robyn173

A (8?) part motivational text message from Ali, on the morning of the Edinburgh Marathon 23rd May 2010. I meant to publish it then but for some reason have forgotten until now. Anyway, here she goes!


Alright brown bear, today's the day. Im sorry if this wakes you up and im also sorry i didnt call you again, i think it might be better if i send you my peppy talk via text because then i can go full flow dramatic WITH punctuation. Ok so you've done the training, you've done the logistics, you have the gear. You. Are. There. But most important to remember is that you are a runner. Head to toe. The longest baby ever to be born in ipswich hospital. Those legs have propelled you into swimming pool walls, to the top of mountains, held you high over festival crowds and taken you from one side of the country to the other. So you have the tools. Ok, i hear you cry, lots of people have long legs. But stitched into every little nucleus of those calf cells is a dynamite stick of determination and metal-edged purpose. TBC..

Your mitochondria, despite being good and fat for lots of energy, are unusual. They dont form the typical squiggles but proclaim in neat script 'IF I WANT TO DO SOMETHING I WILL FUCKING DO IT (plus im quite good at the old quick hopping on two feet)'. This isnt a loud or brash statement of purpose, but internalised like the metal bar in a concrete support. Brown bear, you are a gazelle AND you think as one, covering the distance as a fulfillment of purpose and an expression of pure energy (also cos you want to try and have bigger calves than your mother). Ok so you are linford cristie but without the drugs and that fast woman but without the gender issues. In conclusion, run because you can and isnt that why you're doing it? Yay:) exercise is funzies. And dont forget to FOLLOW THE CAIRNS. Good luckies foofieface:D. Lots of love from ya sister! Xoxo

I just love it when I visit the toilet and my flies are handily already down. I'm simply living the dream.

IM training during May 2011. As expected it has pretty much taken over my life now in terms of time and physical and mental energy.

Swim: 14.54 mi (7.8 hrs)
Bike: 341.84 mi (24.4 hrs)
Run: 113.6 mi (17.8 hrs)

The Garmin heart-rate monitor reckons on about 40k calories consumed. I'm eating an insane amount of food, two days I bothered keeping count I was over 5k calories.

10 weeks until the event. I feel ready to race!

Friends and family you have failed me. For the first time in my life I have run out of birthday/christmas present shower gel and thus I am forced to buy my own.

Training is going well for the IM event. I'm now emotionally and practically conditioned to doing about 60 to 90 minutes of training a day, so much so that today, on my weekly rest day, I feel really irritable from not having 'anything' to do. Hopefully this sensation will carry over to tomorrow and give me more gusto for the morning swim.

I was just doing a spot of cleaning around the kitchen and was amazed to find an entire ferrero rocher wedged in the water outlet filter of the dishwasher. Unfortunately it wasn't in an edible condition, showing evidence of being subjected to more than a couple of cleaning cycles.

Always on the quest for something to obsess over and take up lots of my time, I've registered for Ironman UK 2011. I actually signed up before Christmas but wanted to keep it on the down-low until I'd got my own head around it. So on 31st July I'll swim 2.4 miles, cycle 112 and jog/crawl 26.2.

Training is so far going better than expected. January was a 'keep the love for sports' month; not forcing myself to do particular distances, but going out when and where I felt like it to try and get a load of enthusiasm for the upcoming months of training. For the record; 3 circuit training sessions, 44 miles run, 156 miles cycle (+about 70 miles of commuting) and no swimming.

I've been doing circuit training and running with some people from work, and also running with the triathlon club in town. I managed to seriously twist my right ankle playing football in the middle of January, and it still hasn't completed fixed a month later, so it might be better to try and keep away from football for a while.

It still seems like a good idea, but we'll see in a few weeks when training ramps up to take over my life.

Try to imagine the most delicious snack ever conceived. What does it contain? Some meat, thai sweet chilli sauce, and perhaps a few carbs to give it some longevity. Plus make sure that it's bigger than a couple of bites.

You may think that this amazing concoction exists only in your (my) mind. But wait! You'd be wrong, it does actually exist. The legendary Ginsters of Cornwall have created a snack with godly credentials; the Sweet Chilli Bar. Think scotch egg but with a sweet chilli sauce filling and a tangy mild-bbq exterior. I gobbled one of these down yesterday and have been constantly daydreaming about it since the delicious encounter.

You've got to head down to your nearest petrol filling station and grab one of these immediately.


http://www.ginsters.co.uk/productdetail.asp?RangeID=9&ProdID=225

Nick: Saw a frozen dead cat when I was walking home on Saturday night
Me: What did you do?
Nick: Kicked it to make sure it was dead
Me: ?
Nick: ..well if it wasn't quite dead I would have put it out of its misery

Thats what you get from a rural upbringing

1. The Boxer
2. Hold Tight London
3. Surface To Air
4. Swoon
5. Star Guitar
6. Galvanize