Rest day or laziness?

.After two late nights in a row, I really didn’t want to get out of bed on Wednesday morning. My legs were feeling really tired. I was concerned by the size of our laundry pile and the general untidiness of the house. Another issue was the fact that I hadn’t got all of my stuff (lunch, clothes etc.) ready on Tuesday night. This left me facing a dilemma: should I swim or not?

I had been looking forward to swimming since I had my assessment, but I also realised that I had been neglecting other areas of my life. To be an Ironman takes single-minded determination. I just don’t think I’m there yet, so I didn’t swim. A lot of my friends would tell me that it’s good to have a rest day every week, but it felt like laziness to me. On the positive side, I caught up with laundry. I did some healthy-ish cooking in the evening followed by food shopping. This meant that I also didn’t do my scheduled track session. Sandwiched between a 20 mile race and a 14 miler, that seemed like a sensible decision. What do you think? What would you have done in my position?

Another positive on Wednesday, was my visit to Weight Watchers. I have been dithering about whether or not to quit (mainly because I’d like to achieve a happy weight without obsessing about what I eat, although I suspect that’s not possible). Despite being lax about my diet, I lost 2.5lbs. 🙂

Run Camp Time Trial

On Thursday morning, I managed to peel myself out of bed in time for Run Camp. It was a quiet session, with just Stuart, an older female triathlete and I… But it was also another 2k time trial. My heart sank, but I hoped I would be able to do better than on Tuesday as my legs were feeling less tired. I set off at a fast pace (as usual), but by the time I was 1k in, I realised that the older lady was hot on my heels, which made me want to push on… I hate being last. Towards the end, she picked up her pace, so I gave it my all for the last 100m. Fortunately, I beat my competitor and finished in a time that was 25-30 seconds faster than on Monday, although it still wasn’t the sort of time I should be running.

I chose not to train again on Thursday evening, partly because of the race on Sunday, and also because I was offered a heavily discounted deep tissue massage at You Massage Therapy. It really helped to relax my neck and I hadn’t realised how tight my legs were – I really must stretch more after exercise and also use the foam roller more often. The massage felt great and my shoulders instantly felt more relaxed. Unfortunately, I ate two Danish pastries after leaving You Massage Therapy. Why do I do this to myself?

When I got home from my massage, Stu was able to give me some new running shoes. 😀 Brooks have on a special trial offer. I can try a pair of Brooks Cadence for free for one week. At the end of the week, I need to fill in a feedback form, before I’m entitled to £25 off a pair of Brooks shoes. I’m excited about trying them out! They’re lightweight shoes and they look quite cool. It was disappointing to receive the most dull colour scheme of all of the pairs available: black and white. 🙁

I also finished off an article aimed at getting runners at my club to run in the most appropriate group: Are you running in the right group? I was a bit nervous that the article would not go down well, but it seems to have received a positive reception.After jazzing it up a bit in In-Design, it will be included in my running club’s newsletter.

Swimming progress

On Friday morning, I got myself back on track by going swimming before work. It was another day when I didn’t count my lengths as I was trying to do drills. I managed to do an entire length of the pool breathing properly whilst swimming breast stroke. It took 41s which matches my PB, so that felt like a huge win. I am still really struggling to get my front crawl arms going with the breathing. After half a length I got paranoid that people were looking at me. Did they think I was drowning? I resumed breast stroke. I am going to have to get over my fear of being watched.

In the afternoon, I was able to pop into the University library to collect a book that I reserved: Swim, Bike, Run It’s a bit dated now, but there seems to be sensible advice in it. If anyone else can recommend a really good book for a complete newbie, I’d like to hear about it.

Finally, I have to make a decision about parkrun. I had planned to run with Kirsty. Tony has offered to pace us to a Southampton parkrun PB by Tony. That was before I got a place in the Heartbreak Half.

Do I race it bearing in mind that I have to run 14 miles the next day? Do I try out the new shoes? What would you do?