Change of Plan

Stephen Hawking. Smart guy.

So. On Sunday morning I woke up with the very clear idea that I'd taken the Ullswater swim off my mental calendar; that I didn't want to train for a big swim at all this year and I just wanted to do Coniston for fun (preferably a bit faster but eh). I've been rolling the idea around in my head for weeks, but it seemed to have crystallised. I took myself off to Sale for a training session that afternoon and spent a good hour and a half (and 3.6km) in the water at 12-14oC thinking about it. Today I spent about the same amount of time invigilating an exam (one-to-one rather than pacing a roomful of students, which is about as yawn-inducing as you imagine), thinking about it again.

You're not allowed to read or write notes while you're invigilating, but this is what my list would look like:

Pros:

• It's the next logical step between Bala and Windermere.
• It's a point-to-point swim, which I prefer because you're not tortured by the lap-counting.
• It's only a mile further than Bala, which should be within my capabilities.

Cons:

• I haven't found a kayaker I know and trust to come with me. 
• I can't afford to stay over so I'd have to drive the distance there and back in the same day.
• Hazel tells me it's cold; so does Patrick (by cold, we're talking about 14-15C on average), and I can only get to open water once a week, which is usually warmer. I'm not going to build the exposure I need in the pool.
• My neck, shoulder, elbow and wrist still aren't right - I'm getting better at managing it but I have no idea how far I can push it. Cold makes the RSI worse.
• I've got this ruddy great run to train for in September; the logistics of fitting the long runs in around the next four weeks of invigilation and then the kids being off for Summer are very difficult already without needing 3hrs at the pool twice a week plus open water.
• I trained a lot Jan-Mar and I am sick of the pool. Any pool. The smell, the people, the fuss and the loneliness of training in a public session have really got to me.
• When the kids are off, I have to train in the evenings. That means I virtually never get to spend any decent time with my other half - it's bad enough between his work and my other commitments as it is. 
• I lose out on other things I enjoy; reading, yoga, making stuff, gaming, cuddling my aged cat. Not to mention sitting down to eat at tea time with my kids, and actually eating decent meals. Last year I managed my Bala training by dint of dropping the kids at home at 6pm after their lesson, then going straight off to a different pool and swimming til 10pm, grabbing a Starbucks on the way home because it was too late to cook anything by then. Not healthy.
• I haven't improved my speed since last year. Even given perfect conditions, there's no way I'll make 7mi in less than five hours. That's a long time at that temp. Poor conditions could make it more like six and I will get pulled out at that point.
• Have I said how much I hate the pool?

Big difference, huh. It just doesn't make logical sense to commit to a longest swim this year when you look at that list. The Lakes aren't going anywhere, though. I could do it next year. I could leave Windermere for many years, in fact - maybe when the girls are old enough to look after themselves through the summer holidays. Maybe I could leave it til I've done my black belt. Maybe in twenty years, when I've retired and can train whenever I like! I'm in good health and from a particularly long-lived maternal line; it's entirely possible I'll still be doing silly distances well into my 70s.

Is it giving up, quitting, not suffering through the training? Nah. As the quote above says, it's intelligent to be flexible, and I haven't said I'll never do it - just not this year. I'm not at all heartbroken at the idea; in fact I feel positively gleeful about being able to relax into the swimming season and enjoy a really lovely lake swim in July. I might sign up for some shorter swims in different lakes - I've always fancied a lap of Buttermere, for example. It also takes the pressure off the run training - if I can't get out one day, I can go another without worrying about pool time. Likewise I can be more flexible with karate if necessary and possibly have some other adventures (I really want to go to SUP Yoga again). I can also, hopefully, let my shoulder heal properly, because damn I am sick of these headaches.

The only person I'm racing against is myself, after all, and I'm not going to give myself a lot of competition if I'm bored, resentful, poorly nourished, lonely and in pain.

New Season

Well, it's been a while. I took a bit of a holiday after Bala and as Summer turned into Winter, so my right shoulder turned into a complete mess. I have blamed the weather at Bala for a lot of it - five hours of only breathing to the right can't have helped matters - but I know myself well enough to know quite a lot has been an RSI flare from far too much tablet and smartphone use. I did very little swim training and even less running in Autumn, despite having booked two 5kms and a 10km (which became 5km). Admittedly they were "fun" runs (does that word ever apply to running?) which involved dressing up at Glow In The Park, Run In The Dark and the Man Utd Santa Run, but I was embarrassingly unfit at this point, struggling with stitch and pain in my Achilles as well as my shoulder. I was not put forward for grading at karate in November, either. To be honest I was relieved as I was definitely underperforming.

By Christmas, despite retraining myself into bilateral breathing whilst doing the 22 miles of the Aspire Challenge, I was virtually locked up and in a great deal of pain. I couldn't raise my arms over my head without stabbing pain in my arm, and I was crying into my goggles before completing a mile. I saw my physio, who started the process of unlocking the culprit - my sternocleidomastoid, which was referring pain all down my arm and linking up to the carpel tunnel inflammation already lurking. A team mate took pity on me and exchanged an acupuncture session for cake, lifting the unbearable constant headaches. I've never been so grateful to be stabbed. A few more sessions of physio and suddenly I was returning to swimming form; able to cope with USWIM's indoor sessions and start thinking about the 2016 season.

I dithered a lot and finally set my sights on Ullswater with the BLDSA, a seven-miler - it seems a logical next step after Bala and before Windermere. I've also decided to do Coniston again, but with BLDSA instead of Chillswim - though I loved the 2014 swim, I hear the event has got quite a lot bigger and I'm not a fan of huge groups. I like having my own kayaker. I've yet to book these or find a 'yakker for Ullswater, but I remain hopeful despite a bit of a flare-up right now caused by wearing a wetsuit at the USWIM opener this weekend. I set a new pool 5km PB recently - finally got it under 2hrs by a whisker! so I'm interested to see how it translates to open water.


In the rush of feeling better in January, I did an utterly stupid thing.

Seriously? I entered not just a half-marathon, but the half-marathon? The one that's so important in the family?

I am an idiot.

But I am taking it seriously. That's a lot of money to throw away on not training! I hope to re-crack 10km and beyond this week - I've got good support, great shoes, better kit, I track with Strava and I have an awesome playlist. I had entered a 10km in Blackpool, but it was cancelled so now I'm having a rematch with Great Manchester at the end of May. I hope that'll help me cope with the noise and hectic atmosphere at Great North, anyhow. I can't say I like running yet, but I am definitely becoming more competent and there are moments when it's quite pleasing. It's still more about sheer stubbornness than anything else, though. And I figure if I can conquer a half marathon I'll be in much better shape for karate. I worry about fitting the training in as I'm also in the middle of finding work, doing other work and selling the house, but I will just have to suck it up and get on with it.


Last but definitely not least, I finally figured out heian godan, pulled my head out of my arse and took my purple/white (4th kyu) grading along with Eldest last month. In all honesty I do think it was less punishing than the last one I watched, but I think my fitness has also improved so I was better able to pace myself. I was pretty satisfied with the technical aspects but I'm well aware my sparring needs a lot of work before I'm ready for brown belt. I'm hoping to take that towards the end of the year.


I don't do enough yoga and I haven't kayaked for ages. These things make me sad. On the happy side Eldest represented her school in the local swimming gala and both girls are going great at karate. We've booked Iron Kids again and I'm doing a whole weekend's kayak escort at Bala, too. So lots coming up - but I will be keeping my monthly date with the physio, that's for sure!

Baby, it's cold outside (and we're going swimming)

I

would rather jump

and know

the freeze of the water,

the shake of my bones,

and the stinging

of my skin

than spend my life

clinging to the rails

and staring down 

at the current

below.

- Tyler Knott Gregson

So Janathon ended with a whimpering plank each day as life just got too icy, virus-y and busy to do anything more with. February has been incredibly difficult - a planned operation for DH which fell at the same time as both girls attempting to scare the living daylights out of me with bug after bug, leading to almost a whole week off school for Youngest and a fairly miserable time for Eldest. I also caught one of the bugs and a not-at-all fun time was had by all. I owe a great debt of thanks to the friends who kept me afloat. Then there was a tired, gentle half-term we managed to fill with a little swimming, a little cinema and a lot of cuddles.

We are recovered. Some training has been missed, some not even started. Spring is coming, though, and now events can be booked, plans made and fun things looked forward to. The year's starting to take shape, starting this weekend with a Polar swim at Salford Quays on Saturday for me, and special seminars with Sensei Matt Price on kata and point-scoring kumite for me and both girls on the Sunday. Youngest is now working on becoming a Cadet Leader, too, and doing a fantastic job of it for a kid of only four and a half. She won't be able to join the rest of the cadets for some time as she's simply not physically big enough or skilled enough yet, but she has confidence in bucketloads. I'm quietly looking forward to tournament in a few months - my kata's come on very nicely in the last week or two, though I know my kumite needs work. I can hope for a June grading, too, though of course that's never a certainty til you get the official papers.

I'm completely giddy about Saturday's swim, and there's another at the end of March before the season kicks off properly. I have just one swimming event booked at the moment - the Aspire Night Swim in Liverpool in October - but things are starting to take shape for Bala 10k, which I guess is my "A" event this year. That does involve learning to kayak again, something I've not done since I was 14, so here's to another new string to the bow, as it were. USWIM series races are also pencilled into the calendar, and I'm open to being persuaded into other swims if they're affordable and reachable. I'd certainly like to get to Gaddings this year, and up to the Lakes even for a paddle. But mostly I plan to hang out at Quays a whole lot.

For my own curiosity and the edification of fellow and new Quays swimmers, here is a graph for your delectation. I went back through my training logs, which start in mid-2012, and noted all the water temperatures I'd recorded.

I just thought it was really interesting to see 2013's slow temp rise and sharp peak (that being the only time a Great Manchester Swim has been wetsuit-optional) vs 2014's much warmer start (relatively speaking!) but flatter summer period. Unfortunately I didn't get to do winter swims in '12 or '13, but I'd like to keep updating this for the next few years. Given that it's reported as already around 7oC, it's to be hoped the 2015 season will be more like '14 than '13 and I'll be able to get some good distances in early on. I'm getting to that really difficult stage of winter training when the coached sessions are coming to an end and my motivation to mix it up with the public is at an all-time low.

I haven't been able to take on running particularly yet. The kids are still excited about IronKids in Summer, and I've found a place we can run laps on a decent track for not much money, which I think will be safer and more motivating for them (since there's a playground right next door and it's where we go for them learning to ride their bikes) than trying to slog up and down our hills.

I'm going to be needing to get my finger out, though. Because there's this:

You have successfully entered The Morrisons Great Manchester Run 2015 

 

Oh, shit.

It's that time again...Janathon!

And we're back! Happy 2015, everyone, and if you haven't signed up for Janathon yet, hop to it. The rules have changed a little this year and you don't need to blog every day! Tweeting counts, hurrah.

Last year I was the last member of the family to succumb to the vomiting bug on New Year's Day, and thankfully it hasn't nabbed us this year (well - some of us had it in late Nov/early Dec and it could still hit us again, no chicken counting here!). I did feel kinda seedy after some enthusiastically alcoholic seeing in of the New Year and a whole lot of travelling over the last week, but a good session of Yin Yoga has sorted me right out. It's obvious I've been slacking, though, so my plan is to do yoga for the next few days to loosen myself up, then we're back into the usual round of Masters USWIM and karate five days a week, with yoga whenever I can fit it in. I saw my physio before Christmas to get my shonky hips and knees checked out, and it sounds like the usual hip flexor tightness and weakness on the left that's plagued me for years. So yin yoga and balance-based yoga need to feature highly this month. Also apparently my feet are "a bit wrong" so that'll need work too.

Plans for the year include but are not limited to:

- Swim a 10km event (mostly likely Bala two-way with the BLDSA, of which I'm now a member, and I'd love to do Kielder Water too) and probably a bunch of USWIM events

- Get my purple belt and be working towards purple/white

- Run a 10km event. Oh dear, what have I let myself in for with that! I have a rough plan to do it by the end of April. We'll see. I had a test run before xmas and I can still do a mile in about 9mins (albeit downhill), so that's something to build on.

- Support all our Team Bear members at Ironman UK - loads of our kids are doing the IronKids race, including my girls (and me, since Youngest has to be accompanied!); and wave pompoms for our Ironman nutters.

I'll probably end up doing a whole bunch of other stuff, and that's half the fun! In the meantime, have a horrible pun:

The teacher I like the most on YogaGlo tends to say "Yogi's choice" when there are multiple adjustments to a pose. So, I'm a Yogi. In Team Bear.

Clearly, I am Yogi Bear!

Time Passes

October was a bit of a random month, training-wise - a few hiccups of ill-health, a grand dose of "can't be arsed", some frustration, some generalised family chaos, and some useful gains, mostly in karate. November, despite bouts of illness, was much better.

 

 

 

 

Swimming

Completed my Aspire Challenge, a bit slower than I wanted to, but I finished it in style with three short laps of Salford Quays (1200m), in skins, at 10oC. And had a nice dose of some mixture of hypothermia and hypoglycemia to show for it; thank you to my Bears for taking care of me (read: stuffing me full of sugar and coffee til I stopped giggling and shaking).

USWIM Masters is back at Manchester Aquatics, with an extra session at Shadsworth, just down the road from me. Currently I'm performing reasonably well there (and having a lot of fun, actually - it's great not to miss my swimming friends through the winter!). My stroke feels cleaner and stronger despite not a lot of practice in October - thank you to Rach for the drill suggestions at the end of summer season, it does seem to have helped. I get off-days but overall things are consistent.

Victorian Polar was amazing fun - I made four costumes in the end and we looked AWESOME. Swam 200m in costume at 8oC and had a jolly nice, if painful, time in the water followed by all of the calories in the world ever.

Karate

This has been very challenging lately and that's where the majority of my energy has been going - I've been training three times a week plus working at home trying to nail down the three katas I needed to show at my next grading (heian shodan, heian nidan and heian sandan), and all the combinations required to go from yellow belt (7th kyu) to green belt (6th kyu). Technically I was wearing an orange belt but that's from the old grading system, it just wasn't worth changing it for a couple of months. I've learned how to bring side kicks into my sparring more and that seems to have improved things significantly. I'm quite good at those, but I know I need to work on my overall control and blocking. Learning three new kata in one go is not the normal way of things and I've spent a lot of time being cross with myself over kata and kihon (basics). I do think I've neglected kumite in my head at least and aside from 6th kyu kata, I want to focus on sparring in the new year so I can go to tournament.

We had the extraordinarily exciting opportunity to train with Shinji Nagaki Sensei - a world champion and 5th dan black belt! Eldest and I had a wonderful time taking an absolute master class in the basics (Youngest is a bit too young for this sort of thing right now, sadly, but at just 4y 4mo she is working her little butt off and she'll probably join us for seminars next year) and I felt a whole lot better about heian nidan in particular afterwards.

All three of us graded on 29th Nov.  Eldest and I are now green/6th kyu and Youngest impressed everyone with her concentration (over two hours of focus is a big ask when you're four!) and of course brought her orange belt/9th kyu home. I found it particularly hard - full of a cold, something feeling badly wrong and painful in my hip and being convinced I'd failed halfway through did not help, but like the Bears, the Tigers are brilliant support and I got past the pain. Definitely earned this one. Physio visit impending.

Running

Yeah...didn't do any of that stuff. To be honest I just didn't feel like it, then I didn't want to break anything before grading, and now my legs just feel rotten - everything's tight everywhere and I need to figure out what the cause is. Hence physio. I'm getting an awful lot of cramp whilst pool swimming and it was a real problem at grading - at one point I was stretched out in the box splits and two toes on my left foot were pointing at the ceiling all by themselves. I don't know if it's the cold or what but it needs dealing with. And when it's dealt with? Well. I have my target race picked out. It's not going away any time soon and it'll be there next year if it takes me that long to sort this out.

  

Yoga: I have an entire post about that coming up later. I can tell you're excited.

Don't Stop Me Now

Yes, yes, Queen is on my MP3 player.

I'm going to run Great North Run one day.

It might not be next year. I don't know. A half-marathon run on top of a marathon swim and a whole bunch of karate might be too much, and I might not even get a place next year anyway. But it might not be too much. And I might be dead slow, and I might come in last. I don't care. I can swim more than five miles! I can do ANYTHING. I can run for ten minutes without stopping even after a break of eight months. I can definitely do something with that, yes?

Ok, I know this is post-event high still. On Tuesday I went for my supposed "recovery swim" and put the first 1.5 miles on my Aspire challenge. On Wednesday, even though my arms went like noodles at the end of class, I got my green tip at karate. Check it out:

Quick digression: the last time I was writing regularly I wasn't far off taking my 8th kyu grading; since then I've also taken my 7th kyu (as shown by the orange belt, which is the old combined Goju/Shotokan syllabus - we're now a JKS England affiliate so everything has changed and we're all working doubly hard to get our heads round the new stuff before grading again!). 6th kyu grading is now on the horizon for me and Eldest, and Youngest joined us two months ago on her 4th birthday; she'll be going for her 9th kyu as well. I also competed in the club tournament (taking silvers for both kata and kumite in my age & grade group, and a bloody nose into the bargain), and attended a really fantastic seminar on grappling techniques. I fall more in love with the discipline at every class.

Autumn at the Quays

Ok, back to the programme. I had a lovely bobble about at Salford on Saturday introducing a friend to the joys - and her first time out in open water, she went skins at 17oC! So brilliant. Absolutely perfect weather, wonderful company and another 800m on my Aspire total, so two miles altogether (or 7.25 if you count Coniston, which I'm not sure whether I'm doing or not yet). Today I ran just short of a mile, having gone out to see if I could still run for ten minutes after all this time. Turns out I can - and I have better fitness, more experience and a whole lot of support to draw on. So I just need to do that fourteen times one after the other, right?

Pie

Not really, I just love this pic. I'm actually not doing too badly on the whole "no cake and sweeties" thing - still having little bits here and there and today I couldn't resist some extra Greek yoghurt and berries after tea, but I don't feel too badly about that! Keeping my calories more or less where they should be, anyway.

Anyway, I dragged myself out for a run - my self-motivated exercise has been the hardest to get to this week; it's much easier in a class or club setting. I find that really odd as I'm normally a fairly solitary and driven person. Perhaps it's just the "do it every day" of Janathon that's undermining my motivation. Or the horrendous squat DOMS from last night's karate. Ye gods, I'd forgotten how much I loathe squats. My hip is back to playing up as well, but at least I know what to do to fix that now. All hail physiotherapists.

It was an ok run, as these things go. Walk a mile up the 10% gradient hill, and run back down it. Nearly a minute faster this time, which is probably improved confidence rather than improved fitness at this stage. It was desperately painful at first but I found a stride about halfway down, got my breathing sorted out (yes - of course I was using my yoga breathing and counting paces in Japanese, how else do you run?) and by the time I was home I thought I could probably have handled another five minutes or more. So I'm going to dig out my C25K podcasts and start somewhere in the middle - if I can run for 14mins now I should be able to do 2x10mins and work up from there. It's just a case of fitting it all in; I should really be out twice a week if I'm going to improve. 

The Universe Laughs In My Face

So yes, I should have exercised and blogged four times for Janathon by now, shouldn't I? Uh-huh. Great plans, and all that. We've now all had the vomiting bug - kids, husband, and it hit me on New Year's Day after a full ten days of cleaning up and looking after everyone else. I left our friends' home about lunchtime feeling ok, mildly hungover, nothing unusual, even talking about going out for a run that evening...and three hours later I was in bed, sick to my stomach, pain in every joint. Bloody wonderful.

2nd Jan I spent huddled in an armchair shivering, trying to deal with the bored and squabbly kids and went to bed again the minute I could. After 48hrs with no food I was pretty wobbly - on the mend again but quite weak. I knew the kids were bored out of their minds, though, so I said I would take them to see Frozen the following day...and then proceeded not to sleep at all that night due to an exceedingly painful shoulder. It finally succumbed to paracetamol at 7am and the kids woke me up at eight. *facepalm*

3rd Jan we made it to the pictures, though getting up the stairs to the cinema was dizzying and draining. On the other hand I ate! Lots. Felt a lot better, no more sick, just wobbly as hell. I planned for this to be the last rest day...but at 11.30pm Eldest Daughter threw up all over the bed and necessitated several hours' worth of clean-up and cuddling between us. And then I couldn't sleep again.

Today the cat joined in and threw up on the sofa. The devil vomits on my eiderdown again, to quote Blackadder. So you know what, screw it. I'm tired, I have work to do and we've done more laundry in the last fortnight than anyone should ever do over Christmas. Eldest and I have managed to physically do our kata for the last couple of days, though - I have practiced every day for 118 days in a row, even at my sickest, because I can still visualise it even if I can't get up and do it. But it feels good to be on my feet again and I can't wait to get to karate on Wednesday to see if I'm finally getting it right.

Tomorrow - all being well and no more sickness - I'm back at Aquatics for training, in a small group with the coach. At the moment I'm only planning to stay for the first hour; I had originally intended to join the main session afterwards but I think that would be stupid at the moment. No sense in getting knocked out for the whole month. On Monday I'm going to reset all my programmes on Lift - pull-ups, push-ups and planks - back to the beginning because I feel like I've lost a lot of strength. Fingers crossed for just a late start to Janathon, rather than completely abandoned.

Of course, the snow's bound to blow in now, isn't it...

Very Great Swims

First of all, huge congratulations to Ella The Mermaid who's completed her Channel Solo in the last hour or so - absolutely fantastic, I've been on pins watching the tracker all day. Amazing stuff.

So, no updates from me for a while, not for lack of swimming but because I've mostly switched to a tablet for day to day use and much as I like it, it's not great for typing on. It's time I did a bit of a round-up, though! No big swim this weekend as we were away in Whitby for a little family break. I was good and did a set of drills in the hotel pool, though, and the girls are doing great.

6th July - barely a cloud in the sky, 18oC in the water, clocked 4050m - my first Iron Fish of the season, and dropped the wetsuit for the last 500m. Ridiculously warm, caught the sun of course. Slow, and I bought a Finis Tempo Tracker this week, which I still haven't used because I've been too busy and fuddled to work out how to set the baseline. I really enjoyed the non-wetsuit lap, though.

A view from the bridge, 13th July - 20oC in. I forgot my prescription goggles, so stuck to four laps of the short course (1600m), one unsuited, and a lesson from Coach Jane, who sorted out my sinky legs with a single tip - stick your head down! I'd been so stressed about sighting since before Windermere that I'd got myself into the habit of swimming with my head much too high in the water, which caused my legs to drop and slowed me right down. It improved things a great deal; far less stress on my shoulders.

I went to Great Manchester Swim unsupported this year - since I know my way around now I wasn't too worried about getting back to the baggage drop without my glasses. I got there early, talked to Steph from ChillSwim and walked the course with Michael from USWIM (who was the first person to help get me into the water last year, so that was lovely - very much full-circle) and sussed out where everything was. I was well in time to send off Alex and Ben in the first wave, who I'd got to know through Fitocracy and taken round the Quays earlier in the year. I love chatting to people at these events, especially first-timers - there's nothing like sharing your enthusiasm for the sport and helping to calm someone's nerves at the same time. I met loads of lovely people and the atmosphere was fantastic. 

The swim itself was crazy-warm - 21oC - and though they'd made it wetsuit-optional I elected to keep mine on, knowing that I simply hadn't trained that distance without. Event day is not "try something new" day! I'd done around a mile in the pool (urgh - like swimming through grease) earlier that week and had to bail out with cramp so there was no way I was changing anything at that point. It was a good swim, for me - 39m 15s, a new PB over that distance for either pool or OW; didn't do too badly on the sighting and quite enjoyed the tussle and busyness of being in the middle of the pack. The water was pretty weedy, especially through the canal, but I didn't mind - it wasn't obnoxious. I am proud of that time and look forward to taking minutes off it next year!

Good use for a space hopper, no?

Back at Salford again the following week, 27th July - 22.5oC in the water and a full Iron Fish (3.8km) with no wetsuit. It is MUCH harder to do that distance without the suit and I was really quite sore in the upper arms the following day. But no joint pain, just DOMS, so I'm hoping that means my stroke is getting better technically.

Comparing my stats from last year, I managed 4km only once between April-September. So far this year I've done it (or 3.8km, which is near enough) three times already and there's still a fair bit of time to go. I'm seriously considering entering the USWIM 5km in a couple of weeks since there's no time limit on finishing - I want to see how close to 2hrs I can get before deciding to enter Great North 5km since you have to be under that. If I can get it within 10-15mins then I know I mostly have fitness to work on; more than that and I'll have to leave entry til later when I can get some one-to-one or at least regular technical training at Aquatics over winter as well.

In terms of upcoming plans beyond that I want to do at least one Chillswim - they're coming to Salford in December! That's an unsuited 25m-ish at about 5oC, which should be funny if nothing else. If it's fun I may do the Coniston one in Feb too. After that...well, we'll see, but cross-Coniston in Sept '14 (5.25mi/8.4km) is looking like a distinct possibility. I'm good for half that now - surely I can double it in a year? :)

Sunny Day...

...Sweeping the clouds away 

On my way to where the water's sweet 

Can you tell me how to get 

How to get to Salford Quays... 

(with many apologies to Sesame Street) 

 

Above is the view from the ladies' changing tent at Salford this morning. This is post-swim - when I arrived there was a great big Canada Goose patrolling the waterline just outside, honking like mad! There was even a pair of ducks, and I'm sure I saw some fish way down deep. Quite a bit of leaf-litter, and some ordinary litter too, unfortunately, but not enough to be annoying and spoil the swim.

12.1oC in the water today, but a lovely 14oC on the land with no wind, and sun, sun, sun everywhere. It makes such a huge difference to your mindset. I suppose that's what makes open water dangerous, sometimes - I imagine it'd be easy to be fooled into thinking it was warmer than it is and get yourself into trouble if you weren't used to it. There were certainly a few novices who had no idea what 12oC really feels like, and having a bit of a surprise as they got further in (which just made me giggle after an hour of being used to it!).

I managed 2km today and it was lovely to be able to swim around the bridge on the 500m course - I miss the 750m course quite a bit. Overall I'm pleased with that given my state of health and fitness. I still have the chesty cough and had managed to twist my back up with it as well. The physio used some ultrasound on Thursday and the appointment helped a lot, I certainly feel very little pain when I'm in the water. Walking out is another issue, though. So I'm still barred from running, feeling deeply unfit and consequently fretting quite a lot about Windermere, since it took me over an hour to plod through that 2km. It suggests I'm on for maybe 1hr 30 if nothing changes in three weeks, which is disappointing. Fingers crossed the cough at least will have gone by then. A couple of extra degrees warmth and a sunny day would also help a great deal.

Til then, I guess I'll just be worrying...

Swimming With The Black Dog

 

Writing and Running

The above goes to a really nice article about physical exercise and writing; the writers in it exercised because they are writers; a sedentary profession if ever there was one. I'm coming at it from the other direction; I got into endurance first at a young age and it does give me the perspective I need to not worry too much about how long it takes to write. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running has been on my to-read list for ages and I'm looking forward to diving in later this week.

Anyway. Sadly I have not been healthy over the last few weeks, again - I think I've had a permanent cold or throat infection since the end of January and the kids just keep bringing them home from school, joy. Because I've needed my voice so much for work I've had to let sport go for the time being - I'd already lost enough money due to snow cancellations. I ran my last classes this weekend, though, so bar the financial tie-up I'm a free agent now and no doubt the children will be delighted if I lose my voice again.

Not going swimming (or anything else) for a few weeks has, as ever, lead to a bunch of Bad Head Stuff - I'm sure you can imagine the way the black dog chases it's own tail. You're stuffed up and exhausted so you don't go, and the more you don't go the more your fitness falls off; you reach for the comfort food (ah, my old nemesis, the Chocolate Digestive); you feel more tired and well...why would you bother going? You won't be able to keep up and it'll really hurt the next day. The duvet's siren song gets louder than the call of the water even though you can't damn well sleep anyway. Oh, god, don't step on the scales. And then it snows so you can't get out at all.

Despite all that I hauled my carcass to USWIM Masters tonight and was pleasantly surprised to pull off 3.3km, including sprints (which I am rubbish at). My hypoxic breathing has improved, I didn't get cramp and I don't feel like toast. I do feel mentally muddled and could do with some external appraisal - I've learned so much about the technicalities this winter that I can't really feel what I'm doing any more. I noticed a horrible crossover in my stroke tonight, for example, and that's never been a problem before. I was getting quite down about it all the way through the session, and then coach Katie got us to do an open water simulation 600m at the end (that means you turn before the wall). She compared it to a big lap at Salford and suddenly everyone was very cheered up to realise that it's only 27 days to the beginning of the season. That was a huge lift and I came out feeling a lot better. I'm far less worried about Swimathon 5k at the end of April now. I don't think I'll have an issue completing it, though my time might not be as good as I'd hoped.

My rental wetsuit arrived last week and I have gloves and boots also. If the weather picks up a bit and it doesn't look too rough, I'm aiming for a quick dip in the North Sea next weekend. It looks about 6oC at the moment. I might only be in for ten minutes but I'm excited to give it a try!

Janathon Round-Up

And done. Not well because of the snow, laziness and a big project that needed to be finished, but completed anyway. It was a good challenge - I think if I'm going to do it again I need to commit to indoor activity a bit more, and make sure I don't arrange or sign up to anything else! I probably won't do Junathon, much as I'd like to, because it would be daft to overdo it with multiple swimming events coming up. But you never know! Big thanks to the organisers, it was fun following people on Twitter and reading blogs.

This month I've covered 13km in the pool (B+, not bad, could do better), 0km in open water (trying hard not to think about it because it makes me overly sad), and 18.35km running (C-, must try harder). It's not a bad start to the year and I'm pretty confident I can top that at least most months over 2013. It'll be a whole lot easier as the weather picks up, of course.

Nipped out for a slow 2.75km run this evening - not particularly enjoyable, unfortunately, my hips (never the most reliable part of my body) are playing up and I'm almost certainly going to pay for it tomorrow. I think a week of wearing YakTrax on hiking boots over ice, and then switching to brand new small-heeled boots today probably has something to do with it. I walk like a constipated duck in the snow which makes me ache all over. But I saw a badger! Blimey, those things are big. Also this one appeared to have nicked a slice of pizza from someone's bin...

Finally, I will now be working on Mistressing The Pull-Up - we finally managed to fit a bar in this shonky old house!

Skillshare

Very lazy night - a 1min plank with good form (I'll feel that tomorrow!) and a wall sit, just to do something. I'm not sleeping well as I'm full of a cold still, and really really hoping this ice doesn't get any worse so that I can run tomorrow. I might have to find a new route around the back streets and town, which I'm not at all happy about - I like the lonely, dark moor route the best. I have an inkling I might enjoy trail or fell running when I'm fitter.

Spent the evening doing random bits of work, writing, and reading, and actually I feel good about that; my brain has needed a workout too. Watched the first Skillshare: Get Fit In the New Year... class video and wrote up my "project" for that - so far there's nothing I didn't already know, but I think it's a great intro if you're new to fitness. Here's my Goals Project, anyway, by way of some meaningful content for Janathon.

Swimming In The Big Pond

I've always been a swimmer. A knee injury at 18 stopped me; from there I went to university and discovered beer, got a desk job, and had children. Exercise just didn't figure until I realised I couldn't actually pick the baby up without pain, let alone the 6yo.

I managed to get hold of a Beta invite for Fitocracy and together with support from family, friends and the Fito crew I've never looked back. I started to swim again just over a year ago; cried and complained my way through the first few months of lifting and then startled myself by not only starting to run but discovering an all-consuming passion for open water endurance swimming. Last season I swam Great Manchester Mile and ran City of Salford 5k. I find running helps my breath control and lifting is giving me the all-round awesome (my arms and legs are looking great, though I can't seem to shake it off my belly).

I now train with a Masters group and a fantastic Channel coach, and after some time off for illness I'm back to running 5km. In 2013 I'll be swimming a pool 5k, the Manchester mile again, and I'm off up to the Big Pond - Lake Windermere - to swim 2 miles in open water. I also want to take part in my Masters group events and run a 10k by the end of the year. I want to do it all faster than last year and be ready to swim 5-10k events the following year, perhaps with a running half-marathon too. By then I'm hoping to be fit enough to get over my fear of the hilly area I live in, get my bike out and complete a triathlon before I turn 40.

My problems are:
a) sticking to an effective training schedule consistently whilst managing a family and freelance work 

b) managing the nutritional needs of 1 endurance nut, 1 runner/lifter, and two small, rapidly growing, incredibly active little girls. We all need different things. I've built up a lot of fat over 20-odd years of inactivity and I know it's slowing me down - but I don't really understand how to get rid of it and how to balance my needs with everyone else's. That's what I'm hoping to get out of this course.

Stretching

Brrr. Five layers on today and I still felt cold - indoors! Also croaky and sore; gee, thanks fog. I have to work in the morning - for which my voice is essential - so I'm taking it easy with just some yoga and stretching. I'm terribly inflexible, always have been, so I want to make it part of my routine somewhere. Somehow.

I feel I've stuck to the spirit of Janathon even though I'm now pretty much kissing good bye to one of my duels. I'd probably have been more competitive if I'd been a bit further along with running, and knocking out a solid 5km each time. Masters is cancelled on Sunday since the pools are booked out to other groups (cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth, DAMNIT I was really looking forward to that!) so I'm going to have to try and make it up with another long swim on Sunday morning. If I can get a fairly numpty-free session I can probably turn out two miles in the 1hr 30 available. Fifteen weeks to the new outdoor season...yes, I'm counting down the days. There's an app for that. :P

In other news my OH has a little green tick next to his Great North Run entry so I guess that means he's in! First ballot, too. Very lucky. We missed seeing him come over the line at Great Manchester last year so fingers crossed we'll get to cheer this time. It's definitely going to be a big sporting year for us.

Challenges

I love this picture, it makes me laugh every time. Snagged from this article on willpower at Sohee Lee Fitness. It is a great post and what I'm about to tell you about will seem to fly in the face of it at first glance, but it's all part of a Master Plan, honest.

I haven't blogged for a month or so - just way too much busyness going on - but I have kept going to USWIM Masters every Sunday and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's hard, hard work, swimming between 2-3.5km of drills and time trials/endurance work per session but I'm making obvious progress both on the clock (my 750m time is down to 16min from 20mins at the end of September - you can't sniff at a 4min improvement!) and in terms of the effect you can actually see. Definitely getting swimmer's arms and legs! Pity the Christmas excess has settled around the middle, but it'll go again. I also got my "Growing Gills" Fitocracy badge in December. That means I've swum 100km in my lifetime on the site, which actually tallies pretty accurately with 100km swum in this year.

Here are the challenges I've set myself for 2013 so far:

January

 

Participate in Janathon, which means daily exercise (though not today as I am somewhat hungover!) with an emphasis on running, and blog posts about it. This will help me both restart Couch to 5k....

...and hopefully win the two Fitocracy Duels I'm in, which run from 2nd-16th January. I plan to start tracking on My Fitness Pal again as well, so the first two weeks of this month are about shaking myself up and getting moving in the right direction. I haaaaaate tracking food but Christmas always makes my portion sizes (and sweet consumption) go haywire. But it can be fixed. USWIM Masters is back in session from 13th Jan so plenty of points to be gained there!

From 15th-24th I'll be taking part in Get Fit In The New Year... And For Life class, which is being taught by the founders of Fitocracy, to get a better grip on where I need to go with my training.

February & March

No specific plans as yet but I'd like to be getting close to 5k in both swimming and running.

April

 April is Swimathon month and I've entered the 5k Individual this time. I did the 2.5km last year and the 5k in 1992. I don't have an official record of that time but I'm pretty sure it was 2hrs 20mins or so, so that's the time I want to beat this year. I'm fairly confident I can get there as my 3km time is just over an hour now, so I should be pushing 5km at around 2hrs by April. My main issue at this distance is just getting enough clear water - not a problem on the day itself, but in open public sessions it's hard to get 2hrs without interruption. USWIM Summer season reopens on 20th April, though, so I should get a couple of nice long open water sessions in just before it.

May

No plans for May yet other than continuing to train for....

June

...the two-mile wave at Great North Swim. I finally made a decision! Well, it was made for me really because I don't have a two-mile event time and therefore couldn't be sure of completing the 5km in the right time-frame. Completing this one will give me a time for 2014, though, and after conversations with friends who live down that way, there's a good possibility I may do the 5k at Great East in 2014 as well. It starts to get really quite expensive at this point in both entry fees and transport/accomodation costs but it's just possible I may enter all five Great Swims in 2014.

July

July brings me back full-circle to Great Manchester Swim. I've completely changed my stroke and training regime since July 2012, with stacks more confidence and experience under my belt too - and it's my home ground. I'm hoping to shred at least 15-20mins off my 2012 breaststroke time (50m 59s) - sub 30mins would be ideal but we'll see on the day.

August

I plan to be properly prepared (ie, remember my goggles) and swim in the North Sea, no wetsuit, at least a few times!

September

Assuming it runs again in 2013 I'm keen to do the 3.8km distance of the Media City UK challenge, in my home waters at Dock 9. I finished last season at just over 2hrs to do 4km, and I'm sure all my training will pay off - so a sub 1hr 45 would be lovely for this one. And then...maybe the 10km in 2014? We'll also be heading up to Newcastle for the Great North Run, where at least one, probably two and maybe more of the Wood family will be taking part. But not me. Not this year...


After that, who knows? I'd love to get a few 5km runs in there, and a 10km would be amazing. There's also the Edinburgh 2k and Bala 3 mile swims to consider, if I can find the money and the transport. And I know of at least two other places within reach where I can swim open water, it's just a matter of getting there. And that bike's going to see the sunshine at some point, honest. But then, there's Tri-fle Ambitious and Far Too Ambitious....:)

Moving On Up

Tuesday
Those of you on Fitocracy will have seen my ragequit strop on Tuesday...sheesh. Swimming in a public session is just getting harder and harder the more I improve, and I wish I could say that without it sounding braggy. It is pretty difficult to do serious training when you're not sharing your space with like-minded people, in a place where the rules of etiquette are not even explained, let alone enforced. Still. Numpty-dodging aside, I knocked out a straight distance session of 3.3km over approximately 1hr 15mins and gave up in sheer disgust at being able to lap some of the lane hoggers not once but twice over 100m. All told, when I had a clear lane it was great and my first 100m in was 2min 01s! I'm really pleased with that. I couldn't keep it going at that constantly - people get in the way, you stop to fix your goggles, you slow down when you get tired - but I can't have been far off that pace most of the way through. Bodes well. I'm just frustrated not to have been able to go non-stop for two hours. I can't find a single pool locally that has a clear 2hrs of lanes at a time I can get to.

Sunday
USWIM Masters, yay! Last day of the Swimprove sessions. I think I can safely say "yes, I have improved" but in all honesty I couldn't tell you exactly what's improved. It may be "nothing"  more than confidence. It may be a combination of tiny tweaks all over - I'm pretty sure my arm position is a little better, and that I kick from the hip more than I used to. I need to do a little more work on my breathing, and I want to ask about the "dead spot" I sometimes find with my hands as they move from vertical to hip. Anyway, I feel good, and this week's coach (Claire or Katie - I'm so sorry, I am useless at names!) made a point of saying that I and one other chap in particular should have "no trouble" keeping up with the Intermediates group. I am more chuffed than you can possibly imagine with that! I did join their session for a little while afterwards, after spending a while dithering about whether to do so, and it was kinda fun - and gruelling - to play with the grown-ups. After an hour of solid drills, though, I was pretty tired and decided to head home early so's not to miss tucking the girls in. But I'll be straight into lane 2 next week to see if I can keep up!

Plans
Still dithering about Windermere. I almost went "sod it" and entered the 5km earlier this week - and then spotted it was on a Friday, which is quite an issue on a school day. Having not been able to get a full 2hrs in on Tuesday means I'm still dubious about where I stand with respect to getting the 5km under 2hrs by June. The bit on the form that asks "the Date, Event Name and Finish Time of the most recent open water swimming event which you have completed two miles or more" is also a sticking point, since I haven't actually completed an event at that distance, just training. And it was training at the end of September, when I wasn't as improved as I am now and wasn't going at any kind of speed - I was only trying to see if I could crack the Iron Fish and the time didn't matter. Not sure I can see a way around that other than finding a two-miler to do earlier in the season!

I really must get on and book Manchester, though, there's no reason to delay on that. Other than money, of course. I'm not sure what I'm going to do in terms of running/lifting this week; my Coursera classes are all changing over the next fortnight and I'll have to see what it's like in term of workload and what exactly I'm going to commit to for that. And I suppose I'll grudgingly accept that I need to be doing some Christmas stuff too. Bah.

Quandry

Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.

Tuesday

Borrowed the USwim Masters workout from the first week (thankfully someone had posted their sets on Fito) and tried to see if I could do it. Close but no cigar - I was a bit late going so had only 1hr 35 rather than the 2hrs. Cracked out 3050m in total, sets as follows:

400m Warm Up

4x50m Individual Medley

 4x50m Drills (legs only, catch-up, fists, catch up - they did ripple but I don't know what that is)

10x100m @ 2m 15s 

8x200m @4m 30s

 600m Cool Down

I managed all of that up to the 200m sets and ran out of time after six sets, so I was 800m down there and only did 50m cool down. I wasn't quite on the money for the times but it is excruciatingly hard to time 100m or 200m over a 25m pool when you're sharing a lane with people who basically think floating makes them fitter somehow. Still pretty pleased, though, it proves I could probably hold my own in the intermediate lane. Continuing with USwim Masters is going to require some family juggling, as I'd be coming home later. We're going to give it a whirl, though.

Sunday

Missing my lesson like crazy. Got out of bed the wrong side this morning, had a driving scare and have been generally irritable all day. Swapped a "daytime fitness" session with my OH - he went for a 10 mile run this morning and I had intended to swim for two hours this afternoon, but annoyingly the lanes were only up for an hour this afternoon due to some crazyass inflatable thing. Not a single local pool had more than an hour for anything, either. So I went anyway and ANGRYSWAM for 50 minutes. Covered 2km but playing "dodge the numpties" really takes a toll on your time and your temper. Seriously, people. If you can see two lanes of folks swimming slow head-up breaststroke and one lane with two fast freestylers in it, and you don't want to get your hair wet, which lane should you choose? I'll give you a hint: NOT the one where people aren't stopping to rest. I must have overtaken this one woman every other lap, ffs. I love that people swim for relaxation and gentle fitness, really I do, but for the love of Pete, have a little sense.

Future Plans

Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh. Great Swim places opened on Monday and I still haven't booked. I'll probably sort Manchester out tonight but I've dithered over it because none of the charities I would have liked to have supported are sharing the entry costs for the distances I want to do. That means I've had to wait and wait to have the money to do it - Manchester alone is £33 and North is £46 for the 2 miles I'd intended to do. And then I had two very good  swimmers on Fito telling me to get my bloody finger out, stop pissing about with a couple of miles and do a full lap of Windermere this season. That is somewhat unrealistic, given the lack of training time available, but it has got me seriously considering the 5k wave at North instead of the 2 miles. So now I'm in a quandry: do I enter for the 2 miles, knowing I'm already under the time requirement, or go for the 5km with six months to train to get it under two hours? The furthest I've gone in open water was 4km and that took me two hours - but I wasn't pushing particularly hard.

I don't know what to do.

Scattered Black And Whites

Elbow - Scattered Black And Whites

I've done nothing all week...deadlines and family meetings and homework, oh my. How lazy. And I've eaten terribly, too. Back to Manchester Aquatics Centre for lesson two of the Swimprove series. Different coaches this time - Sarah & Jane (I think - unfortunately I was a couple of minutes late cos I forgot I needed petrol and missed their names!). Drills til you're cross-eyed and lots of kind, gentle encouragement from people who really seem to know their stuff. I feel so lucky to have landed up with all these amazing people around me right at the beginning of my open water "career", such as it may be! 

Some different drills today: turns out my right arm is dominant, what a surprise, and sculling on your front is hard. I knocked another stroke off my 50m down to 40, which was nice - again I think probably more to do with a good glide than anything else (and also I was watching video of Rebecca Adlington earlier this week and decided to try 2-3 butterfly kicks coming out of the glide like she does - feels good). I'm definitely noticing my legs are working much better now. I can really feel the kick coming from the hip and there seems to be some more power coming from my arms too. It will be interesting, if I can get the space in our pool, to see whether my lap times have come down at all. I was certainly overtaking people quite a bit tonight but you can never tell whether that's because you're improving or whether they're just slower because they're really focussing on their stroke. Only the stopwatch will tell me that. One thing I was told by the coach tonight is that I need to stab the water with my fingers a bit more - my hands are going in too flat. So that's something to look at next session.

No lesson next week because the Paralympics Team will be using the pool for training (ok, I have to say I get a little squee! of association-with-awesomeness from that!); last one is the last weekend in November. Then I have to decide whether I'm brave enough to make the leap to the intermediate lane and continue with Uswim over winter, or go back to training alone. I'm still worried about being fast enough but on the other hand I think I'd make much better progress with some discipline. The alternative would be to approach a more local Masters group, if I can get over being intimidated by the idea.

Entries open tomorrow for Great Manchester and Great North swims - and Great East down in Suffolk, but that may be a bit far for me to go next year. Certain Fitocrats are also tempting me to consider the Edinburgh Portobello to Musselburgh 2km - I used to love that stretch of coastline when we lived up there so it is truly tempting. I really hope the charity places for Great Swim open up at the same time as the ordinary places. I'm dithering about Great Manchester Run, too...I might leave that til I've been able to get back and do a few solid 5kms; if it's meant to be I'll get it together in time; if not there's always Salford at the end of the season. I have a duel going on Fitocracy with the lovely runforthequiet over the next month, which will hopefully motivate me to get back out on the road again. Damn nippy out there, mind.

Oh, the video above? It's been stuck in my head all week since I woke up from a dream with it. It struck me on the way out of the pool tonight that it's fitting I should be learning all about the physical side of me at the Aquatics Centre. After all, I lived right there for a number of years...I've learnt so much about love and life and my mind in that square mile of Manchester. It makes sense to be back there again, and Scattered Black And Whites is all about that feeling of returning.

You Can't Take The Sky From Me...

As long as I can stop off for coffee and cake every once in a while, I'm there.

 I can't actually imagine missing my Tuesday swim now, it must be nearly a year since I started and I'm starting to recognise the same people each week. There's a chap I share a lane with after 9pm - by common consent we split it lengthwise and don't get in each other's way; he's usually doing a couple of km so it's a pleasant way to get the space we both need. A member of staff has started to ask my distance when I get out and pulls "impressed face" which makes me laugh - I can't be the only one to do a reasonable distance, surely?

The first mile was the hardest tonight, not because of anything to do with my body but because firstly everyone seemed to be on go-slow - people poddling up and down trying not to get their hair wet. I don't care if you want to do that but in the lap lanes it's most frustrating to give someone a whole length's head start and still be catching them up. And secondly my brain was SO annoying: "This is crap, it's too hot, it's so boring, I hate that black line, it's so noisy, all these bloody people, I'm fed up of turning at the ends, I can't get a rhythm, I miss the sky, it feels horrible, blahblahblahblah". On and on and on. I felt like I was wrestling a monkey. Eventually a stern self-lecture on how lucky I am to a) have experienced open water and be able to go back next year and b) have this excellent new pool open when it's convenient for me FOR FREE got it to pipe down. 

But oh, god, I miss the cold and the air and the sun and the smiles and the lousy hot chocolate....sigh. It's not even been a week and I'm pining.

Anyway. Misery aside, I pulled off two miles in 1hr 30, which is ok. Not great, but probably delayed by 5mins or so by the aforementioned numpties and fiddling with my cap and headphones. It felt a lot faster than Saturday, like I was working so much harder - but it was a slower speed. I guess you can't really compare pool with open water times; all that stopping and turning. I can work on getting my pool time down, if nothing else. Right now I'm waiting anxiously for an email about Great North Swim next year - assuming the stars align, I'd like to do the two-mile wave at Windermere in 2013 for the challenge, as well as Great Manchester just because that's effectively my "home ground", I know the course and it was a ton of fun this year. The recommended two-mile cut-off at Windermere is 1hr 45 - that is, you should be confident of doing two miles in less than that time. So I'm already under it by a nice amount; I'd like to take another 15mins off over Winter. Lots of work to do and I have no idea if it's achievable, but as I've said a few times lately: I'm nothing if not overambitious.

Do You Even Lift?

Why yes, yes I do, apparently.

I have no idea where that shirt comes from - I love the composition of the picture and the set of his shoulders. He just seems so competant.

So yes, no run tonight as it's cold and drizzly and I don't have anything beyond a t-shirt to go out in right now - having got soaked on the school run multiple times this week we're all off for new wet weather gear at the weekend. It really is time to pick up the weights again since my shoulder seems mostly better, so it was back to basics with dumbbell bench press, deadlift, pullover (I just really like that one), planks and static wall sits (I happen to be fairly good at those). Pleased to see things haven't degenerated too much since mid-June - I just started out at 10kg in each hand and went up to 12.5kg for the bench press, always my most comfortable lift, and my PR at 15kg is not all that far off. A way to go to get back to deadlift and pullover form, though, PRs for those are both 20kg.

Best plank clocked in at about 90s, halfway to PR - I'd really like to get to five minutes on that; just went for a couple of 60s wall sits (PR 240s) so as not to stress that clicky knee out too much (it's still going on after ten days, no idea what's happened). Total fail on push-ups again...annoying because I feel strong enough to do it now but my back keeps collapsing and I'm not sure how to fix it.

It'll do, happy enough with that - I need to do some research over the next week to try and work out the best programme to support endurance sports. Getting stronger made such a difference to my swimming very quickly earlier this year and it's really important to me to do everything I can to support that development. Also I seem to be losing weight slowly but steadily; it makes sense to help that along.


Besides, lifting gets you loads of Fitocracy points and one of the first things I did with my new Hero status was to challenge my OH and a good friend to free-for-all duels. :D