Text Book Turbo

So far the mantra has been "follow the book". If I follow the book closely enough all will be well. Paula may have told me off once or twice for doing more than is prescribed in the book, but on the whole I've been following text book.

As you know we started last week white over, and on Tuesday Paddock Wood was still 2 inches thick in ice, so I decided for once, to be sensible and not attempt to run. Yak Trax wouldn't have helped in this case as some pavements were clear, others were a nightmare so I substituted my hours run for an hour and five on the turbo trainer. Turbo training at home on my own equates to watching paint dry. My glasses slide off my face, which means I can't see the TV, and besides which I can't hear it over the roar of the turbo which sounds like a small jet engine taxiing down a runway.

Wednesday night is my KVG coached turbo training session. It's an hour of hard slog and pain. I can't say I enjoy it, but I endure it and go back for more because I know it's good for me. Unfortunately I've been finding that the harder I work, the more I cough. Every time I raise my heart rate, I have a coughing fit.  Before Christmas I scared our coach by turning blue during a particularly tough session (at this point my mother is probably about to have a coronary as I've neglected to share that nugget of information).

In early January my GP raised my steroid dosage to a level that gives me the shakes, and the only way I can get through a tough session is to take multiple puffs of my blue reliever. This isn't right and it's not going to make me an ironman. So on Thursday I had a good talk with myself.  Something has to change if I am to get to the start line and survive the race (OK, so perhaps relaying the "Death before DNF" mantra to my mother was a bad idea). Therefore I have decided to sign up for some proper coaching. I have also decided to try and get a referral to a respiratory specialist.

Don't think that means that I haven't trained, after a night off on Thursday I was in the pool by 7:20am on Friday morning, back on the turbo for an hour after work, out with the girls on Saturday morning and I even managed a 5 mile run on Sunday between coats of paint but there is still a long way to go..... 140.6m to be precise!

Running in a Raymond Briggs Cartoon

For those of you who don't know, my friend PVS and I have signed up for the Outlaw, Iron distance triathlon on July 7th 2013. That is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile cycle and then a full 26.4 mile marathon. Yes, all in one day. In under 17 hours in fact and yes, I wonder where our sanity was when we signed up for it, but here we are. We have spent the money, our names are on the list, we just need to train now.

So this is the end of week 3 of Ironman Training... I could fool myself and claim it's week 4, but honestly, I don't think Christmas week counts.

This is the Base Phase of training. We are training 6 days a week (twice 2 days a week), and we are tired, and I can't speak for PVS but I am constantly hungry! We were not unfit to start with, having reduced our training levels a little since we completed our first Olympic distance in October 2012, but this is a whole new ball game.

We have our training bible, Don Fink's "Be Iron Fit" (thanks to Melanie for the tip off) and so far things are mostly going well. I pulled a muscle in my leg on last Sunday's run but that seems to have recovered nicely with some ice and avoiding running for a few days.

However this weekend winter hit Kent and we got a wee sprinkling of the white stuff which meant that the usual Saturday ride was cancelled and I had to do my Sunday run without T2 cycling with me. Great run though, it might have been slow plodding but the views were stunning and I felt like I was running in a Raymond Briggs cartoon. Now for a nice hot bath :-)