Bike Clothing

Whilst Herbalife will provide most of my racing kit there are times especially for winter trg where I will require specialist clothing especially where the bike is concerned. For example, Herbalife do not provide long bike tight, long fingered gloves or overshoes. There are going to be key products over the next few months as outdoor bike trg gets colder and colder! Happily, a bike clothing company called Endura has offered to provide specialist trg clothing for both me and also my bike crew who will be trg with me and also supporting me on the challenge where the need arises.

Endura's clothing has received extremely good reviews and Adam has already been feeling the benefits of their long tights and overshoes. My long fingered gloves should arrive this week and I am SO excited as last weekend my fingers nearly froze off and we were only out for 90mins or so! I'll let you know how I get on with it.

I had my second session with Andrew McKenna (www.northants-sports-massage.co.uk) yesterday and I think it is going to be absolutely key to keeping me fit and well in the run up to the challenge. Andrew had a good go at my niggles and during both bike and run training today I felt really strong so hopefully it is all working. Prevention is always better than a cure!!

Work Woes....

Work has suddenly got massively busy and it is making it more difficult to fit in trg. I am having to work later to make up the hours that I am missing by fitting my trg in at lunch and in the morning and, whilst this is acceptable, it generally means I am more tired and have more hours of stress than I would like.

Being a amateur athlete but trying to train to the level of, at least, a semi-professional athlete is such a juggling act. I'm sure all multi-sport athletes out there, and athletes in general, will understand what I mean. For example, last weekend I went to my friend's hen do in Bath. We had a lovely afternoon walking in the countryside and then a sauna in the swedish sauna they had built in the cottage we rented for the weekend before preparing a fantastic meal. During and after the meal we played games with the bride-to-be and generally had a lot of fun. It was a great time and fantastic to get to do some socialising which is normally so restricted in my life due to training. However, after the games we were all expected to head out into Bath for drinking and dancing. This was at 10.30 at night!! Normally I would already have been asleep for at least an hour and I knew going out would impact upon my resting on the sunday and thus trg on the Monday. Still, I couldn't let everyone down and so headed out though I chose not to get involved in the messy sambuca drinking rounds! In fact, bar a couple of glasses of wine before going out I didn't drink at all.

We finally got back to the cottage at 4am and, exhausted I feel into bed. I was awake by 8am and up by 8.30am. I'm so used to being awake early that it is often hard for me to sleep in too long. Despite having hardly drunk I need feel pretty rubbish, tired and dehydrated. I started the long journey home reflecting on how difficult it is to balance a social life when you are trg to level that I am. That one night out coupled with a few glasses of wine and a long return journey totally exhausted me. I did manage to get up to train on Monday after a very early night on the Sunday but it did throw me for a few days until my sleep pattern came back.

It's so important to get support from those you love, your friends and family who will support you when you most need it. Equally it is important to realise that though you are but an 'amateur' athlete you will get some of the conflicts that are so prevalent in a pro-athlete's level when trg at this level. Work also impacts. I'd would LOVE to get the opportunity to have an afternoon nap, an ice bath and a sports massage every day but unfortunately I also have to earn a living as well as train. With my event still over 18months away I am sure this is not the first time I will be in conflict and finding I am having to juggle many aspects of my life. I just hope I can get it right and it doesn't cause too much stress!

Modelling........

On Wednesday I drove down to Swindon to meet up with one of my sponsors, Less Bounce who were running a photo shoot for their new catalogue. Less Bounce is fantastic as it uses 'real' women to advertise its products showing that they are suitable for all shapes and sizes. The proprietor, Selaine had invited me down and I was definitely a little nervous.

The shoot was taking place in the Retreat Spa, Swindon and I was first up at 8.30am. Selaine had a range of bras for me to model and then asked if I would mind also doing a couple of shots for the swimwear range. Seeing as I'll be spending many an hour in the next year in the deep blue sea, I could hardly refuse!! I actually had a lovely time, it was great to meet Selaine and thank her for supporting me and the other women was all great. They were all really interesting and had some great stories to share. I explained about the challenge and they were really enthusiastic and supportive with many asking for the blog details or how to donate to my chosen charity, Help for Heroes. It was a fabulous reminder that it really will be a big achievement if I can complete the challenge and also of how supportive the public really is of our Armed Forces, which is fantastic. A big hello to Debs who left a comment, it was fabulous to meet you and good luck with the running!

All in all a really fantastic and positive day and, if I'm brave, I'll post some pics of the shoot here soon!

Highs and Lows.....

Whenever you have a long term goal it is always expected that the journey towards it will contain highs and lows. This is why it is especially important to have intermediate goals and areas of focus. Last week I had a brilliant week training putting in nearly 16 hours over the 7 days Sun-Sat including a 2hr and 3 hr bike ride and a split long run day of 90mins in the morning and 45mins at lunch. However, in hindsight maybe I am trying to do a smidgeon too much for this stage of trg. I still have so far to go and though I managed both sessions yesterday I was feeling very fatigued. I woke this morning and decided my body would be better served with some more sleep instead of a morning weights session. I was always planning a day off tomorrow as I have a photo shoot with my kit sponsor Less Bounce but I may also skip today's lunchtim session and have a double day of rest. This is pretty much unheard of and I am already feeling a bit itchy to get back to trg which is a good sign. Sometimes when you just feel fatigued or bored of trg an enforced rest can be enough to get you re-motivated.

I am in two minds about today's session but as it is meant to be a recovery week anyway I may just take it off and get some proper rest. Then I can hit it big style on Thursday morning with a 75min run and then a swim session with the tri club in the evening. Friday would then see me picking up a weights session in the morning and intervals at lunch and then a ride out on Saturday morning. Another rest on Sunday as normal and I should be ready to hit Base 3 with avengance! This is when it would be beneficially to have the objectiveness of a coach who can say, 'Yes, you're doing too much' or 'No, get out there you lazy thing!' When you monitor yourself you have to decide whether you are really tired or just being lazy. And even if you are just really tired you still get the guilt if you miss a session!

Still I hope I have enough experience at this game to know that, having just reached November now is definitely the time to do less rather than more so that when the crucial moments come in the spring I am not found wanting or, more importantly, injured! It is easy to burn out in this game so a rest it is and then hit it hard again Thurs-Sat I think. It will be scary to find out how normal people live for 48hrs and I may actually get some work done!!

Herbalife

I have been in discussions for a while now for Herbalife to come on board as the key sponsor to this event. Well the contracts have been signed and I am finally a full sponsored athlete! The package Herbalife are offering is fantastic and provides me with financial, nutritional and clothing support. It addresses all the key concerns I would have about the challenge and has taken a huge burden off me. Now I just have to concentrate on raising charity sponsorship and, of course, doing the training!

Herbalife is the perfect sponsor as they encourage a healthy lifestyle but also social responsibility and as part of my work with them I shall also be raising money for the Herbalife Family Foundation which is involved in many projects from disaster relief, to bringing good nutrition to children worldwide (http://www.herbalifeww.com/uk/company_overview.shtml). To the team at Herbalife good nutrition is essential whether for weight management, a healthy lifestyle or sporting achievement and they are supporting me with their nutritional products to help me train and recover well. I am using their H30 Pro in training and their Formula One shakes to aid recovery. I am also supported by a raft of supplements and am feeling great at the moment despite training twice a day, 6 days a week!

I absolutely couldn't do this challenge without the support of a corporate sponsor as the financial implications would be too great so I can't thank Herbalife enough for choosing to support me and my World Record Attempt on the Enduroman Arch 2 Arc.

Henlow 10

Wednesday saw the running of the Henlow 10, a local 10miler that finishes at RAF Henlow. This was to be my first B race of the season and the first chance to assess how these first few months of focused run training have improved (or not!) my speed endurance. The race started at 12.30pm from an old aerodrome near Old Warden. I wasn't sure I had quite got my nutrition correct before the race and set off feeling a little heavy-legged which wasn't surprising given I had raced on Sunday. The aim was to complete the 10miles in 1 hr 25 which meant averaging 8.30min/miles. The first mile was very fast and I thought the mile marker came up a bit short, my new RS200 SD beeped its autolap mile marker around 15seconds later.

A quick word on the HRM. Dom Phipps of Generation Bikes Ltd (www.generationsportsandcycles.com) provided me with this to help aid my training and I love being able to see how fast I am running though it is mighty distracting as I need to keep sneaking a peek at my wrist every so often! As I learn what different paces feel like hopefully this will pass! It is a funky red colour and I am really enjoying it and I am sure it will help my trg come on in leeps and bounds!

The second mile however I was still under target but this time the mile marker was about 15 secs after my autolap had beeped. This was the case for the rest of the race with the markers progressively getting further from the actual mile point as measured by my new friend. I did mapmyrun it later and found it was a good 200m long which wasn't surprising as they confirmed afterwards that they had measured it using a car odometer - not the most accurate!

I had forgotten quite how lumpy the course really was or 'undulating' as race directors like to term it and certainly for the first half the downs did not outweigh the up. Still, I was easily under time hitting the half way in about 42mins. There are some faster miles in the second half, notably the seventh which is a nice long run down into Shefford but the long drag coming out of Shefford more than takes away the speed it has just delivered. I felt like I would easily make it as all my splits had been under 8.30 but as the time ticked down I felt sub 1hr25 slipping away. The course was definitely long but a sustained push to the end, which saw me make up some places, took me across the line in 1hr 25mins and 24mins. I definitely begruadged the course those 24secs but knowing it had been more like 10.2miles definitely helped, the HRM had me cross the 10mile point a 1hr 22 44mins which I would have been thrilled with and I still took 3 1/2mins off last years time so everything is headed in the right direction.

I had really wanted to have a short break, eat and change and then hit the treadmills for another 5miles to really help start shoring up the endurance work but the gym had been closed for the run and I couldn't face heading back out into the rain so I called it a day and used the opportunity to head home early.

It was a wonderful surprise when I headed into the pool for a swim the next day to find that B/W/H had actually won the Men's and Ladies team prize. The team prize counts the first four qualifiers and I had actually recorded the faster B/W/H Ladies time leading the team to victory! This was totally unexpected as I never win anything so I was quite shocked - I should have stayed for the medal ceremony after all! I have now received a little wooden shield which will take pride of place on my desk. A fourth place at the local 5k and now winning the Ladies prize, it's not international glory but it is a definite step in the right direction and shows me that maybe the middle/back of the pack attitude I have always had needs to be rethought! :)

Du Blues 2 (sort of...)

So, you will remember I posted last week about going to watch Adam and his friend Chris in their first duathlon and Chris got a puncture and couldn't finish. Well, having been training hard I think he was a bit despondent to get a DNF in his first foray into multi-sport. He was extremely keen to get another one under his belt whilst he had the momentum but Adam was working the next two weekends so yours truly agreed to keep him company at the 1485 No Frills Duathlon.

I have NO idea what possessed me to agree, it must have been Chris' newbie enthusiam. Considering I view duathlons as basically triathlons without the fun part and with double the evil part, the thought of doing my FIRST EVER duathlon was pretty unappealing. The only joyous thing about it was the fact that the start time was at 10.30am so at least it wouldn't be a really unsociable start. I met Chris in Market Bosworth feeling nervous and, as there was a bit of a chill in the air, dithering about what clothes to race it. I eventually went for an odd combo of cycling jersey and arm warmers, tri shorts and topped off with running gloves and a buff to keep my newly coiffed hair out of my face. Despite the nip in the air I manage to nearly boil myself to death on the first run and gladly ripped off the gloves and buff in transition.

Setting up transition had been interesting. Having not raced multisport for three years now I felt like total newbie again and was stressing about forgetting things and not remembering what order to do stuff in. I think it helped that I had chose not to run with lock laces (used my trainers which normally see the more sedate pace of ultras/Ironman where gadgets such as lock laces are not a normal feature and didn't want to thread them with lock laces only to have to undo them again for training the next day) and so knew I was going to be slow in transition anyway so I didn't need to panic too much.

The first run went fairly well. Dom Phipps from Generation Bikes Ltd (www.generationsportsandcycles.com) has kindly supplied me with a Polar RS200SD which means I can finally tell how fast I am going during a run and this feedback was great as I cantered round the first 5k. I entered transition in around 25mins and was feeling ok. The aims for the race was to try and have two steady and well paced runs of 26mins each and to push the bike as hard as I could. Transition was slow but steady and I headed out to the bike course. It was a pretty good course and I passed a number of the quicker runners and made up a few places. My biking is still slow as it is the bit that I have the least background in and has been the most neglected but I was pleased that I pushed as hard as I could without worrying about the 2nd run. Off the bike for the second run I felt pretty strong and once I got my legs moving I seemed to be tapping along ok. Unfortunately the HRM foot pod had gone onto stand by whilst I had been out on the bike so I didn't get any measurements but I thought I was doing ok.

Unfortunately within the first km I was struck by the same agonisingly debilitating stitch type pain that I got last year in the Henlow 10. It feels like an extremely severe stitch but isn't cured by the normal hands-above-your-head, breathing out on opposite foot fall etc. When I saw a doctor after the race last year he wondered whether I had a mild abdominal or intercostal tear. The biggest problem is I can't really run as each footfall causes a stabbing pain and it is so severe that my breathing gets out of control and then I get a bit panicked. Hmm, not good. I knew it was only 4kms to go and so I tried so fast walking stints and then running when I could. I found that if I jammed my fingers into the spot where it hurt then that gave some relieved so I hobbled on running with only one arm going and stopping for walk breaks when necessary. I finally staggered over the line where Chris was waiting. Poor Chris! The first time we had raced together and I was a bit teary due to the frustration and the pain. It wasn't as bad as at Henlow and subsided within a few minutes after I had stopped but it was so frustrating that it had impacted upon my race. I thought I was probably be down in the 29mins or so for the second run and was chuffed to find that I had actually managed to hold it to 26mins all the same so my total time ended up around 1hr 42.

Chris had a good race ended up slightly outside his prediction of 1hr 30 at 1hr 33mins but consdering it was his first race it is always hard to judge and I thought he did fab. We watched the last finishers over the line and the presentation then headed back home. All in all it was a good morning's work as the stitch obviously didn't impact as much as I had initially thought and we were home by 2pm feeling chuffed. Considering I was fearing the worst, I actually thought my first duathlon went pretty well and I was pleased once again with how my running is progressing. I just hope the residual pain of the stitch thing goes before my second race of the week on Wednesday - my first B race of the season and the first opportunity to really guage my running progress over the last two months- the Henlow 10!