Trispiration

The idea of a triathlon has been sneaking up on me for a while. A big nudge has been having the Staffs Ironman 70.3 starting at nearby Chasewater. I went to watch a friend start his race and loved the atmosphere at the swim.

Further trispiration came from reading ‘Operation Ironman‘ by George Mahood and more recently ‘The Unlikely Triathlete‘ series by Deborah Longman. These two authors made me realise that even normal people can become triathletes.

So….I am going to enter Lichfield Triathlon. It’s on the 29th April so I have approx 3 months to train for it.

This blog is going to track my progress.

My experience in a flotation tank

As a mother of a young child, sometimes all I want is a bit of peace and quiet.

I heard The Minimalists discuss flotation or isolation tanks on their podcast. They described it as the ultimate relaxation. Sensory deprivation and weightlessness for an hour. You come out feeling amazing. I was intrigued.

After a Google search I found a local place and asked for a voucher for my birthday.

I was really looking forward to it. A new experience! I enjoy massages, relaxing and meditation, so I was sure I would enjoy this.

I arrived and was shown around the facility by the friendly member of staff. She showed me to my chamber.

I had a sheet of instructions to follow :

Put in earplugs

Have a shower

Take off jewellery

Cover any small cuts with vaseline

Step into the flotation tank

Sit down and then when ready, lie back and float.

I have a pretty short attention span so I had my shower and got into the tank. Then got back out as I’d forgotten to put vaseline on my arm where I burned it last week.

Back in the tank. I lay back and floated. I got used to the feeling while the lights were still on and the music was still playing. Kind of relaxing although I struggled to relax my neck totally.

Realised I had left my rings on and so got up and opened the door and chucked them out.

Settled back down again. The lights started to fade lower and lower and lower at increments. All fine. At the last increment it was suddenly pitch black. Completely black – are my eyes open or closed kind of black.

I immediately felt panic rise and it was almost like someone had turned up the volume in my head.

The lady had told me about a little rail on my right hand side. There was a button above it where I could put the lights back on, and a spray and flannel in case any salt water got in my eyes.

I scrambled about for the light switch and put it on. As soon as I sat up the water from my forehead dripped down into my eyes and made them sting. I sprayed and wiped them for a bit and lay down when I was ready. I turned the light back off and floated while holding onto the rail for a bit to get my bearings.

When I had got used to it, I let go again. Immediately it felt as though I was zooming over the other side of the tank. But obviously I wasn’t. My head was struggling to cope with the lack of spatial awareness and was making things up. I was floating, dizzy, zooming around the tank, while being completely still.

The music was staying on for fifteen minutes and then there was going to be 40 minutes of complete sensory deprivation. Eventually the music faded out and I was alone with my thoughts. And The Greatest Showman soundtrack going round and round my head.

I found a comfortable place where my toe was ever so slightly in contact with the wall. I know it’s cheating as that was technically sensory stimulation but it helped combat the feeling of zooming. I could feel my neck stretching out and kind of clicking back into place once I started to lie back fully.

The pool was warm. It was supposed to be body temperature so that you can’t feel where the pool ends and your body begins.

Due to lack of any other stimuli I started to feel hot. Hot and a bit faint. I sat up, put the light on and opened the door. The cool air rushed in and I took a few breaths before closing the door, turning the light back off and settling down.

But it was too late, I was hot. Hot hot hot. All I could think about. Hot, sick and faint. I realised that I couldn’t have been less relaxed. I gave up.

Light on, spent some time on my knees to get used to not floating and then got out. Had a cold shower. Started to feel a bit more normal.

I still needed to get out into the fresh air so I got dressed as fast as possible and headed out of my chamber.

The lady greeted me and I said I had got too hot. She acknowledged that the first float can be a strange experience. She said that usually the second float is better as your brain can cope better as there are less unknowns. Unfortunately I doubt I will give it another go. I think my brain is too sensitive to motion and unable to switch off.

Never mind though- it was a new experience!

I now realise when I say I’d like peace and quiet, I don’t mean complete sensory deprivation. I mean a poo without someone else in the room.

Oak Park all the way!

I usually swim at Oak Park as their pool opening times work better for me. Burntwood is only open 12-1.30 during the day, the rest of the time is school swimming.

I thought I’d risk Burntwood today as it’s much closer and I only wanted to be out of the house for a little bit.

It was crazy!! Only one lane, the rest was open. I decided to go in the lane, even though there were already four people in it. The rest of the pool was full of breast strokers and would have been impossible to keep a rhythm while I was constantly checking I wasn’t going to crash into anyone.

Needless to say, I swam fast and got the hell out as soon as possible. We were all going similar speed in the lane apart from one bloke who kept overtaking people and doing tumble turns. He must have been livid!!

From now on it is Oak Park all the way for me.

GO TRI Rugeley

I entered this last minute on Monday, thanks to a reminder from someone through one of the beginner tri groups I follow on Facebook.

The distances are shorter than a sprint, not sure if it is classified as a super sprint but it was a 250m pool swim, 7.5k bike and 2.4km run.

Turns out those distances are perfect for me!

I arrived at the leisure centre just before two and got myself registered. A bloke was there writing our race numbers on our arms and legs. Kind of wish I’d shaved and moisturised as he came into close contact with the dry and stubbly landscape that is my left calf.

Once I registered I headed over to the transition area where I met up with some lovely ladies I knew from the Go Tri training sessions at Lichfield.

A member of the team talked us through a transition demonstration.

I had a chat with one of the ladies and we decided today would be a good opportunity to test out going sockless, seeing as the run was so short.

Shortly afterwards it was time for the race briefing.

I headed into the pool changing area as my swim was the third wave. We were given a hat and called forward when it was nearly our time.

I wasn’t too worried about climbing out as the pool was level with the side. Big mistake.

My swim went pretty well, it was only ten lengths and I shared a lane for perhaps three or four of those.

Then I had to get out. All I can do is apologise for those people who had to watch me flop onto the side on my front and then manoeuvre myself onto all fours before getting up. But then again, perhaps it gave them a good laugh. In that case, you’re welcome.

The run to transition was much shorter than Lichfield and a lot less debris on the path.

I found my bike, and got my shorts, helmet, bum bag, glasses and trainers on. Off I went!

I really enjoyed the bike route. There were a few hills, but nothing where I felt I had to get off and push. They were short enough to offer a bit of respite in between. Loved it!

Nice fast downhill back to the leisure centre.

T2 was super quick, just dumped my bike, took off my helmet and got going!

The run was along a country path, and was out and back. It felt like forever before I reached the turnaround point! But my legs felt a lot better than Lichfield. I got into my running stride straight away and didn’t feel like I was dying a slow death like at Lichfield.

It was nice seeing everyone running back the other way. I said hi and well done to everyone, which got a mixed reception! I hope people don’t think I’m being patronising when I say well done as they pass me. I tried to hi-five one of the ladies I know but she totally left me hanging!

The run after the turnaround point was a pleasure (slight downhill) and then I was at the finish!

To summarise- this distance was lovely. The event was very friendly and ideal for beginners. I was chuffed to see so many women competing. I might even hazard to guess there were more women than men. It was a complete bargain at £10 entry. I will definitely be back.

I’m proud to be last lady!

I completed my first sprint triathlon today.

400m swim, 20k bike and 4ish kilometre run.

I loved it!

The setting up was a bit nerve wracking. I collected my numbers and racked my bike. I laid my shoes and socks out and perched my helmet on the bike. The people either side of me were really friendly and I actually knew two of them from my Go Tri ladies sessions I had been doing for the last few weeks.

I headed inside and got my tri suit on. We went forward for briefing in groups of six. Luckily we could choose our lanes and I grabbed one next to the steps so I didn’t have the indignity of looking like a beached whale while trying to climb out.

We set off in waves of mixed ability, so I knew I wouldn’t be the last left on the course.

My swim went well, I completed it in 13:37. I felt really good and hardly had to stop for a breather. My mind was occupied by the occasion and the other people in my lane, so before I knew it, I had done and was climbing out.

There was about a 100m path to the transition area. The path was quite muddy and had some debris on it. Thankfully nothing stuck in my feet and I found my bike.

T1 was pretty quick and smooth. A quick wipe of the bottom of my feet with my socks, on with the trainers, helmet and shorts. I had packed a jacket and gloves in case it was chilly and I was glad I had! I fetched my bike off the rack and scampered towards the mounting line.

No smooth running mount for me, I chambered aboard and saw my hubby and daughter waiting to wave me off.

The bike immediately felt tough, my legs felt heavy and my bum started hurting almost straight away.

Right from the word go I had people overtaking me on their speedy bikes with their speedy legs. I just kept trundling along, shovelling Jelly Babies in my mouth regularly and shouting ‘Hello’ to anyone coming back the other way.

The hill at the end wasn’t as tough as I had been anticipating and I arrived back at the school with a big smile on my face, knowing I had survived the bike section without a puncture.

My mum and dad had joined my little cheer squad so I waved to them at the dismount line and headed off to T2.

Again a smooth transition, maybe a bit less rushed this time as I was tired and knew I had a bit of a slog ahead of me.

The run was originally going to be 5k, but due to muddy paths it had been amended to five laps of a smaller field.

I can’t decide if the laps were a good or bad thing. It was good for being able to see my family regularly and hi-five my daughter, and good to be able to measure it mentally. But bad in the monotony of it.

It was a good job my family were there watching otherwise I almost certainly would have walked some of it! I managed to maintain a steady plod.

Finally it was my last lap and I headed off to the right to cross the finish line.

I was so chuffed to have completed my first triathlon!

I collected my time which was 1 hour, 59 mins and 3 seconds.

I checked the full results tonight and I was last lady, last but one competitor.

I’m proud of that- I hope I will provide inspiration to any would-be triers who are thinking of entering next year. They can look up the results and think to themselves that perhaps it is achievable for them.

That’s what I did, I saw the ladies who came last last year and thought, ok, I can do that.

And I did!

Shaggy!

I went to a Go Tri training session on Friday night. It is women only and we have been split into two groups. My group was swimming this week.

At poolside we got divided again into beginners, intermediate and expert. I decided to go for the beginner group as I really wanted to get back to basics and make sure my breathing is spot on.

Sarah was our coach. The first thing she had us do was sink. Harder than you think! I just kept bobbing around on the surface and couldn’t sit on the bottom to save my life. She taught us how to blow raspberries to relax and breathe from our diaphragm. I still couldn’t master it.

Another technique she tried was to say Shaggy! under the water. As in Shaggy from Scooby-doo not he of ‘Oh Carolina’ or ‘It wasn’t me’ fame.

That worked! Shagggggggaaaayy! I found myself sinking and was able to collect all of the little things off the bottom of the pool.

Next exercise was to push off from the side, arms like torpedo, kicking gently but gliding as far as possible while saying ‘Shaggggggaaaaayyy’ under the water. Once we had mastered our gliding, we then progressed to breathing once and then gliding again, maybe sculling or doing gentle front crawl. The focus was on staying relaxed, streamlined and Shagggggggaaaayy.

I found that a length was really easy, minimal effort required, and it was an almost meditative experience.

Not sure if this is different to other swimming, but for tri it will certainly conserve energy.

I asked Sarah about whether to do the torpedo glide at the beginning of every length and she said yes. I found I was breathing every four or five strokes rather than three. She also said to not get too hung up on breathing every three, just breathe when you want to.

It was a great social thing to do as well. The other two ladies in my beginner group were lovely. We’re doing running next week.

Lands End to John o Groats and a parkrun course PB!

Although it is completely obvious, it has come as some surprise to me that all of the biking and swimming that I’ve been doing has improved my running fitness.

I haven’t run for about three weeks for one reason or another, so I hadn’t got high hopes for today’s parkrun.

But the minute I started running I knew it was a good run day. I pushed it all the way round, was breathing hard but controlled, making my way steadily up the hills and enjoying the flat or downhill sections. Looking at the elevation profile you wouldn’t believe it is actually quite a challenging course. Quite a few long hills and a couple of nasty steep ones.

I beat my previous course pb by 16 seconds! I’m getting into the territory of knocking off a few seconds each time, not massive chunks like earlier in the year. I might try a flat one soon to see how close I am to sub 30.

I really have caught the cycling bug. I’m reading a new memoir- Lands End to John o Groats – cycling the Google route. Loving it! He is doing over 100 miles a day and doing it in 9 days, but I would like to make more of a leisurely trip of it and maybe take two or three weeks. Bucket list for when I’m 40 in the not too distant future? Or maybe any kind of cycling holiday. I just love the idea of cycling a bit in the morning, have lunch, cycle a bit in the afternoon, then get settled into your b&b and have a lovely exhausted sleep.I’m enjoying his style of writing and his sense of humour.

I have mentioned before my love of bios or memoirs, especially travel or training ones. This is another one I really enjoyed. I sense the LEJOG genre could have lots of reading fodder to keep me quiet over the next few weeks!

Longest ride…ever!

As usual, I woke up this morning with a bit of an idea in my head- to practice my commute in case I ever have a day where I might want to cycle to work.

Google maps said it is 11 miles door to door by bike.

The route it plotted was quiet lanes. I knew one section of about three miles would be fairly undulating but the rest of it should be OK.

I had the genius idea of using the Google maps sat nav and wearing my Aftershokz headphones so that I wouldn’t get lost and wouldn’t have to keep stopping to check the map. The Aftershokz are magic headphones that don’t block your ears so you can still hear traffic.

I did a couple of hours housework after the school run as I knew I’d be too tired afterwards. An early lunch and I was ready!

As predicted, once I got into Chorley it was hilly. This carried on for a couple of miles but after Longdon Green it was fine. I felt good at Longdon Green so I decided to carry on to Kings Bromley Co-op. This isn’t quite as far as work but I was conscious that although I might feel ok on the way out, I still had to cover the same distance back.

I knew the Co-op had a Costa machine so decided to have a coffee and a Double Decker there before heading home.

The return leg immediately felt harder, could have been a slight incline or fatigue setting in.

This is the elevation profile for the return leg. Shows why I found it harder!

The hills coming into Chorley were brutal on the way back!

Still, I managed it and am very proud of my longest bike ride ever. I really enjoyed the peace and quiet of the lanes. Might have the biking bug!

I was two hours twenty mins for the round trip of 17.7 miles with a coffee break in the middle.

Bike, bike, bike, bike

After a couple of weeks off training, I was back with a vengeance today!

My poor puncture got fixed yesterday by hubby. The vicious thorn that was the culprit was still stuck in the tyre, hence why my first attempt at puncture repair didn’t work. Once it had been removed, all sorted!

That’s the last time I risk canal paths!

No excuse for the lack of running and swimming, just been pretty busy! But my schedule is now pretty clear so I am back on it.

Today was a beautiful day. We headed to Chasewater and cycled around there for a couple of hours, with a break for coffee half way through.

After lunch I headed to rehearsal on my bike, and then cycled to the pub for dinner afterwards. After dinner cycled home again. So if I don’t include the coffee break, I had four separate cycling sessions today. (5 including coffee break). Not sure how far all in all, I didn’t record any of the routes on Strava.

Loved it! I think cycling is my favourite of the three at the moment.

Swimming is going OK, but still think my breathing isn’t right as I’m out of breath a lot. Need to empty my lungs more.

Off topic- Paul Draper Nottingham gig report

Firstly, I will publish his apology. Then I will tell you about why he apologised and my experience of the night.

Paul Draper was the lead singer in Mansun, my favourite band of the last 20 years. Mansun was the first gig I went to! They split up in early 2000s and the fans have been enjoying their extensive back catalogue ever since.

A couple of years ago, Paul decided to start recording solo material and collaborated with the very talented Anchoress to produce his album, Spooky Action, which was released last year.

I saw him in concert last September in Birmingham and he was great. Mansun had always been a phenomenal live band. They added a new dimension to their songs when playing live, and I was lucky enough to see them five times back in the day. He was just as good last year, with his new band.

This year, he announced a special tour of his solo work, plus he would perform Mansun’s first album in full.

My closest gig was Nottingham, which is about an hour away, traffic permitting.

On Monday night I drove over after work and arrived super early at the Rescue Rooms to get to the front. I bought my tour t-shirt and read my book while I waited.

Sol Croft supported and played his intense acoustic set first. He also supported the September tour and I thought he had got more confident since then.

At 8:30, the Spooky Action set began.

The first song was ‘Don’t Poke The Bear’. This song has a mega long introduction so I didn’t think anything was amiss when Paul didn’t come on straight away. He came on in time to start singing and all good.

Straight into next song, ‘Grey House’. All good, slight mess up with lyrics but that is standard for Paul.

Straight into ‘The Silence is Deafening’. At this point I started to get an uneasy feeling. Normally Paul is interacting with the audience, a bit of banter between songs etc. That night, he was moving straight into songs, not acknowledging the audience. He was drinking red wine from a glass and beckoned a roadie onto stage to fill it up for him a couple of times. He must have drunk nearly a pint of wine during the first two or three songs which seemed to tip him over the edge.

He got through the song and I commented to someone standing next to me in the crowd that he seemed really drunk. There was an uneasy atmosphere in the crowd as we were expecting Paul to talk to us between songs, but he was racing through as though he just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.

Straight into ‘Things People Want’. Now this song is a bit of a story, it’s about feeling miserable and fed up in the first verse, then moving on to appreciate things that mean the most, which aren’t material possessions or Facebook likes. I could tell something was seriously wrong when he kept repeating the same lyrics from the first verse. They keyboard player was trying to sing backing vocals but as they were different to what Paul was singing she had to give up. He stopped singing about halfway through and half heartedly played along with the band. The song came to an end.

Next song was ‘Friends Make The Worst Enemies’. This is an amazing live track and the band gave it everything to create a wall of sound. Paul started to sing, but again kept repeating lyrics and got lost, which meant the backing singer couldn’t sing either. He gave up and stopped singing altogether and then walked off the stage before the song had finished.

At first the band were laughing off Paul’s mistakes in earlier songs but they weren’t laughing now and looked really confused and awkward. The band completed the song as an instrumental. It was almost like a soundtrack of the moment as the music itself is so intense. One fan described it as this: ‘The extended instrumental outtro which the band kept going was super eerie, and seemed to last an age. I’ve never experienced anything quite like that feeling of collective tension and confusion, with a live soundtrack to accompany it. It truly was surreal. Life imitating art.‘

The band left the stage when they finished the song. The crowd gave them a clap and cheer to recognise how difficult it must be to play on when you don’t know what’s going on.

Paul’s guitar technician came on and said ‘He’ll be back on soon’ or words to that effect.

At this point I text my husband and told him that Paul seemed completely shit-faced. Not just a bit merry, but drunk to the point where you just want to slump in the corner and tell everyone to leave you alone.

I decided to go home. Even if he had come back on I didn’t want to watch him having such a public breakdown. Something had obviously gone seriously wrong and I didn’t think the stage was the best place for him.

After I got home I found out he had come back on after a 50 minute gap and carried on. He played 9 Mansun songs and according to YouTube he sat down during the penultimate one, not singing or playing and then was helped off the stage by the guitar technician.

I posted on Facebook about it.

That was my knee-jerk reaction. But it’s more than the lost time and the lost money. It’s the disappointment of knowing that the rest of the tour got an amazing gig and I got a very unpleasant experience. It’s horrible to watch someone you have followed for twenty years be so broken so publicly.

I’m not deluding myself that he is the ultimate professional and sober all of the time. But he normally functions and that night, he stopped functioning.

Slight disaster…bike, swim, bike, walk

I decided to cycle to Oak Park to swim today. On the way there I stayed on the main roads and made it in 19 mins. It was a fairly nice ride, a couple of hills but not too bad.

I parked up and swam for about twenty minutes before heading home.

On the way back I thought I’d ride along the canal, to avoid traffic and keep it fairly flat. Not a good idea.

First problem was snow – still drifted onto the path so I had to get off and walk through it in places.

Second problem, after about half a mile I came across a bridge that was blocked by workers. They had set up a pontoon to enable them to get from one side to the other but I wasn’t allowed to use it. So turned round and back through the snow. You can see where that happened on the map.

Back onto the road, I was making good progress until I came to cross over the A5. I looked down at my tyre while I was waiting for the traffic lights to turn green and noticed it was flat.

I debated pumping it up but I was about a mile from home and I didn’t think it would have stayed up. So I walked.

All in all I did about an hour and a half of exercise, it all builds stamina and resilience eh!