Living up to the name

Sooo…  there now follows very little at all about running. This is because I have done very little running at all.

Since that triathlon I did last month, I have run one less time than the number of EU referendums the UK has had.

Now I’m not sure if it’s the cause or the effect…  if it’s to do with the lack of running or the result of the referendum… but my motivation has been on a fairly low ebb recently.

My Garmin will tell you I have been running…but it’s lying.  I’ve been playing tennis while wearing it so I can see what distance I’ve been covering and still get ‘BOUNTS‘ points. (I’ve written about them before, I’ve effectively earned £15 so far this year for free, just doing the little bit of activity I already do. If you’re looking for a Bounts referral code, use avery1132 or just click the link for 100 free points when you do your first activity.)

Smallest child has taken up tennis (instead of dancing) which starts at 9am on a Saturday, so that’s parkrun off the agenda for the foreseeable future.  I don’t mind that.  Just glad that she is being active and enjoying it.  The biggest child has been doing a lot of tennis too (more about that later), and thankfully, the same sport has been keeping me active in this non-running month.

It’s weird that I enjoyed the triathlon so much, ran a great 5k time considering the swim and bike beforehand, and yet have done nothing to do with running since.  In part this may be due to the dodgy left ankle which seems to flare up after any exercise recently.  It may also just be a bit of the post-race blues that I often get.- does anyone else get that? Oh… and putting a bit of my recent weight loss back where it came from.  Here’s a picture of just how unmotivated I’ve been…. I have a brand spanking new pair of some of my favourite running shoes in the cupboard – unworn – tags still attatched… and they’ve been there for four weeks.  Even their presence can’t persuade me outside yet.

  
I have signed up to one of the free 5k decathlon race series in September and a local 10k in November/December (I can’t remember exactly), so I have something to work towards at some point at least…and a bit of work to do beforehand.

So I really have been ‘Not Much Of a Runner’ recently. My thoughts a few years ago of doing an Ironman before my 40th birthday will remain as just that – thoughts.  I did look into it, but the cost financially and physically have me beat(en) before I’ve started.  There’s a reason not many people do one.  Mine is not one of those inspirational ‘Can do’ blogs I’m afraid.  If you want one though, go and check out www.runslikeadog.wordpress.com and read about Cathy, who is two weeks away from doing her first Ironman .

 

It’s been all about the tennis for me and my boy. With the help of a little bit of luck, he was selected to go onto Centre Court at the Nottingham Women’s Open Tennis to go and toss the coin at the start of the quarter final match featuring the British player ‘Tara Moore’ (who lost incidentally) – obviously a highly specialised job that only a ten year old can do.

Him doing that meant that my daughter, my wife, and I got free tickets for the day and we saw some great tennis.  I also got free tickets earlier in the week thanks to the tennis club I play for.  The following weeks thanks to another internet competition I’d entered, we got free tickets to the semi-finals of the challenger tour (kind of like the equivalent to the Championship as opposed to the Premiership – to use an English football comparison – and I won’t mention English football again).  This involved a lovely drive to Ilkley, Yorkshire and the prize also included a grass court coaching session on that morning.  I hat a bit of a hit too but pretty much left my son to it for a couple of hours before settling in to watch some more great tennis.

   
    
  

  

As a result of yet another competition, I then won free tickets to the men’s ATP event in Nottingham on the Monday (I had already taken the week off work) but anticipating it would be chucking it down, I cycled there and back home so at least I got some exercise despite only seeing 20 minutes of tennis before needing to collect the kids from school.

However I then got a message from the competition people saying that as it was such a washout on the Monday, and one of their other winners was unable to accept their free tickets for the Tuesday, would I like them.  Well yes I would indeed, I said. So I cycled again on the Tuesday and this time got a bit sunburnt.

  

   
On the Wednesday, I actually already had paid-for tickets that I’d purchased months ago (see, I do actually contribute sometimes) and I cycled in once more, but this time I had a friend collecting the kids from school and I wouldn’t have to leave early and I could relax a bit.

  

 Logic would dictate that carrying a bottle of bubbly for over half an hour on the bike and then opening it would only have one result. Well it did… and the cork landed – as I was helpfully informed by the security personnel – on court number 3! oops.

No more free tickets since then.  I’m not going to Wimbledon this year.  Maybe my son will get good enough in about 15 years to qualify there and I’ll get my free tickets then.

 

I’ve been playing tennis as well, though –  I’ve bought a new racquet AND tennis shoes, and I’m  working my way through the rounds of my club’s own championship so will be playing in the semi-final soon… most likely to be against our club’s coach… mmmm… I know this is supposed to be a running blog, but I’ll let you know how much I lose by.

I don’t think I’ll be winning a trophy…

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How did it go? (Nottingham Sprint Triathlon)

June 2016

So my last blog post was a short introduction to how I intended to beat my younger self at this year’s triathlon. 

I suppose, to be honest, it wasn’t so much how as just that I had that idea. There was no plan as such. Just an intention to swim hard, bike hard and run hard and then generally hope that I’m fitter and harder than I was four years ago!

This is a short post. You know how I’m no good at long race reports. (I can actually hear your collective ‘phew!’)

The first thing to note is that I did fit into both my tri-suit and my wetsuit. Four years on from their last outing this was no mean feat… unless by ‘mean’ you actually just mean ‘average’ in which case, that’s exactly what it was. But I was s bit worried about that do it was indeed a good start.

SWIM (750m open water – 15:23)

The timing of the swim start had been changed due to a course change upon the discovery of some blue-green algae in the lake. They needn’t have bothered as I am colour-blind anyway and besides, the water was so murky you couldn’t tell what anything was.

I swam the swim ok, but my snug wetsuit seemed to make lifting my arms out of the water really hard. I would also get stupidly dizzy and need a few strokes of breaststroke just to stop the world spinning. I alternated between this and front crawl until the exit gantry, where I then proceeded to try and remove my rubber onesie while trying not to fall over! Proper dizzy!

I later found out my son, watching, was saying, “What is he doing?” Upon viewing my antics.

BIKE… (20k – 36:53)

“…Eventually!” – my son.

This felt straight-forward… with a few corners thrown in. Four laps of not crashing. 20km.

I was never going to be super fast on the bike but I overtook a few people and was overtaken by a few different people… though I consoled myself with the fact that most of these were not in fact ‘cycling’ so much as ‘piloting futuristic looking spacecraft’. I’m sure I would have overtaken myself if I was piloting futuristic looking spacecraft too!

I did one of those clever, off the pedal – straight into running with the bike -dismount thingies, but I think I was going a little faster than I thought because my legs had to work like billy-o to prevent immediate face-planting embarrassment.

RUN  (5k – 22:51)

This must weirdly have had it’s benefits though as I settled into a steady running pace that I thought I could sustain for the next 5k and a glance at my Garmin told me this was 7:45/mile . Pleasantly surprised with that so I stuck with it.

I slowly picked off a few runners and didn’t get caught by anyone (that I remember) which felt good (obviously anyone faster than me at running was also faster than me at swimming and/or cycling).

I still had enough energy for a strong finish in just over 1 hour 18 minutes – just over five minutes faster than my time in 2012 🙂

  
If I continue at this rate of improvement I shall be winning this event by the time I am 55 years old! 

Many thanks to the family for cheering on the chubby bloke in a leotard, and to the marshals – who incidentally were lovely to me (the friendly, law-abiding triathlete novice) but who had to deal with a few trumped-up numpties, I heard.

It is now June… Which in the past has meant JUNEATHON which has meant daily blogging. I can’t see that happening…but maybe a few more regular ones this month.

‘Twas the day before the triathlon…

…T’was the day* before the triathlon…

 

…and all through the house,

there is a strange creature,

trying  hard not to grouse,

as he tries yet again to squeeze into a suit

that is made of a rubber as tough as a boot.

No suppleness,

no stretch,

little movement at all…

…I refer to the man – the daft ageing fool!

He thinks he’s still twenty (and of course he is NOT)

he’s in fact almost twice that and his body is shot

But despite his worn-out-ness he quite wants to show

that he could beat his time from four years ago:

Open water swim – 16:24

then add a transition (a huge 2 minutes more!)

Then a 20k bike – 40:01

then 1:18 transition to head onto the run…

…which was then  5k  – a PB in that year

at  23:46 … but he still hopes he’ll get near

to that total of 1 hour 23:28

he might get caught out with that time as the bait.

So I wonder, do you think he’ll improve? Will he worsen?

Will he ever stop referring to himself in third person**?

 

**Well… yes I will.  I just did. There you go.

I’ll keep you updated

 (*in fact two days to go)

   

( Photos from 2012 )

Read the original blog post here

Packages, pants and PBs

Part 1 – packages

Spoiler: This post contains a full frontal photo of me in a rubber suit with my package clearly visible.

At the end of this month, I shall be racing a triathlon for the fist time in a long time. So long has it been, that on Wednesday last week, I thought it prudent to check that my triathlon suit has not drastically shrunk during its time in my drawer.

It has. A little. But I was able to squeeze myself in. Just. I hope it returns to its normal size in the next few weeks!

It has been even longer (about 3 years?) since I wore my open-water swimming wetsuit. I thought I’d perhaps try that on too. This took longer. It even required a break part way through – to cut my nails for fear of tearing the rubber in my efforts to wrench the obviously aged and stiffened material further on to my muscular, svelte frame. I can’t believe this suit has shrunk as much as it has!

After the leg/bum/tum workout that was the application of the lower half, I crouch down and manage to get one arm in, using the ‘slowly standing straight’ method of pulling the remainder of the wetsuit into approximate position. 

I figure, as long as I don’t need to breathe at all during the swim section of the triathlon, I shall be fine. 

Using a combination of yoga poses, near dislocation, and the sheer determination that only wetsuit wearers possess, I managed to actually put both arms in AND zip the zipper all the way up!

Yeah baby!

Woo hoo!

*Dingggg Dongggg* 

What??!

*Dingggg Dongggg*

!

An actual ding-dong. A someone-at-the-door ding-dong. A day before son’s birthday, might be a parcel, best not ignore it, sort of ding-dong.

I have no choice. I go and answer it. I try in vain to explain exactly why I’m wearing an overly tight-fitting rubber suit on one of the hottest days of the year so far as I collect the package – clearly seen in the photo below (I knew instantly that this would be a blog post  – and one that would require a photo with a caption!).

I have decided that every day, between now and May 28th, I shall put on the tri-suit/wetsuit combo as a method of training. It ticks all the boxes:

Strength
Endurance
Flexibility

…and it’s quite motivational!

Part 2 – pants

I was recently offered some more Chaffree underwear for free – I declined.

I have written before about Chaffree underwear. They asked me to. They sent me some free to try. I like them – a lot. If I didn’t, I would say. They work – if they didn’t, I would say.

Question – So why did I decline some free ones?

Answer – Because they’re worth buying! So I bought them.

In the interests of transparency, I have to declare at this point that having bought myself a further two pairs, Amanda, the Chaffree boss-lady, sent me an extra pair anyway.

So if you’re reading this and your thighs don’t chafe, then fine. No problem. Keep doing what you’re doing. It works…

… but if you do… seriously consider giving these a go. I wasn’t asked to write this. I want to. Because I love you. 

Not entirely true. 

I don’t reallyknow who you are. You could be anybody. I might know you. I might have met you. I might even love you, I suppose. Mum and dad occasionally read this blog. Hi Mum. Hi Dad. I love them. The rest of you… well… You’re lovely too I’m sure… But  the point is I did just want to write this as I wouldn’t want any of you to suffer unnecessarily with the pain that comes with chafing, especially when (but not limited to) running.

If you’re a blogger/runner/professional-underwear-reviewer then find them on Twitter (@chaffree) and get in touch with Amanda, as I know she’s always on the lookout for bloggers who write betterer than wot I do an’ that.

Part 3 – PBs

It’s been a little while since I got a 5k PB [ ‘personal best’ that is – for the benefit of my aging parents…and American people 😉 ]. Not since my little PB streak inspired by a new Garmin and a bit of weight loss before Christmas. But a couple of weeks ago, my son’s school hosted their annual 5k charity race and we both got PBs. He broke his by 4 minutes(!) to go sub-30 with 29:20, and I took about 30 seconds of mine to go sub-22  for the first time ever with a 21:45.

—————————————–

In case you were wondering… that package in the wetsuit photo…it was some new running shorts that I won through completing a challenge with ‘Running Heroes‘ (if you sign up, use referral code 6w7m for extra points!). It wasn’t a present for my son. I could have hidden and not answered the door and it wouldn’t have mattered.

I’m a TryAtLeast

I have just seen my triathlon pictures from Sunday.

I was really looking forward to them being uploaded so I could…

…oh my goodness! What’s that?! I was trying to suck it in too as I ran past! Oh well.

I do not (yet) look like a triathlete. A ‘tryatleast’, maybe. I’ll take that for now.

I’m rubbish at writing race reports… but if I don’t practise I don’t get better do I? So here goes…

I swam 400m in 7m 45s ish.
I ran to transition.
I transisted for 1m 22s
I moved my legs around repeatedly to propel my heavy frame (I could actually mean my bike, you see…that was a bit ambiguous to add an element of mystery to my writing, eh) for 20km (this took me 41min).
I transistificated off of the bikey thing, put it on the racky thing and actually put on socks and lace-up shoes because, let’s face it – 20 seconds is NOT going to kill me. (This whole process took 1m 30s once I had got out of the transistification area).
I wobbled ran for 5k in 27m 55s – over 5 mins slower than my PB, completely disproving my previously held belief that swimming and cycling hard were merely a good warm up for a 5k PB effort.

There. I think there’s a couple of things to work on as far as race reports go, but it will do for now.

This all took place on Sunday of course but I didn’t write it up then because I was too busy drinking beer afterwards So I posted up a re-worded version of Vanilla Ice’s rap classic – ‘ICE ICE BABY’ which I had started writing in May. Because I had started it in May, WordPress thinks that’s when I published it for some reason. So in case you missed it, do go and check it out. If you are young/old enough to remember the original, you won’t be disappointed.

Today (Monday) I actually played tennis (again) but you don’t want to hear about my comeback from being 2-5 down to eventually emerge victorious after a 9-7 epic set do you? No. I won’t tell you about that then.

Banana and rust milkshake

Bleuuggh!! I’ve just made myself a recovery drink…well…a banana milkshake, using one of those hand-held whizzer thingies that, if you want, can also whisk stuff really quickly (with a different attachment) and is really good for making soups with stuff still in the saucepan and is much less messy than decanting everything into a large blender…anyway…one of them. Except I haven’t used it for ages and I think I remember, a while back, someone other than me washed it up and left it to soak and it got all rusty internally and now that rust has been released into the milky bananaryness and I think I have just drank a banana and rust milkshake  –  possibly good for iron intake… not good for taste intake. 

 A photo of a banana. In case you didn’t know what one looked like. (From photo-dictionary.com)

 

For today’s exercise, I was genuinely considering counting the effort it took me to squeeze into my tri-suit for Sunday’s sprint distance race.  If I do wear it (and I might not) I will have to get up half an hour earlier than intended to make sure I have sufficient time to shoehorn myself into it. As it turned out, I decided jump on the bike and go and check on one of our geocaches a couple of miles away (I’ll perhaps write a related post on this little hobby another time) and I figured I’d shove my goggles and swim shorts in my pocket in case I still had time to call in to the pool for the last 30 mins on the way home. I did. Another mile swam, followed by a cycle home and then immediately popped back out again under direction from the boss and was headed up the hill to the shops for milk and bread (and bananas and cashew nuts as it turned out).

I had intended to tag on a run to all this too, just to muddy up my far-too-shiny trail shoes that I bought from Decathlon earlier today (when I popped in to just to get some new brake pads for the bike). I’m not really a brand snob, or loyal to any particular shoe (of course I could be if I found THE one – so I can understand it if you are) so I’ll go with what feels good and appears good value.

I think they are green…they might be yellow…I’m a bit rubbish with colours.  I’ve yet to test them out fully but they feel dead comfy and were a very reasonable (reduced) price of £34.99 (originally £69.99) and are the Kalenji Kapteren XT3.

 Yeah… that looks green to me.

 

The last time I write something nice about a Decathlon product, I was asked by one of their marketing peeps to ‘share the rest of the Kalenji range with my readership’.  I said I didn’t do reviews for free. Which I suppose isn’t strictly true because if I like something, I will, but I’m not just going to promote a load of stuff without having tried it myself. THAT MEANS YOU CAN SEND ME SOME STUFF TO TRY IF YOU LIKE, MARKETING PEOPLE*

*(Too desperate sounding? Possibly. Oh well. Don’t ask, don’t get. Do ask, don’t get… but not lost anything either…apart from maybe a tiny bit of dignity, perhaps)

I probably ought to also mention that I wrote to Decathlon and informed them* that they were alienating English speakers by referring to many of their cycling products using the word ‘LEASURE’. Yes. I know. I should have checked again today, but I’d forgotten about it until now.  *(That blog post can be found here)

More tennis match playing is supposed to occur tomorrow (Friday), weather permitting.

If it’s tipping it down then at least I can put these new shoes to the test instead.

So far… this exercising every day in June thing is proving to be fairly straightforward! But I just know I’m going to regret having written that, aren’t I?

Sink or Swim…

…Alternative title – ‘Shall I do the washing-up or go to the pool?’

Well, that’s an easy choice if ever there was one.

I’m doing a triathlon on Sunday, my first in about a year, so I needed to make sure that I can still swim.

I only had half an hour in which to swim, but as the triathlon is a sprint one, it’s only a 400m swim so I could at least test myself at that distance a few times.
Pleasantly surprised that I still managed 400 in less than 8 minutes and in my half hour swim, covered over a mile.
*Yawn* Sorry! – Stats!
Oh, plus I possibly did a bit more as I had to dodge all the folks doing reps of ‘standing in the shallow end, chatting’ with their occasional 1 minute recovery/rest periods.

So anyway, I can still swim. The question is,
“Do I try to squeeze into my ample frame into my ageing tri-suit for Sunday’s race? Or do I get myself a new pair of long swim shorts that I could also run in?”

The question is not, “Shall I fix the brakes on my bike before Sunday?” I think that’s a given, really.

More stats for June:

Tennis = 8 hours
Swimming = 35 mins / 1 mile
Running = none yet
Chocolate = none yet
Sweets = none yet
Weight loss = none yet!

Lost

The other day a kind gentleman at the post office informed me that I’d left my cashcard on the counter as I was about to walk out. I was grateful of course, but I had never really realised it was gone. If however you’ve ever lost something important like a wallet or mobile phone, spent ages looking for it, getting stressed about it, and THEN found it, or had it returned to you… THAT feels bloomin’ amazing right? Well this is my, “I think I’ve lost my wallet” post.

My ‘wallet’ in this case though is the effective use of my right shoulder. It’s going to take longer than I thought to look for it, and I’m beginning to entertain the possibility that I may not find it or have it returned to me. I don’t mind admitting that I’m a bit miserable about this but I’m trying to focus positively.

I’m not a radiographer, but I’m reliably informed my Mr Consultant man that this x-ray, taken yesterday, still shows a fracture at the distal end of the clavicle. He didn’t seem overly concerned that I wasn’t pain free yet and still feels that my lumpy shoulder could settle. I have my doubts. My shoulder feels worse now than when I did it in, 11 weeks a ago, and I think my current weakness is in part due to altered bone position and therefore angle of muscle pull.
Consultant review in 4 weeks. If still in pain it will be a big shot of steroid to the shoulder, he says. I’m willing to hope.

I’m hoping that that this post will serve to remind me in future months (when I have full range of movement, no pain, and resumed all my favourite supporting activities to their pre-fracture standard) how I feel about the possibility of not regaining them.

I am thinking ahead to a time when I can play a competitive game of tennis against my son. When I can wrestle with him again. When I can reenact the famous lift from Dirty Dancing and such like, with my fast-growing dancing daughter. And, if at all possible, I would still like to take a shot at an ironman distance triathlon before I’m 40.

None of these things seem achievable right now. So if they do happen, I’d darn well better appreciate them!

In the meantime, I have to try and focus on what I can do. Running isn’t super-comfortable, but I can.
I can manage a gentle bike ride.
I can have a kick around in the park.
I can do a million and one other things I currently take far too much for granted.

People lose stuff all the time. I hate losing stuff. It’s a horrible feeling. It’s a pain. It’s a hassle.
If I find my ‘wallet’, I shall be most appreciative.
If I don’t, I need to shrug it off and remind myself of all the other things I’ve not lost.

.

.

.

But I really hope I do find it.
That would be very nice, thank you.

Epilogue (Robin hood 13 of 12)

This could be dangerous… I’m sitting with a full bottle of wine in front of me, determined to move on from my last post ’10 things I like about marathons’ (which was only partly tongue-in-cheek) and work out where I’m going.

I might even neglect to check it for spelling and grammar. Yeah… I’m living life on the edge!

I’m not an elite athlete.
I wouldn’t describe myself as an ‘athlete’ at all.

That may not come as a shock to you but I state it clearly because it’s relevant to the next bit.

I’m not even sure I would describe myself as a runner.
But I run. I have enjoyed running (and sometimes hated it).
I play tennis.
I ride a bike.
I swim.
I like a physical challenge.

I don’t do these things because I’m brilliant at them. I do them because I enjoy it. Sometimes, there and then at the time – THE PROCESS… and sometimes because of the results, accomplishing something that was tough, feeling fitter, feeling stronger, feeling healthier – THE PRODUCT.

I remember entering my first marathon, which happened to be London in 2000 and thinking it was well out of my scope of possibility but with regular training, being unable to afford food, and a large helping of blissful ignorance, I made it over the line in what has since remained my PB. This marathon, I enjoyed. I would have been happy to just ‘get round’ but I felt like I’d really done myself justice. I finished in 4:15:something.

5 years later – another marathon. It was a 5:32:something misery.
5 years after that, a respectable marathon time of 4:32:53 followed by a 4:38:something a few months later.

Now, I’m not an elite athlete. I think I’ve made that very clear, and this isn’t about the times, but it is about feeling fit and feeling strong….. Or not.

The Nottingham Robin Hood Marathon was completed by me a couple of weeks ago in 5:17:something – I could go and look up the ‘something’ but there isn’t really much point because it’s not about the time.
I didn’t feel strong.
I knew the build up was not good.
A little nodule, which has since been diagnosed as plantar fasciitis was niggling a little, then a tendon injury 5/6 weeks out meaning my longest training run was 16 miles at just the point when I was building up nicely with speed work, hills, tempo runs, you know… all the ‘proper’ running stuff!

(Around about this time, I also fell on my shoulder during a game of football, but my foot/ankle was so painful, I ignored this)

I’d like to give a full-on race report but I’ve never been good at that. If I did, it would go something like this:

Arrived in good time.
Hung around a bit.
Used loo numerous times.
Hung around a bit.
Chatted to some people at the start line who thought I was weird for chatting to them.
*BANG!*
Walked a bit.
Ran.
Walked.
Ran.
Walked.
Ran.
Walked
Ran.
(Repeat x lots – it was a walk/run strategy I’ll have know, to prevent tendinitis flare up and all that)
Got cramp.
Walked.
Walked.
Ran.
Saw family.
Ran.
Got cramp.
Walked.
Ran.
Toiletted.
Hid in toilet.
Had a little cry and slapped myself in the face.
Ran/walked.
Got stone in shoe.
Bent down to remove shoe,
CRAMP! Omg CRSMP!
My goodness! CRAMP SO BAD I EVEN MISSPELLED CRAMP JUST NOW!
Breathe… Breathe… Breathe… Thank goodness it wasn’t in both legs at the same time!…
…YOU IDIOT! – WHY DID YOU EVEN THINK THAT, LET ALONE SAY IT OUT LOUD? YOU MUPPET!!!
Talked to self lots.
“Just get round now and hope there’s a Mars Bar at the end”.
Finish.
Eat mars bar.

Or something like that, anyway..well… I’m now half-way through the wine and I’m not too worried about checking for correct chronology (that’s easier to type than say, right now).

There is an element that I’m happy to have made it round. And the fact my tendonitis did not return is good. Even the plantar fasciitis (which was never bad enough to stop me running) did not, and has not since, worsened.
But if I’m honest, I didn’t want to just ‘make it round’.
I’ve ‘made it round’ before. And I’ve been happy with that before.
Despite everything in the build-up, I think I was hoping to prove to myself that I wasn’t actually getting older and unfitter.

At least at the moment, it feels like I have proved the opposite and I’m finding that a little hard to deal with.
Especially as I have recently dragged myself to the docs with this:

…which in recent weeks has been really frustrating me as I can’t play tennis pain-free, swim pain-free, or ride a bike pain-free. I used to do push-ups or pull-ups periodically for strength training but find that too painful now as well.

I’m booked in for an x-ray next week.

To make myself feel better I paid for a proper hair-cut yesterday (I normally just grab my trimmers and shave it all off for a few months), and when he’d done, the barber offered to trim my eyebrows too!

I punched him*

*in my imagination only (in reality, I accepted the offer).

Tri training with children (18Jun’13)

Today’s topic is “Training With Children”, which can be traumatic. Whether your cherubs are tiny or toddlers, choosing the tip-top time to train can be a terrible chore, but is a task that must be totally talked through with your cherished one, if tears, tantrums and potentially even testicle twisting are activities you’d rather were terminated.

When I just had one child and they were small, I went on loads of long pushchair walks, especially around those parks with ‘trim-trails’ (fixed exercise apparatus, dotted around a marked track to be used for press-ups, chin-ups, hurdling, climbing, etc). I could put them on the bike and go for lovely long bike rides and not worry about needing to be back to collect anyone from school.

I can remember even with child 2, going for a pushchair run at 3am for about 2 hours because I figured if I was to be awake anyway, I might as well!

Now however, the little one is far too independent to use a pushchair but not really strong enough to walk great distances. I can put her onto a ‘baby’ bike seat but then I cannot use the tag-along bike attachment for the older child who is not yet confident enough to ride his bike on the roads. Oh there’s a way round most of these things and I do find them.

This evening, for example was simple.

Solution 1: Put children to bed and then go out

I very nearly just went to bed myself but I forced myself to go swimming instead. I forced myself to cycle there too so I’d have to cycle back. And then just because I was in the mood, I went for a run upon my return.

2k Swim; 10k bike ride; 2k run

And because I am slightly paranoid about copyright and crediting sources appropriately…

… So thank you Mark Anderson. I’m sure it’s a very lovely and informative book.