Spent a few hours Sunday afternoon on the couch and steadily felt worse and worse and by dinner time I realised that I was heading into full blown “man-flu” territory. My contacts were making my eyes feel woeful so it was out with them and then pretty much it was off to bed.
Before lights out I got the bike gear ready, more in hope than anything and when the alarm went off at 5.30 it was quickly dispatched and reset for the more reasonable time of 7.30 when I dragged myself out of bed and off to work.
Wandering into work, the ladies in the office had plenty of advice to give but sadly, no sympathy. Amazing considering that this was by this stage the full throws of man-flu complete with runny nose, annoying cough, sore joints and a pounding headache. Couldn’t they see how close to expiring I was? So I sniffed a little louder, coughed and groaned loudly…………still no sympathy. Tough crowd!
Not long after clearly my weak and serious condition was noticed and the girls told me they thought it was best if I headed home for the day to rest up and get well. I reluctantly agreed, even though I was keen to sit at my desk and plough through the workload, I could see that they were right. I may or may not have mentioned that I thought I might need someone to come home with me to ensure that I was looked after however it appears that all the phones in the office must have rung at once as everyone appeared to be busy……….
As I gathered my things and wandered out of the office I’m sure I heard someone say that they hoped I felt better soon…………..or it may have been something along the lines of “thanks for passing your friggin’ bugs on tosser” but I’m not sure as I was somewhat delirious by this stage.
The day was spent on the couch feeling sorry for myself and no one to answer my little bell, even though I continued to ring and ring and ring. Whilst I was feeling pretty crappy, at the least the diet was going pretty well with nothing consumed since lunchtime on Sunday.
I was supposed to be heading to a breakfast meeting for work on Tuesday however woke up feeling just as bad so sent a quick text message to say I wouldn’t be able to make it in to work. Flopped back down on the pillow and next thing it was 11am. Pretty much the only activity for the day was to move from bed to couch. Fortunately, over the course of the afternoon I felt progressively better and by dinner time I felt well enough to head out to a scheduled meeting at 7pm.
By the time the meeting was finished, having not eaten apart from some dry biscuits since Sunday lunchtime, it’s fair to say I was now hungry. And therein…………..the binge started!!
After a month and a half of being very vigilant with both exercise and diet, the wheels had now fallen off the wagon and I found myself standing in Macca’s. Thank Christ for 24hr filthy Ronnies!!!! A large big mac meal and a Fillet of fish thank you VERY much Ronnie.
Unfortunately it did not stop there, as after an awesome sleep, it was back to Macca’s for breakfast. Oh, and dare I say I didn’t ride on Wednesday as I was still ahem, recovering.
I’m not sure about anyone else, but I can be a bit farked in the head sometimes. You see, if I don’t get my training done and dusted first thing my diet for the day tends to go out the window and I think to myself that “It’s ok – start fresh tomorrow”. However, if I DO get my training done I think to myself “I am NOT going to waste that session”.
So this is why I now found myself starting in the queue at Filthy Ronnie’s eyeing of the sausage and egg mcmuffins, hash browns and hotcakes. Given the day had got off to a bad start diet wise, and my stupid head, the day went downhill from there with all manner of chocolate, refined sugar and other copious amounts of crap being consumed over the course of the next 8 hours or so.
The only positive thing going through my head was a quote from Sunnygirl on my facebook page saying “Don’t worry Ayto – macca’s will kill off any of those nasty man-flu bugs”. Thanks Lisa! I wasn’t gonna take any chances, so it was off to try the new smoked Angus burger (quality, if you must know).
Thursday morning was also no training as I needed to be around at the kid’s house at 6am to sit with Regan whilst Jorja was dropped off to school by her Mum for her school excursion to Melbourne. Off to work without brekkie, so by the time lunch came around and given my man sized appetite there really was only one way to satisfy this – one large serve of Chips and gravy………and a coke zero (watching those calories after all).
Sadly, a similar theme carried over for the remainder of the week until such time to pick the kids up Friday night for the weekend with me, when it was time to pull my head in and make sure there were some decent meals prepared for all of us. Not before it was too late however and I am sure that this kind of carbo loading is enough to even make TGL go crying back to his Mummy!!
Saturday (normally a wind trainer session for me on the weekend I have the kids) was absolutely flat out with kids sport (Netball for Jorja) and then down the street for the kids to pick out their Mums Mother’s day pressies, some time at the skate park, some colouring in, dinner, bath and then bed. All this means that I feel into bed pretty early as well without getting said wind trainer session done.
However, Sunday was scheduled as the day to get back on the wagon and pull my head out of my arse. I was under strict instructions by the coach to turn up for our clubs Mother’s day fun run to complete the 5k option so Ruley could get an idea of where I was at. To date the only discipline I had completed a time trail in was in the pool.
As well as the 5k, there was a 2.5k and a 10k option, so after dragging the kids out of bed and heading out, I was pleased to see a total of 16 competitors turn up for the runs. The kids were quickly given jobs as marshals and they had a ball doing that.
I was eager to see what the result would be, as I had not run for 10 days and had virtually done nothing (but eat) for a week. However I was also a bit apprehensive as Ruley was also running the 5k option. As the course was 2 x 2.5km laps there was the very real possibility that Ruley could well be finishing his second lap as I was finishing my first! I was determined to not let this happen……..or I hoped at least.
At the gun, Ruley was off like a jack rabbit and before we knew it had made it to the first corner and was soon out of sight. I was also moving, but more like a jack rabbit minus legs, stuck in a trap, with myxomatosis……….I was slow but steady. lol
The rest of the field had started to spread a little and I kept the head down and made my way back towards the start finish line for the end of my first lap, sneaking sly glances back over my shoulder for the sight of Ruley but in the end, I had no need to worry. I had completed my first lap in 13min and change. Ruley only managed to finish in 16.10…………yes, smashed him with 3 minutes to spare!!! Now just to finish the last lap LOL
The second lap was more of the same however noticed there was some slowing in the pace until a kilometre to go when I was able to push it up a bit to a shuffle and finish STRONG, in 26min 50sec. An average of 5.22 per kilometre.
Whilst till trying to catch my breath Ruley was in my ear talking about expected improvements of 3/5sec per kilo of bodyweight and goal times and threshold and something or other. I tried to pay attention, however I was more concerned with trying to draw air in via every available orifice before I collapsed and passed over, leaving my kids to have to drag my phone out of my cold lifeless hand and ring their Mum to come and pick them up.
Ruley talking stats...........................me, just breathing!Fortunately I recovered reasonably quickly and loaded us all in the car and made our way to Auskick, where my little bloke broke my heart just a little more by pulling on his Tigers jumper. Fortunately, Jorja looked awesome in her Blues jumper and mended that break somewhat.
After Auskick, I dropped the kids back to their Mums so they could spend the day with her for Mother’s day and it a quick trip home to get the bike gear on and head out. Called past Fee’s place to pick her up and it was out for a loop. By this stage (nearly midday) the wind had come up and was blowing fairly well by now which made the whole length of Boundary road into a bloke headwind and we struggled to maintain 28km/hr. Turning west into Mitchell was slightly better but was still hard going, but managed to get an hour and a half on the bike and knew it by the time I was finished.
So, where did this week leave me in the search for continued weight loss?
Well, in true Biggest Loser fashion, after many weeks of good, solid weight loss the whole thing came screeching to a halt and the scales protested loudly when I climbed on board this morning, for a readout of 111.5kg………..a gain of 1.0kg.
Funnily enough, this is less than what I thought would be the case so I was somewhat surprised. Subconsciously, I think that falling off the wagon this week was part of a grander plan. You see, we are now only 3 weeks out from the Williamtown Half Marathon BOP invitational, as evidenced by the package that arrived this week.
I have very good designs on taking out this prestigious event, and I will be endeavouring to do my utmost to best Mank, Anti-sport et al in just a few short weeks.
I really should just confirm that to win this coveted event, you do have to come last right?
Watch for the race number on the 29th!.............you might have to wait a while!!
So training this week is a very short list:
Sunday Run 5km t/t – 26min 50sec (5.22 per km)
Bike 43km, 1hr 31min, Avg 28.7k
Official weigh in – 111.5kg. A gain of 1.0kg (Surely worthy of an honourable mention in Rattie's post IM Biggest Gainer competition?)
Legs are VERY sore today, but I guess that’s what you get for doing nothing for 10 days or so and unfortunately the left knee is still proving troublesome. Funnily enough, the run did not seem to bother it much at all, but was quite painful on the bike. Will find some time this week to check out my cleats and bike position to see if this is contributing to making it any sorer. Hopefully, I am able to get it sorted soon rather than it continuing to be troublesome over this whole Ironman campaign. 10 months is a long way to go carrying a pain in the arse injury!!
Finally thought I would share the feedback I got from coach Ruley after Sunday’s run, whereby I received a text message stating “Great work today and exceeded expectations. Tell’s us there is a FOP engine currently on a BOP’er chassis. By Christmas it will be a FOP engine on a MOP chassis”.
Gold Ruley!!
Train safe
Ayto
Nice honesty!
ReplyDeleteWilliamstown ehh?? will see you there, i'll be the one watching! And yep i'll have my camera there to catch all the action! Soph's having a dip at the big one
ReplyDelete