This is a little overdue as I completed the Shock Absorber Women’s Only triathlon last weekend but having spent about a fortnight panicking about it, and then the day doing it and recovering, I was keen on a little bit of quiet for a few days. Having said that, I’ve set my alarm EVERY DAY this weekend for 6:05am with the intention of getting up to go swimming (hello 2.1k open water swim next weekend), but have snoozed until at least 7:30am every morning. I have done NOTHING this week and whilst I feel a little guilty, I have also tried not to worry about it too much and just enjoyed the down time.
Anyway, the triathlon…
So I never got around to sorting out a new bike on our scheme at work (this will be happening soon) so I ended up borrowing my sister-in-law’s bike for the weekend. This was incidentally then stolen the night of the triathlon as we left it in the car overnight (I KNOW, WE’RE STUPID BUT PEOPLE ARE SCUMMERS) when some f**ker smashed my window and pulled it out. *deep breath* I borrowed the bike from the Thursday before as I was heading down to my parents’ for a few days and heading to the tri from there. On Thursday it poured with rain all day so I planned to cycle on Friday. It poured on Friday too, and I started to get a little worried that my first time on the bike would be the tri itself, but I decided not to risk wiping out in the wet, and spent the day with my mum. And got food poisoning *YEY* - the best possible prep for a first-time event EVER! Luckily it was fairly brief, and I was almost back on form by Saturday morning. C had come down after work on Friday night, so he helped set up the bike and I had a 20minute trial outside. WOW it was hard. I started to panic, no, to FREAK OUT that my wholly slap-dash approach to the tri – “well I’m running and swimming anyway for other events, so the cycling will be fine” – was hugely naïve and I had definitely bitten off more than I could handle. Cue an hour of worrying, reading through past results from the event, and trying to find out if I could enter the shorter event. Then I just decided to suck it up and we headed out for the afternoon. I almost forgot about everything, had a lovely afternoon and evening and managed to get to bed by about midnight (again, great planning). I obviously spent all night dreaming that I missed the start/crashed my bike/drowned/fell on my face/etc…etc…but after a strong cup of coffee and some toast with peanut butter and jam, we were on our way.
C drove, which was hugely appreciated, and I obsessively checked twitter for updates and wished the journey was longer. I was meeting S and her friend who were both racing in the novice event later in the day, so once I’d checked in the bike and set everything up, we sat waiting with coffee. I was SO pleased that I’d seen the venue set up for a tri at my swimming session as it meant that although I didn’t have half the kit that everyone else in my category seemed to have, I knew it was fine. There were some *serious* bikes set up alongside mine, and nearly everyone had bike shoes and cleats, whereas I was just wearing trainers and using cage pedals, but as it was an inclusive event, I just concentrated on trying not to panic that a) I had no idea what I was really doing, and b) my overall time didn’t matter, I just wanted to finish.
Before I knew it, I was in my tri suit – something I was determined not to buy but after panicking that I’d accidentally pull my shorts down (without knickers underneath….) when I yanked my wetsuit off after the swim, I succumbed – in my wetsuit and walking into the water. Well, I fell face first into the water as I hadn’t anticipated how sharp the floor would be, but I think I just about kept it together. Having only done one other open water “race”, I much preferred the “standing stand” – we all gathered behind the imaginary starting line – as it gave me plenty of time to get used to the 16 degree (apparently…) temperature. And then we were off! I splashed about for a bit and actually held back as I didn’t want to get caught in the rush, but after about 200metres, I decided to give front crawl a go and actually starting to go past people. Not many, but enough to keep focused and before I knew it, I was creeping towards to finish. A kind steward helped me out and I stumbled up the ramp towards the bike. I kept thinking I had to get my suit down as quickly as possible to make it easier to pull off but after struggling with it, I just hobbled to the bike and dealt with it there. This is definitely something I need to practice as I was awful – my transition time was nearly five minutes, when it should have been two at the most. But I wrangled my way out – most of my neighbours had already gone, which was great as it gave me more room, and I grabbed my bike and started heading for the exit. I jumped on with my Garmin in my mouth, and as I realized I definitely wasn’t coordinated enough to put it on whilst riding, shoved it down the front of my suit. Great. I got into a bit of a rhythm and after almost half a lap, decided to grab a drink. Famous last words….as I grabbed my bottle, swerved, dropped it and nearly came off face first. Then C popped up from nowhere (he’d watched from the side in horror as he saw a fleet of women on TT bikes coming up behind me as I seemed ready to wipe them all out…!) and another gentleman grabbed my bottle and gave it back. Shouting a quick “I’m fine! Don’t worry!” I just headed off, trying not to think about it all….and other than that it was fine! Yes I could have done with a bit longer on the bike to get used to it – I don’t even know why I went to grab the bottle with my right hand when I know from cycling to work that I’m wobbly with just my left – but all in all, it was ok. I actually even enjoyed it; although the course was six laps, there was a bit of greenery down one side and it was quite fun seeing different faces and bikes on the course. We also cycled past the running course so it was useful to be familiar with that. With 31k under my belt, I headed in to drop of the bike and get running. Of course I forgot to drink any of the water I’d carefully left out, or pick up the sunglasses I’d forgotten on the cycle, but I shoved a couple of gels in my suit and trotted off. The first lap was hard; I felt like I’d have walked it quicker, but I kept on trucking and it definitely got easier. I didn’t start my Garmin properly so I reverted to using mental arithmetic to get me through the distance a la Barcelona, and in under an hour, I was done.
HOORAH!
I crossed the finish line and was presented with…..a bottle of water. Hang on a minute WHERE WAS MY MEDAL??! S met with having cheered with similar levels of disbelief – no medals??! I could write a whole post about this, but I won’t rant; I’ll just reaffirm that it was hugely disappointing to receive no form of memento after achieving such a big thing.
Not to end on a negative, the event itself was good overall and I will definitely be doing another one. My time wasn’t *too* shabby either: 2:41 overall. Not fast, but not the slowest (my greatest fear) and way over my “anything under 3hrs” plan.
Now I just need to get a bike, get cycling, get training and plan the next race….
Friday, 15 June 2012
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
The Great British Gas Swim
So whilst the bite stopped play for the week (there was a small outing to the pool on the Friday to test my tape bandage but it didn’t work), I was fairly determined to make it through the mile swim in the London Docklands on the Saturday after bug-gate. I ummed and ahhed a little about whether I was being stupid about going ahead with it – as per previous posts on “am I ill enough to NOT train?” – but decided that as the swelling had come down significantly and I was half-way through the penicillin, it would be fine. I also checked with my A&E doctor who, whilst not particularly happy about my decision, said that it should be fine as long as I kept it covered. So I bought some black tape, borrowed some booties, and headed to the Docks.
The event was fairly well organised with good signage and a basic but functional changing facilities. My husband was also swimming so once we were in our wetsuits, we headed over to the start. I did feel a bit of an idiot in my boots, but having taped them on (and taped extensively underneath) I hoped that they would just help protect my bite. After a short warm up and a slight delay as people made their way to the start, we were allowed into the fairly warm water and then we were off.
It was hard. Quite a bit harder than I had anticipated. I had taken four days off training (and two days off work - this was enforced...) after being bitten when running but there was a really strong headwind so once I felt happy in the water (swimming a kind of freestyle breaststroke), it was really difficult to make any head way. The buoys marking the course looked MILES away, and I just didn’t seem to be going anywhere…This was slightly disheartening as the field kept narrowing out as other swimmers found their rhythm are moved away from me, but I kept on plugging away and eventually started making s-l-o-w progress towards the halfway mark. The event was billed as “open to everyone, regardless of ability” so whilst most of the field tore away, there was a small group at the back. I alternated between trying to do a decent breaststroke, realizing that I was unbelievably slow in the headwind (I had been warned by a very good open water swimmer that breaststroke is often a problem because you actually stop at the end of every stroke), and then attempting a dogged front crawl. The wind meant that the water was quite choppy so I found the front crawl uncomfortable because I kept breathing in water as it hit my face. I panicked quite a bit throughout and was worried that I would be in the water forever (ever the realist...) so in end, I developed a meerkat-front crawl keeping my head out of the water and front crawling with my arms in an attempt to just get it over with as soon as possible. And then the fastest swimmers of the second wave began to overtake us….life affirming….and as the much-faster swimmers tore past, it was slightly more difficult to concentrate on my own pace. I kept paddling slowly ahead, trying to concentrate on putting one arm in front of the other, and eventually the finish was in sight. A bit more splashing about and I was done.
I felt like I’d been in the water for HOURS and couldn’t work out my time using the finish clock as our wave hadn’t started on time, but I didn’t care; all I wanted was my medal, and to get out of my wetsuit. I stumbled through the “end zone”, picked up my water, tshirt, bag, medal, posed for the obligatory photo in my suit and swim cap (so attractive….) and finally got changed. After a quick change and a bottle of coke to try to kill any water-based nasties, we headed out to Oxford for a day of lazing beside the river watching Summer Eights (code for manic cheering, lots of Pimms and watching nine girls jump over a wooden boat on fire….whilst being filmed by Steve Redgrave….)
In short, I made the right decision to do it; it was good experience of fairly difficult wind conditions, and it gave me a time to build on. The event itself was fairly well organized and I liked that there was a real range of abilities to encourage more people to give open-water swimming a try. The swim highlighted (to me) that front crawl really IS the way to go for speed, and that I definitely needed to practice more ahead of my triathlon and 2.1k swim at the end of June…
I swam a mile before 10.30am on a Saturday morning and I got a medal; both of these facts made me happy. Would I do it again? Probably, but I’d prefer the water a little calmer…
The event was fairly well organised with good signage and a basic but functional changing facilities. My husband was also swimming so once we were in our wetsuits, we headed over to the start. I did feel a bit of an idiot in my boots, but having taped them on (and taped extensively underneath) I hoped that they would just help protect my bite. After a short warm up and a slight delay as people made their way to the start, we were allowed into the fairly warm water and then we were off.
It was hard. Quite a bit harder than I had anticipated. I had taken four days off training (and two days off work - this was enforced...) after being bitten when running but there was a really strong headwind so once I felt happy in the water (swimming a kind of freestyle breaststroke), it was really difficult to make any head way. The buoys marking the course looked MILES away, and I just didn’t seem to be going anywhere…This was slightly disheartening as the field kept narrowing out as other swimmers found their rhythm are moved away from me, but I kept on plugging away and eventually started making s-l-o-w progress towards the halfway mark. The event was billed as “open to everyone, regardless of ability” so whilst most of the field tore away, there was a small group at the back. I alternated between trying to do a decent breaststroke, realizing that I was unbelievably slow in the headwind (I had been warned by a very good open water swimmer that breaststroke is often a problem because you actually stop at the end of every stroke), and then attempting a dogged front crawl. The wind meant that the water was quite choppy so I found the front crawl uncomfortable because I kept breathing in water as it hit my face. I panicked quite a bit throughout and was worried that I would be in the water forever (ever the realist...) so in end, I developed a meerkat-front crawl keeping my head out of the water and front crawling with my arms in an attempt to just get it over with as soon as possible. And then the fastest swimmers of the second wave began to overtake us….life affirming….and as the much-faster swimmers tore past, it was slightly more difficult to concentrate on my own pace. I kept paddling slowly ahead, trying to concentrate on putting one arm in front of the other, and eventually the finish was in sight. A bit more splashing about and I was done.
I felt like I’d been in the water for HOURS and couldn’t work out my time using the finish clock as our wave hadn’t started on time, but I didn’t care; all I wanted was my medal, and to get out of my wetsuit. I stumbled through the “end zone”, picked up my water, tshirt, bag, medal, posed for the obligatory photo in my suit and swim cap (so attractive….) and finally got changed. After a quick change and a bottle of coke to try to kill any water-based nasties, we headed out to Oxford for a day of lazing beside the river watching Summer Eights (code for manic cheering, lots of Pimms and watching nine girls jump over a wooden boat on fire….whilst being filmed by Steve Redgrave….)
In short, I made the right decision to do it; it was good experience of fairly difficult wind conditions, and it gave me a time to build on. The event itself was fairly well organized and I liked that there was a real range of abilities to encourage more people to give open-water swimming a try. The swim highlighted (to me) that front crawl really IS the way to go for speed, and that I definitely needed to practice more ahead of my triathlon and 2.1k swim at the end of June…
I swam a mile before 10.30am on a Saturday morning and I got a medal; both of these facts made me happy. Would I do it again? Probably, but I’d prefer the water a little calmer…
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Bite stops play
I fully intended to upload my final few weeks of triathlon training on here following last week’s epic RDCWest training session – speed was the focus – but unfortunately this happened….
*WAH* During our run, I was bitten on the ankle by something that my body wasn't very happy about and my ankle turned into an elephant’s leg within 48 hours. I was convinced it was fine – and was reassured by my nearest and dearest that all I needed was some Piriton – but after going into work on Wednesday, I was directed towards A&E. VERY luckily for me, a very good friend works there so I was sneakily whipped in, assessed and much to my surprise, put in a bed and given IV antibiotics after being told that if I had left it a day later, I would have been admitted and put on a drip. Oh dear….
I often wonder about the “general” level of pain/illness that’s needed to sign yourself off training – this was prevalent in my last long run weekend before Barcelona – but I find it really interested to hear about the levels that others will tolerate before calling in the professionals. My husband and Vic were sure – as was I – that my leg would take care of itself once I’d taken the antihistamines, and I was hugely surprised that I would be required to take seven full days of penicillin, with the possibility of three MORE days in case the swelling doesn’t go down. The ankle (or cankle as it’s currently being referred to) is still quite swollen, but in comparison to what it was, it’s pin-thin. I have swum on it since, and am planning to try it out running tomorrow morning. But should I wait longer? Am I being stupid to just tape it up and get in the pool (or the Docks….?!)? Or do I just need to take a dose of cop on and get on with it…..? How ill do you have to be to justifiably stop training?! This was something briefly discussed in the debate with fellow runners in Women’s Running a few months ago, and everyone said that they felt particularly guilty when taking sessions off, despite knowing that sometimes it was entirely necessary. I didn’t run with RDCWest last night and whilst I know it was the right decision, I’m planning to swim tonight, run tomorrow, have a 5 mile race on Saturday, a 1.5km swim planned for next week and the triathlon a week on Sunday, with a spinning schedule planned in to get me cycle-ready….
It’s an interesting conundrum and one that I think troubles everyone training for something – whether it’s a marathon or a 5km – but in light of my recent injury, it’s something I’ve definitely been considering whilst lying on the sofa with my leg elevated watching The Good Wife with the cat….
Monday, 21 May 2012
Open water training
This weekend I headed to Dorney Lake (home to the previously run horror-half) for my first ever experience of open water swimming. As I keep veering from “oh it’ll be fine, I can definitely do it” to “OH MY GOD WHAT AM I DOING???!” when thinking about the swimming events and triathlon I signed up to days after crossing the Barcelona finish line, I thought that getting in the water and having a practice would be one the best ways to ease my fears, especially with the British Gas Mile coming up on Saturday *gulp*.
The session was organised by Human Race who were also running a triathlon throughout the day. My session was at 9am and I was asked to arrive half an hour early, so I was sat in my car watching the eager triathletes unloading ALL of their kit by 8.15am beside the lake. Wow, you need a lot of stuff. Most of them had amazingly swish looking bikes, and crates of kit that they balanced on the front of their handlebars. Now I’m doing my first tri in a few weeks and although I don’t feel as prepared as I really want to be, I certainly wasn’t planning on needing a crate of kit. Hmm….time to worry…. I made it down to the registration point (it was rather complicated as the lake will host to Olympic rowing in a couple of months so there’s quite a bit of construction going on) and registered alongside all of the children who were doing a scootathon. SUCH a good idea to keep all of the children occupied if one or both of their parents is competing – genius! I collected my neon green swim cap and headed for the 45 minute seminar that’d start the session.
“You have already done the hardest thing by signing up to this seminar and turning up, the rest will all be easier.”
Excellent words of advice kicked off the seminar and it really was useful; running through the equipment needed and techniques that would be useful for anyone contemplating their first triathlon. I was more worried about my swimming events – they are longer than my tri swim distance – but skills explained were largely transferrable. It was especially useful to learn about sighting and standing starts, and there were great tips such as tipping water down the front (and back) of your wetsuit to warm you up more quickly once you’re in the water.
Once the talk had finished, we all changed into our wetsuits and headed over to our area for swimming. As there were people racing across the course throughout the day, we nipped over to the quicker recovery lane for our swimming, which was really great. We were split into three groups; those who had open water swimming experience, those who hadn’t swum in open water but were really confident swimmers, and…the rest of us… I am a fairly happy pool swimmer, but as an advocate of breast-stroke, I am under no illusions that I will be one of the slowest swimmers in all of my events, and that’s absolutely fine. Part of the reason why I was so keen to sign up for a training session was to try front crawl with my wetsuit on outside, but I’m not planning to suddenly try to do all of the races using front crawl. We got into the water (COLD) and started getting acclimatised. We were a mixed bunch – all fairly nervous but some were far more nervous that others, so we started swimming out and back to a buoy in pairs and threes, eventually working up to a small group start. Everything went really well – I was happily enjoying the promised buoyancy of my wetsuit and not being able to see the bottom didn’t really bother me, but trying front crawl and getting water in my mouth really did concern me. I’m not sure why, I’m guessing it’s partly due to my mortal terror about getting weil’s disease (or something else) and being really ill, but as soon as I got water in my mouth, I seemed to forget to breath out and then panic. This panic meant I breathed in and out really quickly (under water) and then freaked out a little. Not so much that I stopped swimming, but enough that I thought I needed to stop and flailed about a bit like a blubbery trout. Not ideal…..we then progressed to a standing start with the entire group altogether going around a buoy and whilst it was fine, I was still a bit concerned about my uncontrolled freak out. After we got out I mentioned it to our group’s coach and she essentially told me to swim exactly the same as I swim in the pool, and that I almost certainly wouldn’t die from drinking a bit of sea/river/lake water (but obviously not to try to drink it…). I’m aiming to practice both front crawl and breaststroke this week in the pool and KEEP MY MOUTH CLOSED to try to get used to it, but I’m definitely feeling happier about the event this weekend having done the session – I’d definitely recommend it!
So that was that – I swam in the open and I survived! *HOORAH* Now I just need to get through this week’s training – RCDWest tonight and then swimming every morning with perhaps one more run during the week one night. I’m also planning to get start cycling training (I haven’t done ANY so far and my concern over the cycling element is starting to build….) in the form of spinning starting soon following some expert advice from fellow open water swimmers. I’ll write up a separate post on the sheer joy of meeting other first-time-tri-ers and seeing the lake set up for a tri later in the week as the lycra is calling for tonight’s run….it’s *boom time*….
The session was organised by Human Race who were also running a triathlon throughout the day. My session was at 9am and I was asked to arrive half an hour early, so I was sat in my car watching the eager triathletes unloading ALL of their kit by 8.15am beside the lake. Wow, you need a lot of stuff. Most of them had amazingly swish looking bikes, and crates of kit that they balanced on the front of their handlebars. Now I’m doing my first tri in a few weeks and although I don’t feel as prepared as I really want to be, I certainly wasn’t planning on needing a crate of kit. Hmm….time to worry…. I made it down to the registration point (it was rather complicated as the lake will host to Olympic rowing in a couple of months so there’s quite a bit of construction going on) and registered alongside all of the children who were doing a scootathon. SUCH a good idea to keep all of the children occupied if one or both of their parents is competing – genius! I collected my neon green swim cap and headed for the 45 minute seminar that’d start the session.
“You have already done the hardest thing by signing up to this seminar and turning up, the rest will all be easier.”
Excellent words of advice kicked off the seminar and it really was useful; running through the equipment needed and techniques that would be useful for anyone contemplating their first triathlon. I was more worried about my swimming events – they are longer than my tri swim distance – but skills explained were largely transferrable. It was especially useful to learn about sighting and standing starts, and there were great tips such as tipping water down the front (and back) of your wetsuit to warm you up more quickly once you’re in the water.
Once the talk had finished, we all changed into our wetsuits and headed over to our area for swimming. As there were people racing across the course throughout the day, we nipped over to the quicker recovery lane for our swimming, which was really great. We were split into three groups; those who had open water swimming experience, those who hadn’t swum in open water but were really confident swimmers, and…the rest of us… I am a fairly happy pool swimmer, but as an advocate of breast-stroke, I am under no illusions that I will be one of the slowest swimmers in all of my events, and that’s absolutely fine. Part of the reason why I was so keen to sign up for a training session was to try front crawl with my wetsuit on outside, but I’m not planning to suddenly try to do all of the races using front crawl. We got into the water (COLD) and started getting acclimatised. We were a mixed bunch – all fairly nervous but some were far more nervous that others, so we started swimming out and back to a buoy in pairs and threes, eventually working up to a small group start. Everything went really well – I was happily enjoying the promised buoyancy of my wetsuit and not being able to see the bottom didn’t really bother me, but trying front crawl and getting water in my mouth really did concern me. I’m not sure why, I’m guessing it’s partly due to my mortal terror about getting weil’s disease (or something else) and being really ill, but as soon as I got water in my mouth, I seemed to forget to breath out and then panic. This panic meant I breathed in and out really quickly (under water) and then freaked out a little. Not so much that I stopped swimming, but enough that I thought I needed to stop and flailed about a bit like a blubbery trout. Not ideal…..we then progressed to a standing start with the entire group altogether going around a buoy and whilst it was fine, I was still a bit concerned about my uncontrolled freak out. After we got out I mentioned it to our group’s coach and she essentially told me to swim exactly the same as I swim in the pool, and that I almost certainly wouldn’t die from drinking a bit of sea/river/lake water (but obviously not to try to drink it…). I’m aiming to practice both front crawl and breaststroke this week in the pool and KEEP MY MOUTH CLOSED to try to get used to it, but I’m definitely feeling happier about the event this weekend having done the session – I’d definitely recommend it!
So that was that – I swam in the open and I survived! *HOORAH* Now I just need to get through this week’s training – RCDWest tonight and then swimming every morning with perhaps one more run during the week one night. I’m also planning to get start cycling training (I haven’t done ANY so far and my concern over the cycling element is starting to build….) in the form of spinning starting soon following some expert advice from fellow open water swimmers. I’ll write up a separate post on the sheer joy of meeting other first-time-tri-ers and seeing the lake set up for a tri later in the week as the lycra is calling for tonight’s run….it’s *boom time*….
Tuesday, 15 May 2012
And now for something completely different
It’s taken me an age to work out my next post – should I put up a race report from the Peckham 10k (horror show), record some swimming sessions (yawn) or have a ponder on the HUGE number of people who all seem keen to respond to my answer of “why yes, I did enjoy the marathon, it was long and hot but I’m already signed up to do another one in October” with “ARE YOU CRAZY??!” (charming), which has resulted in me writing absolutely nothing.
Good shout.
I think it’s all about change at the moment – it seems to have taken me a while to get over it but marathon training has really ended *cry face/fist pumps of victory*. I never really got the soul-crushing WHAT AM I GOING TO DO post-race downer because I frantically entered so many races straight afterwards, but I think this left me in a bit of a half-way house; I wanted to keep training at the same rate but knew I didn’t have to, and I also had to work out what I needed to do to be able to survive swimming a mile in the Thames, doing a sprint triathlon, and then swimming 2.1k in the (Henley on) Thames. A quick look at that line up would suggest to any normal person that swimming would be the best thing to concentrate on. Yet I didn’t, I wanted to keep running. Well, my mind wanted to…my legs had other ideas. So I did a few short runs, entered the Peckham 10k*, and it hurt. Ooh it hurt a lot. Only a week after the mega-hills session and my calves felt it bad. So bad in fact that my next run three later was absolutely appalling and really very painful. My calves felt like they had been filled with cement and every step felt bad. So I took some time away from running and tried swimming. Mainly out of desire to do something active that didn’t make me want to cry, but also because of the sheer terror that the mile swim was fast approaching and despite continuing to tell myself that “ah you’ll be fine”, I hadn’t actually done any “proper training”. I tabled in some sessions around work and quickly discovered (after wailing wide-eyed terror-filled at my husband panicking about what would happen if I drowned/couldn’t finish/got lost/was still swimming a week later etc..) that I love swimming. I especially love swimming before work – so much so I’m planning to make it a habit this week by forcing myself through a week of 6am starts – and I love the all-encompassing tiredness that can’t be really pinpointed on any specific part of the body (being in pain). I also love that my calves appear to sorting themselves out (thanks in part to me stupidly missing the amazing RDC West #oysterMonday last night and allowing more recovery time) and that the sessions are giving my still-weary joints a bit of a break. I realise that the fact that I’m still weary almost two months later means I should have trained harder for Barcelona but you live and learn and I’m not going to beat myself up about it.
So running is on the backburner; sessions are down to two a week, and swimming is king of the training programme. Cycling is yet to really rear its ugly head and I’m not sure whether I’m being stupidly naïve but it’s the one part of the tri that I’m not really that worried about. I know I can keep going on the bike for at least 40k, and I trust in the power of fuel and gels to keep me going for the necessary distance. I’m also so happy that I chose a charity women’s only triathlon for my first attempt so I’m hoping it won’t be too savage….but I’m sure I’ll worry about that later. Brutal or not, my wetsuit arrived this afternoon and I have my first open-water training session this weekend so it’s time to get the game face on and keep on paddling.
*There won’t be a “proper” race report of the Peckham 10k, mainly because others have said it better, but also because it can essentially be summed up as follows:
AMAZING to run with RDC West, race was horrendous, should have done better, will get faster, need to get a Garmin.
Good shout.
I think it’s all about change at the moment – it seems to have taken me a while to get over it but marathon training has really ended *cry face/fist pumps of victory*. I never really got the soul-crushing WHAT AM I GOING TO DO post-race downer because I frantically entered so many races straight afterwards, but I think this left me in a bit of a half-way house; I wanted to keep training at the same rate but knew I didn’t have to, and I also had to work out what I needed to do to be able to survive swimming a mile in the Thames, doing a sprint triathlon, and then swimming 2.1k in the (Henley on) Thames. A quick look at that line up would suggest to any normal person that swimming would be the best thing to concentrate on. Yet I didn’t, I wanted to keep running. Well, my mind wanted to…my legs had other ideas. So I did a few short runs, entered the Peckham 10k*, and it hurt. Ooh it hurt a lot. Only a week after the mega-hills session and my calves felt it bad. So bad in fact that my next run three later was absolutely appalling and really very painful. My calves felt like they had been filled with cement and every step felt bad. So I took some time away from running and tried swimming. Mainly out of desire to do something active that didn’t make me want to cry, but also because of the sheer terror that the mile swim was fast approaching and despite continuing to tell myself that “ah you’ll be fine”, I hadn’t actually done any “proper training”. I tabled in some sessions around work and quickly discovered (after wailing wide-eyed terror-filled at my husband panicking about what would happen if I drowned/couldn’t finish/got lost/was still swimming a week later etc..) that I love swimming. I especially love swimming before work – so much so I’m planning to make it a habit this week by forcing myself through a week of 6am starts – and I love the all-encompassing tiredness that can’t be really pinpointed on any specific part of the body (being in pain). I also love that my calves appear to sorting themselves out (thanks in part to me stupidly missing the amazing RDC West #oysterMonday last night and allowing more recovery time) and that the sessions are giving my still-weary joints a bit of a break. I realise that the fact that I’m still weary almost two months later means I should have trained harder for Barcelona but you live and learn and I’m not going to beat myself up about it.
So running is on the backburner; sessions are down to two a week, and swimming is king of the training programme. Cycling is yet to really rear its ugly head and I’m not sure whether I’m being stupidly naïve but it’s the one part of the tri that I’m not really that worried about. I know I can keep going on the bike for at least 40k, and I trust in the power of fuel and gels to keep me going for the necessary distance. I’m also so happy that I chose a charity women’s only triathlon for my first attempt so I’m hoping it won’t be too savage….but I’m sure I’ll worry about that later. Brutal or not, my wetsuit arrived this afternoon and I have my first open-water training session this weekend so it’s time to get the game face on and keep on paddling.
*There won’t be a “proper” race report of the Peckham 10k, mainly because others have said it better, but also because it can essentially be summed up as follows:
AMAZING to run with RDC West, race was horrendous, should have done better, will get faster, need to get a Garmin.
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
Hills
Last night, there was hill running. Lots of hill running. And it was…..good….or rather, bad, in a good way….oh and Jimmy Carr was there too with a crazed little dog…
Allow me to explain.
Whether I conveniently ignored the twitter chat beforehand or just didn’t notice it, I was rather bemused to learn that hill running was on the cards for Run Dem Crew West last night. Oh how we laughed and joked as we warmed up and Cory told us that we would hate Rick “the king of hills” by the end of the session. How we smiled as he told us that there would be repeated hill training and it would help improve our racing. How we nodded when he explained that in order to build up strength and stamina, hill training was an essential part of running, and that we would learn to love it. And with that, we were off – heading out into North West London, avoiding the cars and eventually arriving in a the plush green of….Primrose Hill. Hang on a minute, we all cried (at the back) this is SERIOUS hill training. WE CAN’T DO THIS! Momentarily distracted by Jimmy Carr who posed for the photo below (“fine, but make sure you’re quick”), we then we had our pre-hill chat from Rick.
Photo by @BitBeefy
He taught us from above….on a bench….and really broke down why hills would help us build up the strength in our hips and core necessary to run as we want to. As we dream to. This particularly hit home as I had been told the very same when I visited the chiropractor last year with a bit of a hip injury: “You really need to build up your core and your thigh muscles because your back is so weak that your hips are taking the strain. Go to yoga and do more inclines when running.” I nodded emphatically, did a couple of yoga classes and then forgot all about the advice….until five weeks after the marathon and I’m still hobbling about with shooting pains in my hip. I really showed them…..that I’m an idiot.
So we listened to Rick’s sage words of wisdom, and headed up the first hill. It wasn’t too bad…until we reached the summit and saw what was to come: a fairly dramatic decline (dramatic to me) that we would then be headed back up. Numerous times. We posed for the obligatory team photos, admired the lovely view and then we were off down the hill we were about to head back up. There were several other runners tackling the hill too, so there was a good sense of camaraderie going on.
So it was climb time. Trying to remember everything Rick had said, I learned slightly forward and tried to pump my arms a bit to give me a boost. The first half felt ok, I tried to stay on my toes, but as I began to reach the top, I felt like I was running through treacle. My legs slowed r-i-g-h-t down, but I managed to get there. Rest and repeat. Four times for me, FIVE times for the heroes who didn’t sit the second to last one out (eek). Then it was back down and home, with a few disco sprints thrown in for good measure.
Photo care of @BitBeefy
I don’t think I’ve EVER worked so hard on a training run, but hills are definitely something I’m going to be adding into the mix from now on: to build up strength, and to give me the needed mental push when racing longer distances. We used to be told to train on Christmas day when rowing at uni so that when we sat on the start line during the summer and looked over at the other boats, we could think “ha, I was out training on Christmas day when you were sat inside doing nothing.” I’m going to think about my hill training sessions in exactly the same way (even if every runner in-the-know is already beasting up and down them every week): “I’ve powered up brutal hills every week so I can get here, what have you been doing?”
#RDCWest by @BitBeefy
Allow me to explain.
Whether I conveniently ignored the twitter chat beforehand or just didn’t notice it, I was rather bemused to learn that hill running was on the cards for Run Dem Crew West last night. Oh how we laughed and joked as we warmed up and Cory told us that we would hate Rick “the king of hills” by the end of the session. How we smiled as he told us that there would be repeated hill training and it would help improve our racing. How we nodded when he explained that in order to build up strength and stamina, hill training was an essential part of running, and that we would learn to love it. And with that, we were off – heading out into North West London, avoiding the cars and eventually arriving in a the plush green of….Primrose Hill. Hang on a minute, we all cried (at the back) this is SERIOUS hill training. WE CAN’T DO THIS! Momentarily distracted by Jimmy Carr who posed for the photo below (“fine, but make sure you’re quick”), we then we had our pre-hill chat from Rick.
Photo by @BitBeefy
He taught us from above….on a bench….and really broke down why hills would help us build up the strength in our hips and core necessary to run as we want to. As we dream to. This particularly hit home as I had been told the very same when I visited the chiropractor last year with a bit of a hip injury: “You really need to build up your core and your thigh muscles because your back is so weak that your hips are taking the strain. Go to yoga and do more inclines when running.” I nodded emphatically, did a couple of yoga classes and then forgot all about the advice….until five weeks after the marathon and I’m still hobbling about with shooting pains in my hip. I really showed them…..that I’m an idiot.
So we listened to Rick’s sage words of wisdom, and headed up the first hill. It wasn’t too bad…until we reached the summit and saw what was to come: a fairly dramatic decline (dramatic to me) that we would then be headed back up. Numerous times. We posed for the obligatory team photos, admired the lovely view and then we were off down the hill we were about to head back up. There were several other runners tackling the hill too, so there was a good sense of camaraderie going on.
So it was climb time. Trying to remember everything Rick had said, I learned slightly forward and tried to pump my arms a bit to give me a boost. The first half felt ok, I tried to stay on my toes, but as I began to reach the top, I felt like I was running through treacle. My legs slowed r-i-g-h-t down, but I managed to get there. Rest and repeat. Four times for me, FIVE times for the heroes who didn’t sit the second to last one out (eek). Then it was back down and home, with a few disco sprints thrown in for good measure.
Photo care of @BitBeefy
I don’t think I’ve EVER worked so hard on a training run, but hills are definitely something I’m going to be adding into the mix from now on: to build up strength, and to give me the needed mental push when racing longer distances. We used to be told to train on Christmas day when rowing at uni so that when we sat on the start line during the summer and looked over at the other boats, we could think “ha, I was out training on Christmas day when you were sat inside doing nothing.” I’m going to think about my hill training sessions in exactly the same way (even if every runner in-the-know is already beasting up and down them every week): “I’ve powered up brutal hills every week so I can get here, what have you been doing?”
#RDCWest by @BitBeefy
Thursday, 26 April 2012
Resting
There has been plenty written about the post-race slump; it is a major downer and if not checked, it can linger and drag down everything in its path. Having only trained for one “mega race”, I tend to think of it as something resembling Gollum that sits on your shoulder/lurks behind you and questions every decision that you make. Should you really be thinking about running when your legs feel shot? Should you really be considering that yoga class when your hamstrings feel three inches long? Planning another marathon this year? Are you CRAZY? And so on…..and so on…..
Whilst I am not suggesting that you shouldn’t continue training after a race – whether that’s a 5k or a marathon – it is sensible to take a bit of time to work out your next goal. I wanted to run the marathon to put my body to the ultimate test (I’m ignoring the more extreme “ultra” variety of events right now) and to see how I’d cope by myself through some fairly dark times – both in the race and through training. And it all came out fine – I’m happy with my result, but now I want to go that little bit faster….and as I’ve previously said, I know I could have trained harder, and my next goal is to follow a “proper” 18 week training plan, mix it up a bit and see what happens *shakes hands with Mr Hal Higdon* so I signed up for Dublin, and in the meantime, signed up to whole host of other events to keep me training without killing the run-lust.
I worked out my training schedule pre-Barcelona and aimed to give myself a fortnight off. I planned a fairly packed weekly plan comprising of swimming, running, cycling and yoga – heavy on the swimming and running, light on the cycling, with a weekly yoga class to keep the muscles working. I was supposed to start last week but after RDC West on Monday, I just felt f-l-a-t and HUGELY tired. I have been feeing that bone-aching tiredness that I KNOW is mainly caused because of lack of sleep and panics. Lack of sleep because I am no longer as tired as I was because the training has (obviously) eased off and panics that I’m not training hard enough. *hello vicious circle*
I have never done a triathlon before. I have never done an open water swim before. Both of these are coming up within the next six weeks. Instead of buckling down to train and feeling fresh and invigorated after the marathon, I have spent the last fortnight feeling guilty that I’m not training, and, at the time, feeling shattered. Joy. I planned early morning swims to realise that I really wasn’t sure how long everything would take and whether I’d be late for work, and planned runs and then pulling up when my legs just. weren’t. ready. I lamented the fact that the events were drawing near and I wouldn’t be ready and I’d drown/fall off my bike/fall over and forget how to run….*falls onto the floor in an hysterical heap*.
And then I got a grip….
So what have I learnt? GIVE YOURSELF TIME. Running a marathon – or any race where you’ve been dedicated to putting in the hours for week beforehand – takes more out of you than you realised, or would like to admit, and resting for a few weeks before launching into another round of training (especially for a “new” sport) takes time. Rest isn’t the enemy, it allows your body to recover so you can fight another day, so stop feeling guilty about snoozing instead of leaping out of bed at 6am and realise that those times will come again – you WILL run another race and follow another training plan – but doing so when you feel less than average will cause you injury and put a stop to everything.
So enjoy the rest and allow your body to use the time to get ready for the next round. Rest easy and train hard: no one said this would be a walk in the park…..
Whilst I am not suggesting that you shouldn’t continue training after a race – whether that’s a 5k or a marathon – it is sensible to take a bit of time to work out your next goal. I wanted to run the marathon to put my body to the ultimate test (I’m ignoring the more extreme “ultra” variety of events right now) and to see how I’d cope by myself through some fairly dark times – both in the race and through training. And it all came out fine – I’m happy with my result, but now I want to go that little bit faster….and as I’ve previously said, I know I could have trained harder, and my next goal is to follow a “proper” 18 week training plan, mix it up a bit and see what happens *shakes hands with Mr Hal Higdon* so I signed up for Dublin, and in the meantime, signed up to whole host of other events to keep me training without killing the run-lust.
I worked out my training schedule pre-Barcelona and aimed to give myself a fortnight off. I planned a fairly packed weekly plan comprising of swimming, running, cycling and yoga – heavy on the swimming and running, light on the cycling, with a weekly yoga class to keep the muscles working. I was supposed to start last week but after RDC West on Monday, I just felt f-l-a-t and HUGELY tired. I have been feeing that bone-aching tiredness that I KNOW is mainly caused because of lack of sleep and panics. Lack of sleep because I am no longer as tired as I was because the training has (obviously) eased off and panics that I’m not training hard enough. *hello vicious circle*
I have never done a triathlon before. I have never done an open water swim before. Both of these are coming up within the next six weeks. Instead of buckling down to train and feeling fresh and invigorated after the marathon, I have spent the last fortnight feeling guilty that I’m not training, and, at the time, feeling shattered. Joy. I planned early morning swims to realise that I really wasn’t sure how long everything would take and whether I’d be late for work, and planned runs and then pulling up when my legs just. weren’t. ready. I lamented the fact that the events were drawing near and I wouldn’t be ready and I’d drown/fall off my bike/fall over and forget how to run….*falls onto the floor in an hysterical heap*.
And then I got a grip….
So what have I learnt? GIVE YOURSELF TIME. Running a marathon – or any race where you’ve been dedicated to putting in the hours for week beforehand – takes more out of you than you realised, or would like to admit, and resting for a few weeks before launching into another round of training (especially for a “new” sport) takes time. Rest isn’t the enemy, it allows your body to recover so you can fight another day, so stop feeling guilty about snoozing instead of leaping out of bed at 6am and realise that those times will come again – you WILL run another race and follow another training plan – but doing so when you feel less than average will cause you injury and put a stop to everything.
So enjoy the rest and allow your body to use the time to get ready for the next round. Rest easy and train hard: no one said this would be a walk in the park…..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)