Remember Remember, No Cake in November

October - on the whole - was a month of ups and downs (literally, if you've read my last couple of posts). Starting with some positives: I trashed the bike goal of 500 miles, which I am really chuffed about. In total I spent around 47 hours and 24 minutes in some sort of saddle if you include a few spinning classes.

I managed to lose my 5lbs - just. The weekly weigh-ins at work have been a good motivation but the giving up of chocolate, cake and biscuits has been key, so hopefully the weight loss should continue, at least until 26th November when the fast finishes and I gorge on five weeks worth of treats! By the end of November the goal is to lose another 4lbs, and I plan to do that not through hours and hours of exercise but through eating really healthily. Prepare yourselves for some weird and wonderful culinary concoctions. I even went to Tesco last night and bought cabbage, I mean business!

The swimming goal didn't quite come to fruition. I didn't manage my three times a week. I would love to give the excuse that my burn to the hand stopped me mid-October but realistically that only stopped me briefly and then once I lost my rhythm I slacked off a bit. I did however, do more than double the amount of swimming that I did the previous month. Slowly but surely I am getting better at making myself go. This is the big goal for November, over the course of the month I want to do 10 hours worth, which doesn't sound like a huge amount but it will be more than I have ever done in a month before (so far June takes it with 7 hours 15 mins, the majority of which was in glorious open water). So if anybody sees me hesistating or wussing out, please do give me an encouraging kick up the backside!

Unfortunately my dodgy knee is being particularly naughty at the moment, so running looks like it's still off the cards and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to wave goodbye to Hellrunner at the end of the month. I'm absolutely gutted as I've been gearing myself up for it for ages and it was a bit of an 'ultimate running goal' for me. I will however, be upping the glute work and shooting for that "buns of steel" status under the physio's recommendation.

I'm also going to tone down the cycling a little to give the knee some time to rest, and when I say tone down I mean take it nice and easy on the bike pace-wise and no mega big long rides. With all that in mind, I should be able to fit in the swimming, and I will have  to be super healthy in the eating if I want to make my weight loss goal.

So, in summary. Lots of swimming, lots of bun clenching, and lots of lovely healthy grub... who says a life of excess is bad for you?!