One year on...

Wow, what a year it's been. My boy is here, born on 13th December 2010 he's now almost 5 months old and he's healthy, plump and gorgeous.

A teeny tiny announcement

In case you're wondering where I've been, and even if you're not, I just thought I'd let you know....

I am pregnant.

Baby is due on December 5th. So no racing for me this year.

Mother of all cock-ups*

(*I suspect that "cock-up" does not translate well for my US readers. if you happen to be reading o the other side of the Atlantic, insert "screw-up" or "balls-up" or plain old f***-up. Whatever, they all sound rude.)

Short version - I did not go swimming last night.

Slightly longer version - I could not find the frickin swimming pool. I know. Seriously. I travelled the hour by bus to the small German town where my coach happens to live. I had looked up where the pool should be on the map, worked out where to get off the bus and he had promised to arrange a lift back to Basel for me. The last bus to civilisation leaves 10 minutes BEFORE my class was due to start. I had half an hour to find the pool, change etc, thinking this would be plenty. Mistaaaaaaaaaaaake!



When I got to where the map showed the pool, there was nothing but apartment blocks on one side of the road and a large industrial area on the other. Hmmm. I walked along the road until I was in a deserted, scary area and turned back. No pool. Crossed the road and railway line and looked around the industrial area for a bit. No pool. Now I only had a few minutes before the last bus. What to do?

If it had been daylight, and the area had been a little less dark and deserted, I would have kept looking. But the thought of being stranded there with no lift home and my only option being to walk 5 km along the Rhine back to Basel in the dark, and the thought of being raped, murdered and my body thrown in the river only to be discovered in Rotterdam, I wimped out. I caught the bus and travelled the hour back home.

And no, I did not have any kind of useful telephone number on me. Mistaaaaaaaaaaaake! So that was that. No swim.

My daughter is ill today, so I'm not at work. Hopefully I can swim alone later so my new coach (yeah, I just like saying that..."my coach") won't think I'm a complete flake!

Here we go

I am excited and terrified...

I have a coach!

I have a training plan!

I have a swimming class!

And my first class is tonight.

I am so incredibly nervous about revealing my crawl stroke to a group of triathletes, not to mention my swim-suited body. I have absolutely no idea how this will go.

Winter training, maybe a coach and NEW SHOES

So I have exactly 7 months until the HIM, and that doesn't sound very long at all, especially after a run like the one I had a lunchtime. So I spent some time this afternoon trying to come up with a winter training plan which fits around classes, runs and pool opening times. I need to get my butt into a pool and a bike saddle asap. It could look like this:
Monday - spinning
Tuesday - run (lunch) and swim (evening)
Wednesday off
Thursday - swim
Friday - run or spinning
Saturday bike
Sunday run

I don't like running and swimming on the same day because it means I have to lug both running and swimming stuff to work with me, but it has to be. This way, I get a lot of workouts done at lunchtime and only swimming has to be in the evening. It works. It scares me a little.

I cannot for the life of me work out how to pay for the freakin lunchtime spinning classes. I can't work it out from the website and assumed you paid at the venue. Nope. And when I tried to pay, they directed me back to the website. Oh the joys of different languages. I'm sure if I just keep turning up, eventually someone will make sure I pay, right?

I'm meeting up with a guy next week sometime to see if he can coach me. We'll see how it goes, I'm nervous and I have to speak German. I think.

Much more importantly, I have bike shoes! Second hand from a friend, who had worn them a couple of times because they're too small for her, she let me pay peanuts. They're Cannondale and fit like they were just waiting for me.

I'm fiddling around with my blog at the moment, so bear with me (or bare with me? No, that must be wrong).

Chrissie Wellington named 2009 Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year - Times Online

Chrissie Wellington named 2009 Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year - Times Online





Congratulations Chrissie!!

Alive

Sorry I haven't been around for a bit. I know you've missed me.

I'm still here, still alive, still kicking. No, I didn't run in Luzern yesterday. No, there has not been much training going on. There's been a lot of life-stuff going on instead. But let's not talk about that...let's talk about the good stuff....

*The Good Stuff*

1. I have offically entered the HALF IRONMAN on June 6, 2010. GAME ON.
   



2. After a couple of months of almost no training, complete lack of motivation, some kinda non-swiney virus and general malaise, I am training again. And it feels WONDERFUL.
   
   


3. I am getting this baby for Christmas (mostly from myself!). She's a Giant AVAIL 2, I'm in love. She's my new girlfriend. Isn't she beautiful?
   

So, I'm back. Let's do this.