Sad day

Last night we lost a good friend Neil Sutherland, AKA Mr Baldy for those of you who have followed the blog.  This was his third battle with cancer and unfortunately the odds were stacked against him.  He was a fighter and when he was in round 2 of the cancer I suggested he prepare for a triathlon when he came out - it's fair to say Neil wasn't an athlete.  Little did we know that while he was training for the event and competing in the event, his cancer had returned.  As he crossed the finishing line into his wife's arms he was completely exhaused - what an achievement.
We'll all be there to support Maz and we will always remember Neil and how he touched all of our lives.  Out of respect I'll be taking a break from the blog for a few days.

Hurricane bawbag

The Scots have a great sense of humour. As a hurricane rips across Scotland at 160 mph we don't wait for the met office to name it, we call it hurricane bawbag and have teeshirts and other merchandise for sale by lunchtime. You've got to admire the cheek of it!
As for me the morning started with taking my resting heart rate - 52 as normal. However with the hurricane and closing the office it was decided I've have a rest day. It wasn't helped by loosing all power in the house for over 4 hours. Perhaps "bawbag" was a message for me to take a rest. Can't wait to see if the BBC use the name that is going worldwide in tweets!
Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.

Taking stock

It's been a busy week since Sunday on the training front and my coach and I are studying the data on my heart rate as I may be tired and need an extra days rest.  The benefit of monitoring the Key Performance Indicators, to use business jargon, is that if anything isn't performing at the optimal level then it shows up and action needs to be taken.
So tonight I came back from a group turbo session having worked very hard, I couldn't get my heart rate high enough.  Tomorrow is meant to be an easy day with only a weights session and a core session but it may be skipped if my coach instructs me to rest.  One of the problems triathletes suffer from is being forced to rest when you're not injured but you always have to consider the goal and take the right action so that it isn't endangered.  I'll let you know what is decided.

Stretching the limits

I learned a very valuable lesson today in the pool, but that was after a run in the snow and ice.  The pool session was based on breathing.  We started by swimming 200m but every 25m we changed the frequency of breathing from 3/5/7/5 strokes which took up 100m and then repeated - then you had a 15 sec break before repeating the set twice.  Normally I'd breath every 3 strokes but when I get tired it drops to every 2.  5 was a push and 7 almost impossible.
We repeated the exercise on 6 x 100m and again I struggled with 7 and sometimes with 5.  And again on 8 x 50m and except this time it was breathing only every 5 or 7 strokes - I managed it.  The final set was 6 x 25 but the breathing changed to every 7 & 9 - yes 9 strokes.  Guess what?  I managed it.  To top things off I then swan 25 m without taking a breath which for me was incredible, especially when I repeated it.  In total I swam 3,000m which isn't bad considering I had run before it.
So the moral of the story is with an incremental plan you can achieve greater results.

Technology & me

I like technology but sometime it doesn't like me.  You need a PhD to programme the Garmin watch / computer I wear for triathlon but if you get it right it's excellent for the bike and running.  However it's bulky for the swim and doesn't have the best functionality.
So today I tried out a "pool mate" which is a watch specifically designed for pool swimming.  One of the best features is that is counts your lengths which is really handy, especially if doing a long continuous swim.  This mornings session was 1,500m continuous swim in a 50 m pool.  I decided to try and keep count as I found it difficult to see the lap counter on the screen while moving.  I got to the end and the watch said I had swam 4 more lengths than I thought! Having pressed the reset button I didn't see the time so I'll have to wait till I download the data tonight (assuming I can do that!) to see what the score is.
I'll be gutted if it didn't store the data as it was an important session to time as my coach is looking for these results to see how I am progressing. B****y technology!

White out

Last night a collection of finely tuned athlete's met to compare notes, eat fine food and overload in carbs - the alcoholic type!  This was my last night out, until the next one in a couple of weeks, but I took it easy as I had a one hour run planned for this morning.  The run started out ok but I had to be careful on the icy pavements and roads.  Then the snow started and the wind whipped up - it was like getting a face lift!  I looked like Frosty the Snowman when I got back home.  But a new week of training awaits and it's important to keep the momentum going in the run up to the festive period.

Friends

Last night I celebrated my 50th birthday with a bunch of "old" friends.  It was great to catch up and reminded me that I have a wonderful group of friends and that I need to work harder at keeping in touch with them.
Someone made up a dvd of old photo's of me and it was so nice to take that trip down memory lane.  My kids found the young pictures of me amusing whereas others saw how alike we looked.  What a fun night and I have to do it all over again tonight.  Then I'll be on the "wagon" for 12 days before the staff night out - difficult time of year mixing training with ultra-socialising!