Rolling In The Deep - A Triathlon Diary

Wednesday has become lake day - actually, I'd try and get to the lake every day if I could and if it was open.... I am totally in love with the whole thing. It is so tranquil and just the sound of the swimmers in the lake makes me feel utterly at peace!

I mean, who wouldn't love to spend at evening with this view. Obviously, when you are in the water you don't spend much time looking around but you do know that you are surrounded by so much beauty. 

I was the 126 swimmer in the water on Wednesday (not including new swimmers to the lake - they get there own number/colour system) and by the time I was leaving, the team were signing in swimmer 170. You never feel like there are that many people to fight through when you're in the water though, it feels like you're out there pretty much by yourself which is just lovely after a long day at work. 

And here I am..... looking my best, ready to get into the water for a splash around. I really focused on my stroke on Wednesday. I wanted to work on my hip rotation and pull of my arms under the water. It felt good once I got into a good rhythm and I could feel the difference in speed when I was really pulling with my arm in the right angle under the water. I also worked on my sighting, I want to make sure that I don't lose time by swimming in the wrong direction on race day. My technique is coming along nicely. I think I've got the hang of raising my head to just under the goggle line before going to breathe. It's feeling more and more natural every time I go.

For anyone looking for a new experience or wants to give open water swimming a go - come on down to Shepperton Lake. You will not be disappointed! 

M xx 

OOTD: Thursday 11th June 2015

Today was so hot that I seriously regretted the jeans by about 10am. I spent a lot of time outside in the sun today and got very hot indeed! 

Same jeans as yesterday. The blouse is from Next, bought as part of my 'new job' wardrobe. Once again, the flowers are what attracted my to it orignally. I really liked the colours as well. Plus, the neck line has little sparkly beads all over it which the little kids at school love!

Cardigan is from H&M. It's one of my favourite jumper/cardigan/pull overs that I own because the arms are really long so I can wrap my hands in them when it's chilly. Obviously, I was not doing that today. Today, the cardigan stayed in my bag as soon as I got to school!

C9 Days 1 and 2 - The Cleanse

I suppose the hardest thing about the C9 cleanse is the first two days. There is no real food that you eat... Well not meals anyway. You are allowed a certain amount of fruit and veg but other than that, no solid food passes your lips. It is all liquid!

I was kind of expecting this, a cleanse usually flushes everything from your system, which involves a lot of liquid but I don't think my bladder was prepared for the sheer volume of liquid that my body would be processing.... If that's too much information, I apologise whole hardly to you, my lovely readers.

I did the first two days over a weekend so I knew I wouldn't have to be dealing with low calorie, very little food grumpiness syndrome which I was very likely to get.... And by Saturday afternoon I was very glad that I had made that decision - not because I was grumpy, I actually felt really good, I just needed to be near a bathroom all afternoon as my bladder went into hyperdrive!!

The weighing in times work really well, you only weigh in on days 1,3,6 and 9 (although I might weigh in on the morning of what would be day 10 to add in the last day to the process). You weigh yourself on the morning you start, obviously, but you also take a load of measurements which help track how your body changes. This was particularly good for me as the scale has not been budging since January but the cm's have been coming off, so I was more interested in my measurment changes than the scale.

Having said that... Over the two days of detox I dropped 1.9kilos which I was over the moon about. Giving my system a kick start seemed to be working. I'd lost cm's around the main areas I wanted too as well - waist and hips. Knowing that some of this could just be bloating going down I tried not to take it too much to heart. I focused on the physical changes I noticed. I had more energy on day 2, let alone for the days since (I'm writing this whilst on day 6 - energy levels still really high) and there is a pair of particularly tight jeans which are slipping on easier now so somewhere around my body has gotten smaller.

All results so far have been great and I've genuinely not found it that difficult to be on mainly liquid.... (After day 2, you get to eat food!!!)

Come back soon for a review of days 3 to 9... I have my fingers crossed for good things.

M xx

Spoils Of A Good Sale!

Oh My Gosh! Do I love a car boot sale! 100% addicted to them. Hook Road Arena Car Boot is the place to be on a Sunday morning for a bargain and the good weather this weekend brought out a whole lot of store owners and their wonderful products!

And I, being a willing customer, took full advantage!

I got this stunning set of classic books for only £2 (for all of them)!!

This is a stunning dress, already fits but will look better when I slim into a little more. 

This top is originally from the TU collection. It was in lovely condition and for the very reasonable price of £1, how could I refuse? 

Need to slim into this. It's quite tight, but I love it. The pattern is lovely and I can wear it all year round. 

LOVE LOVE LOVE this! It's a size 12 but because of the material and the cut I can already get into it. It'll look better when I actually am a size 12 not a 14/16, but it was a such a beautiful pattern that I couldn't leave it hanging on the rack. 

RochaJohnRocha for £2? Yes please! Perfect for school.

CANNOT WAIT until this fits! It's a size 14 but it's so fitted that it won't fit until I've dropped some more weight. It's stunning, I really want to wear it to a social dance at some point - hopefully I'll be thin enough to get into it soon. 

Maxi dress for the beach! Love the summer! I got another maxi dress too which has a stunning, dark aztec pattern on it but I was wearing it when I took all these photos and forgot to take a selfie. Will post it in my OOTD series soon. 

My favourite buy of the day was my bean bag chair which is actually the comfiest thing I have ever sat on! It has become my new blog chair!

This dress it stunning! It's a floor length purple lace dress with lace sleeves and an open back. Obly problem is, it's a 14 petite so me and my sister are going to be have to do some alterations to it when I'm thin enough to actually look good in it. The skirt needs lengthening and we are going to take some of the sunder skirt out so that it's a little less formal. It'll be perfect for summer parties! 

As well as all this I got a beautiful ring, 4 stunning canvases to hang in my new house (when I finally buy it) and some hanging lanterns for my bedroom. All for the grand total of £29, what can I say?! A massive success at the car boot! 

An Early Saturday Splash - A Triathlon Diary

I woke up a lot earlier than expected on Saturday morning and I felt surprisingly rested, even though I was waking up before 8am at the weekend. With nothing much to do and wanting to get out of the house, I thought I'd head to the lake for a quick morning dip.  

When I arrived it was a little overcast but the car park was heaving. So much busier than on Wednesday night and I could already hear the rhythmic slapping of the swimming going past. From the lake side you can only really see their arms going through the top half of their rotation and the occasion head bob up if someone is 'sighting' - technical term for 'making sure they are going in the right direction'. It's actually a lot harder than you think it is to keep going in a straight line, to a particular point when you are in the water. 

The weather started to break as I was getting ready by the time I got to the water's edge in all my gear.... looking the best I have ever looked in my life..... there is, unfortunately, no photographic proof of this.... it was glorious!

The first orange buoy you can see in the photo below is the start of both the 400m and the 750m course. You swim out to that buoy, do which ever lap you fancy and then head back in land - this avoids being plowed into by the really super fast semi pro dolphins in wetsuit people who seem to do more than one lap of the 750m course! (Crazy scary fit people)

The water temperature wasn't too bad and the sunshine helped a lot to keep the surface of the water warmer than a few feet down. It was a very uneventful swim session. I did a nice slow lap of the 400m course to get warmed up and relaxed and then took a little break. Bobbed about in the shallows for a while and then went out for another, slightly faster, more intense lap of the 400m course. 

If I head down on Saturday this week.... and if I'm feeling brave...... I might try the 750m course, just to see how it feels to be out in open water for that long. 

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! 

OOTD: Wednesday 10th June 2015

Hey lovely readers!

As another way to embrace my beauty and force myself to see the good things about the way I look.....not because I'm vain but because I would like to feel confident about myself..... I am started an outfit of the day post series.

I don't weather I will actually post every day due to time commitments etc but I will as often as I can.

Firstly, I will need to use better lighting in future... secondly, this mirror makes my legs look really short haha.

Okay! The jeans are from New Look a few years ago, they are a camouflage green with a very handy 'sock zip' that take away the issues of rolling-up-skinny-jeans-to-put-on-long-socks. The blouse is from Next, I love the cut of it and the style and how 'floaty' it is. Perfect for a summery day in the sun. The cardigan is New Look, it's a dusty pale pink, really lovely as a light cover up when it's breezy but to too chilly. 

On the whole, I really like this outfit. I think it looks okay and it has a lot of good stories behind it. I shrunk the jeans in the tumble dryer at uni and I couldn't get into them for the life of me. I then shrunk myself to get back into them! WAHOO! *punches air*

Similar story with the blouse. I bought it as part of a 'new job' wardrobe but it was a little tight over my tummy and around my love handles. I handed realised how much my body had changed shape since September until I put this on this morning and it floated over my waist and hips beautifully.

Maybe this project will be a success after all!!