Iron Jack

Its time to get back in the saddle - literally and metaphorically!

After nearly two weeks of pretty average training, its time to get back on the training programme, back on the eating programme and back to early starts for swim squad.

The first week of my two week hiatus started off okay, but then very quickly (as Lawrence would say) life happened. I was already pretty stretched at work trying to get ready to go on holiday - you know what its like, five days to get five weeks worth done. This was compounded by the fact that I agreed to take on an additional writing contract - with a really short deadline.

So I was already struggling to fit training in. Sometimes work just has to be a priority.

And then, devestating news, we lost Aunty Gwen to a long and brave battle with ovarian cancer. Fully credited with transforming blind education in New Zealand, she is an inspirational woman, mother, wife and “Aunty” to Mike, his siblings, and the rest of us lucky lot who happened to marry into the family.

My compounded week just got even worse.

Panic email to Coach Lawrence.

“Help!”

Emergency planning session the next day.

“Life happens, work happens,” he said. “Lets remove some stress and work around it.”

Phew. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. We planned out some sessions that would be “good to get done” sessions for that week, including swim squad, and some holiday sessions for while we were away. I managed all the “good to get done” sessons that week, and while we did lots of long walks while we were on holiday, I only managed two formal sessions in Queenstown - an average swim and a FANTASTIC run in Glenorchy.

Its now been five days since I last did some exercise and boy can I feel it. My whole body - and my mind - feel completely sluggish.

And I’m really struggling with my stomach. Unfortunately I suffer badly from IBS - Irritable Bowel Syndrome. That will have to be a whole other blog post, but the short story is that since I started training regularly in January, I haven’t had any problems with my IBS - even in periods of massive stress which is when its usually its worst. Who would have thought that exercise could actually be good for you? Anyway, the IBS situation has been deteriorating rapidly since about Saturday, thanks to a combination of rich food, many wines, lots of chocolate and most  importantly, no exercise. I had a very uncomfortable and sleepness night with cramps, which have continued today.

So, I have a whole pile of reasons to get back on the bike tonight.

• If I don’t get motivated again right now, I’m scared I won’t get going again.
• The Half Ironman is just two months away and there is a lot of work to be done.
• I need to clear my mind and get focused on the work front and exercise will help me do that.
• Most importantly, I need to heal my digestive system and fast.

So the computer is about to go off and the wind trainer is about to come out.

Good-bye wine and chocolate, hello bike pants.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 6:37 pm and is filed under Motivation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.