Firsts

Not much has been happening in my world lately. At least that is my excuse for not blogging. I remember that one of my New Year's resolutions was to blog more - see how long this has lasted?!

We've had glorious weather here in the UK last week. It was sooo nice that it breaks my heart looking outside right now when it is pouring down. To see how nice the weekend weather was have a look at this photo - taken whilst driving from Dover to London - glorious.

I don't think we've seen such blue skies here since August last year. Of course, my mood that day only got spoiled when I got stuck here - just outside London

I hate being stuck in traffic, it is just such a waste of time. Anyway, now that you have seen what a great weather we had, do not be envious, it is pretty horrendous out there right now.

Last week was quite exciting for me for several reasons. There were some firsts. First, I've joined Swiss Cottage masters swim on Monday morning and loved it. Admittedly I was one of the slowest people there but who cares? I loved it. They have swims every morning from 6-7:30 which is ideal for me. The only downside is that it is in North-West London and I live in South West. So it takes me about 35-40 mins riding. But riding through streets of London at 5 am is absolutely amazing. Especially as I get to ride through Hyde Park - the Olympics 2012 triathlon venue. I was loving it.

Another "new" for me is the new coach. I have been toying with an idea of changing my coach for a while as I just didn't think that he was the right "fit" for me. It was a hard decision to make but now I am so glad that I've done it - Jen Harrison has agreed to coach me and I am thrilled. She has already been amazing and I can't wait for what's ahead of us. Thanks Jen.

OK, ok some of you may know that I got a year older yesterday. Had a pretty chilled day of relaxing with some friends which included some amazing sushi. A friend of mine and I ordered so much that in the end we had to leave some. I NEVER, EVER had a "I can't eat any more sushi" moment - so this one was the first. I didn't go to the US because Shaun was diving in Belize for a week with the West Point scuba club (such a hard life, I know) and they were coming back only late on Saturday night so there was no point for me to go if he wasn't going to be there. Instead I am flying this Friday until Monday and I have used my air miles and treated myself to first class flight - so I will either be doing this

or this

Have a great week everyone.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, no

"No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." - Samuel Johnson



Pictured above is Richmond Park - the greenest area in Central London where I've spent few hours riding this weekend. So three yeahs for that :-) It was lovely - it is just so nice to be able to ride outside without the cold and the wind and, obligatory English rain. This was my first proper ride outside this year and I loved every minute of it. I wasn't actually planning to ride in Richmond Park, but to ride through it on my way to Box Hill where I would meet few friends who were doing a duathlon simulation. But somehow, when I entered the park, I thought, maybe I can do few loops. And so few loops turned into 3 hours of riding the loops (I must have gone mad). But it was really nice, early Saturday morning, there were some runners doing their group long runs training for London marathon and there were a lot of riders. I don't think I've ever seen that many riders in Richmond Park. And as I got passed by the fast group of London roadie club London Dynamo

I thought that I have just bagged myself another goal for this year - to be able to ride with these guys by the end of the year. Hard work ahead I can see. But I think I can and will do it.

After the ride I decided to run for 30 mins straight after I got back and those 30 mins were awful. I could feel this horrible, sharp pain on the inside of my right ankle and towards the calf. I was actually doubting that I would be able to finish the run. 30 mins!!!!! Anyway, that afternoon it didn't actually feel too bad and although I could feel some discomfort it was OK. So you guess what I did on Sunday?! Yes, what a very stupid person would do - I went for my long run even though I could feel the pain. I have finished the run but needless to say, it was not a good idea.

On Monday I swam and rode to work and I also went to the gym and I could do all these things without any great pain but I was determined to see a physio asap as I didn't want to aggravate anything. So yesterday I went to see Mark Saunders at Physio4Life http://www.physio4life.co.uk/. They are Chrissie Wellington's physio when she is in London so I knew I would be in good hands. Mark was really good and straight away I was told off for running on Sunday. I like the directness because even though he says what most of us don't want to hear, he is right. I am now banned from any training for at least 2-3 days and he hopes to get me back to training and running by the end of this week. I am seeing him again tonight and on Friday. I know, I really have only myself to blame. And oh my God, is life booooring without training. But I am going to use these few days to relax, see some friends and do all the chores that I normally don't have time for. And of course, be miserable and feel sorry for myself.

What am I wearing???

I have finally realised this morning that for the past God knows how many months I have been going out and going to work wearing pretty much anything that I could find/throw on. So I really have no idea what happened this morning? What has changed????

Basically I keep some of my smart suits at work so that when I ride to work I have something to wear. But most of the time I decide to wear something more casual and only go for the suits if I have a meeting that day. So this morning, as usual, I throw on whatever I could find and headed for the pool. The plan was to go swimming, come back home quickly and then go to the dentist before work. So when I finished swimming and was getting ready something just clicked and I looked at myself in the mirror and thought "What the heck am I wearing"??? Needless to say, my quick trip back home turned into "find something decent to wear" trip.

I used to be a person who wasn't overly obsessed with clothes but I used to look smart and have enormous amount of clothes. And then as I got into triathlon somehow I found that now the majority of my clothes is work out clothes. And sporty stuff. Why can't I look like SJP from SATC???? Perhaps I should make more effort from now on. Oh, I don't know.... it seems like too much work.

All work no play!!

Often I read other people's blogs where they say that they haven't been blogging because they had nothing to say. And every time I think, oh no, that was quite an interesting post so of course you have stuff to say. Right now I am going to be one of those people - I really haven't been blogging recently for two reasons: first - I really have had nothing interesting to say, and second - work has been hectic so I didn't have much spare time (but somehow I always find time for facebook, interesting!!).

Work last week has been manic and I have spent Monday to Wednesday in the office pretty much until midnight. So I trained very, very little - managed to swim three days and also managed one run. Argh!!! I was just really really tired and couldn't find any time where I could squeeze a session in. On Thursday afternoon I caught a flight to NYC (yay!!!) but spent pretty much the whole flight working. But I got upgraded to first class (or "upper class" as Virgin call it) so at least I was working in luxury. The only problem with flying first class is that business and economy seem cr*p.

I dad a lovely long weekend over there. On Friday night there was Infantry Ball at West Point and Shaun and I went. We had lots of fun with friends and it made us realised that once he leaves the US and comes back to the UK this summer we will really really miss that place.



Here is a photo of two of us at the ball - I look really tired (AND jet lagged)

On Saturday we had West Point marathon team over for lunch which was really lovely. Last year Shaun was coaching girls' rugby team and even though they were nice girls I didn't really have much in common with them. This year, with the runners, it's completely different story and they were all really nice and funny. We were all planning to do 25km Boston Build-up race on Sunday in CT but the race was cancelled due to the weather and on Sunday morning I headed out on my own to do 2 hour run. Oh my God, it was freezing. I don't think I've ever felt that cold on a run. It took me forever to warm up afterwards.

After the run I had my breakfast and my lunch... and my snack... and Shaun just looked at me and said "You eat a lot". That was it, if he says so it must be true as he is the only one who usually says that I am silly when I complain about food/weight etc. So from today I am on a mission to eat better. And yes, less.... I will try but we will see.

Got back to the UK yesterday morning so it is back to the usual routine. Have a great week!!!