Lenten Package

I feel like something out of Cigarettes and Alcohol and Rollerblading right about now - where is Sr Assumpta (and my red vest) when I need her to keep up to date on this blog!

The plus sides to keeping a training diary-of-sorts is that I can look back on my previous days worth of eating and working out and see how I'm progressing/slacking! I progressed on diet, slacked on cardio... I know I need to up the cardio, trust me I'm trying! But, with a penchant for a sadistic cardio session aka Spinning, sometimes, you are not in the mood for a punishing hour's worth of cardio!

So, for Lent '15, being the good Catholic lady that I am, I made my Lenten Promise to myself....
I decided to give up carbs and refined carbs in all shapes and forms! So far, I'm 95% carb free!
Hey, I still live at home, that 5% has to be left alone to prevent queries as to why I'm not eating my dinner!
So far, I'm sailing through this little challenge I've set myself! No bread cravings as of yet, no yearnings for pizza + chips, no longings for scones... YES!!! The only carbs that I have allowed myself to prevent me from collapsing with no energy is sweet potato, brown rice and oats for breakfast!

The first few days were the hardest, I won't lie - when you are used to consuming a certain amount of food in a day, the sudden downsized portions can leave a girl hungry! But, trust me, the rewards alone of being carb free make it so so worth it! Carb-bloat is really a 'thing' and a bad thing at that! I've noticed that along with a mainly protein+veg diet, my weights and whatever cardio I'm doing currently, the bloat is well on its way to being gone! My tightest jeans are starting to feel loose, my workout tights fight properly/are loose in places, the tummy bloat is nigh-invisible! Heaven!!! My work pants are even loose, that is always a bonus - seeing as there is a designated bread press in my job! :P Let see if I can last longer than 21 days carb free this time around!

Downside to this whole experience - as small as it was - was that I stepped onto the bathroom scales for the first time in possibly 7 months! I was not a happy girl at all - i try and go by the fit of my clothes, which have gotten looser over the last couple of months as my body has changed, but why do we, as humans, still become a slave to a number that flashes up on a battery operated machine and take it as Bible?! My bathroom scales could label me a heifer (as it did that most recent morning) yet your bathroom scales could compare me to Karlie Kloss! It, along with society, really knows how to make a girl feel beautiful... Yes, I was being sarcastic!

My self-esteem is low enough on a regular day, so I don't know why I put myself through those kind of experiences, or rather choose to put myself through them! I'm lifting weights 3 times a week, I'm building muscle and eating to try and help to build the best kind of muscle, muscle weighs more than fat so, of course, the scales won't be accurate for how I will eventually look - but still, i yearn to see the scale drop not rise!

Sr Assumpta never made me feel that bad about myself... Onwards and upwards!
Now if you shall excuse me, I've got a pair of loose skinny jeans that need some help being pulled up! ;)

Um.... Let Me Explain!!

I know, I know.... it's been almost a year! Let me help catch you up!!

So - my training wasn't the best last year on reflection, that I know! I mean, an exercise bike parked infront of your tv and a few spin classes doesn't equate to a 'training regime' but it helped me out! I know I should have done more road work in preparation for my cycle, but I didn't! Sue Me!

But - I did make it to Malin Head! On one leg - so to speak!
When we were heading from Westport to Sligo, everything was rosy! I was after figuring out my flow, I was able to keep up with the lead car for the most part - then we stopped about 19km outside Crossmolina, lack of water on one of the hottest days of the year is not the safest thing to have while cycling. So, after topping up on water, we carry on - myself, Fionnbar, Paddy and a few others whose names now evade me.
I start feeling a pain in my left knee, thinking nothing much about it other than it was uncomfortable and that I'll be able to massage it out in Ballina on lunch break. Paddy asks how I'm holding up - myself, himself and Fionnbar are in a little trio for a few kms at this point - 'I'm starting to feel a pain in my knee, Paddy', I remember myself telling him, to which he offered a reply of support to keep me going. I could feel myself starting to flag behind them not long afterwards...
About 3km outside of Crossmolina, I remember hitting a bump and the pain shoots through my knee - FCUKING HELL!!! Tears flow out of my eyes, I pull up to a house to try and 'stretch it out', the van pulling up beside me. Im crying in pain now, not able to stretch it out as I thought and have to accept the lift in the van to where the rest of the peloton are. A quick chat with the medic leads to me heading into Ballina in the van, to see if a rest will help my knee. Needless to say, in Ballina I couldn't pedal around the little court in which we were dining. I had to sit in the lead car from Ballina to Sligo and watch the rest of my peloton from the car. I was down, but not out. Or so I thought...
After taking a half day the following day, and getting a lift to Donegal to meet the rest of the team with one of the physios, I ask for my bike, feeling a bit confident that I'll be able to join in with them from Donegal to Letterkenny! I'll test it out in the Diamond, I remember saying to myself! One push down on the pedal with my left knee, the pain shot through in, the tears start again and then I realise 'Shit, I can't cycle!!" I was heartbroken! Richard, one of my fellow cyclists and a former Munster/Ireland/Lions rugby player, spots me and comes over to me to ask me what has me upset! I nearly break down in telling him that I've hurt my knee and that I can't cycle with it, and that 'Now I know how you guys feel when you get injured!' He helps console me, tells me Im better off in taking the rest of the day off and not to beat myself up about it! A couple of other cyclists spot me in the lunch hall and query why I'm upset, and i explain what happened and why I was in the Diamond with Rich, 'Yes, we saw you two chatting alright and we were wondering why you were so upset!'
It killed me having to go to Letterkenny in the lead car! At the dinner that night, while I was chatting to some other cyclists, Richard came up to me to see how I was feeling after that chat at lunch... It really touched me the way he thought to seek me out to ask how I was feeling - His wife is one extremely lucky woman to have a man so kind to love her! All in all, I had to take another half day on the final day when we were en route to Malin Head! I could only cycle the flat surfaces - and that was hard enough when you have taken 2 anti inflammatories to numb the pain but could only really cycle with one leg! I walked up Malin Head hill with my bike at my side, but I made it - not the way I wished to make it, but I made it there!

So, 4 months later, I was able to get back on a spinning bike with no pain while pedalling! The feeling was amazing! Im still a bit weary but I just take a break if I feel that my knee could risk getting hurt again! But, the glutton for punishment that I am - signed back up for the same cycle again!! But I'm doing this year what I should have done last year - training properly with plenty of weights, spinning and road practice, working up to long distance cycling to help get myself accustomed to the distances once again! I am also watching my diet, if only all the goods from christmas time were gone out of the house, it might be a bit easier to do that part! :P

Short and Sweet

So, I'm going to tell it as it is - I haven't done a tap of training over the last three nights! And I don't care either!

My mother has just arrived home after being in the hospital since early Wednesday morning. Unfortunately, she broke her leg in 2 places and needed surgery on it yesterday! So, my evenings have been spent out visiting her with my father. I didn't eat the best over the last few nights and I haven't been on the bike, because I've just been exhausted when I get home from there. Life took over, and I didn't fight with it for the three days! But, since Mam is home now I can get back into my routine - starting tonight hopefully! I think a nice 10-miler will ease me back into my routine and get me pumped for April, I'm hoping to set myself another personal challenge but give myself the month to reach (and possibly smash) it!!

Back to training, back to (some bit of) normality, and hopefully will be a bit of a re-charge for me!

You Are What You Eat

Garbage In, Garbage Out
You wouldn't put petrol in a diesel car

You know what?! It's all so so true!
You want to know why?!
Simple: Lunch today consisted of 2.5 slices of jam swiss roll w/whipped cream, and a slice off a loaf of toffee cake (plus a couple of biscuits - it was one of those days) and I struggled, yes struggled to do 5 miles tonight - anything over 10 miles to me now, is classed as a short cycle!

I mean, its 8.03pm right now as I type, and I can't keep my eyes open! There's alot to be said about writing down and keeping note of everything you eat and drink while you're training for something! Or just even keeping watch of everything you eat anyway, because it's true - you truly are what you eat!
If you eat properly, you feel great and have plenty of energy! But those sweet things to satisfy a craving might taste good momentarily, but by God do you suffer later in the night!

I'm trying to hold out until maybe after 8.30pm for my treat/'snack' which is usually a regular or black coffee, but I honestly don't think I'm going to last! I mean, if I had matchsticks to hold up my eyelids, they would be buckling right now!

Think I might go and paint my nails - it'll keep my mind occupied for a period of time!
I'm feeling ruby red ;)

Celebrate

Guess who achieved her mini-challenge?!
ME!!!
I cycled 20 miles. Actually, no I didn't! I cycled 22.34 miles!

YYYEEEEEEEAAAAAHHHH!!! So, after cycling 22.34 miles and burning 930 calories yesterday, what do I do?!
I go out to celebrate with booze! Typical Irish thing to do! But look it, life is short! I'd have bought a chinese but I enjoyed the socialising more! Plus, the allures of the breakfast roll this morning was too much to handle!!

So, what do I do now?! Well, I'm planning to relax this weekend, maybe indulge a little tonight (Buffalo-flavour Hunky Dorys ftw!) and have a ridonculously clean diet tomorrow, enjoy the last of my holidays before I go back to work Monday and aim for another mini-challenge. I'm thinking maybe 25-30 miles in 95 Mins?! It's doable!! 

A short but sweet post, because like I said before, there's only so much you can say about cycling!

Moral Support

Oh jeez, where to start..?

I suppose it goes back years really.. See, I fell in love with makeup and the art of makeup at a young age, and I vividly remember watching my cousin getting her makeup applied for her wedding day by an artist, and it hit me like a lightning bolt thrown by Zeus himself : that's what I want to do!! I wanted to be a makeup artist! So, in school I chose subjects that would help me out (but also loved) like Art and Biology for my senior exams. I remember saying to my Career Guidance counsellor in school 'What college offers makeup artistry?" and she told me that the local PLC College did the beauticians course for two years, 'it's the same thing'. No it's not. She couldn't handle that I, a young teenager, was correcting her, a Careers Guidance counsellor that what I wanted to do and what she was telling me were two totally different things. I remember her telling me about 4 weeks before the open day I would later attend, after I asked her again (for the umpteenth time) 'What college offers makeup artistry?!' that 'Why didn't you come to me sooner, IADT has a makeup course and you need a portfolio for it'. Once again she couldn't handle that I had badgered her about it for 2 years and suffered selective amnesia as far as I'm concerned. So, I scrambled together a portfolio and went to that college open day. I didn't get my spot on that course but I wasn't prepared enough myself, that I do know. Most people spend an entire academic year working on a portfolio to show at an art college of any description, I had barely 4 weeks (plus my results weren't the best, hey Im not academically inclined - shoot me). But it didn't stop me from trying to get into my dream. At 21, I finally did my makeup course, and I loved every single second of it, and I'd do it all over again if I could! I remember applying for a job at a local makeup concession in our main department store, and thats when the pressure started on me. 'Why are you packing in your job??" I'm not... "Why are you leaving a job with good money to go into a job with bad money?!' Because I hate my current job and any money I earn doesn't make it any better.. 'Do you think you'll get work out of this?!' Am, that's the point of doing the course I did and applying for this job. 'I think you're crazy to leave a full time job..' Yes, well that's my choice to make.
I didn't get the position, because I don't have retail experience unfortunately! And in order to get retail experience, you have to have retail experience. Catch 22, a double edged sword.
A couple of years ago, another makeup store was opening up, I got a tip off from a girl I studied with who also worked with the same brand in the capital, she encouraged me to apply. So off I did, and the same pressure started again. This time from more people..
"Why are you packing in your job?!' Im not, I'm not an idiot. Then on the morning of my interview for this store, 'You're mother got in contact with me to have a chat with you about you packing in you're job' I'm fcuking not packing in my job, I've got an interview for something I fcuking trained for, what part of that do you not understand?! "But, I'm only trying to show you that by packing in your job and this not following through that you're left without a leg to stand on" But, I just told you, I haven't packed in any job, I'm actually trying to get out of there.
I got told I was going for a second interview with the brand -even without retail experience. I was on cloud 9. I physically couldn't stop smiling for the entire weekend. But, 4 weeks down the line, the store opened and no sign of my 'second interview', I was starting to wonder, so I got in contact with the brand (not in the best way, I'll admit.) I was told that I wasn't going to get my aforementioned second interview, that all the positions were filled on a trial basis and they were offered the positions. Whoop-de-fcuking-do. Cheers for telling me that in the initial interviews!
I was heartbroken.

So, what has all that got to do with cycling?! Nothing really. But the support that I didn't get back then, I thought I would get with my training for this cycle.
A-ha. Nice Joke hun, tell me another one.
I've got no support from the 2 people I desperately want it from. My parents.
First few weeks I got over, because I was only starting out and did have much progress. But, I cleared 16 miles 2 nights ago (making great progress on my mini-challenge, thanks for asking readers!!), I'm putting in the time and effort to make my miles. But because today I asked if it would be possible for little/no butter to be used in the mash (well my lot of the mash for dinner), I was told that I'd 'want to cop on for myself' and when I answered with my prepared answer (I was expecting a remark of some sort) 'It's a cycle the length of the country I'm training for, not a cycle over to Dunnes!' I was laughed at. And, I heard my father remark to my mother from inside the other room, 'I know what to say now myself'
It truely upset me, so much that it suppressed my appetite and I ate a lot less that I normally would have. Moral support is what I need in this training, not smart remarks or laughing. It's the training that i'm doing each night for a cycle that I'm not 100% sure what to expect from it, that I need to be told by my parents 'You're doing good, keep it up' not 'cop onto yourself' or 'you need to eat' when they are trying to force a greasy pizza down my throat after I've already had something to eat.
It doesn't cost anything, a 'Good Job' or 'Job well done' would do. They have no problem in telling people that I'm doing this cycle to try and raise funds for the target I'm well on my way of making... But why is it so hard for them to support it?! Because, my honest opinion, it feels to me like they want me to say 'You were right, I'm in over my head, I'm dropping out', I know that they think I won't be able to do it.

But see here's the thing about me, I've proved them wrong once before.... And I'm on my way to proving them wrong a second time.



Just watch this space....

The Word According to Carbs

Carbs - Good or Bad, you can't really avoid them! The fcukers are EVERYWHERE!!

Especially in my house! And they are white, the worst kind. And I'm a carb fiend - case in point yesterday! I checked my diary and the amount of white bread I had was enough to give you wide eyes!
So, last night I decided to cut it out altogether until saturday afternoon! Easy feat you might think, but its not! Whats with dinner today?! Potatoes. What's looking at me right now?! Home-made white bread. Whats in the bread bin?! A loaf of toaster-white bread (you know, the yummy thick cut kind!)

IT'S EVERYWHERE! NO BEUNO!

I could cut back to one or two servings, but when your parents know you're in training for something, and buy white bread and biscuits and taytos - it kinda defeats the purpose! It's almost like they are willing me to fail in this! I know they think I won't be capable to do this, and with all that white bread carby-goodness around, it makes it a bit trickier but I will do this! So, maybe one slice of loaf or homemade white instead of 2 or 3 butter-laden slices...

God, why did Ireland have to be home of the carb-fest foods!?!