Sacrifices

  I was up earlier than I wanted to be on Tuesday as I was eagerly anticipating the arrival of my triathlon goodies. When they finally arrived at 11am the delivery man must've thought I was crazy. He must've heard me running (crashing) down the stairs and instantly grabbing my turbo trainer from his hands. I have had some delivery men do one knock and then pathetically give up, leaving me no time to even get to the door, but I was not prepared for that to happen today. After taking my 2 boxes of goodies upstairs I opened them with haste (I did spare some time to take a picture though).
  After dismantling my lovely display I began to put together my turbo trainer. I thought this was going to be a nightmare as the instructions were pretty basic, but after half an hour I managed to have it all put together and was rather pleased with myself. I then ran down to my bike. However, my hopes of a quick tester were dashed when I realised my rear wheel was as flat as a pancake (this also gave me some answers as to why I found the last hill the other day so unbelievably hard). As I am still not a bike mechanic whizz I had to leave the turbo trainer test for another day over the weekend when it had been to Dan's workshop. Dan, as much as he hates it, has been my bike mechanic, setting up shop whenever I have a problem. This is something I have to change, we have agreed that being able to sort a simple puncture out is a necessity, especially as this seems to happen a lot to me with my bad luck on 2 wheels. I have been lucky that on all the shorter distance triathlons I have been in close range to Dan so if I did have a problem he would've been there instantly to sort it out. However, due to the length of an Ironman and even a half-Ironman, the likelihood of Dan being anywhere near me if it did happen would be too much of a lucky coincidence.

  So, after realising I couldn't go on my turbo trainer I decided to go for a run. The idea was to explore, as I still don't know the area very well. So that is what I did. I started off going the route we have walked before and then let my legs take me where they wanted to go. It was quite idyllic, running across fields that looked untouched by humans. I ran past a herd of deer, all staring at this fluorescent pink intruder bob past. I then ran through a lot of woods and into another field where there were over 100 sheep grazing. Unlike 'normal' sheep who scram at the sight of an intruder they seemed to hover in their mass numbers and just stare at me. It was rather unnerving and have to admit I was a little intimidated by sheep that day. However, I had the album from 'Django' on and I challenge anyone to not get a bit of a run swagger when listening to '100 black coffins' and 'Who did that to you'. I was glad I was off road as I probably looked like a mad woman miming along with an extra spring in my run. (Maybe that's what the sheep were staring at!)
  When I finally re-orientated myself I had done 50minutes and although I had a sharp pain on the right side of my right knee I wanted to do more. So instead of turning right when I hit Old Beaconsfield for the 100m home, I carried on towards the New Town and Amersham. I added a further 40 minutes onto my run and on the last hill home (it is a killer but good training that Old Beaconsfield is on a hill) I knew I needed a good song to push me up. Childish Gambino's 'Bonfire' did just that. I made sure that his background tempo matched the movement of my feet. After that song had finished I found another motive to get up the hill faster...another runner infront. He had just started his run as I saw him run out of his drive. I had to catch him. I nearly made myself sick with this pursuit but it was a hell of a sprint finish and I did catch him. I knew I could've gone on for longer which was a massive confidence boost for my Bath half marathon next weekend. I ended up doing 10miles in 1h30 which I was happy with. I made a cracking dinner that night, and yes I do say so myself but the pain in my knee was still there. I decided not to think too much into it and went to sleep early ready for work in the morning.

   Now Wednesday and Thursday turned out to be a disaster for training. I woke up on Wednesday after the worst night sleep I have had in a long time. I could not get comfy all night due to the pain in my knee so had what seemed like no sleep and I limped all day at work. I self-diagnosed myself with IBTS (runners knee) Iliotibial Band Syndrome and this was confirmed with a runner at work who has had it before. Thankfully he told me it was not a serious injury and with rest it would disappear. On the way home I got caught up in an extra hours worth of traffic due to roadworks so didn't get home till gone 8pm meaning I had been up 15hours with a rubbish amount of sleep. I was shattered, couldn't run and had missed my spinning class. I took my rest day of the week.
  Thursday didn't hold much luck either. Still recovering from my poor sleep the night before and bad knee I also felt the lovely feeling of shin splints. I could've put in a swim session tonight but had to make myself stay awake until 9.30pm when the lanes open and wouldn't have got the session I wanted due to my tiredness. I vowed to make Friday, my day off, a good one!

  Today, if anyone has read my previous posts, was my first day of my new triathlon club training session. I began to get worried, "will they like me?", "will I be rubbish?", "will I look fat?". When I asked Dan these questions he batted them down, "No, everyone likes you", "If you've done enough training you won't be" and "No you don't". I was SO tempted to stay in and have a glass of wine with Dan but resisted.
  So although the turbo trainer didn't get off to a great start, my new floats did. I did a skills and technique swim training session and loved it, it was like being back in swim club at school again. I revelled on how strong my kicking is and loved zooming upto the persons feet infront. My competitive side came out and the hour flew by and I stayed on longer to do a further mile in the pool.
  When I enerthed from the pool some members were chatting in reception. They had biscuits and cake but being good I avoided them. The members were really nice, it was so nice to chat about triathlons, what events everyone was training for and how many they done before etc. This conversation meant I have officially booked myself in for my first big event in 2014. I am going to swim the channel. As part of a 4-6 man team you swim for an hour and then swap, you rotate this as many times as it takes to get there, normally around 3 times. See how easy it is for me to sign up for new events. I came back with a huge grin on my face as it is something I have always wanted to do. However, behind that grin I know there a lot of sacrifices. We were talking in the changing room about how a social life and triathlons don't belong in the same sentence and I can see that. I have given up my Friday night to be swimming until 10.30pm and there will be many many more times I will have to fight the earge to want to have a glass of wine over a session, but that makes the end result so much more worth it. I am going to become and Ironman and swim the channel in one year. 2014 you are going to be a good one, I have just got to put the sacrifices in now to make it one!

Changes

  After completing the bike ride on Thursday I was pretty stiff and although my legs didn't feel like they were on fire I knew that if I got on the bike again the burning sensation would return, so I decided to go swimming on Friday night after work and a quick dinner. I was however shattered, the bike ride had obviously taken a lot out of me and before anyone thinks I had a wild Valentines night, we didn't. We had the stew that I had been slow cooking all day (our favourite meal) shared a bottle of sparkling wine, had a cup of tea and was in bed (sleeping!) by 9.30pm. I was up for work at 5.30 and finally got back at 7.30 by which time I was struggling to keep my eyes open. I suffer from really bad 'bags' under my eyes, a hereditary look and today I was resembling a Panda. I thought that I would be able to gain some energy from my chicken curry, not a takeaway I may add, just a Pataks jar, but this didn't happen. There was no way I was going to get the workout I wanted feeling that tired so gave a look to Dan hinting that I wanted to go to bed, his reply "Just say the words". So we slumped off to bed and were again sleeping by 9.30pm. I was asleep before I would've even started swimming!

My new toy

  I still had work over the weekend, so again up at the crack of dawn. I had high intentions of getting up at 4.45 and going for a run, but as I mentioned before I am not the runner who enjoys being out in fresh morning cold and the dark (I am a woos in the dark anyway) so turned that alarm off before I fell asleep. I was now fretting how I would get any training in over the weekend due to becoming dark so early and the gym closing at 7.30pm. Guilt began to set in which I think many people training for an event can relate to. This made my thoughts turn to a turbo trainer - in effect a holder that I can attach my road bike to and essentially make a spinning bike indoors meaning I can train to no end if I can't get out. I had put a turbo trainer on my ever growing list of things I need for the Ironman, but it wasn't on the top of the list, now it was. After hours of browsing the internet, my Triathlon magazine and Triathlon forums to find the best one on a budget I eventually narrowed it down to 2. The Minoura B60-R and the Tacx Satori. The second is more expensive but has a vast amount of brand awareness behind it, always considered one of the best and I have to say I am a brand snob. Tacx systems are the number 1 choice for the Tour de France and the Olympics so it seemed like a good choice, even though the Minoura was well reviewed. Overall the reason I chose the Tacx in the end was that it has a front wheel block meaning there is no wheel removal. So after finally biting the bullet and getting the turbo trainer and training tyre so my outside one doesn't get thinned down I was excited to receive my new toy. I also added to my basket some other essentials, some overshoe socks so my feet don't freeze when cycling outside and some swimming training floats. The need list had become shorter, but no doubt it'll grow again.

  Another change which I am making is to try and join a triathlon club. I always considered myself a lone ranger trainer. I feel that I get lost in my own thoughts which pushes me on, but the problem about training completely solo is that you don't know how tough the competition is until you are struggling on race day. Another positive to training with others is that you push yourself that extra bit, and with me being so competitive I will make sure I do that which is definitely what I need on the run. So I decided to bite the bullet and email Chiltern Tri Club, a 55 man group of eager triathletes. It will also be nice to have something in common with a group of people and as Dan isn't a triathlete I sometimes feel like I am boring him with my rants about how much fun and adrenaline you get from a race. I am going to my first swimming Tri Club training session on Friday 22. I chose to go to a swim session first to be able to assess where I am in my strongest discipline and then if that goes well may go along on Saturday to the Hill rep running session, my weakest discipline. The great thing about triathlon though is that everyone has a greater strength, so there is a mutual understanding that not everyone is the best at everything (obviously except for the pros, who's job it is to make their weakness a strength). Watch this space on the Tri Club side of things.


  The last change I am making early on is my nutrition. I have found out that the right nutrition and sleep means you can have the workout you want. Now, I have done every quick weight loss diet there is, The Cambridge diet, Tony Ferguson, Special K the list goes on, as well as exercising excessively. It came to the point that I was feeling faint and dizzy when doing exercise and although when on the Cambridge I lost a stone in 2 weeks it is not a maintainable diet. Therefore, I have now come to realise that in order to do a GOOD workout you need to fuel your body the energy otherwise you may as well not bother! So instead of calorie counting so that I am getting less than 1200 per day I am making sure I am getting in at least 1800 of the RIGHT quick release or slow release energy filled foods. Many sports nutritionists may say I need more, but I am struggling to try and fit more in after years of cutting back. At the moment I am also reading 'Go Faster Food' by Kate Percy which is feeding my mind with the right foods to be training and racing with. 

  I am going for a mini triathlon today, in opposing order though. A 6mile run followed by a spin session then a swim training session. I'll probably finish the night off with some weight and toning exercises, focusing on my arms and abs tonight. I post how my new toy is upon its arrival tomorrow.

Regaining confidence

  I'm going to try and not bore anyone with a tiny bit of background into how and when I can train. So, after signing up for the half Ironman I got a new job and moved house, all in the space of about 2 weeks. It was exciting, but coming with that excitement was also the daunting prospect of fitting in at a new job as well as fitting in training. Due to working in a 24 hour news channel at BSkyB I now work 12 hour shifts, and do night shifts for 2 weeks every month so is not the mundane 9-5 anymore but it does work well for me. I work a fortnight pattern of Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday one week then Wednesday and Thursday the next. So essentially I get 7 days completely off every fortnight which gives me plenty of time in my days off to do the long runs and bike rides. With this is mind I chose Thursday14th, Valentines Day, as my long bike ride day. Now, despite being signed up to the half Ironman for a few months I hadn't done a long solo bike ride since the summer before. There was a reason though....

  During a triathlon in July 2012 I fell off my bike. Now that sounds pathetic, but it wasn't really. In fact I smacked the left hand side of my body into a stationary van which knocked all of the vans rear lights out and as I was falling was hit by a car on my right, who drove straight off leaving me in a ball on the floor. (Thankfully someone else was kind enough to stay to call the ambulance and Dan). So that was my race over as well as my 2012 season of triathlons, of which there were 3 more. I was taken straight to A&E and was suspected of a broken collar bone and wrist. My collar bone thankfully wasn't broken but my wrist was playing up. Although I eventually found out it wasn't broken I had a difficult injury within the wrist, I cannot explain it as the surgeon did, but I was lucky that I was able to get seen by the right consultant who was able to explain to me how best to heal it. It is commonly thought that a broken wrist is not a major break but that is completely not true. If you cannot get full use of your wrist then it is seriously damaging to anything you do. My wrist is still not perfect, it hurts after a long bike ride, when doing weights and I wouldn't open a heavy door with it, but hopefully it will continue to improve. As well as that I have a numb shoulder constantly from the impact the van had on it, so have got sensory nerve damage that can sometimes tingle and even cause me intense pain. However, I was very very lucky, and without a helmet I don't think I would be here to write this.
  Anyway, moving on. Basically I lost all confidence I had on the bike. I had gone from cycling to work and back, a total of 22 miles daily to not wanting to venture out, even when my wrist had improved a little. As well as that my bike was broken, I remember the women who sat with me while waiting for the ambulance said "it's such a shame, your bike looks awesome".

  So back to the present, it is the morning of Valentines Day 2013, Dan is up going to Firefighter training at 5.30am and I'm feeling low (and it isn't because he hadn't said Happy Valentines Day as in truth I had forgotten as well). I slumped onto the sofa and turned on Sky News, the famous Paralympian Oscar Pistorius had just shot his girlfriend and that for some reason made me even more low. Dan knowing me so well guessed that somewhere deep down I was really anxious about the 45mile bike ride I was intending for myself that day. Every ride since the accident I had done was following him, copying him, in effect he was my GPS and Heart rate monitor but a more personal one. He suggested that I just drive the route, see my grandparents (that was my destination) and then we would do it together next week when we were both free. It was appealing as I couldn't sleep anymore but was shattered and although it is rare to be knocked off and left for dead when cycling I was scared of it happening. But I knew that nothing was going to get better by avoiding it, so Dan went to work and I got ready for my ride.

  As I was getting my ride nutrition ready I started to get excited.  Due to not doing a long distance triathlon before I am having to find a race nutrition diet that suits me, so I am trying different foods and gels to see what I like. Today I was testing fig rolls which I unnecessarily wrapped in too much foil. I downed a lucozade to give me some instant energy and set off. I was in high spirits and loved the route I was taking to Henley-on-Thames. It meant I traveled through Bourne End which is a picturesque village, Marlow which is undoubtedly posh and then the winding roads following the river into Henley. There were a few busy roads, including having to navigate across a massive roundabout that connected the M4 and the M40 but I just kept in my head the advice that Dan had given me that morning, "Be confident, they can see you and will be aware". The only doubt I had is that they weren't aware, and my confidence still isn't held in many drivers, and seeing as I have had first hand experience of one just driving off and leaving me on the scene of an accident I think you can see why. I just get so frustrated when drivers are so intent in getting out of a junction before you pass, or overtaking so close to your side when going round a bend or even on a straight when it could put at least 3 peoples lives at danger; me, them and another driver coming in the opposite direction. Why not just wait 10 seconds of your life and do it safely?! Rant over (I will probably mention that again though on future posts). One thing I have learnt as being a cyclist is to be cautious and attentive of them when I am the driver.

  After a blazing ride of 1hr20, getting very lost in Henley as well, I made it to my grandparents. Unfortunately I couldn't stay longer than an hour, as after leaving later than expected I had to leave at 3pm so I was not out when it was dark as I didn't have my high vis on or any lights with me. So after some food and a massive bear hug from my lovely grandad (my mum and siblings will agree with the death squashing hug) I was back on my way.
  One major downside about doing the same route back is that you know when the bad hills are approaching. The hills I was loving coming down at 25mph on the way there where definitely not going to be a pleasure on the return journey. I made sure to myself I would not get off, no matter what, so chanted in my head "I will get up" to the slow cogs of my bike spinning round. The worst hill was definitely the last, I think someone could've walked past me quicker than what I was cycling and my thighs were on fire, but I was intent on getting up to increase my muscle power and I did. After this I was on the home straight and with renewed energy from another fig roll I was aiming to get home within the 1hr15. Something would have to ruin my flow and I honestly thought I could see myself in a crash again. (Mum and Dad if your reading I didn't tell you because you would worry and it all turned out OK). The woman obviously did not anticipate my speed and tried to nip out before I could pass her, but even with an engine she couldn't pull away in time meaning I had to break and narrowly missed her bumper. At least by this point I had the confidence and ability to deal with it. On a better note about drivers, some are so considerate, they won't take the risk, and I thank them for that, always. I think of myself as a considerate cyclist, I don't want to be a pain to anyone's commute and deserve respect on the road just as a car does. And at the end of the day, we were here first!

  I made it back in 1hr15 and was pretty chuffed with that as it was my first long ride for a while. I was also held up for at least 5 minutes in Marlow's school rush hour, so in race conditions with closed and less busy roads it would've been closer to 1hr10. Dan wasn't back yet so I had a bath with a Lush bath bomb, lit candles all round the bathroom and read my Ironman book, to instill some more motivation in me. I had to get out after about 10 minutes as the sweltering heat of the water against my freshly frozen cycling body was making me sweat.
  I am looking forward to doing the ride again and seeing my grandad more whilst training is just a massive added bonus. All in all my confidence on the bike has been restored, although it may take a while with the drivers. I must be pretty unlucky with them or someone is testing me...
 

Why?

  It is unbeknown to me as to why I and many other aspiring Ironmen would want to put our bodies and minds through such an intense ordeal, but achieving what I and many believe to be impossible is strangely appealing to me and something I HAVE to do in my lifetime.

  I owe much of my inspiration for making the 'impossible' become possible to Andy Holgate, the author of 'Can't Swim, Can't Bike, Can't Run' and 'Can't Sleep, Can't Train, Can't Stop'. I can't explain his story with any justice, but if you have a mind like mine and read it you will instantly want to do something you never thought you could. So thank you IronHolgs for that! Another inspiring story that first introduced me to Ironman is the Hoyt family, the father and son team. Again my writing cannot do this amazing story any justice, but this video can (get a tissue ready) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt7w8hV90SI. Anything is possible!

  I was never the fastest runner, in fact I still can't say I am a runner. I can do it but I am not the budding enthusiast who chooses to get up at the crack of dawn to feel the intense cold that makes it difficult to breathe to go for a run. I was never the fastest on the athletic track but would happily give any event a go when doing sports day (I remember doing the 1500m one year as I was the only one willing to give it a go). Strange how 1500m at school seemed like an infinity yet it isn't even a mile and I can proudly say I completed 26.2 of them in the London Marathon in 2010, raising nearly £3000 in the process.

  I was never much of a writer either, but yet I am here writing my own blog, in theory being an author. In fact I was always pretty average at everything (except for science and maths, that was just never going to happen for me). The only event in which I could excel and actually beat people was swimming and that is where triathlons became my sport. After doing my first open water swim in the dirty Thames at Victoria Dock in London I was hooked, coming in at a time of 25 minutes. I loved running down the pontoon and battling your way to the front. I had done some open water swimming sessions so was aware how to get your own way when swimming, how to position yourself if you weren't or were confident enough to possibly take a smack for the fight for the front, how to spot so you don't add another mile to your journey and most importantly how to draft. After that event I wanted more and signed up to the Virgin London Sprint Triathlon which I completed in 1hr39, which for a first attempt I was pretty pleased with.

  However, apart from the swim which I have always gained a massive advantage in I am average at the bike, and even worse on the run, therefore seeing all my efforts wasted. So as much fun as it is for me and for anyone to practice what you are best at, I have to do the opposite. This blog is my process to improve my weakest disciplines in triathlon, the bike and run, as well as making sure I do not ignore the swim. Hopefully by September 2014 I can write "I am an Ironman".

  My 'A' race this year is the Exmoor half Ironman on June 16th, which is a feared event in itself, and on the lead up to this I have a half marathon, a full marathon, an 80mile bike ride event, 3 triathlons and 1 duathlon. So lets make it happen...