TRIATHLON TRAINING #3

Thank goodness for Bank Holiday weekends, and more importantly – HALF TERM! After a week that started terribly and left me feeling a little wobbly and emotional for the rest of the week, I’m so glad that I’ve got a week off work to catchup on sleep and relax a little. Luckily, my week did get progressively better and I’ve just got back from spending a lovely couple of days at home with Jess and the rest of the family. Sunshine, buckets of tea and the country air seem to have sorted me out. Anyway, here’s what I did manage to get up to this week….

MONDAY

After a 20 minute cycle on the Watt bike I spent an hour doing different strength exercises and stretching. Today, I was absolutely not feeling it and felt completely uninspired for the whole session. It’s unusual that I leave the gym feeling deflated, but today I went home feeling really rubbish. This feeling combined with work stress, lack of sleep and my MA dissertation led to me having the mother of all meltdowns before I went to bed. My poor boyfriend didn’t know what had hit him as I sobbed and spluttered the night away – he did a very good job at making me feeling better though, plying me with tea and putting on some of my yoga music. Thanks Mark!

TUESDAY

I didn’t manage to get to the pool in the morning as I woke up feeling pretty groggy from the night before. Even though I was woken up by my boyfriend’s 4,30am alarm (he was flying to Scotland) the extra time in bed definitely did me good. I was meant to be teaching yoga in the evening but had to cancel the class in favour of marking the world’s most enormous pile of books. I hate cancelling things, but luckily I was able to reschedule class for a little later in the week when I knew things would be more relaxed. Once the marking was done, I felt like a massive weight had been taken off my shoulders and the rest of the week went much more smoothly as a result.

WEDNESDAY

By Wednesday morning I felt much better and got up for a 30 minute run in the morning – with no set route I just ran around my new area, nosing at all the massive houses and picking out the ones I’d like to live in when I win the Euromillions

After work I headed to the gym where I did a circuit session with kettle bell swings and squats followed by 35 mins on the Watt bike.  Earlier in the day, I’d heard the swim session with Clapham Chasers was cancelled again, but only realised too late they’d managed to change venues – I was a bit gutted that I’d missed it again, but am still determined to go regularly once the pool is fixed.

THURSDAY

I squeezed in a 30 minute swim before work and then taught a yoga class in the evening.

FRIDAY

Gin and tonic and a take away curry – does that count?

SATURDAY

I’m a massive fan of the Grid classes at Virgin Active – they’re only 30 minutes but are an absolute killer. I did Grid Lean in the morning, which involves an 8 station circuit repeated three times. Each station lasts 20 seconds, which I like as by the time you’re thinking of giving up you’re moving on to the next station. This class included treadmill sprints, bike sprints, sit ups, burpees, press ups, split jumps, weighted squats and the plank. It left me a bit of a sweaty mess, but not so exhausted that I couldn’t get on the bike. I ended up cycling for 50 minutes which I was really pleased with, as I usually find the bike immensely boring and find any excuse to get off as soon as possible. After the gym I hopped on the train back to East Sussex to see some of my family – I realised I hadn’t been home since Christmas which is ridiculous considering it really isn’t far to travel.

SUNDAY

My dad had spent the week trying to coerce me into running the Rye 10 with him, a 10 mile race not far from where my family home. However, after waking up ridiculously early (why won’t my body let me lie in?!) I felt so tired and running a hilly 10 miles was not how I fancied spending my Sunday morning. Instead, I did a 30 minute yoga session in the garden and took the dog on a walk before Jess arrived.

In the afternoon Jess, my dad and I walked around Bewl Water, a beautiful reservoir near our house. It was really warm and it was nice to be spending the day outside together.  The highlight of the day was spending time with my gorgeous niece and nephew- they are so funny and always cheer me up.

Having looked back at what I’ve done this week I’ve realised that I’ve completely failed at sticking to my training plan – oops! I’m finding it a real struggle to get a balance between running, cycling and swimming, especially as I have other training I like to do too. Triathlon training requires more discipline than I imagined, as without planning your week and sticking to it, the sessions just seem to slip away. The other problem is, I find it really tiring and pretty much every day another part of my body aches. I guess when you start any new kind of sport it takes a while to work out what works for you, so I’ll be spending half term trying to find my feet a little more.

Luckily, I have finally got my bike back so can hopefully get back on the roads this week (sorry Jess, I promise to be careful!) I’m still terrified of cycling the roads in London, especially on my wobbly bike, so I’ll probably head to Richmond Park again. In a couple of weeks Mark and I are going cycling in the New Forest so I’m going to get some thicker tyres with more tread put on my bike so that I cycle on trails. Hopefully this means I’ll be able to cycle along the Thames Path as well, building my confidence before I switch back to the road bike tyres.

BEX xx