Eventually

We were two 30 minute runs in to completing week 9 of C25K and then unfortunately I was laid-up for 5 days.  I wasn't sure after so many rest days, and only just feeling better, I would manage 30 minutes for the next run, but hey, I surprised myself and indeed managed to run for the 30 minutes.

I think the hard work is now going to start as we need to try and keep running 3 times a week.

Scary news is that the provisional dates for Craggy Island have been released and it will be early in the new year when entries open.

Nearly there

Well, week 8 sees us doing 3 non-stop 28 minute runs.  We have been doing the usual street run during the week and then on Saturday we went round the loch again.  This time I ran with Laura and managed the 28 minutes.  I even ran past people who were cycling, although I do have to admit that the lady looked about 60 and as though it had been 58 years since she had been on a bike!

I guess it's not rocket science that next week will see us doing 3 non-stop 30 minute runs - I just hope that I can keep going for those extra minutes.

We seem to be lucky with the weather - another dry run in what was a very wet week.

I am very impressed

In little over a month my wife has gone from struggling to run for 90 seconds to last night running non stop for 28 minutes, and covering around 4.5km.  I am amazed by the improvement and also by her commitment to the process.  She is not a sporty person so I know that this has been really hard work for her and it is almost impossible for me to get over to her how impressed I am.  She even talked about failure the other day, just because she only managed to run for 25 minutes into a strong headwind - failure? THAT'S NOT FAILURE!!

We have decided to try to keep running for 30 minutes three times a week until Christmas time, just to consolidate what we have done so far.  Then we'll think about adding in some swimming at the local pool, saving the cycling for the better weather and some light.  It gets dark here at 4pm from now til March.  

walkjogrun

We are using walkjogrun.net to check on distances, times, heights and so on.  It's easy to use and much better than trying to work things out from OS maps.

Pushing the envelope

Week 7 now completed.  Three 25 minute non-stop runs.

Now that the clocks have changed it is dark when I get home, we thought the park we ran round was quite well lit and this is where we did the first run; the park is not that well lit!

Run number two was pounding the streets where at least we had street lamps lighting our way, but, the hard tarmac was quite tough going.

Run three, the envelope pusher, was a run round a local loch.  Hubby decided our own music compilation would be good to run to and it was to begin with; however, 'Touch Too Much' was just a touch too long for me and I had to walk through 'Chelsea Dagger' - picked up again for 'Rock and Roll' and 'Highway to Hell'.  Maybe I need to stick with Laura to get me to the end of 25 minutes.

It's official

according to Laura we are now runners!

If you had worked out a formula for how week 6 was going to pan out then if you got the following I take my hat off to you:

Run 1 - 5 minute run, 3 minute walk, 8 minute run, 3 minute walk, 5 minute run
Run 2 - 10 minute run, 3 minute walk, 10 minute run
Run 3 - 25 minute non-stop run

I am hoping that at some point my body will realise that my gasping for breath is a way of me trying to get more oxygen in, which apparently your body needs when your running!  I guess it doesn't help that the slight uphill that we have to tackle is always into the wind, and boy has it been windy this past week.  Apart from the breathing and the lead legs at around 18 minutes in then it seems to be going quite well.

I am beginning to wonder why my right foot goes numb after running for a few minutes = something to ask the physio on Thursday :-)

OMG x 2

Well, since I last posted we have completed the last 2 runs in week 5 and boy oh boy has Laura picked up the pace.

The second run was, in my mind, a bit of a push too far as we had to run two blocks of 8 minutes with a 5 minute recovery in-between, bearing in mind that the most we had continually run for previously was 5 minutes.  Anyway, somehow we managed.

I thought there was some kind of mathematical formula as to how this was going to pan out as we have 13 more runs left to do but then, I think Laura got her weeks mixed up as, run 3 in week 5 sees you running for 20 minutes, yes, you read that correctly, 20 minutes without a break.  Bang goes my theory on a formula!

I don't know if you remember on the picture of our running shoes how pink mine were - that was the colour of my face by the time I managed to get back to the house!

Laura has warned us that the runs are now going to be longer without breaks.  I wonder how long it will be before I break.

More is less

We are now in week 5 of C25K and I know that it probably seems not much else is happening, well that is probably because not much else is happening!

Having never been a runner I am feeling that having got this far is a huge achievement but I am getting concerned that a swim and a run precedes the run at Craggy Island and at the moment I'm not sure my body can cope.

Anyway back to the running - week 5 consists of 3 different podcasts so run 1 saw us running for 5, walking for 3, running for 5, walking for 3 and finishing off with running for 5.  This is actually running for 1 minute less than week 4 but the recovery 'walks' are shorter.  Wonder what run 2 will bring?

Today is supposed to be a rest day!

So, we have now finished week 4 of C25K and in-between each run Laura tells you to have a rest day; today was that day!  However, hubby decided that we should go on a cycle ride.

I have to say I wasn't much up for exercise today but I was told I would be treated to coffee at a riverside cafe, how could I refuse that so off we went.  There was quite a lot of riding on main roads and whilst some drivers are courteous and give you plenty of space, others seem to want to catch the side of their cars on the handlebars.  Hubby was at a roundabout going straight on when a car decided they would turn left and had he not jumped off the bike I wouldn't like to think what damage would have been done - needless to say the driver drove off and hubby was left to pick himself and the bike up from the road.

21 miles later and no coffee as the cafe was closed we arrived home for a late lunch.  In the last 20 minutes or so of the ride I managed to get really cold and I have only just, some 2 hours later, managed to warm up - maybe being sat in front of the wood burning stove has helped!

Since arriving home I have finished the housework, put away the ironing and washed up - can I now please have a rest!  yes 

To the fat lady who knocked me off my bike, I hope you had a thoroughly miserable Sunday afternoon, and then I hope you burned the dinner.

OMG

Laura has upped the stakes!  Week 4 sees you run for a total of 16 minutes with 2 cycles of a 3 minute run with a 90 second walk and then a 5 minute run with a 2.5 minute walk.  My lungs decline going up an incline and so we have been on the flat, this could be a slight problem as Craggy Island sends you up the hill 'vertically' on Kerrera.

Running shoes, for all their expense, are not waterproof, or at least the ones we bought aren't.  It's been a bit wet here the past few days so running through puddles is not a pleasant experience and you squelch all the way home!

While the running is not getting any easier, hubby keeps reassuring me that my recovery time is shortening - OK for him to say as he was so much fitter than me anyway.  no I wasn't.

mmm

It seems like someone who knows us might have found this blog, which is a bit annoying as we were trying to keep this whole thing secret.  

It's something we want to do for ourselves and not something we want to share at the moment.  We would be a bit miffed if our efforts were overshadowed by lots of people sticking their wetsuits in to our tidal pool.  

It's only 180 seconds!

If you had asked me before I started C25K what you could do in 3 minutes I would have said that that was not long enough to do anything.  Well, I've now changed my mind!

Week 3 sees you doing two 3 minute runs and, when the lovely Laura comes on to tell me I'm half-way there, I mutter a little under my struggling breath as I feel that I should be at 2 minutes and 59 seconds.

Anyway, we are just one day over completing the 3 runs in a week and hope that this won't affect our going on to week 4 - we'll just have to see how we get on.  I'm slightly dreading the podcast being downloaded - 3 minutes was a struggle.

I'm not helping much

After K's bad start to the week and her visit to the hospital, I decided to join in the fun.  Taking a dizzy spell at Costco which was followed by a long visit to A&E to have everything checked out.  Seems I'm ok, but I have acquired a constant light headed feeling which is a bit disconcerting.

However having felt best while cutting the grass this morning, I decided to join K for the last run of the week and felt much better.  Going at her pace seems like a good idea till I stop feeling faint.

What a week!

So we managed to complete week 2 of C25K.  The second run was done close to home and was a reasonably flat run!  The third run was back to the normal route - 90 seconds uphill is a real struggle - Laura, the i-pod personal trainer, advises that the runs should be getting easier, hmm maybe I'm not trying hard enough.

Next week may be a bit of a struggle too but for a different reason.  Have a family weekend coming up, starting on Thursday evening - may have to do three consecutive runs, although Laura does advise a rest day in-between runs.  Guess we'll just have to see how it goes.

It was all going so well!

We have had two enforced rest days.  Unfortunately, a hospital consultation turned out to be a little more than expected and has knocked me off my feet for two days.  I'm really hoping that we can get back to the running tomorrow; we don't want to have to go back to doing week one again!

This is really not what we wanted so early on but I guess we are going to encounter more challenges to the programme.

Oh what a beautiful morning and the start of Week 2 of C25K

Well, Sunday morning was a really lovely autumnal morning and we were on the bikes for 8:30am.  Either it was too early in the morning or breakfast hadn't quite hit the right spots or it was just a wee bit too chilly but we both felt that the ride was a difficult one; however, we managed to knock a whole second off our last time!

Today we started week 2 of C25K.  Due to a bit of a fiasco yesterday, less said, we had to change our normal running route.  Somehow we managed to start all of the 90 second runs, yes a whole 30 seconds longer than last week, uphill and, when we turned round to head back, you guessed it, we managed to coincide the runs again with the start of the uphill.  I'm sure there is a law for this!

Now, I'm not sure if I've mentioned before but I have lumpy, bumpy bits where I should have flat bits and flat bits where I would perhaps like slightly larger bumpy bits.  Anyway, even with my minimal chest I invested in a sports bra and I have to say on the past three runs it has been quite comfortable.  Today, I forgot to put the sports bra on and it was surprising the difference, not for the better - I won't forget to put it on again.

We did it!

Run 3 of week 1 of C25K completed.  We are going to have to look at extending the run as we seem to be completing the track quicker - even with a stupid dog getting in the way and nearly tripping me up!  Why don't people keep their dogs on leads.

Since 30th August, when we started out on this epic journey, we have walked/cycled/run 88 miles  - not bad going huh!

yes, yes, YES

or no, no, no depending on your views.

Today is a big day for Scotland as we go to vote on whether we want to be an independent country and if we wish to allow women to become members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club.  Breaking news - the answer is yes (for the golf).  First time I've ever heard this but golf apparently stands for gentlemen only ladies forbidden - wonder what it will be called now!

Another affirmative was in answer to should we go for our second C25K session.  Run 2 was a repeat of run 1, it didn't seem easier but we seemed to cover more ground.  The weather again wasn't great but it was just about dry - very foggy and the trees were dripping.

It will be early tomorrow morning before we find out if the third will be an aye or a nae.

We have a personal trainer ...

and her name is Laura.

We did our first session of C25K in the mist and pouring rain - I feel that shows a sort of commitment to this training!  We also completely mistimed the 5 minute warm-up walk and start of the first run so the first run started on an uphill section of our track.

One minute seemed like a very long time to run and the 90 seconds of recovery you get between your 60 seconds run is just not enough.  However, Laura is very encouraging throughout and the music that's played is not something that you would perhaps listen to for pleasure but it was good running/walking music. I was pleased that I managed to get to the end of the podcast having completed all runs/walks and, at Laura's behest, I gave myself a pat on the back.  The total time you are out is 30 minutes as you finish off with a 5 minute warm-down walk, of those 30 minutes you actually only run for 8, it felt like a lot more!!

Solo cycle,3 munros, running shoes

Hubby has been away and with him went the laptop!

Anyway, since I last posted I have been on a solo cycle ride as spring chicken was still feeling a bit washed out.  Fortunately, I remembered the route we took the other night and was only a minute slower which I was quite pleased with.

I had a couple of days off and so, as I had woken just after my usual time, we decided that we should go out and climb a hill.  We packed our bags, including waterproofs and warm hat, gloves etc. and headed to Blair Atholl, Old Bridge of Tilt to be precise (don't some Scottish places have quaint names).  We arrived in glorious sunshine and to be advised that stalkers were out and so our planned round route was not possible.  We climbed two munros and as we had to come back the same way the first was climbed again!  I think it is the first time I have ever climbed a hill and not required all my extra layers at the top, in fact a touch of sunburn was acquired.

Hubby decided that if we were going to run then we would need the correct footwear.  So, after researching, a visit to Run and Become was scheduled.  I was a little concerned that the shop would be intimidating but I couldn't have been more wrong.  The lady that served us was really lovely and after watching how I walked brought out a couple of pairs of shoes.  Now, you don't have to be colour conscious when buying running shoes, they do not seem to come in dull shades!  The lady also said to try the Couch to 5k website to help us 'begin' running.  Running shoes are not cheap but hopefully my feet will appreciate them.

Tummy trouble

Ouch - something is rotten in the State of  Downtheremark.  

While I lay around suffering the other half seems happy to go out an accrue fitness at an alarming rate.  She apparently even ran from one lamp post to another a couple of nights ago.  I'm going to be left behind at this rate.  I guess she wants to come second last in the Craggy Island race.

Have to say I'm impressed that she's carried on without me, so maybe this is going to be serious after all.......

Enforced rest day

After a very long day at work, which finished off with sitting in slow traffic for over an hour to get home I was quite tired.  Spring chicken had become lame duck and was recuperating in bed, so, I decided that a rest day was called for.

I had noticed that hubby/spring chicken/lame duck had brought back a magazine from his meeting the other night, which one of the other members was giving away, lo and behold there are four or five pages all to do with triathlons including pictures of the one at Kerrera!  One thing seems certain, my knowledge of triathlons should be up there with the best - if only I could say the same thing about my body/fitness.

A conveniently arranged meeting!

So, the weekend passed with no 'real' training but we did go out for a walk each day; last week saw the most exercise I think I have ever done in seven consecutive days.

We also decided that, to start the week, we would try our first run.  Sites recommend that when you start running you alternate between running and walking each minute.  Hubby thought it would be more realistic for us to alternate running and walking between each lampost!  However, hubby announced that he would be attending a meeting this evening so I would be going solo in the training.

I donned leggings and a large top, to cover the lumpy bumpy bits, I don't want to offend too many people on my travels, and off I set.  The route was our power walking one and as it starts off downhill I managed to run all the way, a walk and then a run uphill, a walk and then as I started on the downhill run I passed the local running club coming up the way.

All in all I did better than I thought I would and managed to run further than I thought I could. Things I do need to try and get under control when I exercise are stopping my nose from running, trying to get my breath back a little quicker and stopping my throat from getting sore.

Did anyone else find that hard work?

Took me a few reads to get my head around the stats and now I wished I hadn't because I'm not sure I can ever be as quick as the slowest!

Since I last posted we have completed two cycle rides - one on the road,  7 miles and a few uphills and one on a cycle path around a loch, 12 miles of undulating but constant cycling terrain. I'm measuring everything in miles in the hope that when it comes nearer the time the kilometres will seem a doddle.

I think spring chicken is paying far too much attention to what ladies wear in a triathlon.  He seemed very keen on the New Zealand lady in the Ladies Elite Triathlon that he was watching the other day. After removing her wet suit she seemed only to be wearing the smallest of lycra bikinis in which she completed the cycle and run.  If I don't have at least two layers of padding for cycling my 'cycling bum  bones' complain painfully.

Craggy Island Video 2014

Thanks to BIV productions who had a quad copter taking the film.  Looks great!!

Also, we noticed that we are in the audience!

Stats

Hi, hubby here, I'll post in italics so you can tell us apart.

I've located the finishing times list for the 2014 Craggy Island Triathlon which should give us some idea regarding how fit we need to get.  Luckily the timings are split into the various disciplines so we can try to attack each event individually.

So lets start with the basics.  The winner crossed the line in 1 hour 27 minutes and last place finished in 3 hours and 1 minute.  There were a only six starters who didn't finish, with four of them not completing the swim.  These were the ones we watched from the mainland pier and who appeared to us to suffer from cramp in the water.  I guess we'll need to work out how to avoid this, as we don't want our first attempt to fall at the very first hurdle.


Breaking the times down a little the swim took between 10 minutes and 25 minutes.  As the swim is 550m this means the fastest people were swimming at about 30s per swimming pool length (our local pool is 25m) and the slowest at 70s per length.  I guess we want to aim somewhere at the slower end (duhhh), but I realise that although the course is only 550 m the swimmers probably swim a lot more than this - especially the slower ones.  I also realise that swimming in a wet suit in the cold sea is not anything like swimming in a nice cosy pool.  So I reckon we should aim for 1000m at 45 seconds per length, which gives a nice round half hour. Zhang Lin of China can do 800m in 7 1/2 minutes so surely we can manage 1000 in 30?


The biking is, according to the Durty events website, about 14kms.  But it's 14kms of up and down, a lot of up and down in fact. The times for this part range from 31 mins to 1hr 12 mins.  That means the fastest bikers averaged around 27km/hr.  Really!! No way!!.  Right how fast were the slowest going....11.66 km/hr - ok that's a touch more realistic, but still way faster than we currently cycle, and we usually cycle on the flat.  Our training will have to include hills.

The run is a on hill course (of course, it's a hilly island but did they have to go to the top of the highest peak?)  It is around 8km in length with about 220m of ascent (according to walkjogrun) Now that's not really very much climbing - we already climb an occasional Munro which should be anything up to 1000m of ascent.  But in fairness we don't normally swim and bike our way to the bottom of the hill.  

The fastest runners completed in 38 mins and the slowest in an hour and half.  I guess these slowest guys were the ones we watched trudging up the steepest slopes looking a bit like penguins with chronic stomach cramps. 

So in summary, we are going to have to swim further than we have ever swum before but just to make it harder we are going to have to swim in cold sea water with a cumbersome wet suit on.  Then we are going to have to mountain bike faster than we have ever biked before, and then we have to run (something neither of us is comfortable with) further than ever before... up a massive flipping hill. Just to come a dispiriting equal last.  Wow this sounds like fun :-)

A new PB!

Well day two of consecutive exercise and whilst it was the same as yesterday imagine how elated I was to have knocked 13 seconds off the time.

We have decided that whilst we still have fairly light evenings we are going to concentrate on walking and cycling.  Once the darker nights come then we can maybe try running (I am not a natural runner) and swimming.

Now going to start looking at the fashions for triathletes - I have a funny feeling there may be quite a few websites that can guide me!

I must have been really bad in a previous life!

Bit of a shock to the system being woken by the alarm at 0545 this morning.  Isn't it amazing how quickly you can get used to laying-in!

Do you ever wonder why you take holidays or is it just me.  I do lots of additional hours in the week prior to going on holiday to try and cover all possibilities so my colleagues will hopefully have very little to pick-up on.  Then, when you go back, you have hundreds of e-mails which all need a response and as soon as colleagues know you are back they are queuing at your door.  There is only so many times you can repeat just how bad the Scottish weather can be.

Anyway, you probably guessed it - today was not a rest day.  We walked very quickly, not sure it could quite be called a power walk, but we covered the 1.6 miles in 23 minutes - google said it should take 31 minutes; not bad going.

Chariots of Fire downloaded on the i-pod - now what?

Pour a glass of wine!  I guess the first thing we need to know is when applications for the event open up, so, I've signed up to the mailing list at Durty and they will send me information and the required notification.

Next, how does one train to be a triathlete?  Pull up a chair and surf the web - "how to train for a triathlon".  I'm guessing I'm not the first person to ask this question as there are about 2,420,000 results.  Fortunately, just a couple of results down gives me the Beginners' Triathlon Training Schedule which proclaims to take me from a beginner to triathlete in just 8 weeks. It appears then that just under a year is going to be plenty of time!

However, I feel that I'm not quite at the beginner stage yet so hubby has suggested that we take the training schedule and re-write it to fit in with our work schedules and so that we get the best value from our sessions in the swimming pool.  This is a shame as Week 1, Monday and Tuesday were both rest days - I thought this was an excellent way to start training!

We will be self-training so a spreadsheet has been set-up to show the date, discipline, duration of exercise and route.  Hopefully, when the routes are repeated we should see an improvement in the time - this is the theory anyway.

Back to work tomorrow, I wonder if hubby will allow Monday to be a rest day.  Watch this space ....

Having slept on it!

What makes up the Craggy Island Triathlon?

Swimming - a 550m open water swim
I don't particularly like swimming, I don't like being cold and wet and I especially don't like the taste of salt water.  Oh, and I can only do the breastroke, badly!

Cycling - 14km of off-road mountain biking (with proper mountain biking in places!)
I can, and do, ride a mountain bike; however, my routes are normally along the fairly sedate Sustrans cycle network.  If I do go off piste and cycle uphill I do so slowly, occasionally getting off to push as it is faster, and when coming downhill I do so with the brakes on.

Running - 8km off-road run (hill-racing reaching the highest point at 189m above sea level)
I can barely run the 20m to the top of our drive without reaching for something to lean on to get my breath back.  I can climb a hill provided there are plenty of opportunities to stop and 'enjoy the view'!

Is a year going to be long enough to change this exercise-phobic non-athlete to a Craggy Island Triathlon competitor?

And in the beginning ....

So, our two weeks summer holiday was to be spent as a staycation in Scotland, always a risky holiday at the best of times.  Attempt one was to pitch our tent in a howling northerly gale in Ullapool (think Antarctica without the penguins), which we just about achieved after anchoring the tent to a handily parked Swiss truck.

On day two, after attempting to climb Stac Pollaidh (too high and far too narrow a ridge for one of our party) we got caught in a torrential downpour just at the start of our descent; the rain showed remarkable tenacity and failed to stop for a rest for the next 18hrs and we woke up next day with our tent gently floating in the puddle that was the campsite.  With no sign of a  let up in the rain we decided to decamp, head home and dry out.

By the way, 'we', is my husband (a spring chicken of only 44) and I.

After checking weather forecasts we went for attempt two - a few days in Oban.  We managed to get our favourite spot at the Oban Camping and Caravan Park - to the envy of all those who came after us, high above the site with fantastic views over those below.  With the sun now shining and a very slight breeze we decided a day out on a new island was called for.  Kerrera, which we could see from the tent door, fitted the bill perfectly.  However, the island had been taken over by Durty Events for the Craggy Island Triathlon, so, we patiently waited for the ferry as lots of blue swimming caps bobbed about in the channel crossing from the mainland.  All but one seemed to make it, fortunately for the one there were plenty of safety canoes/boats about!  We then got a super fast boat over for the 1 minute crossing (the normal ferry, where you have to don life-jackets was being repaired) to be met by cyclists and runners getting in the way of our leisurely amble around the rough tracks of the island.

As we wandered we were in a good position to watch the competitors who seemed to be all ages, shapes and sizes.  The volunteers were all so encouraging and jovial, especially as the competitors got their dibbers dibbed at the transitions.

An idea was hatching...., we had done the 'swim'via boat, we then went on to amble the cycle route (cutting out a corner) to then merge with the run route - how difficult could a triathlon be to complete! I felt that if I was to achieve anything in life then getting a dibber dibbed would be a good starting point - was 46 too old to be considering a triathlon with zero fitness?  Of course I would need a training buddy
 and "spring chicken" seemed to be the handiest.