Having a word with myself......

I highly recommend having a word with yourself now and then, it's a strategy I use when I'm anxious about something, preparing for something new, cross about something or most often when I'm going " on one" I think the youth call it and need to draw a line under something.The ironman training journey is a big project that I figured from time to time requires me to have a big word with myself....in fact, eight weeks into the training I arranged a whole meeting with myself....

8 Week Review Meeting

Present: Me

Minutes: Me

Agenda:

1. Progress report
2. Achievements and successes 
3. Challenges
4. What I've learnt so far 
5. Future Actions
6. Date and Time of next meeting

Progress Report 

If this was a school report it would probably read " Sarah try's hard but lacks natural athletic ability and she should consider taking needlework as an option subject rather than PE!" I have been largely sticking to the plan and have felt appropriate levels of guilt when Ive missed the odd session but I have found coming into the plan following an injury and then having to stick to the low heart rate training zones has resulted in me feeling slow, sluggish and lacking sharpness....however in two weeks time in will be entering the build phase of my training and I'm allowed to add in several one minute burst of fast running and cycling whoop whoop! My legs have been feeling heavy and tired at the start of my runs( usually the runs come after a cycle session) and this results in me worrying that I'm never going to be strong enough the get through the event....and then I remember I've still got 5 months of training to get me ready. 

Achievements and successes 

Running: at Christmas I wasn't running at all really and now this week I've completed my first 30+ week, very slowly. Today I ran to work and recalled when training for my first marathon I felt such a sense of achievement when I ran to Hyde ( only because of how far it was not that I wanted to go to Hyde...there's not much there...) and I also, whilst running into work in Stockport wondered at what point did it become "normal" to be running such distances without even thinking about it.

Cycling:my confidence has improved massively, one week I cycled to Stockport and was a nervous wreck when I got there because of a couple of near misses with motorists, I was very grateful to Paul and Dee ( who do amazing work for Stockport CP society) for the cup of tea and the chat that day.....my heart rate wasn't sticking in the zone then! Now I'm much faster as descending and if a **** of a motorist cuts me up they know about it! I've weirdly enjoyed the turbos in the garage in the dark and the wet, and the chats with the neighbours I have whilst the garage door is open and I'm pedalling away

Swimming: I've swum longer than I've ever swum before just in my routine training sessions....the swim sets in this plan are demons! The swim sets seem to go quicker at glossop tri club than when I'm on my own. 

What I've learnt so far

•  That I need to be organised
• That I need an infinite amount of sports gear or a housekeeper
• Friends and training groups are fundamental to my enjoyment of training 
• I don't like base training and doing no speed work 
• I need to get stronger physically
• That it doesn't help to compare myself to people who are training for different things 
• It doesn't help to compare myself to people that are training for iron distance events.. I'm unique.. 
• I'm very good at putting positive spin on things( see above point)
• If it all goes pear shaped I will be able to have a go at shot put with my emerging cyclist quads 

Future Actions

Ive read Steve Peter's book ( sports psychologist to many of team GB cyclists). It's called The Chimp Paradox and whilst some of it is a bit too  cosmic for me there is some really useful stuff in there about getting goals. He talks about how for every key goal you have to build towards it  with smaller fundamental goals, I visualise these as stones building a wall up to where you'd like to get. In particular  he talks about having only 2/3 areas that you are trying to make breakthroughs or progress in at any one time. The rest of your goals should just to be maintain your current level. 

So..I'm going to start and do some real strength work, this hasn't been formally written on my plan..... So if it's not on the plan I don't  do it. I will probably leave the shot put alone for now and settle for some basic gym work!

My second focus will be nutrition, I am going to stop eating out on all the training I'm doing! It's often called the forth discipline of triathlon. 

My third area where I'm looking for a breakthrough is in my endurance, I will be building the miles in the bike and run......looking forward to the light mornings and evenings to help with this.

Date and time of next meeting:

TBC

Anything you can do I can shoe better :-)

Those of you who have been following my posts from the beginning will recall that training for the ironman is an experiment for me....to see what happens, to see what I learn about myself, my capabilities and where it leads me. Since I last posted Ive done some serious learning! 

I wonder at what point my life changed from living from day to day, to planning two, maybe three years in advance. I've never been somebody who planned far ahead but since fitness came into my life I've started to realise that the are so many events that I want to have a crack at, so many things I'd like to try, so many things I need to experience, that I need to pace myself and not try to do them all in one year. I've found myself starting to plan for my 2016 goals already. 

In the last couple of weeks I've learnt about the importance of short term planning too, I've missed a couple of sessions and suffered the guilt that most of us feel when we've not stuck to "our plan" for our training sessions, I've done a bit of thinking about why this has been. Routine and organisation seem to be the key, just knowing which session I'm doing on what day and not getting into any debate about if or when I'm doing it means that it will happen. Now, organisation is key to make the session happen, at the minute I feel like my car is a walking fitness wardrobe, with various different PE kits, in different bags, swimming, running and cycling stuff, for before work ,for after work etc. I arrived late to a track session at harriers last week, dashed in to the changing rooms with my running PE kit, got changed to discover I only had one trainer! I ran half a mile to my car in one work shoe and one trainer.....the other trainer was in the boot of my car...phew....I only got a few funny looks!the run session was on.

This next snippet of my training life links to the challenge of organisation and last times post about my increasing laundry..... I went for an easy run one evening last week, I started by running down the hill from my house, nice and easy, heart rate in the low zone was the plan. A couple of minutes in I checked and my heart rate was almost 200, way too high, I felt ok, but this wasn't right, I wasn't working hard, I was going down hill, but this wasn't right....panic set in.....should I stop? Should I call an ambulance? Do I need to check my life insurance? How will my family cope without me? Is this it? I reached my hand to my chest as thats what they do in the movies when their number is up.....I  was going, leaving this mortal coil, on a damp Wednesday February evening on Tinsle bridge.....I touched my heart rate monitor and realised that I was not wearing my usual underwear.....I was wearing....an underwired bra! The wires were obviously sending my heart rate monitor wild. That night I learnt about the importance of being organised with my laundry....or to invest in more sports bras!

So I'm alive and kicking.....mainly kicking in my swim sessions that is :-)