Ok its Sunday so I've got a bit of recounting to do as my last entry was Thursday. On Friday I decided to do the run on the treadmill at the gym again and see if I could up the cruising speed on the speed interval training. The answer was yes. I put the speed up to 8.9mph for the first 25mins and had enough energy at the end to actually increase the speed in the last 5 minutes by 0.1 every minute and hit the sprint button for the last minute in the 30. Road running as predicted is pushing my boundaries much better than the treadmill did. Just need to wake up early enough to do it!Rest of the gym sesion was fairly normal I got in a little earlier than normal so I was able to do a couple of extra machine work outs but the bike work out was a wash. The first machine I got in was defective at the higher levels and I found the pedals would 'slip' like they weren't connected to the load anymore. I oinly did the first 5mins on that before switching after letting the PTIs know. Decided not to over do the bike in favour of the strength exercises. I should really sign up for some of the spinning classes again. I did them a couple of years ago and they do break you out of your comfort zone. Its just a question of what I want to sacrifice to do them. If I go runnning in the morning and then don't do either the run or the cycle that should leave me with the hour the spinning class needs. Only proble is the classes are either at 18:00 or 19:00 so I'd have to get the rest of the session in on time before I go in and I know from experience that could be tough. Maybe once a week would be too bad even if I lose some of the strength work around it.
Right 50 length in the pool as happy as larry. Still not happy with my leg movement. The kicking should be a constant thing but its at a different rythem to the arm movement so I end up only kicking hard with my arm stoke on the glide and using my arms to drag me through the water more. This isn't efficent or fast and its something I need to work on a lot.
The new bike thing is also on my mind a lot over the last three days. A couple of my workmates are saying 'just get it' probably because they are sick of me talking about it. (its only been two days!) Looking at the price range v quality I want to spend about £1500. I could get that on the credit card and pay it back over time but I'm a bit worried about the interest repayments as it will cost me more in the long run and more importantly it removes my safety net of credit. We're still trying to sell the house and if I need to move out quickly I might need to spend a grand or two on house utensils and others. If I spend now I'd be down to a safety net of around £500 instead although I'd still have the overdraft. Going into that much debt that quickly is not a good idea.
To sop some of the "want", I went to Bristow's bike shop near my parents house and went in to ask for some friendly advice and to pick up some reflective arm bands and a new rear light. The winter nights are drawing in but I still want to ride to work for as long as I can.
Basically I was shown the differences between the MTBs and the roadies. She talked me out of getting a triathlon bike to start with. As A: they are very uncomfortable if you're not used to the sprint position and B: They are useless in traffic as you have the gears and brakes separate. They are built to go fast in competition. Thats it. As I want to take this bike to work and let the hardtail revert back to being my weekend bike I thought it best to get a standard road bike, and if I wanted, I could convert it with aero bars and the like.
The two bikes she recommended were the Trek 2 series and the Giant Defy bikes. These range from £800 to £1800 depending where you stick your pin. For me its between the Giant Defy Alliance or the Trek 2.3. The 2.3 is more expensive at £1300 but I think its a much better bike for that. I can save a hundred off that with the giant. looking on the net these are cheaper at other retailers. So there may be room to manoeuvre.
Sunday, 19 September 2010
Thursday, 16 September 2010
A new mistress
As predicted my sister's friend called a 18:30 yesterday. Too late for me to go to the gym after and too early to get in a short session before picking the stuff up. Therefore I was determined to go the full hog today.
Started off with a good run normal sort of time of 55:31. Then on to work by bike. The wind was up. The weather report said 16mph cross winds but it felt like a head wind. I tried to get up the gears as much as possible and I think I managed to stay in 27th gear (out of 28) most of the way. Time wasn't bad considering the weather and as a little reward there was a lovely blonde putting her bike away in the shed. Shame I looked a wreak. It was truly a battle on the way home. The cross wind was much more on the headway side and I was a little puffed out when I finally reached the gym. Jumped in the pool though and it was like I'd never been on the bike. The new goggles worked very well. I hardly got any water in around my eyes. A good 50 lengths later and I was feeling dizzy. I definitely made sure I put my swimming trunks and goggles away.
But lovely blondes aside I found a very pretty picture. Its of a proper triathlon bike. In particular it is a Trek speed concept 7.5. It costs a mere £3000. Only two grand less than my car! It looks fast and pretty....and I want one! See the picture at the bottom of the blog
Started off with a good run normal sort of time of 55:31. Then on to work by bike. The wind was up. The weather report said 16mph cross winds but it felt like a head wind. I tried to get up the gears as much as possible and I think I managed to stay in 27th gear (out of 28) most of the way. Time wasn't bad considering the weather and as a little reward there was a lovely blonde putting her bike away in the shed. Shame I looked a wreak. It was truly a battle on the way home. The cross wind was much more on the headway side and I was a little puffed out when I finally reached the gym. Jumped in the pool though and it was like I'd never been on the bike. The new goggles worked very well. I hardly got any water in around my eyes. A good 50 lengths later and I was feeling dizzy. I definitely made sure I put my swimming trunks and goggles away.
But lovely blondes aside I found a very pretty picture. Its of a proper triathlon bike. In particular it is a Trek speed concept 7.5. It costs a mere £3000. Only two grand less than my car! It looks fast and pretty....and I want one! See the picture at the bottom of the blog
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
The case of the missing swimming shorts.
Ok I've had a bad day. I've not gone running this morning and I've not gone swimming this evening and I didn't cycle to work. I know I know. It was windy.
Monday's performance was much better though. Armed with my new notes on swimming technique I tried it out and found myself coasting along quite happily. The 11 and 1 arm position dis seem to work and it felt better with more of the stoke going forward. The pool was a little crowded though and after the double lane had about six extra people in all doing breast stoke I decided to get out. I missed the morning run but made up for it by running on the tread mill. This gave me the opportunity to see how the road running was effecting my performance. It seemed to be having a good effect. My speed interval training that the PTI setup was a cruise and sprint affair. With the sprint I didn't notice a lot of change but the cruise seemed sluggish and too slow to be challenging. I'd obviosly improved since I was last on it. Hooray. I did the normal thing on the rest of the gym work and cycle machine.
Weird thing was that i lost my goggles and swim shorts. I thought I had them in my hand but when I came to put everything in the bag I could't find them anywhere and searched the locker room with no joy. They've either been half inched or hopefully been picked up by mistake and then handed in. I've had to get some replacement shorts and goggles though in case they haven't been found and I even got a swimming cap although I doubt I'll ever wear it until I enter a proper race. Tried it on in the office and the damn thing hurts like the blazes. Might have to wear it to break it in a bit!
Will try and get out tommorrow morning as I'm picking up some stuff from one of my sisters friends who has some furniture she doesn't want anymore. This may make me late to the gym or miss it entirely!
Monday's performance was much better though. Armed with my new notes on swimming technique I tried it out and found myself coasting along quite happily. The 11 and 1 arm position dis seem to work and it felt better with more of the stoke going forward. The pool was a little crowded though and after the double lane had about six extra people in all doing breast stoke I decided to get out. I missed the morning run but made up for it by running on the tread mill. This gave me the opportunity to see how the road running was effecting my performance. It seemed to be having a good effect. My speed interval training that the PTI setup was a cruise and sprint affair. With the sprint I didn't notice a lot of change but the cruise seemed sluggish and too slow to be challenging. I'd obviosly improved since I was last on it. Hooray. I did the normal thing on the rest of the gym work and cycle machine.
Weird thing was that i lost my goggles and swim shorts. I thought I had them in my hand but when I came to put everything in the bag I could't find them anywhere and searched the locker room with no joy. They've either been half inched or hopefully been picked up by mistake and then handed in. I've had to get some replacement shorts and goggles though in case they haven't been found and I even got a swimming cap although I doubt I'll ever wear it until I enter a proper race. Tried it on in the office and the damn thing hurts like the blazes. Might have to wear it to break it in a bit!
Will try and get out tommorrow morning as I'm picking up some stuff from one of my sisters friends who has some furniture she doesn't want anymore. This may make me late to the gym or miss it entirely!
Monday, 13 September 2010
Swimming technique
Grabed this off of the internet
1. Hand entry - If your head is at 12 o'clock, your hands should enter the pool at 1 and 11. This helps prevent "cross over" which basically makes you swim like a snake back and forth through the water. You lose a lot of energy constantly trying to keep going straight. This also prevents over-rotation of the shoulder and hips which can also bleed power from your stroke.
Ok I don't do this
2. Hand glide position - This is where you start your pull. You want to make sure you hand reaches to the pool wall and glides for a moment at head depth before you start your pull. This lets you get every last bit of forward momentum before starting your pull and lets you get some "glide time" for a second or two on each stroke - that way you are fresh when you get out of the water.
Hooray I do do this...when I remember.
3. Kick - You want your kick to be efficient and you need to conserve energy here for the upcoming bike and run. Your legs should be straight behind your body with no bend at the hip - not stiff, but also not too loose. Your kick should start at your hips. I like to pretend that I am wearing flippers while kicking.
I try and do this but I think my legs tend to sink when I get a bit tired.
4. Level in water - You want your head, shoulders, hips and legs to be in line and at the same level under the water. Watch to make sure your hips and legs don't sink below the level of your arms, head and torso.
As above
5. Hand exiting the water - Make sure your hands exit the water at the bottom of the hip - not at waist. This will give you an extra boost at the end of your stroke and again get the most forward momentum off of each stroke. I notice that students start pulling their hand out early when they start to get tired.
Yes I do this too. Good old Marine PTIs look like they knocked some good habits into me.
1. Hand entry - If your head is at 12 o'clock, your hands should enter the pool at 1 and 11. This helps prevent "cross over" which basically makes you swim like a snake back and forth through the water. You lose a lot of energy constantly trying to keep going straight. This also prevents over-rotation of the shoulder and hips which can also bleed power from your stroke.
Ok I don't do this
2. Hand glide position - This is where you start your pull. You want to make sure you hand reaches to the pool wall and glides for a moment at head depth before you start your pull. This lets you get every last bit of forward momentum before starting your pull and lets you get some "glide time" for a second or two on each stroke - that way you are fresh when you get out of the water.
Hooray I do do this...when I remember.
3. Kick - You want your kick to be efficient and you need to conserve energy here for the upcoming bike and run. Your legs should be straight behind your body with no bend at the hip - not stiff, but also not too loose. Your kick should start at your hips. I like to pretend that I am wearing flippers while kicking.
I try and do this but I think my legs tend to sink when I get a bit tired.
4. Level in water - You want your head, shoulders, hips and legs to be in line and at the same level under the water. Watch to make sure your hips and legs don't sink below the level of your arms, head and torso.
As above
5. Hand exiting the water - Make sure your hands exit the water at the bottom of the hip - not at waist. This will give you an extra boost at the end of your stroke and again get the most forward momentum off of each stroke. I notice that students start pulling their hand out early when they start to get tired.
Yes I do this too. Good old Marine PTIs look like they knocked some good habits into me.
Sunday, 12 September 2010
a note on distances
Nicked this from the British triathlon website:
Race Distances
Distances of individual events may vary from race to race, but there are some standard triathlon distances, quoted in terms of swim/bike/run:
Super sprint - 400m/10km/2.5km
Sprint distance - 750m/20km/5km
Standard distance - 1500m/40km/10km
Middle distance - 2.5km/80km/20k
Ironman distance - 3.8km/180km/42km
Super sprint - 400m/10km/2.5km
Sprint distance - 750m/20km/5km
Standard distance - 1500m/40km/10km
Middle distance - 2.5km/80km/20k
Ironman distance - 3.8km/180km/42km
Today I managed 1000m/51.2km/12.55km in 03:38:07 I imagine about 10mins of this is transition time as I wasn't being quick. even then according to a race calculator which you enter you pace into the relevant sections and the distances you do I should have done this course in 03:02:00. Boo!
Overtaken!
Right its been a busy old week and I've been coming home rather tired. That is why therefore I have not been publishing my posts very well. I have to admit other than Monday it has been a real chore to get up in the morning to go for the run. I thought it wouldn't be that hard as my alarm goes off at 05:30 anyway I just like to take a minute or two to reorientate myself to the waking world before I get up. Unfortunately that means being out of the door at 05:30 for the run and have everything ready to go to work,on or off of the bike, sat in the bag waiting for me at the end of it. The energy demands for this are very high and I'm wondering if I've started off too high. I can run and cycle just about but then going swimming blows me out for the next day's run/gym/swim with a knock on effect down the week unless I take a break. I found out on Tuesday that the body didn't want to go running in the morning and refushed to get up in time to even take the bike. In the end I wrote the day off. According to my rules I now have to go for a punishment run. I've decided to make it a bit of a triathlon punishment run and do all three disaplines one after the other in the correct order. To that end I will cruise on the bike to the gym. Swim 40 lengths (1km) change quick and leap on the cycle. I'll head down towards Huntingdon and turn straight around and come back. This should be in the order of 32miles straight. I'll then come home ditch the padded shorts and go out on the run. Not sure how far yet will have to see how I'm coping. If I can I'd like to extend the run to close to the half marathon distance by heading down into P'boro and taking the railway route from Ma&Pas. If not I'll try and do the standard hoof.
So that compensates for tuesday. Wednesday I was able to get up and ran 55.01. Two minutes slower then Monday even with the break. I wasn't happy but could see the reason. The gym session went well and 30 laps in the pool to finish the day. Thrursday was a bit of a disaster. First I was unable to get up on time. Again. and although this time I got out on the bike about half way in to work I was over-bloody-taken by a lycra clad road biking geek. Cheeky git even had the cheek to say "Good Morning" as he passed. Git. I was infurated and even applying power to the pedals I was only able to keep him just about in sight until the turn at Alconbury-on-the-hill and hen he was gone.
I couldn't believe that I had been smoked that way. It had to be the bike, right? I went straight onto the net once I got to work and googled for road bike vs MTB and sure enough someone had asked the question. The answer was complicated but basically, yes road bikes are faster on roads then a modded MTB or hybrid mostly thanks to the thinner tyres and better cycle position. All stressed the fact that you can go faster thanks to these things but only if you are capable of using them effectively and they only gave slight advantages. The post I like the most did point out the gearing difference. A road top cog can give a 13% edge over the top MTB cog if you can crank the pedal. If you're not maxing out the top gear on the MTB you can't push the road bike any faster because there's an equvalent gear on its range that you'd be stuck in. Personally I think there is an advantage in the road bike. I think some of it is training. I live in a groove enforced by my gear range. I never ride hard in the highest gear I can because I know I've got to get to work or where ever I'm going to. Having more gears and a harder range would challenge my comfort zone and result in faster movement and better times.
No chance of getting a new super dooper roadie any time soon so I'll just have to challenge myself to start using that high gear and get out of the comfort zone.
Rolled in rolled out of work and couldn't go straight to the gym for the planned swim as I'd left the swimming trunks in the gym bag. opps! Rocked home instead and repaid the debt on the run. 56.46 later wasn't bad considering I'd gone straight from the bike to the run.
Friday I missed my run. Again. but did go to the gym and was able to do a very respectable 40 lengths plus 6 sprint lengths giving it everything I'd got. I was quite pleased with this but It did highlight the difference in speed I was using to get the distance.
So that compensates for tuesday. Wednesday I was able to get up and ran 55.01. Two minutes slower then Monday even with the break. I wasn't happy but could see the reason. The gym session went well and 30 laps in the pool to finish the day. Thrursday was a bit of a disaster. First I was unable to get up on time. Again. and although this time I got out on the bike about half way in to work I was over-bloody-taken by a lycra clad road biking geek. Cheeky git even had the cheek to say "Good Morning" as he passed. Git. I was infurated and even applying power to the pedals I was only able to keep him just about in sight until the turn at Alconbury-on-the-hill and hen he was gone.
I couldn't believe that I had been smoked that way. It had to be the bike, right? I went straight onto the net once I got to work and googled for road bike vs MTB and sure enough someone had asked the question. The answer was complicated but basically, yes road bikes are faster on roads then a modded MTB or hybrid mostly thanks to the thinner tyres and better cycle position. All stressed the fact that you can go faster thanks to these things but only if you are capable of using them effectively and they only gave slight advantages. The post I like the most did point out the gearing difference. A road top cog can give a 13% edge over the top MTB cog if you can crank the pedal. If you're not maxing out the top gear on the MTB you can't push the road bike any faster because there's an equvalent gear on its range that you'd be stuck in. Personally I think there is an advantage in the road bike. I think some of it is training. I live in a groove enforced by my gear range. I never ride hard in the highest gear I can because I know I've got to get to work or where ever I'm going to. Having more gears and a harder range would challenge my comfort zone and result in faster movement and better times.
No chance of getting a new super dooper roadie any time soon so I'll just have to challenge myself to start using that high gear and get out of the comfort zone.
Rolled in rolled out of work and couldn't go straight to the gym for the planned swim as I'd left the swimming trunks in the gym bag. opps! Rocked home instead and repaid the debt on the run. 56.46 later wasn't bad considering I'd gone straight from the bike to the run.
Friday I missed my run. Again. but did go to the gym and was able to do a very respectable 40 lengths plus 6 sprint lengths giving it everything I'd got. I was quite pleased with this but It did highlight the difference in speed I was using to get the distance.
Monday, 6 September 2010
Number 2597
Another day another lap.time. 53.13. A new record for that route. Not that surprised as I've had a day or two off. Also managed to get the full 30 lengths in in one go after the work out which was very not bad. I decided to get a couple of new tops for running the half marathon as most of my sports t shirts are looking a bit worse for wear. Still a bit of retail therapy for a good lap time is nice. Have to be careful with them though. They were expensive for t shirts. The welcome pack for the half marathon came through today and I am number 2597. weird they have given menace timing chip which goes on a very uncomfortable looking strap around my ankle. Something to do with the chip.being registered on a plate as we cross the starting and finishing line.
Well with that fun day out of the way I have a lovely. day filled.with rain for tomorrow. I'm only happy when it rains!
Well with that fun day out of the way I have a lovely. day filled.with rain for tomorrow. I'm only happy when it rains!
Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.5.2
Saturday, 4 September 2010
Ah. The gymnasium
Finally for the first time since this new urge to train has hit me I've gone to the gym to do my old work program. Minus the running of course. For those of you who don't know my gym routine is as follows. I start with a series of stretches mostly on the legs and a few on the upper arms. I then go for 42 push-ups with the hands in line with the shoulders elbows going in tight to the body. I then flip over and do 120 sit-ups with my feet braced under a handy bit of boxing the gym have placed next to the mats. The sit-ups are done with the hands either side of my head. I then change styles of sit-up going for a twist as I begin each sit-up so at the top of the sit I'm facing to either my left or right placing more strain of that sides muscle groups. with 40 of these out the way I flip over again and do 20 squat thrusts and then flip back to do some 40 more sit-ups this time without my feet braced and with my arms straight out in front skimming over my arched legs. Back onto my front and into the press up position for 30 more. Its then down the stairs to fill up the water bottle and hopefully jump onto the pull-up bar. Currently only able to do 8 of these but hoping to get better. Usually I'd then start up a tread mill and get into sprint intervals 2mins cruising at 8.8mph and then 1min at 10.9mph and keep going until the timer hits 30minutes but not today. I'd like to do the odd one of these just to see if my level is staying the same or better or....worse. Usually next its onto the weight machines but I went onto the cycle machine and did 15minutes on a random hardness program set to a max of level 18 out of 20 and fought to do 5 miles which I usually achieve by the 14th minute. As I hadn't run during this session I found this quite easy to do given that fact I thought I'd tack on an extra 15mins on a manual set level of 16 and pushed for the 5 mile marker again. This out of the way I went back on track with the weight machines and went through chest presses (60kg at 3x 15rep cycles) bicep curls (52.5kg at 3x 15rep) and chest-flies (70kg 3x 15 reps) Usually this is when I'd switch back to the bike but as I'd done this I jumped on one of the leg extension ones that work the quads and did 80kg 3x 15reps. I was feeling a bit drained by this point and still had the swim to go so I missed out some of the other exercises and went for the isometric stuff back on the mats holding myself in the plank position and doing a weird leg extension thing that works my core muscles that the gym PTI showed me. I find one of the problems with the gym is that I try to do too much and haven't got the time. I'm currently in there for about hours. Not all of this time is spent exercising. Some is spent getting changed and I have rest intervals of about 1 minute or so between reps or exercise types to cool down a little. There's plenty in there that I'd like to do if I've got the time like the rowing machine, reverse flies and a whole bunch of stuff on the free weights, assuming you can ever get near them. That is one of my pet hates about the gym. There seems to be a class of gym goer who only do free weights and form little groups that rotate through the position doing a massive amount of upper body stuff. The result is the limited number of positions at peak times get dominated by these blokes and no one else gets a look in. Its not like I've got the time to do any meaningful work out on those weights but it would be nice to know I could if the fancy took me.
All that out of the way and it was back to the swimming pool. I found it much harder to swim having murdered my upper body a bit and instead of the constant swimming I was able to do the last couple of times I found I was back down to doing patterns of 6 lengths or less. I managed to get the full 30 lengths done but it wasn't quick or very pretty.
I've now managed to do my first days proper training according to the plan. Right time for the weekend and a nice little break.
Thursday, 2 September 2010
an early-ish start.
Just a quick note to say I got up this morning and ran a 55.14. Which is better than the other day and full distance. See... I can do it.
Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.5.2
A comfortable mattress and blood loss = Trouble running
I've missed a few days so I'll rewind time to Tuesday night and the end of the last entry.
With my new mattress installed I was looking forward to hitting the sack but writing the blog and eating late ment I was getting under the covers at about 23:00 and I was still too awake to fall straight to sleep despite my tired limbs. God knows when I drifted off but it was past midnight. Needless to say that when the alarm went off at 05:30 I was not in the mood to get out from under my warm fluffy duvet. When I finally did lure myself out of bed I was running low on time before I had to go to work. I slipped on my battered trainers and decided to go for a quick run around Yaxley. 19 odd minutes later I was back with enough time in hand to wash and brush up before work. Phew.
What I'd forgotten when I started this new regime was that my next blood donation appointment was coming up and with my mini run out of the way I needed to suck down some fluids before the vampires took hold at lunch time. So great was my need to get out of the house that I had forgotten the blood donation form and had to go cap in hand to the nurse and ask for a new one. Fortunately my work mate who I was donating with had made the same error only with less excuse so I didn't feel too bad. The usual procedure was followed and eventually a large needle was jabbed into my arm. Blood rushed out of my system and filled the plastic bag beneath me. I was kept amused by the antics of what I believe to be a doctor who'd been dragged out of the hospital to help with the occasion. As he pottered about smiling in a bemused sort of way nurses would keep coming up to him with bits of paper work and point to missing entries or incomplete statements. This is largely how I could tell he was most likely a doctor. I was quite lucky and filled my pint of redness and before long was sitting with a cup of tea and a packet of bourbons unlike my workmate who seemed to be having trouble getting the stuff out of himself. I told him that he was always a miserable bleeder and he replied "they take enough from me at work. I don't want to lose too much. as a naturally happy bleeder I went back to the office and soon started to feel the after effects of tiredness and poor concentration. Or maybe that was just the effect of DZ report day. Anyway I wasn't feeling top notch so I decided to knock it on the head for the day stock up on food on the way home and fill myself with complex carbohydrates.
Thursday morning arrived and I was still feeling tired from the day before. No running was going to happen that morning although I was determined to ride to work. Almost 40 minutes late I set off loaded down with my new towel, a nice light weight travel one, and my lunch which I'd pre prepared the night before (Chicken rice and eggs with some red pepper mixed in.). But in my haste I forgot both my bike locks, fortunately I kept the weaker D-lock at work, and to set my stop watch going. No accurate timing for the morning trip. Doh! When I got it going I recorded a time of about 54 minutes and I think that I missed only the first 5 minutes or so but if so it was a rather slow time of 59 for my first recorded outing. Oh well we can but improve. The return journey was hampered by a nasty headwind and I was quite knackered when I arrived at the gym for my swim session. As I started to get into the pool's lap side I realised there was two slow Muppet swimmers splashing up and down. Great I'd be tripping over them every single lap. I then spotted that the "general" swimming area was almost completely free apart from one woman swimming laps. I could do a few over there and once wingus and dingus got out I could shift over. No problem. 10 laps later some kids arrived and started having fun. Darn them. but W & D had disappeared so I got to finish my remaining 20 in the normal manner. It didn't feel too bad today and I felt I could do more but I didn't want to over do it as I had to make it home. I decided to go the direct route home through Orton Goldhay and Hampton. Managed to escape with only one chav child trying to shout "Oi are you a racer or something with that stuff on your bike" I was gone before he could actually engage his brain and shook my head slightly. Probably only ten years old and still no decernable signs of intelligence. Right running and the gym tomorrow or its a punishment run at the weekend.
With my new mattress installed I was looking forward to hitting the sack but writing the blog and eating late ment I was getting under the covers at about 23:00 and I was still too awake to fall straight to sleep despite my tired limbs. God knows when I drifted off but it was past midnight. Needless to say that when the alarm went off at 05:30 I was not in the mood to get out from under my warm fluffy duvet. When I finally did lure myself out of bed I was running low on time before I had to go to work. I slipped on my battered trainers and decided to go for a quick run around Yaxley. 19 odd minutes later I was back with enough time in hand to wash and brush up before work. Phew.
What I'd forgotten when I started this new regime was that my next blood donation appointment was coming up and with my mini run out of the way I needed to suck down some fluids before the vampires took hold at lunch time. So great was my need to get out of the house that I had forgotten the blood donation form and had to go cap in hand to the nurse and ask for a new one. Fortunately my work mate who I was donating with had made the same error only with less excuse so I didn't feel too bad. The usual procedure was followed and eventually a large needle was jabbed into my arm. Blood rushed out of my system and filled the plastic bag beneath me. I was kept amused by the antics of what I believe to be a doctor who'd been dragged out of the hospital to help with the occasion. As he pottered about smiling in a bemused sort of way nurses would keep coming up to him with bits of paper work and point to missing entries or incomplete statements. This is largely how I could tell he was most likely a doctor. I was quite lucky and filled my pint of redness and before long was sitting with a cup of tea and a packet of bourbons unlike my workmate who seemed to be having trouble getting the stuff out of himself. I told him that he was always a miserable bleeder and he replied "they take enough from me at work. I don't want to lose too much. as a naturally happy bleeder I went back to the office and soon started to feel the after effects of tiredness and poor concentration. Or maybe that was just the effect of DZ report day. Anyway I wasn't feeling top notch so I decided to knock it on the head for the day stock up on food on the way home and fill myself with complex carbohydrates.
Thursday morning arrived and I was still feeling tired from the day before. No running was going to happen that morning although I was determined to ride to work. Almost 40 minutes late I set off loaded down with my new towel, a nice light weight travel one, and my lunch which I'd pre prepared the night before (Chicken rice and eggs with some red pepper mixed in.). But in my haste I forgot both my bike locks, fortunately I kept the weaker D-lock at work, and to set my stop watch going. No accurate timing for the morning trip. Doh! When I got it going I recorded a time of about 54 minutes and I think that I missed only the first 5 minutes or so but if so it was a rather slow time of 59 for my first recorded outing. Oh well we can but improve. The return journey was hampered by a nasty headwind and I was quite knackered when I arrived at the gym for my swim session. As I started to get into the pool's lap side I realised there was two slow Muppet swimmers splashing up and down. Great I'd be tripping over them every single lap. I then spotted that the "general" swimming area was almost completely free apart from one woman swimming laps. I could do a few over there and once wingus and dingus got out I could shift over. No problem. 10 laps later some kids arrived and started having fun. Darn them. but W & D had disappeared so I got to finish my remaining 20 in the normal manner. It didn't feel too bad today and I felt I could do more but I didn't want to over do it as I had to make it home. I decided to go the direct route home through Orton Goldhay and Hampton. Managed to escape with only one chav child trying to shout "Oi are you a racer or something with that stuff on your bike" I was gone before he could actually engage his brain and shook my head slightly. Probably only ten years old and still no decernable signs of intelligence. Right running and the gym tomorrow or its a punishment run at the weekend.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)