What ya' been up to?

Quite a lot actually, training, on the bike, a little bit of running and swimming... not too much, little and often mainly and once a week a long ride on the bike, and I'm definitely feeling the benefits!

Hubby and I joined our local fitness centre a few weeks ago which has a 25m indoor pool, gym and various fitness suites and classes, everything you could possibly want.

I've been swimming 3 times a week and getting up at silly o'clock to do it!  In a weird way I've actually enjoyed swimming first thing in the morning and my husband has been joining me.  It really sets you up for the day and once I get over the initial shock of having to get up at 6am, eat some breakfast (my trusty overnight oats) and trudge off down the road, I'm usually buzzing by the time I'm dried off and done.

Many many moons ago, way back in the days when we didn't have t'internet or blogs, I was a very good swimmer, representing my county and holding all sorts of records.  And although I haven't been a regular swimmer since I moved to Nottingham 6 years ago, it's a bit like riding a bike for me, I've got good form and get back into it really quickly.

So for my triathlon next month I have to swim 200 metres indoors; 8 lengths of our pool, although on the day the pool for the triathlon is 33m so it will be 6 lengths.

First time I went swimming I managed 400m (16 lengths), that was a surprise! :o)

But, I can only swim breast stroke at the moment cos I've got a painful left shoulder, which has taken some abuse over the years from crashing motorbikes on trackday's and a nasty road crash in 2002 and then recently a couple of off's on the mountain bike, the last in March when the front end washed out on a left hand berm and boy did I go down hard, so hard I bruised my jaw! 

I've tried front crawl and back stroke and it really hurt for a couple of days thereafter so I'm being sensible and every session I've done has been breast stroke, slow and steady, not my favourite style but it's exercise at the end of the day and I can do 200m -8 mins, not brilliant but I don't want to wreck my shoulder so I can't ride my bike!

My last swimming session was nearly 2 weeks ago but the shoulder was being problematic so I decided to rest it and get myself booked in with physio.  Luckily for me, a member of my bike club is a newly qualified physio and she was offering a members discount at her clinic so I went to see her this week and she's diagnosed neurological and muscular problems and joint scarring (I already have thickening of the AC joint from the m/b crash in 2002) so the shoulder is weak so I've got exercises to do twice a day and I'm going back to see her next week.

She says I can continues swimming but only breast stroke, oh joy!

The good news is the shoulder isn't affecting my riding, so I've been out on the mountain bike 3 times a week, lots of sessions at my local TC hitting the blue and red routes and really enjoying it and I've bought myself a lovely little cyclocross/touring bike to play on and to use for the triathlon.

I'm not gonna lie, riding a road bike is the weirdest thing ever!  Firstly there's the riding position, not just one but a choice of 3 different positions! The saddle feels like an ironing board and as for those skinny tyres... I was quite literally terrified the first time I rode this as I was convinced I wouldn't stay upright! 

This photo was from the advert so I have removed the reflectors (lol) and I've fitted some spd's so it looks the biz now!

With 2 weeks until Torq in your sleep, I'm feeling the pressure to up my game a little bit and get out on some longer rides, so I'm done with work for the rest of this month (joys of being self employed!) and I'm gonna focus on cardio and stamina for the next week and a half and resting for a couple of days before the bank holiday weekend so I feel nice and relaxed for the weekend.

No stopping me now!

OK, so I've had another moment of madness..

I've booked my first, wait for it.................................  TRIATHLON!!!!!! 

What??? Yes, you did read that correctly, a Triathlon! Now before you go imagining me swimming across open waters, cycling 100 miles and running a marathon, I'll stop you there! 

This is a beginners triathlon with a 200m indoor pool swim, 18km bike ride and 2.5km run, it's a Pink Wave Triathlon to raise money for Cancer Research and will be part of the Warwickshire Triathlon run by UKTriathlon.

It's on Sunday 24th September, 4 weeks after Torq in your sleep, so hopefully my legs will have recovered by then! 

Training has already started, I have joined my local leisure centre along my hubby, he's a keen mountain biker too and did Mountain Mayhem a few weeks ago, so is just as enthusiastic as me about training and getting fitter.  It's a really good centre with 25m pool, fully equipped gym with personal trainers who I intend to badger with questions and requests for help and it's walking/jogging/limping distance from my house!

My first swimming session was at the 'moonlight swim' last week and I had originally planned to just try and swim 8 lengths = 200m but I actually surprised myself and swam double that and I've been back again this week and swam 500m, although this time it was an early morning swim... we were there at 7am, can you believe that!! And I followed it with a long walk with the dogs!

I'm easing myself back into running too, I have really rubbish knees and low arches and the beginnings of a bunion on my right foot (it's a hereditary thing, we've all got awful feet in our family along with arthritis and dodgy joints!)

Of course I now have to find myself a suitable bike, the MTB ain't gonna cut it, especially if there are hills!  I went 1x11 back in April so I don't have the luxury of granny gears anymore and I'm not gonna put myself at a disadvantage trying to ride a full sus up a huge hill on the road with big chunky tyres so the hunt is on for something second hand... so watch this space.

So yeah, mad woman strikes again! I'm really excited to be doing this though and it's more exercise and all stuff that will help with Torq in your sleep and the Hopetech Women Enduro - hopefully!