Tea, Tumbles and Anticipation

It's been one of those weeks that's felt never-ending and far too short all at the same time. The weekend, wonderful as it was seems all too far away now. Which is a shame as it was a particularly good one. On Saturday, after a blustery parkrun and a 90 minute bike session in the gym, I took my dad for a "Gentleman's Afternoon Tea" at the Athenaeum up in London. Definitely reclaimed any lost calories from the morning.

His first course

Mine! All mine!

It's been a bit of an easier week this week in terms of training... not that it might look that way from the numbers! But I'm racing at the weekend and so it's mostly been front loaded (although I'll probably sneak in parkrun on Saturday morning). I have an ambition of getting to 100 parkruns before the end of the year. I've done 69 so far (stop giggling at the back) so I reckon it's pretty achievable.

Rocking the sleepy windswept look after parkrun.

In the last seven days I've run 27.75 miles, cycled approximately 30 miles on the stationary bike and had my second swimming lesson. The half dozen guys in the next lane, although they thought they were the biz, were splashing about like nobody's business. It was all I could do not to suggest they join our class... But in terms of my own swimming, I'm feeling a lot more able with crawl already and have managed tumble turns in the shallow end without cracking my head. I'm going to make the effort to practice during the week but it'll be tricky as I'm working away from my usual office for two days and as yet I've no idea what my training will look like as my coach hasn't yet loaded up my next set and it's been driving me nuts! I'm a planner, I have several things I want to get booked up but I need to know what I've got to work around.

In lieu of Tough Guy I've been trying to enter the London Winter Run but the discount code I have won't work with the entry system despite Human Race insisting it's still valid. As I'm now classed as a late entry the price is fairly high for a 10k (snow zones aside) and so I'm pretty keen to save few quid! I just hope they can sort it soon. On the subject of races, the responses from my poll on Monday about whether I should enter another three ranged from "all of them" to "the free one" and included a concern that I might have to actually drop out of some I'm already doing. Not if I can help it! I think I will be taking on the Leith Hill Half and will probably discuss the others with my coach. If I had to choose between the 10k and the triathlon I'd pick the triathlon.

So that's been my week. Tempo run to do today and a quiet weekend. What achievement has made you happy this week?

Swimming Lessons as an Adult

When I started telling people that I was planning to have swimming lessons the declaration was met with some surprise. "But I thought you could swim?" Yes I can swim but I can't swim well. Or more specifically I can't swim front crawl (or "freestyle") well. I can quite happily swim a mile with breaststroke but no more than six lengths of front crawl on a good day.

Since I’ve enjoyed my triathlon and open water experiences to date I thought I might try out some lessons to see if I could improve my technique. There are lots of websites offering advice on drills and so on and even my coach attempted to give me swim drills but honestly I found it all a bit daunting and disheartening. I’d rather have someone explain things to me in person, in a language I can understand, at least initially.

My gym membership includes the use of a centre on the other side of town that has a pool. I sometimes go to the early morning swim sessions in an attempt to better myself and noticed some time ago that they do adult swimming lessons. So I phoned up and discovered they had one of these "new year, new you" deals on so I booked a block of 16 sessions before I had a chance to change my mind.

I turned up to my first lesson last week, with four other ladies of varying ages and abilities, feeling pretty nervous and fully expecting it to be a hideous and humiliating experience. Just to make matters worse my instructor turned out to be a rather lovely chap called Courtney. I was going to be impressing no one. I had a quick chat with C poolside to outline my aims then it was into the water to flounder through a few lengths so he could see what he was starting with. He didn't point and laugh so that was a good start. In fact C is the king of constructive criticism and gentle feedback. Over the course of the next half hour I got lots of pointers about hand positioning, arm motion, and even an introduction to tumble turns. I left feeling pleased as punch, already feeling some improvements.

This is what "pleased as punch" looks like.

My lessons work out at £3 for a half hour class with the introductory offer (normally £6.25 a class) and while half an hour doesn't sound like long it was plenty of time for C to give us all some individual instruction and time to practice. Ideally I'll be going to the pool to practice between lessons but I know that's not always going to be possible. I'm just glad to have found a class and instructor I like and I'm looking forward to being able to swim front crawl in a race environment.

Have you taken swimming lessons as an adult? Beginner or improver? What advice would you give to someone thinking about starting lessons?

Post swim cosiness... soon I'll get to sport a Team Bear swim cap too!

Requesting Your Opinion On My Race Plans

As I mentioned in my post on Friday, I had a hard time making the decision to postpone Tough Guy. Alex and I haven't decided when we'll tackle it but I imagine it'll be October time. But even though I've postponed the event I will still be racing that day, in the London Winter Run, which I'd wanted to do but of course couldn't. This also has the added bonus of being a race that a lot of people I know are taking part in and I get a rare chance to meet up with a good friend.

The decision to run the London Winter Run was a pretty easy one but I've also got my eye on three other races and I'm not sure whether to enter them or not. I'd like your advice please!

My current list of events is as follows:
January - Lakeside Canal Run
April - Brighton Marathon (my "A" race)
June - Endure24, Dinton Aquathlon
July - Ultra12
September - Tiree Ultra, Marathon du Medoc, Equinox24
October - (Tough Guy)

I'm also considering the Leith Hill Half (March), Royal Berkshire 10k (May), Bridge Triathlon (standard distance June). I would get free entry into the Leith Hill Half because I marshaled last year and I had my eye on the Royal Berkshire 10k last year. I've not yet got a triathlon in the diary this year and it would be nice to test out my hopefully improved swimming and cycling skills.

So, the question is... which should I do? All of them? Some of them? Or none of them? Discuss.

Enthusiasm, Agonising and Decisions

My first Friday round up of the New Year and there was me thinking I'd not have much to write about... how wrong I was!

Misty morning run

I've hit all my training sessions in the last seven days which amounts to 27.5 miles worth of running, 12 miles on the bike and some strength exercises as well as my first swimming lesson. I'll have a separate post about that next week so stay tuned if you want to know how I'm getting on (hint: I've not drowned). I've been managing to eat more healthily too and feeling rather virtuous for it. I got Hugh F-W's Light and Easy cookbook for Christmas and I've been making a few things from there already. The rhubarb and orange smoothie is a particular favourite and I found another recipe for apple and cashew pudding to stem the dessert cravings (pictured below).

I'm about half way through the reading material for my Exercise Referral module, the last one in my diploma, and getting more nervous by the minute. There's so much to learn! I'm going to need a second pass at some of the more technical chapters but I have until the end of February to do so. Before then though I'll be attending a metafit instructor course in London with a view to being able to teach classes in the not to distant future. I love attending these classes at BoxBellFit so I'm pretty psyched!

That enthusiasm has bubbled over into my race diary. No I *haven't* booked any more events recently but there was a call for everyone in Team Bear to update the team calendar with the events they're doing this year. I'm up to date on that but I was having a browse to see if there were any I could support at and I started to get a serious case of Fear Of Missing Out. But I stopped and thought for a moment... why? I'm doing some big events this year, I'm doing at least one that another team member is taking part in, so what was it? I finally realised that I'd seen a lot of chat about a couple of events where the team were entering en masse and I really wanted to be part of that, and I think I found a solution but I'll save that for another post.

Post run glow

Speaking of events I've been agonising over whether to go ahead and do Tough Guy since Alex announced that she was pulling out (well it is 4 days before her wedding). My reasons for wanting to do it:
- to prove I can
- to face my fears
- to not look weak
- because I said I would
- to raise money for charity

My reasons for not wanting to do it:
- not having anyone else to do it with and hating OCRs on my own
- fear of hypothermia
- being nowhere near where I need to be strength wise
- wanting to do it with Alex because she's the one that talked me into it originally
- wanting to support Alex in the event when we *do* do it together (I ain't doing it twice)

But I finally decided to postpone to a future event and it's somewhat of a relief. In fact that's what we're both going to do, although which future event is yet to be decided. I still have Brighton Marathon as part of my fundraising and I'm confident I'll hit my target with that.

So that's the first week of the year. If this one's anything to go by it's going to be a corker of a year! How's your first week been? Would you have made the same decision about Tough Guy?

Ultra Running in the Press

Earlier this week I read this article about the growing popularity of ultra running in the UK. It's not often I see something about longer distance running in the press so it piqued my interest and I thought it was a good feature.

Ultra running does seem to have become more prominent in recent times but I wasn't sure whether it was just because I'm vaguely involved in "the scene" that I had that impression; in the same way that once you buy a car you start seeing lots of the same model around. Since completing Gatliff last year I can call myself an ultra runner, without any of the qualifications that people sometimes put on other distances such as "if you didn't run the whole thing you can't say you're a marathon runner". It's true what they say in the article about it being less about the time and more about the achievement.

A lot of runners I know talk about wanting to complete certain races or distances as part of new year resolutions but they almost always attach a time to this. Ultra running allows you to focus on the ability of the body in a different way. The camaraderie is amazing, you get to see some beautiful places and it can remind you of the simple joy of running. Depending on how much of a kit fiend you are.

In the past I've done a lot of 10k and half marathon running. This year I have three (or four depending on how well I run) ultras in the calendar in addition to two marathons. Marathon des Sables crosses my mind every now and again too... I didn't think I would enjoy distance running as much as I have done. I don't go and knock out 20+ mile runs every week but I know I'm capable of it. And I still respect the distance; if I think too hard about it I get quite scared. Most of the time though it sounds too far to be real and you tackle it piecemeal. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

I'm not suggesting everyone should now go and sign up for ultras, nor that setting goals around shorter distances isn't worthwhile. Far from it. But it's nice to see ultra running getting a bit more coverage and if you already run longer distances it might be something to think about.

And may I also take the opportunity to mention Like The Wind Magazine, who are also referred to in the article. I've read every issue so far and it's a refreshing change from the Women's Running and Runners World style of magazines. More stories, more art work, less training plans. It's full of people sharing their love of running and very inspiring.

New Toys! My RunFitUK Equipment Bag

So this week it's back to the day job and back to coaching RunFitUK in Bracknell. I have loved the sessions so far and I'm really looking forward to making it bigger and better as the weeks progress.

Of course it's the people that make these what they are; I've got a fantastic group and it seems that the harder I make it, the more they enjoy it. To a point of course, as long as there's a fun element! In weeks gone by we've had chocolate relays, the discovery of "pirate faces" and some hilarity pretending to be reindeer. And all this with minimal kit. There's an awful lot you can do to improve strength, agility and balance without equipment but it's fun to ring the changes.

To that end I've taken advantage of the equipment pack hire for RunFitUK coaches and I've got a some lovely new toys for my group. I've got batons, ropes, resistance bands, cones and wobble boards! Now of course there are some very obvious ways to include these in the sessions but I'm looking forward to coming up with some more unusual ways too... bound to be more fun!

Brace yourselves gang!

Welcome to 2015

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you spent NYE the way you wanted to and that you're full of enthusiasm for 2015.

It was so lovely to have some time out over Christmas and New Year. I still did a fair bit of running but found some nice chunks of time between socialising and eating where I could relax and recharge. For the last few years, rather than make resolutions, I've done Susannah Conway's Journalling exercise. It helps me to reflect sensibly on the past year and get some clarity on what I want for the coming year. Last year my word was possibility. This year it's soar. I associate a sense of freedom, excitement and ambition with that word and it gives me a little buzz so it felt like the right one.

Having said I don't make resolutions, I have made two this year.
1) Phone my friends more often
2) See more live music (especially locally)

In more general terms in the coming year I've decided that I want to work on my strength. I've been feeling a little sluggish since the beginning of December, which I put down to the number of chocolates and glasses of wine I've consumed. Whilst browsing my old photos I found these which are serving as my inspiration for the coming year. Though maybe without the anemia this time.

I will also be taking swimming lessons (in anticipation of future triathlons) and continuing to get coaching from Performance Coaching. I have 6 races booked and at least one more to be booked but no triathlons. If it stays like this then I'll be able to keep my promise to my mum about only entering 8 events (all be it a year late) and stand a better chance of performing well. I have 3 holidays booked and hopefully time and money enough for another couple of short city breaks. My current studies will finish in March but I'm considering taking a Triathlon Coaching qualification and thereby maintaining my status as eternal student.

Of course I'll be back to RunFitUK and trying to progress my own PT business. There are a few exciting opportunities on the horizon and I intend to make the most of them. I'll keep you up to date on all that as it unfolds.