IronMay 2020

As usual, the intentions are firmly in place, but the body is weak, so very weak. So far, I've had a migraine, and my joints had seized, and that by Day 3!

Day	Time	Exercise	Total
1	10m	cycling	10m
3	75m	walking	1h 25m
4	60m	cleaning	2h 25m
8	55m	walking	3h 20m
9	60m	walking	4h 20m
9	5m	cycling	4h 25m
10	60m	walking	5h 25m
11	35m	walking	6h
12	15m	housework	6h 15m
12	25m	walking	6h 50m
13	30m	walking	7h 20m
15	70m	walking	8h 30m
16	60m	walking	9h 30m
18	120m	working	11h 30m
19	60m	working	12h 30m
20	60m	working	13h 30m
21	30m	working	14h
23	120m	working	16h
25	80m	walking	17h 20m

DONE!

Watching 'The Orcas Play'

Yesterday the sea was shades of turquoise and dusky petrol. This morning, it was so dark. The image above does not show how dark the sea actually was. There were white wave tops on the dark, dark sea, and they looked like the white markings on orcas. It was fascinating to watch.

The weather was vastly different too. The temperature has dropped by 10C. Gone was the sunshine of yesterday, and in were light grey skies. And the wind! Sailings have been cancelled today due to the strength of the wind.

May Goals

May Goals
1. Complete this year's slightly odd IronMay
2. Finish 12 balls of yarn 

3. Operate a policy of 1 new ball of yarn for 3 finished balls

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1. Odd IronMay completed

2. Finished 12 balls of yarn

3. 3 balls of yarn bought

No IronMay This Year

With so many places around the world being in lockdown or quarantine there will be very few people who will be able to take part in the IronMay Triathlon.

Two solutions have been advanced. The first is that the triathlon can become a biathlon (running and cycling). The second is based around 17 hours, the time allowed for competitive ultra triathlons. The suggestion is to complete 17 hours of exercise in the month of May. This would workout at 32.9 minutes each day. It can be any form of exercise, walking, running, cycling, yoga, weight training.

Given the restrictions we are currently experiencing, and the lack of general energy I am suffering with, the later option sounds like the best one for me just now.

I'm going to increase my daily cycling to 10 minutes, and look into yoga on youtube.

Monthly Ironman

Each time I take part in IronMay I find it does wonders for my back. Each time I resolve to do it more frequently than once a year. Each time I fail. Or, should I say, so far I have failed?

I don't care how many attempts it is going to take to get this to stick, I am going to keep working at completing a slow IronMan triathlon each month. It has possibility to be a tad tricky as the swimming pool has not yet re-opened, and no date has been given. I'll do what I can.

IronMay Complete!

We have done it!  The Challenge has been completed, and with two days to spare.

Between the two of us, we have swum 2.4 miles, cycled 120 miles, and walked/ran  150 miles. We're 8 miles over on the cycling, and broken the walking goal many times over. I gave up entering my miles for walking as it wasn't going to make much difference.

We are done! It's happened. My back feels happier. 

And, I know what needs to happen now. I need to be completing an IronMan each and every months. A mile of walking, and 4 miles of cycling each day, and swimming half a mile each week, and that's all it is. It's hard whilst my local pool is out of action, but hopefully it will be operational again in July. 

And So It Begins!

Iron May has begun. So far, I've walked 1.8 miles and cycled 5. 

This year, instead of entering as an individual, Cat and I have become a team, and we are going to do it together. My plan is to do a full triathlon, and also some extra swimming as swimming isn't Cat's thing.

A Little Excitement in Life

It was getting way too boring to be posting near-identical lists of the things I have been doing around the house. Thankfully as routines become established the need to think about them becomes less and less.

Instead, I'll speak of today's excitement. It is a striped chocolate cheesecake. The recipe is a variation on my vanilla cheesecake. Everything proceeds as normal until the cheesecake mixture has been made. Split the mixture in half, into two bowls. Add powdered drinking chocolate to one bowl, and stir really well. Next, pour some of the chocolate mixture onto the centre of the biscuit base. Then some vanilla, and alternate between the two until it has all be used. Bake for 35 minutes. Let it cool for a while, and top with chocolate ganache. I used 170ml of double cream, and 170g of milk chocolate. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. 

The other tiny bit of excitement is I have started my preparation for IronMay. This year, the whole family has decided to join in. We will be entering the team category. Previously, I have been entered as an individual. The Elder Offspring regularly walks a couple of miles each day to and from work. The rest of us are walking more since the arrival of Ava.  The Younger Offspring and I will be responsible for the cycling portion. I have done no cycling in months, and a plan has been devised to prepare my 'little botty' for the hours I would be sitting cycling. I started off with one minute of cycling, morning and evening, followed by one squat. Today is the 5th day, and both are getting easier, and botty is not complaining. At this rate, I'll be cycling 42 minutes (morning and evening) each day by the the end of March. According the IronMay organisers, 4 minutes equates to 1 mile. This will give me 21 miles each day! I don't know if I'll be able to keep this up, but I'm going to try. April will be the swimming month. I'll see about going swimming twice a week, and build up to swimming one mile at a time. The Elder Offsping regularly swims about half a mile a week. She is going to try to increase this to a mile a week. My goal is for us to be able to complete 4 slow triathlons within the month.

Iron May Complete!

Done. Done DONE!

Two and a half miles have been swum, 112 miles have been cycled, and a marathon has been walked! My poor botty feels a little put upon, and my feet have a couple of blisters, but it's done. I've finished, and it feels good.

Swimming Swum

Yesterday I finished off the swimming component of Iron May. I swam 1.5 miles, and was utterly exhausted by the end of it! It was a bone-weary tiredness, and my knees hurt in the evening. I was not expecting sore knees. A quickly little one mile walk was added into the mix before the swim. This takes the total up to 89%. I'm almost, almost done!

In other news, my GP is delighted with the exercise and my diet. Although I still want chocolate and crisps! Last night we had fish and chips, and whilst I had been longing for it for two weeks, I didn't really enjoy it very much. Butternut squash pasta would have been far tastier, and more veggie-licious.

My plan is to have reward chocolate on Sundays. I'll ask the Beloved to buy me a luscious lemony chocolate concoction at Thornton's. This will be my chocolate indulgence.

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike

Yesterday saw 15 miles completed by bicycle and 1.75 miles on foot. Despite all of that cycling, the view remained the same, my bedroom. Walking gave a much more picturesque vista, Port Erin in the sunshine. It is a beautiful little village.

This morning I had time to fit in two cycling miles before work, and this brings the grand total to 1 mile swum, 54 miles cycled and 15.75 miles walked, or 50% complete! 

Life Continues Apace

Whilst swimming today, I started having problems with cramp in the muscles by the balls of my feet. When I got out of the pool to stretch and stuff, one of the life guards came over to check on me. He gave advice on  a better method of stretching, and asked "When did you last drink?"  

He explained many people don't realise how hard they are working whilst swimming, and they need to replenish their fluid supply. I drank about 750ml, and finished my swim. After the swim, I finished the litre.

I have always been so tired after swimming half a mile, and I'd thought it was because I had just swum half a mile. It's not! It's because I was dehydrated! Half a mile done, and I'm feeling fine and dandy, not wiped out at all. It's a revelation to me.

At work, decluttering, re-ordering and completing work continues. I'm looking forward to Tuesday afternoon when it is all over.  Getting all the work done I want to get done, before I leave is the goal. My desire is to leave it all in a state where people can pick up various aspects of the work and be able to start work. 
Oh, and the IronMay triathlon is 42% done! 

Four miles on my bike is nothing

I'm very surprised how easy it is to cycle four miles on my bike, even in comparison to this time last week.  Four miles is nothing.

More than four miles is sore botty teritory, but four miles is easy.

Stationery Bike

I was coming to post my miles cycled and walked, and thought "Oh, I know. I'll use a picture of a stationary bike." Then a little idea dawned, I'll use a stationery bike instead. Searching Google for 'stationery bike' only brought up pictures of exercise bikes. Even 'stationery bike -stationary' brought only a few stationery related images. I suppose I was hoping for a visual pun, a bike made from items of stationery.

Anyway, 8 miles cycled and 1.5 miles walked. This beings the totals to 0.5 swum, 24 cycled and 10 walked. This is 27% completed, and I'm in 12th place out of 31. I'm happy with that.

Rest Day is over, and it's back to work

Yesterday was a rest day. Only half a mile was walked, and no decluttering was done. Today is a new day, and I'm raring to go again.

The shelves above Geek Corner have been decluttered, cleaned and tidied. They are now home to the Doctor Who collection. The waste paper basket has to be emptied and a wee, quick dust of the furniture, and the room is done!

I'm really pleased with how simple it has been to declutter this room, and how smoothly it has gone. Next up will be the guest room. I'm not looking forward to that space!

I'm all wet!

Strangely enough, swimming half a mile will make you all wet. Interestingly, it wasn't the swimming that was the hard part, it was getting dried and dressed again.

Swimming half a mile, and walking 2 miles have been added to my Iron May totals. They are now at 0.5 miles of swimming, 16 miles of cycling and 8 miles of walking. This equates to 22% of Iron May, and we're only on Day 4!

An Eighth of a Triathlon

Sixteen miles on a bike, and six on foot, this means I've completed an eight of the triathlon!

My feet are complaining a little and saying "Only one mile at a time, please." My bottom is asking for similar considerations, "Only four miles at a time, please." It's weird having body parts that talk to me. 

Feel the Burn

I need to remember to wear 'twin skin' socks each and every time I go out walking. I wore them yesterday and had no problems with my feet at all. Today, after walking about 30m the soles of my feet started to tingle and I was feeling the burn.  This is not a good sign. When I go walking, it's time for twin skin.

Anyway, that's the first mile done today. And, I managed to put on socks without dislocating a toe! That's a real improvement.

Iron May has started!

Top of the Leaderboard!

That's my first day of Iron May completed. The goal is to walk 1 mile each day, cycle 4 miles and then once a week swim half a mile.

I might have managed the first injury of the completion too. I dislocated one of my toes whilst putting on my socks this morning! Thankfully it was a minor setback and the toe was relocated without incident.

(a few minutes later...) Fabulous Fi has managed to pass me on the leaderboard. She has walked 2 miles. Each section of the challenge counts for a third of the completed IronMan. Whilst I have travelled farther, she has completed more. We both have had a turn at the top of the board.

(12 hours later...) Fi has swum half a mile, cycled 7.5 miles and walked/run 5. I have managed 8 miles of cycling and 2 walking miles. And, I'm just about falling asleep!  I can hardly keep my eyes open. I want to get up onto that bike and add another 4 miles before bed, but I'm so tired. Please, someone, anyone, tell me this is a marathon (literally, there's a marathon in it!), not a sprint.

IronMay Challenge: Finished!

During May a grand total of 2.4 miles was swum, 116 miles cycled, and 26.2 miles walked!  I have completed 1.01 of an IronMan spaced out over the month.  

Apparently there's people who do this within 17 hours!  My poor body is still rather tender, and just plain grumpy.  It is a lot of physical active activity.