I always try to up my training during school vacations as theoretically I have all the time in the world. Wanna know how I did this time? Check my December 2014 posts.
6th December, 2014: So I've decided to train for a Half Marathon!
6th December, 2014: So I've decided to train for a Half Marathon!
7th December, 2014: Day 1 of 'Official Half Marathon' Training...
8th December, 2014: Why oh why do I choose cycling over relaxing? Gotta love it!
19th December, 2014: Half marathon training turning up....Half a Half!
20th December, 2014: Hashing
24th December, 2014: My delightful Christmas Eve run :-S
30th December, 2014: ....and the resulting: Mashup Feet :-(
And in conclusion, I am now sitting, blogging, having not trained in ages, icing my feet and hoping against hope that the wonderful massage I received yesterday will be powerful enough to counterbalance the stress I've put my body under during this alcohol infused, gruelling vacation!
24th September, 2014.
Clawing Back...
I have a triathlon coming up in 11 days time in Barbados. I went last year and allowed my stressed out state of mind created my my son's sudden school refusal, prevent me from pushing myself...I didn't even go onto big plate on my bike till the fourth and final lap, for goodness sake! And I finished with so much puff to spare and unused energy, on crossing the finish line a feeling of disappointment hit not allowing the relief, pride and basic regular endorphin release to even surface. I sat there sipping on my protein shake, refusing the alcohol offered jubilantly by my beaming teammates, and wondered why I'd self-defeatingly thought my months of training would be negated by a couple of weeks off...
Fast forward to this year. Four months off due to a trapped nerve caused me to miss the much anticipated Rainbow Cup in Tobago in June. A month after this event, which I'd psychically linked into and sulked throughout as I felt left out, I suddenly picked myself up and decided I'd go back training, despite the trapped nerve and have had varying degrees of success. Combined with Anusara yoga and massage and a determination to not overdo it, I've been able to maintain training. Unfortunately, my performance has been as volatile as my energy system...i.e. very! So I was very much in two minds about doing the whole triathlon....check my 'Duelling the Duathlon post...' and been toying with the idea of doing the bike leg of a relay and thus just focussing on becoming a beast on the bike. However, finding a runner for the last leg has been a challenge, so I've continued training for the entire triathlon.
Saturday found me doing the entire distances with short breaks in between. But really slowly. Well, the bike leg was OK as I was fighting to keep up with two of my male teammates on mountain bikes....but the run felt absurd...right back to that duathlon pace. Finishing the first half in seventeen and a half minutes, allowed me to resign myself to a 35 minute 5k.. so you can imagine my horror at finishing past 36 minutes...despite feeling like I'd run way faster on the way back. I left that training session knowing the triathlon was possible but would be a battle to not come last, yet again, which I wasn't too hip to. The relay was definitely still looking like the favoured option.
Today though was very different. I went to bed ridiculously early: I was in my bed writing in my journal at 8.30pm and I finally relinquished my whatsapping phone by 9.10. Of course by midnight I was starving hungry so had to whiz up an oat, banana and peanut butter almond milk smoothie...and ended up joining my daughter in a late night kitchen cleaning session...but still it was technically an early night. Then on getting up I found a really cool free meditation on Omvana by Bob Proctor about shaking off limitations, entitled: 'Shift Your Paradigm' which was short enough to fit in and not be horribly late for training yet again. I'd been totally shattered with uncomfortable nerve pains for days, but this morning I felt OK and off I headed to the beautiful Tucker Valley.
Swimming was lovely. The water was even clearer than it has been and although I didn't see a turtle this week (three weeks in a row is pretty lucky...) I saw loads of fish and an interesting light blue coral. I managed to sustain a 5 stroke freestyle and wasn't absurdly slow...although hardly speedy. I managed to twang my neck on the way back in and crawled out of the water in a state of total exhaustion. However, I'd brought some of my high protein wheat free cookies, (really high protein as I'd used protein powder in them on discovering a substantial lack of peanut butter!) so I gobbled down two of them and jumped on my bike.
My attempt at a shoe-on-the-bike mount was so poor I think I'll be leaving that out for the foreseeable future...and my dismount was thwarted by a truck coming out of the carpark the wrong way, but the ride was OK. I found myself able to push through the upward incline pain barrier a little more than usual and got up to 28 pedals off saddle...a new record! However, by the end of the ride, the cookies had fought back and I was left doubled over in pain with sharp gas pains....
Despite the pain, which somehow lessened as I ran up the bamboo framed lane, the run was the highlight of the day. We left in 3 groups based on our projected times. Having run so slowly in the last session, my expectation wasn't high. But I set off at some kind of speed, certainly faster than my recent snail's pace, and realised my legs didn't feel like they'd been infused with either led or concrete this time! When the fast group zoomed past me at a fearsome pace, Bob Proctor's voice started ringing in my head, and I decided I ought to run just a little faster, so I did. I then heard the thud thud of feet behind me and got that inevitable feeling of dejection that yet someone else was going to pass me. However, surprisingly, I was able to keep with him, and actually surge ahead as we turned the corner, a whole minute faster on the halfway mark than the previous time! Well, that got me cooking! I stretched my legs out a little and ran, as opposed to my usual just faster than a walk jog. I felt great and like I was taking energy from all the beautiful hills and trees surrounding me. My teammate caught back up to me and we ran together, with me feeling particularly proud that I was keeping up with a tall male, eighteen years my junior! I started flagging towards the very end, but having ducked yet another vehicle determined, it seemed, to kill our momentum, he geed me on and we sprinted into the finish. My time was 31mins 34secs...almost 5 minutes faster than last time!
The feeling was phenomenal...I felt like I was finally back in the game. I also decided then and there that I would be training again tomorrow and not stretching it out in a yoga studio, as I now feel I have a chance after all to achieve something in this coming triathlon. With three more training sessions to go, I'm optimistic. I'm just here trying to work out what the secret ingredient to my immense improvement was. I suspect it was a combination of the following factors: sleep, Bob Proctor and wheat-free, high protein cookies.
14th September, 2014: Duelling the Duathlon...a real test of one's mettle!
18th August, 2014.
Brick Workout...
The sea at Macqueripe was beautiful today. It was uncharacteristically clear and for once I could actually see the rippled sand of the seabed. Countless schools of fish swam around my toes as I glided through the water, feeling the joy of swimming without the accompanying anxiety which tends to seize me when the sea gets a little too dark and murky. At one point the current was in our favour and I felt like a sailboat catching an optimal breeze as I zoomed through the water.
Following that I jumped onto my bike, and rode through the lush Tucker Valley, looping through the golf course, searching through the dense foliage in the hope of seeing monkeys while also ogling the bamboo as I wanted to take some for my rabbits in an attempt to stop them from gnawing on my furniture! I did two laps at a leisurely pace then kicked into gear. Finally, oh finally I feel back in control of my Specialised Dolce (yep love the bike enough to give it a plug...) Yes my thighs still screeched at me as I ascended hills, well slopes....but this time, the fourth time back following a four month, trapped sciatic nerve based injury gap, I felt powerful enough to keep pushing. I rode 27.5 km in total, a solid distance.
Then on the way home, I got some fresh bamboo leaves for the rabbits which they munched down voraciously. Next time I'll take a saw to get a fresh chunk of non-ant infested bamboo for those long ever growing teeth & for my poor embattled furniture...
29th July, 2013.
The Wimp
Well, I did it....went ahead and ran 8 1/2 k on 4th day of a liquid only, cleanse. And it was great! I was ready to summon anorexic gymnasts into my head as proof that food isn't necessarily necessary for high performance at sports, but hardly needed them at all. What was interesting is that I did need to summon, and in fact defeat, something else.....
I'd seen this hilarious comic strip on Facebook all about 'The Blerch'. It was written by a long distance runner known as 'The Oatmeal' who avoids hitting 'the wall' by realising it's not a real wall, it's just a hideous creature from his subconscious trying to make him stop running and eat cake instead.
So there I was, running through smelly St. James, dodging vomit, doubles vendors, garbage strewn around the place and the usual early morning hazards, when I suddenly got tired. I was particularly disappointed by this sudden onset of exhaustion (which was not hunger induced I might add) as I was on the home stretch and expecting to be feeling stronger. So I looked over my shoulder for this Blerch fellow who was surely following me, trying to make me stop. Well guess what? No Blerch. Nope, not a sign of any short fat guy trying to make me eat ice cream and chocolate fudge cake. So I ran a few more steps and realised why I couldn't see him.
I don't have a Blerch. No part of me would prefer to be eating unhealthy food than running. This is because if I ever do eat junk, I suffer greatly with stomach cramps and bloating which can last days. Not that I never cheat....it's just that my cheating is never inspired by exercise.
But what I do have, however, is a Wimp!
The Wimp is a weak and feeble version of me. She always gets injured, she gets over tired and suffers from fatigue regularly. She has no muscle tone, and just can't do anything which involves either endurance or upper body strength. She's so cautious physically that although she may push herself at times (before scurrying off with her tail between her legs), she would never consider herself such a thing as an athlete!
And there she was at my shoulder, whispering to me, reminding me how weak I am, reassuring me that it's OK to stop as I'm not a real athlete and that I really can't go as fast as the other competitors.....
I was so glad I could finally see her, slumbering pitifully on her bed in baggy pyjamas, looking pale and gaunt. However, I had to take action fast before she dragged me into her melancholy world. As harsh as it may sound to attack someone clearly so defenceless, I knew I had no choice: she was in my subconscious after all.
"Listen here, Wimp," I hissed at her through gritted teeth, while never losing my stride. "You are not going to stop me from running, Honey Pie! I do have stamina and I am dynamic. I am an athlete, a Triathlete no less! In fact, I'll have you know, Pumpkin, I actually won a silver medal just last week proving that I am powerful, strong and determined."
I glared at her for a few more seconds and then she scurried back into the recesses of my mind. I then lengthened my stride, picked up the pace a little and took it home!
I think we all have something in our subconscious which tries to prevent us doing certain things whether it be staying up all night finishing a project, learning a new language, running a marathon, eating healthily, starting a blog....... and it was really helpful for me to personify it, picture it and characterise it, almost like having a punching bag, something solid to fight. So I thank The Oatmeal whole heartedly for his humorous inspiration.
In conclusion, this Cherokee Proverb ties into the whole Blerch idea totally, and puts yet another angle on something so profoundly simple that we super intelligent humans tend to miss on a daily basis:
No comments:
Post a Comment