Hard week!

Being quite inexperienced at proper training, I haven't got a good grasp of what a hard week is.  Last week was one of them, though I didn't really notice at the time.

Still quite fatigued from RideLondon 100, I had one normal rest day then back into the swing of things with a peppy hour or running intervals, then a bit of a hiccup with a day when I just couldn't fit anything in.  Thursday had an hour of bike intervals on the gym bike, then another set of intervals on the road to get my bike back home from Mr TOTKat's office after RideLondon.  Friday, more bike intervals, even harder ones this time.  Friday, we packed up the car and headed off into Surrey for a weekend away.  Saturday was a bike trip to Farnborough station to catch the train to Winchester for parkrun then riding all the way back up the A30 (route planning fail early on in the ride) to the hotel, along a fairly rolling terrain and with intent to get back at a reasonable pace.  I was whacked!  We stopped for a tea and some fuel half way back (only 65km ride!) and mashed the rest of the way, giving me a few Strava KOMs on the way.

The plan was to have afternoon tea, a nap, then a swim before dinner.  And we did have a fabulous afternoon tea, but were running late enough that the nap was only 10 minutes long before I had to go for a scary looking swim set that included butterfly in the warm up!

This resulted in a bit of a failed swim... I cut out a chunk as I was supposed to be doing descending sets after a substantial warm up and I was simply knackered.  So I did about 3/4 of the session and called it a day.  Just about enough time to get showered and changed for dinner.

Sunday morning had a hard run set planned.  A really nice warm up and then progressively faster and shorter multiples of 400m laps of the rugby pitch (which was de-turfed and being rotavated at the time).  Through lack of familiarity with using the lap function on my Garmin, I made a bit of a hash of it, but still I managed to mash through the session despite feeling like spewing after the first 1600m interval and not wanting to carry on.  10km warm-up plus intervals later, I was done; a sweaty heaving mess, but done.  Time to get back to the room, shower and have breakfast.  Letting the gorgeous breakfast go down a bit, we packed up and checked out before going to The Spa again for another swim.

50m into the warm up, my arms were saying uncouth things to me about what I was asking of them.  This particular session included 8x25m butterfly in the warm up.  I've not done butterfly since I was about 9 or 10 years old and I wasn't any good at it then.  I wasn't convinced I'd be able to get my arms out of the water and that I'd look like a total idiot.  Turns out I can do it for a couple of lengths at a time!  Anyway, given how tired I was from back-loading the hard training to the tail end of the week and not really recovering much from some pedal mashing at RideLondon for a few hours, I called it a day before really getting into the main set of the swim and we sat beside the outdoor pool in the sun for a bit to dry off and have a drink.

Chatting through the week with my coach on Monday night (rest day!) he did say that this week might look innocuous on paper, but after last week I would still be tired and there are a few tough sessions in there that will really add up.  The whole plan was to tire me out and pile on the fatigue some more this week to get me used to pushing hard while I feel fatigued.  Well, I can say with certainty that it's working 'cause this morning's swim times were terrible!

Onwards!

First speedwork session

 I took a wrong turn again!  GAH!  I keep doing that at Wimbledon Park station and go almost straight on instead of jinking right then left to up Melrose Avenue and end up in the right place (I stopped the Garmin when I had realised I was definitely on the wrong side of the Park, so that's why it looks like I stopped at the golf club - I did carry on and went into the track from the West instead of the East).  I really need to stop doing that.  So I ended up with 5.5km warm up instead of 3km (well, it was supposed to be 1km, but it's 3km to the track, so.) and up and down Wimbledon Hill a couple of times.  Must remember to go past the station, not to the side of it!

Anyway, I got to the athletics track eventually and it was deserted, nobody there to take any money from me or even anyone else to share the track with.  No open toilets either, which was annoying as I needed a wee.  The track was deserted for almost all of my session apart from the second half where a lady and her small son ran around a few times too on the inner lane.  The surface was quite nice, very grippy and slightly less harsh than pavement/road running, but I think there's not been a lot of running been going on there over the last few weeks as there was a lot of debris on the track - twigs, leaves, moss etc.

So my first ever running speed session.  I don't know what to expect.  I think I didn't go hard enough.  I'm not sure if I could have... just nothing to go on really other than feeling a bit rough in the 400m sets.  8x400m with 200m recovery jogs in between.  And as I don't ever do this session again in my schedule, I'm not sure I'll ever know.

I'm pleased with the consistency of the 400m sets though, if not the overall average speed, but then that wasn't going to be high with the recovery jogging in there.

Mmm16laps...

Wednesday swim intervals

I'm still very much not feeling the love for swimming lengths, especially in a tiny pool like the one near work (17m, goddamit!) so I decided to drag myself to the pool today and do something different, to get the interest levels up - swimming intervals.  So, 10 lengths warm up, 10 lengths at pace then 2 fast, 2 normal alternating through legs only, arms only, full crawl, full breast-stroke etc.  In the normal pace lengths after the sprint ones I felt really strong, which was nice. Got a good old heart rate out of the sprint crawl lengths too, topping out at 177 BPM.  And, the most important part was that I wasn't totally bored all the way through.  AND I managed my usual mile in 32 minutes despite the arms only and legs only lengths and a couple of waits at the end of lengths to try to read my HRM watch to compare sprints with normal pace laps.

The spinach I've been growing in the garden was finally harvestable in a reasonable quantity last night, so I had some in my salad today (I love the way the beetroot turns the chicken pink!) and it was pretty nice, though it is still very delicate and less thick and crispy than the stuff you get in the supermarket, so I might let it get a bit bigger before I harvest any more.

Snacks today were a bit more interesting than usual.  Although I really really love carrot and houmous (apart from today's second carrot which tasted disgusting so I had to throw it away and spit out the first mouthful!), I could do with a bit of variety to be honest.  So this afternoons second snack was greek yogurt with raisins, apricots, dates and pumpkin seeds.  Sadly, the pumpkin seeds didn't survive refrigeration with wet things very well and the result was chewy, soggy seeds.  Otherwise it was a nice mix as the juice that seeped out of the dates added sweetness to the tangy yogurt.  Yum!

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop MP Max with fruit compote and flaked almonds
S - nut and seed bar (much tastier than expected!)
*swim*
S - 1 scoop MP Max in skimmed milk
L - salad; lettuce, sweet pepper, cherry tomatoes, beetroot and chicken breast
S - carrot and houmous
S - greek yogurt with raisins, apricots, dates and pumpkin seeds
D -beef chilli with wholemeal pasta and roasted cherry tomatoes

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc/exercise)	1806 2074]
Protein (g)	163.7 (36.8%)
Carbohydrate (g)	182.1 (38.4%)
Fat (g)	49.1 (24.8%)
Fibre (g)	25.6
Fruit & Veg	12.0

Good gymmage week

So I'm terrible; awful. Competitive as all hell. There was a pink-lycra clad woman in the gym today, with gym gloves on and amazing definition in her back and shoulders, on the assisted pull-ups machine. She looked like she was probably 6-8kg lighter than me (definitely shorter and less heavy). I was keen to find out what weight she was using so slipped over after my 12 minutes on the Wave for a look at what the machine was set to. I was expecting 20-30lbs, given her height and definition. Well, blow me, when I checked it was set to 60lbs! (remember, the weight is how much assistance you're getting, not how much you're lifting, so lower numbers are harder and it works as a % of your body-weight as to how heavy you're lifing) So I absolutely -had- to prove something to... well... nobody really as nobody would care and nobody would notice except me; and I knocked out 3 sets of 10 military grip pull ups. Satisfying. Silly. And ultimately counter-productive as I worked my back and arms yesterday.

Sometimes it just gives me/you/one a bit of a boost to show you can do something as well as someone who is smaller, lighter and -looks- stronger than you. And damn the sensibility of it!

2810kcals in exercise this week; 2 mad intervals sessions with hubby as well as the normal 3 weights ones really added up. The second intervals session was today and will result in being 535kcals under maintenance. It's a good thing really, given the plan for tomorrow is pretty outrageous fo0d and drink wise. Well, actually, the food's pretty good overall, it's more the drink. 2 cheats on Tuesday this week with a dinner out and a couple of beers, 1 cheat right now with 1 beer, but it's gonna be waaaay more than 3 cheats tomorrow. So, sometimes it's not quite 80:20. Sometimes it swings the other way. 2lbs to go and tomorrow is a bit special, so.

B - toasted bagel with Marmite and scrambled eggs
L - toasted sandwich on wholemeal granary bread; ham, Philadelphia and tomato
S - smoothie: banana, raspberries, blackberries, yogurt, milk and agave nectar
*gym*
S - 1 scoop chocolate in semi-skimmed milk
D - chicken in black bean sauce with green peppers and buckwheat soba noodles; with 1 beer

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1843 2378]
Protein (g)	145.5 (32.2%)
Carbohydrate (g)	199.2 (41.3%)
Fat (g)	39.7 (19.8%)
Alcohol (g)	17.4 (6.7%)
Fruit & Veg	6.3

Thighs of burning fire

Well, lesson learned there I'd say. Full body weights on Friday, mad cross-trainer intervals on Saturday followed by the first run in ages on Sunday, equals thighs of burning fire. Ohyes. They hurt. All along the front and on the back of the left one. Walking up stairs is fun. As is using my legs with no assistance to get up from seated, especially when carrying things. Ow.

And I was gonna run part-way home after work. Hah! Decided to swim after work with hubby instead :o)

Brekkie was utterly delicious this morning. I used a sample sachet of the cookies and cream flavour and ohboy is it nice! Gotta work through the vanilla first before I'm allowed to buy any though:-


Lunch was lacking in bulk. I generally need lunch to at least look substantial and though it tasted good, it looked a bit pathetic in the lunch box:-


Which meant that come 2nd afternoon snack, I was about to tear arms off and chew at them, but managed to stick to the carrots and houmous I'd packed, except the houmous was a bit mouldy and I ate it anyway.

The salmon fillets we get from Ocado are fabulously tasty, "lightly smoked" makes them salty and smokey and just really strongly flavoured so they need nothing doing to them at all. So, so, sooo nice:-


Exercise - 48 minutes weights (HRmax 179, HRavg 166) and 33 minutes swim (HRmax 172, HRavg 163)

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop cookies and cream whey, fruit compote and Grape Nuts
S - Dorset Cereals; 3 berries and cherries bar
*gym*
S - 1 scoop chocolate in semi-skimmed milk (no bloody skimmed. again.)
L - salad; spinach, sweet peppers, capers, roasted chicken breast, honey, mustard and lemon juice
S - tangerines
S - carrot and houmous
S - banana
*swim*
D - salmon fillets with couscous, peas and sweetcorn
S - 1 scoop strawberry delight in semi-skimmed milk

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise) 1894 2467] Protein (g) 171.0 (36.9%) Carbohydrate (g) 190.3 (38.5%) Fat (g) 50.8 (24.6%) Fruit & Veg 7.1

Virgin Active anyone...?

Anyone else seen the 10 minute challenge at the Virgin Active gyms this week?

I noticed it while I was doing intervals on the cross-trainer (having done 10 minutes on the wave machine - oh my god that hurts my thighs!) and cut them short to have a look. And I'm -so- glad I did!

Choose 2 out of 4 fitness challenges; bike, row, run and cross-train (different intensities and distances for each, e.g. 1.5km scramble on the bike or 100m climb on the cross-trainer); and either an easy (takes 15% off your total time if you get it right) or hard (takes 30% off your total time if you get it right) mental challenge. A trainer sets up the machine and times you, you answer the mental challenge whilst slogging away. Total time minus any bonus from the mental challenge enters you into a competition for Amazon vouchers and a bicycle.

So I did it. And picked bike, cross-trainer and hard mental challenge. In 05:05! And I got the mental challenge wrong (oh the shame of it!); it was weird, my brain just refused to work while my body was being punished so hard. No idea if that was a good time or not until the trainer looked up "the next fastest woman"! (who did it in 07:25 so I was over the moon!) Plenty of week left for someone to beat me, but still WOOOOOO! It was FUN! (and I had to slow right down at the end of the cross-trainer challenge 'cause I was going so hard I was about to barf!)

So, if you're a Virgin Active member, check out your local gym to see if they're doing the challenge and HAVE A GO! Its brilliant! (and you get a free t-shirt for having a go anyway)