Sunday Update: Reading and Workouts and Sleep

Hey! It's Sunday!

We had a surprisingly productive weekend, which included a massive sort out of my office in preparation for an eventual room reshuffle.  Also, the kids have been staying awake far too late recently so I decided to switch their room layout from two separate beds to bunk beds in hopes that not seeing each other might cut down on the shenanigans.  It didn't instantly help, but it has meant that their room has a lot more space.  I've called it their summer room:

Old layout:

New layout:

Anyways, on to the anxiously awaited Reading, Workouts and Sleep Sunday Update!

Reading

This week I finished The Husbands.  I liked it!  I am not great at writing book reviews.  At first I had trouble getting into the fantasy element of it (I hate the idea of being in a new life that I don't know while everyone else lives their lives that they do know and thinks I am living my life normally to... if that makes sense?) but about halfway through I really got into the book.  And it managed to not be boring while still having a somewhat Groundhog day premise.

Then I learned that I had been using Libby wrong.  I thought that when a book became available I could either put it back on hold and stay in the queue or just do nothing and stay in the queue.  Apparently the doing nothing option actually deletes my hold.  So I went back through and re-held a number of items.  I sometimes couldn't decide which hold I wanted and I would just let the hold lapse, but I'll be better about changing the "deliver after" date from now on.  I pretty much use holds as my TBR (as well as a short TBR tab, and a much. larger "notify me when available" list).

Although I am first in line for a number of things I didn't have any holds come through in time for evening reading so I randomly checked out a skip the line copy of Happily Never After.  It was under the "popular now" section and fits my summer lighthearted chick lit reading.  I am enjoying it so far but will enjoy reading something a bit more cerebral or literary next. 

Workouts

It was a pretty good week for exercise culminating in a great 5k time for me!  I think there might be something to both strength training and interval training.  "Surprise!" says no fitness person ever.

Monday: 

    2.2 mile run (while listening to a Robin Arzon Peloton class).  

    50 minute workout at a friend's house (arms and core class from Courtney Black).  

    10 min Peloton Robin Arzon Postnatal Core 2 Class

    10 min Peloton Healthy Back Yoga class

Tuesday:
    15 min Peloton Arms & Shoulders with Tunde

    1 hour hike with a friend up and down a hill

Wednesday:

    1 hour gym session with gym buddy (Legs & Core)

    45 hour super casual bike ride out to dinner and back (22 minutes each way)

Thursday: 

    20 min Postnatal full body with Robin Arzon

Friday

    Watching all the small children all day (can't really call it rest)

Saturday

    Ran my local parkrun (5k Race) while listening to a Robin Arzon interval training program.  Strava gave me a 5k time of 29:20 which is among my best! Parkrun official time was 31:20 which is still pretty good. I felt really good and was able to increase and decrease the pace a number of times.  I got all introspective on how running doesn't get easier, I just get faster.  How twins don't necessarily get easier - I just somehow do more.  How I often look for sustainability in my running pace and in my life pace when actually sustainability might mean unsustainable efforts followed by more sustainable efforts.   It was a very introspective post run!

But also, these results.  Yay.

Sleep:

This week has been a fairly unsustainable one on the sleep front.  I stayed up late one night going out to dinner with a friend. The big kids have suddenly somehow realised that they don't have to fall asleep at 7pm and it's like the seal has been broken - they are sometimes up past 8:30 and it's driving me insane. I am generally having trouble sleeping past 4:30am, and often Audrey is up around that time and although she doesn't need me, hearing her chatting in her room makes it hard for me to fall back asleep.  She seems to fall back asleep just fine.

My average for this week has been 6.83 hours.

I've finally caught some sort of kid disease so I am hoping it doesn't last long.  Sore throats should be illegal in the summer.  All the kids currently have runny noses.  I had hoped that a good night of sleep would fix me, but unfortunately I was up with a sad Lilah and a grumpy Audrey last night.  Maybe tonight will be the night I get lots of sleep and feel better.  And if not, I will continue to thank the world for ibuprofin and coffee.  

Did you get enough sleep this week?  Have you read anything great in July?  Do you have kids and if so do they stay awake past 7pm and if so how do you have any grown up time??  Is ibuprofin your favourite painkiller?

Sunday Randomness - Hair, Running, Sleep, Food.

On Friday I decided it was time to cut Lilah's hair.  I set up mommy hair salon in the kitchen.  It included the following hair cut menu:

Lilah picked curly hair.  I cut it exactly as I planned to (slightly shorter than it was)

We are not a big TV family.  We watch half an hour sometimes before dinner, and sometimes a little more if we are watching a film in parts.  Although I have a tablet the kids have never seen me use it and I've told them that our tablet doesn't do TV.  I have a kindle which Lilah has tried and failed to play music on (somehow she did factory reset it once??)  I debated letting lilah watch TV while I cut her hair since daytime TV is a general no... but I decided there is no reward for cutting a kids hair while they flail about.  I put on Bluey and she sat SO STILL and I was able to actually measure and cut and it turned out pretty OK (I mean, it looks basically the same, but it way easier to comb).  Next time I do Isaac hair I will definitely be using tactical TV.

[Also, If I cut both kids hair, and Andy's hair, then I can *definitely* spend more money on my hair.  I'm also wondering whether my hair cuts (at £35) or colours (at £80 - but I've only done this once as I'm trying to grow out my natural colour now) should be going under a different budget category.  It currently sits in Rachel Hobbies... but is having decent hair a hobby or a requirement?  I do enjoy some parts of the hair cut, but if Andy could make my hair look as good as the hair dresser then I would be happy to not spend the money.  Things to ponder.]

Saturday was a rough morning.  We are trying to get Audrey to sleep longer and I'm trying to drop the 5am feed.  on Friday she did great.  On Saturday she decided she did not want to drop or shorten the 5am feed and she let the whole house know.  Everyone was awake from 5am onwards.  And I had foolishly tried to go back to sleep after she woke me at 4:30, which meant that when I was awake again at 5:30 I was extra annoyed.  My mantra is "there is no sleep past 4:30" because at 4:30 or 5:00am it's so easy (especially on a Saturday!) to think "if only I could have another hour of sleep!"... but realising there isn't another hour to be had takes that decision away.

I don't look at the sky at 9:30pm and ask for another hour of light.  I can't look at the clock at 5am and ask for another hour of sleep.

Also, there are always earlier bedtimes! There have been a slew of bedtime related posts recently on the internets which I am very much interested in.  Apparently 9pm is not the terribly early adult bedtime I thought it was.  For some reason I've always felt 10pm is a good solid adult bedtime.  But maybe 8-9 is the way forward.  Maybe evening social activities are not a thing of the late thirties and early 40s era of lots of young babies.

But back to Saturday.  Because everyone was in a terrible state we all stayed home, the babies went down for a nap early, and I decided to go to Parkrun - a free local 5K.  This is my first 5k since having the twins, and part of my goal of doing 4 5k races this year.  It went way better than expected, mainly because I ran right behind two runners who had a perfect 11:45 pace which kept me from going out too fast and then walking.  I didn't walk.  I actually felt good the whole way, and picked up the pace for the last quarter of a mile.

I came in at 35 minutes, which is basically the same time I had on my last Parkrun (early March 2023... right before I found out I was pregnant).  It's also the same time I had when I did a Parkrun 3 months postpartum with Isaac.  At least I'm consistant?

It's been a while since I've stuck a meal plan on here.  So why not?

Sunday: Fish Pie
Monday: Chicken & Mushroom Risotto
Tuesday: Tray bake (Aubergine? Chickpeas? Onion? Mushroom? I should have got tofu)
Wednesday: Toad in the hole
Thursday: Jacket Potatoes and Tuna or Beans
Friday: Macaroni and Cheese

This is a very aspirational meal plan, and I highly doubt we will actually make all these things.  Often one night becomes leftovers or something else easy.  The later in the week meals (Jacket Potatoes and mac and cheese) can always be moved into the future.

Also, although it's June, its raining and 65 degrees.  I bet you can tell it's not warm from that menu.   

What are you eating this week?  Is it raining where you are?  If you do a budget, where do you allocate your haircare?

Retail Therapy - Planners & Shoes & Kitchen Appliance Update

I've done some shopping lately. 

We ordered our new family planner!  For the last 5 years (at least) we have used Personal Planner for our family planner.  We do September start weekly layout and I just ordered the 2024-2025 version.  So excited!   It's 13 months long, and includes friends birthdays, yartzeits (date of death) and anniversaries.  I think it's pretty.  The Personal Planner website even gives you a imaginary photo of what it will look like

(I do not have fancy scissors or clothes pins.  I do have washi tape)

I also took advantage of the Ashley Shelley sale ($10 for all 2024 planners!) and ordered a 2024 weekly vertical layout for myself.  I am currently using a 2023 daily, but my days don't have much in them, and sometimes a continual blank daily is just not inspiring.  Using a 2023 monthly layout in 2024 is not very helpful either.  So for $10 I figured I could play with another layout for the rest of this year and see what it's like.  

Switching gears - I recently decided it was time to retire my all time favourite running shoe - the Pearl Izumi N3. I bought these in 2016 and I remember they were sooo expensive, but now I don't know whether that was $80 or $100.  Would I have spent $100 on running shoes in 2016?  probably not.  I loved these shoes and thought they were the COOLEST.  

However... they are now 8 years old.  And although I have been rotating through 3 different shoes in the last 8 years I finally decided it was time to say goodbye to this pair.

I still have my Merrill trail shoes from around the same time, but I have done *far* less trail running than road/combo.  I had a pair of road shoes which I threw away about 2 years ago so I've been using these as road shoes since, but shoe technology has moved on!  

I know I should have gone to a running store and tried on different shoes and checked fit, but I did the inadvisable and googled "running shoes" and bought a pair of Asics Novablast 3s since they were on sale and also had good reviews.  I've made it out for one run so far but it's amazing how bouncy and light they are.  It seems like streamlined thin-ish shoes are out and massive supportive shoes are in now.  I remember Hokas looked silly to me in 2016 but I bet a Hoka of 2016 is probably the same or smaller than these new Asics.  Either way, they are a fun shoe!

(This is not my usual aesthetic but it works for me and also was on sale for £84 rather than £135)

Finally - I decided I did need a new food processor to replace the broken immersion blender attachment and I bought a Kenwood MultiPro food processor. 

No, I have not made that salad.  I have not even used the "forever chopper" technology.  However I have used it to make Tabouleh salad, and it's pretty cool how fast it shreds things.  I also grated a whole block of cheese for mac and cheese in less than a minute!  I know it had a lot of features I haven't used yet (dough? pastry?) but I am pretty happy to have a functioning food processor.  Also, it turns out the food processor attachment to the immersion blender is a very poor substitute for a real food processor.  OMG did this thing make quick work of parsley and mint.  

And in good news, everything still fits in the same cabinet.  Also, I make hummus with the immersion blender now.  

Have you bought anything new recently?  Are you a "buy when you need it" person or a "wait and do all your shopping at once" person?

Quick Saturday

 Horray! It's Saturday!

This morning I did park run again.  The good thing about doing a 5k just after ones personal worst 5k time is that one usually gets a better time!  I did get a better time.  Today was 36 minutes, as compared to last week's 40 minutes.  I tried to stay at exactly 12 minute miles and mostly just enjoyed being out.  Sure, it feels lame and far above the 10-11 minute miles I used to breeze through, but it's been a long time since I did running.  It's mostly fun to be out.  I listened to hamilton and saw two friends I hadn't seen for ages. 

Runners lined up at the start of a very cold parkrun

We have had 3 nights of reverse lie-ins and I am very into this early bedtime thing.  I could do it forever as long as I didn't have any evening social engagements ever again.  I still slept till 7am today, so I think I just need sleep right now.

This afternoon was birthday lunch at a greek restaurant.  I love greek food.  Why do I not eat/cook more greek food?

Andy and the kids managed a small amount of gardening.  He took down a poorly placed pear tree, which was sad for the tree but happy for the summer usability of our garden

He did have a grumpy looking helper.

Andy is making Lamb curry for dinner.  The kids are mildly fractious. My 10 minutes of interrupted writing is now over.

Sunday Sports and Social Club... and Llanishen Parkrun 5k

I like hitting the new year resolutions with middling intensity.  I managed to do some form of exercise three times this week, which counts as a habit:

Monday: Beach with family friends.  Outside ✓ 

Tuesday: Lunch time walk.  Hot yoga with sports buddy. Outside ✓ Sports ✓

Wednesday: Lunch time walk.   Outside ✓

Thursday: Lunch time walk. Barre3 & Stretching. Outside ✓ Sports ✓

Friday: Lunch time walk. Outside ✓

Saturday: Parkrun 5k. Outside ✓ Sports ✓

Sunday: Lunch time walk.  Outside ✓

Parkrun is an awesome free weekly 5K hosted around the world but majorly in the UK.  Last year a new Parkrun started by our house, only a 10 minute walk away. 

It turns out, I have not only retuned to pre-baby fitness, I am actually at "pre-any exercise at all levels" of fitness.  This is the second Parkrun I've done since Lilah was born.  The weather was awful, heavy rain before, ankle deep mud mid course... but still, I've never been this slow in my adult life:

Another telling factor for my current lack of fitness is heart rate... I managed to stay at 175 for the entire 39 minutes.  I'm fairly sure that my Garmin said I was in zone 6?  Is there a zone 6?  I did wonder if my heart was going to explode, which would be a real bummer. It did not.  But still, this seems excessive:

Parkrun keeps all the results for each runner, which means I can see my times since my first ever 5k.  Here's 10 years of results (thanks internet!)

Apparently, I like to do a Parkrun in January. Also apparently, I did Parkrun 3 months postpartum with Isaac.  This is ridiculous not because of the postpartum-ness, but because of the fact that Isaac didn't' sleep at all (well, he didn't sleep more than 2 hours in one go) until he was 6 months old, which means I didn't sleep at all, which means how did I do anything at all.  Apparently, I have always been nuts.

Cardif 1/2 Marathon 2013 - Race Report (my first half marathon!)

In December I decided to sign up for the Cardiff half, knowing that it was ages away and I had loads of time to train.  Brewer Half and MTB ben also debated signing up, and we 3 all had different approaches to training.

I downloaded a training guide and started following some running bloggers

Brewer half joined a running club and started running with his running friends

MTB Ben ran as far and as fast as he could, then did the same the next day, then did the same the third day when he heard a pop in his knee and decided running was stupid.

So Brewer half and I entered the half, and 10 months later it was yesterday.

I had not done much training.  I ran about 3 miles once a week for a month before the race. August I did 41 miles in the whole month... September I did 15.

I was not prepared at all, and found myself googling "how to run a half marathon with no training" the day before the race.

Either way, we go to the start line at 8am and Brewer half got a coffee

We got into the pens at 8:30 (I was yellow: 2hr+, Brewer was Green: 1hr 45+)

I couldn't really hear the starting gun but as we headed out there were loads of people so I wasn't tempted to go too fast and kept a steady pace.

There were lots of stations along the route with music and water and energy drinks, and tons of people out cheering which made everything way more fun.

At around mile 6 I started to feel bad and I had a side cramp and I was thinking about what a stupid idea it is to run a 1/2 marathon with no training but then I found a power station and got a gel and saw a camera and everything was okay again.

Raceface is not prettyface!

I took little sips of water and poweraid at all the stations but tried not to drink too much. I felt pretty good, and even managed to smile at the 12.5 mile camera!

I crossed the line at 2hr 45 minutes but my chip time (because it took a while to get to the start) was 2hr 33 minutes, which is a dang fine result!

After the half my legs hurt a lot so I put frozen peas on them.  

Then I ate everything.

Mission Burrito opened this weekend in Cardiff! I think it's because the first time I had Mission burrito was after hungover-ly watching the Bath Half and dreaming of doing a 1/2 then eating a Burrito - and so a lifelong (er, 6 month) dream was realized when they opened a restaurant just for me!  Thanks guys!

Then my cake tummy was still empty so we went to Pettigrew Tea Rooms for cake.  Chocolate Almond cake yes please!

Cardiff half was super well organized and well marshaled.  Cardiff is a great city for running and there were no boring parts on the route - I think I liked the parts around Cathays best because all the streets were closed. the barrage and bay were gorgeous, weather was great - I couldn't have asked for more and I'm already looking forward to my next half! (Santa to Sea in California....?)

What an awesome day!

Caerphilly 10k Race - race report!

This morning I got up at stupid o'clock so I could register for the inaugural Caerphilly 10k.  I arrived in Caerphilly at 8am and got my registration pack - since the race didn't start till 10 it was pretty empty at 8am!

The starting pen had timing posts to organize us - the first post was 30 minutes.  I stuck myself by the last post at 1 hour plus.  I estimated 1 hour 7 minutes, but I've never done a 10k before so I didn't have any real idea of what it would be like.

I decided to go for a little wander before the race started.  Caerphilly is home to the second largest castle in the UK, and one of the most photogenic castles as well!

There were bicycle machines out for us to use and I warmed up for a few minutes to get ready, by the time I got back to the start there were loads more people milling around...

This race was super exciting because I got both a race number and a timing chip!

There were also loads of people in costumes, I saw a whole karate team.  There was also a Pie from Peter's Pies Running the race, and for being a massive pie he was pretty quick!

The start of the race was awesome, all penned in and ready to go, a massive countdown, and that moment when you cross the start and your timing chip starts timing is such a rush! 

I started okay but after less than 1k I had the worst stitch I've ever had. It felt like someone was stabbing me in the side.  I thought I was going to be sick, and like I couldn't breathe.  It was, in a word, terrible.  I dropped back pretty quick but kept jogging, I couldn't quite stand upright and I hope I don't have to see any photos of me because I was probably doing a hideous hunched over loping motion.

After about 5k I started to feel a bit better, and at 7k I had picked up the pace a little and was starting to pass people as they slowed down or walked.  I was too afraid of getting another cramp to drink any water, but there were at least 3 water stations on the course that I could have stopped by.

By 7k I felt good, and I had a pretty steady pace to the end.  I even did a proper sprint finish, which  made me feel that I probably didn't put enough into the race.

I came in at 1:11:40, and was very pleased with my time!

The whole race was organized really well - in addition to a race number and medal I got a bag of goodies including a water bottle and a wrist band!  There were loads of marshalls and everyone was super friendly. There were 1,700 people racing and I came in around 1400 so I was faster than 300!

And, most importantly, I was faster than everyone who didn't race at all!

Did I mention how awesome it is that I live where there are castles?

(I'm not strangling myself, I'm showing off my medal!)

So that's the story of my first 10k!  I really liked it and would love to do another soon.   This was the first time Caerphilly has done a 10K and it was an amazingly well organized and fun event to participate in.  Looking forward to more!

Sunday Training - my first attempt at a Long Run

Today is Sunday, and Sunday is Ajax long rides, and I did not go on the Ajax long ride.  I was nervous because it was long (75 miles!) and lumpy (read: hilly) and I was probably going to be the worst one there.

Instead of getting on the bike I decided to hit the gym and learn how to use machines.  As you can probably tell, I tend to do my workouts in circuits, with sets of exercises that I run through 3 times.  I remembered I used to do 3 sets of 10 things, and then move on.  So I brought a notebook and paper and did 3 sets of 10 on all the things.  I wrote down the weights I used too so I can go back and do it again.

It was cool, machines make me feel lame but are probably good.  I like free weights but I feel like I exhausted my arms more than normal by doing every machine in the gym.  I still did my favorite bar stuff (CLEAN AND PRESS!) but at least now I have an option for when they weights area is mega full.

After gym I had a protein bar and an apple and a cup of coffee before heading out on a long run.

I don't know exactly what possessed me - I've wanted to do a long run for a while, more than a 5k and more than 5 miles.

I found an awesome trail that was super pretty and took some photos:

I was out for a while and wanted to keep going but the trail sort of ended so I headed back towards home.  The last 2 miles was mostly painful but I kept going - I did stop to change the song and check my strava a lot on the way back, but in the end I made it home and had run a total of....

8.3 Miles!

This is pretty awesome as I was never a runner before and I don't like running, but there's something amazing about propelling yourself forward with only your feet and exploring new places without bicycle or car.  I will have to head that way again and see if I can find some more trails - it was absolutely stunning!

Of course my legs do feel like led now, as do my arms from the gym, but it's been a pretty excellent Sunday!

So I treated myself to some lovely beers in celebration

What an epic day!

Pile on the Miles - Running for April!

So far this week I have been a terrible exercise blogger, but an excellent exercise person!

I've been toying with the idea of doing monthly totals for bike and running, but havent yet done so because I don't Strava all my rides (like commuter miles) and I don't Strava treadmill miles (which are rare, but count).  I cycle to work daily which is 6 miles roundtrip, 30 miles a week, but it's nothing compared to actual training.

My total miles run in March was 17.

This was not good enough.  So this month, I'm going to see how many miles I can rack up.  This is part of step 1 for being a better runner: run more.

On Wednesday I woke up at 6:30am, and went for a very painful hour long run (painful because it was 6:30am, and painful because it's hard to run for an hour!)  I managed 5 miles

Today after work I went for another hour run, and this time managed 5.5 miles in that same time.

CURRENT RUNNING GOALS:

5k in 27 minutes

10k in under an hour

finish a half marathon in October

I'm realizing more and more that I can't do everything - I'm running now and doing a fair amount of gym time as well (twice this week and again tomorrow!) but I haven't been on the road bike in ages.  The weather has really knocked my interest in cycling - it's windy and cold and the idea of pedaling behind people in a line up busy roads sounds so awful that I havent even tried for weeks.

The last Ajax ride (long cycle) I did was February 24th - I guess that's only 6 weeks but it feels like ages.  Racing season has started and I'm already fearing my next attempt to gasp my way through a steady ride... because I haven't kept it up.

Strava doesn't lie - this winter has hit my endurance activity levels hard:

Now granted this graph aggregates cycling and running, and all my miles for April have been running, but still - i need to be aiming for September totals (241 miles), not January (62.7)

So here's hoping the weather gets good, the bike gets out, and the running gets easier! Wish me luck as I pile on the miles this month :-)

Monday Interval training with Cardiff Tri

Tonight I did my first running training with Cardiff Tri.  I had no idea what I was in for and it was a bit of a shock.  I do interval training on the treadmill - 20 seconds at a time.  This was 2 minutes at speed and 2 minutes recovery.  I knew I was in for trouble when the 6 minute jog to warm up was at 9:30 minute mile pace.  That's not a jog for me - that's a run.

I sometimes wonder why I picked triathlon and I think it's because I don't know what I want to do and triathlon is the perfect outlet for indecisiveness*.  There are a lot of people who are good at running who get into tri for the challenge... a few people who are originally swimmers, and some people who are originally cyclists.  In fact I think, through no science at all, that the split is like this:

Runners: 60
Bikers: 30
Swimmers: 10

Anyways, I managed to run 6.1 miles today, which is longer than I've ever been out before.  I kind of lost the will to "interval" after about 6 goes, but I did keep on moving, and that was victory enough.

The cool thing about triathlon - or maybe just Cardiff Tri - is that everyone is friendly and supportive.  At the 2 minutes everyone ran off and I fell steadily behind, after 2 minutes they used recovery to come back and find me, 2 minutes later they sprinted off again.

I'm not sure if I was really ready to do the interval training yet - doing 6 miles of interval training as the next step up from 3 mile fun runs was a bit intense.

On the other hand, at this rate I can just double again to 12 miles and I'll be ready for a half marathon in a few short weeks!

The good thing about being so rubbish on the first try is that I can only get better.

I didn't get a photo but this is how I felt after:

*If only triathlon was quadrathalon and included flying trapeze.  Or pentathlon but instead of all the running and jumping included lightweight barbells and push-ups.  (editors note: my brewer half just commented that I would still be bad at it.  He's probably right.  He keeps it real.)

Thursday Training in non-rainy Wrexham

I managed to get out for a run this morning, the first mile was pretty fast and awesome.  I ran a strange loop around and in a local park, where I came across this somewhat muddy football pitch

I only ran 2.5 miles, the first mile was a decent 10 minutes, the second mile was an into the wind 12, and the third half was 5.5 minutes.  almost 30 minutes of jogging/running.  At some point, I need to learn to run longer.  Some point before the Cardiff Half Marathon I entered!!

After the run I treated myself to some rye-vita and Boursin cheese.  How do they make Boursin cheese sooo good?!  I don't know but I could eat it all day every day.  I don't though, because that would make me super massive.

In the afternoon I had a cheeky chance to use a real gym, and I jumped at the opportunity for an hour log weights set.  I'm getting better and better at my pushups, I can do 10 lame ones or about 3 full ones. I'm still working on the pull-ups but I can do pull-ups at 30% - where I go down to a 130 degree angle or so (180 being the top and 90 being a right angle).  Actually there's go to be some better math for that.

but still - too much math for exercise!

I did my new weights routine, which I will post at a later date, but it is a good one!  I also added some extra core work like leg lifts and crunches.

The sun has actually come out as well - the afternoon was lovely! 

Wales is so pretty when the sun is out!

Tuesday Travels

I'm almost over my SARS.  Being sick is lame, but the exciting part of being sick is getting healthy again!  I've not been able to excercise since Friday but I managed to make it to the gym today for modified Cardio 1.

Modified Cardio 1:

Treadmill: Run a mile.  

Cross Trainer: 3 minutes on 8, 2 minutes on 18, repeat 4 times 

Rower: Row 2,000 meters

There were a couple of good points - the mile took me 9 minutes today, which is really good for me.  Before I started running a mile took me at least 10 minutes, usually 11 or 12.  Today I was tired after my mile, but I probably could have continued if treadmills aren't so damn boring.  I think the interval training of Non-modified Cardio 1 must be helping.

The rower took me under 10 minutes, which is also really good for me.  I've never timed myself on the rower but 11 to 12 minutes is my usual for 2,000 meters.  10 is such a nice round number that I have little desire to improve, except maybe to start doing 9 minute miles and 9 minute rowers?

Tomorrow I am going to try TRY TRY to get up at 6am for an early weights session at the gym.  Being sick over the weekend set me back and I haven't been for a long weekend ride in 3 weeks now so I'm somewhat worried about my next cycling adventure.  I don't think there's much I can do to keep my long ride stamina up, except long rides, and when you're away with work (which I am now) you can't really sit on a bike machine for 5 hours.  Also, that would be so boring I would rather....

... I don't know, I can't think of anything more boring than that.  Even watching paint dry would probably be less boring than 5 hours on an indoor bicycle.

If I am to get up at 6am I better get to sleep now, so goodnight blogosphere!

An Independent Triathlon Thursday

Today I did what I've decided to call an "Independant Triathlon" An Independent Triathlon is where you go for a swim and a run and a ride in the same day but transition includes watching tv and tweeting.

It all started this afternoon when I was feeling antsy but didn't know what to do, so I did some laps around Maindy Track because I had no better ideas.


When I got back I watched an episode of storage wars, then did a fairly slow 5k (34 minutes).


I wondered if my lethargy was caused by the fact that I've eaten nothing but cheese and bread and chocolate and more cheese and more bread for the last 3 days.  So I made this shrimp and veggie stir fry with noodles and avocado and Sriracha:

om. flipping. nom.

I love Sriracha.  It is like spicy asian heaven.  Sometimes food does not have enough spice, and I just add Sriracha, and KABLAMO food is delicious.

So spicy. So delicious.

In the evening Andy and I went to the Cardiff pool for swim training with the Cardiff Tri club. We got there a bit early, so like true athletes we spent 30 minutes on the slides:

HORRAY SLIDES!

All in all it took me 6 hours for my independent triathlon.  Also everything was in the wrong order, and the distances were wrong too!  How wrong? So wrong!

1) bike 9 miles (35 minutes)

Transition: 1 hour

2) run 3.3 miles (35 minutes)

Transition: 3 hours (including dinner and playing on slides)

3) Swim 1.25 miles (60 minutes)

Then I ate cake with ice cream.  That's recovery eating, right?

Park Run Cardiff

Yesterday was Black Friday in the UK.  Black Friday in the UK is much different than Black Friday in the USA.  In the USA it's the day after thanksgiving, when people wake up stupid early for door busting sales and shopping delights.  In the UK, it's the last friday before Christmas, where everyone gets really really wasted after work.  The only difference is that normally British people get really really wasted after dinner - on Black Friday everyone's smashed by 8pm.

I was not smashed at 8pm, but I did eat a lot of oven pizza after I got home from the pub around 9.  When I woke up this morning I did not feel great, but somehow parkrun seemed like a good idea.  Parkrun is a 5k that happens every Saturday at 9am.  I put on my running clothes, grabbed my bike, and cycled to the start by 8:58.

I forgot to check the weather.  This is the weather:

This was my second attempt at Park Run. The first was a cold crisp day - I ran a Rachel Record of 29:30.  Today was very wet, and apparently 5 fine american ales with ABV of 7+ each is not great fuel for running.  I was not last - but mostly because of a slight sprint at the end which put me ahead of 1 person. (edit: actually 8 people - results showed there were people in the 40+ minute time)

This was me at the end - it took me 34:02 and I had a stitch pretty much the whole way.  

The good thing about parkrun is that by 10am I was home, and by 10:30 I was showered and chowing down on this amazing breakfast omlette

Mushroom and onion scramble with salsa, tomato, and avocado! Yum!

The bad thing about Park Run is that it's at 9am on a Saturday.  WHY WOULD ANYONE RUN AT 9AM ON A SATURDAY?

The next one is on Christmas Day - we will see if I can get out of bed any better for that one.  One of these days, I'll try the run without a hangover too.  

Maybe.