Ibiza Training Camp... Sort of

This week I'm on Ibiza, partaking in the wedding celebrations of my fabulous sis-in-law and now brother from another mother. However, as the saying goes, there's no rest for the wicked and with the Jenson Button Trust Triathlon looming, I really can't afford a week off.

So, I'm combining my fun in the sun with some swim training. In this weather, it hardly seems like work at all.

Before setting off, I made a quick pit stop at Sweaty Betty for a new bathing suit. The lovely girls hooked me up with a sweet discount, wanting to be behind me all the way for my first tri escapade.

I went for pretty colors yet sporty cut. Win, win. Let's just hope it also makes me faster!

I also met with a buddy of mine who's a seasoned triathlete to borrow the bible of all swimming guides for some poolside reading. 

It might be a bit too late to start worrying about changing my swimming technique completely but it'll be good to get a better understanding of what I should be doing. And who knows, if this one goes well, there may be others... 

I was left with helpful tips on how to get in and out of a wetsuit (baby oil), what else to worry about during T1 (for ex.: putting on your helmet first, then pick up your bike, seems logical but I guess in the heat of the moment it's easy to forget) and what to watch out for on the bike ride. I also learned that you do, indeed, keep your tri-suit on under your wetsuit and keep it on to get on your bike and run afterwards. I will have to invest in a large tub of anti-chafe cream. 

And I was assured that tri suits don't look good on anyone unless you're Jessica Ennis. Worries assuaged!  

He also encouraged me to state my goals publicly for the race cause, you know, making things official doesn't add any extra pressure or anything like that. So, here goes nothing:

A-Goal: Finish the swim in a semi-respectable, middle-of-the-pack time, don't get stuck in wetsuit.

B-Goal: Finish the swim, don't drown, don't fall over while taking off wetsuit.

C-Goal:* Win my age group. 

*This one was 'forced' upon me by said friend. 

There you have it, some lofty goals for my first tri. 

On that note, I've got a pool waiting for me.


Ladies, what do you prefer to swim in? One- or two-piece suits? I prefer a one-piece for 'proper' swimming, a bikini for lounging and getting my tan on. 

Triathletes, do you put socks on in T1 or T2 or do you go barefoot all the way?

Today I tri'd

Seen that I have just over four weeks to prepare for the Jenson Button Trust Triathlon, I figured it would be a wise idea to get myself to the pool and work on my weakest sport: swimming.

Yesterday, I dragged G with me and made him my honorary tri-coach. The first realization of the day was that I should really get myself into town to buy a new swimsuit. Let's just say the old one is getting a bit tight around the edges...

On the way to the pool I dutifully watched a Youtube video, hoping for some mind-blowing insight into swimming technique. Twas not so. I know enough about swimming to know what I should be doing. It's the doing it that's the problem.

We spent thirty minutes in the pool, during which G paddled along behind me, getting rather cold in the process, answering my continuous stream of questions: 

I think it's time we parted ways...

Did I do it right this time?

It's easier for me to breathe on the left than on the right!

So that's why they wear swimming caps. 

I need to buy one.
 
Everything is going blurry. What's wrong with my eyes. 

I need goggles.

Did you see that? That was better, right?

[Cough, splatter, spit] I just swallowed half of the pool.

What about now?

What about now?

What about now?

Today, wanting to give my body a bit of a break after a rather heavy CrossFit session and craving a good ole' sweat, I decided to go for a practice tri just to get a better idea of my times.

I switched up the order, wanting to head to the pool last and this is what it looked like:

Bike 9km: 16:45

The stationairy bikes at the gym are a bit rubbish so I used the 'random' setting to simulate outdoor riding and conditions (lots of climbs on this one).

Run 2.5km: 14:25

I kid you not, I actually struggled the most with my run, it being done on the dreaded treadmill. After the first k I thought I'd lost the will to live and actually paused for a wee minute. Hateful thing. I can't believe I once managed 10 miles on that! Also, I may have started out too fast as well, seen that I haven't been doing much running, but hey-ho, it's a start.

Swim 300m: 7 minutes 

I used the wall clock as I didn't bring a wristwatch to check my time so it's not as precise as the rest. However, I was pleasantly surprised as I expected a much, much slower time. I only swam breaststroke as I just wanted to get a feel for the distance first. I definitely would've put myself at 10 minutes plus, so this is a start.

Judging by my 'time' today, compared with last year's women's results, this puts me roughly in the middle of the pack. No surprises there. I'll never be a pro. And before you go grumbling, I do realize that I can't judge myself based on today, seen that it was done in a gym, with a severely sore body and legs that are only just coming back to running. But it's an indication of what's to come.

I'm starting to get excited now...! 

Have you ever done a tri?

Tell me all you know about swimming, pretty please!

How much slower can I expect to go in open water, surrounded by hordes of other people? 

Guess I'm gonna tri

Quick running update: it's happening, slowly but surely, but I'm running again. Now, to the real news.

It's funny how life works. My mom says that sometimes you have to be forced to your own luck. I'm not sure that translates too well, but it basically means that some people need a lil' extra help getting where they need to be, whether they know it or not. I seem to have just gotten that extra 'help' [read: shove].

After last year's duathlon adventure, I have been toying with the idea of going for a triathlon. Having read Chrissie Wellington's autobiography, I was even more convinced that I wanted to and ever more sure that I might just be setting myself up for failure.

We all know that I'm not a fast runner. And although I cycle a lot, I'm not exactly an experienced racer on my bike. Then there's swimming. Unlike many aspiring tri-athletes, I don't have a fear of open water. I can swim, although it's neither pretty nor fast. Also, I can't actually swim freestyle, so it's breast-stroke all the way for me. Maybe that's why I'm not terrified of the idea of open-water swimming as I tend to just paddle along, minding my own business, with my head bopping along above the water.

A couple of months ago G and I even went to the launch meeting of the Brighton Tri Club with a view of perhaps joining it. But instead of feeling motivated and excited, I left feeling intimidated, slow and unfit. So that was that.  

Then I got a call from the Chobani lot. Yup, the delicious yogurt people (it's the yogurt that's delish, I haven't tried the people yet). 

Would I be interested in doing the Jensen Button Trust Triathlon? 

First I thought, hell no... then I thought, if not now, then when?

The race consists of a 300m lake swim, a 9km bike ride and a 2.5km run. 

Unless I drown during the first leg or get stuck in my wetsuit during the first transition, I should be ok for legs 2 and 3. I hope.

So that's my news. I'll be doing my first triathlon in 4 1/2 weeks, so I'd better get training... Stay tuned for more updates. 

Now, where's that swimsuit of mine???

Seasoned triathletes, I need your HELP! Please, send me all your tips, advice and admonitions about preparing for this in just over four weeks. I'm particularly worried about getting in and out of a wetsuit. Please comment, tweet or email me on jens.itchy.feet[at]gmail.com. THANK YOU!!! 
 

I'm counting miles and drinking Ice Coffee

Miles run this week: roughly 2ish as part of intervals and power walking


Coming home, 24 hours pass a lot more quickly than they normally would. That's a scientific fact.

So now it's almost time to go home again and get back to my 'regular' routine, well, whatever regularity I've been able to establish over the past few months.

A bit of routine I kept up with: banana pancakes for breakfast

This morning my mom, brother and I headed out for a wee run. After three 2-minute intervals, however, they decided that they'd had enough and opted for a power-walk while I continued to do 1-minute interval sprints. Yes, my stamina isn't what it used to be, but it felt good to power myself out, get my sweat on and get some speed back in those legs.

I love coming home as I'm expected to pig out, be lazy and let my parents spoil me, while sitting around with my sibs and baby niece and shoot the $h*t. Love it.

Also, it being summer, there's a law for mandatory coffee consumption over here. Honest. It's called ice-(cream)-coffe and looks something like this:

Yes, that's cold coffee, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, finished off with a flourish of whipped cream. I do love my iced coffee but this, well, see above. No further comment.

Right, I better get back to make the most of the little bit of QT I have left with the fam in the sun. Next post: back from cold and gray England. Oh jolly... And do make sure to pop back in as I might have some exciting tri-news for ya!!!

How do you drink your coffee?

Summertime!

Oh yes, I'm gonna say it: it's summertime!!! Bring on some hot and sweaty running.

But before I delve back into that, I'm back in the motherland for a long weekend to chillax with the fam.

I kicked off my travel day with a very weighty CrossFit WoD before jumping on a plane. In sync with my arrival, the summer arrived here as well. So I kicked off my stay in style, with a 90-minute Iyengar yoga session with my mom so I could justify doing a whola lotta nada for the rest in the day while soaking up some rays.

I also nabbed my dad's bike for while I'm here, so at least these ole' legs get a stretch out as well.

The afternoon flew by, then again it would when you're in the company of people like this.

But don't worry, we didn't just sit around, cuddle and look pretty. My lil sis and I invented an extra fun game of yoga posing, cause 'regular' posing just isn't good enough anymore.

That bottom left one is me collapsing on top of her. Laughter and headstands don't really go together.

Gonna have to keep this short as typing like this is hard work!

Have a fabulous sunny weekend everyone.

Do you have any siblings? I have two awesome sisters and a brother.

Any crazy games you guys come up with to stay entertained?

RUNNING

Two awesome things happened today.

The first is that little ole’ me is featured on the fantabulous Lazy Girl Running blog. Now, if you’ve ever been over there, you know that she’s a big deal – a reformed couch potato with a couple sub-4 hour marathons and a London GFA under her belt as well as published running author. So yeah, this is cool.

The second thing you might already know about as I have been hooting and hollering about it from the rooftops the minute I walked out of there: I got the all clear from my physio to get back to running.

I was left with a firm reminder to take it easy, a lot of rock tape and her best wishes. Wahey.

Cathy and I were meant to go to Bikram in the afternoon, but in light of my news and the amazing weather we’ve been having, we agreed on a change of plan. An easy run along the seafront, followed by the mandatory ice-lolly stop – for rehydration purposes only. Obviously. This was followed by a bike ride into town. Not only did we manage a run, we squeezed in a mini-duathlon. I call that brick training all the way.

Cathy made an effort to wear extra bright colors in honor of Team Rainbow (thanks!) and after a warm-up stroll towards the promenade, we picked up speed and off we went.

Now, this girl is SPEEDY. Her conversational easy pace was just a tad bit more than what I would consider comfortable. So I don’t know why I was doing most of the talking either?!

Anyways, we probably managed just over a mile each way, with a nice break in the middle to stretch out and mortify a toddler with all my rock tape (purest form of empathy I’ve ever witnessed. The poor thing poked my knee and burst into tears, thinking I was really hurt!). The pace felt alright (once I’d forced her to slow right down), my knee held up and I think there’s only one thing left to say:

Bring on Summer!

I do run, run, run…

What better day to get back to running than the first day of summer? Ok, so I know that summer doesn’t officially start for a few more weeks, but the day that I get my legs out for the first time might as well be considered the first day of summer. So there.

Saturday morning I went to my very first ‘grown up’ CrossFit session. It was at ten o’clock and I figured it would be a good way to kick off the weekend. It did not disappoint!

After our usual warm up, we were told that there would be no time to work on lifts that day as our WoD, ‘Tons of Fun’, would be taking up too much time. I should’ve known then.

This WoD was a partner workout, i.e. you worked through all the circuits with a partner. One of you would flag, the other would suffer with you. Perfect motivation. Only, you didn’t actually do anything together as such. Let me explain.

This is what the circuits looked like:

100 jumping ball slams

100 press ups

100 sit ups

100 pull ups

100 burpees

100 partner balls

400m run, together

The way it worked was that while one person in the team would kick off on the ball slams, the other would run 200m. They would then swap running for ball slams, with the first runner counting from where the other person left off. For example, I was teamed up with Ryan. I got to something like 30 ball slams by the time he finished the 200m run, so he then went on with 31, 32, etc. and I had to go off and run 200m, repeat til you get through every single circuit.

This time around I actually ran. Instead of getting myself on the rowing machine like I usually would, I figured that running would be the easier option and I was feeling strong and brave enough to give it a go, at last. 

I think Ryan and I averaged about two runs per circuit, but definitely three for those bleedin’ burpees, during which I lost the will to live. Let it be known that

I. HATE. BURPEES.

As there was no running during the partner balls (you hold a 7kg ball, squat, throw it to your partner, who catches, squats, throws it back, etc.) we had to run the last 400m as a team. And run them we did! 

Random pic of my Saturday lunch. Cause a pic was needed here.

And it felt great. The runs were my downtime, my recovery period and I loved it. Sure I was shattered, but I got through it. That and the WoD.

I am now more than ready to see Jo, the physio, on Tuesday and get her ‘official’ sign off to get back to running. Heck, if I can manage 200m x 12 or 13, I should be able to manage a wee 2-miler pain free, right?! RIGHT.

And because summer’s finally here (and yes, I know that it might just last another couple of days…), my much-neglected garden furniture finally got the TLC it deserves.

The BBQ master finally back in action

...and I had my first ever ice cream on the beach in Brighton. In the sun. That's all.

Did you race over the weekend? If so, how did you do?

What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream? I had a scoop of raspberry sorbet and a scoop of chocolate. Perfect combination. And apparently how Harry Potter eats his ice cream. Fact.