13 days into the New Year and I thought I'd write a quick blog of recent tales. New Year's Day went off with a bang with a 10K race to blow the cobwebs away. Well I say a 'bang', my performance was more of a 'flop' than a bang, and the '10K' felt more like 10 miles after they had to move the start to a new location due to ice (not to mention the hills and climbs!) But nevertheless it was a productive start to the year, and makes up for all the cross-country races I keep avoiding!
I've recently joined a new gym which is fantastic and has given me all the motivation I need to get going again this winter. I'm loving the weights sessions, although I walk like a granny for a few days afterwards! The watt bike sessions are good too and after reading a chapter of Chris's "How to train with a Power Meter" book I'm starting to appreciate the benefits of working with different data to train smarter, so that's been a real learning curve.
I've enjoyed training with fellow athletes from my tri club Triks, as well as going out on the bike a few times with Chris and more recently, clocking the miles up with my lovely iron-woman friend Charlotte. Although it was slightly freezing we enjoyed the climbs and mountains that Worcestershire and Herefordshire has to offer and enjoyed sights of snow on the hill tops (who needs the Alps)!?
It also made me realise what fantastic training venues there are on my door step; with the mountains in the Malverns to cycle up and the canal, nature reserve and Wyre Forest for some off road running it's nice to feel like I'm making the most of what I've got.
My New Years Resolution of reading a book a fortnight has gone to pot already; probably because I'm trying to read 4 books at once (I'm easily bored!) I found an old book called 'Decide to Win' that I was glancing over the other day. It selected 10 attitiudes that it claimed would achieve better results which I thought were interesting:
1. I have a positive mental attitude
2. I can do it3. I accept responsibility for myself and my performance
4. I'm in competition with myself
5. I live in the present moment
6. I am fearless, bold and courageous
7. I deserve to be successful
8. Failure is not defeat
9. I shall persist until I succeed
10. I enjoy what I'm doing.
If I read the book properly it would probably be quite a useful thing but I should really finish the others first (50 Shades of Grey, From Fatigued to Fantastic, You Are What you Eat and not to mention the new blogs from my fellow triathlete friends). Take a look:
- http://jennylathamtriathlon.wordpress.com/
- http://bigsuztri.blogspot.co.uk/
- http://drdaniellestewart.wordpress.com/
So now that I've started training again properly I'm digging in for another 7 days before I have a well deserved few days off in Krakow with Chris for my birthday. We've been out to buy new winter coats to prepare us for the minus 10 temperatures out there so I'm hoping when I'm back in the UK and getting ready to race some duathlons in March it won't feel half as cold as it does now!
