Plans, plans, plans

After a few pretty awful days I am finally feeling better. Not 100%, not even 80%, but I hope I am getting there slowly. Apparently I had a virus (possibly even swine flu) and that is why my antibiotics were not working properly. I still have blocked nose, I cough and also sound nothing like me but I feel soooo much better than I did over the weekend.

I had a chat with a good friend who is also a doctor about how soon I can get back to training but she told me to wait until I feel better because my immune system is lower than normal right now and I could pick something up again if I start training too soon. So I am waiting.... I am hoping to do some light training this weekend. I have not trained properly for almost 5 full weeks. It has all been on and off with the last two weeks being particularly bad so I am terrified of getting back to training. Don't get me wrong, I simply cannot wait to do it, but at the same time I am terrified of seeing that my fitness has gone downhill. And it has, and I HATE it. But as long as I am healthy I am going to work my butt off to get to where I was (and pass that) soon. So, for the weekend, I hope to do an easy 1 hour spin on the bike and an easy run and then get back to Jen's training programme on Monday.

On a slightly different note, Shaun has found out today that he probably won't deploy until the first week of April, which is great news because I get to spend more time with him. But to me that screamed NO OCEANSIDE straight away. But.... There may be a way around it and we won't really know for sure until some time in March but I hope our plan works. And that is for Shaun to come to Cali with me at the end of March. Apparently he needs to be in the UK at least 5 days before they deploy so it is completely workable. We will do our best to make it work but we are completely at the mercy of the Army. AGAIN.!!!! Everyone, fingers crossed.

And staying on the Army topic, we have another dinner night at the Officers' Mess this Friday. To be perfectly honest I do not feel like going at all. It means that I have to rush from work, get home, get ready, rush to the Mess, chat to the people I have to even though I do not particularly want to (does that sound bad???) etc, etc. I know that in the end we will have good time but right now I feel that I would rather be in my PJs in front of my TV on that Friday night. But it is the last party before the battalion deploys so it IS important to be there.

Too soon

I spoke too soon last time. As I am lying on my sofa under a duvet desperately wanting to feel better, I realise how often we take our health for granted. It all hit me back on Wednesday morning when I woke up with a scratchy throat. I went to work and by the afternoon my voice sounded much worse. Woke up on Thursday morning and my throat completely seized up. I couldn't say a word, it was really painful. I decided not to go to work and go and see a doctor. She gave me antibiotics and I can't wait for them to "kick in". I woke up this morning feeling even worse. I have spent a whole day between my bed and the sofa with a fever and sounding very very rough. Ugh!!!

So needless to say the 10 miler that I was meant to race on Sunday will not happen. I am quite disappointed about it, I love that race.

But anyway, my priority right now is to get better as soon as I can and limit the damage done to my training. I just really hope I will wake up tomorrow feeling at least a little bit better so that I can at least enjoy the weekend. Keep your fingers crossed.

I am back

Yes, after three weeks of on and off illnesses I am finally back....I think. I took it very easy last week and did the workouts that I felt like doing without putting too much pressure on myself. I just wanted to get back into training without any risk of relapse. So fingers crossed.

I think I have also finalised my race plan for this year. There will still be some running races or cycle sportives added to it but for now it looks like this:

31 January - Canterbury 10 miler: This is a great local race which I have done few years ago and I love running races so why not?!

14 February - Dover half-marathon: This race is organised by my triathlon club and it is a great race. I have also done this in the past. The first half is VERY quick and you go through it thinking yay I am flying, and then you hit the hills :((( So we'll see.

27 March - Oceanside 70.3: Really looking forward to this but there may be some changes. Read about it below.

16 May - The Marshman: half-ironman distance race half an hour away from our house. It doesn't get better than that. I can sleep in my bed and train on the course. Yay!!! Plus I get to race with loads of friends. It doesn't get better than that.

27 June - A Day in The Lakes: half-ironman distance in the Lake District of the UK (in the north-west of the country). It is a beautiful and VERY VERY hilly part of the country. This will be the second year of this event and some of my friends have done it last year. It was TOUGH!!!!

29 August - IM Louisville: I love this race and cannot wait to get back there. It is by far the most important and favourite race for me on this schedule.

So, the above plan is slightly different to what I first envisaged I would do. I was registered to race IM St. George but the thought of travelling there on my own, staying in a hotel on my own (Shaun will be deployed then) and racing without knowing anyone was really not appealing to me. I would not have fun and would not enjoy it. So I've decided to pull out and do some more local races. I am really excited about racing locally where I get to spend time with my friends and where I can have loads of friends supporting. It will be fun.

So Oceanside!? So far there has been no plan change. But.... Shaun is getting deployed at the end of March/beginning of April. So this is the hard part. If he gets deployed before 25 March I am racing, but if he for example gets deployed any time after that, I would really really like to spend some time with him rather than race. I am so frustrated about this. The problem is that the situation is so fluid, flight dates change all the time (for security and other reasons) and we really won't know when he will deploy probably until some time in March. I know that for some people out there it is hard to understand my decision but even an hour spent longer with my husband is worth to me more than any race. He is going to be away for 6-7 months and it will get tough and lonely and depressing and all those other things so I want to spend time with my husband now. So basically I am training as if I will be racing (and I probably won't book my flight until quite late in March) but who knows what will happen.

Feel better

After that great start to the year, last week it all came tumbling down. On Tuesday I started feeling ill with fever and generally just very weak. It has lasted until Sunday - by Sunday afternoon I was feeling quite good. It is very frustrating not being able to train. That is what we do and it is a big part of our day so not training just leaves this void. And frustration. And generally I am not a nice person to be around when I can't train. And this illness has been an annoying one: you know the one where you feel well enough to get out of bed and go to work but then you get to work and you feel miserable and sorry for yourself. ANNOYING!!!!

So I was only too keen to get back into training yesterday. I did a great swim back in my local pool, watched what I ate, blah, blah, blah. Then I woke up this morning with a sore throat. Didn't think much of it, but as the day went on I felt worse and worse. And now it's back to square one. I am in no state to train. Can you hear me screaming right now???

I am trying to be positive and I think that tonight I will get some rest, go to bed early and will wake up in the morning raring to go. Let's hope so!!

2010

There is something exciting about 2010. Don't know what but I hope it will be a great year. And I have kicked it off with some changes.

First of all, I am moving out of London back home to Folkestone. This means I will get to see Shaun every day - yay!!! (unless he is away with work), which was the main drive for this decision. He is getting deployed in March/April for six months and I know that once he is gone I will regret not spending more time back home. Also, I am kind of fed up with living in two places. It has worked for us well whilst I divided my time between London and West Point, but I don't like it when these two places are only 50 miles apart. So, I will be commuting daily on a speedy train service which will get me from Folkestone to London in 45 minutes. The main downside?? No more bike commuting. But...... I think have found a semi-solution for that. Once the days are longer I can ride to the train station 20 miles down the road and get some great training in the countryside lanes. Yay!!!

I will miss my commute past all the great London landmarks, but at the same time I am so looking forward to living away from the city.

So, that's the latest living news. On the racing front, Shaun and I did our club annual Bra run . It is held every year on New Years Day in the aid of Breast Cancer Research charity. It is a lot of fun. Shaun came third overall and I did a 5km PR (I know, this is slow for you guys, but for me, it was great). Great start to the new year.

Also, on this past Sunday we've jumped into a x-country race. It is part of a county x-country league and our club is a member of that league so the race was all about DEAL TRI team. It was my first every x-country race. It was soo hard but sooo much fun. I definitely want to do a few of those.

So the last couple of days I have been finalising my racing season with Coach Jen and I think we are nearly there. I am so so excited to train and race this year. And hope to see many of you out there.

Good-bye 2009

I thought you would find this photo funny - Shaun with his best dance moves :)))
The photo is from the Officers' Mess Xmas Party and I have finally recovered from it. I have no idea what I am trying to do - dance probably. And yes, that is a spiderman next to me and yes Shaun is dressed in table-cloth.

Christmas was lovely - we had few people over for Christmas lunch which made me panic so many times in the run up to it, but once the day arrived I was extremely (and unusually) calm about it. Shaun and I had lovely few days off work where we just relaxed reading books and watching TV - things we don't do that often.

I cannot believe there is only one day left of this old 2009. I think that 2010 will be exciting and we have many things we hope to do, aims and goals we want to achieve. But more about that some other time. For now, I hope you all have lovely New Years' Eve and all the best for 2010.

Christmas week

We only need this much snow for this country to get into chaos:



We've had some cold and snowy weather here lately which caused chaos in our transport system. When I say cold and snowy, most of my American friends would think I am talking about 5 feet of snow and very very cold temperatures. No!! For us in the UK any little sign of snow means it's snowy and anything below 34 degrees is freezing. I know, I know, we are all moaning about nothing but this country is not designed to deal with snow and cold. So the trains have been a mess since last Friday which meant that for 2 out of 3 days I worked from home. Not bad, if you ask me...

Xmas festivities have totally taken over our lives. On Friday night there was a Xmas party in the Officers' Mess and it was loads of fun. I would post some photos but some people would hate me if I do that. So no photos.... For now (*insert evil laugh*). Yet again we were the last married couple there (this really needs to change!!!) with other young officers and some of the girlfriends. We got home at 4 am. OMG!!!! I didn't drink but I was completely trashed for the rest of the weekend. Wow, I am not a spring chicken any more and late nights really take their toll these days. I remember the days at University when we used to go out like this every night. And be at lectures the following morning. Not any more.

So I wish I didn't have to work these days but I do. We have half a day tomorrow (Xmas eve) and then no work until Tuesday next week. Woo hoo!!!