Running on Ice

When I think back to the last time I was in Alpe d’Huez, my favourite activities – in order of preference – were:

1. Drinking cocktails
2. Drinking shots
3. Eating enormous sandwiches whilst drunk
4. Dancing on tables
5. Gaining extensive knowledge of French confectionery and biscuits
6. Socialising
7. Eating enormous sandwiches whilst sober
8. Skiing/snowboarding

Now I won’t pretend that this time around, I didn’t do any of numbers 1-7. However, what is different was that priority number one was getting in big days on the mountain, closely followed by priority number two: testing out my Yak Trax.

Advice for Marathons

I've received many words of advice this week for the upcoming marathon. The vast majority of them have been along the lines of "don't do anything, anything at all", with some just a little less extreme "if you really want to, you can go for a teeny, tiny run the day before, but other than that, don't do anything". Doing nothing has come easy this week as taper flu has been hitting me from every angle. My movements have pretty much not deviated from being either laid in bed, sat on the recliner, sat at my desk, sat in the car or wandering with zero haste between any of the above.

National Club Relay Championships 2012

Two years ago, Salisbury Tri Club made their first venture into the havoc-filled world of the National Relays with two intrepid and courageous teams. Only three of those triathlete warriors were brave enough to return to Holme Pierrepont, face the carnage and represent once again along with five newbies. We were wiser this time around, we knew sheer guts, determination and epic fitness just wouldn't be enough; what we needed was vast quantities of wine, comfortable chairs, a fine selection of cake and enough meat to feed a small army.

Never Drinking Again

On a Sunday morning, many thousands of people around the world are saying the same words, "I am never drinking again". At that moment in time, I am sure every single one genuinely means it. A few days later, the pain is forgotten and the remnants of kebab have disappeared. Saturday night is merely remembered as "legendary" and those fuzzy flashbacks only include the fun stuff, not the bit where you fell over on the dance floor or decided to share your woes with a bouncer for an hour or gave your number to someone wholly inappropriate.

Change of Perspective

I had a marvellous holiday in Canada. After trying to "be good" for a couple of days I realised how boring I was being so I just got into the holiday spirit and indulged in anything I wanted. Many a Canadian was in awe at my disgustingly impressive food tolerance levels, which appear to grow with every alcoholic beverage consumed.


Suffice to say, when I returned home I felt like a blob. A very relaxed, refreshed and happy blob, but a blob nonetheless. The thought of a hardcore detox did cross my mind but honestly, I had been having so much fun whilst away and I realised that at home I'd been denying myself of a lot of the things I enjoy all in the name of being healthy. So a detox didn't appeal at all. In fact, I think there is a lot to be said for my mental and emotional well-being. It's like something clicked in my brain whilst I was away and instead of being racked with guilt about putting on a few pounds, doing very little exercise and eating my body weight in cake I just felt like it had all been a very worthwhile experience.

Being a Centurion

In the not-too-distant past, if you had mentioned the word 'centurion' to me, I would have gotten wildly excited, pulled out the shot glasses and gotten into competition mode. Many of my good friends from the time of pre-running, pre-cycling and pre-triathlon Egg knew about my competitive streak from this epic drinking game.


100 shots (of anything; beer, cider, wine if you're feeling especially hardcore) in 100 minutes. Usually this is combined with a song change every minute too, until somewhere in the 30s or 40s where everyone is too far gone to remember to change it and full concentration is required on the whole timing bit.


Now I don't want to brag but I was a bit of a centurion champion. I don't ever recall actually getting to one hundred but I remember being the last man standing (or crawling, leaning, gurgling in the corner) and feeling enormously successful and triumphant.


These days I am sure that I would not be beating any of those aforementioned friends as I'm very much out of training. I am also sure that drinking anywhere near that amount of shots would definitely not fill me with feelings of success and triumph. It would be more along the lines of nausea and severe grumpiness of waking up hungover.


So, the new centurion challenge is of course, a much healthier one. The century ride. Commonly thrown with nonchalance into conversations by avid cyclists or triathletes: "So, what did you do this weekend?" "Oh I did some hill repeats on Saturday then a century on Sunday". This time last year I'd overheard such conversations and wondered what on earth I was doing in the company of these clearly completely mental people. 


In May I'm planning to do an event that is 329 miles over 3 days, so I need to be doing 'a century' most weekends. Yesterday was my first foray into the 100 mile world, I was helped along by several different cycling buddies throughout the course of the day and by copious amounts of jelly babies. It was actually far less painful than I had envisaged.


However, on getting home and typing my stats into the training log, I realised (as I had been working in kilometres) that I had come in at 99.2 miles. Noooooooooooooooo! So I can't even call myself a centurion yet. What an epic fail! 


..til next weekend!

Mental Battling in January

January is a bizarre time of year where you're not really fully back in the swing of things after Christmas and yet you are trying to set all your goals out for the rest of the year, follow your resolutions etc etc.

For me it has all been a bit hectic, and health-wise, a month of serious ups and downs. Work has been busy (which isn't a bad thing) and mentally taxing as I've been doing a lot of learning in a new department, college has also been quite full on and will continue to be up until June, with lots of assignments to get through, there seems to be more social occasions popping up than there was in December and I have daily mental battles over what needs to take priority: training, assignments, socialising, work deadlines or locating and consuming new and exciting Easter treats. I'm sure you can guess what has come first...

Last weekend I went away for a girly weekend to a lovely place in Kent, right by the sea. In my head I had envisaged runs along the waterfront, a bit of time in the afternoon for study followed by making healthy choices for our lunches and dinners out. In reality what happened was copious amounts of wine and laughter running parallel to an almost permanent state of snacking on anything and everything. The "healthy choice" I made on Saturday night was the largest, meatiest pizza on the menu. It was of course, completely worth it, one of the best pizzas have ever eaten. Once I had demolished that I finished my sister's dinner, ate what was left of mum's mixed grill and decided a chocolate fondant would also be necessary in order to clear the palette.

Suffice to say I was horrified when I stepped on the scales and went out to buy salad to sustain me for the coming week.

On the upside my arm and hand are well on the road to recovery and I've been back on the weight training for a week. A tricep dip has never felt so good. The swimming is also slowly getting back to full throttle, running has been short but regular and I just need to ease myself off the turbo and onto the road to complete the set. But if I'm honest I'm a bit scared and don't want to somehow injure myself again.

I also have a confession. Before I confess though I should say that on Thursday I started to get a sore throat and when I woke up yesterday I was in a world of pain. Cool soup and mashed banana (not together..) were the only things I could get down. That was until I bought a pot of nutella, and ate the whole thing! Oops..

I now really do need to have a healthy week. I'm off skiing next weekend and I have salopettes to squeeze my nutella-filled ass into. I have even prepared for my sweet cravings by making jelly, so I clearly mean business..

Xmas Endurance

I have worked hard all year to get fitter and healthier than I've ever been, I've done more exercise than I ever previously thought possible and I've worn a one-piece lycra suit in public. Friends and family are all mightily impressed with what I have achieved and I’m quite chuffed with myself too. I can now swim, I’ve gained a wealth of skills on the mountain bike and the roadie and competed in a couple of triathlons. All that stuff is great, but where I really excel, is at the dinner table.

 I don't care what anyone says, Christmas is an endurance event. Not just the day itself but pretty much the whole month of December. It takes a strong, well-trained gut and vast amounts of willpower to pack away the mountains of mince pies, incalculable units of alcohol, the myriad of multi-course meals, chunks of heavy Christmas cake and chocolate aplenty.

 Tonight I shall be attending my sixth, yes, sixth Christmas meal/celebration. This will be my last one before the main event itself so the plan is to ensure that it is a quality training session. I have already been crowned “Queen of the Table” twice this month and I need to stay on top of the game.

 As soon as I’m there, armed with silverware, the competitive edge comes out. I know I can be better and faster than the rest. Planning is essential; setting off at the right pace and holding back enough so that when the time comes make a move on that last honey-roasted parsnip, you will be ready. Reading your opponents is vital; waiting until they’re mentally weakened and physically fatigued then sweeping in for seconds.

 Fast decision-making and quick, accurate movements are needed. You can establish an early lead over your rivals by selecting the best, crispiest roast potatoes and the most succulent cuts of meat before they’ve even decided whether or not to go with brussel sprouts.


Another consideration is the best way to stay hydrated. My preferred method is to maintain a steady inward flow of anything bubbly, with an occasional shot of something stronger when required.

 Clothing should be comfortable and unrestrictive, and uncompression-wear is best for post-meal recovery (pyjama bottoms are an excellent choice).

 Of course the January recuperation period will be particularly hard, but absolutely worth it for a winning festive season!

Egg and the Treacherous Turbo

The week after my birthday celebrations was like a feast of calorific indulgence. All the gifts of chocolate that needed to be gotten rid of (you can't just leave chocolate in the house: blasphemy) and enormous amounts of cake that I couldn't see go to waste, culminating in a gin and laughterfest with late-night cheese-munching when some old friends visited on Saturday.


The only other time that I have such huge, extended eating binges is when I'm poorly and sit at home, scoffing to make myself feel better. The difference this time round was that I managed to fit in some exercise around my eating. Those of you that have to fit in exercise around work will know that this can be tough, leaving you feeling drained. In fact - if anything - it enhanced my training, all that sugar and extra calories to burn. It just so happens that by a stroke of luck I chose the coldest week ever to wallow in all things cocoa, I'm sure this kept me a bit warmer than I would have been otherwise..

I met with friends and coaches-in-training - Leo and Nicky - on Friday. Nicky had offered to structure my training for me so that it yields greater results rather than my usual haphazard "just train as much as physically possible" approach. It's probably worth mentioning that we discussed the plan over two enormous, meat-filled pizzas.


The great thing about getting a plan from these guys is that they know me really well, they've known me since I started out in my healthy quest and since I first stepped onto a road bike. The bad thing about it is that they know me really well; including what I neglect in my training and what I always slack off on.


As such the plan included my hours of weight-training which I love. It also included three mandatory swims a week which - as I have shown in the past - will be a struggle. The other thing on the plan that kept cropping up was turbo training. 


As ice has coated the roads with it slippery nastiness, I have been doing hardly any cycling. I've hardly been doing any mountain biking either as Roxy is having some health problems and needs to see the doctor. With my plans for next year being heavily weighted on the side of cycling - it is time this was addressed.


A turbo trainer turns your bicycle into an indoor torture machine. It's sort of like spinning's evil twin. It was designed by someone utterly ridiculous as a way to make people hate their bikes. I've had good intentions in the past about getting on the turbo but made it to all of about 20 minutes before having a hissy fit and getting off. My plan includes turbo sessions of 2 and a half to 3 hours!


After failing to manage my planned turbo session on Sunday (due to a lack on motivation, brought on by aforementioned gin), I managed to squeeze an hour and a quarter in on Monday morning before work - I was knackered! Unlike a spinning bike you actually have to push ALL the time on a turbo to keep the cadence up.


I was chuffed that I'd managed to stay on the thing for that long though, so I'm raising a glass of gin to the turbo: here's to making it to 3 hours!

Birthday Blow-out

This weekend - after 5 weeks of being awe-inspiringly healthy - I indulged. I mean really indulged. My sister and her husband made, at my request, a "mega roast". We do have a tendency in my family to make slightly too much food so had I requested just a normal roast I am quite sure this would have sufficed, but I was mentally prepared for a guttural blow-out and mega was what I wanted. They didn't disappoint; a joint of beef bigger than my torso and two chickens cooked over a winter blanket of vegetables, the most deliciously sweet honey-roasted parsnips, enough roast potatoes - complete with their mouth-wateringly crispy shells - to feed the village, a selection of gravy etc etc. There was no messing about either, this was all cooked with no-holds-barred.. even the carrot and swede mash had cream in it.


We finished with Kezza's "healthy carrot cake" but all healthiness was lost by the fact that we doubled it up with dad's home-made apple crumble and custard.


I won't even tell you about breakfast..


Not only did we eat lots of glorious food but we also consumed quite a respectable amount of booze too, as is customary on these family occasions. I was actually glad to get back home and enjoy a relaxed evening of tea and cakes without a drop of booze in sight.


Something happened when I started to make the cakes for my mini tea party; a sort of baking craze took over me and I couldn't stop making wondrous goodies. I baked triple chocolate brownies, and a marbled chocolate and vanilla cheesecake to go with the peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake we'd made at my sister's. Then I made a massive amount of tiffin to use up all the excess chocolate.



Then as a few friends arrived we had Hugo's marvellous millionaire shortbread (with the smoothest, most impressive chocolate top I have ever seen), Lianna's lemon cupcakes, Maz's cappucino cupcakes, AJ's white chocolate and chocolate chip enormous cake and Laura's orange squash cakes! This all added up to a lot of cake. A lot of cake.


Sadly that aforementioned marbled cheesecake wasn't even ready in time, so it's been sat in my fridge since I put in in to cool on Sunday evening. I just took the first slice, moments ago. It is heaven. I can't even describe in words the sheer pleasure I derived from putting it in my mouth. Wow. 


Now I'm hoping that people pop around to share the calories with me or else this is going to be one very fat week indeed!

It's Unhealthy to see Family

I do love a family gathering, a chance to see what everyone is up to, relearn the names of copious number of cousins and enjoy in a bit of general revelry!

Revelry however, seems to include the consumption of much food and drink. After a very well behaved week last week I ruined it all in less than two days. On Saturday I thought I was going to do well on the self-control front. A glorious New Forest cycle to Beaulieu had us end up at a tea shop with a dribblingly good cake selection. After steaming up the glass-fronted cabinet like a rabid, panting dog I very sensibly chose to have Soup of the Day. I was delighted with a hearty bowl of chicken and cauliflower soup (complete with actual chunks of chicken!) and the thickest, tastiest homemade bread I have ever encountered. But even after licking the bowl clean and scooping up every last crumb I still couldn't take my mind of the cake. I caved and got a piece of rocky road, a small one mind! The cycle was a 46 mile round trip so I wasn't overcome with guilt at all.

Shortly after getting home, my sister arrived ready and raring to go for a family gathering that evening. She came bearing cookies. This is the point where it all started to go wrong. One cookie isn't so bad (especially a Tesco Finest one..) but when we arrived at the party and I laid eyes on the buffet, it was game over. I tried on the first attempt to get a mostly wholesome selection and even my second plate was loaded with carrot sticks, olives and celery. The real issue came when I moved down to the sweet selection and had my first homemade cupcake. They were small cupcakes, two mouthfuls if you were being polite. There was a selection of flavours too, and obviously you have to test one of each in case you miss out. I ended up just sort of hanging around near the food, and every time I spoke to a new member of the family I celebrated with another cakey treat. Suffice to say there were a lot of people to chat to!

So, stuffed full of cake (I forgot to mention the actual birthday cake and the bitesize cheesecake bits) we headed home and indulged in a bottle of wine.. and the remaining cookies.

We woke up surprisingly fresh on Sunday morning and managed to squeeze in a quick game of badminton. I'm glad we did as there was much more eating to be done. We started off well with a Waitrose brekkie before heading off to Poole to visit an Aunt and Uncle.

Now this particular Aunt and Uncle are excellent hosts, too good in fact. They do also love a drink and I promise I am not exaggerating whatsoever when I say that every room in their sizable abode is filled to the brim with more booze than you could ever imagine. We sat down and and were offered refreshments, I was thinking that a cup of tea would go down a treat. My Aunt had other ideas.. "Something light to start? How about a sherry?"

These are not the sort of people you can say no to, so the sherry came out (at just after midday, might I add). My sister was driving, but she also couldn't say no, so for this sherry and every subsequent glass of anything that was offered I had to sneakily get hers down as well. I took on the challenge like a trooper of course.

When lunch was served we all breathed a sigh of relief when we saw the delicious plates of salad that was being dished up. How silly of us not to realise this was only course number one! What followed was cake in slices the size of enormous and a cheese and cracker selection. 

By the time we left at around 15:30 I was drunk, and would have fallen asleep in the car had it not been for the gift of a box of delicious crumbly fudge..

All in all a pretty heavy weekend, and further proof that family are unsafe when trying to maintain healthy standards! This is why I need to lose weight for Christmas!

We had our weekly weigh-in at work today and I was the same, which I was very pleased with. It means I am still on track too as I lost some extra pounds in a previous week. Now the weekend is coming and I'm off to visit a friend on Oxfordshire, so I'm sure more wine and naughties will be consumed. I decided as a result of this that I shall cycle there and back to even things out. Now that's a balanced lifestyle!

Battered, bruised and blinkin' dirty

I went out on Saturday morning with some folk from the Tri Club on the mountain bikes. It was an absolutely marvellous ride through some great bits of trail around the outskirts of Salisbury. It was however - as every mountain biking endeavour should be - extremely mud-ridden. Without even a slither of exaggeration, we were riding through knee deep pits of murky, chalky sludge and it was brilliant.

As per usual I did manage to throw myself off (but just the once) and very nearly took a fellow rider out with me. I dusted myself off and got back on the bike. As I got riding I was aware that my arm and leg were hurting a bit but I couldn't see any of my skin through the filth to make an assessment and I didn't want to appear like a girly wuss so I kept schtum.

When I'd finished blocking the shower up with dirt (sorry Liz) I looked down to find an enormous bruise on my leg and a fairly decent one up my arm as well. I breathed a sigh of relief, safe in the knowledge that I am not a girly wuss.

I made up for the fantastic calorie-burning effect of three hours of mountain biking with lots of food, wine and excessive dessert eating on Saturday evening. Despite that I am still just about on target with my weight loss goal for the month - fingers crossed! I did peer longingly into the vending machine at work today, armed dangerously with a pound coin, but managed to escape without buying anything.

I also saw the physio yesterday who gave me some drills to get me back into the running, but this is definitely going to be a slow process (boo!). He also did a bit of acupuncture after routing around to find the most painful bits of my body. I have had some acupuncture before but had forgotten just how much it hurts, what ensued was 20 minutes of groaning, squeezing anything nearby with a vice-like grip, extreme foot tapping (because this help the pain?!) and profuse sweating - lovely.

In other news.. I am also well on track with the mileage, and have cycled 196 miles so far this month - just got to keep it up! I have a feeling my fun post-work longer rides will be much less regular as it gets darker and colder but with some more mountain biking on the cards for the month I reckon I'll get to the 500!

September Highs

I like the start of new things; fresh starts, new motivations and clean slates. After a pretty slacky August I'm super keen to get back on it, set some new goals and get myself into a wonderfully healthy routine. Having settled nicely into my new abode and with my new job starting soon, I'm feeling particularly chipper and in the right frame of mine to make some positive changes.

Having been notching up the alcohol units, having a LOT of lunchtime cake and giving in to a few bags of cookies in the last month, it was time to assess the damage. I tentatively stepped onto the scales this morning and was quite relieved. Yes I'd put a bit of weight on but not loads, and I haven't stepped back over to the dark side of my 9 stone barrier - phew!

As a bit of a detox, I've decided that September will be a teetotal month, not a drop of wine in sight.

The new goal is to hit 8 stone by Christmas. The idea behind this being that when I gorge and party "Cameron-style" over the festive period the inevitable weight gain will probably bring me back to a perfectly healthy weight. Or if I dance enough like last New Year's then I may even be able to maintain it! On paper, at two and a half pounds a month, this should be very achievable but will just take a bit of perseverance and discipline!

I have also now completed the "endurance" phase of my leg program, and am moving onto the strength phase. So I should be back running at the start of October. I am absolutely gagging to get back out there, hair blowing in the wind, sweat gently trickling down my neck.. I really do miss it, more than I miss cookies when I don't have any (and that is a lot). However, the focus for September will be get strong enough to crush nuts with my buns and have calves of steel.

I also want to keep up a bit of variation sports-wise. Do a bit more climbing, a few weekends in the hills and on the mountain bike and maybe even try some new stuff. I haven't decided what new stuff yet but I'm open to ideas!

Today however, I am heading out on the mountain bike as it's a lovely, sunny September day. And my goal for the day shall be: don't fall off. I'll keep you posted.

August Blues

I have been very aware over the last few weeks that my training and healthy living regime has dwindled. What with moving house and all the stuff that comes with it, sorting out my new job, getting generally sorted career-wise and being very sociable, the Egg-Goes-Healthy motivation has been put on the back-burner. A friend of mine very sensibly said yesterday "Egg, it's called 'life' and that's ok".. wise words indeed.

However, I'm not sure it is just life. I think I have discovered what the problem really is, and it's been sneaking up on me like a ninja in the shadows.

Wine.

You see I've been doing a lot of celebrating in August. The month started with a very heavy week and I don't think I've fully recovered since then. It was as I scoffed down a curry with all the trimmings last night and polished off a bottle of wine that I realised what I'd been doing. From being almost teetotal for a couple of months I've somehow gone on a wine binge without even noticing it was happening. Maybe this is how alcoholism starts?!

Luckily now I have spotted the problem and will cease all my celebratory activities with immediate effect. Maybe that's a bit too harsh, maybe I'll just continue to celebrate but do it with some lovely fresh juice instead - much better idea. I'm not even sure what I'm celebrating to be honest. Maybe tonight I shall celebrate not drinking wine.

In addition to the wine I will also make a confession. I have been a the cookies. I've had maybe four packets throughout the month thus far, Tesco keep putting their Finest range on offer and I am merely a weak-willed cookie-munching monster. Today I picked some up on the way to the fruit section, then I realised they were a very unneccessary addition to my shopping basket, so I put them back. Then the whole way round the supermarket my mind kept drifting back to Belgian chocolate chunks. I caved and had to go back and get some. I hid them under the nectarines.

My current goals have gone by the wayside a bit. I put this down to not running at first but I can't keep using that as an excuse. I am chuffed to bits with the 5k I did last weekend at the Relays, not quite the sub 24-minute I was aiming for but a good time nonetheless considering I have done no running in the past few weeks. The 400m swim time is getting there, I managed an 8:33 in the lake yesterday morning but the real test will be in the pool. Eating and sleeping-wise I have really been slack, but now that I am in my new place I can really start putting these into action.

What I need to do is write August off completely. Start afresh. I will be going away with a friend on Monday to walk the 101 miles of the South Downs Way in four days, whilst carrying hefty rucksacks. This is the perfect fresh start I need and I shall return in September to my new house, start my new job and get into a new routine. Lovely.

Might start celebrating my fresh start!

Last Man Standing..

I used to pride myself on being a particularly hardcore party animal. In fact I think these crazy times were probably a good, solid foundation on which to build up the stamina for endurance sports. Long nights with lots of sambuca and little to no sleep followed by a long working day.. and repeat.

I used to pride myself on regularly being the "last man standing".. or at least leaning in a peculiar manner.. against something solid.. or occasionally thinking it was solid when it was actually a bush. Honestly though, what with being so ridiculously competitive there have been many nights where I just didn't sleep so I could win (or more likely staying up the longest to ensure I am the most up to date with all the gossip or who went where and more importantly, with whom).

I chuckled to myself this evening as I came to the end of my swim session and realised I was the last one in the water, it's like a much healthier version of "last man standing!" I wasn't even trying or being competitive or anything. It probably only happened as I was a bit late (and got told off too for sneaking in!) and swam slower than most of the others, but it felt very satisfying nonetheless.

I shall mention too that I timed myself on a 400m swim tonight and am delighted to report that I have a new pool PB of 9:40:7 which is just under a minute and a half faster than my previous timed attempt!

This not running business (whilst still upsetting me immensely) is obviously paying off in other ways!

End to the Carnage

It's over, and I am absolutely exhausted. The week of unhealthyness began with a visit from my mother who - for the record - wasn't too bad an influence on me. But we did drink a good amount of wine and eat a good amount of food.

This was followed by a night where the drinking was not really kept under control whatsoever, and my drinking companion Hannah WAS a bad influence by a) forcing me to swap drinks so I had to consume some nasty blue stuff and b) by entertaining me with "day-after-drinking-chat" so I didn't get up and go to the gym as planned.

In amongst this a well-wisher had brought us in a box of chocolates at work and Rachel kept bringing in treats and telling me "help myself", as if I need encouragement!

Then I went off to Brighton where I drank a substantial amount of anything going and ate more savoury snacks than a pregnant woman at a wedding buffet.

Food, drinking and lack of exercise aside, all in all, it was a very fun, laughter-filled week and - and let's face it - everyone agrees that laughter is healthy, don't they?!

Admittedly I do feel like complete and utter crap. Having filled my body with junk that it's not used to I feel like a useless, tired lump. I've viewing this as a positive. It's a fantastic motivator for me to get back to my healthy ways. So, the blow-out is over and Hegg (Healthy Egg) is back. Today I've been for an early morning lake session and been to the gym, I've been to tesco to buy a colourful array of fruit and veg and I've even made myself a good old strawberry smoothie!