But this weekend, I have given myself 3 whole days off training. WOW. So I have had a good ole catch up on the computer. I've also had time to check out a weeks training at Club La Santa in Lanzarote for the beginning of May so really hope I can get out there. Chris even got a roast dinner cooked for him today which has been a thing of the past lately. Not because I haven't had the time to cook it but because I train for 2 hours on a Sunday evening and can't do that after a belly full of roasties, so hence, if I can't have a roastie, no one can!
And why, you may ask, have I given myself three days off training? Well, it's because
MISSION HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED.
Back in July 2011, I needed a goal. The channel swim attempt was all over and I was a lost soul again. I needed to set myself a target. I had oodles of distance training under my belt but the end result was that my speed had completely disappeared. I didn't even have a 25metre dash in me. 2 extra stone in weight had gradually found itself attached to my middle and I needed to sort myself out.
So target number 1 was obvious. I had to lose weight. Target number 2 - I had to find my speed again.I never managed to break the 25min mile last year for open water and for me, this was awful. I was doing them in the pool in sub 22mins just a few years ago so not breaking 25mins was hard to swallow.
So, target set. Lose 1.5 stone in weight and complete 40 x 100's swim and rest off 90secs before 1 April 2012. Best thing for me when setting targets is to say them out loud. Print them on face book. Type them in me blog and tell every Tom, Dick and Harry of me intentions, even the milkman if necessary. Tell the World. This is how it works for me. Once Ive announced it - I HAVE TO DO IT.
From July 2011 right through to December 2011, I had lost a whopping - wait for it - 6lbs. Crap. Then off I went on a two week Caribbean Cruise and put the whole lot back on again.
Then I was ill for 5 weeks and couldn't train, then it was Christmas. I was no farther forward than I was in July. I was training hard but could only come in on about 86 secs on the first 100m, then 89, then 91.
So new years resolution - Pull yourself together.
I joint a fabulous website called MYFITNESS PAL. I told it what I needed to weigh before April, I told it what I weigh now and IT told me my maximum daily calorie intake if I wanted to achieve it. Oooh dear, that's not a lot of calories to survive on. However, great thing about this programme is that it calculates exercise calories for you and adds them to your daily allowance. I soon worked out that a hard 2.5hr F/S session burns 2,000 calories. Result! Now I could actually eat loads as long as I trained loads. I became addicted to the programme to the extent that if I came home from work only having 250 calories left for my evening meal, I would work out what I wanted to eat and then MYFITNESSPAL would tell me how many hours I have to swim for tonight in order to get the dinner I wanted. God this sounds so sad when I write it down, but this is what I have been doing and whether its sad or not - it worked for me.
So by the end of January 2012, the weight was shifting pretty quickly but the speed in the pool was still not looking good. So, another radical change of plan. Stop killing myself with long distance work. I've got the endurance now, I've got the stamina - start sprinting again. So I started doing 25's with loads of rest and at the beginning I was gasping for air after just 1! Jesus, how the hell am I gonna do 160 lengths in one hour at this speed.
But once my Memory Muscles had kicked back in, I soon remembered what it feels like to do 25's in 15/16secs. And it only took 2-3 weeks of doing sprint work before I was repeating these times swim and rest off 30. I then started bringing in the 100's and was amazed that I was coming in sub 80!! All I needed to do now was keep repeating it - that wasn't so easy.
Throughout March I had several attempts at my target. I needed to know how close I was, coz 1st of April was just round the corner. I managed 11 one day, then next time only managed 10. Jesus, how the hell am I gonna do 40. I kept hearing Gray's (great swimming friend) voice in my head from last summer "Why don't you set yourself sensible targets Lorraine"? He has no idea how many times I have revisited that sentence and has no idea that it was that sentence that helped me to achieve my goal. I had to prove him wrong.
The Sunday before 'D' day, I prepared to do it. Nice lay in, relaxing day, plenty of the right fluids/nutrition and off I went, the little saddo I am with my self-inflicted mission on tow. I managed a lousy 6.
On the Wednesday before 'D' day, I managed 27! And the only reason I had to stop at 27 was because some stupid kid that could hardly swim, crossed the lane rope and I had to stop to check she was OK. She was only about 10years old, could barely tread water. I was so flaming angry with her and the lifeguards that I just screamed at the little brat "Do you cross the road without looking?" I felt awful afterwards because how were they supposed to know what I was doing but I was so close to doing it, that it infuriated me.
Friday morning at the crack of dawn, texts went off to fellow swimmers, I need a pace-maker and I need one tonight. 40 x 100 swim and rest off 90secs please. Any volunteers? That's the great thing about facebook and texting - just send the message out there and all those nutters who understand where I am coming from - came forward. But - not with what I wanted to hear. Sorry, I'm away this weekend. Sorry Im working etc etc.
But then came the BEEP I was waiting for. One nice little text popped up from my good friend Andy Jopson'. "Well, I'm flying out to Gerona at the crack of dawn in the morning, but I will try to get my packing done and if you could leave it till late evening, I will come and pace you". That's some friend for you isn't it? He did that for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. x.
As the pool was so hot, we did them in batches of 10 with a maximum of 1min between each ten to drink. It was necessary as I had learnt from my previous 27 which had left me red faced and having palpitations purely down to the heat in the pool, that there had to be some cold drinks consumed throughout the challenge to avoid spontaneous combustion. I packed my drink with ice cubes to help reduce my temperature.
And for some very very strange reason, I found it easy. I just sat on Andy's toes and I just focused on 10 at a time. He paced it brilliantly for me. He started at sub 85's which was really comfortable and then towards the end, I was just reaching for the wall at 86/87, taking a deep breath and pushing off again.
I guess it would be easy to say that swimming in someones draft made it easier for me, but I don't care how I did it, I just know I finally did it. And with it looking so doubtful just 2 weeks ago, I was chuffed to bits so if anyone wants to accuse me of drafting, then so be it.
Now being the real odd ball I am, I woke up Saturday morning feeling somewhat empty - Now what do I do. I no longer have a target.
Oh yes you do Bettsy - Break that 25mins for the mile in the open water this year and break 2hrs.45 for those 10k events.
