Yume No Chikara

I have had a mail this afternoon to say Sue is pulling out of the TW. So .. Anyone want to walk 100Km in err 2 weeks time??? Apply within! Good Luck Sue with recovering and the future!

Memories ... Saturday's walk ... heel ... tad sore ... failure. TW2003 ... wet ... cold ... no energy ... failure ... hurt ... TW2006 is Personal! This is why today at 9.40 I went to see the Dr. V-Rap had said I should get my heel jabbed. By Saturday night I totally agreed. TW is personal. I am going to have to finish it. I want that medal, I want to slay that damn dragon and say WE DID IT! So off I go, half hoping for strong drugs to see me through and the reassurance that a jab was not needed! Billed as "probably the most painful injection you can have ... even with a local" pills sounded better! I walked in and the Dr smiled "so are you going to chicken out then?". I recalled the slight ache last night and this morning that had reminded me why I was here. Yep I had to do it. I lay on the bed and grinned! The Dr prodded and then he "did it". The Dr "fanned" the jab to try and cover as many of the sore bits as possible. He would move and say...

I was going to use the title "Highs and Lows" but given the weekends walk I thought undulations was more apt! I could have equally have used "The problem with a DNF" but that sounded very negative. So anyway... Last weekend (as in the weekend before the walk!!) I started a thread ... I didn't use the name Evil Pixie though. I was worried, looked to the forum for support and got it. During most of the week I was distracted. I was also looking forward to the Wales walk, the team finally getting together and a lovely day strolling through the lovely Welsh countryside. I got over my stress about Thursday having worried that it was more serious than it was nad being calmed by the forum and a nurse. By this time the Wales walk was all but the next day (well a 4AM start is very early!) Friday we were, well I was!, buzzing and excited. Saturday AM tired but excited. We started the walk frustrated at the delay and not finding Sue and annoyed at lovely countryside meant n...

A long tale!! Ok lets start all the way back at Friday evening! Duck and I got to V-Raps and were feed lovely food (as always!) and then we got our stuff from the car because A) V-Rap was taxi for Saturday and B) I needed to be minimised! We decided I mean Leon and V-Rap decided I needed my small rucksack, 1 pair of soaks, water, rainwear and that's about it. I snuck in some compeed and drugs, 2 bars and 2 KMC!! Bad pixie! We went to bed and I lay there thinking "3hrs" next thing it was "help! Should have been up 20mins ago!" 30 mins later and we were off! How organised was that! 2:30am and V-Rap is playing taxi out of the goodness of her heart! Love her!! The drive there took longer than expected and the Welsh traffic didn't help! Slow white van man and more importantly "drunken man following the white line". This meant we were not at the start at 4am so didn't start as a team :-( In fact we were 50mins late starting :-( As we were late the gl...

The countdown has started ... T- 18hrs! Tomorrow morning at the ungodly hour of 4AM the Four Fit Friends will commence their final training walk ! The walk in a mere 42m and goes by the charming name of Walk Across Wales. V-Rap is being a hero and will be getting up at stupid o'clock to play taxi for Leon, Duck and I and will also pick us up once we finish. The walk will be a challenge as it will not only be hilly I mean undulating but tiring and going from night to day to night again. This is, as odd as it may seem, a good thing! It's why we are here! Why we are doing it! This walk is ideal for foruming team tactics and working out a "plan of campaign" and eating lots of flapjack and kendal mint cake!! Today I will be mainly drinking lots of water and indulging in a yummy jacket spud for lunch then off to Brum for tea and hugs! Hopefully a brief sleep will follow before we off to start our latest challenge! We start at 4am and will finish sometime after 9pm ... I wi...

For a period of time today I was off in my own dream world! RW are advertising! How fantastic would it be to work for them! I mean I spend as much time a I can on the forums, I love running, love helping others and encouraging people ... For a moment back then I was working for RW working from home and loving my job! I was chatting to Spans and Benz at the time and amoungst other things (like I didn't have the skill set for the job!) I realised that I really want a new job and I really have no idea what my dream job would be! I like helping people, resolving issues. I have great communication skills, a bubbly personality. I apparently inspire people (!). I like running and fitness and health/food fascinates me (and I eat a lot!! LOL!). I like learning and doing stuff and being busy and ..... If anyone could tell me what to do I would be grateful! I've often thought about writing a book on diet and exercise using my experience "How not to lose weight!". Then there is ...

My two favorite things! Problem is I take the carb loading far too seriously and like FLM05 this week has seen a nervous inclination to eat anything in sight :-( So given I know this will also happen the week before TW I guess that any weight lose should be forgotten until after then! Ho Hum! Yesterday and today have been resting with a potter round town at lunchtime for exercising. I may swim tonight but doubt it as I will be home 1st and I am not sure I will have the inclination to go out again! So I may just go for a walk round the villiage and nature reserve whils hubby shouts at the footy! We'll see!!

I just felt the need to say my friends are the best! Thank you!

Ok so the beginning of this week was far from sensible what with me getting far to enthusiastic about tri training! But looking forward I mean! I've done 4 training sessions this week now as I have just come back from an excuse for a run. The three days off had been three in a row - not ideal really! Anyway my run ... only 3.4m and very slow. Started of great, jog for 1/2m to warm up then a good run to the mile marker, then walk run to the end. Getting slower as my legs still seem tired. Not sure if this is the early training or the fact it's my longest running week (no really!) since Reading or if there is an underlying lurgy! Hubby has 2 late shifts this week and Friday we (as in Duck and I!) are off to Brum for the Wales walk. As a result of all these factors I have decided to be sensible this next week! I'm going to taper! Lots of stretching and maybe a few light weights and a couple of short walks but that's it. I know this will impact on my Nessie Challenge (mind ...

Work up this morning and thought "hmm ouch", was going to massage said quad but looked at time and paniced about sorting breakfast/lunch! Driving to work ... yep that goes ouch. Sat at desk ... yep ouch going up quad. Just been speaking to V-Rap and she said ... >Looks for anatomy book Sounds like your quads are trying to adapt to all that cycling, Pix. followed by I'd be inclined to leave it for another day and see how you are then. >Mutter mutter mutter I-knew-it-was-too-soon-for-even-little-bricks So Pixie is resting! Under Drs orders! Grrr

Yesterday I was tired following my brick session but still went out at lunch for a potter in that "exercise gives you energy" way. I managed 2.8m. I was tired and legs were very tired so struggled. Today I was planning a swim but I am totally drained. It's that achey triedness. I over slept, didn't even hear my alarm (but turned it off without even realising!) Sensible head says rest today, have a bath and early night. Athlete head says I haven't swum for a week and the pool will be empty with the footy being on. My kit is in my car ... will see how the day progressive but I am not feeling very positive about doing anything today!

This is not a must lose weight; get fit etc post this is a plan. The TW team will be doing the Walk Across Wales next weekend. Then three weeks later we will be doing the TW itself. The week after that I am on a 3 day course. So my plan for the next 5 weeks is to create a period of review and habit spotting, habit review, habit changing and habit forming. The observant amongst you would have spotted the weight chart has gone. The reason for this is my head isn't in the right place for that just now. I have the "lots of walking must eat" excuse firmly stuck in my mind and any good intentions fall over rapidly. Then I sulk, then eat and ... well you know! So I'm pushing that well away from my mind after all I am fit and healthy! Even the nurse said so! So what am I going to do? Well I have plenty of plans for the next few weeks! I want to get back into the habit of running ... not just pottering but running! I'm not clock watching so don't care if I walk/run but...

Last night I dashed from work to Sainsbury and home again. I then realised I didn't have enough time to make and eat my tea before I had to collect Gnome from Boys Brigade!! Whoops! Hmmm but I did have time to change and jump on my bike!! (OK so I'm scared of Gumps!) I set off round the village and finished in the car park (total of 5.3m)! Oh such a glamorous place! Well it did allow me to park my bike on a curb and the proceed to trot round the car park 3 time before grabbing my bike and running with it to collect Gnome. So that's that, another mini brick! Running for a massive 6 mins this time!! Tonight hubby is watching Brazil so I will be out on my bike and then doing a proper run! Plan is about 8m bike then 2-3m run! Gulp! Will report back later! Brickette Report! OMG!! That was weird!! OK lets start with the bike ... longest ride since FLM training pixie style last year. It was only 8m but hilly and also partially off road. Getting much more confident on changing gear...

Well hmm what can I say! Ok lets try this ... Fitness - overall levels good but as always could be better! Weight - huh not going anywhere :-( Health - yep all fine and dandy! So I am forming a plan. Over the years I have come to realise I love food, eat for comfort and emotional reasons and to date have not found the cure to allow me to eat less and lose weight. I have plenty of running goals ... faster times etc. So why not try and combine them all. They say that the more you train the more you want to eat healthy so .... I may not be good at controlling the number of calories I take in but I can control those being used. I'm going to up my training. This means I get fitter and healthier and even if I don't drop into the healthy eating eat for fuel thing it's not bad. As nurse said I am healthy! As a connected issue I still have no idea about this club Tri ... not sure if "springs" is Champney Springs and there is no time just cost! So I'm going to climb ont...

Most people see you hot sweaty and in running kit and say "been jogging?" not the chap I work with! For some stupid reason I decided a lunchtime run in 23C + was an excellent idea!! I came back 45mins later, dripping and red and was greated by a cheerful "been pole dancing luv!" Made me smile that did!! Anyway this session. 5mins walk run warm up then 8 sets of 3:1. Mile 1 took 12:30 despite the slow 1st 5mins! Felt good, pace was nice and even and not that hard. Mile two also 12:30. Ok So the legs were getting tired by then! Something to do with yesterdays hard session and the searing heat!! Mile 3 was basically a crawl! By the time I got to my cool down I was very happy to walk!! Now if I could find the person who said today's run was a good thing to do I would have serious words with them!! Still I can now happily relax for the next 2 days without feeling guilty after 7 days of training! This week in summery: Monday : Swim - 1.2m (1hr 3) Tuesday : ...

I love my coach! She's full of such great ideas!! Last nights session: Cycle to pool (3.6m - 20mins) Swim (1.2km - 37mins and 40 lengths) Cycle home (3.6m - 18mins due to long downhill!) Run 4 mins!! (pathetic 1/4m) Cycle fine, swim fine, cycle fine ... butt not too sore either!! Run well that was a different matter! Jelly legs after about 30secs!! Respect to all Tri peeps and especially those who do an Ironman!! As a result of this I will be doing some brick sessions next week! Hubby is on mornings so I have the school run ... as I don't want to leave a sleeping/half asleep child alone in the house this means garage work! Spans has pointed out that straight from exercise bike to tready may not be ideal so the plan is: 20 mins bike run up/down road for a min or two 10 mins tready (maybe 20 depending on time) Kick son out of bed and die in the shower!! Today I will be running (3:1 X 8 unless it is REALLY hot in which case I cancell!) and then tonight we are going to the in-laws...

Ok so if I do this tri I have just over a week! I say if because I have had no reply to my mail saying I would like to do it but I am very very slow! Last night, as I will be tonight, I was in the pool. I tried to do some "quality lengths!". It seems I can consistently keep a good pace doing breast stroke (60m (2 lengths) consistently in about 1min 4-45) and I can do that for ages. When I start front crawl I can do 2-3 lengths at about 1:50 then get slower until I can't do any more! I managed 10 lengths continuous front crawl and by the time I finished my 60m was taking just over 2mins!! It total I did 1920m bring my nessie challenge to 274lengths! Another hour in the pool. Today I will be doing the same ... but in my Enel and shorts!! Tomorrow I will be running at lunchtime and then tomorrow night we are going down south. This means no weekend training which isn't too bad as I would have trained for several days .. in fact I would have done something every day since...

10 day Sprint Tri Training plan!!

Today I decided to avoid M&S and their lovely food and go for a potter! As I want to get the legs used to running again I wasn't bothered about doing loads either in terms of time or distance. So: Walk to end of road (5mins) jog to canal (2-3mins) 8 sets of 1mins run 1 jog walk back And that's what I did! It was VERY hot out there so this was enough! Total time 30mins (includes getting signal!) with 27 doing the above routine. I made a point of trying to maintain a good posture and to actuall RUN the runs not my normal shuffle! This meant the runs felt like running! They felt good! All around (and some under!) 10:30 pace! I did get slightly distracted by the 3 dead fish (now reported to British Waterways) so the time and distance (2m) includes stopping to ask fishermen about them!! Was a good if somewhat short (and hot!) run. Now if I can slowly increase the splits and maintain this pace we're be doing well!

Of activities when I have had for no reason a nose bleed!! 10 mins into yesterday's swim. I stop for a drink and as I prepare to start again I look down and see a splodge appear on my cossie! So I climb out get some tissue from the life guard and despite my better judgement confirmed that the nose bleed just happened and that it wasn't because someone bashed me! Kids everywhere on floats/rafts and giant inflatable rings making lengths difficult. Roll on 6 when the lanes would appear!! Being a serious aflete and all that once my nose stopped I carried on! 66 lengths in total bring my Nessie Challenge total to 210! As always I had the mental battle of "Oh you are weaker now you've had that bleed why not stop!" Followed by "Lying sod you're fine shut up and carry on!". So carry on I did. Last night despite being the hottest day this year I was cold ... not sure if this is related in anyway but I'm fine today!. Today I will be using my running kit! N...

Well I went out in my running kit! Yesterday Morning I did indeed get up and run. It wasn't as early as planned as I just could not get up! This meant that it was a lot warmer than I planned or indeed hoped to be running in! I went out full of positive thoughts ... I was going to keep on running however slow just to get my legs going. After 1.25m I had to stop for grit removal. For about 1/2m my calves had been tight, something I am used too, it means I am running faster than my legs are happy to run and usually goes just by going even slower! I stopped and raised my leg to a bench and realised that the old calf was a little tighter than normal! So I walked, then ran then walked again. This meant that I didn't settle into a proper run until over 2m by which time I had to walk to cross the foot bridge pass the pond without scaring the wildfowl and walk up a steep hill! I then ran to the paper shop which clocked up 3.5m and I walked home as a warm down. This 3.5m potter took a pi...

Believe in the magic of your dreams ... what's the point in having dreams if you don't make them come true! Well that's what this blog is about isn't it?! The magic of dreams making an athlete in training. As I said Thursday I have entered the Brum Hydro Active 5K . Since then Egglett has challenged me to get a sub 30 PB. I say PB as mine is currently 34:20 and was achieved on a course that's length may not have been 5k given most people managed to beat their PB by about 2mins and this year the course was recorded at 2.9m! But it's still my 5K PB! Twice last year I ran 3m around town in 33mins. 30mins is sub 10mm pace. This pixie needs to get training! It occurred to me today whilst I continued on my Nessie Challenge in the outdoor pool, taking in the rays and pulling faces at the kids, that I've forgotten about that magic. Today I swam 2.4km at about the same pace as the swimathon. I did more front crawl today which was good, and probably did further by t...

so tired you cancel a training session and worry about falling to sleep driving home ... when you are that tired (like I was yesterday) you must do what comes natural. So what did I do? Sleep? Watch TV? Lay in the garden listening to the birds? Have a long soaky bath? Nope! I went for a 5.5m walk! Well that's Pixie Logic for you! I'm sure it makes sense somehow or somewhere So yes, yesterday I did a 1hr 40 mins Mini TW training session. Leon had told me to use old/comfy trainers so I slipped into my saucony off road shoes and light walking socks. I also donned me lovely new Pink Camelbak with lots of water (for weight) and a SIS Chocolate Orange Go! Bar. Twas a nice sunny evening just right for a walk. Bit faster than TW pace at 18mm ave but you do shorter quicker runs so why not walks! Got home and had some nice warming homemade soup again, then a bath where I examined the blister gained from wearing nice comfy trainers! Grrrr Fanks Leon!! Not weighed myself again and I am tr...