I am taking my first day off despite the fact that I have not been doing any of my essay. There is a book to read through and 3 essays due in a week and a bit later. It is probably time to reflect on the semester so far.
Social: All tri socials are now held at my flat due to the obvious convenient and we always head off to the LCR after. So far there was the Pancake social which was great fun because everyone came :) ; Athletic mixed social ; Derby day ; I am actually so happy that I joined UEATri because I am making lots of friends and supportive athletes. There is so much banter going on and of course mostly is about our training, our gears or the race.
Sport: Tri training is tough and it is great to have so many people who understand and that I can aspire to. I am at the bottom of the fitness bracket in the club but I am making progress and that is fantastic. My running has gotten a little faster and I am running longer distances. My swimming still need work and I should do more sessions on my own. My cycling has only started a few weeks ago since I got the 2ndhand road bike off ebay. I have started to go on Sunday ride with the club and attended the extra CCturbo sessions. I am not training roughly 8 to 9 hours per week. I will try and increase them slowly.
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A few weeks ago, Ben at UEATri dropped out of the Broadland Half Marathon. I originally wanted to sign up for it in January but it was too late hence I didn't increase my long distance training. But when the opportunity arise, I just took it out of the blue.
That Sunday, we drove up to the starting point and there I was facing the reality of having to actually run a 13.1 miles. I was nervous but kept laughing at the fact that the longest I've ran is 13 km. The gun shot and everyone sprint off. I didn't.
I have mentally worked it all out. The goal was to finish and I will run at my threshold which was 5''50/km or roughly 9min/mile. Ideally I should finish roughly 10 minutes over 2 hours. Every 30 minutes I should have some food and try to save the gel for the last few miles. Hence, despite being surrounded by people running off fast, I kept telling myself to just go steady. There is no need to go fast and then having to walk.
Now, having ran my first half at Hasting last year, at least this time I was more mentally prepared for what lies ahead. I can only compare this to fight club - between the mind and the rest of my body.
It was a rather hot day.
4 miles in - I am doing okay. I constantly reminded myself, just keep running to the water station. OMG she is pushing a baby cart and is going faster than me!
6 miles - gosh look at Jem and Rob go! They are super fast! Nevermind, just pull your body up and a bit more cadence on the leg. Water on the face now!!
8 miles - I have to make this flapjack last, only one bite to lie to my mind. Speed up a bit, you're falling down to 6 min/km. This nice woman is telling to have a competition with the old man up there. Good idea!
11 miles - why is this a hill? arrgh, okay only 2 more. Just 2 more, eat that last bit of flapjack now.
12 miles - where did everyone go? okay stop freaking out!! I am still running and I will keep running.
13 miles - okay, time to speed things along, keep going. WHY is my legs giving up!?!!
"GO TU LINH! SPRINT TO THE FINISH!!!" my UEATri mates yelled out
OH GOSH ! I AM DEAD ! WATERRRRR!!!
A week later, UEA hosted Derby day which literally is a big sport day in competition with University of Essex. I entered with the other 4 gals in the 10 miles Cycling Time Trial at Horsford.
Saturday 1pm, we all set off as a big group of cyclists to Horsford. Honestly, I didn't really enjoy it that much because my legs were so dead tired and it was incredibly hard to push through. But everyone has a bad race once in a while right?
