The Battle of Halfords, Part the Third.

31 in a couple of weeks. Sigh.

Anyway, enough reminding the Corporal about his treatment of the elderly (Nom is older still!). It's been a busy few days. Circumstances had a meeting without me and decided that I'd be too busy to train for most of last week. Bendy lessons: OK. Tuesday rest: OK. Wednesday run: fail. Thursday run: fail. Friday swim: big old rubbish fail. Sob!

Anyway, on Friday night we ventured over to Nom-Land: Beverley, East Yorkshire. Wow, no hills! We celebrated in true Corporal style: well, I did. Nom and I ran 1.25 miles (admittedly from the pub so we didn't miss The IT Crowd at 10pm) on Friday night. We also ran 1 mile on Saturday night before tea, on the only 'hill' in Beverley. A giant bike ride was planned for Saturday, but snow stopped play. Boo. I wasn't even allowed to go for a run until freezing cold early evening. How many calories does shopping and cooking burn? Swam 800m (me) and 500m (Nom) on Sunday morning, then despite Nom being confined to bed on Monday morning (didn't sleep well, so couldn't get up) I did 1,000m in 100m reps of breast stroke and front crawl alternately. Shared a lane with the most courteous swimmer I've ever met, and also the rudest. Most courteous swimmer was great; we swam at the same speed so could share the lane perfectly; stopped for a chat when we got knackered and had the happiest lane in the happiest pool in Yorkshire. Then Mr Head-above-the-water-and-splashy-front-crawl came into the pool, swam like someone insane in Bowling Pool on a lunchtime with no social skills, but also with more splashing, less technique and less speed. Boo. I wonder if he drives like that?
Also met someone in the pool who had some tri-specific goggles; designed for the whole event. He swore by them; his partner does 'tri' so I'm sure he knows! I think they came from TK Maxx too - Veg on a mission!
Ran a bit back from the pool session, until my legs began to collapse. Also, running on cobbles is not fun. Ooh, aargh, ankle!
Then we walked into Beverley to visit the rather nice bike shop with the very nice tri-bars in the window: closed on Mondays. Noooooooooooooo! :( (me) :( (Nom)
Sulked home, then cycled into Bradford (at walking pace admittedly, but in the FREEZING cold. I honestly thought my fingers were going to fall off). Dropped my poor, broken bike off at Halfords, wishing they were VS Cycles, pointed out that the front wheel doesn't move, the gears creak and groan and sometimes don't respond, and the grips on the handlebars slide off as you cycle, to be translated as 'some issues to be done' by the genius behind the counter. Not holding my breath.
Then home (via Costa Coffee for a skimmed milk latte with whole milk. Hmm...listening? Grrr. I'm going to yoga next! I can't have whole milk or anything substantial before; will leave the rest to your imagination.) by bus. Then to bendy lessons. Great fun - so bendy that we had to use a strap to bend into the required positions, but rewarding. So rewarding that despite the hot bath tonight I know that I'll hurt tomorrow. But I never knew that I could touch my knee sideways on my back with my nose! And tomorrow I get my bike back! Yay!!!
I must admit that now muscles are starting to appear. In fact, with all this resistance training my thighs are starting to scare me! They've never looked so muscular before; and with the yoga I'm much more aware of my joints and muscles, which I'm sure can only be a good thing, until after a brick!