Run day

Today's training was a 45 minute run. I dropped the kids at school, nipped home. Put my fitbit on charge for 10 minutes and then went for it.

I haven't run for 45 minutes (unless in a tough mudder style event) ever.

The run was pleasant enough (up a few hills, then down and along the river Medway before a few more hills to home), and not overly tiring but I was bored and hungry by the time I'd finished.

I was a longer haired, sweatier version.

Towards the end, when I'd really had enough a little old lady was approaching me with her shopping trolley. She really was little - only slightly taller than her shopping trolley. She moved to one side so I could pass and was barely view-able behind a wheelie bin that was on the pavement. I slowed and did a sign much like Neo in the Matrix to say, it's OK you can come.


As she walked around the bin, I really thought she was Agent Smith and I was Neo and I jumped into the road and ran alongside the pavement full pelt until she was out of sight.

That's just how addled my brain was.

Note to self - next time drink more water.

Back home the postman arrived and delivered something I evidently drunk internet ordered - I do like drunk me. She has good taste.

Exercise - 45 minute run covering 7.22km
Food - Lazy. I need to get more organised.
Fags - 5
Alcohol - 0

First session on the bike trainer.

I spent the entire day in a training meeting meaning that I couldn't train while the kids were at school. As soon as I got them home and settled I jumped on the trainer and did my days Trilife workout:

HR results from FitBit

WU: Easy pedalling cadence RPE 6-8, 90 rpm 5 min, last 30 sec spin up to 120 rpm.
5 min RPE 8-11, 95 rpm last 30 sec spin up to 120 rpm.
MS:
4x
(2 min 85 rpm, RPE 8-11
2 min 90 rpm, RPE 8-11,
2 min 95 rpm, RPE 8-11,2 min 90 rpm, RPE 8-11,
1 min 95 rpm, RPE 17! hard effort
1 min 85 rpm, RPE 6-11, easy recovery)
CD: 5 min high cadence easy effort



It was great having the monitor working as I finally did a proper workout rather than just an enjoyable bike ride down by the river. I got seriously sweaty!

The kids were fascinated and Rach and Ryan came and spent a while chatting to me (and taking pictures) while I was working out. Rach wanted a go herself when I'd finished, but only lasted about two minutes. I was really nervous before doing this workout as it's the first time I've ever done a proper workout on the bike and I didn't think I was fit enough. It's REALLY boosted my confidence and I feel (for the first time in years) that actually I'm pretty fit - something I hadn't realised before. I'm already feeling much more positive about next year. :)

Sweaty Daft nearing the end of the workout.

I used my Fitbit for measuring my heart beat, and the Rox 5.0 for the cadence monitoring.

According to the monitor, I traveled 21km although I don't actually know if this is set up correctly as I've yet to work out the size of my tyres. The deodorant can that's been propping up the back handle didn't work when I geared it up to 10 and the rear wheel kept slipping so I'm going to have a go at fixing this tonight before bed.

Having spent the day in a training seminar and the early evening on the trainer, it's now time for me to crack on with some OU studying as I'm falling behind with my timetable already and the module has only been going for one month! :(

Exercise: as above
Food: lazy food - nice buffet at training, snack and binge food for tea 
Fags: some (guess about 8)
Alcohol: 1

You had one job....

Geez.... All I had to do today, training wise, was a simple 30 minute, 5km run.

Didn't have a babysitter, so took all three kids with me. There was no way we were going to get a PB on our weekly Sweatshop run with young Travis joining us, but we should have at least finished. Sadly though, Ryan fell over. Again. So after just 1.5km, it was time to admit defeat and walk back to the start.

Tomorrows job is to sew up Ryan's running skins that have only been worn a total of three times. :(

Next week (for the first time ever), Ryan, Rachael and myself are upgrading to the 10km run.

Exercise: Nowhere near enough
Food: Excellent, fully planned and all home cooked.
Fags: 5. All after crap run I hasten to add.
Alcohol: Yes. Thank you very much. Don't mind if I do.

First swim

Travis was invited to a birthday party at a local soft play area that just happened to be accross the road from a leisure centre.

Rach and Ryan can both swim, so I took the opportunity to go for a swim with them.

We only had 35 minutes swim time (and I wasted three minutes of that getting my hat on), so I left them playing on the slides and lazy river, and went and did some lane swimming.

Was pretty pleased with the result for first swim since June last year.

1250m in 32 minutes.

All done front crawl and got out of the pool at the end feeling like I'd not done any exercise at all and was gutted not to be able to continue.

I need to buy new swimwear.... I was falling out of what I wore today.... Was a good job that I didn't go on any of those slides with the kids!

Back home, I dismantled the disaster bike computer and wired up the Rox 5.0 that I bought in Decathalon this morning. It works a treat!

Only slight concern is that I now know just how slow I'm cycling. According to the training schedule I have, I should be doing five minutes at an easy 90rpm, then moving it up and down accordingly... My 'easy' rpm is about 72! :o

Fitbit Surge

Rox 5.0 display

The Rox 5.0 comes with a heart rate monitor (chest strap) so I put this on and just did a little ride to see initial results. It was interesting to compare to my surge too. I don't think I'll wear the HRM on my chest again (unless I find out why I should) as I have the surge to measure HR already.








Exercise: 1250 swim
Food: Total rubbish all day 
Fags: Finished every last one of them (could this finally be quit day?)
Alcohol: Finished every last drop

More shopping

Another busy day at work and the kids have not been on best behaviour. I suspect that Travis is coming down with a bug as he's been a misery guts all day.

Back from work and my Amazon orders had arrived so I spent some time setting up the cadence and speed monitor on my bike.

Two hours down and I still couldn't get it working. It appears there's something wrong with the gizmo as it's not picking up signals from the two monitors. A quick google and it appears that this isn't a one off. It's very disappointing as I was keen to see what my numbers looked like.

I've now decided that tomorrow it's off to Decathlon and I'm purchasing this option which also has a heart rate monitor.

Meantime, my sister sent me this link. A video of last years Wimbleball. One of the opening sentences states it's the toughest 70.3 in the world!

Exercise: none. :(
Food: Been just too busy - had the Toby Carvery (nice!) but that's been it for the day.
Fags: 9
Alcohol: couple of glasses of wine

Getting real.

Spoke to Liz, my trainer today, and started putting plans together. Every other weekend, the kids stay with their Dad. Clearly this is a prime time for me to be training hard, but I've asked that I have the Sunday without the kids as a day off. It's my one day a fortnight where I do absolutely nothing and I can't see this changing.

Apparently Wimbleball is a seriously hard half iron. Liz was positive sounding but made it clear I hadn't chosen an easy half iron to start with. Today's training was bike based and as the children are here (and work is particularly hectic), going out on the bike simply wasn't an option. It was therefore time to climb back on the trainer. I don't currently have a cadence monitor so following Liz's recommendations, I've just ordered this one, which will be arriving tomorrow (how I love Amazon prime). I have to admit to not really understanding what I've ordered. I don't know if this one only works outdoors, or if it monitors my riding when on the trainer too. More on that later!

I had planned on doing outdoor training on my mountain bike (which is exceptionally heavy) and leaving my road bike in my bedroom on the trainer, but this is not what I should be doing. For the next four weeks we're leaving it like this, but I'll have to make the change soon.

In addition, Liz has stressed I need to book in a weekend in early spring to do the Wimbleball bike circuit to understand exactly what it involves and also as soon as possible in the Spring, we have to hit my open water fear head on (no matter how stupid it sounds, I cannot get over my fear of sharks in open water.... ANY open water) and start swimming outside. I'm guessing we'll start in Leybourne Lakes but right now I just can't face even thinking about it.

I asked Liz how many hours she felt my training programme would be for the next fortnight (before our next call) and she estimates 7 to 8 hours each week. I'm well aware that doesn't sound all that much but I have spent a long time faffing today making a timetable trying to see how I'll fit it all in.

Today's training was a one hour session on my trainer working at various speeds. I got seriously bored with nothing to look at but my bedroom door (kept closed to ensure it doesn't wake the kids) so I've ordered myself a mount for my iPhone too. That way, at least I can listen to some music on my headphones, while I train. I'm currently hot and sweaty and my legs (and bum) feel like they've put the work in but I'm not particularly worn out.

It's been a tough day work wise and I have to be up early for class tomorrow. The kids are with me this weekend which means they have to come with and BEHAVE. This is best done with bribery IMHO, so we're off for a premier inn breakfast (kids eat free!), and after work if they're been good, we'll have a Toby Carvery. I do hope they're good! ;)

It's Friday night, so it's time to open the wine and watch rubbish on Netflix. :D

Exercise: 1 hour on trainer working at various speeds in interval sets.
Food: Fairly healthy but not enough of it really.... skipped breakfast (again)
Fags smoked today: I stopped counting after 9
Alcohol: A rather delicious bottle of Casillero del Diablo, Sauvignon Blanc. It is Friday...

Cheers!

Day one of training

Every Thursday morning I spend an hour with Pip from "Day One Wellness". This is a programme I've been totally loving. I originally met Pip when I just wanted to have someone help me remove the last of my stomach fat before a much needed holiday to Dubai (it was my first holiday in 17 years) this August. At first I thought she was a personal trainer, but she's so much more than that. She offers a really holistic service that is a mixture of counseling, healthy living, nutrition and exercise. The main thing I am learning from Pip is the importance of listening to my body and mind and making the right decisions. Given I told her how sick I felt when I committed to doing this half Ironman, she's concerned that maybe I shouldn't be doing it, so I'm going to keep considering that but train as much as I can while I do.

Getting home from Pip saw me getting on with studying and work. Today has been ridiculously hectic and tomorrow will be too. I've completed an assignment for the OU which isn't due in until the 15th December, but I need to catch up on studying my other module. I've been learning LaTeX to produce professional looking maths scripts, but I've had to make the decision today to drop this. I can produce perfectly good ones in Word and simply no longer have the luxury of time to learn something new. It's not rare for me to quit on things, but if I'm enjoying them (and I certainly was enjoying LaTeX), it's highly unlikely I'll give up. This is a new thing for me... actively choosing to stop doing something I enjoy to make more time.

I've joined "The Tri Life" training programme with Liz as my coach. Now - when I say I've joined it, what I actually mean is I've been a paid up member for a long time, did it for about a week and then found it all too much so I continued paying but only looking at the daily action point emails - not really doing anything with them!

Time to start getting my monies worth! Liz has been great - we've had a few email chats and I'm booked in for a call tomorrow to work out a proper action plan.

Today's session was supposed to be swimming but I did tomorrow's session (as I couldn't spare the time during school hours when I can get out of the house) - an hour on the bike in my room.

Haven't a clue what I'm doing.... There's so much to understand (WU, MS, CD, RPE) so just cycled with my heart rate at around 140 for an hour.... Tomorrow when Liz and I have the chat, I'll have a better understanding of what I'm supposed to be doing.

My sister sent me the book "The Perfect Distance" by Tom Rodgers, and I started reading it properly last night. It's pretty heavy reading but is beginning to make some sort of sense of the acronyms that get sent to me each day in my training plan.

Exercise: very gentle workout with Pip and an hour on the bike
Food: Very healthy
Fags smoked today: 6
Alcohol: 0

Time to sort my life out...

Christmas 2013 I bought myself a bike trainer very similar to this one and swore blind I was going to use it to train when the kids were in bed.

The very large (and very unopened) box it came in, has been collecting dust in a corner of my bedroom (along with my road bike) since the day I bought it.

It did spend a period of time on the landing, and prior to that enjoyed a brief spell at the back of my wardrobe, but in the main, for over 18months it's taken up space in my bedroom.

A couple of months ago I decided to sell both the bike and the trainer so I wiped the dust off and peeled off the custom stickers (which will be going back on soon) I had on the bike. As is my usual style, that was as far as I got with the selling idea.

My sister knew I was thinking of selling the bike and inquired about it on Sunday as she needed a spare bike to train on at home. It was this conversation that resulted in me booking entry to Wimbeball half Ironman.

Today has been a ridiculously busy day of work and studying but my friend Jason came over and helped me take my first step towards training.

The corner of my bedroom is looking a lot less dusty and unsatisfying now!

I can't for the life of me work out exactly how the rear handle is supposed to work and have resorted (in the short term - i.e. up to year-) of forcing it up slightly with an old aerosol can.... Despite the obvious bodge job, I've now got a working bike in my bedroom for training on when the kids are in bed.

No actual exercise done after a tough work day, but this is an excellent start.

Exercise: 0
Food: Pretty healthy
Fags smoked today: 7
Alcohol: 0

Where I'm at right now...

A couple of years ago, shortly after I passed the big "four oh", my younger sister shared a really inspiring short film on Facebook about Team Hoyt (not that I knew their names then).

My sister is a real energy bunny, always up for new challeges and said she'd love to do an Ironman one day. I looked into it, completely misunderstood what it all meant (I thought you completed it over a year, not 17 hours!) and said that I'd love to do it too.

So that was in early(ish) 2013. In April of that year, I joined a free running club and began a 5km run every Monday night. It took nearly two months before I could run the whole route and my average time was 33 minutes (and I was totally exhausted at the end of it). I carried on with this weekly run and then in around August 2013 I finally started going to the gym I'd been a member of for years, and started swimming a bit.

In June 2014, I did my first and (to date) only triathlon, in Hyde Park. I hated it. The bike ride was fine, the run was fine but I was terrified doing the swim. In fact, I cried nearly the entire swim and kept having to empty my goggles!

That was pretty much the end of my gentle dalliance with genuine fitness.

Since then, I've quit the gym, restarted smoking, drink far too much and my exercise is limited to trying to get 10,000 steps each day on my fitbit and one 5km run every Monday night although I'm now down to 27 minutes for the 5km.

So.... Sister booked into the half ironman and yesterday I decided I would too.

The second I clicked confirm, with a massive £243 leaving my bank account, I felt physically sick. This isn't a little sprint triathlon that I can do without any effort. This is time for a serious lifestyle change. I could be disqualified before I even finish the hated swim for being too slow....

For the first time in my life, I think I might have bitten off a lot, lot more than I can chew.