TGIF!

Whoops I don't know where the time has gone!  I have just realised I have been neglecting all you bloggers!

So what have I been up to?

Well, On Sunday I walked 8 miles doing 4 wainwright fells - I haven't updated that blog either but I will sometime soon! Tut tut I know!

On Monday I decided to go swimming again mainly to try out a new toy I bought!  I know its supposed to be boys and their toys but I must admit to being a gadget girl! So what is the new gadget?  Its called pool mate and counts how many laps you do, the time and speed you do it in and lots more complicated stuff I don't understand as yet! It also downloads the information to the computer and gives me pretty graphs etc to obsess over! I ordered it via the internet on Friday evening after a glass or 2 of wine  - a lethal combination wine and internet shopping! I thought to myself if I order it now it will take 3 or 4 days to deliver meaning my other half would be at work and I could stow it away and he wouldn't be any the wiser.  Months down the line when he did notice it I could say "Oh that old thing I've had it ages!".

However, my plan didn't work out quite like that due to the super efficient delivery from the company sweatband!  At 1 pm on Saturday afternoon the doorbell rang and Mr Postman was stood with a parcel that my hubby just happened to sign for! *gulp*. I had to come clean and used my well practiced puppy dog eyes on him and got away with it!  I even volunteered to return it unopened, but he knew life wouldn't be worth living if he agreed to this option! 

Anyhow, to prove I would get my use out of it I went swimming on Monday. Over the weekend I had been very geeky and had read 100's of internet articles about becoming a better swimmer etc.  The top tip seemed to be to get your breathing sorted and the rest would follow! I was amazed to learn that whilst your head is in the water you should be exhaling then when your head comes up you just need to inhale and go down again! News to me!  I was trying to exhale and then inhale all in the space of an arm stroke! 

So off I went with my watch securely fastened to my wrist to practice my breathing! One article had recommended learning to sink before you can swim!  Basically to go in the deep end of the pool and exhale under the water until you sink to the bottom!  It said until you could sink by exhaling you wouldn't succeed with the  "proper" breathing involved in front crawl!   

I was amazed how easily I could exhale and sink! Its a pity a Tri doesn't involve sinking instead of swimming! Full of confidence off I went trying to put exhaling under the water whilst swimming front crawl into practice!    I was intrigued by my watch and kept checking it repeatedly to make sure it was still recording correctly. Perhaps this is why I was useless and I felt exhausted very quickly!  To recover between laps I did an awful lot of people watching studying other people strokes to try and get tips!  I only managed 34 laps in the hour! Perhaps I need to rethink attempting a Tri!

On Tuesday I went for a run and planned to do some hill sprints in the middle of my normal run.  Last week I had seen a young girl doing hill sprints on a path leading up to Kendal Castle and thought I would use this hill as an alternative to the usual hospital hill!  However, the hill was too short and it was unlit, so after about 5 reps it was too dark to continue so I just finished off the session with one of my a "normal" routes! I felt as if I was running like the wind and was dismayed to see from my Garmin that in fact I had done a very slow run at an average 10.14 min/mile  pace! Either the marathon has totally knackered my legs or my Garmin is knackered! You can view this run here! 

By Wednesday I was desperate to try my "lack of breathing" technique out again and headed to the pool!  Its a good job it wasn't April Fool's day as I was informed on buying my ticket that the men's and ladies changing facilities had been swapped due to male workmen working in the ladies!  

I headed into the men's with trepidation, praying I wasn't going to be met by an embarrassing sight!  When I walked in the first thing that struck me was the size! Not a man in sight but the changing rooms were huge compared with the ladies!! What's the sense in this when the majority of women who go swimming tend to have several kids in tow whilst men generally get to go alone!  I can only assume the architect who planned the building was in fact male!

Once over my amazement of the size I got changed and was ready to go! After a couple lengths I finally felt like I was improving on the breathing front and got into quite a good rhythm of breathing every 3 strokes!  Its amazing how much easier and less tiring it is to  swim front crawl breathing properly!  I still feel my legs are wrong - I'm conscious of kicking like hell, but can't seem to get them to slow down just yet!

I need to get more comfortable with the breathing and arm techniques and then I will concentrate on my legs! I was quite chuffed to have managed 49 lengths in the hour - quite an improvement on Monday's session but still involved too much people watching!! 


Thursday was an awful day and although I knew I was going to Pilates at 6 pm I just HAD to run to get rid of some pent up emotion!  I was only wanting a quickie so I did a session with ROD! (don't get over-excited Rod is my Treadmill). I did a 2 mile speed interval session and felt so much better afterwards! It was also good to have a stretch afterwards at Pilates!

I somehow made it through today! Its the weekend at last - the end of a long half term and even longer week! 

To de-stress before the weekend I went for a run with my running buddy Gina.  Its been a while since we have hit the streets together due to holidays, injuries, ailments and marathons getting in the way! Tonight the gruesome twosome were back in town! I found it hard work!  My legs just refuse to go as fast as they used to go!!  I think they are rebelling because I made them go 26.2 miles!  Hey Ho I will persevere and one day they might conform.  View tonight's run here!

I'm on half Term now - Bring it on!