Be Prepared! - A Triathlon Diary

Training for a triathlon, I have learnt, is more than just putting in the hours of training. It tests your ability to be prepared and plan ahead! So, I rocked up to school with my normal bag with all my school stuff AND my hug red kit back ready to head to the lake for a swim after After School Club. 

Food (meals/shakes) for day 4 of the C9 programme. All prepped at 6:30am and ready to go! Come back in a few days to read my review of how the C9 programme turned out. 

For any lake swim you're going to need one or even two swimming hats! The water is cold and it's much easier to warm up afterwards when your hair is nice and dry. Plus, it makes you streamlined.... and it looks SUPER attractive! 

Flip flops are always a great shout for wandering around the lake it. There is a whole of goose poo about..... not nice for bare feet! 

And of course! A tri suit..... again, super attractive. I like to train in mine so I get used to the feel of it in the water. You don't even notice it under the wetsuit, it's like a second skin. I don't have a picture of my wet suit but it is, of course, recommended. Some people swim without them but I'm not that brave! 

The moto of a triathlete in training - Get prepped! 

#100happydays Day 50 - 56! Week 8 Is Done And Dusted

We have officially crossed the half way stage. Can't believe that week 8 is out the way. Only 44 days left to go! Are you all finding happiness in the little things? Why not comment about what you found happy today - even if it was just a cup of tea at the end of the day!

Day 50) BANK HOLIDAY! No alarms for Megan! Had a lovely day in bed and did a whole load of colouring in my book. I also managed to watch an entire series of Grace and Frankie on Netflix in one day.

Day 51) Had a lovely catch up with Belinda over dinner at Giraffe in the sunshine. Then off to ballroom dancing for a lovely Waltz and Cha Cha session. Such fun.

52) I spent my Wednesday at Holiday Club, this was fine but it was followed by a very long meeting. I was very glad to see my bed after that! (Reusing an old photo as I was actually too tired to take a photo on Wednesday).

Day 53) Thursday was another Holiday Club day. We made 3D lego figures and put on a puppet show. Lots of giggles were had. 

Day 54) Baking Welsh Rarebit muffins at Holiday Club on Friday. We avoided the thunder storm and sang a little song to the rain but it still didn't go away! ALL THE RAIN HAPPENED! 

Day 55) Saturday was crazy! I drove to Portsmouth (about an hour) for brunch with Lydia, one of my closest friends from uni. It was lovely to see her and put the worlds to rights. I then drove to Surbiton from Portsmouth (about and hour and a quarter) to pick up the lovely Sarah. We drove back to Guildford (half an hour) to pick up movies, pjs and Bananagrams and then went ice skating and bowling at Guildford Spectrum. After that we drove back to Kingston (25 mins) for drinking, movies, Bananagrams and pizza. My little car was very tired by the end of it all but much fun was had all round. I now want to invest in some ice skating lessons and have learnt that I am actually quite good at bowling (when there aren't 18 other people watching me). 

Day 56) Blog related happy day! I reached 1000 views for this little rambling blog of my inner dialogues. It made me very pleased to have reached the milestone! 

And there you go! Week 8 over and done with.

Have a happy week, remember the find joy in the small things, especially when you are having a crappy day. Just finding one or two small positives can help take the edge of when life throws rubbish in your way.

Stay happy!

M xx

UPDATED 23/05/15 - The BBC 100 Book List Challenge

Blog will be updated as and when I finish the next book on the list.

23/05/15 - I am about half way through The Hobbit already! I am really enjoying it, finding it hard to put down to be honest. I'm really enjoying how closely the films stuck to the book. The story is so intricate and detailed that it would have been silly for the films to have strayed away from that. Cannot wait to read the rest of it.

05/05/15 - So, I finished the last book in the Narnia series tonight. I did not see the ending coming at all! I don't want to spoil it as I would really recommend that people go and read the series. They are brilliant... but the ending... WOW! I was nearly crying on the train home. As I've found with some of C. S. Lewis' installments in the series, the story takes a long time to get going. I mean, in 172 pages I'd say the first 90 are slow. There is a lot of setting the scene and explaining how events unfolded. It's all necessary but the pace is fairly perfunctory. However, I hit page 100 and literally couldn't put the book down until it was over.

For a children's series, I'd say there were parts that were a little dark, especially in the last book but I think that they are definitely books that young teenagers would cope with and should read! They are easy to read in the sense of vocab and print size. Contextually again, they are accessible. Lewis is a true genius at writing tales that have no deeper meaning if you don't want them too. But if you are obvservant enough, or of that inclination to see the deeper message in Lewis' writing.... it slaps you in the face in places. The last few chapters of The Last Battle especially. Anyone who's been to Sunday school will see the correlation and it is done beautifully. As a Christian, it was a really relevant portrayal of the coming of Christ and how He rules all. It was done so subtly and so softly that you don't feel overwhelmed but it is stunningly obvious what Lewis is trying to convey.

A brilliant piece of writing! I will definitely be holding onto the series to read to my children.

Now onto The Hobbit!

24/04/15 - I can't believe I haven't already put this on my blog. I'd sort of forgotten about it and then today, it just arrived in my head. It's another blog post that I can update and people can join in/follow my progress through the challenge.

The BBC has put together a list of 100 books.... well actually it's a few more than a hundred as some series count as 1. They reckon that the majority of people will only read 6 of the 100. So at the beginning of 2015 I set out to work my through the list.

I started with the Narnia series and then plan to move onto The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings.

So far I have finished six of the seven books from The Chronicles of Narnia.

I finished the first two in the a few days after New Year. I just stayed at home and read, trying to avoid the rubbish weather before heading back to work for a new term.

 

It took me a long time to get through The Horse and His Boy but I really enjoyed it once the story picked up. It just took a while to keep going. 

Loved this one! Zipped through it in a few days. I love re-reading these stories as an adult. The messages that come through them are so clear and speak in new ways reading them 10 years on from the first time I went through the series, 

This is probably my favourite story in the whole series. The adventure at sea, discovery of new lands, finding the ends of the earth. It takes me in hook, line and sinker. Fantastic writing. 

Just like The Horse and His Boy, I struggled with this one originally. It was such a strange concept and a lot of book seemed to have been read before any of the action really got going but the concept in the end was great and I liked how it started to tie all the characters in together before the culmination in the final book where they all reappear. I had not read this volume of the series before so it was a great discovery of a book I did not already have vague memories of.

I am still reading The Last Battle which is the final installment of C S Lewis' series. So far, it is really good. About half way through. Will update as and when I finish it.  

100 Happy Days Week 6 Days 36 - 42

Week 6 has come and gone so quickly! Can't quite believe that I am nearly half way through the 100 days project.

Day 36) Went to Greenwich Park with Year 5 for the day. We went to the Royal Observatory. It was excellent. Even I learned a heap of info about space. If anyone ever gets the chance to go - do! It was fantastic! 

Day 37) Tuesday was not a good day! At all! Everything went wrong and I was very happy to see my bed at the end of it. 

Day 38) FOOT TREATMENT! This cream is awesome. I have really horrid feet but since using this from The Body Shop they have really improved. 

Day 39) I took a very tired selfie on Thursday. I ended up in bed and asleep before 9pm. I was absolutely shattered! 

Day 40) Pizza and Ginger Beer! That about sums up my Friday evening... and why not! Little treat to myself after a very long week! 

Day 41) THIS BED! Oh wow - it was just the most comfortable thing ever. It puts my own bed to shame and I LOVE my bed. So yes, this was my happy day for Saturday.

Day 42) Me and Mum at the end of our triathlon. Both looking happy but tired after the best part of 2 hours out on the course. I was so pleased with how my first attempt at a triathlon went. I was bouncing for the rest of the day! If you'd like to read a review/walk through of my event, click here. 

This is almost a week late, so I'll be posting another weeks happy days in about 24 hours. 

Come back and see that too!

Check in soon

M xx