Dark Chocolate and swimming: an update on my weekend.

I had a week off exercise.  It was fun.  I went to Scotland with work and I did work and I did not exercise at all.  I tried to eat healthy but I also ate a whole bar of dark chocolate because Asda sold me what I thought was a bar of 70% dark chocolate but was actually 70% cocoa solids and 30% crunchy bits of sugar and it tasted amazing.  In A bad way.  I like my chocolate dark... so dark.

How dark?  This dark:

On Sunday I overslept the Ajax ride so went to swim practice with Cardiff Tri instead.  Apparently my plan of not swimming for 6 months while everyone else swims loads for 6 months did not make me any better of a swimmer.  I was the slowest person in the slowest group.  I'm pretty sure a dude with 1 arm lapped me 3 times. 

I might by my parents this shirt, if I can find the right gendered one:

It was interesting because usually I kind of like all the exercise I do, but I really did not like the swimming at all.  However I now want to swim more, which is possibly a strange reaction.

In douch-y swimming news, I need to learn how to breathe bilaterally, before my clicky shoulders fall off entirely.

Did you know swimming was super complicated?  Look at this picture.  This is complicated:

And today I went track cycling again.  I did not crash.  I did not get a PB.  I cycled for 20 miles in a circle.  It was pretty fun.

Swim Session with Cardiff Tri

On Sunday I swam with the Cardiff Triathletes.  They do 3 swim sessions a week, and I make it about once a month.  Each session is different, some focus on speed, others on endurance, but I mostly focus on two things - moving forward and not drowning.

(This is me swimming in Morocco.  Not sure what stroke I can do in 2 inches water)

I used to swim a fair amount - its one of the perks of growing up in California. I was on swim team as a kid and a lifeguard in college.  Swimming is something I generally enjoy and was one of the things I looked forward to in triathlon...

... Until the fateful thursday.  It was about two weeks back, I'm not sure what the problem was, but I was not swimming well. I was gasping and getting "dropped" and everyone was swimming fast and I was swimming slow.  I was trying to go faster and I was getting side cramps and my stomach was hurting and suddenly...

... I did not feel good.  I was half way down the pool and had visions of one fateful day on swim team  when we were all doing laps, and we saw one of the boys stop swimming, and we saw him look around, and then he opened his mouth and spewed chunks of cheerios and milk all over the pool.  I remember watching those cheerios sink and the milk float and the boy cry and thinking... gross.

So with that vision, I realized I was going to be that boy in a second.  And i jumped out of the pool, beelined for the girls toilets, and I'll spare you the details but it was... gross.

(Cat is not me, but my story was gross and cat is funny)

After that I decided never to go swimming again, but at parkrun I met one of the triathletes and as we chatted he encouraged me not to give up.  With those words of encouragement I hit the pool again on Sunday and I did exactly what I hoped to do - swim for an hour and not give up.  I was in the slowest lane and only did 1.25 miles, but I'm not afraid to go back anymore and I'm even looking forward to the next session.

It just goes to show that if you don't give up on things you're moderately bad at, then you'll never stay moderately bad at them!

I'm rubbish at inspiration.  Here's a photo instead:

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?

Water Polo Tuesday

On Tuesday I made it to the Cardiff Tri  swim session.  The session started at 7:30 with the usual hour of lap swimming broken up into hard and really hard bits.  Sometimes I felt like an amazing swimmer, gliding effortlessly and gracefully through the water.  Most of the time I felt like a drowning seal.  As a special christmas treat the second hour was a game of water polo, which I had never played before but which is completely awesome.

Why water polo is awesome:
Flailing is an integral part
It is agressive
You don't have to run (or be seen running)
I am agressive

I wasn't particularly good, but I was particularly agressive.  I'm not sure which team won, because there were some dodgy fouls, but all in all it was loads of fun, and a lot of effort.  I played defense, which seemed natural from my short lived football/soccer career, but really I just flailed around in the pool for an hour.  It did make me remember how much I enjoyed playing team sports and how agressive/competitive I can actually be - I need to bring a little more competitiveness into my cycling/running.  Winning is exhilarating  finishing is expected.

New goal: feel more competitive during cycling.
Step 1: go to Maindy and not be last on the Maindy Strava segment:

Step 2: nail it.