This last week should of been week 9 of my 40 week Ironman training plan and would of included 10 hours of training, 4.75 cycling, 1.5 swimming, 2.75 running and 1 hour doing strength work. However, its becoming increasingly clear that I wont be resigning up to the Ironman this year since I fear even a reduced form of lockdown may last quite a long time. I mean who knows but it does seem we are unlikely to go back to normal anytime soon.

So for the above reason I’m in no mans land a bit….how much training should I do? Am I sticking to my schedule? What would be the point? Or should I just do a reduced version to stay fit and then resurge with it all next year. Or should I plan some new goals like working on my strength and speed. Hmmm 🤔. These are things I need to think about and have yet to decide on.

Last week I actually did 7.5 hours of training, 2.5 hours of cycling, zero swimming, 2 hours of running and 3 hours of strength work. Lockdown simply lends itself to a different split in what you do. Oh I should add 1 hour of baking and several hours of eating the results of said baking….oh and an hour on my painting. It’s a work in progress, I need to spend more time on it and sort out the perspective which is def. wonky at the moment.

On Sunday I was on the turbo outside which is a lovely place to do this as it gets very very hot on the turbo. If you’ve never been on one, then expect to sweat/drip onto the floor. No really! So being outside you can avoid this mishap.

However, as you can see from the picture I was not very happy. This was because my temporary tooth had fallen out and I was in a lot of pain, so here is mad happy husband vs less happy in pain me.

Monday was my rest day so no training at all but we went for a walk after work. We are so lucky around here as its easy to socially distance. I feel sorry for people in densely populated areas as they probably think they are the only ones going out for a walk and nope there are loads of others and its impossible to meet the guidelines then. All we meet on our walks are cows and horses.

Today was my busy training day. I turboed at lunch, ran after work and followed it up with circuits with the lads at home in the garden. I felt good on the bike, rubbish on the run and spent the duration of the circuits fantasising about eating fajitas (what we are having for tea). I will admit food does motivate me at times 😂

I started my day so so excited 😀. It was my turn to make the drive to Tesco to do the weekly food shop!!!! Ok, it doesn’t sound exciting but life has changed somewhat. Just being able to drive and listen to the radio was awesome enough but I felt like i was going on some kind of out of body experience adventure, queuing up 2 metres apart with a scarf around my mouth. The actual shopping experience was like playing a game of bingo waiting for your numbers to come up, will they have it in or wont they? One customer was wearing a mask (fair enough) but also decided to do the outing in his slippers.

I saw more of this casual dress sense on my long run today. I was running past a local Tesco express and was somewhat bemused when I saw a ‘household’ queuing in their onesies and dressing gowns. Clearly I’m overdressing when I go out by wearing Jeans 🤔. Felt great on my run; when you train you have great sessions/days or even weeks and rubbish days or weeks and sometimes there seems to be no rational reason why. This week has been great and I’ve found it hard to not sprint it out on every run and bike ride. I hope my legs forgive me.

The next bit of excitement in my day was having a temporary filling done by my husband. A colleague told me you can get your own kits (who’d of known eh). You get the mixture, a spatula and a little mirror and everything. I’ve always been an oddball and love going to the dentist, so the thought of lying back in our recliner chair whilst he fixed the whole in my teeth was very relaxing. Clearly he should start a new job as a dentist as he did a great job and I look forward to making it through isolation without further pain. 😁

I sacked off my bike ride this morning for a laze about do nothing for a few hours start to the day instead. I will admit I felt really weary and sometimes you just need to sit still 😝.

I spent the next hour or so working as I’ve realised recently that whilst working at home has its upsides (fetching cappuccinos from the kitchen, putting your laundry on at lunch), the downsides include speed of working remotely and this ultimately means you need to extend your working day or week in order to keep on top of things. Ah well every silver lining and all that.

Hubby and I then did circuits with our lads in the garden and maybe pushed them a bit too hard whoops 😬

Otherwise in the week what was weird…….well what isn’t weird really? The new way of shopping metres apart on crosses, only going outside once a day for exercise or for your necessary shop, not visiting your loved ones, chatting to friends online, working out online, doing most things online really. It’s odd how quickly this is all becoming the norm. I wonder if we will all continue with these things when we are allowed out again to roam, party and socialise.

I’ve found myself addicted to reading jokes on ‘spread the cheer whilst corona is here’ on facebook, laughing like an insane person at the silliest things. Good tv is becoming increasingly difficult to find or perhaps I’m just becoming fussier, gaming seems to be my new hobby of the moment. Happy to receive recommendations for good tv to watch by the way.

We put our teddy in the window following a note on facebook and a WA group that the kids are going on a bear hunt counting teddies (how cute).

So the positives…well I managed 4 runs this week (yes on different days), 3 circuit/gym style workouts in the back garden and 1 bike ride. I am amazed at how much community spirit I see on various groups on facebook and our local neighbours, we are cooking more as a family, spending more time together as a family and the “kids” are helping out more around the house.

So I wonder what this next week will bring…

Ok so I’ve pulled out of the Ironman for this year for obvious reasons but I’m continuing to train, be it on a somewhat reduced basis. Yesterday i went for a gorgeous bike ride through Marple Bridge and Charlesworth. I didn’t stop to take a picture as I was trying to get a pb for the entire loop. I managed it woohoo, reducing my time from 1hour and 1 minute to 1 hour 😂.

My only other activity yesterday was playing pseudo personal trainer to my son and step son as they trained in the back garden. We set up circuits, 3 stations in each circuit, 45 seconds on each station and 3 reps. Here they are, one doing wall sits and the other bicep curls. Well done lads.🙌

Well we are living in crazy times and I’m not sure it’s all sunk in yet. Still thankfully I remain optimistic about everything, perhaps naively, perhaps wishfully but none the less optimistic that things will get back to normal in few months ish ish.

I will continue to train for the Ironman although swimming maybe an issue for a while, may have to come back to that later.

In the meantime I’ll focus on what I can do, rather than what I can’t. I can run and cycle as much as I want and the roads should be quieter. I can search cookbooks and try out new recipes and I will be inventive when the ingredients I need are not on the shelves. I can still ‘meet’ friends and family via Skype/ Zoom etc and am planning a ‘night out’ with a lovely group of friends via Zoom and accompanied by gin and tonics. 🍸🍸

I hope everyone stays well, isn’t facing too much stress and can find some gold at the end of the rainbow… the elusive bog roll ✌️