While the cat's away.......

Mark is away for the week so I have been sooooo tempted to lie in bed all day eating chocolate for breakfast and curry for tea.  My perkiness on Sunday was a little dented by spending the afternoon eating churros and hot chocolate in Quaker's Friars in the sunshine and Monday was spent in a sugar rush haze thinking about going to the gym and feeling guilty about not going (although in my defence I was a healthy, healthy creature all day (apart from a packet of giant chocolate buttons) and I did my 3 sets of ten full pressups before I went to bed.  I was supposed to go to a spin class this morning before heading to Birmingham but decided I would be cutting it too fine so I packed my swim kit with the sworn intention of doing my catch up swim session that Mark had kindly emailed to me, when I got back from Brum.

I had planned to avoid my weigh in today as I didn't want to get discouraged but I forced myself to face the music and to my surprise my scales appear to be behaving themselves after the battery removal lesson and told me I have lost another 3 lbs!  Cue more dancing round the room in my pants but only for a very short time as I had to be a grown up and get to court on time.  I have also lost another inch off my hips and waist and half an inch off thighs and arms so my step was decidedly light (see what I did there?) as I headed off to the train station with my healthy packed breakfast, lunch and snack.    Oh boy do I come up with some excuses when I don't want to exercise, I got back and was sooooo tired that I almost convinced myself that I should just go home but I couldn't let the buzz I got from my scales encounter this morning go to waste so I headed to the pool and started my session.  It's not quite the same without Mark noting down the lap times but I managed to finish the session and was pretty proud of myself that I did it in half an hour without dying albeit feeling a little wobbly as I got out - I should have realised that something was wrong and of course when I got home I checked the session and realised that I had only done half of it, but hey I did 30 more minutes hard swimming than I thought I would have done today and weirdly was decidedly less tired than when I got in the pool.

 I was very proud of myself for all the planning I've been doing for my travelling food - yogurt and passionfruit for brekkie today, with roast salmon and veggies with couscous for lunch and turkey chilli and basmati rice with roast veggies for dinner this evening with strawberries for dessert.  Roasted more veggies and salmon and prepared couscous to take to Nottingham for lunch tomorrow and made up another yogurt and passionfruit for brekkie although this time I added a teaspoon of honey as it was really sharp this morning.  Should have enough roast veg and rice for dinner tomorrow night and will just add something pot luck from the freezer.  30 pressups before bedtime and I have been the best behaved healthy person ever!

Post Script - after this post I have had a totally alcohol fuelled week few days, inovlving rum, boats, boys, swimming (what time do you think I went??), embarrassing texts and a wedding - resulting in me eating chinese takeaway, fat boy brekkie, mcdonalds and half of a roast pig.  I thought that at least giving blood would mean I could dare to weigh myself because I would be weigh a pint less than I did before donating but they couldn't get into a vein so I came back punctured but with still the same volume of blood inside me (I had been a bit concerned I would be rejected because there wasn't enough blood in my blood but I passed that test surprisingly).  Now I am just quaking with fear cos the cat's back tomorrow and I think I may suffer.........

If music be the food of love....

I really need to sort out the music on my ipod.  I managed to hop chirpily out of bed and down to the gym for my bike/run brick.  My plan was for a 20 minute cadence bike and 10 minute run/jog.  The bike was going well and by putting up the resistence a little I managed to knock another 15 seconds off my 10km time, albeit leaving me breathless and dripping in sweat (such a nice mental picture huh? imagine what it was like for the people who actually saw it!)

 I had struggled a bit towards the end because all the music that shuffle put up was techno chill-out which isn't really conducive to pedalling like mad when you'd rather be eating eggs benedict on a sofa reading the Sunday times style supplement.  But that was nothing with the struggle I had when I started the run/jog.  I just couldn't find anything to keep me going - not helped by the fact that I seem to hold my breathe everytime I pressed the forward button on the ipod so after about 15 attempts to find something vaguely inspiring or even just simply upbeat I was wheezing like a warthog amid the odd expletive that was meant to be in my head but spilled out causing my exercise neighbours to look at me nervously (large, red, sweaty lady keeps shouting out swear words while running very slowly on a treadmill hmmm) and then I lost my temper, pressed the stop button and did my best to stomp off while my legs did bambi impressions.  I managed 1minute 38 seconds! *sigh*

So to regain some self-respect I did 3 sets of 10 full press ups (yaaay!) - although the 3rd set were interspersed with a couple of little rests stretches and then 3 sets of Mark Durnford's horrid abs torture exercises (med ball crunches - and yes Mark I did use the heavy one - russian twists with the med ball and swiss ball mountain climbers) and I didn't swear once (well not out loud) although I did notice that the lady who had been next to me on the treadmill made sure she was on the furthest mat away from me  - but she could only do press ups on her knees so she left mwah ha ha ha ha

 PS I cannot do this!

Spinning and Wakes

There is a God!  My scales have obviously learned their lesson and recorded that I had lost some weight even if it is only a teeny tiny bit (I know that weight can go down as well as up but unlike the economy a downward trend is what I am looking for).  This joyful news spurred me on to head to my spinning class rather than snaffle an extra hour in bed.  I was going to go straight to Birmingham and then onto London so I had to drag a bag of work, clothes and general stuff with me although there was definitely a spring in my step which is unusual at that time in the morning. 

Serendipity is a great thing so while I was panting away on the bike looking hopelessly at the clock ticking painfully slowly, I was dragged out of the place that my mind goes when the physical exertion gets too much, by the instructor saying that we were on the last track - no I hadn't become delerious again....the class that I thought was 45 minutes was only (ONLY!) half an hour - oh the joy - if I could do a back flip I would have done one off the bike but instead I just busted my ass on the last track and poured my sweaty mass into the shower. 

Now despite the fact that I had vowed after the weekend's debauchery not to drink for the rest of the week I ended up at my friend Madhu's house (well her sister's house) being fed wine and amazing home cooked Indian food - I couldn't refuse as it would have been churlish - honest!  So I rolled out of Rajni's house  to prepare myself for the memorial service of our friend Marie Colvin the following day.

  I had every intention of going home the evening after the memorial so I could have week 5 of Hell Thursday but it was an empty intention because in reality there was no way I was going to do anything other than get mind splatteringly drunk, which is what I did - and I had a kebab to round it all off!  Not even the green dress inspiration was going to have any effect on that inevitability.  It was an amazing service and slightly surreal to see so many politicians and journalists wandering around - only Marie could have had Cerys Matthews singing "Blowing in the Wind" at her memorial and I have to say that had me in tatters.  Her sailing buddies headed off to the pub and as my friend Madhu said in her wisdon " get a bunch of sailors together for a wake and the next day is never going to be pretty."  (and it wasn't)

So I missed my week 5 swim, and had to head back to Bristol, pick up a case, repack and head to Manchester for work.  I think I must at least get some brownie points for booking a hotel with a gym although I didn't actually set foot in it - ah those good intentions again! I spent the evening prepping my case, while drinking buckets of water and trying to work out how to get the aircon working in my sweltering room and then the next day in court and travelling back to Bristol.  Again I had intended to get back and go swimming or to a spin class but the only thing I did before I went to bed was to sleepily change the sheets while stepping over piles of sailing gear, clothes, towels, suitcases and papers.  

So Saturday was supposed to be the re-start of my programme but my apathy attack has continued although I did manage to sort out the admin explosion in my flat, do my laundry and to do a whole load of gardening that was long overdue.  I have strawberries and mint planted in hanging baskets, peas planted out, potatoes shored up, carrots thinned out and loads of sweet peas potted - not sure how that will help me fit in my green dress but it was food for the soul. 

Now I have clean sports kit I have no excuse not to go to the gym tomorrow for some biking and running (time to see if my achilles can cope with a slow, flat jog! fingers crossed).

The truth hurts....literally

I think I'm delerious, I've just realised that I've walked out of the gym with one of their towels although walked may be an overexaggeration.  NEVER and I mean NEVER EVER EVER tell your trainer that you've been on the piss all weekend just before you start your training session.
Cycle sprint intervals (on the third one I was tactically working out the best place for me to chunder and I would ask for some credit that at no stage did I contemplate turning right to aim my projectile at the evil sweat-meister as he stood cackling with sadistic laughter at my panting).  I managed to keep the bile down and survive that tiny hell session and then moved onto ViPR, kettlebells, pressups, squats, tricep dips, bicep curls and some one arm rows with the biggest kettlebells I'd ever seen - I could hardly lift them up with both hands never mind one arm - I think I'm getting Stockholm syndrome because when Mark allowed me to only do 10 in the second set rahter than curse him under my breathe, I was pathetically grateful and thought what a nice man he is.  Then we finished off with some ab torture that I would officially describe as "horrid" and still managed to include the ViPR, a medicine ball and a swiss ball - I can't go into any further description or I'll get flashbacks and won't be able to sleep.  I couldn't even hand over the cash to the man in Waitrose for my healthy soup without my hands shaking like a junkie (although it may still be the dt's from the weekend's boozing).  I have now consumed 2 litres of water and the shaking has stopped but I'm supposed to be doing a spin session at a ridiculous time tomorrow morning but I'm not convinced that the sight of a bike isn't going to send my into a hysterical breakdown - so maybe for the good of everyone I should just get an extra hour in bed instead........?

Boats and Kettlebells

Can you throw up under water?  I thought I was going to find out on session 5 of hell Thursday.  It wasn't helped by the fact that I had overslept and so turned up 10 minutes late.  You have no idea how tempted I was just to stay in bed and apologise for missing the session, but I reckoned I would be made to pay -either in my training session or in the final swim session, the risk wasn't worth it so I scampered down the street towards the gym, streaming various items of clothing behind me as I tried to get dressed on the move.   Mark's response to my tardiness was "Well you should get some good swim times in if you've had extra sleep" *groan.*  I think I managed to elicit a mild expression of being impressed from Mark when I managed to do my swim sets in the same time each time, but I did knock one set off each block just so that I didn't expire in the pool.  Shall have to work on my pull in preparation for this tri and before everyone gets excited I'm talking about my arms under the water!

I actually had to go to work after the session and spent the rest of the day in an oxygen deprived haze, trying to focus on the mechanics of car accidents.  Friday's brick session had to be cancelled as I had to head to Coventry with a big bag of sailing gear for what turned out to be a mammoth day in court - despite my optimistic hopes that I would be on a train to Southampton by 1330 - I finally got a train at 1830 and had a healthy train buffet supper of bbq hula hoops, beef jerky and a caramel chunky kitkat.  I did however manage not to succumb to the temptation of a mini bottle of wine so I was still in a fit state to put up the tent when I got to Lymington and my eternal thanks to Lisa for picking me up from the station.  It was at this stage that my good intentions fell into tatters as I met everyone in the pub and I was forced, yes forced, to have a large glass of wine, which seemed to multiply and then ended up with us on the boat drinking bizarre mixtures of alcohol and mixers - bacardi and ginger beer anyone??

I managed not to get back to the tent so slept on the boat and was awoken to get a bacon buttie and a bloody mary from the haven cafe/restaurant.  The REYC were having a feeder race in the morning so that the first 3 boats could be chosen to race against the Royal Lymington Yacht Club in the afternoon.  As Ilex managed not to even start the race on time we were gobsmacked pleased to manage to catch up so that we qualified. Actually we weren't pleased at all as most of us were so hungover that we had been looking forward to an afternoon nap before we started drinking again at the post regatta dinner.   The REYC's new yacht Right Royal of Upnor performed outstandingly in the first race and did so again in the afternoon much to the pride of all (especially those who had put so much effort into getting her purchased).  My memories of the race involve headaches, confusion between port and starboard and having a mouth so dry that I was expecting sand to start billowing out.

                                                                                                           Right Royal went off like a rocket and despite the lethargy levels on the boat, we did enough not to let the other boats down.  We were all elated to be told at the Yacht Club drinks that for the first time in many many years the REYC had won the trophy!  The evening went down hill from there into a drunken haze and many hangovers on Sunday morning.                                                                 

Wales and weighing scales

The weather for our epic weekend looked as if it was about to break and turn into a very windy, downpour kind of day so we decided to sack our original idea of hiring mountain bikes to do the trail around the Usk Reservoir and walk it instead.  I have to confess to being a teeny weeny bit relieved about that decision because the cycle to and from the trail was incredibly hilly to the extent I'd already told Liz that I was walking up one of them - it was virtually impossible in a car never mind a bike!  Anyway while the wind had kicked in, the rain hadn't so I set off on our 5.5 mile walk reassured that at least the walk would be flat!  It was very pretty and I was very tempted to have a dip but there were millions (yes millions) of signs in both English and Welsh threatening anyone who dared to enter the water with many deaths - so I decided against it. 

I discovered to my disgust that there were some bits that were NOT FLAT - it was at this stage obviously that I thanked my lucky stars I had put on a thermal vest, a fleece, a waterproof as well as a fleece neck warmer and sealskin hat!  Yaay.  Luckily the not flat bits were in no way comparable to the ones I had endured the day before so I had to man up and think of England/Wales (delete as appropriate).  I took some pretty pictures to while away the time

As we finished our walk the first drops of rain started to fall so we hopped in the car and went to find the nearest cafe- we found a lovely place which was a converted old school room which served a fab cream tea with enormous warm scones hurrah!  That served as lunch and we headed back to Bristol where I had a lie down.

It's funny how you get to see how people's minds work and Mark, my personal trainer is no exception.  When I got up on Tuesday morning for my training session I could hardly walk and so despite the sun shining I had to concede we would probably have to stay indoors as I couldn't run.  I explained what a good girl I'd been and how active I had been over the weekend and he nodded and then, like the smiling assassin he is, put me through the hardest bloody session I've ever had without me having to engage my achilles once.  All I can say is that the words "cycle sprint intervals" and "kettlebell step ups" will forever send a shiver down my spine!

I made the rookie mistake of telling him about the green dress motivation which he is now threatening to hold over me at every opportunity (at least it's better than the wall bars revelation - see "Picking Up the Brass" by Eddie Nugent, to get that reference).  The green dress motivation is that I own a fairly stunning green sequinned backless dress which I want to fit into by August.  I have fitted into it in the past and know exactly how much I need to lose to be able to fit into it again.  Due to its backlessness(?) there is no room for lycra suck-in tummy pants so I will either have to lose a fairly significant amount of lard or have some emergency liposuction on 31st July.

Having given him so much ammo, Mark moved onto the TRX and some sadistic negotiations which involved me having to chose between 2 equally horrific options of pressups (he seemed to be suggesting he was being kind to me) Hmmm.  He then finished off with some horrific abs/medicine ball concoction that nearly made me throw up (I was past the crying stage!)  Needless to say I had to have a lie down for the rest of the day and then when I tried to move found that I couldn't .....not any part of my body....literally everything hurt!  I had intended to swim the following day but was in too much pain to even leave the flat (apart from to get a very small bar of chocolate :-D....just kidding).  I was monumentally disappointed to find that I hadn't lost any weight so I kicked the scales and took the batteries out hoping that would teach it a lesson for the next time.

Red Kites and Mountains

I'm sure chlorine isn't good for you, I've been snorting and snuffling and sneezing all week!  I've finally worked out why I'm such a biff in the swimming group - they're all iron(wo)man triathletes!!!! (Well that's what I'm telling myself to keep me going through the sessions anyway).   So I survived swim session 4 (probably still on a high from my weight loss ;-) )   and then popped into the Eat, Drink, Bristol Fashion teepee for a couple of glasses of Cloudy Bay and a gossip with a friend.  Wow when you cut down your drinking you really notice how quickly the booze goes to your head!  Scampered home and made healthy stirfry for tea (honest!  I didn't go to the chinese or the thai or the fishnchip shop or the curry house even though I was sorely tempted and egged on by the little white wine devil in my head).

Woke up feeling horrid and went for lunch and more gossip with a couple of mates at the very cool Deco Lounge on Cotham Hill - any place that serves bloody marys and fishfinger sandwiches is cool by my standards!  I didn't feel too guilty as I knew I was off for a long weekend traipsing round the Brecon Beacons so I reckoned I'd need some sustenance in preparation.

I even managed to fit in a swim/bike session on Saturday morning before heading off into the wilds of Wales (God's Country).  I was jumping for joy pleasantly surprised to find that I'd knocked off 30 seconds half a minute (half a minute sounds better don't you think?) from my 500m swim time and 15 seconds off my 10k bike time  - so the hell swim sessions are paying off *bouncy tiger impressions round the room*
The lovely Liz came to pick me up to head off to Llanddeusant Youth Hostel where we had a whole heap of healthy, outdoorsy activities planned for the weekend.   First stop was the Red Kite Cafe at 1500hrs where the owner feeds the Red Kites everyday.
Apparently when the feeding programmes started in the 1990s the Red Kite populations in UK were limited to Wales and there were only 54 breeding pairs in the country - there are not estimated to be up to 900 breeding pairs in Wales alone and I think they were all in Llanddeusant at 1500hrs on 5 May!  In fact they were all early as they were obviously waiting around impatiently for the boss to come out with his bucket of meat.  It was an amazing sight - I've never seen a red kite before, or at least would never have been able to identify it from any other raptor, but I got to see them up close and personal so I will definitely recognise one (or several hundred) again.

After a refreshing hot chocolate with marshmallows and cream (it would have been rude not to) we headed a mile up and down hill and dale to the hostel.  Now it's been about 25 years several hundred months since I was in a youth hostel so I was a little nervous about what I'd let myself in for.  As it wasn't open when we got there - Liz decided we should go for a little wander - now, what I hadn't really grasped is that Liz is a fitness ninja - she goes out running for fun ( I know! weird) and she is a proper mountaineer/climber chick - I should have been pre-warned by her tales of doing the Haute Route over Easter.  Anyway once we'd walked along a country road looking for a farmhouse cafe that seemed to be signposted she suggested that rather than walk back we should go up the hill and finish the circuit that way - no path just a scramble up a field and then follow our noses back to the hostel.  Bloody hell I'd forgotten how knackering it is to walk up steep grass slopes and this was a little one compared to the one I'd over-optimistically suggested for the next day's activities.  I grimly shuffled up the hill, wheezing, while Liz scampered up like a mountain goat.  We finally got to the hostel to find it open and Liz booked us in because I still couldn't breathe/talk.

The hostel was warm and cosy with a big kitchen/dining/lounge area with an open fire.  We were in a bunk room with 3 generations of one family; Mum, Gran and 12 year old, who were out wandering around Wales for something to do over the Bank Holiday.  We opened a bottle of wine and cooked  a very unimaginative chilli while one half of a gay couple whipped up homemade chocolate mousse and some hollandaise sauce to go with some panfried asparagus just to put us to shame (I may be very wrong about them being a gay couple but seriously I've never come across a straight man who would get that culinary on what is essentially a camping trip - well OK I do know one straight man but he's the exception to the rule!)  We spent a very relaxing evening (in the absence of a TV and any mobile signal) doing crosswords, sudoku and listening to overbearing Mum beating her 12 year old at scrabble.  Overbearing Mum, unfortunately also snored, note to self, next time bring ear plugs as well as a sleep mask.....

So having slept intermittently we woke up to have porridge, make sandwiches, and head off on our expedition .  The plan was to go high early onto the ridge and walk around both Llyn v Fan Fach and Llyn y Fan Fawr and then come down and walk around both lakes at water level ending with a wild swim/dip in Llyn y Fan Fach before the final 1 mile trek back to the car.  About 10 miles in all but holy crap did I find it hard - the ascent onto the first ridge seemed to be almost vertical and went on for ever - Liz scampered off doing her mountain goat impression, stopping every now and then to look back and check I wasn't in need of CPR. I wheezed and hobbled behind her, cursing the day I'd had the ridiculous idea to come hiking in the Brecons and wondering why I hadn't chosen someone lazy to come with me so we could have done the 2 mile walk on the road to Llyn y Fan Fach for a quick dip and then headed off to the lovely Farm House cafe that did amazing home made cakes (according to Overbearing Mum).

I had to admit that once I could breathe at the top of the first ridge line the view was pretty spectacular, until I realised that there was another bloody enormous hill to climb after just 200m flat walking! Did I mention that it was at this point it started to hail!
                                                                                     

After what seemed like hours we came round the corner of the ridge line to see the second lake-

and finally got to do some downhill, but that hurt almost as much as the uphill!

I was almost sobbing with relief when we finally got to lake level and the hail stopped and the sun came out to reflect my joy.  While we had met people on the ridge it was fabulous to wander along the lake with not a soul around, with silence apart from the odd bird making the occasional chirrup in disgust at our intrusion.  We finally got to the end of the circle after 4 hours of monumental trogging and we stripped down to our bikinis and timidly edged our way steadfastly dived into Llyn y Fan Fach.  Holy cow it was cold!  Luckily just as we decided to brave the water the sun went in and the wind got up a bit, but we managed it for at least 30 seconds several minutes.  I have to say I think the cold treatment actually eased off my aching muscles and my screaming achilles as the next morning I wasn't in half as much pain as I thought I would be.

Dancing round the room in my pants

Yes!  I am dancing round the room in my pants having weighed myself and found I've lost 4lbs since I started the blog- and I've lost an inch from all my stats (I'm not measuring my chest because if I see I'm losing my boobs I'll just get depressed).  I celebrated by having a chocolate brownie and some cheese - yeah I may not have quite got the hang of this yet!  I will be back on form tomorrow as I have the swim of death with Mark in the morning and I may have to make up for doing nothing (apart from drink and sleep) since Friday by also seeing how long it takes me to cycle 10km after the swim session.  I can reward myself with porridge :-(

 I have also just made a promise in public that when I reach my target weight I shall dress up in a Bridget Jones style bunny outfit.  Luckily I still have a long way to go before I face up to dealing with getting out of that ( and I shall just have to hope that I've kept hold of my boobs while losing my bottom).

Chlorine

Oooh I really struggle to get out of bed in the morning so thank you to my lovely friend Julian Bunce who inspired me to get up and go for a swim by sending me a lovely supportive message about my blog.  I managed to get to the pool with my everything I needed; cossie, goggles, swimcap and stopwatch for a time trial.  25 lengths (500m).  12.45 minutes which I know isn't going to challenge any of the British swim team for the Olympics - if I'm honest it won't challenge the Equatorial Guinea's Swim team but I don't care - as long as it means I will make it through the cut off time for the Triathlon swim which is 30 minutes for 750m.  

So hurrah - it looks as if I should at least manage the first hurdle.   I did realise I had forgotten one thing when I went for my swim - my pants.  Now I think there is a subconscious explanation for my unwillingness to take pants with me when I go swimming - I still remember the blood curdling humiliation of turning up at school swimming lessons with my pants on over my swimming costume and getting into the pool  and you know how mean little girls can be!

I forgot to mention that I lost 2 lbs last week - I have to admit I was a bit miffed because I thought after all my effort I should have lost at least half a stone, but I guess beggars can't be choosers.  Not sure I'll get the same result next week what with the Army v Navy rugby to contend with but we shall see :-D.
I decided that I would stick with a swimming theme this week due to my malfunctioning achilles so Thursday was again a beast session in the pool with Mark from createfit.  This time only 3 of us were brave enough to turn up - well that's what I'm telling myself - they gave some pretty plausible excuses but I'm not convinced ;-).  So I paddled along behind everyone else keeping to my 30 seconds per 2 length pace for the endurance pyramid bit (10,8,6,4,2 and back up again) although I made the rookie mistake of doing one set 15 seconds quicker than the original set which might have let Mark know I wasn't trying quite as hard as I might have been.  It's always good to have a trainer who is optimistic as to what you can achieve but his hope that we would then be able to achieve an interval pyramid of 10x2, 6x2, 4x2 etc and back up again, was beyond idealistic.  So we did 5x2 and then cried with relief when the big hand told us that our hour was up.
I was so enthused by my swimming experience this week that I managed one final session in the week - I left it so late in the day that I only had 30 minutes and so I had to renegotiate my initial plan of doing the interval pyramid that I hadn't finished the day before - I decided that I'd stick with 10 x2, 5x2, 2x2 and back up again but after 10x2 I decided I'd done more than enough and as I could no longer breathe I headed out for a girlie lunch at the Lido (see how I'm sticking with the aqua theme). 
One small problem with the dedication to swimming is that I have discovered that I'm allergic to chlorine and have done nothing but sneeze since I got out of the pool.