OMG what have I gone and done now?

I HAD made peace with the fact I wasn't going to be fit enough to participate in my planned Duathlon and Triathlon in April. I WAS just happy that I was actually managing to get out and run! I THOUGHT "who needs to cycle and swim anyhow"?!  

Then this morning I woke up to snow! This put paid to my idea of going for a run ... and so instead I settled down with a coffee and my laptop and decided to browse for forthcoming events.  I soon stumbled across an event that I hadn't seen before and was inspired by it ... a little too much ... before I knew it I had booked a place.  

What? I hear you ask!  On a  novice ‘time-based’ triathlon.  

I am familiar with the terms used in the Tri World to describe different distances such as "Super Sprint",  "Sprint", "Olympic", "Half Iron Man" and "Iron Man" but "time-based" was alien to me.

Apparently,  according to the blurb this event is aimed at the novice athlete (that's me!) aiming for their first multi-sport achievement (again that's me!).  I was beginning to feel ever so slightly excited and started to think that this event had been made just for me! 

What nailed it was ... I won't be last, it is actually impossible to be last! How? Surely someone must stagger across the line last I hear you say!

Apparently not ... and the level of effort I put in is completely in my control!  

The aim is you swim as far as you can in 5 minutes doing lengths in a swimming pool,  you are then guided through the transition process from swim to bike before you bike as far as you can in 15 minutes on a tarmac circuit.  Finally you are guided through the transition process from bike to run and then run as far as you can in 10 minutes on a grass course. 

My main fears of a triathlon are the swimming and the transitions!  But this event has very little swimming in it and it appears to give you a good taste of what a real triathlon would be like enabling me to experience transitions first hand without the pressure I would have in a "race" event. 

The distances covered in the short time slots will be minimal but I am viewing this as the first step on the triathlon ladder, which will hopefully build my confidence and enable me to progress next year onto "proper" events when I am fully fit and have had longer to perfect my currently appalling swimming technique and times!


Its only 8 weeks away on the 11th May in Blackpool! 

YIKES! 

 I actually feel excited about it rather than intimidated!

Another reason to stop stuffing my face with cake and get fit!

On that note ... What have I been doing this weekend to increase my fitness?  Some good things, some bad!

On Saturday, as it was a non-running day I decided to have a blast on my turbo trainer.  I have a couple of Spinervals DVD's which I really enjoy and the one I chose to do on Saturday is interval training and exceptionally hard!  It is a 2 hour training session but I only ever manage about 40 minutes of it at any given time.  Perhaps when I bought it the title "Have Mercy" should have given me a clue what I was getting myself into! I managed 8.03 miles in 32.35 minutes which can be viewed here! 

This session is perfect exercise for my ankle as its all about speed and high cadence rather than hills and hard gears, so there is very little pressure on my poorly ankle.  After this I went straight into my final day of the core challenge and managed to do it in 11.30 minutes!  Very chuffed with that after the hard cycle workout and then I stretched by doing my physio exercises!  

After a shower and rest I then managed to climb a fell. For the past couple of years we have been trying to do the Wainwrights - which is to climb all 214 fells covered by Wainwright in his seven book series "A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells.

Me at the top of Loughrigg fell with views over Grasmere.

We have been thwarted by injuries, first my husband's knee then my ankle. Today we successfully managed to climb one of the lower ones, Loughrigg Fell which has an elevation of 335 metres. Although it was fairly easy going up with a fairly well trodden path, coming down was fairly tricky and I was worried about my ankle, but thankfully it was OK! I managed to walk 3,97 miles and you can view this walk here!

19 wainwrights climbed - only another 195 to go!

All the good I had done was soon undone with a Chinese Take-away and copious amounts of alcohol but hey ho there has to be some perks in life!

Today, I got a big surprise when I opened the curtains to be greeted by white!  Yet again there had been a big downfall of snow during the night! 

I have already told you what happened because of this bloody snow (tri booking)... but later in the morning the rain started and the snow started to go ... so I was able to RUN!

The plan was to do 4 miles but I underestimated the distance and ended up doing 4.68 miles which can be viewed here. 

I am thrilled to say that this is the first post injury run that I haven't been thinking about my ankle the entire time.  I actually forgot I was a recovering athlete and enjoyed my run even though it was raining and there was snow all around!!!

Which planet is he from...?

After a shower I went for a short but very, very muddy, wet, cold and slippy walk with the dog! It was only 1.98 miles but felt much further and can be viewed here.  I don't know what planet the weather forecaster for Garmin is on but it certainly isn't ours - I can guarantee the weather today was NOT 6C and sunny, 1C and snowy would be more accurate!

A non-running day tomorrow ... what activity will I choose?

Tune in and read tomorrow to find out!!!


ONLY 29 days to go until ...

Post injury miles and inch/weight loss since 9th March!

Running:  13.46 Miles

Walking:  16.48 Miles

Cycling: 17.13 Miles

Swimming:

Pilates: 1 hour

Core Strength Day 1: 14 minutes 43 seconds

Core Strength Day 2:  12 minutes 15 seconds

Core Strength Day 3: 13 minutes 20 seconds

Core Strength Day 4: 11 minutes 38 seconds

Core Strength Day 5: 11 minutes 42 seconds

Core Strength Day 6: 11 minutes 11 seconds

Core Strength Day 7: 11 minutes 30 seconds

7 DAY CHALLENGE COMPLETE!

Weight loss: 1.4 / 8 pounds

Hips: 0

Waist: 1 inch

Thighs: 0