Triathlon Training: Night Rider

Last night when I went to check that the back door was locked, I looked out of the kitchen door and gazed at the sky. It was one of those perfect starry nights that we do not have very often in the UK. I stepped out into the centre of our tiny little garden and looked up at the heavens turning very slowly to spot all the different constellations. Orion, being the one just about everybody can pick out was magnificent and the dog-star behind his mighty, hunter master was brilliant, Sirius was positively flashing bright blue rockets of light.

It was the best night sky I had seen since we were on holiday in Switzerland at Christmas, where this sort of fabulous evening is more commonplace due to the clean fresh air in the mountains and the height of the Engadine Valley.  I have been thinking about the beauty of the Upper Engadine and knew without him telling me so, that my husband would love to go to St Moritz to watch the downhill Skiing World Championships this coming weekend but that is only in his dreams. As I stood there, I hoped that the clear sky would last until morning and maybe I could get out on my bike if it was a nice day.

In the morning, in answer to my prayers it was as perfect a day as could be possible when it is still only the first week in February. After making us both an early morning cuppa, I stepped out again into the garden. It was such a surprise; because it must have been ten or twelve degrees warmer than the day before, well into double figures centigrade.

Not wanting to miss such an unexpected change in the weather I rushed back indoors to tell Steve what a lovely day had arrived, it was positively spring like. “Quick, lets get out on our bikes while it lasts; you know what a rare gift a day like this is in winter”. I said, making my way to the cupboard to get my bike kit out.

Steve went over to the French doors and saw that I was not exaggerating, and wasted no time throwing his bike kit on and opening the doors to get our best bikes out and check the tyres and everything. 

Since it was a working day, we had to get out quickly because there would only be a time slot of just a bit over an hour at best. So we opted to do the short bike route from home that is our favourite. As I walked through the garden towards the garage I noticed that a few of our spring bulbs had bloomed, little yellow Crocus flowers here and there. Steve had already got both out bikes out into the garage compound and was setting out glasses, gloves, helmets and turning on bike computers ready to go.

We rode the mile toward the sea front passing Littlehampton Police Station on the way. Once on the coast we turned east to follow the promenade to the end. The sea was glittering like sequins in the sunrise and the rough waves of last weekend were nowhere to be seen. Neither of us ever get tired of looking out at the water and thinking how lucky we are to live so close to this art work of nature that is ever changing and what ever vista it is, it is always a joy to rest your eyes upon.

We managed to get our full ride in and enjoy the fact that there was hardly any traffic on the entire route all the way to the distant point and right back until we got back home, both smiling and sweating just a bit. As I turned into the driveway at the back of the house I heard a bell ringing and thought for a moment that somebody wanted to come past. I was disappointed when I woke up to realise that the bell was the alarm clock and to find that I had only been dreaming. It was a great dream, right up there in the top ten of the dream charts, coming after a really good nights sleep.

Having taken what in fact was a night time dream ride I hoped that I had saved some energy for swimming because that is what we do on Monday morning.

After having such a bad experience last Monday when I had sneezed so violently all day until I had made my ribs ache for the rest of that week. I took two on the little Boots allergy tablets and I had made sure that I had put a nose clip into my swim bag, in a little purse so that it was easy to locate. Last Friday I had ordered several more nose clips to make sure that I had a stock to keep just for murderous Monday swims. As yet they have not arrived.

Lane 1

Warm Up

23 X 100

Swim down

For my swim this morning Steve had given me a schedule but I had a lot of trouble trying to keep the nose clip on… GGGGRRRRRR.

Steve of the all seeing eyes stopped to speak and told me to just do 50’s or 100’s because that was how long the nose clip was staying on before popping off and then floating slowly to the bottom of the pool. It was pretty irritating that the bloomin’ thing would not stop in place, even after I had taken the precaution of making sure my face was completely clear of any creams. Steve had reminded me at least ten times whilst I was getting ready to go out this morning; every now and again a booming voice would call, “Don’t put any face cream on”.

The new nose clips have still not arrived,  so I hope that having ordered three different models that ‘Please Jesus’ one of them will work for the Monday sessions.  It seems that it might be the answer since I have been perfectly OK post swim this morning with not a sneeze in sight. Fingers crossed.

Triathlon: Upping the Game

I find myself examining all the factors involved, due to my insistence in continuing to have fun in my sport. It is hard for me to be as sensible as some folk think I should be. This is because all they see is the crumbling exterior that is my seventy seven and a half year old body. What some people miss entirely is the absolute reality that in my head, in so many ways I am just a youngster. As a rough guideline I would say that I sit somewhere between an unruly teenager and at the very outside a mischievous thirty something.

So also must I mention that I still do this lark for fun and it may surprise a few to know that I am not actually very competitive. I know I should be but there you go, I’m not.

After taking a fairly easy time in the dark days of winter; that I do find depressing, my faithful rock of a coach, is trying to up my game without me noticing too much. During the dark miserable days I have kept my swimming fully up to the mark and the same goes for the running. I am not going out on my bike in the rain for anybody. Ain’t gonna happen.

Steve had been keeping the turbo sessions light but now they are getting longer and more sweaty. Yesterday was a good hard session and both of us thought that we might notice how much harder we had worked during that session, once we got out on our run today. Of course between those two sessions you have to throw in the club swim session last night where I also worked hard. Steve settled us into a session that possibly all three of the women in our lane could see was closely related to the little local swim-run that we have all entered. It is just a sprint for us, a nice little wake up call event.

One of the other two ladies in question are; first, and lane leader, because she is fastest, a long standing training group friend who also runs with us on Sunday. The third female in the lane is a new recruit friend who will be doing her first swim run in the Frostbite on March 5^th.

We did:

Warm up 10 mins

1 x 400 mtrs

4 x   50

2 x 200

2 x 100

2 x 200

4 x   50

1 x 400

Total 2200

Lane 1 was similar.

1 x 400

4 x   50

2 x 200

2 x 200

1 x 400

2 x 200

4 x   50

1 x 400

Total 2600

On the exceedingly muddy run this morning, the three of us all did the 10km route slightly faster than last week by about thirty seconds, even though it was very heavy going and yes, the legs did feel the harder turbo; no aches or pains anywhere but just heavier feeling legs.

Good wild life spotting today; Kites and Buzzards everywhere, the little Robin from near the parking corner, came with us for the first mile hopping from tree to tree singing happily, I had promised him some food last week but I forgot to put it in the car. There were a pretty family of little deer who also followed our route about thirty metres to our right through the wood. A Woodpecker was heard but not spotted though he might well have been.

Tea and cake was taken at Swanbourne Lake Lodge tea room now it has reopened.

There is always an argument about whose turn it is to pay. Birgit has a double espresso and also green tea which seems a little contrary to me; I had a pot of Assam for a change and slice of Strudel. Steve joined me with the Strudel and also had two cappuccinos.

 

Which brings me back to the opening of this blog today. My friend remarked that I was completely transparent in many ways. I am fairly sure that she was not insulting me and I openly admit that she is right. Mission accomplished then. I have no secret agenda, I am painfully honest, open and often quite juvenile. Guilty as charged.

Pop Up Opera: Barber of Seville at the Minerva

I always love it when on an evening out, something that you really did not expect happens, jumps out and bites you. Steve and I had booked tickets for this one off performance evening at the Minerva Theatre on Chichester. We both love Opera but it has to be said that neither of us knew anything about the Pop Up Opera Company. We were blown completely away with our first encounter with this fine young company.

The other evening over dinner, my daughter Jacqueline mentioned that she would like to go to an opera even if only once, simply because she never had. Had I known what was in store I would have bought an extra ticket for this because it would be an ideal first opera even though it was very well received by the audience who seemed to be regular enough looking opera goers.

There were a number of surprises, though the fact that the Minerva is a small theatre was not one of them; it is in fact my favourite theatre. There are only rows A-G; just seven rows. I very often book seats in row G as I had for the show last night. You can hang your coat on the back of the seat and it will disturb nobody. The seats I had managed to get were at the top of the first corridor on the left as you enter and the great thing about them is that there is nothing but the steps on the corridor in front of those seats; a completely clear view. Excellent.


There was nothing in the way of scenery and certainly not curtains. The stage is the space at the bottom of the seven rows of seats that curve around the stage area. The clothes were a step removed from the title ‘Costumes’. No Pomp, no grandeur no pretence of being a posh opera company. The name they work under could not be more perfect since as I found out today in my after the fact research, that they do indeed Pop Up in all sorts of unexpected places; Barns, pubs café’s and back rooms and even on The Archers.

None the less the performance we had gone the see was Rossini’s Barber of Seville which they performed in the original language which is of course Italian. There are screens behind the singers that displayed the text in English though not perhaps quite as accurately as has been done before in many opera house where they do show the translation but here with a large dose of humour.

It was a full blown farce and so why on earth was I taken by surprise when the gun that had appeared was actually loaded….. with water. Yes a water pistol battle and much running around, climbing over the audience who with a little practice became quite good at catching items of clothing that were thrown about with some exuberance.

This was however proper opera, sung by talented artists who gave a delightful interpretation of this traditional opera. There was a fresh breeze of talent and pleasure that wafted through the little Minerva last night. Quite delightful.

Perfect for a first visit to an Opera and perfect for us old opera buffs too. Everybody lapped it up greedily but were left still wanting more. Pop Up Opera are both conventional and unconventional in the approach. Look out for them in the future; we certainly shall.

Amadeus: National Theatre

We had a evening out with two friends for our swim club last night. It was a belated birthday outing for Michelle, who has been celebrating her birthday for some time now. I had booked the tickets, Michelle brought two mini bubbly bottles for us ladies and soft drinks too, we had brought a party tray of mini cup-cakes for the interval.

One good thing about booking on line is that if you have mislaid your ticket information, as I had last night, you can still bowl up to the cash desk and they will print you new ones. We had picked Michelle up from her home at 6.30pm giving us plenty of time to get back to Littlehampton that is at least two miles from her house, park up and get inside for the 7pm start.

This was one of those; Live from the National Theatre, broadcasts that we would be sharing with people around the globe. We should all take advantage of as many of these treats as we can fit into busy lives. The seats cost £14 each plus a small booking charge, instead if having to pay probably twice what we paid last night for all four tickets to get one seat at the NT. I know it’s not the same and you miss the atmosphere, but you also miss the train fare, the hotel room over night and dinner in town, breakfast the next morning and most of your time the next day as well.

It is also liable to get you to go along to a play that you have seen before and enjoyed so much, that when you saw on a poster or trailer showing that it will turn up on your doorstep at some date, sparkling with new ideas, that you will want to enjoy it with a different cast.

I have seen Amadeus at least twice before and that must be the test of an excellent play, written as it was by Peter Shaffer who wrote two of my other favourite plays Equus, and Royal Hunt of the Sun, all of which are so stunning that I could not choose which one I love best. They are all remarkable plays.

This production was marvellous with Lucian Msamati as the wicked, destructively scheming, riddled with jealousy and admiration, court composer Antonio Salieri and Adam Gillen was quite remarkable, playing one of Gods great gifts to the world; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He may well have been as unhinged as this play suggests, on the theme of genius maybe being frighteningly close to madness on some occasions. I do find it surprising that with all this bad press for poor old Wolfey in this play of Peter Shaffer’s, that I do actually know in my own extended circle, two little boys named Amadeus in honour of the great man. 

The musical side of the show was lovely, with opera singers that I was not familiar with, who sang some beautiful pieces from a few of Mozart’s great works. I was quite worn out by the end, since the running time was 3 hours 15 minutes including a 20 minute interval.

The play left me in floods of tears at the horrible thought that Salieri really did bring about Mozart’s death at just thirty five years old, but then, I am a huge fan of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and all his wonderful works as well as a being massive softy. I recall that my emotions got a little out of control when visiting his home in Salzburg a few years ago

After dropping Michelle home again and driving back to our house I still had to read for a bit to un-hype myself from the emotion. So pleased we went though.

Reflections on my good triathlon fortune

In case anybody thinks that I must be a lady of leisure because of all the training sessions I fit into my life. They are very wrong and this morning my first chore was to finish a manifest for the latest container of Antiques that we are working on gathering in from shops all over England, that is going to North Carolina USA. The truck is in Leek one day and will be in Liverpool early next week, not to mention London and the Cotswolds as well as collection in the South.

Having finished putting three hundred items into the computer in an orderly fashion ready for shipment, I attended to a few every day household jobs. When it came to cleaning the fireplace and setting the fire ready to be lit, I realised that I did not have any paper for the base although I did have kindling in the log box and smokeless fuel in the coal scuttle ready to use.

It was then I thought once more about the big box of newspaper and magazine cuttings that have gathered over the triathlon years. I was recently talking to Steve about that pile of newspaper and was threatening to start using them to start the evening fire off with. Stephen was not pleased and told me to leave them as they were.

Why do we keep cuttings? We never look at them and the place you keep them in gets into a bigger and bigger mess as time goes by and so you put them in a box to keep them tidy. What ever do celebrities do? Over the last month I have started to at least sort some of them out, since there is no reason to keep a whole magazine because there is one page about my triathlon antics. I have started with the articles that were in the local paper, the Littlehampton Gazette, where I have even make the front page a couple of times. The editorial staff on the local rag have got used to putting bits about my shenanigans in the L.A news sheets; that is a local term; we call the town L.A. because that is how many people pronounce the name; Little’Ampton, the H gets lost in the mist. I have just kept the page with the photo and article on and used the rest of the paper for fire lighter.

They more or less expect me now to let them know when I have done anything of note; World Championships etc. and I started long ago sending in my own report and then leave it to them to doctor it around at will.

I used to buy several copies myself when I was still fortunate enough to have a couple of sponsors. Since a sponsor wants keeping up to date with any photos in the press. My longest lasting sponsor was Saucony who were most loyal and provided me with all my running apparel and trainers for many years…..I think it might have been as long a relationship as twenty years and their backing was hugely appreciated but sadly, they were taken over by another company and only this winter they decided that I had had enough of their support. However, I do have cupboards full of running clobber and I am sure that it will see me out but whilst on the subject I can say one last big thank you for sticking with me for such and amazing amount of time.

Over years I have had a few more product sponsors the earliest one was Reebok when I won the Vet category in the Reebok Runners World Awards and I was thrilled with a few pairs of trainers and a couple of outfits for racing in. Then followed De Soto for several seasons and Clinique sent me the lines of products that I used also for a number of years. A Littlehampton clothing manufacturer made some tights, running shorts and tops up especially for me which was amazing. Snugg Wetsuits gave me a couple of seasons support too. So all in all I have been more than lucky over the years.

Apart from the sports equipment company’s, one of me most surprising sponsors was for me was Matol, a herbal remedy company who took me to their heart and onto their team for several years including funding an entire trip to the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. Everything you could think of; air fare, hotel accommodation, meals, team racing clothing as well as a night at a luau.

I have been so lucky with my trips to Hawaii because the first year I qualified to race in the Worlds there, Ian Douglas Sweet who was with Eurosport then and is still a Facebook friend, filmed the entire stay on the Big Island and became for me the most remarkable door opener I had ever encountered. Ian managed to get me taken on all sorts of trips: a submarine and a private flight to look at the bike course and a tour of the chocolate factory, not to mention a pair of Zip wheels, Oakley sunglasses and umpteen other treats like being introduced to everybody who was somebody, all the stars of the sport new and old. I will never forget that time as long as I live; Thanks a million Ian.

Swim-Run: Bad Days and Good Days

                      One of the GOOD days with hero's Simon Lessing and Mark Allen

Wednesday morning rolls round again and we thought that it might be a struggle because we both felt tired and achy yesterday. Steve, because he had been lifting a load of heavy furniture more or less not stop for days, including the weekend, and it does not get any easier as you get older. For me, because my ribs still ached this morning from the violent sneezing on Monday, it was better than it was yesterday but I still ached and it was hard to say if it was my ribs or my lungs or both. 

                                      Good fun with the gang on the Isle of Wight 

I looked at Steve to see what clothes he was putting on, because Wednesday is, in this current training pattern a swim-run day but it was raining and not looking at all inviting even if we were feeling good. As I watched he put on running kit and so I followed suit.

Steve said that he was not making any promises because he felt rubbish. I said that maybe we should do the swim set and see if it was still raining when we came out of the pool and see then, if a swim woke us up or not and maybe it would be better not to even aim at the harder run in Arundel, because it would be disgustingly muddy after so much rain, I said I thought that doing a sea front run instead might be favourite, Steve thought that was a good idea, we would see.

                      At Richmond Park Women's 10km with my daughter Jacqueline

My friend Bekka, who I work with on Wednesday and Friday mornings, would not be swimming today since she had gone skiing in Italy for a week. Actually the pool was half empty this morning, so I imagine a lot of people had looked out of the window early and thought ‘Blow that for a game of coconuts’ and turned over to go back to sleep and who could blame them.

There was only one other lady in the whole of the open section of the pool my side when I started working through my schedule. Steve started his boys off and I could see that his arms were not working properly just from his face as I made my turns at the shallow end. A couple of times he slipped under the lane ropes and did a slow 50 with me swimming stroke for stroke beside me; he is one of the few faster swimmers in our group that can actually swim very slowly when he wants too. He is always telling people that the warm up is not a fast 400 and that there should be a clear difference between your fast work and your slow work. Some people just can’t swim slowly.

                                Another real fun day Kate, Lottie, Yasue and James

I finished my schedule that would have been for my friend and I which was:

W.U

3 x 200

1 x 100

8 x 50

1 x 200

Swim down

I missed out that swim down and started at the top again

I got through the:

3 x 200

Then I did the 100 as backstroke by which time the boys were done.

I met Steve near the desk in front and we looked at the weather and turned to me smiling and said “Bugger it’s stopped raining, we’ll have to run then not having any excuse”. We went out and ditched our bags in the car and I got a hat and gloves out.

                             A sea front run with Anthony and Craig a few years ago

 

Steve opted to do a test run of the ‘Frost Bite’ run course because we knew it was a measured 5km route. That run starts at the pool and does a lap of the park to the east of the pool then goes to the far end of the promenade to the east, turn around a post and then right back to the river at the western end, turns and ends back at the pool.

If I say that neither of us spoke a word the whole 5km, I’m guessing that anyone would know that it was not comfortable. It was only 5km but both of us were not feeling great before we started. 

                               A harder but most satisfying day at Ironman Austria

When we reached the point where the finish gantry will be on March 5th I just hung myself over the sea wall and gasped and breathed heavily at a cluster of Mermaids Purses on the stones the other side of the wall. I stayed there for a bit.

Steve asked if I was OK.

I didn’t respond

He looked at his Garmin and said “Actually it wasn’t that bad but I take it by the shortage of conversation that that hurt and if it makes you feel better it was agony for me too”.

I didn’t answer.

“You don’t like me any more do you”?

I threw him a death ray look in confirmation.

He put his arm around me and walked me to the car.

“How painful was that on a scale of 1-10”

“14” I muttered.

                                                  Running in France in the sunshine

At times like that all you can say to yourself is that it can only get better, try to think of those times when it all worked out well and you had a smile on your face and sparkle in your eye, and remember how good the good times felt.

                              Another fine day of training, blue sky and feeling good

 

We drove to Rustington for coffee in Costa’s spotting fellow triathlete Anthony in his Tuff Fitty knitted hat that makes him hard to miss, eating his breakfast and reading the paper in Waitrose.

                                                                  Summer!