On to Week 5

Another Monday, another week begins. Having given my back a rest I thought I might try a short but sharp run. It wasn't bad at all if a bit short for where I'd hoped to be. The next day I went out with the dog again for a run. He always gives me good motivation to push on given how easily he beats me. A good hard run cross-country done and I feel a bit better about my training.

Come Wednesday I decided it was time to get back on the bike having taken a while away from it. I got a solid ride in (even if a touch slow). Being ill is always frustrating but I have to remember that it still shows for a while after in my performance.

Thursday and Friday were spent chasing around and running a few errands with my dad. As such I struggled to get useful training in (the early darkness doesn't help). We did have a lovely pub meal on the Thursday night though and I got a go at this lo-tech training bike (see below)

Come Saturday I was back home and able to get back on the bike. This time I took out Arya (my fixed-wheel bike). There are reasons why I might want to ride a fixed gear bike and as winter continues I will almost certainly get out on her more often. However, being foolish, I didn't give her a thorough service before setting off and paid the price later when it became clear I'd need to cut my session short to get her home. Lesson really driven home, always check your bike before riding (especially when she hasn't been out since July...)

On Sunday I had to help run a lot of errands and it was a very long day. By the time I was free to train my only real option was a turbo and I was far to knackered by then to ever consider that hell. I'll save that for a rainy day...

Until Next Time,

Jon

Week 4

So on to week 4 and getting back in to training (or that's what I had hoped). On Monday I felt pretty awful again. I had agreed to coach an early morning outing and so did just that. Cycling around and shouting in the cold really did nothing for my health and as soon as I got back to a bed I lay down and next thing I knew it was evening. Another day illness has stolen from me.  On Tuesday I felt a bit better so I went for a run.  A standard 8km, and it was surprisingly fast. I appear to be back on form; maybe I'm finally kicking this illness.

Or so I thought... Wednesday brought yet another round of feeling really quite awful. Lots of sleep and I managed to make it out to the Fireworks display Cambridge always run. A nice early night and maybe I'd start to feel better.

Come Thursday I started to feel a touch better. By the evening I even felt well enough to train again. This time it was back to an old nemesis of mine, the erg (rowing machine for those non-rowers). I certainly wasn't as fit as I was at my peak (quite far from it) but the damned things were still as awful as ever.

In my keenness at being better I made a rather gaping error in judgement. I agreed to row an early morning outing, on a side I'd never rowed before (well once when I was 15). (For non-rowers, since each person only has 1 oar it means you have to row on one side or the other, I'd stuck doggedly with the same side for 7 years...) It was surprisingly fun but pretty painful as the load was put through my weak, injured shoulder. D'oh! Also I do not miss 6 am alarm clocks. Why did I ever trial...

Anyway I found myself very sore for the weekend and this pain had done my back no good. As such I made the decision to take the weekend off lest I mangle my shoulder up again. Over the course of the weekend I went to London with my girlfriend to head to her home for a big bonfire that weekend. Unfortunately it was so rainy we just stayed in and watched movies. On the Sunday I went back home and went with my dad to Aldi to pick up a couple of useful things. Turns out they recently had cycling gear. I picked up a lot of decent stuff for extremely cheap prices. I have to say I was impressed. Also, since we'd been in London on the weekend we decided to visit the poppies at the Tower of London. It was a very moving exhibit, especially once we took the time to think about the numbers of people who died in terms of things we could grasp (class sizes at school, size of our year at college, size of the whole University of Cambridge...) It was powerful to think so many people our age had suffered so greatly. I would love to include a photo, but I was so moved I didn't think to take one (nor did it feel right in the circumstance with so many shouts of 'smile for a selfie'). Sorry about that, instead have a photo of a classic car we saw driving over London Bridge.


Until next we meet,

Jon

Another Event Entered

So exciting news; I've entered another event! This time it's a triathlon at the end of May. So this will (provisionally) be my first triathlon. I do have plans to enter more in the meantime but this is very likely to be my first open water triathlon.  I've entered a 'Super-Sprint' length race in Hyde Park which is part of the ITU World Triathlon Series.  It will be half the length of my triathlon in August but a good practice.

In fact this will be quite a special event for me. I've toyed with the idea of getting in to triathlon for many years, but some of you may wonder where my inspiration lies. I was first inspired to go for a triathlon watching the world's best triathletes competing in Hyde Park on the TV. I've always dreamed of swimming in the Serpentine before cycling and running around Hyde Park.  There aren't many settings better than this for a maiden open water triathlon. In case it's not clear I'm really quite excited by the idea of this. Now to get back in to swimming. The event website is here. I'll be racing in the Super-Sprint event on the Sunday (31/05).

Until next time,

Jon

Third Week of (some) Training

Unfortunately my illness refused to go away for quite a while so the first 3 days of this week were written off as I was too ill to train.  In the meantime I did help out at my old college boat club with a bit of relaxed pace coaching.  I also went on a bit of a spree of acquiring sports gear.  It's time to ramp this training up (as soon as I get well again).

New Swim Gear

New Running Shorts

By Thursday I started to feel like I might be bale to train again, but within half an hour of getting up I immediately felt worse again.  There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to train when ill, but I'll have to suck it up as training will only make things worse.  One thing did happen today. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't become slightly out of shape.  Well today I may have discovered quite how much since when I sat down at one point I might have possibly ripped my jeans (and then had the fun of seeing what happens when I pull the rip to open it right up). It's definitely time to get back in to shape.

Friday started much like the rest of the week had and I feared for yet another day lost to illness. However, by the afternoon I finally started to feel ready to run again. So being me and being far too keen to get back to training I jumped straight back in with a 10km run.  It was slow, but didn't feel awful.  But waking up on Saturday feeling worse than earlier in the week I realised it might have been wiser to ease back in to training. Ah well, another rest day it was.  (Oh and for those who wish to know my formal appeal was submitted on Friday and will be read this coming Friday. I'll talk about the outcome in due course)

Come Sunday and a decent amount of sleep I felt ready to get back into training. I was around Cambridge this weekend and jumped into a rowing outing at my old college boat club.  I haven't been in a boat since July so it was nice (if tiring) to row again.  Next week I'll have to get back in to more serious relevant training.

Until later,

Jon