Well Done Ollie

I did quite well last week, turbo trainer when I could not get out, early and late swimming. 

Then the weekend came, Ollie started to get ill, the car has had it's last chance, a couple of BBQ's to increase that protein intake and a footy presentation.  Any idea how long it takes to buy a car?  Bliming ages, but heres a hot tip.  Buy a car on the last day of the month.  Salesmen will negotiate.  It's all about monthly sales figures.  So we have a new car.  What else could take up time?  Ohhhhh school sports days? Work?  Ha, This latest contract is proving to be an issue.  Might be finding myself with time on my hands! 

Still Ollies doing well, he got the 'Golden Boot' award again and has the 'Team Fair Play' award at home for the summer.  All the footy coaches/team managers really, really rate his 'finishing'.  He plays centre forward and its his job to score goals, which he does very well.  I don't know how he does it, but he does and he does it very well, all the people with opinions that matter and are knowledgeable tell me so.  Good on you young Ollie.  Better buy him a new bike then.  We did think we would go to the Evans Sale, but the queue was unbelievable.  Maybe get there another day.

Picking up my skirt

There is nothing quite like someone suggesting you have not got what it takes, the weather picking up and a denied opportunity to go for a bike to get you going again.  When I blogged, 'Got any Thoughts', I got one.  A clonking great big one, that set me off thinking 'I'm not worthy' for the weekend!  Then the weather picked up and it got warmer, which is always a bonus to making you feel good about things. Finally there was, I thought, an opportunity to go for a bike ride on Sunday, but let us say Sarah did not agree!

Saturday morning I woke early, thanks to not sleeping because of that 'clonking great thought' and thought swimming.  Looked out the window and saw 'wet', too wet to go to the lake I thought!  So I went to the Dorking Masters Session instead.  A busy session with half the running club there, so I went into the second lane and had a storming swim (storming for me anyway).

Come Monday, I was in full on, 'I will do this' mode and knocked out a 40 min run.  This is a run that normally takes 45 mins to cover, I felt like I was flying.  Then on Tuesday I did 80 mins on the turbo trainer in the garage.  Pity to not be on the road, but 2 sleeping children in doors meant I needed to be at home.

I asked, and all I can say is:

Got any Thoughts - anyone?

I feel the time is coming.  The time when, if I am going to do and Ironman, I should decide which one I am going to do.  When I start to think about this more and more factors come into play.  Should I do an Ironman syndicated event or a Long Distance Triathlon? Where is the flattest course?  Should I go abroad to do it?  What about time of year/temperature?  Should I do it at all?  What about all the training?  Will I be ready - ever? What about my toe?  And on and on and on.  Can I make a decision? Nope, hopelessly lost without a clue.  One thing I know for sure is that if I don't enter one, I will never do one, and when I sit in my chair in the old peoples home, the one by the window, back against the wall and across the room from the TV with daytime TV showing.  What will I think then?  Will I always regret never having done an Ironman? Will I think I should have done an Ironman syndicated event?

 

I guess 1 answer is, play it safe and just enter one, enter an Ironman sanctioned event and if I fail, then I fail trying.  Another is, you only live once, you don't know whats coming around the next corner, so get on with it.  And finally, no one said it was going to be easy, in fact if it was it would not be worth doing.

 

I know all these things, so what to do?

Some Progress

The weekend came the trainers beckoned me.  'Come running, come running', they whispered.  First I had a car exhaust to deal with, so it was not leap in the car and drive to a lake at 6am, it was ring around the exhaust fitters and find somewhere with the part.  Kwikfit it was, so bike in the back of the car I drove to Kwikfit left the car and cycled back up the hill for 30 mins cycling.  Why is it even with fresh legs people cruise past me going up this hill?  What do you need to do to improve at it?  The rest of the day was gardening, housework, teaching Sophie to ride (well done Sophie, you will be my triathlete), and buying gerbils.  Well what else do you do on a Saturday?  The car never came back as Kwikfit couldn't get the exhaust part until Monday. Grrrrr, cars, what a pain.  Saturday evening and I did that run for just over an hour, felt good not like last week.  

 

Sunday was the Brockham Badgers FC big tournament and I was on parking duty, (no Daddies Day lay in for me).  No, 7am on my bike (only one car remember) down to Brockham, where I stayed until mid afternoon doing parking and watching Dan play footy.  This is an amazingly big event done each year and it really is amazing to see what can be done all by volunteers.  Instead of cycling home again, I took the long route south out of Brockham, Blackborough, Dorking, Ranmore, Westhumble, Leatherhead, Fetcham, Bookham, some road to Shere and take a left up a great long hill (ahhh I remember this hill now, its got a flint bridge over it, and I almost lost the will to live going up it when I followed the 'Legs of Steel' route), then back along Ranmore, down to Dorking, back up Boxhill.  Quite nice really, hills at Blackborough, Ranmore, Fetcham, 'that road' and Boxhill.

 

Then I could get a 'Daddies Day' rest! (should have done a brick run really!)

  

Swim Technique Video

'Yer a big girlpants Curtis!'

'I have a dream ...... I have a plan ...... but I am a big girlpants'.

I could get up early in the morning and go for a run, is 5:30 too early? I could run at lunchtime, but I don't, I work through to get stuff done. I could run after work, but what if someone sees me in a pair of running shorts? I could run/bike/swim when I get home, but after 2 hrs driving my desire to get up and do something is low. I have even missed 2 masters swim sessions now. I am a girlpants, I can imagine any excuse possible to not do something and yet I know if I don't do it I am on a road to failure/disaster/pain. Consequently this is the second week I have been looking at my plan and seeing sessions slip past and no effort put in. Thats all base thats not getting done, I need that base. '5 miles is a hard run for me at the moment, come on ..... get your motivation back'.

What a loser.

On a positive note. Sophie can ride her bike now, she has cycled unaided. Woooooooooo, she is going to be a triathlete, go Sophie, soon be cycling up and down the Close like Chrissy Wellington. Go Sophie, go Sophie, go Sophie.

Ohhh and about riding bikes. An insight I learnt this week.

I came back from my 'big skirt' ride with a painful soft and squishy area. Well you would too after sitting on a saddle for so long. Well I got thinking. When I bought the bike the bike shop guy wiped out a jar of stuff from 'under the counter', and asked 'something for the weekend sir?' No, really he said, 'something to help with chaffing?'

'No' I replied, 'I don't get chaffing'. But after my 'big skirt' ride I thought and wandered if it would help with the discomfort I was now feeling. So I went back to the bike shop and had a discussion with the bike shop guy about cream to slap on your soft places! (what else do you discuss in a bike shop?) 'Would it help?' I asked.

'Yes', he told me assuredly. So I bought the pot of Assos cream.

Last Saturday I got ready for my ride and thought I would try the cream. I unscrewed the lid, remove foil, stuck my fingers in and slapped it on liberaly, 'as directed by the bike shop guy'. Now my thought was that this stuff was like Vaseline. I thought it lubricated those parts that need taking care of. But, I was wrong! How did I know I was wrong? Well something to do with the burning sensation of 'having rubbed aftershave into my sac', might have been a pointer, as I walked around like John Wayne looking for ice. Time to read the label I think, I hope I haven't got it mixed up with chain lube!