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With 11 weeks to Go, I don’t want to be Sick

February 8, 2010 | Author: doubleohdeelybopperhead

The past week I’ve been sick as nausea took hold of me, spun me around (which inevitably made me dizzy), added a good dose of fever and left me clinging to the bed like it was the only thing I wanted to take into the afterlife with me. Each morning I would wake up and, hoping that I was better, get up only to be put back in my place – a hot mess on the edge of the bed with multiple blankets attempting to make me feel as hot as I was.

Thankfully the weekend came round and with that, my unwanted visitor left and I was capable of acting more like a human. 

Of course, being the being that I am, I thought it was a good idea to go swimming on Saturday (you know, to ease into it).  I also thought it was a good idea to attempt a rather hard brick on Sunday, but obviously I’m not quite ready for that.  I finished both sessions – not with a lot of heart, but definitely finished them.

And like Juls, I loved the feeling of sweat.  The knowledge that I had done something.  Unfortunately I should probably have seen it as a sign that everything wasn’t quite alright and this morning I woke up with a familiar feeling.  I’m not clinging to the bed (yet), but I should probably learn to take it a little easier when coming back from illness.

Posted in Cycling, Life, Running, Swimming | Leave a Comment

31 Things I want to do before I turn 32

December 16, 2009 | Author: doubleohdeelybopperhead
  1. Lose 31 lbs
  2. Run 1000 miles
  3. Bike 3100 miles
  4. Swim 31 miles
  5. Take 365 pictures consecutively
  6. Learn to speak Spanish
  7. Finish an Ironman distance event
  8. Finish a 70.3 sub 7:30
  9. Write 365 journal entries
  10. Run a marathon sub 5:00
  11. Get myself to drink no more than 1 cup of coffee a day
  12. Do 31 walks in the Peaks
  13. Run a marathon sub 4:45
  14. Read 31 books
  15. Ride my bike more often
  16. Walk to work more often
  17. Make homemade lunch every morning
  18. Have 365 bowls of oats
  19. Have no more than 5 junk food meals during the year
  20. Have no more than 12 restaurant meals during the year
  21. Get up at 5am 80% of the time
  22. Finish the 100 push-ups challenge
  23. Write 51 letters to my mom
  24. Visit a friend with whom I’ve lost contact
  25. Keep 1 plant alive (just about every plant I’ve ever bought / gotten for the house has died within 4 months) until I turn 32
  26. Get out of the house more often on weekends
  27. Visit the Cliffs of Dover
  28. Re-do our garden (or what is left of it)
  29. Decorate at least one of the rooms in the house
  30. Get at least 8 hours of sleep 80% of the time
  31. Learn to let go
Posted in Cycling, Ironman, Life, Photography, Racing, Running, Swimming, Training | 1 Comment

Weekends are made for Tests

December 14, 2009 | Author: doubleohdeelybopperhead

I’m lazy.

Too lazy to think or do or be.  How I managed to get out the door, into the pool, back to the house, onto the turbo and an hour later off the bike and into the shower no-one could explain in a hundred years.  But that’s what I did yesterday and in both cases it was to do a threshold test and see how I’ve managed to do these past few weeks and better my fitness in some way or another.

Swimming : I managed to go 1min24 faster than the previous time I did the test and with that I was very happy.  I felt like I needed a good sleep afterwards, so I went home and crawled into the beanbag and snoozed while watching a dvd.

Cycling : The test made me sweat more than a pig on a summer’s day.  But once again I managed to do better than I thought I would and a few short hours after the bike ride I was fast asleep in bed once again.  This time without a dvd.  Just a good amount of darkness while Peg-leg watched the snooker in the lounge.  I don’t even remember him coming to bed, just that I was sufficiently asleep to not notice.

And so another 4 week cycle begins.

And I’m going to South Africa in 10 days.

Posted in Cycling, Swimming, Training | Leave a Comment

Sometimes Sensible

December 10, 2009 | Author: doubleohdeelybopperhead

The last 2 days were two of those days that you try to avoid whenever possible.  I woke up with a feeling of nausea that simply could not be ignored and it generally just didn’t go away. 

Since I’m on a bit of a roll with my training I didn’t want to skip sessions and since there wasn’t any fever or other symptoms I felt okay to just go for a run on Tuesday and get on the turbo last night.

Tuesday’s run of 50 minutes became 40 minutes and last night’s turbo session of 1 hour became 41 minutes and in both instances that was the moment that sensibility kicked in and helped me to realise that I could struggle forward and feel more sick at the end of it or I could give in, go to bed and hope that I woke up feeling better in the morning.

When I woke up this morning I realised that this was another day that I didn’t want to have.  I was already fighting nausea and with a swim session looming I was already dreading tonight.

I figured it was time to seek medical help. 

Inner ear infection.

That little thing that can throw you out of sync with everything for days on end unless you get something to help you along on your way to feeling better.  The doctor prescribed me something nice and nasty and told me to see how I feel again in 7 days.  Once all the pills are gone. 

And being MY doctor, she added that she still thinks that its not right that I swim/bike/run.

So, sometimes I’m sensible and go to bed and then seek the help of a doctor.  And other times I lose my senses and do exercises when I shouldn’t.

Posted in Life, Training | Leave a Comment

Get Through It

November 18, 2009 | Author: doubleohdeelybopperhead

Training.  It was going so well.  Then this happened…

pig-sneeze

… and I was side-lined for a good few days.

And now its just SO hard to get back into it.  I managed to do my swim on Monday.  Some of my run on Tuesday.  If I can get through this week with all sessions done, I’ll be ready for the next week.  And the next.  And the next.  And a whole lot more.

Last night I nearly skipped that run.  But I ended up going out and getting it done.  Midway through the run I felt my food make a return trip up to my throat and stopped.  I took a few sips of water and then attempted to get going again.  Another 3 minutes later I was sitting on the cold curb, attempting to figure out why I was feeling so sick.  I started running again and with 40 minutes out of 50 done, called it a day when I realised I wasn’t going to win the battle.

Cycling tonight.  On the trainer. 

All I need to do is get this week’s sessions done and I’ll be ready for next week.

Posted in Running, Training | 2 Comments

internal server error warbook

November 5, 2009 | Author: doubleohdeelybopperhead

Apparently the search phrase manages to direct people to this blog, and its probably twice as likely now.  Although I guess there could be some internal server errors at times, I’m pretty sure that I’ve never written a warbook on it before.

Winter is attacking – this morning it was 2 degrees celsius when I left the house and my poor fingers clasped to the steering wheel with as much grip as it could, considering that I couldn’t really feel them.  I had an hour to drive and the only warmth in the car was a big mug of coffee that peg-leg had made me before I left. 

Sunday afternoon I had a bike ride.  A long bike ride.  A bike ride which left my knees wobbling and my arms shaking by the time I finished, but the strangest thing about it all was that my fingers were completely numb.  Not even pins and needles.

I shook it off as cold, lack of blood in the fingers and extreme amounts of blood in my legs. 

Unfortunately 20 hours later, two fingers on each hand were still numb.  Numb to the point that my whole hand felt weakened by it.  There were pins and needles in the tips of the fingers, but no other feeling to report in any other part and generally it felt like they were utterly useless. 

At least I could still move them, as proved when I then started typing away at work, but it felt WEIRD.

Eventually I started having mild panic attacks about the possibility of losing my fingers and being known as the three-fingered old lady down the street, so I did what any sane person would do – I googled it.

Much to my relief, its a common problem and generally related to your hand position on the bike.  One person (not sure I believe this tale) even reported losing feeling in his pinky and ring fingers for 3 weeks after a 100 mile bike ride. 

Tuesday morning my fingers were still numb, same thing on Wednesday.

I had all but lost hope to regain feeling in my fingers ever again, as I have to get on the bike again today, when I woke up this morning and have complete feeling, albeit a bit clumsy, in all fingers.  No pins.  No needles. 

Until tonight.

Posted in Cycling, Training | Leave a Comment

180. Stiffness in the Hips

October 28, 2009 | Author: doubleohdeelybopperhead

Training is coming along nicely.  I can feel that I’m spending time  in the pool, on the bike and on my feet, be it on road or grass or treadmill.  Last night, for the first time, I experienced a stiffness in my hips that I haven’t felt in ages. 

I was running and I could feel my legs had a little less flexibility helping them out.  At first I thought it was just a good warm-up that was missing, but this morning I woke up and boy, I need to stretch more.  I feel like someone has hopped over last night and tightened some screws.  Too much indeed.

Swimming has been going well.  The new pool is definitely worth every penny/mile/minute.  There is one bloke that is mildly irritating, but I’m sure that if I remember to get to the pool on time that will sort itself out.  Every session so far has been a great deal of fun and generally I just love getting in the water.

Cycling is coming along – I’ve finally entered the ranks of people that sweat too much on this one.  I cannot believe how much. 

With 26 1/2 weeks to go, training is coming on nicely :)

Posted in Cycling, Running, Swimming, Training | Leave a Comment

189. Forums and Sleep

October 20, 2009 | Author: doubleohdeelybopperhead

I remembered BreakingTheTape has a forum today and decided to stop by it.  Then I realised the last time I made a post to it was about 2 years ago when I was about to run the Lady Godiva Half Marathon (I didn’t run in the end because I overslept, but that’s not the point) and decided to alter that with a random topic.

This morning I overslept again.  Getting to bed at midnight has not helped my cause and generally I wake up at 7h30, feeling disoriented and tired and grumpy because I know that I have to get up.  Unfortunately it does mean that training takes place at night, which generally means that I finish up around 8pm and can’t sleep until midnight after that.  I guess this coming weekend, clock changes and all, will have to suffice as a method to alter my bodyclock and get to bed earlier.

On that note, yesterday’s training were supposed to consist of some running and some swimming.  The swimming happened, the running didn’t.  I fell off a shoe (yes, you read right… a shoe…) and a cramp settled in a rather uncomfortable place which had me wondering whether I was going to be able to walk/swim/bike/run ever again. 

I decided that I would attempt swimming first and take my shoes and clothes and whatever else I might need with me in case I felt up to the run afterwards. 

The swim was relaxing, tiring and a generally good workout.  But the cramp didn’t release and after the swim I headed to the ice room to get some icing done.  I got home just after 9, to bed at 10 and then could not for the life of me sleep until well after midnight. 

This morning, like magic, there are no more cramping to report on and I suspect that I’ll be able to get some running done tonight.* 

* Of course, this depends wholly on whether I can stay on my shoes today.

Posted in Swimming, Training | Leave a Comment

193 – Strengthening the Motivation

October 16, 2009 | Author: doubleohdeelybopperhead

The darkness scares me.  I’ve mentioned this before and generally that keeps me out of trouble by running when there is little or no light.

Last night I finally took out and setup my treadmill at home.  After this week I’m quite tired and I figured that if I ran at home I could get a shower and then get an early night.  Since its become so incredibly cold already, nothing sounded better than a snuggly night under a duvet with a good book or a good show.  I bought The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and had every intention of watching it from the comfort of the couch or bed.

Peg-leg was out for the evening with some friends and it gave me plenty of free time.

I misjudged how much time I had though.  I had supper, took a 40 minute run on the treadmill, took a long leisurely shower and had everything ready when Peg-leg walked through the door.  Which meant that rather than the movie, I was about to watch an episode of Family Guy instead.  This was followed by Bones  and Lie to Me and then I was ready for bed.

By Sunday week 1 will be in the bank.

Posted in Running, Training | Leave a Comment

194. Turbo Love

October 15, 2009 | Author: doubleohdeelybopperhead

tacx-flow-computer-trainer-with-skyliner-44654 Yesterday called for a turbo training session.  The bike was setup before I even made it home, but after work the traffic was so bad that I asked peg-leg to pick me up from work on his motorbike and we headed to a local pub for some food.

But, back at home, the bike was still waiting for me in a toasty room, rather than a cold outside.

The session was harder than I thought it would be.  The turbo laughed at me.  It threw my legs into a world of hurt-so-good moments that nearly had them falling off at the end of each set.

I finished the session seeing stars, feeling a bit sick and generally shattered.  My legs buckled when I got off the bike and I convinced peg-leg to go for a walk, because I needed fresh air and plenty of stretching. 

IMG_0456

Posted in Cycling, Ironman, Training | Leave a Comment
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