I do not like green eggs and ham

I’ve put my name down for the fortnight swim exercises that were offered to those competing in Challenge Wanaka.

My email arrived last Friday and it looks very achievable. Almost do-able for the likes of me.

there were a couple of things I wasn’t clear on and Rachel explained those to me.  The rest of it made perfect sense.

There were several videos from YouTube to watch to get a better understanding of what it was you were to achieve.

Got to love YouTube and other such video sharing apps.  They certainly improve “readability”.

This one in particular:

Several people have mentioned that I cross my hands over.  I accept that I do.  Some have gone on to explain the problem and what not to do.

It all sounds simple and I think I’m adopting the solution, but it feels awkward and I’m really not sure I’m doing the right thing.

Sometimes you just need another perspective and I got that from the video.  It made sense, it was like the penny dropped.

Off I went this morning repeating in my head the different sets I was to do.

I’ve never “started slow”.  I mean I’m slow all the time.  Why would you deliberately want to go slower?  But I did and it helped me get a good feel for my right arm (the one that crosses in front of me).  I found that I was able to get my hand in the water without over stretching and that I had it in line with my shoulder.  Or at least it feels like it.

The other thing I needed clarifying as the 8-10 x 50m at 1:15.  Rachel said that if I finished the 50m before 1:15, I could take the rest of the time as a rest period.  At 1:15 you start the next 50m.  You start slow and build into it so that by the time you’re at 50m you’re going flat tack.

I asked Rachel if it meant that at 1:22 to complete the 50m I could hang around at the end until 1:30. YES!

Phew, now with that sorted I knew what I was meant to do.

My first 50m was 1:06 which surprised me, but maybe I’m just confused at how long 50m takes me, I think 100m was what I’d measured in the past.

All in all I felt like I accomplished something today.  My right arm wasn’t sore like usual, but my left one was starting to ache and it doesn’t usually.  So who knows.  Maybe I’ve just never really used my left arm properly and now with getting the right arm better it’s had an affect on my body position or something.

Whatever, I’m pleased I’ve got the cross over under control.

I know you’re thinking this is about going for a ride.  Yes, it is.  But it’s also about the false start I got to my ride this morning.

Last night I swapped the test Fi:zi’k saddle I’d had on loan for about a week, to the new Selle San Marco Aspide Glamour that I’d bought off TradeMe.

After measuring that the nose was in fact down, and that the distance from the head whatever it’s called (that the spacers sit on) to the nose of the saddle matched the distance from the saddle that I was taking off, I thought all was in order and I’d be good to go.

Naturally being a new unfamiliar saddle I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got on my bike.  I found that the backs of my thighs were touching where I didn’t expect, it wasn’t the inside of my thighs but the back of them.

I also thought the angle seemed wrong.  I felt like I was sort of falling down the back.  I looked at the nose and it didn’t seem quite right and blow me down, I seemed to be having to stretch to keep a hold on the handle bars.  Something wasn’t quite right, but I didn’t really know if it was just a new saddle or not.

It got the better of me and at 2k and so I got off to check what was happening.

Wouldn’t you know it, I was nose UP.  Clearly I didn’t have enough oomph to tighten the nuts on the saddle clamp thingee last night and my humongous weight caused my saddle to slip down the back.  I was saddle up.

After having the problem confirmed I tried to ride more on the front of the saddle as I made my way home.  I was also trying to work out if I’d just throw in the towel today and just do it all again tomorrow.

Mark was surprised to hear me come home and I let him know what happened.  He got up (no sleep in for him) and got the spirit level (we did it by tape measure last night to check the nose was more down than the back) to do the job properly.

I got it all measured and tightened as much as I could, then Mark finished it off.  Trying to be careful as he knew carbon could crack under pressure.

After checking the weather for Sunday and seeing 40% chance of rain I decided to get back on the bike and re-start the training.

The saddle felt way better.  It was a bit harder on my sit bones than I expected (the saddle I’d been testing doesn’t have any padding to speak of) but shifting my position to use the aero bars was just perfect.  In fact I preferred that position to cycling normally.  Although my hip flexors were feeling it.

As I said to Richard, once I get the right saddle I can then go to Active Health to get the bike setup sorted.

The ride went smoothly after the false start.  I left home with a –1 WNW wind of 6km (which is pretty weak) and found the ride home to be equally as pleasant so checked and it was now SW winds.  That made sense.

Off the bike and off with several layers of clothes, change of socks (my left foot was frozen), on with the GPS (to test the distance of the loop I run) and I was away (after 10 minutes!).

It was now 2 degrees.  Gosh it warmed up so much!

I was really cold and felt I was hardly moving.  It was hard work to get the body to run.  I checked the time at the 2km mark and I was surprised that it was showing an average of 5:20/k.  That is somewhat faster than I expected.  Then I was wondering if I could keep that up.

I tried to concentrate on foot fall, using my glutes (which I couldn’t feel) and keeping my shoulders and arms relaxed.

Turns out the loop is 7.99km and I ran it with an average of 5:24/k.  So I didn’t slow down, despite it feeling really slow, and the time per kilometre was way better than I expected.  It just goes to show the difference between running through the forest and out on the streets.

So while over the last 2 weeks my run through the forest has been significantly slower, much slower than I used to run, my road running is looking good.

Today’s session wasn’t listed as a brick session, and given it might have been around 10 minutes between getting home and heading back out, I’m still pleased with how I went.

At spin class there’s talk of whoever chucks (throws up, chunder, puke – you get the gist) wins a meat pie.

So far no one has received a meat pie for the “follow through”.  Geoff has been very close, and I know Graham must have been close too.

I wasn’t feeling well yesterday.  I had an unsettled tummy and it hadn’t let up at all.  But I still turned up for spin, because, after all I’d mucked up my programme and I was already down a couple of rides (just to work and home).  I really didn’t think I could afford to get any further behind.

I sat in what I call my “usual” place.  Right at the back, closest to the door.  The door was left open yesterday. It never got cold.

Lets say there were several moments I thought about how long it would take me to unclip, get off the bike and exit the building to feed the garden.  It didn’t happen, well the chucking up bit, but boy it was close several times.

Other bits and bobs about yesterday’s activities.  The roads were sort of dry and my bike got dirty.  I forgot to check the tyre pressure before leaving home.  When I made it to work I thought best I check and the front tyre was very soft.

I found someone had left their foot pump in the garage and pumped the tyre up.  Checked it at lunchtime and it was flat as a pancake.  I replaced the tube after finding the offending piece of glass, and managed to get the tyre on without the aid of tyre levers

At spin, after swapping my rear wheel for my trainer wheel, I was pleasantly surprised that the bike computer worked without me having to do any nasty fiddling bits. 

The saddle I’d bought off TradeMe hadn’t arrived as I’d hoped.  I wanted to have an hour on the saddle straight away.  It wasn’t to be however.  It arrived today.  I’ll have to see if I’m clever enough to swap it over before my Saturday ride (brick session).  Yes, I’m sure it’s meant to be a no-brainer.  I’ll have to find Mark’s spirit level to know I’ve got the nose down a smidge.