Boot Camp Warning

Just had an early warning - my son has just arrived home from uni for the Christmas vacation and has told me that this is BOOT CAMP - he is determined to get me through this training and into the Derby Tri in reasonable condition. Watch this space.

C2C and other information

Remember me?

I am still trying to get fit - I have been working lots of extra shifts, but luckily this involved staying in a hotel for 2 nights on 9th Nov and to my immense pride I was swimming in the hotel pool at 7am each morning before breakfast ready to face the day. I've also done a couple of zumba sessions and yoga too so all is not lost!!

Today I had another crunching session at the osteopath so no more excuses. This week its zumba x 2 and swimming x2 (yet another residential course for work).

The real triathlete of the family keeps checking on my progress so I have to keep doing things to impress him! He is not too impressed so far but at least I haven't given up!

He was 21 the other weekend and had decided to try to cycle the C2C in a day - hence the title. This was a really big ask as the autumnal lack of light makes the available cycling hours relatively short. He left Whitehaven at 6.50am and made great progress to Keswick via Whinlatter Pass and then on to Penrith. As driver of the support car (not so impressive as the skodas on the Tour de France trailers but we did try our best) - we rendezvoused at the top of Hartside Pass for sandwiches and a flask of tea - most civilised. Then he was off again - he got to Nenthead, then a wrong turn meant he doubled back on himself and ended up nearly back in Alston- more cycling to regain Nenthead and the reality of 3pm on an Autumn afternoon and fast approaching darkness kicked in and he made the incredibly sensible decision to abort. He is definitely going to do it in the summer with longer days but I am IMMENSELY proud of his 136Km ride on the actual day of his 21st birthday. WOW!!

We drove to a family get together past the hospital where he was born (sorry about this but I need a suitably gooey mummy moment - aaah) then lots of fun and a glass of champagne each before he crashed out for 11 hours - didn't even have the grace to be stiff the next day!

I think I have a lot to live up to! If I just get fit and finish the Derby Tri and raise some sponsor money too I'll be happy - I think I started too late to compete with the younger generation.

Twitter

I have never twittered before but have now signed up and am going to give it a go.

I'm not sure how it works but that is part of the fun, I'm hoping it may raise the profile of my fund-raising for ovarian cancer too, so I get to grips with social networking and hopefully do some good too.

Watch this space!

I have a plan!

Last night I was feeling a bit sorry for myself and way behind on my training ambition then my son gave me a pep talk about how it is still possible to do the Derby tri. This is particularly touching as he is 21 this weekend and it seems our roles are reversed and he is now looking after me! So after the pep talk he outlined a training plan to get me back on track. He is, in his words, determined to get me through this event.

So for now I'm back to zumba and yoga, then I'm adding in the exercise bike and some weight training then by Christmas I should be up to trying to run again - I have promised to do as I'm told and train regularly according to the plan - so here we go.

Cute Inspiration

Last week we had a week away in the Lakes where my back was so stiff I couldn't contemplate hiking "up" but we did lots of walking "along" so still managed to keep reasonably active. I've been back to yoga this week and the back seems to be holding up, so I'm going to ease in gently and eventually hope to do some running again soon.

The cute inspiration mentioned in the title is courtesy of my son who sent me this link to the cute little robot guys who completed the Hawaii Ironman Course - check them out

http://lavamagazine.com/features/ironbots-tackle-the-hawaii-ironman-course/#axzz1cIN1LtUj

Triathlon for Ovarian Cancer

I have been thinking for a while that for me to complete a triathlon, even a sprint distance like the Derby Triathlon will be a major achievement. So maybe I should use it as a way to raise funds for charity.

The other day my husband and I were discussing my aching hips and back after my first run and he said that considering it was only the second time I had run in the 30 years we've been together it was probably understandable. We then reminisced about the first run I did and the conversation went a little like this...

hubby - "It was that evening you ran from work to your aerobics class"

me - "That's right - there was no run walk strategy it was run 3 miles then do aerobics - I could hardly move by the end of the class!"

hubby - "Well you did run it with Josie didn't you, what did you expect?"

me - "True, what was I thinking"

I should mention here that Josie was the fittest person I knew in our post-grad student days; she swam a mile in her lunch break, kept her bike in the flat with pride of place and her best hangover cure was to go for a run while the rest of us just lay in a heap feeling sorry for ourselves.

And then it hit me, what a beautiful symmetry - our friend Josie was a triathlete before it was even remotely trendy, then she became ill and died tragically young from ovarian cancer - how about if I raise money for "ovarian cancer action"

So I will register for the Derby Tri as soon as registration opens, the event is on 16th September 2012, I am ordering a t-shirt from "ovarian cancer action" to wear so I can advertise the charity as I go along - email is in the post! I have also opened a page on Just Giving (link below) if you want to sponsor me

http://www.justgiving.com/Gill-Derby-Tri

Thank You

Did I tell you how far it is?

I am just wondering if you really know what I  have let myself in for.

The Derby Triathlon is a sprint distance triathlon , for the uninitiated that equals

• 400m swim (16 lengths of the pool)
• then put on your cycle helmet and cycle 18km
• then put on your running shoes and complete the event with a 5km run

Yes that is one straight after the other - madness I agree.

As well as entering the event as an individual triathletes it is also possible to enter as a team where one person swims, one cycles and the third person runs.

I've been looking at the stats from this years race, the winner did it in 51 minutes 38 seconds (0:51:38) and the final finisher crossed the line in 2 hours 27 minutes 14 seconds (2:27:14).

In my age group the top three ladies times were 1:11:22, then 1:17:30 then 1:18:30 but I don't think they need to be too worried about competition from me!

The young man who has inspired/cajoled me to take part actually finished in the top 50 out of the 584 finishers - not too shabby - even if I say so as the doting mother! and he is just finishing his first year in the sport.  By comparison I think it will take me all of this year to train so I can simply drag myself round the course and finish before they close down the finish line, pack up and go home.

Struggling with socks...........

The sock reference is because my triathlon training has improved my physical abilities to the point where I struggled to reach my feet to put socks on this morning - not a good sign.  In fact, there has been no training since my run last Friday.

Unfortunately the ache in my hips and back (which started when I woke up the day after my run) has not improved, in fact I think it has been getting worse! I saw our local sports physio today who has hopefully made it all better, but I shall have to wait for the discomfort from being prodded, poked and stretched to settle down to let you know how I am.

Watch this space....

What can I say today?

I know what to say today - OUCH!!

That seems to be the only thing I can say.

I so enjoyed my run on Friday evening, it was great and I felt like my triathlon journey was taking shape.....

When we finished that session on Friday I felt like I could start straight away and do it again.  Luckily my running companion, my long suffering hubby, told me to stop as I had to start my training slowly.  I guess he is pretty good as a trainer, my back is still hurting so much today (Monday) I can not begin to imagine what it would be like if I had kept going like I wanted to. I'm slowly loosening off - it seems my back is OK lying down or standing up, but sitting is a real challenge for me, but it's definately getting better.

I don't think I'll manage zumba tonight.....I think I'm just a natural athlete - NOT!

I did it!!!!

Tonight I joined the ranks of the running fraternity!

It wasn't planned....

I was driving home from work after an early-ish finish, only 4.45pm and a gorgeous sunny Autumnal evening when I heard a voice- "its a beautiful evening for running". So after I twice nearly ran off the road with surprise, once when I heard the voice and more seriously when I realised it was my voice - I came home, I got changed, took some photo's of my new shoes and the lovelly new sports watch my hubby bought me today, then off we went and actually did it.

I AM A RUNNER!!!!!

OK so I did a 5 minute warm up walk, then 20 minutes of run 1 minute walk 1 minute then 5 minues of walking to cool down. But - and this is really important- I have read the runners world website advice for beginner runners and they say that as soon as you do your first run you are a runner - so it is official. And now I feel great - not aching anywhere different to normal and having a glass of wine to celebrate - that's OK isn't it?

The shoes are not quite as pink as I remember from when I bought them but altogether I think this is a suitably girlie ensemble?

You have to work before you can run

It's Friday tomorrow and I have to report I have done no training at all so far this week.

The tiltle of the blog entry today gives a little hint at my problem - I have just completed three 14 hour days at work and so there have simply not been enough hours in my day to fit in any training.

I guess I could have given up on sleeping but I felt that was a little extreme!

Newflash - watch out for Saturday's blog as I am aiming to do my first run - walk session to test out those pink runnig shoes on Saturday morning, reasonably bright and reasonably early. My hubby is coming along to run too - he claims it's moral support but I suspect he's just making sure I don't sit down somewhere for a rest and then pretend I'd done it - as if ?!

Some actual training occurrs

For those of you wondering when I would get around to mentioning/doing some physical excercise (myself included), I thought I should catalogue my efforts of the last week.

In my first blog I said I zumba and yoga, but forgot to mention that for the preceeding 4 weeks, due to work and social commitments, I had done no training at all. This means the base line is quite low....

So, starting to excercise again last week:

I went to an hour long zumba class on Monday - I could almost remember the routines, threw myself into it and ended up looking my usual post-excercise beetroot red by the end, with a light sheen of what can only be described as perspiration from head to toe. It is great fun though, despite all my best intentions about behaving, I find myself laughing out loud with the sheer joy of it - very disconcerting for the folk zumbaring around me!

On Tuesday it was yoga - much more sedate but lots of stretching and good for core strength.

Thursday and Friday saw me hiking in the Lake District - my hubby assures me each of the walks we did would count as 1-2 hours "base-training". I'm sure the 60mph winds gusting up the valleys and hailstones on the top of the mountains pebble-dashing us as we summited on Thursday afternoon have to be worth some extra points too.
That means this week I feel as though I have started moving towards my goal. In truth I will be having 2 rest days, partly due to work but mainly due to the effects of zumba, yoga and hiking on my unprepared body! Still we saw a guy jogging up the hill in the Lakes on Friday, he looked considerably older than me and my other half looked from that guy's receding silhouette back to me and said "You can do it Gill". So, compared to an elderly jogger (and my hat is off to him), it seems there is hope for me in this madcap adventure.

Shopping Trip

I have started my shopping for my new runnning adventure.

I am so excited, the really helpful guys at "The Derby Runner" in Spondon helped me out with trying on running shoes that suited my overly pronating feet (something else I didn't know I had).

So half an hour later I left the shop armed with; some suitably girlie pink running shoes (honestly, they really fit better than the boring coloured shoes), some extremely expensive socks (I mean they are only socks aren't they?) and a pair of fetching running tights (lots of lycra).

I am now ready to face the world!

I'm really doing it Jim

This is the start of my career as a triathlete and to mark the occasion I have signed up to the Runners World Website. It feels like I'm really doing it, although I have to say, it would probably be more impressive if I had actually done some training today.

I think the mental aspects involved in any endurance sport are underated.  I am not going to make that mistake.  I intend to think long and hard before I actually commit to any physical excercise in the pursuit of my dream (or is it my son's dream, my nightmare? - I must say it seemed like more of a laugh over a bottle of wine last night when I agreed to give it a go!).

Seriously though, I have quite a shopping list already - cycle helmet is a must, new running shoes an essential, a waterproof watch suitable for swimming, cycling and running will be vital to monitor my progress and then if I get anywhere like up to taking part in the event - a tri suit to make transition easier is a maybe - lets face it, I want to be reasonably sure of finishing the event before I get the tri suit as it would be so embarassing to look the part then fall apart!

Thank you for the kind comments in response to my first blog entry - I will keep you posted as to how I am getting on. My aim for the next update is to report some actual physical effort! Watch this space......

It's Going Well So Far

I am still in the honeymoon stage I think. There is long enough left that I think it is all possible - perhaps I'll win my age group, maybe London 2012 is calling, no wait a moment, the Olympics will be over before I do the Derby Tri - do you think the selectors know what they are missing?

Today is a lesson in prevarication - is this a triathlete's main skill set?  Judging by my son's level of dedication I think that perhaps "tomorrow will be soon enough" is not the mind set I should be aiming for! I now have a list of perfectly plausible excuses for not starting my training today. Only about 11 months of putting it off and I will be spectating for the 3rd year running.

OK son, I'll do it!

Well, this is the first post. I am not sure how I agreed to this but it seems that I have promised to do the Derby triathlon next September - roll on 2012!

My son is a 20 year old triathlon nut and it seems that genetics are working in reverse, like son like mother as they say. Having watched and supported for the last year I have now transitioned from saying I'm so impressed son, to well, maybe I could do it, to OK, put my name down!

His job is now to design a training plan for me, how hard can it be? I'm only 52, I go to yoga and zumba, watch this space folks........