Not A Good Training Week

Well that was probably my worst training week for a long time. I do have excuses but my legs are not going to care about excuses when they have to run a half marathon in 5 weeks time. I need to nuckle down and get some runs in. I got ONE run in the whole week and NO bike rides. I didn't swim either but that's all part of the master plan.

It was my mum and dad's last week with us before they flew back to the UK on Friday so obviously I wanted to spend as much time with them and didn't want to be out training BUT the previous two weeks I had been able to get up early and get out and back ready for breakfast with them all. I was just too knackered this week. I'm blaming all the driving and touristing. It was hard work.

The only time I did get out for a run was on Tuesday and looking back now it was obvious that I went too fast and probably too long. It was my first run for a week (damn bike sucked me in the week before) and I should have eased back into it. Instead I downloaded a 163bpm podrunner podcast and ran to that rythm on my 10k 'bumpy' route. Felt great at the time and it was fairly fast for me but the next day I could hardly walk. My legs felt like I had run a marathon rather than a 10K. The pain didn't really go till the end of the week. Total wimp!

One thing that I found on the run (and the reason I think I hurt so much the next day) was that my body didn't complain at all and there were no thoughts of stopping or slowing down like normal. The act of keeping my cadence in step with the beats of the music seemed to keep it busy and it didn't worry about the consequences of the run or trying to protect itself or saving energy for later ... it just kept to the rythm of the music because it just seemed right thing to do. I'm definitely going to use a podrunner podcast during the half marathon. I've spoken to the race director and he's allowing the use of i-pods (although all other MP3 players are banned - not classy enough). I'm going to use them sparingly in training though. Great for intervals but not so good for longer runs. 

It has also not been a very good week for my weight. It should not have been any surprise but it was still annoying that I weighed in at 200.5lbs on Saturday morning. I just seem to put on weight tooo easily. I only have to eat copious amounts of chocolate, blueberry muffins, ice cream and crisps in between cooked breakfast and takeaway lunches and dinners and I seem to put on the pounds. Just don't understand it! :) 

So the plan is to lose 20lbs before the Half Ironman in December. It's less than a pound a week so should be doable. I have the incentive of trying to go Sub6 at Rotorua but I also have another one. Looking through the bargain rack at Smith's Shoes yesterday I found a 2XU tri top with 40% off. Bargain!!! Tried it on but it was way too tight so didn't get it. Walked around the shops a bit more and in the end Jo convinced me to get it. So I have to lose the gut to be able to wear the top. Similar to brides slimming to get into wedding dresses but this is way more important.  

I tried it on at home and Adam said he didn't like it cos it looked like I was trying to look like one of the professional triathletes. I think there may be a compliment in there somewhere but I'm not sure. I love the top. It's black so like I said to Jo it'll go with any colour of bike ... you know, if I have to buy a new carbon tri bike that's say yellow or red. The top will still 'go'. That's the main thing.

So ... five weeks till I run my own unofficial Half Marathon. Five weeks to lose a bit of weight and get some run training done. Target is a Sub2. If I don't go too mad over the next few weeks and stay injury free I'm sure it's doable. I really will focus on running and NOT on breaking world records on my bike. I still want to get 2 rides in over the week (Tuesday and Sunday) but the rest of the week will be running. I might even try to get a few runs in during lunchtimes at work. That should stop me popping out for another takeaway or stuffing my face with blueberry muffins .... mmmm blueberry muffins. I miss them.