Syrup for Fuel

The whole ‘healthy holiday’ plan had a very promising start. I made a lot of good food choices as I journeyed towards Canada, including a very tasty wholemeal salmon and beetroot wrap and loads of fruit. The was a minor incident at Rejkavik airport as I purchased a dried fish snack which I wasn’t entirely certain was definitely intended for human consumption; it was next to a picture of a very happy-looking dog and had zero discernable English on the packaging. Nonetheless, it tasted marvellous and had no less than a whopping 81% protein so either way, I was onto a winner!

Having a Proper Holiday

The whole point of a holiday is to get away from the daily grind and do something different. Some might even say do something relaxing, or do nothing at all. Doing nothing seems to be an utterly pointless waste of time to me though; if you're going to do nothing you might as well not bother going on holiday at all!

On the other hand, I know people (and when I say people, I mean triathletes) who have taken a week off work and stayed at home just so they can "train like the pros", putting in some hard sessions with a good amount of recovery and plenty of time to make delicious, healthy food.

Andover Triathlon 2011

I thought today was going to be one of those days. Firstly, a last-minute bike check showed up that Bianca had a flat back wheel. I was less than impressed, especially as earlier in the week I thought there was a slow puncture somewhere and so had changed the tube. What was actually wrong was a big old stone was wedged into the rubber that I had completely failed to spot! Fortunately, I had one spare tube left and a spare tyre knocking around so I got her fixed up and race ready.


Once I had made my post-race peanut butter and jam rolls, donned the tri suit, packed my bag and consumed vast quantities of coffee,  I was feeling a lot more relaxed. That feeling lasted all the way through arrival, registration and transition set-up. Even as the rain started coming down I was feeling pretty good about the race, I knew what to expect from the course and it was all good.

Second Tri at Andover

A whole year ago I did my first ever triathlon and I was spending the whole day before completely freaking out. This year I am really happy to be repeating the event courtesy of Andover Tri and seeing if I can knock some time off.


I've been very sensible with training this week and have had the prescribed rest and all that stuff, now I just need to manage not to get into that 'carbo-loading' zone where I somehow make myself believe that two tubs of ice cream and a triple pack of jaffa cakes will benefit my race.

Egg's First Track Session

As anybody who has ever had the pleasure of running with me will gladly tell you, it takes a lot and I mean a lot, to get me to stop talking. It is often said that you can tell when somebody is at their anaerobic capacity as it’s the point at which you only receive one word answers in conversation; but I always have far too much to say to make this a feasible option. Sometimes I even wonder if I am missing that important brain to body link that tells you to shut up before you run out of oxygen.

Five a Week

I think I could be on the verge of a massive health breakthrough. Since September – and starting my new job – I have been attending college twice a week. Each visit to college involved walking through town; which added up to walking through town a minimum of four times during the week, but often more due to going home and back again for lunch.

A combination of factors has made this journeying detrimental to my health:

Bath Amphibians Mega Midweek Monster Duathlon

I'd had my eye on the Bath Amphibians midweek duathlon series since it started in May; it takes place on the first Wednesday of each month down at Castle Combe race circuit and I have had many a blissful daydream about putting Bianca on that smooth, flat tarmac.

As it turns out, this particular event was the middle one of the series and was not just a plain old duathlon, it was a monster duathlon i.e. run, bike, run, bike, run. Instantly I knew if there was just one of these events I went to, it would have to be the monstrous one. My ever-enthusiastic pal, Holly, was up for the road trip and we decided we were going to do a relay, with me hammering the bike and with her cracking out the runs.


Whilst this event was intended as a bit of Wednesday evening fun, we couldn’t pretend that we weren’t going to be competitive and the car conversation involved figuring out what times we wanted to achieve and what sort of level everyone else might be and a lot of “oh my god, I hope we’re not really slow!”

Sleeping, Napping and Having a Kip

The last few weeks have been hectic to say the least and I have gotten myself into some bad habits. I always said that June would be "the month of fun" after training so hard in April and May and piling in the miles to prepare my legs for the Tour of Wessex. The problem is that in this month of fun I have said yes to almost everything; be it a social occasion, training session or some other event.


Gradually I have been having less and less sleep and doing more and more stuff and last week, the body finally gave me a signal that it needed a rest. I thought I had somehow strained my neck muscles from lifting (obviously massive) weights but quickly realised it was something rather more glandular. Within 24 hours I was feeling like death. I - very sensibly - make the decision to rest up and allow complete recovery. As much as it pained me to do so, all training was scrubbed out of the diary.


Sleep, it turns out, is the best recovery tool in the box. One of my goals last year was to prioritise sleep more and that one appears to have slipped away a bit so I'm bringing it back! From now, I'm going to be all over the early nights and even have naps after particularly hard sessions.


On a positive note, I haven't binged on 'comfort' food during these last few days and have instead indulged in things filled with Vitamin C and chunky vegetable soups. As a result I feel mentally okay about my rest and haven't been filled with that 'loss of fitness' dread that usually consumes me during these times of illness.


Anyway, less blogging.. I'm off for a kip.