Planning for 2016 and some new kit

There are so many exciting things happening in the next two weeks that I’m going to have to work hard to find enough time for blogging.

Forthcoming excitement

Exciting thing number one is a new training location taking shape. There will be a sneaky glimpse next week, but you’ll have to keep following if you want more than a peek! The other excitement is a week dedicated to warm weather training 😀

There are also just eight days left until the end of the Tri Club Merit table. I’ve given it my best shot, but I think it’s too late for me to do much more. Fingers crossed that I manage to cling on in the top three as Ian’s not going down without a fight and probably has a few things up his sleeve!

Also, there are only six days left until voting closes in the Blogging Edge 2015 Awards… and they’ve given me a lovely icon to display on my blog.

Monday night swimming

My training has been a bit mixed up this week, but I’ve been busy planning, so it should all fall into place soon.

On Monday evening, I went to STC’s swimming session. We did a lot of technique work with fins and then we had to work on our swolf scores (stroke count and time for 50m). I’ve been working really hard on my stroke count and was pleased to be able to consistently swim under 20 strokes per length, with many lengths at 16 strokes! We had to count our swolf three times. I managed 85, 87 and 86. We were told that we should improve each time, but I think I was reasonably consistent 🙂

SUTRI strength and conditioning

On Tuesday morning I went to the SUTRI strength and conditioning session with Coach Olly from Solent Athlete.  We did loads of lunges.

We also worked on what I would call ‘dishes’, but Olly calls ‘hollow holds’. Fortunately, we’re not made to do dish/arch rolls, which I used to find tough at gymnastics. The last part of the session was 6x 2 lengths of walking lunges. It sounds easy, but by Wednesday afternoon my legs were in agony!

Thursday morning’s session was based around deadlifts, which gave my achy legs a rest. I really wanted to do well, but (like on Tuesday) I felt really light-headed and faint, which isn’t great when you’re trying to pick up heavy things. After the session, I didn’t feel too bad, but my arms and shoulders have been a bit tired today.

I really love doing the SUTRI training sessions, even though all of the others are so much younger and slimmer than me. It’s definitely a motivation for me to train harder. I’ve put in an order for some kit so that I can represent the team at parkrun and other events. I wish that I’d had more opportunities to join sports clubs at uni as I might be so much healthier now if I’d been sportier 15 years ago.

New tri kit

On Thursday evening, Liz ‘parcels from America’ Carter came around with my new SOAS kit. It felt like Christmas. I ripped open the parcels and admired my goodies.

I still want to get the run tights in Sunset Cliffs and Barcelona Nights and would love to have the Sunset Cliffs cycling jersey. I’m wondering whether more items will be released in the Aquarius collection soon. I’m sure I saw some tights on Instagram… and a crop top… and a totally awesome bikini. That’s all the incentive I need to get my nutrition plans back on track.

Planning for next year

This evening, Olly and Sam came around to help me plan my races for next year and also do some general training planning. I’m still waiting to find out whether I have got a place in some popular races, but I know what my main events are. Probably the most important weekend for me will be when I tackle the Long Course Weekend in Wales.

I agreed with Olly and Sam that I’d post my general weekly schedule as it helps to keep me accountable:

I’ve also been talking to LRR about a possible return to coaching, but it’s all going to depend on whether I can complete an assessment day. Unfortunately, there aren’t many and most of them are a long way from Southampton 🙁

I’m also excited that I’m going to be trying out some indoor cycling with Brightside next week. I don’t really know what to expect, so watch this space!

Finally, I’ve managed to find a few minutes to watch things online:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-9dP6ViNNY?rel=0

Save