Le Weekend

Saturday - I was traveling due to work on Friday so was unable to do my training session on that day. Luckily enough I was able to work from home on Saturday so had the flexibility to catch up on Saturday morning. Done a bike, swim, bike session. I am really getting into the swimming at the moment; it’s one place where you can completely forget about everything. Even when out running, work and stuff can run through your mind, but when in the pool the only thing you can think about is breathing and swimming! Pretty sad though that whilst most people use You Tube to view talking dogs and the like, I have recently been checking out videos on the perfect front crawl technique. J

Had to do 1000m time trial which was 22mins and 43 seconds. I was hoping for under 21 mins but my arms were tired as soon as I started swimming. Maybe it was something to do with the ride to the pool? Not sure. Anyway, also done a time trial for 500m bi lateral breathing (breathing on alternate sides every 3 or 5 strokes); that was 11.43 which I was happy about as I couldn’t even do it 3 months ago.

Saturday night was round a mates house for birthday drinks and food. Stayed off the alcohol.

Total time 2 hours 10 mins

Food  - BF Muesli, lunch steak salad, evening – BBQ chicken, prawns, chips and dips. 2 alcohol free beers.

Sunday – Big bike ride today. Biked from Mannheim out to Weinheim and then back again. It was a bit cold to start off but then warmed up a bit. The Weinheim area is lovely to bike or run through when the weather is nice (have tried to attach a photo of the old town of Weinheim). Lots of people out there on some very expensive bikes. Was pretty knackered when home but feeling all good with the knee and foot!

Total Time – 2hr 50 mins / 57km

Food  - BF muesli and banana, energy bar, evening steak, spargel and potatoes

Sunday weigh in 93.4 KG

Garmin Stats - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/168310322
Total training time this week - 8Hrs 32 mins

Next weekend is RACE DAY!!! First half marathon of the year and my first since I rightly messed my foot up last May… lets get it on! 

Toilet Troubles..

So I was chatting to my brother Tom today. Tom’s been living in Australia for the last few years and has recently taken up boxing. His first real fight is tomorrow night Aus time (good luck Tom!). He has also lost a load of weight in the last few months, which reinforces my theory that there is a finite amount of weight distributed between me and my three brothers, and when one or two lose weight, the others gain it!

Anyway, Tom said that he now follows this blog but said “am I only going to read about what you had for breakfast etc”, so I when I was out running I was thinking about what topic I could write about. And at around kilometer 5 the topic started brewing…

I don’t think I am the only runner that has issues with going to the toilet; its something we have to deal with. I always try to go before hand but sometimes you just can’t do what you gotta do, and just head out anyway. I always carry a pocket of toilet roll “just in case”. (this trick was learned back in the day in England when we used to go clubbing in England!). Anyhoo, around the 5km mark (half way today) I got a warning that I needed the loo…soon. I knew there was a public toilet up ahead so made my way there. As I got close the desperation was building and building and I was gutted to see that the door was locked when I got there! But there was a man sitting outside there on a chair so I spoke to him in German and asked what the deal was. He replied in what I think was German but didn’t really understand him, saying something about it was closed. He then went on for a minute or two, and then proceeded to take the keys out of his pocket and open the door! He was obviously after some kind of remuneration for this kind gesture ( there is a strange custom in this country where you tip the toilet cleaner for cleaning the toilet!) so I rushed in there, overstayed my welcome and left. He talked to me in mad German for another minute until I gave him a euro, to which he smiled at me and I went on my merry way……..a close call!!

So if you are reading this blog Tom, I hope this was more interesting for you! Good luck for the fight tomorrow.

Running info -10km, total time 1hr.07, 883 calories burned

Food – BF muesli, lunch soup and risotto, evening muesli and banana.

Garmin Stats: 10 Run Thursday night by david4dublin2012 at Garmin Connect - Details

Training

AM  - 7 km run done first thing this morning in the forest behind the house. Knee and foot feeling fine, no issues to note today.

Evening - 50 min swim in the pool. 1200m i think. Lost count of the laps. :)

Breakfast, eggs, toast, coffee. Lunch - pork steak and pasta.

Total time 1 Hr 35 mins

Food diary

No breakfast today
Lunch Ham roll
Dinner chicken soup and brown bread. Muesli and yoghurt after.

Cheese & Crackers

Last night Michelle broke out the cheese and crackers. :( 
So muesli for breakfast this morning (Monday) and soup/ pasta for lunch. Invited to friends house tonight for home made curry. WEIGH IN this morning was 94.5 but thats T.B.E (to be expected) after cheese and easter eggs.

Weigh In

Sunday weigh in was 93.3, thats 10kg in 12 weeks! Very happy.
BF today before the run was eggs and toast, lunch spanish omlette and dinner pork steak and potatoes. Some chocolate early evening.

Swim Session

2200 meters (88 laps) in the pool today. felt really good and really fast, although i didnt bother timing it. Pool was empty too which helps a lot. Out for dinner tonight again.
LUNCH was cheese sandwich.

Total time 60 mins

Weigh for April 5th was also 94. kg

Went out for dinner evening of April 5th. Vittello tonnato and then turkey with pasta and mushrooms. Felt really full after that so no doubt gain some weight. will weigh in later....

Dinner was fish and vegetables with water. nice!

Running Session

So went out for a run today instead of the bike as i wanted to try out my new runners, compression socks and Garmin 310XT watch! The runners made a huge difference and it felt good. Have to still watch out for knee injuries and my bad foot, both of which will probably haunt me for years but are ok for now. Feels like the marathon training started today. Anyway, 5km in 34mins was what the watch said. Pretty happy with that. I have a longer run planned in the weekend so will see how that rolls. LUNCH was soup and brown bread.

Note on my weigh ins - i started training and weighing in from Jan 9th 2012 (not for the first time, but for this purpose of the marathon training). On Jan 9 the weigh in was 103KG. Today i weighed in at 94.5kg so 8.5KG in less than 12 weeks. Happy with that but lots more to go! this morning was 94.5 but thats T.B.E (to be expected) after cheese and easter eggs.

Breakfast - hard boiled eggs and toast, coffee. Weigh in - 94.5. Kilos lost since Jan 9 2012 = 8.5 :)