Getting in the mood

For a whole variety of reasons I haven’t done much training recently. You know: work, family stuff, the cold weather, just being a bit lazy. But today is the first time that I’ve really looked forward to getting back into the lake again.

It’s a beautiful day here, bright sunshine, cloudless skies and pretty warm with it too – the perfect day for a dip in the lake.

I’ve bit a bit down on myself recently because I’ve not done much training and because I’ve not done much I’ve lost motivation and so the vicious circle begins (this post by Julia Buckley summarises it well). I’ve worried that I won’t be able to do what I want to do this summer – to enter more events and hopefully beat some of last year’s swim times. And of course that worry hasn’t helped the motivation.

But then I’ve realised that I only decided to do any swimming this time last year (in fact this blog celebrates its first birthday about now) and I know I’m in better shape now than I was last year. So I’ll keep plugging away, get into the lake, hopefully rediscover my love it again and away we go.

Watch this space…

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First run in… Forever

I know the title makes me seem like a twelve year old girl, but it has been ages since I went out for a run… until today.

It certainly wasn’t far and it very certainly wasn’t fast, but it was!

I just did about 25 minutes, which included a walk and a stretch, but at the moment it’s all about re-teaching my body what it feels like to be running. And I was lucky enough to be running in a very beautiful area near my mother-in-law’s house in Germany. It’s a little loop that’s about a mile round and it an area of meadow, just near the river. But at this time of year the council flood it and when it freezes it is used to ice skate on. At the moment it’s been too warm, but it is probably about -2 today, so you can just see the water starting to freeze. Lovely.

As for the run, well it was more like a stroll or an amble, but I enjoyed it. One of my biggest problems is thinking that I can run, then setting of and doing a 10km run after months of nothing. I usually get to the furthest point of the run, pull a muscle and then have to hobble all the way home. And of course, give up running for just as long as it takes me to forget this mistake and therefore repeat it.

Well, it’s going to be different this time. I’m going to take my time, ease my body in gently, retrain my muscles in how to carry this lumbering fool around… then go for it and tweak a hamstring! My plan is to do a gentle 20-30 minute run every day for the next week or so and then slowly start to build up from there. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Lethargy

I was going to go to the gym this morning.

I was going to go on the bike and then on the treadmill.

It would have been great to blow away some of the cobwebs, work up a sweat and then head down to London feeling slightly smug.

I was going to… and then the alarm went off and I couldn’t be bothered!

I seem to be feeling like this quite regularly at the moment. I haven’t exercised yet in December and I’m starting to feel it / notice it. I can feel myself not being as sharp, I don’t sleep as well and I lose a little bit of motivation. However, when I get like that the first response is to get even lazier.

I feel lacking in energy so I eat chocolate… then I feel a bit bloated, but also lacking in energy, so…

I need to break the cycle and I need to break before the legitimate eating festival that is Xmas. I’ve promised myself a swim on Wednesday morning, so watch this space…

Windermere Report … Soon

I promise it’s coming soon.

It’s just .. well it’s probably going to be quite a long post and to be honest I’m being a bit lazy. But I’ll aim to get it done by the end of the week. Although I’m not sure what I’ll say – there was some water … and then more water … and then 7 hours of water … then I finished. I’ll try to spice it up a bit.

I’m also thinking of “live tweeting” it this Saturday – i.e. tweeting as if live the whole swim using the hashtag #1000kms.

If you think that’s a terrible idea let me know in the comments, otherwise, look out for it on Twitter this Saturday.

More Motivation Please

April’s been a difficult month so far, what with work and life and stuff getting in the way of exercise. I’ve only exercised once in the last ten days and as I’ve just come back from a trade show I certainly don’t feel like it today.

I know I enjoy it when I do it – and even more than that I enjoy the benefits afterwards, but it’s amazing how quickly you can get out of the habit and once you are, how hard it is to motivate yourself to get back into it.

So, if anyone has any spare motivation they could send my way I’d be very grateful. In the meantime I’ll just sit here and eat biscuits.