Friday 18 July 2008

Tesco To The Rescue

This should have been posted last Sunday

"The man who looks for security, even in the mind, is like a man who would chop off his limbs in order to have artificial ones which will give him no pain or trouble. "
~Henry MillerSo there I was filling in my training plan and my husband adds his halfpenny worth of “I don’t know why your bothering, you’ll only bottle it like you’ve done with this open water one.”

Well.. how very dare you?

To say I was livid was understatement of the year. What made it worse was that he was right. I never finish anything.

As if by magic the next day I open an email from Paula which basically said that I should do the Divas and the worst thing that could happen would be it would take me ages.

No Paula the worst thing that could happen would be that I’d drown and even worse than that would be that I’d have to be hauled out and sink the kayak.

She ended with if you’re not doing it can I have your entry.

It got me thinking

Nothing in this world is ever Lynne’s fault. Blame the weather. Blame the bike. Blame the birds. Blame the sky. So in this particular case I can blame the wetsuit.

I have no idea how a wet suit is supposed to fit. Iknow it’s supposed to be tight. I am extremely grateful for Andy giving me his old one and in an ideal world I would have lost weight and it wouldn’t have been so tight. OK I saw other women having help to be zipped up but didn’t see anyone struggling like I struggled to get in it.

Cunning plan. For the sake of £35 I’ll order an XL mans from Tesco Direct. Well I ordered it plus £4.85 postage and it came the next day.

It’s thin. It’s neoprene rather than rubbery. The arms and legs are too long and they can’t be chopped because they’re sewn rather than glued. I can get in it on my own and zip it up. It’s got a lot of gaps but it does fit on the boobs, bum, tummy and thighs. I had visions of it turning into a wet nappy.

The only answer was to bite the bullet and try it.

The fantastic Sue to the rescue.

We’ll go to Bala Saturday morning.

Grateful as I am Sue I’m terrified.

Manley is shallow therefore relatively warm and when we’ve had the training days there’s no boats except the rescue kayaks. And with the best will in the world Sue’s tiny – she would never be able to rescue me.

As expected no excuses, we’d stay close to the edge where it would be relatively shallow, relatively warm, too shallow for boats and I would not get into difficulty.
What she didn’t tell me was the bottom was stony ouch!

I got in. I could feel the water sucking inside the wetsuit. It didn’t turninto a wet nappy. It wasn’t too tight across the chest which meant I could breath. Ok the arms didn’t allow for fluent crawl but I invented this kind of Lynne stroke. A sort of cross between breast stroke and doggy paddle. It’s not quick. It’s not attractive but it does propel me forwards and I don’t get breathless or feel as if my arms and legs are going to fall off.

We swam for 40 minutes or so. No idea how much ground we covered but I absolutely loved it.

We got out got changed and Sue FORCED me to run, off road on a very uneven grass track, along the banks of the lake.

Well that’s it then. Swimming sorted. Running sorted. Bike sorted. There is nothing to stop me doing the Divas.

Going to do the swim course this afternoon just to make sure.

I’m not sorry I decided not to do it because it’s taken the pre race pressure off me for the last couple of weeks. I’ve not trained specific but I have trained with Llanrwyst in mind.

This week should be a taper week but I don’t do tapers very well and end up sluggish so 3 hard brick sessions planned with a gentle run and cycle thrown in. Rest on Saturday and a visit to the lovely Tracey for a leg massage.

Paula’s actually doing Boundary Breeze this very second so good luck to her. She’s been suffering all week with a stomach bug contracted swimming in the Dee last Sunday.

Carolyn Hewitt is doing Ironman Austria as we speak - good luck to her too.

And finally, the lovely Thea who commented on my blogs and gave me such encouragement and inspiration, her Blog of A Year Of Living Dangerously was the same as mine but much better written. It’s been deleted. So Thea, hope your ok and please get in touch

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