Down by the riverside and frickin sore knees...

Lordy they hurt today and I don't know why as I have only done one spin this week and bugger all else. Mind you, I did wear heels this week so that might be it. The most beautiful day, th river like a lake, like glass, and everything so sunny and beautiful, but I was dragging my legs like a draggy thing (can't think of a smilie or is at a metaphor?...... )  but  it was not pretty or fast. Looked like I am not really a runner. No idea why.         Where  is my running ability? Where is that bugger hiding...... Not coming out. Tried to speed up when I came into view with a couple of  golfers, though Lord knows why,  but not much of an improvement. I guess, unless I run with others, I will just not improve. How on earth did I do the great north....
Did I
really do it...? And other questions........

A swimming post for you :)

As it is all about the TRI and that means the bike and the swimming. I don't have a bike at the min ( waiting for my birthday present and the borrowed one has gone back to the original owner so apart from the occasional run, I am now going to concentrate on the swimming and did so for an hour on Sunday  .  I did breast stroke, one arm crawl with a float, crawl kicks with the float and then managed 3, I think....front crawl laps. This was in a 15m pool.... So not exactly Olympic level here but a start as I could not swim front crawl at all a year or two ago and I am determined to learn. Will breast stroke at the tri if necessary but crawl, if I can manage it, is faster. Mind you , it is totally knackering . I was like  a prune  when I emerged but reckon it was a really good workout so will do it again sometime this week.

Tri terrify tri ....

I have to confess, iam a bit scared about this tri I have entered.... Discussed drills this week and went to see a Bike (cheap one at that ) but a hybrid that I might get for my birthday and then can properly ride and enter a tri. Swim drills scaring me as well  but as some bight start said, unless you are scaring yourself a little , you are not growing . Mind you, I will be 44 soon and would quite like to leave some of the growing in the past. Suppose for those with a bit of a spark,  it is a constant, just like change .  Ok , so lets go then............

Bit of a training low this week but made the barjkalifa!

The training doldrums were interspersed with good shopping and quality family time and of course my baking masterpiece.... The barj...........I will explain. The bairn continues to request  increasingly complicated birthday cakes and this year , at school, the bairns are studying mega structures and the barj kalifa features heavily , so.......I was asked to bake that as her cake. HAVE YOU SEEN IT ?? The tallest building in the world....! Also I am a rubbish baker so after a couple of hours of toil I produced this effort and then had to lie down for a bit.....i think you will agree that i have no intension of branching out into cake baking as a business any time soon....any way, as for  the running/training, feeling like very little achieved in the past week, eaten too much, only just recovered from the vicious workout with the latest village hall shouty boss which was soooo hard it took me a week to walk properly before I could do any sort of run and then did a crappy one on sat and an ok but too short one yesterday. No real enthusiasm at the min but since I have actually entered the tri, I need to get my act together and sharp ish. Think the first step is to try the tri on fri afternoon - 14k spin, 7k tun and then a 500 m swim, in the wrong order but i am damned if i am going to do the swim first and cycle in wet underwear until the actual race . next step after that, book a swimming lesson . Might mix spin and circuits as spin alone is not doing it for me at the min and despite the pain from the new shouty boss, I certainly responded to his army 'work your lazy ass people 'manner !

The barj.......

Ouch...!

No running to report but a vicious circuits class whilst the bairn was in another room doing dainty kiddies gymnastics. I, on the other hand was at the mercy of a beast of a man, ex-army I am willing to bet my house on that and still in evil drill mode. Did not let up for an hour and ended up pushing myself , using muscles which I thought had an airing recently but didn't know what had hit them at the end of the  session. Today I cannot walk.  I am in agony. This is two days after the session. I have only ever once been in this much pain. Have used frozen peas straight after but really needed one of those ice baths. Well I do it again... Very probably and hope it won't hurt as much... Need to run this weekend if legs will let me.

The BIrds.......

Just spent ages writing an epic blog about how I had a rubbish run today cos I was  put off by the birds around me cos I had recently watched The BIrds movie 3times in a row in an effort to get to the end of it. Love birds but after that I swear those ducks were giving me the evils and it seemed that the great flock of seagulls (ok about 3) were hovering menacingly over head........ Well all in all, rubbish run but got out and fresh air and some time on the feet.... Happy shrove Tuesday and enjoy your pancakes!!

Fancy do with posh dress, lots of food, lots of booze but nooooooo running or exercise ? Not good. Oh we'll start of a new week. Lets see what I can do diddle dooooooo

Four seasons in one run.....

Wind, rain, hail, sun all in the space of my 4miler today. Resistance from the wind, feet up to ankles in mud  but sure I know I'm alive after that. The only shelter was the arch of the trees in the lane. Cobwebs well and truly blown away. Long hot shower, feet up.....lovely!

The snow run photos

How could I resist running here....?

Just had to get out ... The sun was a shinnin....

And one just cannot stay in when the sun is a shining...   The floods had drained away leaving loads of stick debris on the edge of the bank, nice little manoeuvring situation for me. The floods had obviously reached quite far from  the river bank on to the golf course as there were strange little rings of sticks around the hills above the bunkers, like little halos or crowns of thorns . . So having spent a week looking , more or less , at four walls of a hotel in Prague, I had had enough. So , having done some domestic duties, I headed off to the gym and spinned or span.... To loosen up (sorry Neil for crashing your spin only room but I did move to my own space and not chat so....) and then off for a run with a few intervals, now't great but did try hard , then back for another 5mins spin.  Great. Like I said... Always feel better after a spin.
I was not well in Prague and quite a few others from the 500strong conference were too and  currently, there is a debate as to was it the oysters or the damn dumplings. I can eat almost anything but the meat or dumplings smelt rank.... I still ate them though, (now't will defeat me....) but they did in the end.  So I had cabin fever and crashed out of the conference for one day, missed a gala dinner (cracking dress but th  ere you go...) and then had so much sleep was able to go to party night e next evening and hit a couple of tequilas... I know , disgusting but had a laugh and a dance and that is good for the soul so there....! But, this did leave me gasping for air and exercise ... So today, I ran. It was not long, not the best but it was was A RUN :)! Happy  belated Yorkshire pudding day to you all....

Running in Praha?

The Prague run did not happen -been in Dublin but no running there, not even a step outside the hotel. Then PRague, again no running. Bummer . Next time maybe. Brought all my stuff but illness and lack of time meant they just made my case 3k s over ....