A disappointing day at the Chilly Du

Torrential rain when we got up, which then brightened up towards the west. Bryan picked us up in his very sleek Alpha Romero (Is that how you spell it?) and we toddled off, still raining, towards Castle Coombe. Got there early and had a cup of tea before we registered (goody bags pants but it was only 20 quid to enter). Was kept hanging around waiting for some time before my wave got under way, which meant we were all desperate to start, it was a very cold wind. Found it difficult to run with cold and stiff legs, so before I knew it everyone had sprinted off and I was towards the back. Didn't stop running though and about half way round I started catching people up again. Oh and it didn't help i'd forgotten to start my stopwatch so had no idea how fast I was going anyway. Decided against putting on my windjacket and gloves in transition, a bad idea I think, I was hot then but by the time we were out on the course and round the bend the wind was howling. So headed out onto the course for my first lap, was going along quite well and got down on my aero bars, thought 'i'm going to enjoy this' when no sooner had i thought that, had rounded the first corner and BANG, wind hits you and you end up pedalling forwards but going sideways, from then on round to the home straight again it was a constant battle against the wind, I was on my easiest gear but still hard work. The other problem was that my top gears seemed to be screwed, changing to the big chain ring it made a loud clattering sound, no amount of wiggling it seemed to help, so had to stay in small chain ring the whole race.
Anyway 5 laps finally came to an end (I counted very carefully) and I very slowly rounded the bend into the dismount area, remembered to take my helmet off (I'd seen someone running with it still on) and put wet trainers on as it had rained and hailed slightly while we were cycling.
On the second run it felt much much slower than the first time (but actually only a few minutes) as I had a few walk breaks. my stomach seemed to be all over the place with a very painful stitch or indegestion feeling. must get that sorted.
Came in at about 1 hour 22 minutes, very disappointed to be so close to the back after training 6 times a week for 6 months. it's very disheartening as I'm so competitive I imagine myself to be the fit woman sprinting for the line instead of the slightly overweight, well not overweight but not skinny, woman waddling/walking towards the back. Half of me just wants to give up, why bother? but the other half wants to train twice as much in order to improve. Something needs to happen anyway.


Run 1: 19:21.6
Transition 1: 02:00.0
Bike split: 37:13.6
Transition 2: 01:41.7
Run 2: 22:02.7
Total: 1:22:19.5

A good run session

Last night was a fab session for the ever-growing David Lloyd Swindon Tri Club, the only down side was the sprained ankle that our coach Jason suffered.
It was 4 laps round our usual loop and I ran with Alison, who was having problems breathing in the cold (or I wouldn't have been able to keep up!). There was 7 of us, including 2 newbies joining us, Jessie and Johan. the guys and Isobel all went off at speed and Alison and I just plodded along, chatting. Its great that talking while you're running makes the time and effort go by just so much faster.
Bryan has offered to give us a lift to the duathlon at castle coombe on sunday which is great news, we're becoming more of a team!
Jason has told us no training today or tomorrow, although I might cheat and sort out my bike saddle height, which I think is too low, and try and get my Garmin HRM working with the 705.

A proper training weekend, no excuses

A good weekend of training with an hour's ride on Saturday (with new G G G Garmin 705, more on that later) and then an hour's run yesterday, followed by a swim in the evening.
The ride was eventful which started off with an argument about whether I liked cycling locally or not (I don't) but then eventually we set off on our regular route, which morphed into the Purton route because we felt we needed to go farther. Rather windy on some exposed roads but down Blunsdon hill my speedo read 28.9 mph.
Anywayyy, about the Garmin. A rather stressful hour trying to line up all the bits and bobs to get the cadence sensor working before the ride but apart from that (and the fact it's refusing to pick up the HRM) its lovely, a wonderful new toy.
At Purton, up a VERY steep hill which i just about made it up but I thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest, luckily Paul had gone the wrong way so I had a chance to sit down and wait for my heart rate to come back down (a long time). So then I pressed the 'take me home' option on the Garmin (despite reports of the menu structure being unable to understand I don't think it's too bad, a bit like having a new phone to get used to) which worked wonders, taking us back a different (but expected) way. All in all a fun but very tiring ride (Paul not affected at all of course)
Run yesterday was looooong but unexpectedly I made it all the way round the back streets of Swindon for an hour only walking for about 5 minutes in total. Go Me.
Swim last night the usual, 1km followed by a few lengths trying to lengthen my stroke. it's not working, doing a length with fists then a length with normal hands, it's meant to reduce your stroke count but on mine does nothing. obviously i swim better with my hands clenched.
Hopefully I'll keep this blog more up to date than my other ones. I have something to aim for now: IRONMAN!