) "hills", plus core
• Thursday: swim - tempo intervals plus drills and kick
• Friday: run - steady including short sprints
• Saturday: bike - steady
  
• Sunday: run - steady
  

I might change the order to find myself training buddies and do parkrun on Saturday - perhaps swap Weds/Fri and Sat/Sun.

So, goal for this week, 17th-23rd January: complete the above training plan! Eat to fuel the training, and stay hydrated. And keep blogging - I feel better for writing all that down, so that's a good start :)

Back to basics

Managed the 30 min (more like 45) weights session:

5 mins rower warm-up
biceps (free, 6kg each side) 3 x 12
triceps (cable, 15kg), 3 x 11
shoulder press (free, 4kg each side) 3 x 12
pulldown (machine, 35kg) 3 x 11
one arm row (free, 9kg, one side at a time) 3 x 12
side lifts (free, 3kg each side) 3 x 11
abs, 40 upper, 20 each side, 20 lower.

Then ran with beginners tonight to help out. 3 x 15 mins at probably 12 min miles, plus about 20 mins walking in total. It was a pleasant change to chat to some new people, they were a lovely bunch and are doing well.

Plans for a tricky week

Off to a conference in London for a couple of nights, so more running and less gym/swim this week. Let's try not to forget anything this time....

Mon: lunchtime gym session (weights only, 30 mins), run with the club in the evening (~40 mins).
Tue: aerobics
Weds: nothing (travelling early).
Thurs, Fri: 40-50 min morning run in Regent's Park - looking forward to that!
Sat: morning run, 1:15-1:30?
Sun: sort my road bike out with its new tyres and a general once-over, and get out for a test ride.

Bit of a theme here

Yesterday:
Out with Lizzie for an early morning (for me! 8am...) run. Found I'd left my trainers (with orthotics) at work. D'oh AGAIN. Got to get it together... Still, I went out in an old pair figuring one run wouldn't hurt (it didn't).

We went on an old favourite route, the monument loop. Just a squeak over 10 min miling but a glorious day to be out. Skylarks singing, sun shining, just enough breeze to be refreshing - perfect. Great way to start the weekend. And I even managed to bike to the city and the greengrocer's afterwards!

Today:
Early start for the Diss duathlon. All went well, including the cake stall which I helped with (temptation resisted) and baked for. After that we went for a walk with Jenna and Simon, 5.6 miles from Tyrrel's wood. Another lovely day, bit of a chilly nor-easter blowing but with the sun out who cares? Lots of little planes buzzing around from the various airfields, all kinds of birds singing in the hedges, and an interesting church to investigate at Shelton. Shame the farm shop shut up just before we got there for a post-wallk tea :(

Work it...

Down to the gym at lunchtime. I seem to be going through a phase of "what can I forget today?" - this time it was trainers. The new ones were at home, thankfully the old ones were still in the office. Sadly I didn't realise until I had got changed, so had to nip back (in gym gear!) to get them. D'oh. The other week it was my top - thankfully I was going straight home so just worked out in my normal t-shirt... only to find my gym top hanging up in the changing rooms when I got back. Must have fallen on the floor. D'oh again.

Anyway.

Today's workout - pretty good.

• 10:09 for 2500m on the rower, with pretty even 500m splits. Target there is sub-10. I need to remember to dig out my gloves, though. Sweaty hands - yuk.
• 2 x 10 minute interval sessions on the stepper, one short and sharp and one a more gradual variation. Managed the first at level 8 of 12, dropped the second to 7. Target there is both @ level 8.
• No time for a whole load of weights and core, but managed biceps (free, 6kg each side, 3 x 12), triceps (pulldown, 15kg total, 2 x 8; 10kg total, 1 x 12), shoulder press (free, 4kg each side, 2 x 12, 1 x 8, 1 x 4), abs (straight upper x 60, L/R side x 20 each, straight lower x 20).

I'm still not bored of my gym playlist either. Here's what was keeping me going today (good song, if a tad cheesy-80s, but an awful video)...

Operation Butt Kick

Okay - it's time to stop faffing about and get serious. When I'm avoiding going out on the bike because I look like michelin woman in my bike gear, and not signing up for events because I feel too unfit, something needs to be done! Operation Butt Kick cropped up last week on Weight Loss Resources, and as I have a whole lot of butt that really needs kicking (preferably kicking off), I'm in.

It doesn't involve any rocket surgery, that's for sure. It's right back to basics - tracking what I eat and getting regular exercise, and also trying to "eat clean" (no processed junk) and not obsess over the scales. From April 1st to June 1st (and beyond - I'll be off to France with my bike on the 12th), that's two months of just doing the right thing. I reckon I'm 90% of the way there on the clean eating, and although I tend to weigh in daily, I've always looked at the scales with a scientific eye and an "yeah, right" rather than letting the numbers rule my life. As for the rest of it, I've done it before and so I can damn well do it again. If I can really focus on it for 2 months then I reckon I will be back in the groove and keep it going.

So, given it was the extended Easter weekend, how did I do so far? Pretty well, I think - one curry, one social gathering where I ate pretty cleanly (just quite a bit of it...), and a few pints (*cough*). But, on the other side of the scales, a couple of good runs and a day's hard graft digging holes. I've got through my days at work drinking plenty of water and not sneaking off to the shop for chocolate... It adds up to a pound down over the week, but more importantly a whole lot of positive mental energy, something I haven't had for a while.

It's probably not the easiest month coming up, with a conference and a couple of other trips away to come (long train journeys and catered food are never the greatest combination), but that's no excuse. Let the positive energy flow...

And let the plans flow, because if I say it then I've got to do it!

Plan for the rest of this week:
Today: run 45 mins - done, listening to Two Fit Chicks' latest offering and some uplifting tracks
Tomorrow: gym: 30 mins cardio + strength (upper body/core)
Saturday: run 1hr
Sunday: 4-5 mile social walk

Longer term plans:

• One Yarmouth 5 miler (14th April, 28th April, 12th May (!))
• All 3 Wroxham 5k races unless I'm away (26th May, 23rd June, 25th August), aiming for a PB at the last?
  
• Breckland 10k (3rd May) - entered
• Wibbly Wobbly Log Jog (early August) or the Worsted Festival 5 (late July)
• September triathlon: North Norfolk Oly or Waveney2 sprint
• Noises have been made about entering a ladies' team for the National Triathlon Relay Championships on 21st August, and doing the Coast2Coast bike ride at some point... they rely on other people, but I'm up for it.
• A bit less sure about Alpe d'Huez on the France trip in June... might give that one a miss, sorry guys!

So, butt - prepare for a damn good kicking...

Two outta three

Monday - gym FAIL due to insufficient time (tech support issues - today's theme tune "Hanging on the Telephone" by Blondie).

Tuesday - good aerobics session, with Clare and her friend Karen along too. New routine, couple of killer moves. Think I need new shoes - third week of blisters :(

Wednesday - forced myself to swim and had a really good one. Not timed, not counted, just felt really really good. 40 minutes, minimal stoppage (goggle issues). Raaaa.