Let’s start a new chapter!

Several months have passed since I last wrote on this blog. This is mainly because I moved back to France and made Paris my new home after 7 years spent in the UK. I started a new job back in November 2011 which took a lot of time and attention hence the long silence...

Moving back to France was a big decision for me as I was really enjoying living in London and I had my training routine pretty much worked out (gym during the week, cycling club & open water training sessions at Heron Lake during weekends…). Paris is a bit of a disappointment as it is not a city as convenient as London for sports. Parcs are either minuscule or far away from the center, no lakes, no Richmond parc for my saturday morning ride and no leafy riverbanks for my Sunday run…

That being said, I still managed to train for and run the Paris Marathon back in April this year (I will write about it in a next post). During one training session I met with the friend of a friend called Olivier who is writing a fantastic blog about running. Reading him really did give me the desire to start writing on my own blog again about my sports experiences.

I am glad because thanks to the triathlon and the running in particular, I have managed to recreate a social network extremely quickly. It has made my return to France much easier than I had expected.

Sad news, good news...

SAD NEWS: last wednesday was the last day Heron Lake was open until the end of April 2012. This means no more open water swimming, only swimming pool sessions :-( 
GOOD NEWS: Closed lake means that I do not need to wake up at 6am on sunday mornings anymore!

SAD NEWS: It is the end of the triathlon season so no more competition until next spring. (I still have my last tri next on the 24th Sep)
GOOD NEWS: I have just joined a cycling club: the London Dynamos, so I am looking forward to training with them a lot this winter and improve my fitness for next year.

OTHER GOOD NEWS: Yesterday I registered for the Paris Marathon which (once completed) will be the longest distance I have ever run. So plenty of motivation to keep up the traning work!!

If you are running the Paris Marathon, do let me know!!

Comfortable on your saddle

When you are starting a new sport, you are never quite sure of the kind of equipment you need apart from the obvious stuff. When I started cycling, I went to a bike shop where I bought a road bike, a pair of shoes, a helmet and some clothes…as I said the obvious stuff. But I soon found out that during long rides I was suffering from friction in the saddle area. Very painful! I remember thinking to myself: I don’t think I’ll want to continue cycling if it’s that painful each time.

My friend Celine invited me to a party at her flat one day (Last year she crossed the UK on her bike in a week therefore she knows quite a lot about cycling). Between 2 glasses of wine, I asked her if she had the same friction problems and if she knew what to do about it. That’s the first time I heard about that product: ‘Chamois cream’. I have to say, the name itself is a bit mysterious. In French, a chamois is a kind of goat that lives in the mountains…therefore for me chamois cream would be a better name for a type of cheese than for a dermatologic cream.

The next day, I went on wiggle.co.uk (best website ever for sports products!) to order my pot of chamois cream. I can’t tell you how much this cream has improved my rides. You apply it on your skin and on the padding in your shorts and off you go. Even when I did a 65 miles ride back in May, I did not have any problems afterwards.

I really wish someone had recommended this cream to me straight away as it is an absolute essential if you are planning to do long rides (and even shorter ones).

So far I have only tried the Chamois Creme from Assos (Swiss brand) so it is the one I recommend. It smells ok and it feels ok on the skin. It does not stick and washes off very easily. 1 pot costs around £12 but it is worth it and it lasts for months so it’s ok.

Last week, I have bought a chamois cream from another brand called Udderly Smooth Chamois Cream. I’ll test it and let you know how it goes.

Other recommendations to help reduce frictions:

• Use quality padded shorts.
• Do get off your bike at red lights to let the blood circulate.
• Lift your backside off the saddle from time to time to let the blood circulate.
• Do select your underwear carefully. Girls, I do not recommend wearing lace for instance.

Want to try something different for breakfast?

Tired of eating the eternal bowl of Special K in the morning? Yeah, I know there are plenty of different flavours but you've tried them all and want a change? Why don't you try to start the day with a smoothie? It has got only advantages: it's quick and easy to make, it is super healthy and it tastes fantastic. And if you put the right ingredients in it, you won't be angry after half an hour....so what do you say? You want to try?
Well I have the perfect receipe for you. I found it in a book that I already mentioned called The New Abs Diet by David Zinczenko...

To prepare the smoothie, you only need a blender and the following ingredients:

ingredients

• 1 banana
• 100 gr of frozen mixed red fruits
• 180 ml of low fat vanilla yoguhrt
• 180 ml of skimmed milk
• 2 teaspoons of peanut butter
• 50 gr of oat in a little bit of milk
• 4 icecubes (I personnally do not add any ice cubes because the frozen fruits keep the mixture cold and I like a thicker texture)

Chuck everything in your blender and mix for 30 secs. Voila! It's ready!

I hope you'll enjoy this smoothie as much as I do!

Red fruit smoothie

The Alps. What else?

Why do all good things have to come to an end eventually??!! Unfortunately for me, summer holidays are already over and I've been back to work this week. I find it hard to sit on a chair for 8 long hours everyday after having spent 10 days walking, running and swimming.
I have spent part of my holiday in the Alps, in the Parc des Ecrins in a tiny place called Puy-Aillaud. I love going there because it is isolated, calm and beautiful. My plan for the holidays was to relax and do nothing! But that never works for me as I get bored after one day. So I changed my plan for doing a small activity everyday. So we did a few nice walks. The first we did was short but the trail was very steep. But what a mindblowing view at the top!


View on the Glacier Blanc

I also found a nice little lake to do some swimming. It is amazing to swim in a lake with snowy mountain tops in the background.



Lake of La Roche de Rame near l'Argentière la Bessée



I did not bring my bike with me as I was travelling by train and did not want the embarrassment but I wish I had!! There were so many cyclists on the road...it was really frustrating not to be with them.

Hopefully I'll be able to go back to the Alps next year and climb up a few hills...which promises to be tough!

 

Dorney Lake Triathlon - 24.07.2011

Busy transition area...didn't know where to rack my bike!

Done! Last Sunday, I completed the Dorney Lake Sprint Distance Triathlon in 1h30mins and a few seconds. It was a great event and I really enjoyed it. The weather was fantastic (we have not been lucky with the weather lately so it was enjoyable to see the sun for once). I was just worried about the wind that represented a problem for the cycling part...it's just so much more difficult to cycle with the wind right in your face! It's like trying to push a wall!

Before the race:

My start time was at 11am so I worked out that I had to wake up 3 to 4 hours earlier to eat my breakfast. So I was up at 7h30. I prepared myself a nice & strong cup of coffee (coffein to wake me up) and ate some energy bars. I usually do not have a sensitive stomach but I can not do physical efforts with a stomach full of food. I do not even eat a proper breakfast, I prefer the energy bars, it is less heavy than bread (in my opinion).
I was watching the news from Norway on TV telling about the horrific events in Oslo. I kind of lost track of time and next thing I know it was already 9am...I had to hurry and finish gathering my stuff because I wanted to be at Dorney Lake at 10am to see my friend Jonathan start with his wave. I was glad I had prepared all my things the day before.
I jumped in my car and drove to the lake that is located near Windsor (the lake is Eton College's rowing centre) only 20mins away from Chiswick.
Of course I missed Jonathan's start...and I realised that I actually had to hurry because I had 40 mins left to collect my race number, dress myself up and rack my bike in the transition area (which turned out to be a difficult task as there was not much space left!).
You really have to be methodical in your preparation and do things in the right order. For instance, don't put your wetsuit on and then realise that you need to pee...that's just bad time management. Basically, I almost recommend writing a list of things to do, this way you don't forget anything and you can relax and concentrate on your race. I actually have a list but I did not look at it and realised in horror that I had forgotten my race belt at home (that is used to attach the race number). Thanks God, one of the goodies provided by the triathlon sponsor was a racebelt. I was lucky on that one.

The race:
I zipped my wetsuit at the last minute as I did not want to cook in it. It was actually quite warm outside. Then the 56 contestants (all girls) had to listen to the instructions before getting in the water. The water was 18 degrees (still a bit cold for me). At that point I was wondering where to position myself strategically...I did not really know so I stayed in the middle. I am not (yet) a strong swimmer so I thought that I should not be at the front...but I did not want to be completely at the back either. When the referee blew his wistle...Oh my God! That was like being in Fight Club. You get kicked big time. Blows are coming from everywhere. People just swim and don't care about any obstacles in front of them. They just go ahead. So you do the same! It is really really stressful but the important thing is to stay calm and relaxed and above all, control your breathing...

Fight Club Start

So I swam the 750m as fast as I could trying to use my arms as much as I could rather than my legs. I got out of the water, not too quickly to avoid falling. My friend Jonathan said he was now using ear plugs because it helps keeping your balance when getting out of the water...something I will need to try next time.

I had a hard time removing my wetsuit and did an awful transition time of 3mins!! (some people take less than 40 seconds!).

I jumped on my bike and pedalled as hard as I could. I am not strong in the swim but I am ok on the bike so I had to give my best because you can't really count on the running alone to gain minutes. It was really windy so as I wrote earlier it was a very tough ride for half of the lap. I completed the 20K in 42 mins.

Then I did a second awful transition of 2 mins where I swapped my cycling shoes for trainers and started the remaining 5K run. I noticed a guy ahead of me who was running at a good pace and I focused on trying to catch him. I never caught him but the strategy worked because I managed to run the 5K in 25 mins which is a very decent time given I had just cycled 20K before at full speed.

 

After the race:

I felt astonishingly well after crossing the finish line. Of course I was out of breath and was dreaming about a huge glass of water but I had the feeling that I could have gone for another 5K. So I thought that maybe I could have pushed myself even harder in the run...But I think that all the hard training I've done lately has paid off. I recover much quicker now as I am used to exercise regularly. And also during the race, I've made sure that I was drinking enough water.

This triathlon gave me motivation for the rest of the season. I felt great and I feel that with a little more work and preparation I can improve my time by 5-10 minutes...so my aim for the triathlon I will be doing in september is to go under 1h25 and be as close as possible to 1h20. It is ambitious but I need to challenge myself!

Reward time

Gunnersbury 10K Fun Run

One of London’s best attributes is its parks. There are ‘heaps’ of parks everywhere in the city and they’re real nice. From Chiswick where I live, I have quick access to at least 4 or 5 parks where I can run. It’s cool because I can use lots of different running routes

so it is never boring. If I want a challenging run, I can go to Richmond Park that boasts a few steep hills. If I want a more casual run, I’ll ask my friend Melanie to meet up in Hyde Park that’s quite flat.

Last Sunday, a local running club (The Ealing Eagles) was organising a 10K fun run in Gunnersbury park that’s located literally 15mins away from my flat so I had no excuse not to go. The race was at 11am so not too early which is great as well!

I like running 10K distances because it is one of my Key Performance Indicators. I always look at my time on a 10K distance to measure my progresses. I ran my first 10K in 2006 in something like 1h10. Back in November, I did 51 mins. And this time, I was expecting to run under 50 mins.

I think I did but I am unsure because I had no watch to check my time (a mistake that I will not make again!) and there was no timer at the start and finish line. So I had to ask someone the time when I started running and again when I finished and from that I have worked out that my time must have been 48 or 49 mins. I am now waiting for the race results to see if I have beaten my PB…but they still have not been published. AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

10Ks are a nice little challenge for people beginning to run. It really only takes about 2 or 3 months (if you run about 3 times a weeks) for a total novice to get fit for that distance so it is achievable and not that hard (Try! You’ll see!). For me, it is an excellent way to train for the running part of a Sprint distance triathlon. In the triathlon, I only have to run 5K but I train on a longer distance to build endurance. I am now comfortable on a 10K distance so what I do is try to work on my speed whereas before, my aim was to finish the race.

I have set myself the target of running a 10K in 45 mins before the end of the triathlon season…so still a lot of hard work ahead of me!