A Week of Two Halves

It's been a week of two halves, defined unfortunately by my health. On Monday I got out for 1 1/2 hours on the bike, riding nice and steady, trying to stay below a heart rate of 145bpm. A good session. That evening I ran a nice steady 4 mile's. Tuesday I got out in the sunshine for 3 hours. I rode a route with a few climbs in it, repeated a small circuit a number of times to increase the overall climbing. It was a tough day, very windy. If you haven't ridden in the Vale of York come and give it a go. It is very flat, there are no hedges bordering any of the farmers fields, and any wind always seems like a hurricane. It's tough riding, theres no free-wheeling, and at times you can be doing 11mph (on the flat) in 39 x 19. When I first moved across from Leeds I didn't like the terrain, and found the riding tedious and boring, but now I like it. You finish every ride having turned every pedal revolution, the roads are super quiet and there are just enough rises to keep it interesting. Tuesday evening I put in 1/2 hour in the garage completing an upper body strength session.

Wednesday was a rest day, we had a great time at Robin Hoods Bay, nr Whitby. The weather was just fabulous, bright and clear. Unfortunately the marine life were keeping a low profile, all our best rock pooling efforts were in vain!!!

On Thursday I took Evie to Musical Kids, a music class that Sarah runs for little ones. Sitting in a circle singing songs with 10 mothers to their little ones was a new experience (my musical skills are very limited) Better than this though was seeing Sarah in action. She has put a huge amount of time and effort into her Musical Kid's group, and I can see why it is proving to be popular. She is great with the kids and gets really involved, each and every boy and girl there get her full attention, all the parents seem excited and pleased to be there.

I met my mate Tom for a Nando's, Coffee and a long chat about triathlon and training. Tom is also racing Ironman Lanzarote. We chatted about training principles and methods, our goals, and much more. I always feel excited and motivated after chatting with Tom, and guess when time passes so quickly the conversation must be easy and enjoyable. We were still chatting as we went back to the cars after 2 1/2 hours, I think we would still been chatting now. I completed one of my key training sessions before IM Switzerland this year with Tom, and will definately be riding and running with him over the coming months.

Motivated by chatting with Tom, and fuelled by a HOT Nando's Chicken Wings I went out for a 4 mile run later that evening. I felt rubbish, and as soon as I got home I realised I should have returned much sooner. I had a sore throat, and felt a bit achy. So begins the second half of the week.

I woke up on Friday with a sore throat and feeling like I'd done a monster gym session, my whole body ached. Although I wasn't really that ill, I was ill enough not to be able to train and thus not to be able to complete my usual daily activities. I joked with Sarah about Small Pox and Yellow Fever, she finds my reaction to illness amusing (and probably frustrating) So the back end of the week was spent loading up on Paracetamol, and Ibuprofen trying to rid myself of the life threatening disease that had taken residence in my body. It's tea time Sunday and I think I am pretty much good again.

Sarah has gone on a Muscial Instrument Repair Course in Wales learning how to repair Flutes and Clarinets. So my Mum has come up for the week to look after the girls while I am at work. It will be nice having my Mum around for the week, Ellie and Evie will be thoroughly spoilt and I will get a bit of a rest as well particularly around the bath time, bed time activities. I will miss Sarah, but I think sometimes a bit of time apart strengthens a relationship. I know when she returns on Friday we'll both be really excited to see each other, and will really enjoy each others company.

I have just started reading a book called "Mind Games" (Jeff Grout and Sarah Perrin) It's all about how the Mind has a massive influence over sporting performance. It's really interesting and captured my attention from the first page. In the foreword Sir Clive Woodward say's

"if we can improve 100 things by 1%, the total impact is huge"

This can be applied to everything we do. I straight away thought about my Triathlon Racing. I am in the process of compiling a list of 100 things related to my racing that I hope I will be able to improve by just 1%. I have read that Chris Boardman, Peter Keen and the British Track Cycling Personnel applied a similar thought pattern to their Olympic preparations. They looked at improving EVERYTHING. Even if it the improvement translated to just a few 100th's of a second, added together the impact is, and was devastating. I will hopefully have my '100' list in the next couple of weeks.

The clocks went back last night. So today just after 5pm, pitch black, BOO HOO. My commuter bike is fully loaded with lights and I'm set for riding in the dark. Have a good week, 100 things by 1%, I like that a lot!!