Jackie D - Week 27

Week 27 - starting Monday 19 March 2007

Scheduled hours: 11hrs 30mins
Actual hours: 9hrs 44mins

Ooopsy, the second week in a row where I haven’t actually met my scheduled time. It’s been a week of good things and frustration.

It started on Monday when it was still cold and my indoor cycle trainer broke 8 minutes into the workout. The thread on the resistance thingy had gone. No problem though, I pull out my running shoes and go off for a run instead. I phone a local bike shop that sells my type of trainer and they say to bring it in and see if they can fix it.

Tuesday is when the frustration starts and I have to keep a focus on my priorities. My eldest son is sick so I don’t make it to the bike shop - no big deal as I am hoping to get out on the road later in the week with temperatures forecast to be good. But, then my son is sick on Wednesday and Thursday too, hubby is out of town on business and so I am tied to the house. All I could manage was some strength stuff at home. By Thursday I must admit I was getting a bit stressed about it and a fellow triathlete kindly offered me the loan of his indoor trainer.

Friday arrives and I am so far down on my workouts for the week. The trainer on loan arrives and at the last minute I decide my son is definitely well enough to go to school. Yippee, I test the temperature and decide to ride outside. Yippee, yippee I get my long bike done. Lots of new and exciting stuff on this one. This is the first time I have been out in my new shoes and new pedals. They aren’t as easy to clip in and out of as my old ones but the shoes felt fine (until about an hour in when they went numb with cold - but I am the person whose feet get cold inside on an indoor trainer!). I also have got a new aero bottle which has managed to be jammed between my aerobars. I found out that you can tell the roughness of the road by how loud the aero bottle is rattling. In fact on a little bit of canal path that I use to access the roads there was a bump so big that the mesh plug thing flew out (I caught it mid air and didn’t fall off!). Drinking from an aero bottle is definitely not as easy as you would imagine. First of all, if I am bent down that far I can’t see where I am going ‘cos the peak of my cycle helmet obstructs my view. But secondly I think it could rip your mouth apart whilst drinking and pedalling along. Eventually I figured out if I gripped the straw with my teeth before sucking then it seemed to do less damage.

On Saturday I managed to make up a swim at masters but that is all I could fit in as we have lots of kid stuff going on (Saturday in my usual day off). I could have made up one of the missed bikes when we got home at 9pm on Saturday but decided I would rather have an early night to be ready for the group run on Sunday morning.

The Sunday morning run was really good. I had forgotten how enjoyable it was to run with a group of people. Longest run so far at 2hr 16mins so felt very pleased with myself. I also decided not to make up a bike workout today and just to recover and be ready for a good week next week. I hear so often the “don’t try and make up missed workouts” but it is hard not to do so, especially when in your mind you are just “rearranging”.

Oh and the good news is that a replacement part for my cycle trainer is in the post and should arrive in a few days so all ends well.

17 WEEKS TO GO