Morning Swimming

After last weeks total swimming fail due to not being able to park anywhere near the beach because of the weather I have gotten up twice this week (Tuesday and today) and got an hour in the pool before work....and it wasn't that bad actually. A whole week out of the pool can really set me back.

I did have a couple of wtf am I doing here at this time of the morning but I am managing to get some good swimming in (that is a relative term!). I figured I should try to make it a bit of a routine before the school holidays start as lunchtime swims will be almost impossible.

I did head down at lunchtime yesterday for a short technique style session and it was a faff even then as some of the older kids have obviously finished and were in the pool. To be fair they were actually swimming but I get annoyed with (usually blokes) that thrash up the pool to beat me at crawl then slow breast stroke back because they are knackered and I catch them up.....

Rest Week

I'm taking an easy week this week, it is actually planned for once which was good as it was obvious on Sunday's road ride I was clearly in need of one. I faffed all morning before getting out on the bike even though it was a nice sunny day, that in itself should have been a clue as I couldn't wait to get out the week before.

Plan was to up the difficulty of the climbing a bit and head over to do a circuit of Pendle Hill. My legs were fine but for some reason my head just didn't want to ride. I ignored myself because some of my best rides have started out with that kind of mental approach and come good.

Lots of ups and downs to warm my legs up on the way over to Whalley, taking things nice and easy. Sunny day, bit of cold breeze but very hazy. Pendle Hill was pretty obscured, though for a change it wasn't heavy clag:



Soon I was riding through Pendleton, ready to climb up to the Nick O Pendle. Took it really steady, bracing myself for the stupidly steep bit, which didn't really materialise. It was really hard but not as stupidly hard as I was expecting, which was probably just as well as this seems to be a road where drivers like to try and brush your elbow as they pass, really felt like every car refused to give room.

A fast drop down the other side and up the climb to Padiham Heights...which kicked my arse, that's more like it! I made it up the evil climb, legs were still fine, still CBA to be riding though even though the roads were great. Eventually dropped into Barley and stopped at the heaving cafe for some food, they didn't have much left so settled on some chocolate sponge and custard and a cappucino.

I had a bit of a wait...realised the time 3pm, on a Sunday afternoon means most things will be closing. Only 27 miles ridden, 3500ft of climbing, just over two hours of riding (was that all). A lot of time to look at the map and realise there really was only one way out of Barley..up. An enormous plate of sponge and custard and a huge cappucino was plonked in front of me. Top marks for value for money but I was stuffed when I was finished...just before heading up a big hill.

I hadn't quite fully given in by this point so climbed out of Barley (no sponge after effects) and headed to Downham as I'd heard it was really pretty. It was but here the last of my motivation deserted me and I decided to go home. So a map check and I decided to head through Chatburn, Waddington then out to Ribchester then home, rolling terrain. Within about a mile of making that decision almost everything started to hurt, it's amazing how admitting defeat just changes everything.

It wasn't the most fund ride home I have to say, a bit of a headwind and the sponge started making its presence felt about Waddington. The grind out of Ribchester was particularly nauseous. A fastish blat down the A59 then home, shattered. With hindsight, starting the rest week on Sunday with an easy spin was probably a better idea.

Monday's swim was a bit rubbish for swimming but was a great stretching session for my shoulders, hip flexors and lower back. I do like floating about in the water even if my swimming isn't up to much.

Tuesday I canned my commute as I felt really tired and groggy in the morning when I woke up, which did worry me a bit so I opted for another half an hour of sleep instead. Within about five minutes of being up and about I felt fine, I'm always a bit groggy on the dark mornings d'oh. A three mile run after work was all I managed to fit in.

Wednesday the boys were off to Gisburn with some work colleagues, I couldn't get out of work early enough so decided it was time to break out the singlespeed and head to Abbey Village when I did get out of work. Get the first ride on it in a while without the sight of the boys disappearing off up the hill. Riding on my own means I can set a sensible pace on the initial climb through the woods and take the time to get my breath back coo over the lambs:




(I blinked first!)


Legs were ok for riding but the biggest surprise was my arms, normally my arms give out first on the SS but they were fine, which is the swimming I presume. The only annoyance was a bit of a mechanical where the jockey wheel fell out of the chain doofer, causing the chain to fall off. Luckily I was rolling along downhill when it happened and not stood up grinding out a climb. A lot of faff with taking the wheel out, screwing the jockey wheel back in, watching it unscrew itself before my eyes as I pedalled along as I'd not done it right then going through the whole palaver again.

I was still up near the tower when this all happened and its a bit of a sobering realisation that whilst its a mainly downhill 3 or 4 miles and not much time at all back to Abbey Village with a working bike its an entirely different situation if the bike couldn't be fixed and a walk was on the cards, I got quite cold very quickly too. When it first happened I also seemed to be the only person up on the moor, fortunately I did bump into a very friendly MTBer who checked I was ok when putting the bike back together the second time.




My repair held but I avoided doing any steep climbs on the way back to the car just in case the chain decided to fall off again. Was still a great ride though.

Thursday was supposed to be a bit of a run but it was stupidly windy at work, would just be silly at the beach, one of my "rules" for rest weeks is to have fun with "training" as much as possible and running against that wind is usually not that much fun. Had a great swimming lesson in the evening, back stroke.

I postponed the run to today, it was still windy but nowhere near as bad as yesterday however it was still really crazy at the prom. Running with my eyes closed as the sand was being whipped into my face but it didn't last long before it was behind me. Quite pleased I didn't venture down yesterday, even the seagulls were sheltering behind cars.

Plan for the weekend is a 3 hour max road ride and I may break my trail shoes out and go for an offroad run. Wednesday's ride reminded me how much I like being up on the moors.

Swimming...Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

After almost three months of thrashing around the pool attempting to do front crawl I am now officially 10 seconds a length (a whole 40 seconds per 25 metres, didn't think it was possible to be that slow) slower than those first few times in January FFS. Nearly threw my pull bouy in disgust at the silver haired, head above water breastroking old dear that overtook me twice today.

It was a frustrating swim today in many respects but I have gone back to basics with my stroke after a friend pointed out I was overreaching above the water then slapping in which is not good and creates loads of drag (and requires lots of oxygen to continue. I'm concentrating on hand entry and I have realised over the last few weeks that my pea brain can only really cope with thinking about one thing at a time whilst swimming (maybe two if they are simple) or else I forget important things...like breathing.

At least things were slow enough today that I was never in danger of running out of air and that I have a whole weird timing thing going on when breathing to the right (my bad side) that seems to involve me separating each movement out before quietly sinking and inhaling water. It would be funny if it wasn't so frustrating. I can't even fall back to breastroke as that is even worse.

Back in the pool tomorrow then...

January in numbers

January was not too bad a month really, was a bit meh at the start due to the cold. I seem to be struggling with riding in the very cold, last Saturday Jez and I went out for a ride in the beautiful sunshine but I wheezed my way round and we had to cut it short.

So

307 miles /23 hours of riding only 45 turbo miles but need to pick this up more

35 miles / 5:15 hours of running

5 miles / 9 hours of swimming (ratio of actual swimming to faffing/drowing/blowing water out of nose in the middle of the pool improving lots now though)

2:30 hours of dangling on the climbing wall

2 kilos of lard lost (yay, a good few more to go, boo)

0 units of alcohol drunk, continuing this to my birthday on 5th March.


So roll on February...lost more actual swimming hopefully, more hilly rides though won;t be doing much longer than 3 or 4 hours at the minute and keep running ticking over. Oh and some more lard blasted would be nice.

Not waving but drowning

2011 is well underway and I've set myself two (or is it three) challenges for the first half of the year. The main one is the Etape Du Dales in May, I was supposed to be entering this with Jez and another friend but the event is now full and their names are conspicuous by their absence from the entry list..buggers. So that means lots of grovelling up hills for the next few months, I kind of figure it doesn't matter whether I'm on road or off I just need to get lots of hills in my legs.

Challenge two is to acquire some swimming ability. I signed up for lessons at the beginning of January. I have no real background in swimming, I did all the school stuff, jumping into the water wearing pyjamas and all that gubbins but I was never one for swimming club or such like. I used to love playing in the pool so I'm not scared of the water as such but I am aware I am a poor swimmer. I learned to dive into the deep part of the pool before I could really swim out of it. However, I do have an achievement badge for a 2000m swim somewhere so god knows how I managed that.

The swimming should be complementary to the cycling, especially when the mileage ramps up. I can do it without hammering my legs, unlike running. The lessons started on the 6th January, which was the first time I had set foot in a pool for about six years, prior to that I used to do a few lengths of breastroke before heading into the steam room when I was a gym member.

So far...I have a slow breastroke, arms are actually ok but kick is awful. Front crawl I had never done but am now relaxing and able to string together without stopping four very, very slow lengths together as long as I don't kick too hard (too much oxgen required for that!). A lot of chlorinated water has rinsed my nose and mouth to get to this stage. I've been purposely doing bilateral breathing from the start so that should help things and it now seems almost automatic so I can start thinking about something else instead of counting to three all the time.

However, at last nights lesson I discovered I have a mean backstroke. It was ace, moving through the water at speeds I didn't think I was capable of. Shame it would need quite an empty pool to do outside the lesson, I'd probably hit some poor old dear at ramming speed otherwise. My main focus is the crawl but I am actually quite enjoying doing the other strokes, give me something else to think about when progress on crawl if frustrating, which it will be I have no doubt.

The other driver for the swimming is that St Annes pool reopened last summer, it's only two miles from work and has a good long public/lane swimming session every lunchtime so it's easy to get some practice in. It's also on £83 a year for unlimited off peak swimming which is quite frankly a bargain. I'm currently aiming for two 30/40 min sessions in there and the hour lesson a week. I've been advised to keep sessions on my own short and stop before I get too tired to make sure I don't reinforce sloppy stroke technique.

The third challenge is to shed some of my lard jacket I have been carrying around. Jez bought some scales late last year, I stood on them, it wasn't a nice number (bit of self delusion going on) but it is on the way down thankfully. The EDD is going to be hard enough without too much excess lard. I'm making a big effort now and next month, mixing up training with runs/swims/SSing offroad/turbo/Shorter road rides/climbing wall, once the long rides start I'll need to keep fuelling up so it will get harder.

So..just need to sort out some build up events. Currently thinking Cheshire Cat, 100 mile this year perhaps(Jez not at all keen!) Lakeland Loop and the Brian Robinson Challenge as Jez's sister lives near Huddersfield so we can tie in a visit. Lots of hills in those to be going on with.