2018 Is Shaping Up!

2017 was a difficult year for running.

At the start of the year, I ran Country to Capital for a 3rd time and it was an utter death march to get to the end of it. My slowest showing on that route, despite the pretty good conditions. I needed to grit through it despite having nothing to prove, I did need to use the experience to feel the discomfort of finishing in pain when I just wanted to stop. It wasn't going to cause lingering injury, so it was fine to push through it for 24 miles of unpleasant slog to learn how to do it for when there is actually something to prove. Then I was persuaded to run The Moyleman (which I'd failed to finish the year before - I'd had enough at half way and got a lift to the finish), which was actually quite fun despite the fact I'm not much of a fan of the South Downs. After that, it was a few longish weekend back to back runs before getting on with the job of running the length of the British mainland, from bottom to top (Land's End to John O'Groats - LEJoG).

Things didn't go 100% to plan with that, and I had to take a few weeks out in the middle which extended the impact of it further into the year than I'd intended. I did finish and I have a lot of writing about it that I need to find time for still as well as dealing with all of the photos, but it was now mid-August and I had nothing planned for the rest of the year. With no idea of how LEJoG would go, if I'd be injured, or need weeks or even months of recovery, I deliberately kept the calendar empty. 4 weeks after finishing, with no target or pressure to do anything in particular, I entered a half marathon on a whim while I was abroad for work. And pulled out a PB, got cocky and entered a local marathon which I promptly DNFd (did 3/4 laps - just didn't fancy finishing in the dark and the laps were getting tedious). The final race of the year was another half marathon, at which both my husband and I managed to fall over and scrape up our knees. And that was the last run of any note in 2017.

My Training Plan (red = not done, yellow = sort of done, green = done correctly)

And I lost my mojo. The following weeks I found it harder and harder to get out for a run. Despite having recovered physically just fine from LEJoG, I was getting tired a lot and making poor eating and drinking choices which didn't help. Though I'd already decided that I wanted to train for a faster marathon in the Spring, I just ran out of giving a crap about running enough to do much of it, or with any decent quality.

However!

Strava featured me in a couple of their social media posts, which brought a few more folks to see my long run of the summer, then they featured me in their "2017 in Stats" blog post which was nice. And in the same breath as Sandra Vi who just beat the trans-America running speed record. (though they somehow decided I'd broken a world record with my run, which I haven't and never said I did anywhere, and that I'd run top to bottom, which is back to front! I'd also had to stitch together the individual days running into one GPX file and call it a "hike" instead of a run so it didn't mess with my annual running stats as I wanted to keep the individual day entries with the photos and messages from other people)

And RunUltra posted an article of my run (word limits are hard!)

And here we are, in the last days of 2017 and 2018's running calendar is shaping up pretty well actually! I've entered a few races and have a few targets to hit:

• April - Rome Marathon. Targeting London Marathon Good For Age (03:49:59)
• May - Cape Wrath Ultra. 8 days, multi-day, 250 miles
• August - GB Ultra, Race Across Scotland. 214 miles in under 100 hours
• October - Autumn 100. 100 miles, aiming just to finish

So the first few months of the year will be training to try to get me quicker again (it's a long time since I managed 22:36 for 5000m) but without losing endurance base for the longer stuff that comes afterwards. And I'll want to chuck in some fun stuff before, in between and afterwards - there are some work trips abroad which could present some fun race tourism opportunities.

Oh, and I've been nominated for a Run Ultra Blog award, so if you like what you've read here, please cast a vote for me (and you could win a shiny, new Suunto watch)!

Apparently I *might* be trusted...

...enough to have the cast off a tiny bit early and the air-boot on.  Maaaaybe on 9th January at my next check-up.  (And apparently the cast is only there to protect things if I fall over!  Seriously!)

So I went to have check-up number two today on the ankle; make sure the wound looks good etc.  And the etc. was the best bit.  All of the dressing came off, my leg and foot got a goos wash and a massage with moisturiser.  Oh *man* did it feel good to have air on the skin, and then the cool cleansing spray and a good ol' massage with E45.  The silicone wound cover is also gone and replaced with a more normal steri-pad thing and the excess thread and knots on the stitches have been cut off and the remaining thread will dissolve over time.

What was a bit unpleasant was when I noticed that, because the joint has been immobile for two weeks, it's really hard to control it and my toes too.  I can crudely wiggle my toes, but I used to be able to pick things up with them, point my big toe and spread them all out wide.  Can't do any of that any more and that's only after two weeks!  (Just have a look down the right side of this at the pictures of my right foot - the OK one.  I can do none of these movements with my left foot one at the moment.)

It was also really hard to move the ankle joint.  You know when you do a completely new movement with a joint in the gym and it's kind of juddery?  That's how my ankle is now when I simply flex or extend it.  Which I'm trying not to think too hard about as that will lead to feeling down about it all again.  And that's really not what I need.

On top of the cleaning, moisturising and massage was a bit of (really quite gentle) joint manipulation which felt weird and uncomfortable.

It was really hard to move my ankle in any direction at all.  It felt odd, uncomfortable, difficult, weird.  I thought it'd feel nice to be able to move but it was just difficult which was disappointing.

Anyway, given that I bothered to ask as there's no way I'd've been told had I not asked, I've now got slightly more of an idea of what the next steps are.  Because, apparently, I seem like I can be trusted I may be allowed to have the cast off before the 6 weeks are up and have an air boot for convenience and comfort as long as I don't walk on it - I'm even allowed take the cast off as long as we're OK to get it back on again ourselves, so I may do that every coupe of days or so, just to wiggle the joint a bit.  But then at the 6 week mark I'll be allowed to start walking with the air boot (likely with crutches too) and it'll take a while to get back to normal walking, via physio and cycling and stuff.

It'd just be nice to have it laid out in a plan with rough time-scales so I know what's going on.  This is one of the things I noticed the last time (when I had my collar bone done) is the utter lack of anyone telling you what's going on or what's supposed to happen and in what order and here we are again.  Hey ho, it's not like it's a life-threatening situation.  But I do kinda need to know to organise myself and my life.  I've already postponed starting my new job so it's after the cast comes off, except I don't actually have a date for that other than "six weeks after surgery".  And after what the consultant said today, it looks like I'll still be relying on a rucksack for a good few weeks to carry anything around if I'm still on crutches even if only for a bit of support, but at least I'll be a lot steadier and able to put both feet on the floor.

So I'm back in on 9th January and fingers-crossed that the consultant will be in a good mood and on the side of letting me have the cast off on that day.  It's only a week early but it'd be awesome.

Race report: Wales Marathon 2014 - What an awesome marathon!

The Wales Marathon - part of the Long Course Weekend, where there is a 2.4 miles swim on Friday, 112 mile bike ride on Saturday and a 26.2 mile run on Sunday.  Many people sign up for it as part of their training for Ironman Wales later in the year.  Many people say it's far harder to do those distances over 3 days than all in one.  I kinda agree.

However, I was "only" going to be doing the run on the Sunday as a part of my longer distance running training.  The plan was to run "comfortably" after the last few runs that haven't been so great, and hike hills if they were hard.

So that's what I set out to do.

We walked to the run start for the 10am start, expecting a mostly overcast, warmish day.  The sun blazed down on us in our vests and shorts and I thought; "OK, I'm gonna burn to a crisp!".  The gun went off and off we trundled over the line.  We decided to stay together through the twisty, narrow town section and then see what happened after that.  MrTOTKat was on a pacing strategy he was trying out for the Ironman later in the year; run 9 mins, walk 1 min.  I was on "run comfortably".  So we stayed together for a bit until I didn't want to walk when the beeps for MrTOTKat to start walking happened, and I pulled ahead.  As all the runners passed through the section of town near the station, we could smell some absolutely divine curry and there were plenty of comments about it amongst us.

I needed a wee from the first km.  Damn.  Thankfully in the 4th km there were public loos that loads of people were diving into, so I took advantage and was relieved to do so!  MrTOTKat had overtaken me in that time (11 seconds!) and it took me a good 2km to catch up with him again.  The terrain had been mentioned in the race briefing at the start and we were expecting quite some incline to get up to the Ridgeway... and there it came!  Time to power walk and fly past people who were walking normally up it :o)

Fun hill!

It was a good learning experience to power walk/hike up the steep hills as, though my heart rate stayed roughly the same as if I was running, it used different muscles and allowed for stretching out my calves and achilles which I think made a big difference later on in the race.

MrTOTKat and I saw each other a few more times during the race, I was surprised a couple of times as I thought I was pulling away more and more and in the end it turned out I was.

After the first hour of running I really felt great.  I started to run up inclines I'd normally use as an excuse to walk, and it felt easy.  It felt awesome.  I was absolutely loving it!  And my heart rate was a lot better controlled than in Rotterdam, where it dropped off like a stone and I felt awful.  I got to about 16 miles in and thought that things were going nicely and if they still were at 20, I'd think about what to do at the finish in terms of meeting up with MrTOTKat.  He'd mentioned it might be nice to cross the line together and as our strategies and aims for the day were different, I thought it might not happen.  So, I decided that if he hadn't caught me again by 23 miles, I'd walk from there until he did, so we could cross the line together.  I'd've ticked the boxes I wanted to tick in terms of objectives by then, and had absolutely nothing to prove.  The hardest thing would be letting people I'd stormed past in the last few miles, just go past me as I sauntered.

I carried on trucking, running up hills and down them, passing lots of people; power walking up only two more hills and finally coming to a really really mean downhill section at around the 22 mile point where I heard a guy just ahead of me shouting "this is the 1 in 4 bit!".   At this point, that sort of downhill was pretty harsh on the knees and I found it a bit hard and a bit painful.

Nasty little descent!

Soon after that was the 23 mile marker where I said I'd start walking if MrTOTKat hadn't caught me by then.  And he hadn't.  So I sauntered really really gently.  In my head I was a bit worried that he might have blown up somewhere or got hurt (I'd heard two ambulances in the distance behind), so I wanted to give him as much time as possible.  I got loads of comments from people jogging past me "almost there love, keep going!".  Mentally, that's really heard to hear when you're feeling pretty fresh and perky and perfectly capable of overtaking them and running happily to the finish.  After a few minutes of walking, I came across a couple of marshalls at a corner sheltered from the breeze, so I decided to stop with them and wait where I shouldn't get too cold.

Pretty course profile - blimmin' lovely to run

Happily, I didn't have long to wait before the fluorescent orange vest of MrTOTKat hove into view and we trotted off together on his continuing run/walk strategy to the end.

As we crossed the roundabout at the bottom of the last hill into Tenby, we came across another chap who chatted with us a little and as we started running again at the top he happened to mention we were 5 minutes to the 5 hour time boundary, so we picked things up a bit.  The final little run into Tenby, we weren't sure we'd quite make the 5 hours, but then realised that we had time to cross the timing mat at the start so the time on the pace car wasn't quite right for us and we started to sprint through town, giggling like kids.  It was great fun!  We were loving it!  And as we hit the red carpet, MrTOTKat grabbed my hand and we ran hand-in-hand along the red carpet at full tilt and over the line - hard to do, but awesome fun!

We crossed the line in 04:59:49!  Not that it matters, but it was such great fun sprinting through town for the last few hundred meters.  The time was utterly immaterial to me due to the plan for the day and what I decided to do at 23 miles in.  I thoroughly enjoyed the course (despite it being 100% on road).  I thoroughly enjoyed the brilliant local support; as ever the people of Pembrokeshire are brilliant when it comes to supporting hundreds of amateur athletes they don't know from Adam!  I thoroughly enjoyed sticking to my plan, feeling awesome once I'd warmed up, drinking water when I felt thirsty, eating nothing until after the race, sprinting through town at the end, easily running up hills I'd normally use as an excuse to walk and crossing the line with my sweetie.  I also love that the pace was only a couple of seconds per mile slower than at the London Ultra in 2013 when I was fitter, running faster in general, 4kg lighter and better at sucking up pain, but hurt quite a bit towards the end of it compared with this race where I had no pain in my quads at all.

The pink highlighted section is the race itself on this graph.  The massive drop off in heart rate towards the end is the 23 mile point where I walked then stopped and waited, and you can see the lovely sprint finish to a peak of 180BPM at the end very clearly!

Another one comes around quickly - Ironman UK 70.3

3 days to go and I'm well and truly tapering - from what it's hard to tell as apart from a week in Almeria earlier in the year, my training never really took off.  But still... I feel pretty OK, if a bit heavier than this time last year.  As I said before Blenheim last week, a lot has happened in the last 12 months...

Last year we drove to Exmoor on the Thursday and had all of Friday and Saturday to take things easy, this year we've cut it shorter and will be travelling over at silly o'clock on Friday morning to avoid the traffic and straight to registration.

I'm so glad I blogged about last year as it gives me some comfort and information to use for this year.  My goodness me, I was fierce in the run (probably due to being really very fit at the time and pacing the bike very conservatively), especially given the course profile.  This year, I'll have a few changes to the plan and I'll be taking it a lot harder in the swim and the run, and on the flat and uphills of the bike but still risk-managing in the descents on the bike.  I know I can hurt more than I did last year and I know I can handle mental difficulties, I've done it and I know how to make it work.  I also know that I made some corking mistakes, like the one where I didn't realise my quick release brakes were undone the whole way around...

So.  I went through the packing list and packed last night as I'm late home tonight; a last loosening sports massage at 6pm and then a visit from our builder before an early-as-possible bed so we can get going early on Friday morning.  The bike is still set up from last week's aborted race, so not much to do there other than take it to bits to pack it in the car.  The course doesn't work for a TT bike for me, I'd be up on the hoods too much at the moment, so the road bike with HED Jets it is.

There's going to be a massive line-up in the pro field and the age-group list doesn't look shabby either.  I've not had a chat with coach yet on what the race strategy will be, but I'm hoping I'll be "allowed" to actually race rather than be conservative.  I'd like to come in under 7 hours on this course, but I have no idea what I'm capable of at my current fitness and training point.  I find out on Sunday!

Expect a proper race report at some point, but if you want to follow on the athlete tracker on the day, I'll be race number 1048.  Not quite the good ol' 104 of last year, but no such special treatment this year.

Weight Loss: How to do it

How to lose weight successfully

I'm featured as one of the weight loss "success stories" on the Weight Loss Resources web site.  And as a result of that I've had a few questions, mostly around "how did you do it?"  and "I've tried and tried and I can't seem to get the weight to come off and stay off, how did you manage it?".   So I wrote a little piece on it.

This is pretty much how I did it, but not what I'd recommend for everyone now I know a lot more...

Example Food Diary (WLR)

It's both very simple and really difficult at the same time.  The real keys are brutal honesty with yourself and planning.  The final bit is maintenance; the changes you make to lose weight must be sustainable as you will need to hang on to those changes to keep the weight off forever.

• Logging - if you are trying to lose weight by calorie counting, it is very very very important that you brutally honestly log absolutely everything that passes your lips, having weighed it to be certain of how much you've had.  That last couple of spoons of yogurt from the kids' dessert at dinner -does- count; that bite out of your best friend's hot-dog while you're out at the cinema -does- count; but it is -so- easy to forget that you had them, forget to log them and then wonder why the numbers seem to add up but the weight loss isn't happening.  It is a well known phenomenon that people almost never log everything they eat, not because they want to lie or cheat, but because they actually do forget things because their brain doesn't see it as important at the time.  So, if you're out and about and don't have access to your online logging resource (in my case Weight Loss Resources - WLR), keep a notebook, write things down and then enter them into WLR when you can. And weigh everything. Portion sizes do matter.  Go here for an interesting documentary that includes a section on this.

• Exercise - can make it harder to be sure of staying inside your allowance; the calorific value of food is a reasonable guess, based on burning food to see how much heat it gives off.  Not exactly the same way your body processes it, but near enough for an estimate.  The same is true for exercise; the effort required for two different people of the same size, weight, height and age may differ based on so many other factors.  The estimates in WLR for exercise are quite variable and if you want to be closer to a more accurate estimate, invest in a heart rate monitor if you can.  But -do- exercise as it will help to maintain your existing muscles while you're losing weight; it's no good losing lots of weight that's muscle as you won't get any definition in your shape and it's less "good" for you to be losing weight through muscle loss than fat loss.

• Snack.  Regularly.  Seriously.  If you don't allow yourself to get hungry during the day, by eating little and often, you end up eating less overall to feel satisfied and lower the likelihood of splurging.  Or to put it another way, if you leave it too long between meals you will most likely eat bigger portions and with less careful choice in those meals.

• Planning - Plan your food and exercise at least a day in advance, if not for the week.  If you plan, it's harder to have little "oops" moments and you can plan in for treats to keep you from straying too far off the path or help you make informed choices when spontaneous things happen. 

• Eat as cleanly as you can - foods you prepare from scratch/original components, rather than prepared foods and packaged meals.  This is a key point.  

• Eat enough - It can be worth trying for a slower pace of weight loss as you may not be getting enough energy to keep your metabolism working properly.  Many people have switched from 2 or 1.5lb loss rates to 1lb loss rate and suddenly the weight starts coming off properly.  It varies a lot from person to person and giving it a go for a few weeks is really the only way to find out what will work for you.

• Have a "down" day/week every now and then.  I was lucky that I never really needed to do this, but very many people find that their bodies are clever and cotton on to the fact that they're getting less food/more exercise and adjust your metabolism to deal with the reduced intake vs. output.  Keeping your body guessing (but do stay on or under maintenance kcals) can help break out of that learning behaviour and kick your metabolism back to where it should be.  If you're doing heavy exercise 3/4 times a week, maybe take a week off from it every 10-12 weeks.  Or plan in a "cheat" day every week or fortnight where you do eat up to or even a bit over maintenance kcals rather than sticking to loss. 

• Weigh everything.  Unless you have the most amazingly accurate estimating skills, your portion sizes WILL drift.  And usually upwards.  It will start to add up to a few more kcals every day than you're logging and again you'll wonder why the kcals seem to add up but the weight loss isn't doing.  In effect, you're kidding yourself.  Stop it.

• Don't rely on the scales for the measure of success.  Take body measurements periodically, maybe once a month, and keep track of that as well as weight.  You may find there are times when the scales don't shift, but your body changes shape and you lose a few cm around bits of yourself.

• Patience - with yourself and with the people who will try to, knowingly or not, sabotage your hard work.  You are only human; you will have off days and that's OK.  Just as long as they're not every day ;o)  And other people may not understand what you are trying to do, how or why and they can in a well-meaning way end up trying to sabotage your efforts by offering you food, tempting you out of exercise or saying "oh come on, you're not fat!".  It's down to you how you deal with it; I wasn't very good at that part, to be honest, I just hid and didn't go out!

There -will- be hard times; I remember many many tantrums and fits of tears during my main weight loss period.  The forums on WLR can really help with that and with advice and support when the going gets tough or you have questions.

So remember... plan,  Log EVERYTHING and be honest with yourself.  Losing weight isn't rocket science but it isn't easy either.  You can do it.  You will get there.  But you have to really want to change your lifestyle and keep it changed for life.

New Year Thoughts - Finding A Coach

Something many aspiring athletes think about at this time of year is; I need a more structured training plan next year and I need help to do that.  I want to get a coach.

Having a coach who has years of experience, study and practical understanding can really help you avoid the common pitfalls of training for sport; of which there are there are many and various.  And the comfort of knowing that someone else is looking after your training schedule and optimising it for your event calendar and keeping an eye on how you're doing can make life simpler/less stressful.  And when you get closer to an event and start worrying about things, they can really help you stop doom-mongering, stop worrying about things that aren't important and reflect on all of the great work you've done and forgotten about.

But how do you find a coach that's appropriate for you?

1. Budget
2. Frequency of interaction
3. Training plan
4. Chemistry

First of all, you need to work out what your budget is.  But that can be difficult if you have no idea what the going rates are for the levels of service you get.  So, we'll come back to that.

Secondly, do you want to work with your coach face-to-face on a frequent basis, or are you happy with an online coach who you speak to on the phone regularly, or do you not need a personal interaction at all?  If the former, you may well be best off working with a personal trainer (PT) at a local gym or with a coach at a local club for your sport.  PTs aren't cheap (central London prices at a top-end gym is around £50 per 1 hour session), but you do get 1:1 training time and if you need that kind of interaction, then you're going to have to fork out for it.

Online/remote coaching can have quite a high level of interaction.  There are many companies who have a range of coaching plans that include a weekly (or even more) call with your coach and training weekends through the year (which cost extra on top of your monthly fee).  A weekly call with your coach in the off season can feel like too much, but you don't have to take them every week if you don't want to - companies are happy to take your money and you miss out on part of the service ;o)  These sorts of coaching packages cost anything from £60 a month, for up to £300 a month depending on interaction, personalisation, response times to questions, extras like sports psychology support.

Thirdly, a training plan is quite key to most people's need for a coach.  You can purchase training plans, from many companies online, which are just a general written plan and not tailored in any way.  These can be quite economical (e.g. £30 or so for a 12 week programme) and effective if you just want to get a structured, consistent plan and you're good at self-motivation.  You'd be surprised how self-motivated you can be if you have a plan that's written out for you already.  Some people need or want a bit more personalisation or interaction than that and that's when you probably want to get a coach who will personalise a plan for you, that you feed back your achievements from each training session and they modify the plan as you go along; on a weekly or monthly basis, usually depending on how much you're paying.

Lastly, if you are going for a personal coach or trainer rather than an off-the-shelf training plan, you want to check out the chemistry.  Having been through 4 gym PTs and 2 triathlon coaches so far, I can vouch for the benefits of really getting on with a trainer/coach.  You need to have faith in their ability and understanding of you and the sport and they need to instil confidence in you.  You'll only find that out by spending some time working with them.

My first triathlon trainer/coach didn't give me the level of confidence in him that I needed for me to believe I'd achieve my basic goal for 2012 by working with him and that meant I had to change quite close to the wire for the tough part of the season.  I'm so glad I did change coach and I've ended up with one I have a lot of trust and faith in now.  He really helped stabilise my mental as well as physical preparedness for the Ironman Ultimate Challenge events this year and with his help I made it through 3/4 of them (OK it was outside of both our control that I didn't make it to the start line of the 4th one, but I have no doubt that I would have completed the 4th one, had I not smashed up my collar bone at the 3rd one).  And I didn't feel silly asking him about the terminology in the training sessions he gave me.

So, back to budget... you need to think about the frequency, type of interaction and training plan you want in order to inform your decision on budget.  You can see you can spend anything from £30 for a 12 week generic training plan to £300 per month for a highly personalised, all the extras, fairly unlimited phone/online interaction arrangement.

So, now that you know what to look for, how do you actually find a coach?  Ask around, see who's advertising in the press of your sport, ask other athletes at events.  Or look for a coaching company that's doing a training day or weekend near you, or one that does a course familiarisation day for a race/event you're doing and go along.  Yes, this will cost you money, but you'll get to meet some coaches and see if you get along with them.  This is pretty much how I found my current coach, though I didn't meet him on the familiarisation day I thought the other coaches from the company were switched on and easy to get along with so I took a punt.

When you decide on a coach or trainer, don't be afraid to have a trial period to see if you get on.  Talk to them face-to-face or on the phone before signing up with them, if you can.  If you don't get on right away or after a few weeks, or even months, or you don't feel you believe in them in the right way, don't be afraid to change coach.  There is utterly nothing wrong with that.  You need to trust them to train and coach you well and you need to believe that they will do you good, support you and boost your confidence when it's needed.  The best thing I did during the 2012 season was change coach and it made a huge difference to my mental state, confidence, performance and ultimately my enjoyment of my sport.

This was not part of the plan

Today I had an endurance swim and a 2 hour spin on the bike scheduled.  As I needed to change wheels, cassette and seat onto my tri bike for Sunday and it'd need testing to make sure it was all in good order, I decided to do that and then use that bike for my ride.  I took off the handle bar mounted bottle cage to clean the sticky off it from Bolton to make sure I could get bottles in and out more easily than that day when I got really peed off with it towards the end.  I'm not sure if the bottle today was slightly fatter than usual, but it was a bugger to get back into the cage.  Hm.

I headed out to Kingston and onto the well-known Thames Turbo bike course.  I can ride it in my sleep and the pot-holes would be a good test for my new Adamo seat.  Power down to the road nicely on this bike, I enjoyed a good 90 minutes well in zone one and putting out an average speed of 26.8 km/h (stopped to fiddle with gear adjustments a few times, so avg speed is different to avg moving speed).  OK, it rained about 20 minute in and it rained hard for about 10 minutes, but that was fine.  I did lose the bottle over one of the pot-holes and had to stop to get it.

Then as I was heading back towards Kingston from the Thames Turbo bike route, through Hampton Wick, I had a drink while the traffic was quite slow and tried to wedge the bottle back into the cage.  I was being a bit of a bugger and I gave it a good shove.  At that moment, the back wheel skidded out from underneath me, the front wheel glanced the kerb and the bike went over, on top of me while I slid along the pavement on my left side.  As I was going over I thought, "This is exactly the sort of thing I was worried about before the next two races.  Ohgod, please let me not break anything!  Ow.".

Wet, gritty, dirty and bloody.

Passers-by on the pavement stopped to help and a car too.  As I was checking myself out and and talking to people, I turned to prop up my bike and Police had appeared out of nowhere.  They thought the car that had stopped had hit me.  Oops!  I did hurriedly tell them it was totally my own fault.  Everything seemed OK, just a little bit of blood on my knee and lots of wet gravel everywhere else though my little finger felt numb and tingly.  Bike looked fine too, so I declined the kind offer from the passer-by to go to her house around the corner to get cleaned up and cycled on home.

As I picked up speed on the larger roads, and put more effort in to the pedals, I noticed a deep soreness and stiffness in my left hip.  Blood trickling down my left leg and a bit on my left elbow was the only really visible sign of damage, the pain was mostly in my hip and shoulder which were both covered by clothes.

When I got home, my knee had some really quite cool globs of congealed blood on it but my hip and shoulder were very very sore.  After filling a few tissues with snot (cold, wet and a bit in shock), I dared to have a look at my shoulder.












Not too bad, just an abrasion through the fabric of my cycling top.  OK, it was seeping a bit of blood and clear fluid and swelling up a bit, but really not too bad.  My hip, however, was a bit of a shock.  Although it was very sore in the joint and muscle while pedalling, I hadn't expected there to be much surface damage so the expanse of that one was surprising and it was swelling up quite impressively too.

Fuzzy!  Hard to take a shot from this angle.

Side view of the swelling :o(

My elbow... not too bad, especially considering it had no fabric covering it when it hit the ground.

 My calf; quite scraped up...

Mmm, gritty!

 And even a dink in my ankle through my sock.  Nice!

Notice the crinkly, white feet from being in soaking wet socks for an hour.

So yes, not really part of the plan.  The plan was to avoid injury between the races.  That said, I'm glad this was today and not in 2 weeks time.  The grazes are mostly tolerable and would be covered by tri-suit to protect them under a wet-suit apart from the big one on my calf.  That's a bit of a worry under a wet-suit so I may just wear calf guards to keep it away from the rubber.  The deep-bruising in my hip may well end up compromising power on the bike and maybe even the run too.  It being 4 days before a pretty flat 70.3 is a much better thing than 4 days before a bloody hilly full distance Ironman.

Back to it

What's the best thing to do after 14 days doing very little exercise (OK, 1 5km run and 3 trips to the gym)?  I know!  Let's go gung ho back into things and lack any sensibility!

Since we got back on Thursday night last week:-

Friday - rest
Saturday - 10km run, 4.5 hours hard gardening
Sunday - 2 hour bike ride, 4 hours hard gardening
Monday - swim session

and then

Tuesday - gym session
Wednesday - swim lesson/training session
Thursday - tri training session
Friday - depends what we did on Thursday (so, choice of gym or spin bike)
Saturday - Parkrun
Sunday - long slow run

Hmm... not -exactly- easing back into things when I never did have a particularly high training load anyway.  Time to start gently laying out a rough idea of a training plan.  Not specific sessions just yet, but an idea of how much I'll be doing, what intensities and durations and when I'll start the actual Ironman trainnig schedule itself.

There are a few events in next year's calendar already, starting with the shorter Hell of the Ashdown bike ride in February (it's a tiny bit hilly), which doesn't give me long to get my cycling legs up to spec.  I've not really even done hills as such (London to Brighton a couple of times doesn't count) and my cycling endurance is through the floor, having done bugger all cycling the last 4 months or so.  And I'm not feeling the cycling commute love still (mostly around not wanting to play with cars so much), so we'll see how long that lasts before I either feel like doing it again or end up having to force myself.

Swim session with Jez tomorrow and a tri session on Thursday... and hopefully a bit of a read and a play with training plans over the next few days.

Back in the gym

Finally!  A week where I went to the gym three times!  And I already feel loads better for it.  My core supporting bits and bobs are feeling so much more -there- and useful.  OK, so I didn't get my planned swim in (as wasn't well early in the week) and due to busyness at work I didn't get to get a run in either (though I'm planning to get out tomorrow), but THREE gym sessions!  Woooo!

It's now that I need to get the base levels of strength and endurance on the increase; start to get some longer and longer bikes and runs in.  And that's where I run into some difficulties...

The "easiest" way to get a long run in, given time constraints, is to get on the treadmill at the gym in a lunch break at work.  But I can't use treadmills.  I can't run on them at any decent speed and feel seasick when I get off the damned things.  So.  Sod that.  It will have to be the old trick of using my commute to get a run in.  Start off by getting on the tube and going part way home before getting out and running the rest of the way.  Gradually making the tube journey shorter and shorter until I'm not using it at all and just running all the way home.  I can make that a 15km run if I start from the door of the office and finish at the front door at home, which is good enough for me for now.

Thankfully, cycling on a turbo trainer is actually not difficult (in terms of getting used to the sensation).  Plus, it gives the chance to get long, constant power output stints in.  That's something you can't do on the roads around here as there are so many interruptions (remember, 75 traffic lights from home to office... that's a lot of stop start if even only 15% of those lights require a full stop).  So, when we get back from holiday later on in the year, I'll be cutting back the bushes in the garden and erecting a gazebo (kindly lent to us by my parents), so the turbo trainer can be set up in the garden (we don't have anywhere in the house with a large enough expanse of concrete floor to put it on to absorb the anti-socially loud vibrations which make it sound like a jet turbine) underneath it for lots of sitting and grinding through turbo sessions and not getting too cold or wet.

I've not got a plan laid out yet as I've not sat down and thought it through and done all of the research around building a base level of fitness just yet.  I'm thinking November, December and part of January should be a good start to that before the real training plan begins 16 weeks out from Wimbleball.  Some re-reading and thinking to be done, then I can lay out a plan that's achievable rather than too difficult to fit in and resulting in huge amounts of stress.

I don't believe the saying

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail".  It's just so black and white.  Hypocritical as all hell for me to say that as I'm usually hugely guilty of black and white thinking.  Yet, I utterly do not believe that saying.  I've proven it to myself pretty much all of last year that I can get by and even improve with little to no plan at all.  I have this forward schedule of races to look forward to throughout the year but I have no training plan as such.

Yes, I'll cycle to work and back a reasonable number of times and maybe at weekends if the opportunity arises.  Yes, I'll run a bit when the opportunity arises.   I'll avoid going for a swim if at all possible at the moment as I'm really just not loving the swimming still (despite it being My Sport in my childhood).  So I'll probably drag myself for a dunking a few times before the first sprint tri, but there's no actual plan.  I know I need to extend my runs a bit to have more confidence in completing the half marathon later on, but I also know that I could probably get through it right now if I really had to (dammit, I ran 14km with a rucksack on after a crappy day at work, I don't think another 6km would be a huge stretch, especially not having to dodge street furniture, traffic crossings and random other pedestrians dithering about).  I also know from last year's experience that my sprint tri times will almost certainly improve even on last year's times because I'm just a bit fitter than I was last year and more used to doing triathlons, especially the transition bit, even though I've only done 3 in total.

What won't happen is that I will come even close to top of my category ranking.  Not without some real dedication and proper training rather than playing at it.  But despite having no concrete and detailed plan, I'm not going to actually "fail".  I know I won't.  It's not over-confidence or conceit, it's based in (albeit limited) experience.

My god.  Perhaps I'm mellowing...  Or perhaps I've just not got anywhere near my limit yet.

ohdear...

Lots of wine on Saturday.  No more than any given night when we were on holiday a few weeks back, but it bit hard on Sunday.  Spent most of the day on the sofa, watching telly and doing not very much at all.  (well, my version of not very much which included lots of laundry.  And for a really badly hung-over day, I did very well on the food front.  3 meals (wholemeal bagel with a poached egg, wholemeal granary sarnie of ham cream cheese and lettuce, wholemeal pasta with beef chilli followed by a small dollop of 70% chocolate ice-cream), 1 snack (greek yoghurt with fruit compote) and nothing "bad".



A lot of yesterday's telly included 3 episodes of Jamie's 30-Minute Meals.  Anyone else seen any of those?  I'm pretty impressed, to be honest.  Really good meals, 99.5% made from scratch (tiny cheats in pastry cases already made in one of the 3 I saw), and all in under 30 minutes.  We were so taken that we're going to get the book.

This morning, I'm still feeling a bit delicate and the week is looking to be heading away from my plan already: Mon - gym, Tue - cycle, Wed - gym, Thu - cycle, Fri - gym, Sat&Sun - rest.  And already, Tuesday is looking doubtful.  Hey ho.

Weekly roundup and sensible planning

This week was a complete mess, as you can see.  If I'm going to cycle this much, I have to work out how to sort out my nutrition to match it properly.

Last week:-
Exercise count: 10
Exercise time: 07:41
Exercise kcals: 4,408
Kcals difference from loss for the week: +2594
Kcals difference from maintenance for the week: -906
(+ is excess vs. quota, - is deficit below quota)

Day		Quota	Exercise	Total	Consumed	Difference	Difference for Week
Mon		1285	1214	2499	2890	391	391
Tue		1289		1289	1564	275	666
Wed		1296	1155	2451	2147	-304	362
Thu		1295	733	2028	2018	-10	352
Fri		1292	762	2054	1959	-94	258
Sat		1285		1285	3318	2033	2291
Sun		1296		1296	1599	303	2594
Total		9038	3864	12902	15496	2594

Since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 312
Exercise time: 212h
Exercise kcals: 115,881

What's weird is that my lovely blue M&S silk&linen dress was pretty loose yesterday even though the scales are saying "umm... you're eating less than you're expending are you? really?".  I can't do a body fat measurement to see if there's something else going on because I'm retaining water like a so-and-so today.  Everything is just totally in flux, too many changes at once, I need to look after myself in order to take part in the Thames swim next Sunday, and I need to re-think how I approach the next 5 weeks.

So.

Next week I'm focussing on the Thames swim on Sunday.  This means the following:-

• winding back the cycling to probably zero (over 100km in a week is a bit much right now)
• -IF- my groin feels OK on Monday I'll do a weights session
• on Tuesday, I shall take the 3rd open water training session
• -IF- my groin feels OK on Wednesday, I'll do a weights session
• I have a deep tissue massage on Thursday at which I shall ask for focus on my thighs
• -IF- my groin feels OK on Friday, I'll do a weights session
• I will aim for roughly maintenance kcals throughout the week
• I will carb load on Saturday, which -will- involve going over maintenance kcals for that day
• I will enjoy late lunch out on Sunday after the Nokia Thames swim in the morning
• I will be 1lb heavier on Sunday and Monday than I am on Friday, mostly due to carb loading

 Then from the week after, I will wind up the cycling again, keep the weight training in place, but aim for roughly maintenance kcals over the week for the following 4 weeks, trying to keep it even throughout the week rather than bulges and holes.  The 4th week, I will taper exercise down for the final Thames Turbo Triathlon of the year.  Once that's over I can start to re-focus on fat loss.

Weight Loss: How to do it!

I'm currently featured as a weight loss "success story" on the Weight Loss Resources web site.  And as a result of that I've had a few questions, mostly around "how did you do it?"  and "I've tried and tried and I can't seem to get the weight to come off and stay off, how did you manage it?".   So I wrote a little piece on it.  (It's a permanent article for reference in the articles section down the side for future reference.)

This is pretty much how I did it...

It's both very simple and really difficult at the same time.  The real keys are brutal honesty with yourself and planning.  The final bit is maintenance; the changes you make to lose weight must be sustainable as you will need to hang on to those changes to keep the weight off forever.

• Logging - very very very important that you brutally honestly log absolutely everything that passes your lips, having weighed it to be certain of how much you've had.  That last couple of spoons of yogurt from the kids' dessert at dinner -does- count; that bite out of your best friend's hot-dog while you're out at the cinema -does- count; but it is -so- easy to forget that you had them, forget to log them and then wonder why the numbers seem to add up but the weight loss isn't happening.  It is a well known phenomenon that people almost never log everything they eat, not because they want to lie or cheat, but because they actually do forget things because their brain doesn't see it as important at the time.  So, if you're out and about and don't have access to your online logging resource (in my case Weight Loss Resources - WLR), keep a notebook, write things down and then enter them into WLR when you can. And weigh everything. Portion sizes do matter.  Seriously, take a look here.

• Exercise - can make it harder to be sure of staying inside your allowance; the calorific value of food is a reasonable guess, based on burning food to see how much heat it gives off.  Not exactly the same way your body processes it, but near enough for an estimate.  The same is true for exercise; the effort required for two different people of the same size, weight, height and age may differ based on so many other factors.  The estimates in WLR for exercise are quite variable and if you want to be closer to a more accurate estimate, invest in a heart rate monitor if you can.  But -do- exercise as it will help to maintain your existing muscles while you're losing weight; it's no good losing lots of weight that's muscle as you won't get any definition in your shape and it's less "good" for you to be losing weight through muscle loss than fat loss.

• Snack.  Regularly.  Seriously.  If you don't allow yourself to get hungry during the day, by eating little and often, you end up eating less overall to feel satisfied and lower the likelihood of splurging.  Or to put it another way, if you leave it too long between meals you will most likely eat bigger portions and with less careful choice in those meals.

• Planning - Plan your food and exercise at least a day in advance, if not for the week.  If you plan, it's harder to have little "oops" moments and you can plan in for treats to keep you from straying too far off the path or help you make informed choices when spontaneous things happen.

• Eat enough - It can be worth trying for a slower pace of weight loss as you may not be getting enough energy to keep your metabolism working properly.  Many people have switched from 2 or 1.5lb loss rates to 1lb loss rate and suddenly the weight starts coming off properly.  It varies a lot from person to person and giving it a go for a few weeks is really the only way to find out what will work for you.

• Have a "down" day/week every now and then.  I was lucky that I never really needed to do this, but very many people find that their bodies are clever and cotton on to the fact that they're getting less food/more exercise and adjust your metabolism to deal with the reduced intake vs. output.  Keeping your body guessing (but do stay on or under maintenance kcals) can help break out of that learning behaviour and kick your metabolism back to where it should be.  If you're doing heavy exercise 3/4 times a week, maybe take a week off from it every 10-12 weeks.  Or plan in a "cheat" day every week or fortnight where you do eat up to or even a bit over maintenance kcals rather than sticking to loss. 

• Weigh everything.  Unless you have the most amazingly accurate estimating skills, your portion sizes WILL drift.  And usually upwards.  It will start to add up to a few more kcals every day than you're logging and again you'll wonder why the kcals seem to add up but the weight loss isn't doing.  In effect, you're kidding yourself.  Stop it.

• Don't rely on the scales for the measure of success.  Take body measurements periodically, maybe once a month, and keep track of that as well as weight.  You may find there are times when the scales don't shift, but your body changes shape and you lose a few cm around bits of yourself.

• Patience - with yourself and with the people who will try to, knowingly or not, sabotage your hard work.  You are only human; you will have off days and that's OK.  Just as long as they're not every day ;o)  And other people may not understand what you are trying to do, how or why and they can in a well-meaning way end up trying to sabotage your efforts by offering you food, tempting you out of exercise or saying "oh come on, you're not fat!".  It's down to you how you deal with it; I wasn't very good at that part, to be honest, I just hid and didn't go out!

There -will- be hard times; I remember many many tantrums and fits of tears during my main weight loss period.  The forums on WLR can really help with that and with advice and support when the going gets tough or you have questions.

So remember... plan,  Log EVERYTHING and be honest with yourself.  Losing weight isn't rocket science but it isn't easy either.  You can do it.  You will get there.  But you have to really want to change your lifestyle and keep it changed for life.

Difficult week ahead

The weekend was great... lovely champagne on Saturday morning, best beef ever at The Cinnamon Club - a beautiful, perfectly seasoned and cooked piece of Wagyu beef(* - full menu below).  I'm  a bit miffed that we didn't get any photos of us, but there was a nice one of me:-

So.  This week.  I have the all clear from the physio so can get on with gymming etc. in theory.  But.  The first triatholon of the year (for me) is on Monday.  So I can't really go nuts.  I need to focus on swimming, running and cycling (hah!) this week and not overdo it, so no gymming allowed.

Loose plan:-
Monday - fast 400m swim, tumble-turn practice (done)

Tuesday - 5km run after work (done)
Wednesday - long cycle on the gym bikes (to toughen up my bum!)
Thursday - fast 400m swim, tumble-turn practice
Friday - medium cycle on the gym bikes (done on a real bike); 4km run after work (done - 5km), carb taper
Saturday - rest, test bike, carb taper
Sunday - rest, carb load
Monday - RACE!

There's really not enough time between now and Monday to make much of a difference than toughen my poor bottom for the cycling a bit.  The fast swims are to get back used to the feel of fast swimming after that long old 5km one.  Running will give me confidence that I can actually run more than anything else!

And here, in its full glory, is the menu from Saturday evening's dinner...

Tasting Menu with matching wines

Norwegian king crab and tamarind salad, cured organic salmon
Orvieto Classico Superiore, Castello della Sala, Umbria /Latium, Italy, 2006
-

Tandoori red snapper, coriander chutney
Torrontes, Fabre Montmayou, Mendoza, Argentina 2006
-

Steamed chickpea cake
-

Pomegranate and mint sorbet
-

Hunter’s style rabbit tikka with dill and mustard
Pinot Noir, Fraser, Murdoch James Estate, Martinborough, New Zealand, 2005
-

Baked wild African prawn with ‘kadhai’ spices
Marsanne, Saint-Joseph, M..Chapoutier, Rhône, France 2007
-

Fillet steak of Wagyu beef with stir-fried morels, saffron sauce
Cabernet Sauvignon, Jumbuk Vineyard, Clare Valley, Australia, 2001

-

Apple desserts
Coteaux du Layon St Aubin, Dom des Barres, Loire Valley, France, 2007
-

Coffee and petits fours

Not as bad as it could have been

Last night's event could have been a right old mess, but I had a plan and due to delays in travel between the wine bar and the venue, I drank a little less than I had anticipated which was even better.  I even laid off any carbs during dinner, but then endedup scoffing toast when I got home because I was so hungry by then!  Photos and details laster when I've had a chance to get them off my camera and if they're not all fuzzy and out of focus.

The down side of yesterday was that work was so busy that I didn't make it to the gym for number 2 weights session this week.  So I've had 2 rest days in a row and I'm very much not up to the cross-trainers at the gym near work (they're a different model to the ones everywhere else I've been/go and have a much bigger range of movement which is significantly harder work even at lower resistance level settings) so I'm going for a run when I get home.  I can't even do the "get of the tube a few stops early and run home from there" thing today 'cause I have to cart home all the stuff I left at work last night and the new kitchen scales etc.

Ain't nothing without a goal

And therein lies the problem.

I -do- have some goals for this year and the first one is coming up real fast now; first ever triathlon in 6 weeks time.  The problem is that that goal conflicts in some ways with the one I'm really keen on, which is losing body fat.

I need to pack in more cardio training than I have been, otherwise I am going to fail at the triathlon, but there are only so many days in the week, it's still dark in the evenings and I dont't want to drop down from 3 weights sessions per week and still keep at least 1 rest day in the week whilst also being quite fatigued around exercise at the moment.

Running practice can be fixed by getting off a few tube stops early on the way home and running the rest of the way.  Yes, that take a bit of planning, but it's not a big deal.  It also won't impinge on my weight training sessions at all.  Swimming, I can squeeze in at least once a week on either Tuesday or Thursday as a cardio session.  The problem is the cycling.  And as that's the longest part of the triathlon and one of my weaker disciplines, it's going to have the highest impact on my overall aggregate time.

So. I think I may have a bit of a plan to get me through the first triathlon, but it's all a bit muddy after that.

Nice, pretty salad today though:-

And because we went swimming...

 

Haagen Dazs Summer Smoothie that's separated a bit after being in the freezer for a good few months now.  Still rather nom!

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop and Dorset Cereals muesli
S - banana
*gym*
S - 1 scoop in semi-skimmed milk
L - salad; spinach, sweet peppers, celery, capers, pomegranate seeds, chicken fillet, walnuts and lemon juice
S - pistachios and tangerines
S - beef jerky
*swim*
D - beef chilli with couscous, peas and sweetcorn
S - sorbet/ice-cream thing (Haagen Dazs Summer Smoothie)

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1880 2382]
Protein (g)	173.2 (37.9%)
Carbohydrate (g)	185.2 (38%)
Fat (g)	48.0 (23.6%)
Fruit & Veg	10.4

Change of plan

With all of this weight maintenance, fat loss and staying fit there's a lot of planning involved. It's not just plain, simple and effortless you know! Anyway, the plan today was to head out to a birthday thing in a bar after a quite long and hard day and have a couple of cheats in some wine and a restaurant chicken Caesar salad. Except the bar was just far too difficult after today. So abominably loud that any conversation has to be yelled, plenty of places to sit if only everyone wasn't standing up and they serve food, but you can't eat it due to the aforementioned everybody standing up around the tables.

So I came home instead. And had a beef chilli and a bottle of wine because A. I'd planned for it as a mega-cheat and B. it's actually been quite a tough day.

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop vanilla, fruit compote and flaked almonds
S - Nakd bar - Berry Cheeky
L - salad; lettuce, sweet pepper, celery, capers, chicken fillet and honey&mustard dressing
S - a pear
S - beef jerky
D - beef chilli, couscous, peas, sweetcorn and a bottle of wine

Exercise - 49 minutes gym (HRmax 184, HRavg 160)

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	2246 2207
Protein (g)	175.2 (33.3%)
Carbohydrate (g)	194.2 (32%)
Fat (g)	27.3 (11.3%)
Alcohol (g)	73.3 (23.5%)
Fruit & Veg	9.0