Duathlon

On my road to Kitzbuhel I have encountered my first Duathlon. Still being quite new to all this, until recently I thought that duathlon was a bike ride, then a run. Infact it is a run, then bike, then another run! 

The Clumber park duathlon is a World and EU Qualification event as well as being the RAF Championships (Sprint distance) - no pressure then.

Prior to the event I am thinking I might be a little more at home with duathlon, as my feelings towards the swim element of triathlon are that it is a wet warm up before the 'proper bits', but I always felt like a bit of a cheat not doing the swim part.

The night before I had a terrible sleep, but was perked up by the prospect of race day breakfast :) My biggest problem then became one all ladies are familiar with...what do I wear?!

Taking my bike for a run, out of T1 - getting warmer

I had done a little research looking at last years photos, there seemed to be a lot of long sleeves under tri suits, and a good mix of long socks, short longs, and long longs on the bottom half! There was frost on the ground when I went to set my bike up in transition so I was even wondering about over shoes. However it warmed up a little, and I decided on tri suit, thermal and gloves. Very glad of the gloves on the bike as it was pretty windy, coupled with the forward bike speed made it cold!

The bike ride was actually quite enjoyable, back into transition and then out on run number 2. Normal jelly legs followed, and by the 2.5km turn around point I had just about got normal feeling back into my pins. Then before I knew it, it was all over and I was at the finish! 2nd Lady, 1st in AG, and RAF Duathlon Champ :) not a bad day if I say so myself.

After finishing I was then greeted with a pint of Erdinger non alcoholic beer and a technical T-Shirt. I should also add that among the freebies was also some High 5 nutritional goodies, which we collected at registration.

The RAF team did AMAZINGLY well, picking up 6 age group wins, and 1st overall male.

Well Done!

I think we might be back next year...

Full results can be found by clicking the link

British triathlon report here

Fleet Half Marathon

As well as being touted as the ‘pre London half marathon’ the Fleet half is also the inter-services half marathon championships. It is one of the longest-running half marathons in the UK, now in its 33rd year. A great course for runners, gently undulating course with good chance to achieve your personal best time, traffic-free so no dodging traffic or waiting at junctions. There is also LOADS of supporters en route, and the race is really well supported by the local people which is really nice to see.

A founder member of the British Association of Road Races. The host club, Fleet & Crookham AC, can help you train for the event  if you are local to the area and this year the race is supporting Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research. Supporter of The Matthew Elvidge Trust.

My day started pretty early with a coffee and my standard race day breakfast of oats and peanut butter. We arrived in Fleet in good time, and scurried off to find the port-a-loos. And - HURRAY there were loads of them for once. Still some pretty big queues though. 

The race got under way at 1030, and it was already beginning to hot up. I had forgotten how amazing the crowd are through the centre of town, and I was quite looking forward to the second lap (maybe a little sadistic). The route wound its way through the Hampshire countryside (all staying on road), with a VERY welcome crowd at around 10 miles.

I personally had a brilliant race, finishing in 1:21:10, and the RAF and Inter-Service Champion. Never have I been happier to see the finish line! The RAF Ladies all had fantastic races and we took away overall team gold, and Inter-Service team gold too. 

After the race there was a lot of stalls and tents offering things to whet your appetite. Being such a glorious day the ice cream van was getting a lot of attention.

I could not say thank you enough to all the wonderful supporters, and the fantastic organisation of the race.

Here is the RAF report on the race so far. 

       

                    

Race Report - Fradley 10k

Wakey Wakey legs...its road race time! 

Fradley is not really a very well known 10km, however it should be as it is a pretty quick, slightly undulating course. This year saw it being started by two ambassadors of the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust,  twins Helen and Carol Galashan did the honors, professionals in Diving and Gymnastics. For information on what the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust Fund does and what it supports and funds go to www.dkhlegacytrust.org

Organised by KP events, and apart from the eternal problem of not enough port-a-loos at running races (im sure this is something which subscribes to the n+1=perfect amount of loos equation) it was fairly snag free. Car parking could have been managed a bit better, but the marshaling and support was great. There were LOADS of spectators in the village which was really nice to see.

Sponsored by Florette (not really sure why?) I was a little disappointed there were not free lettuces' post race, however it is probably for the best as it was a pretty hot day. Amazing for March in fact, and a scorching 14 degrees! It makes it hard to dislike anything about it! 

Post race I had some much needed love applied to my calfs' by Lichfields sports medicine partners, and extremely reasonable £5.00 and lots of good information available, including a leaflet to take away with good stretching techniques. 

Goody Bag (the important bit!)
Bottle of water
post race bananas
A Florette patterned head-over
Kellogs cereal bar
Money off Florette coupon
Medal
High5 gel (personal fave) 

2014 Results can be found here;

Park life

Last weekend I went to my second ever parkrun at Wycombe Rye. 

For those of you who have no idea what it is, it is a 5km run held every Saturday starting at 0900. Not just at Wycombe Rye, but all over the UK. These races are free to enter, all you need to do is register and print off a barcode which is unique to you. 

All that is asked in return is that if you have run a number of times, maybe give up some of your time and help out one weekend. The race is run my volunteers and 

All sorts of people attend these runs, from super-duper athletes to beginners. 

What I like most about parkrun is that you get to meet some like minded people in your local area. Admittedly i have only been twice, but both times I have struck up conversations with local people about all things from running, to global warming. 

If you are hesitant about attending for whatever reason I would strongly encourage you to put you inhibitions behind you and go and give it a go. I can assure you, you will not be judged or ridiculed for giving it a go. 

For more information visit  parkrun.org.uk

Happy Running

Pancake Day...the athletes way

To celebrate Shrove Tuesday I have made my own recipe for protein packed blueberry pancakes.

Super simple;


Mix the following ingredients in a blender;

• 100ml almond milk
• 50g buckwheat flour
• 1 scoop neutral flavored protein powder (vanilla or plain or blueberry if you have it)
• A handful blueberries
• The seeds of a vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla essence.

Melt some coconut butter in a frying pan

Pour out the mixture into the hot pan, before the mixture sets, drop some more blueberries on the top of the pancakes. FLIP and cook evenly on both sides. 

And you are done!

Serve with yoghurt, peanut butter, fresh blueberries or whatever you like. 

Enjoy

Wheres my MOJO

It happens to all of us, we feel amazing, training is going really well, and then, it strikes in the night…The MOJO thief.

This is a great YouTube video for some motivation...

I have learned that 'lack of MOJO' is basically - I cant be arsed. 

OR

you have been over-training, partying too hard - too many late nights and you are knackered. 

I have found it difficult to differentiate between tiredness because of training, and tiredness because of over training, and being on the brink of illness.

I have started using a few methods to check how my body is coping. What makes this more difficult is being a shift worker, so basically i am knackered all the time.

RHR

Resting heart rate

Know you resting heart rate, check your HR every morning. if it is higher than normal, this can indicate the onset of illness or fatigue. it may be best to have a rest on this day or have an easy training session. I have learnt you cant train out a cold, and you will only drive yourself into the ground. REST is often BEST.

APPS

RPE

Rate of perceived effort

If last week you were hitting 1:30's per 100m in the pool, and today you are struggling to make 2:00 mins, you have not lost that fitness in a few days. You are probably fatigued. sometime stopping and writing of a session for recovery can be better than grinding out a mediocre session, annoying you mentally and tiring your body out. 

All that said, training hurts, you will be tired. I have learnt to be a bit smarter where recognizing the signs of overdoing it is concerned. 

The Grind - quoted from thesportinmind.com 

In training and competitions, you arrive at a point at which it is no longer fun. I call this the Grind, which starts when it gets tiring, painful, and tedious. the Grind is also the point at which it really counts. The Grind is what separates successful athletes from those who don't achieve their goals. Many athletes when they reach this point either ease up or give up because it's just too darned hard. But truly motivated athletes reach the Grind and keep on going.

Many sport psychologists will say that you have to love the Grind. I say that, except for a very few hyper-motivated athletes, love isn't in the cards because there's not much to love. But how you respond to the Grind lies along a continuum. As I just mentioned, loving the Grind is rare. At the other end of the continuum is "I hate the Grind." If you feel this way, you are not likely to stay motivated. I suggest that you neither love nor hate the Grind; you just accept it as part of the deal in striving toward your goals. The Grind may not be very enjoyable, but what does feel good is seeing your hard work pay off with success.