While I wait until my weight is down to an acceptable number to start running again, I’m doing as much cycling as I can. I’m still far, far, far away from a decent speed, but I think I’m getting there. And I know that with regular training, I’ll have more endurance and get faster.

I totally PR’ed yesterday when I cycled to work, I was flying! 25.21 km in 1:12:45, with an average pace of 2:53/km. I know, it’s still slow. I certainly ain’t going to win any time trial events with such a speed And I keep on seeing super-cyclists just whiz passed me… *sigh* But it’s still an improvement on my previous times!

I think I (sort of) figured why I always felt like I worked much harder on the way back: besides the wind, which is harder at the end of the afternoon than early in the morning, I’m actually going up on the way back. There isn’t a huge difference, but I can see the line clearly going up in the Garmin Training Center. It makes sense. The airport nearby where I work is located below see level…

I hope the weather will be nice weekend, I really want to go in-line skating on Sunday! That should be a good workout for my thighs

Oh and I signed up for the Ladies Ride in Den Bosch in September. For the first time I ticked the ‘racing bike’ box… it feels special

I cycled to and from work on Wednesday, as planned. The morning ride went fine, even though I could feel my body still having issues with the training I did at the gym on Monday. My legs were a bit stiff and I had an overall feeling of tiredness.  Nevertheless, I did 25.21 km in 1:16:44 according to my Garmin, with an average 3:03/km. Not bad. Incredibly slow for the Tour de France, but decent speed for little me. (Note: the time given is the cycling time only. My Garmin stops whenever I stop for a break and resumes when I start moving again.)

The way back was even more painful: I was just. dead. tired. After just 5 km I was ready to call it quits and call my husband so he comes pick me up. But I convinced myself to just cycle to that bridge 3 km further, take a break there and then decide if I should call the hubby. I made it to the bridge, drank some water, stretched my back a bit and just carried on cycling. I then challenged myself to make it to the next bridge, about 5 km further, take a break, and then see what I wanted to do.  I made it to the bridge and was forced to take a longer break than planned because the bridge went up to let a couple of tall boats pass. This longer break helped me recover better and seeing that I was about half-way, I just kept on cycling and challenged myself to reach one landmark after the other (‘just reach the village’, ‘make it to the end of this stretch’, etc.)… and I made it home eventually. It’s no surprise that I was a little slower on the way back, with 25.2 km in 1:21:29, with an average of 3:14/km. Still, I actually expected my time to be much slower than that!

All in all, I was glad I made it home and proud of myself for not giving up.

The only thing I gave up was going to the gym afterwards. Sorry coach, but there was just NO WAY I could lift even my little finger on Wednesday evening. I’m going Saturday morning instead. They have a spinning lesson around 10:15, which is perfect.

The weather next week seems to be warm, sunny and with not too much wind, so I’ll give cycling to work a try once or twice. I need to get it shape…

Oh my, oh my, oh my. It’s been soooooooooo long since my last post, which makes me realise how long it was since the last time I did any sport-related activities.

But I am back. With new motivation and a new plan.

I know I’m incredibly late with this but THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH to all of you who voted for me last winter. I’m glad I could share this tale of a virgin athlete with you and that you found it interesting/inspirational/good enough to vote for me. So THANK YOU again!!

As I said, I’m back. Because I need to shed some pounds and because I don’t like the lumpy, lazy person I’ve become (again) over the past year. My fault, I’m the only one to blame. Yes, I was supposed to do all these races and even my first triathlon in July. But that didn’t happen. Lumpy lazy me decided not to go because lumpy lazy me didn’t train whatsoever since the middle of the winter.

To help with my fresh start, I signed up with a new gym. It’s actually brand new and it fits my needs much better than the old one in so many ways: more machines (no more waiting), more spinning classes (at times when I can actually go, too!), closer to my house (no more excuse that it’s far from home), much cheaper (€15 euros per month in my pockets) and the people working there are great. I don’t feel like a number when I go there, I actually feel like I’m part of a big family. I’ve opted for the extra coaching service and so far I’m not regretting it.

I told my coach that I want to do a sprint triathlon next summer. He didn’t laugh at me, to the contrary. I think he enjoyed the fact that I had a specific goal in mind, other than classics like ‘getting back in shape and lose some weight’ like everybody else. His eyes really lit up when I mentioned what I wanted to achieve! Finally, he could have some fun and create a real custom program! Of course I want to get back in shape and lose some weight. But my goal, what I want to train for the coming months, is to do a triathlon. My training program is specifically aimed at this. It’s my responsibility to make sure I get back to running,  start swimming (I’m thinking of taking a few lessons this fall/winter, just to get proper technique) and keep on cycling/spinning, but at least now I have some help from a cool guy who wants me to succeed. Yes, he’s being paid to encourage me. But there’s nothing like a ‘Good work today, MC!’ at the end of a training to keep you going…

And I’ve started a new diet, too. I love Wei.ght Watch.ers and it has always worked great for me, but I needed something new. I realised along the way that I need more guidance. I’ve found a great book/method and I’ve lost close to 4 kg in just 3 weeks by following their planned menus. More on this new diet here: http://sveltissime.blogspot.com/ (Yes, it’s in French. Sorry.)

Weather permitting, I will hop on my bike and cycle to work tomorrow. I’m not getting back to running just yet, I need to lose some weight first. But if things go the way they’ve been going the last weeks, I should be able to start running in October. Can’t wait! I promised a friend (you know who you are!) to run the 20 km of Brussels in 2010. There’s probably going to be a lot of walking, but it’s a fun challenge to aim at.

To be continued…

Steve in a Speedo is holding a voting contest for the best ‘Tale of a Virgin Athlete’. My entry made it through the first voting and is now in the Top 10! Vote for my story and who knows, maybe I’ll make it as one of the winners!

I haven’t abandoned running, I’m still regularly training at least once a week, with an average of twice a week. Things are going fine, it’s just that I’m so incredibly slow, that I wonder if should even dare show up on race day in a few weeks. At least last year I was faster, fitter, lighter and just better in general. I was comparing last spring’s stats with these week’s stats, for the same training and… wow… I was speechless. While I could hold on with an average speed of 7.5km/h (average made of my running AND walking speeds) in April and May of last year, I make it barely over 6km/h now. I feel so ashamed, unfit, untrained and well, fat.

I’m not giving up, because I want to get better, and I know that I will get better. Eventually. As much as I love races, I think I’m going to skip the one I have planned for next month. It’s just not worth it. I know it takes someone to finish last, but I’d prefer it not being me… At the pace I’m running I think everybody would have just gone home already by the time I cross the finish line. So I’m concentrating myself on the coming summer’s triathlon – for now I’m building up a bit of endurance with running, then I’ll work on speed work. By July I should have regained a decent pace. Maybe not as fast as last year’s, but still decent.

I’m still not into swim training though, even if I know I really should. I live a short walk away from a great pool complex, the only problem is that it’s barely never open for ‘lanes swimming’. I’ve been checking for another pool in my area, but not having a car AND having a super busy schedule really doesn’t make it any easier. I’m working on the car thing, I hope I can get my license before the summer  

So back to running only. Today’s training should contain bits of 7 minutes. I’m curious to see how I’ll do and if I can speed it up a bit!

After last week’s debacle, I am proud to say that I completed 3 running trainings! Well, all right, 3 jogging trainings, but who cares… I did it! And it makes me feel so much better, about myself and just in general. I had forgotten how running helped me keep my sanity in difficult times last year.

Here’s a recap of my trainings, lessons 11, 12 and 13 of the Start to Run program (the link opens an Excel file with the details of the program):

03-02-2009
Training: 8 x (2/1) (running/walking)
Time: 25:25.45
Total distance: 2.59 km
Avg. speed: 6.1 km/h
Max. speed: 9.0 km/h 
Avg. heart rate: 152 bpm 
Comments: Yeah, I went pretty slow on this one. I really didn’t want to get too tired too quickly and I wanted to feel good during the run, in order to be more enthusiastic about running again 2 days later  On top of that it was snowing at that time and the sidewalks were getting slippery. The last thing I needed was to slip and injure myself!

05-02-2009
Training: 1/1, 2/2, 4/3, 4/3, 5/1 (running/walking)
Time: 26:00.77
Total distance: 2.57 km
Avg. speed: 5.9 km/h
Max. speed: 8.8 km/h 
Avg. heart rate: 145 bpm  
Comments: Yep, I went really slow during that one. I got scared of the 4 and 5 minutes running bits and made sure I would hold on! 

08-02-2009
Training: 2/2, 3/2, 5/3, 5/3, 5/2 (running/walking)
Time: 31:39.94
Total distance: 3.36 km
Avg. speed: 6.4 km/h
Max. speed: 10.3 km/h 
Avg. heart rate: 151 bpm
Comments: Much better! Even though I was terrified of the 5 minutes bits, I managed to keep a comfortable (snail)pace. DH survived it too

I’m definitely looking forward to tomorrow for the next training. It won’t be easy, but I’ll get there. My race is in less than 5 weeks and if I keep it up, I should be pretty far in the training program when it’s time to race! 

Not much time to go for a swim this week, but it’s definitely in the planning for next Monday, whether I like it or not! As for cycling, that’s another story. Hopefully spring time will arrive soon and I’ll be able to commute to work by bike (that’s a total of 52km folks!) on a bright and sunny day.

Slow week, in all possible meanings of the word ’slow’. My attempt at jogging on Sunday resulted in me huffing and puffing like never before after barely 90 seconds. And I wasn’t even going at a faster pace than my normal pace (which is already snail-pace anyway)! The plan was to make 2 rounds around a small park, for a total of 3 km. No, I was not planning on running the 3 km without stopping, I just wanted to build up some endurance by jogging at a slow pace for as long as I could, then take a walk break, resume jogging until I needed a walk break again, etc. The ‘as long as I could’ ended up being 90 seconds. Needless to say, I was almost in tears of disappointment seeing how unfit I was. 

And instead of kicking myself in the butt and go for a jog on Tuesday and Thursday, as planned, I curled up in a ball and stayed comfortably warm inside. What a wuss. I complain that I am unfit and untrained, but instead of grabbing the bull by the horns and resume training, I just find excuse after excuse for not going.

I am hoping for better times this weekend.

I will get there.

I will train.

And I will get fit again.

… or “Where did my fitness go??”

Okaaaaay. The road to this first mini-sprint triathlon is trickier than I expected. Last year around the same period, when I was 10kg lighter and most of all much fitter than now, swimming 250m really wouldn’t have been too much of a problem. (I’m talking 250m breaststroke here, because front crawl is way, way out of my reach. I can hold it for one length, but for the rest… pffff!)

So today was a bit of a disappointment. I didn’t count how many lengths I did, but it probably was around 25. All breaststrokes. At a slowpoke tempo (approx. 50 sec/length). With 15 seconds breaks in-between. And I was dead tired after only doing 5 lengths or so. Ugh! Where did my fitness go??

Oh I know where it went. It melted away when I hit my personal wall and couldn’t run, swim, bike or do any kind of physical activity anymore last year. And then struggled to get back on track for months. And here I am, 10kg heavier (which just adds up to my current overweightness), totally unfit, wanting to pick up where I left when I was at my ‘best shape ever’. Of course I’m out for a disappointment…

So for now I’ll concentrate my efforts in getting back on track with the running, as some races are coming up and I really want to do well, i.e. not finish last! And I’ll add one easy swimming training per week, along with some core trainings and weight trainings whenever possible. In a couple of weeks I should be slowly getting back in shape. Then, I’ll look into swimming more seriously, along with some cycling. The weather should be better for that anyway.

I’m not aiming at finishing this triathlon at a specific ranking, I just want to finish it. Even if this means finishing last!

Yeah, I call it a jog. Because I’m nowhere near ‘running’ speed according to my Garmin…

I felt pretty good under the circumstances, it’s been almost 3 months since the last time I stepped outside for a run, erm, a jog. My right knee & ankle were a bit annoying mid-way but I’m blaming the 3 hours of shopping earlier today. The pain went quickly away, in any case.

Recap:

Training (run/walk): 1/1, 2/2, 4/3, 4/3, 5/2
Total distance: 2.75 km
Avg. speed: 6.3 km/h
Max. speed: 11.2 km/h 
Avg. heart rate: 155 bpm 

I hope I can go to the swimming pool tomorrow morning. I’m not planning any specific training, I just want to get acquainted with water again and get an idea of how quick I can swim 250 m at the moment, in order to build on that the coming months. If I’m not too dead after my swim, I might go to the gym in the afternoon, for some weight training. One of my resolutions is to introduce core training as often as possible, I desperately need it…

Next jog: Thursday evening!

So I didn’t go to the swimming pool yesterday. I’m a big wuss and I didn’t feel like going out in the rain and the wind.

But this evening, I will go running. And DH is tagging along. I have to make sure that the Forerunners and the iPods are fully charged and ready to use. I don’t want any excuses for not going out for a run! And I’ll prepare the clothes as well. 

So I signed up for another race yesterday, this time a ‘ladies only’ race. I’m curious to see how it will go. If I look at my calendar I’ve got almost a race per week in April and May… isn’t it too much? It’s only 5K’s, but still… And then there’s the big event in July… :-/

Oh and I broke the news to DH: I signed up for a triathlon. I’m quite pleased with his reaction; I expected to be made fun of, not in a mean way mind you, but instead he said that he’s going to go and cheer his little athlete The triathlon’s organisation is going to send a training program for beginners, I’m curious to see what it will made of. Surely some swimming, cycling and running I have a book called “Triathlon made easy“, with tons of tips and training plans for a super-sprint (which is pretty much what I’m going to do), a sprint and an olympic distance races. I’ll stick to the super-sprint for now. Looking at the training plan, I really wonder how I’m going to fit all these trainings in my already-way-too-busy schedule. I guess I’ll have to make sacrifices…

Food for thought for the coming days!