Jackie D - Week 5

Week 5- starting Monday 16 October 2006

Confessions of an addict
Hmm OK I am feeling a teensy bit guilty at the moment and am playing through the conversations I could have with darling hubby (a completely non tri person).
“Darling you haven’t got any clean shirts and no dinner tonight because I have been playing around with my bike for most of the day” Nope that won’t do it. How about “Darling, I know you have been on your bike recently for a few miles and I have got you some toe cages to help you pedal better and a lovely bouncy comfy saddle” OK getting better.
What actually happened was the process of getting my old, old road bike to be comfortable on the indoor trainer. Well, my big bouncy granny’s saddle just doesn’t do it for me any more so I swapped it with one of the ones on one of our joint old mountain bikes. But it wouldn’t fit, so I went off to the bike shop for some ideas and to cut a long story short I ended up buying some pedals and cleat thingies so that I can use my cycling shoes on them indoors too - the cages on the old bike just were no good for pedalling drills! I have to admit this is the first time I have considered not telling hubby about my purchases. It all adds up and although my job at the moment is housewifey I am pretty aware that I don’t’ bring in the dosh to buy these things and both kids are at school now. It’s not an isolated incident either - arriving earlier this week was my tempo trainer (come on November is weakness month - I NEED one to help my running - honest!).

On the guilty finance thoughts I think I will comfort myself with my thoughts of a recent short ride outside. It was cold and I don’t have any proper cool weather cycling gear so I went out in my trackie bottoms with elastic bands round the ankles to stop them flapping and snagging in the chain, and an old sweatshirt (thank god I didn’t meet anyone I knew! J)

Now if I get going quickly maybe I can salvage the dinner plan….

……later.

Well another weeks training is complete and the next couple of weeks are more or less the same. I have a bit of workout juggling to do this week to fit in with half days of school and hubby’s work commitments but hopefully I will fit it all in.

I have experienced my first bit of lack of motivation this week. Not really to do with not wanting to train, but more to do with the miserable, cold weather. Winter syndrome and I just want to hibernate under the duvet, not even think about taking off clothes to get in a pool! It’s OK when I get going though, although I admit I cocooned myself under the duvet on the sofa Saturday afternoon and snoozed. It was just so warm in there.

The group trail run on Sunday started off in the dark, another sign of winter although the clocks change next weekend.

After discussion about nutrition at our Ironman meeting I started to experiment. Although over the summer I ate Clif Bars whilst on the bike I didn’t really do much else distance wise that required nutrition. I found that Clif Bars were hard to chew and swallow when I was riding with any sort of intensity. I also never eat a couple of hours before or during a run because I always end up with a side stitch. This doesn’t bode well for the IM so I decided I needed to do something about it and start trying the custom made gels and stuff. This morning I ate half a really ripe banana about 45 minutes before the group run and…..I was fine. Yippee. One of the other IM trainees had brought me a bag full of samples of gels and stuff (thank you so much!) and I am going to start to experiment with those too! I have been warned that 5mins after taking one, a turbo boost kicks in, so, I am going to time it carefully and see if it helps me get up the hills on the return part of the group run next week! Watch out everyone - I will be either leading the way or hurling in the bushes!

…and finally for this week… I was explaining to hubby that the Hawaii IM world championship was on and he said “Do you know how far away Hawaii is?” “Er, yes, I said but don’t worry I’m never going to get to the stage of going there - you have to qualify”. He looks at me and says “Well that would be a good goal then wouldn’t it?”. Hmm, sweet faith of my loved ones!…..Mary can you get me that fast??????????????