Say hello and wave goodbye (week 9)

Say hello..

Started the week well with my high intensity and frequency plan. Not only did I cycle to work and back on the Monday, I also fitted in a xc run too. Felt great to occupy my body and mind with exercise and leave the stress of other stuff behind for a spell. Yes, exercise has it's place as a brief intervention.

Ragley Lake

Tuesday was a super adventure packed day too. Like the day before, I commuted to work and back - only this time on foot (and the slight use of a car too). Essentially, I ran from King's Norton into work and then from work back to King's Norton. Once home, I ate a lovely pasta dish cooked by the Mrs and then went swimming. This swim was awesome, as it was my first open water (OW) swim this season, in fact - this year! My wet suit fitted better than it did last year (have lost just a little weight) and despite my swimming being pants, I swam better than I did a year ago too. Amazing how buoyant my wet suit was - my feet were at water level and not sinking as they usually do in the pool. I was more confident and panicked less. It was as if I could cope with other swimmers bashing into me and when I felt cramp I didn't panic and felt able to control it. I swam a good 6 laps of the half lake that was open. 6 laps x 400m = 2,400m - wow, and in less than 90 minutes which was super ace for me. The lake didn't feel cold and looked quite pretty. My buddy Phil was swimming too and Jonny Mitchum also, though I never spotted him. Oh, and this was the first time I was able to wear my previously purchased 2 piece Skins tri-suit. The tri-suit was ok - being 2 piece means that I can go for a pee quite easily once out the pool and running or cycling (have not needed to as yet) which was the only issue with my one piece Orca suit. The Orca suit was a gift from my wife last year and is my preferred tri-suit.

Mid-week menace. My extra active plans went to pot. Rain was hammering down on poor planet Earth and I succumbed to be a fair weather athlete. My car and train took me to work where I had to stay for a gruelling 12 hour shift. No exercise or training took place and my mood dipped.

Thursday was an interesting day spent in London for work related reasons. I had plans of going for a run once back home. My plans didn't materialise.

Friday was a better day and at last I managed to get some training completed. Was hard to get myself organised in the morning because a plasterer was plastering my kitchen. It proved difficult to get my stuff from the kitchen whilst a fellow was working in there - not to mention all the stuff my wife had moved and temporarily re-homed. Anyways, I got sorted enough, made some jam sarnies at my mothers and went for a cycle. I took my IM bike out on a mission where I was looking for hills. I knew I had to be back by 2 p.m. because another worker was due to look at my bathroom and provide a quote. This meant I had 4 hours to cycle some hills and get back home. First hill was Saintbury and once at the top cycled down Fish Hill. My journey then took me to Winhchcombe where I climbed Cleeve Hill from both sides and then essentially turned around and headed for home. I missed out Saintbury Hill on my return but if time had permitted, I would have climbed Fish Hill.

Was pleased with this cycle on the whole. 4 hours is a long time to spend on a bike and it's my neck muscles that suffer most on a bike set up like this. I'm likely to spend around 8 hours on this bike come race day... Had plans to run today too but that didn't happen.

XC Jolly 17.7k

Saturday saw me run a lovely x-country jolly. This was the first run in my new kicks (as pictured at start of blog). I won't be running in my old ones again. Say hello and wave goodbye! These shoes (both pairs) are Brooks Pure Grit 3 and a fantastic shoe in my humble opinion. The old pair (red) have ran just short of 1,000k and were a birthday gift from last year. This new (blue) pair have run just under 18k. These new shoes were half the price of the old ones (cost me 50 squirrels) just because they are a year apart a new model (Pure Grit 4) is out. So happy with the 3's, see no need to invest in the 4! An ariel view of my run is pictured above. Tim Tom trekked to Timm's Grove on this run which is the area circled in red (below). This grove is super pretty, full of wonderful designs (which I'll photograph another time) and has blue-bell's (when in season) - a real secret garden, named after me! Sweet!

Tim Tom Taylor trekked to Timm's Grove

Sunday turned out to be quite a productive day. The morning started with a 2,650m pool based swim. The evening and week concluded with a 2 and a half hour cycle. This was a XC jolly on my single-speed MTB and all was good until I fell off, right into a bunch of stinging nettles. At least nothing was broken!

Trained hard this week and was relatively pleased. Swimming went great - swam for about 3 hours including an OW swim. Running was good too, ran just over 5 hours and my new shoes were pretty awesome. Didn't cycle quite as much as I would have liked but still spent over 9 hours in the saddle. If next week is as good as this, that'll be something. 

...and wave goodbye!