oh crap!

it's 3 hours 18 hours to go till what I suspect will be 24 hours of pain :/ and if i'm honest i'm less than excited!

This week I attempted a 5km swim in the bloody freezing Bala lake.. around half the field dropped out so i'm quite pleased with myself for managing 2 out of 3 laps.. esp as most of those who finished had an extra couple of  layers of fat!! However, in the process I think i've pulled a muscle / aggravated my hip flexor :( but hopefully 3 days of complete rest will rest it enough..

My preparation hasn't actually been too bad recently, i rode 100km of red/black trails last week across Penmachno, Llandegla and Coed Y Brenin and had alot of fun doing it. I also, after a couple of downhill sessions, bought a downhill (ok, freeride) bike.. and love it... :D so after this weekend, i'm going to be looking at downhill stuff for a while instead.. give my knees a chance to sort themselves out.

I also went to the zoo :) Not that it'll help me this weekend, but was good fun all the same! next update should be friday with all the preparation bits and pieces - EEKS!

Quick update before I collapse into bed!

Well I managed it! 12 hours of spinning and I am now UTTERLY shattered :) but i thoroughly enjoyed it and raised a total of £377.70 for Breakthrough Breastcancer. All throughout today I was amazed by how encouraging and generous members, residents and staff were and it does make me feel like I will be able to make a difference :)

I'm now off for a long bath before collapsing into bed, ready for work at 7am tomorrow!! I'll try and post a proper account of the day when I get in tomorrow, after a much needed physio at 3 o'clock!

Jene xx

T-17 hours!

Well tomorrow's the big day. The first of my three big challenges. A 12 hour spin at the gym I work at, St Davids Village Health & Fitness.

So firstly, a big thanks to them for letting me take up a small patch of reception for 12 hours and plaster info about the spin on the notice boards and reception! I'm now off to tesco to stock up on pasta, bananas and chocolate (the ultimate endurance food?!) before having an early night and letting myself panic a bit about what i've let myself in for!

What's amazed me so far is how much support i've been offered and just how willing so many people are to support me and Breakthrough :)

I don't really have much else to say! I just felt I needed a post incase I die during tomorrows spin - it could happen, i'm really not that fit!


ahhhh! I'll update tomorrow with how it went...

Jene xx

It's always good to post after a good day...

Thursday's Post (which blogspot didn't like the first time round):

The sun is shining, I quite enjoyed work (shock horror), i've ridden the black at llandegla without my knees hurting, clearing all the jumps and generally just enjoying pootling along. All finished off with two cups of tea (one of which was stolen from the boss up at llandegla before he had a chance to claim it) and  a creme egg :)

Now I admit that this isn't really gearing up for a 24 hour race, especially as instead of going round the blue afterwards (as planned), I went and played on the pump track :) But as I keep reminding anyone who questions just how much training i'm doing.. good bike handling skills will be essential once I start to get tired!

Despite this, it's not been a bad week of training, I managed 90 minutes of spin on tuesday, a 60 minute run (slow 10km) on Wednesday as well as the 21km black route today. With plans to do the red and blue tomorrow to get the miles in :)

Then, next tuesday, at 8am I am going to start a 12 hour spin in the gym... and I suspect its going to be torture... mostly to my bum! I just need to persuade my boss that he'd like me to spin in the reception so I have people to talk to :) If not, i'm going to be slightly loony by the end of the day stuck in a spin room!

In preparation for the resulting knee pain, I've also booked in with my masseuse for the day after the spin. I could probably do with one this week but unfortunately after last weeks crashed I still have too many bruises for anyone to go anywhere near my left thigh. I wish I knew what was up with my knee as it's fairly frustrating not knowing if i'm doing any long term damage.

Finally, on a non-training note. I'm actually happy. Not that I wasn't happy before or anything. I've just had a few ups and downs over the last three years so it's nice to have no pressure from anywhere... i'm just enjoying riding bikes, lurking at Llandegla, having a job that lets me train lots and living at home for a bit before actually doing something with my life.

Now i'm off to TESCO to find some ice cream - the diet has well and truly gone to shit this week, actually this whole month if i'm honest and i've put on alot of the weight I spent December and January losing. With adventures planned to Cardiff at the end of the month and my birthday coming up I can't see that changing much! Time to accept that 57kg is a fairly stable weight for me and it's just too much effort to shift what's left!

And if you've read this far.. well done (that was ramble-y and not much tri related, even by my standards!)

Jene x

Friday: ARGHHH! my STUPID knee was buggered today :( so I only did the blue at llandegla, most of which I pedalled with one leg... 3 rest days coming up in a attempt to complete this 12 hour spin. God knows how i'll manage 24 hours. But then again, its Friday the 13th, maybe I shouldn't be surprised and it'll all be fine in the morning!

well i'm overdue an update.

Two crashes, about 20 bruises and 200 creme eggs later and mountain mayhem is suddenly just around the corner! Next week I have a 12 hour cycle in the gym to test my knees and see how I get on. Although I suspect its going to be HORRID!

I've also, in a fit of impulse after a sunny ride, entered Deg yn Llandegla - or, for those not in the know, a ten hour enduro mountain bike race. I may change my mind after mountain mayhem though! But it would be nice to race on my doorstep! I probably should have just done the ten hour race in the first place...

Work was too long today.. im really too tired to update properly. tomorrow is the day for an update. honestly.

:)

61 days.. 15 hours.

I am training for an endurance event... now with that in mind I will summarise my training the last two weeks:

I have been up to Llandegla 10 out of 12 days [edit: 13 out of 15 days...]... (sounds good so far), and during that time I have ridden the trials only once! Instead I have spent about 20 hours on the pump track...

So whilst I am now less likely to fall off during mountain mayhem, I probably won’t be fit enough to finish!

I did also do 2 hours on the road bike and a couple of hours in the pool as well as some fluffy weights sessions... but not really anything I could count as proper training :/

My excuse? My knees are a complete pain and anything longer than 1 hour on the bike starts giving me problems – which doesn’t bode well for a race in less than two months! Argh! Co-codomol anyone? More physio booked and at some point i’m praying for a miracle!

However, having said all this, the most exciting thing in my life at the moment? Apart from my new bike, which i still love and gets far more comments than my actual riding.. is the NEW DOCTOR WHO... next Saturday! Eeee. Yes, anyone who sponsors me is, in fact, sponsoring someone with a mental age of about 8.

Thus far, these blog posts haven’t been all that training related and i would attempt to change that fact, except i’m still not training. Tomorrows plan involves Llandegla and a jump bike so it doesn’t look like it’ll get better in the immediate future either... it’s just more fun to jump than spend hours on the bike! Although I will need a couple of days off at some point as i'm accumulating enough bruises to look like i'm being abused - although only by someone about 15 inches high, as all the bruises are shin level... no skirts for me this summer.

xx

Urgh! rain, rain..go away!

73 (i think!) days till mountain mayhem...and fortunately my sports masseuse has just worked (another) miracle and after an hour of massage on friday I managed two full 45 min spins last night with only mild knee discomfort :)

The physio has said my patella isn't tracking straight...3-4mm to far inwards due to a weak Vastus medialis (which, slightly irrelavantly, makes me think of Vashta Narada (Doctor Who) everytime anyone mentions it!) and tight ITB/glutes/ most others things... but as i've had knee pain for a couple of years on and off I dread to think how much damage i've done to the cartilage around my knee!!

I also had another hour of PT last night and after some upside down exercises (something called candlesticks)... which i really didn't like as a) there actually were other people on the gym to witness me having absolutely no core control whatsoever and b) they didn't feel like there were working anything other than my arms... having said that, my abs were in bits today and it hurt to laugh/ mop the floor/ eat chocolate etc... so maybe i'll do them more often :/

Apart from that i'm still not doing that many hours training... and i'm spending most of my time playing around on the pump track and jumps area up at Llandegla.. so whilst my bike skills may be up to scratch i'm unlikely to actually finish the race... but, Dan was the first to utter the words "so...are you actually doing mountain mayhem then?" on tuesday... which makes me even more determined to do it... hence writing a load of rubbish on here... just to make sure I am at least thinking about doing lots of training :)


now i'm off for an early (ish) night so that i'm bright eyed and bushy tailed for a Speed Awareness course tomorrow morning... thank-you North Welsh Police... it better not be sunny or the poor instructor will need to deal with me in a sulk for the full 4 hours... hm

xx

eighty-something days to go...

...and i've developed an irrational hatred of anyone who can train daily and not have a niggle somewhere... since increasing my hours on the bike again, I now have pain in both knees! So at the moment this challenge may be one of those races that I go into with very little preperation and just hope for the best!

i feel like i need an update..

...but i've not really done anything this week...

• 7 ish hours in the saddle since monday
• +2kg in toast and jam! 
• still no chocolate or cheese whatsoever (sadface!)
• 7 days in a row at work 
• an hour playing on the weights at work (nothing i could call training though!)
• a TERRIFYING first ride in the dark using my new lights :) pictures to follow shortly

I'm also a little bit worried that my knee is starting to niggle after about an hour of riding - which could be a problem if i'm planning on riding for 24! But i've whined at Dan (my PT) and I now have a nice knee/ lower back strengthening programme to work on over the next 3 weeks and then hopefully I can start putting in some long rides...

unprepared? me?! :D

I've got my Challenge £1000 ID card through from Breakthrough as well, so I can go and order some fundraising bits now too, which is fun... pink pins, balloons and posters! It' starting to feel like i'm actually doing something properly now :)

The rest of this weeks plans involves toast, cake and short rides... i'll start properly next week! I also need to find someone who loves me or will help me for chocolate/beer/cake and take some photo's of me riding so I can put them on sponsorship photos... but that would require organisation... and friends living nearby!


it's time for more toast i think... i miss cheese...


xx

Argh - failure!

Okay - So it looks like the Lent challenge is a non-starter! I can't live of fruit/veg/seeds without being STARVING all the time (esp whilst i'm working!!) So lent has been abandoned - I'm going to just give up meat/alcohol/dairy (inc. chocolate) and all sweets/crisps/junk as a personal challenge, but bread/rice/pasta is back on the menu... and as that doesn't sound quite as epic as a complete fast (I lack the willpower to starve myself!) i'm not going to go down the sponsorship route and instead will focus on Mountain Mayhem and the Lands End-John O'Groats challenge instead...

The first of which (mountain mayhem) suddenly seems quite close! 97days! I did just spend £300 on new bike lights though which I am VERY excited to go and try on wednesday! :D Even if it has cost me the best part of two weeks wages!

Despite this, I've done very little training! Although i'm off for a back-to-back 90 mins of Spinning on tuesday after an hour of training with Dan so that should kick start things a little bit!

xx

Cravings....

peanut butter... cheese & pickle sandwiches... pecan nuts.... CHOCOLATE... salt and vinegar sticks


that is all. 




I'm going to the gym to take my mind of salty carbohydrates 


arggghhhhhhhhh!




I also spent 20 minutes staring longingly at a jar of pickled onions before realising that an onion is, in fact, a vegetable and so pickled onions aren't on the banned list... i'm going mad already :/ 


xx

Beginning challenges 1 & 2...

Pre Lent Prep! 
Yesterday I ate... cheerios's, apples (x 3), apple & butterscotch cake, cheese & pickle sandwich (am), cheese on toast (pm), jelly snakes, 9 pancakes and caramel chocolate buttons... and at that point my memory fails... but i do remember going to bed feeling very sick!! 


And just for girly purposes (whereby there is always an ongoing weight loss goal)...at the start of my challenge I weighed 56kg exactly and my scales reckon I had a body fat % of 24.2%... we'll see where that ends up! 


Challenge 1, Day 1: LENT

• Craving? Macaroni Cheese

All I can say so far is that I feel like a sheep! I need to eat CONSTANTLY to try and stay full! Which has it's positives I suppose as I get to eat all the time... not so good for weight loss though! Today i've mostly been eating raisins, apples and salad... although I covered the salad in tomato juice, so it's almost like a salad cereal, although not as satisfying. Tomorrow's plan will involve melon and avocado (though not together). 


I know i've only just started... but I think I may actually manage this!  



Challenge 2, Day 1: Mountain Mayhem (MM)

• 42 minutes on the spin bike

Well, the plan had been to go up to Llandegla and go for a ride round the 18km red (or even the 11km blue if I was feeling lazy)... and whilst I made it up there - and avoided the temptation to buy a creme egg... I then just spent two hours in the skills area playing on the jumps :D 




not much more to report at the moment so i'm going to try and get an early-ish night as i'm in work at 6 tomorrow!

My Challenge £1000

This year I have decided to rise money for Breakthrough Breastcancer... and am taking on their Challenge 1000.  A challenge of raising £1000 throughout 2011. 


I am doing this for several reasons, the first and most relevant is that my mum was diagnosed, albeit with early stage, breast cancer this year after finding a lump. At this point, following treatment (mammograms, biopsies, mastectomy etc) she is off work and just waiting for the next set of results, and I wanted to do something to make a difference for someone elses mum who maybe didn't notice her lump quite so early. 


As I'm hoping to raise £1000, I am planning 3 "big" fund-raising adventures and several smaller ones:


1) LENT: Starting on wednesday! In recent years I have successfully given up alcohol (as a university fresher!), chocolate (second year at uni) and peanut butter (the biggest challenge of the lot!). This year I am going one step further and will be attempting to go for 40 days and 40 nights by eating ONLY raw fruit and veg. Which for me will mean giving up peanut butter, ice cream and starbucks! 


2) OS Mountain Mayhem on 18/19th June: A 24 hour solo mountain bike race. But I won't go into too much detail about this as my entry is still pending and I know places are limited so i'm not going to get my hopes up just yet! 


3) Lands End to John O' Groats in September (or June if I don't get the Mountain Mayhem entry!): A 10 day solo cycling trip from southwest england to northwest scotland... something I've always wanted to do, and that with the motivation of raising money for Breakthrough, should finally happen!


Smaller (but no less challenging!) Events will hopefully include Cardiff Half Marathon in October with Jess Deane (yes, Jess... you will be doing this with me!) and the Deva Diva's Triathlon, as well as others as and when I find them... but hopefully a long distance swim around somewhere warm! 




If you've read this far, well done!  Now for bit about breast cancer: 


Breakthrough Breast cancer is a UK charity fighting breast cancer through research, campaigning and education with a vision to "work for a future free from the fear of breast cancer". So this appeals to the scientific student side of me! 



Breakthrough is the largest and most influential UK breast cancer charity, investing nearly £53 million 

in groundbreaking research since 1999. While supporting the 

work of over 250 top scientists dedicated to breast cancer research.

And a bit about breast cancer itself:

• Nearly 48,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the UK.
• Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK.
• 1 in 8 women in the UK will develop breast cancer at some point in their lifetime.
• Around 1,000 women die of breast cancer every month in the UK.
• Around 300 men are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the UK.
• More women than ever in the UK are surviving breast cancer thanks to better awareness, better screening and better treatments.

Only 1 in 5 cases of cancer diagnosed tend to have some form of family history link - This is important as researchers believe more than half of breast cancers could be prevented if the causes were understood. So the Breakthrough Generations Study was launched– the world’s largest, most in-depth study of the genetic, environmental, behavioural and hormonal causes of breast cancer. Tracking more than 100,000 women for the next 40 years by collecting blood samples as well as questionnaire responses, the study is considered exceptional by world scientists and of critical international importance. There's a bit more about how lifestyle choices can affect your risk of getting cancer here: www.breakthrough.org.uk/riskreport

Thank-you for reading all my rambling, hopefully there'll be more updates as I go on, probably just whining about the lack of chocolate for the next six weeks! And if you feel I deserve some form of sponsorship (!) or believe in what I'm raising money then please go to my justgiving page at the following address and give as much or as little as you can:

http://www.justgiving.com/jene

Thank - you! Jene xx