Love food, hate diets

It's that time of year again. The gyms are full. People are going on (crazy) diets. I don't believe in diets, I believe in eating healty all year round, but a lot of the time you'll get questioned when bringing a healthy lunchbox to work or when you decline a slice of cake. Now, I love cake, I love chocolate, I love ice cream and so on but I don't think you need to eat it all the time....everything in moderation is my motto. That said, I don't believe in 'treating' yourself either. If I want to eat something I will eat it without having to bargain with myself, but I wont eat in excess 'just because'. What I do believe in though is that you should eat food that you love, prioritise homecooked/baked meals, enjoy your food, eat varied and that when you exercise regularly your body will start craving better food. Treat your body well, and give it fuel that makes it thrive - but also indulge sometimes, it's good for the soul!

Three times as good??!

I am on a mission. The mission is to complete a triathlon this year....I took up front crawling last autumn when I signed up for a swim course (although I'm still a very poor front crawler and I have not been practising as I should lately), I bought a road bike and the running is always present. Yesterday I did my first brick training session of the year, in an effort to spice up my triahtlon training and give myself an incentive to properly start swim training again. Brick training is simply two sessions put together, in this case cycling followed by running, to make your legs used to the transition. Yesterday's cycling session was a leg killer with a girl called Debbie chez BOOM! Cycle, and the running part was carried out on stiff legs. But the swimming part just depresses me. I get really stressed when I go to the pool and see these amazing front crawlers and I end up not going at all as I feel way to inadequate what with only being able to do a few laps before my breahing gets all out of sunc. Hopefully I can get my swimming mojo back next week, when my swimming course starts up again.

Tracks of the Treadmill

If there's one thing I love besides running it's music, so combining the two is for me perfect. Sometime when I've acquired a new album I put it on my iPhone and go on a long run so that there's nothing to distract me from the music and sometimes when I'm feeling really tired it's the music that carries me through my run. Yesterday I was running home from work, and I felt awesome...so I listened to songs that 'accentuated' that and the whole 11k's were like a celebration. This morning, not so much....I was stuck on the treadmill today, having to squeeze in my running before my 11h shift. I'd decided to spice up my run with a hill interval program, as I find it extremely boring to just run and run on the treadmill (and not get anywhere!), but my legs felt heavy. I was hungry (this was before breakfast) and a tad uninspired, wishing I was back in bed. It was time to crack out the best tracks of the treadmill, those kind of songs that almost do the running for you. I blasted some Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club etc and boom! the 45 minutes were up and I could stagger to the showers for a well deserved wash. This song came on as I was starting the think I might skip the last interval but when I heard what song it was there was no such option - the only option was to keep on running!

No One Has Ever Drowned in Sweat

Today was a close call though, when I hit BOOM! Cycle for a neat double whammy - 75mins + 45 mins with pro triathlete Daz. I sweat a lot whenever I exercise and especially when spinning. Today put us through 2 hours of endurance intervals, working alternately at a percieved exertion rate of 8 and 8.5 out of 10, with a few recovery sessions of 7.5 out of 10. It sounds pretty neat, long aerobic intervals and not flat out vo2 max intervals, but when applied you suffer. It requires discipline and that you're honest with yourself (you've got to keep up the exertion rate for a long time and not slack off!). For me who's running a marathon in April this is perfect, as I will be running for roughly 4 hours at a higher exertion rate. When the two sessions/hours were up I was, to say the least, drenched in sweat but I also knew that I walked away from the spin studio a little bit stronger than before!

You'll love it at some point!

This is how I felt both yesterday and on Thursday. On Thursday I was running intervals, and not any kind of intervals but the worst kind (for a Captain Slow like me) - 2 min intervals at 'high' speed. It was 10am, I hadn't had breakfast and just done an hours BodyPump. I struggled (and swore) a bit, and my leg didn't really feel all that good, my breahting was all over the place.... but I did all the six intervals I set out to do! I stepped of the treadmill feeling very tired and very happy. Yesterday I did 5k's at threshold pace, also after a 60 minute Body Pump session, and even if I wasn't as tired as the day before it is quite mentally tiring running at a constant pace which is higher that your comfort pace. I plugged in my iPod (well, iPhone), cranked up the volume and tried to diverse myself with music. It worked and I finished the 5k without any major problems. So, what's the morale of this story? You might not like running while you're at it, but you'll love it when you're done!

Keep calm and go running!

'One day back at work and I have already agreed to work overtime next Saturday although I don't really want to. My rota next week is a bit sh*t, and it's raining outside. Plus it's ages before we get paid!' That's what went through my head when I was getting changed at work this afternoon. But, as I was was pulling on my running tights and lacing up my shoes, all the irritation slowly left me so when I turned into Euston road and my legs felt ever so good I had the biggest grin plastered on my face. By the time I was home I felt great, slightly invincible and proper pumped for my upcoming marathon - and that's part of the reason I love running! I'm a natural born worrier (I worry about most things) but running makes me calm, like a natural and legal Valium.

Kicking off 2013 with...a rest day.I

I don't like to rest...there's so much fun training to be done, and so little time, so why waste that time on resting?! Except...that it isn't a waste of time, but something essential. As much as it annoy me to see the blue sky outside and imagining how delightful it would be to go for a run I know that I need to rest. It is over ten days since I last had a rest day and my legs will thank me - and tomorrow I will be back in lycra, with legs a little bit more bouncy and happy.