Switcheroo

As I'm out for lunch tomorrow, I didn't want to commit to running after work so I did it today instead.  Mad, eh? *cough*  Anyway, I'll swim tomorrow morning and test the bike on Saturday to make sure it works.  The run today was horrible, for a change.  *sigh* I think I just don't like running.  Which is odd because I managed to get myself up to 10km last year so 5km at the moment shouldn't be this vile.

Having been following Laura(Angel31)'s blog for a bit, I decided to try mixing dried fruit in with cottage cheese for a snack today:-

...and it was lovely!

Dinner was quite complicated but relatively simple to make:-

...loads of ingredients but really tasty and textureful.

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop, blueberries and flaked almonds
S - banana
S -  Nakd Bar; Cocoa Orange
L - salad; lettuce, sweet pepper, celery, roasted chicken breast, cherry tomatoes, lemon juice
S - cottage cheese with raisins and flaked almonds
S - carrot and houmous
S - Nakd Bar; Pecan Pie
*run*
S - 1 scoop in semi-skimmed milk
D - salad; lettuce, sweet pepper, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, potato, pine nuts, honey&mustard dressing, boiled eggs and roasted chicken breast

Exercise - 5km run

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	2021 2089]
Protein (g)	177.6 (35.4%)
Carbohydrate (g)	166.7 (31.2%)
Fat (g)	74.5 (33.4%)
Fruit & Veg	11.7

New Toy!

I got me a new laptop :o)

My Macbook had served me well for the last 3.5 years, and survived one bout of case cracking and free repair by Apple but the second time (only a few weeks ago) was a duct tape repair job as I just didn't want to deal with it again, plus it was cracked on both sides of the track pad this time.  Seeing as I'd had a nice little tax rebate from a few years ago, I decided to treat myself to a better laptop with better resolution as the Macbook had been annoying me on that front for a while.  I didn't want anything massive, so a 17" was right out of the question, but a 15" would be bearable and give me a few extra pixels.  Handily,  just as I was about to give in and buy a 15" Macbook Pro, Apple announced some new ones with shinier processors -and- extended graphics options to give even better resolution on the 15" model.  Yay!  So I got one.

And I'm using it now and it's -lovely-!

The old Macbook will be recycled as a spare *cough*Windows*cough* machine(!)

Right.  So.  I forgot that I'd be at Info Security Europe today and unable to go to the gym, so static bike work didn't happen.  Not wanting to run or swim two days in a row, I've decided to take a rest day today instead.  It's not like any work I do this week will make much difference to my performance on Monday (unless I overdo it, of course), so I'm not feeling bad about taking a rest day where I hadn't planned to.

B - Bran Flakes with semi-skimmed milk and a chopped banana (we ran out of yogurt!)
S - Small skinny latte
L - Crussh Strawberry Cooler with extra ginger and Crussh Crayfish and Buckwheat Noodle Salad with Sweet Chilli Sauce
S - Nakd Bar; Cashew Cookie
S - Marmite biscuits with Marmite XO and cottage cheese
D - venison steak with butternut squash and sweet potato mash

Exercise - rest day

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1477 1790]
Protein (g)	92.9 (26.1%)
Carbohydrate (g)	223.7 (58.9%)
Fat (g)	23.8 (15.1%)
Fruit & Veg	7.9

Quickie

I ran last night and it felt pretty good until the last 1.5km.  A bit worried about running 5km after swimming and biking on Monday, but we'll see...

Out at a conference today and I'll tell you about my new toy when I get back :o)

Tuesday:-

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop, fruit compote and grape nuts
S - banana
L - salad; lettuce, cherry tomatoes, celery, sweet pepper and chicken breast (no capers because they stank of bleach!)
S - carrot and houmous
S - "lunchies" bar (Apricot and chocolate)
*run*
S - 1 scoop in semi-skimmed milk
D - beef chilli with sweet potato wedges
S - Tims Dairy Wholemilk yogurt (Toffee)

Exercise - 29 minutes running

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	2031 2094]
Protein (g)	147.5 (29.5%)
Carbohydrate (g)	222.4 (41.7%)
Fat (g)	63.8 (28.7%)
Fruit & Veg	15.5

The countdown begins

Another time trial swim today, 400m in 06:36!  (OK, this -is- a short pool and it -does- mean faster times than usual, but a 10s improvement is good)  It felt awful but the first length was incredibly quick and the rest were not bad either.  More tumble-turn practice and though they're not exactly consistent and sometimes too far from the end of the pool, they are improving.  More practice needed and I'm not sure they'll be ready for Monday's tri, but they will be for the 3rd in the series :o)

Nosh for today went like this...

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop, blueberries and flaked almonds
S - banana
L - salad; roast chicken breast, lettuce, capers, tomatoes, sweet pepper, pomegranate seeds and lemon juice
*swim*
S - 1 scoop in skimmed milk
S - carrot and caramelised onion houmous
D - salmon fillet with couscous, sweetcorn and peas
S - oat cakes with cheese maybe?

Exercise - 400m fast swim with tumble-turn practice afterwards (30 minutes total)

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1468 2057]
Protein (g)	140.5 (38.9%)
Carbohydrate (g)	132.0 (34.3%)
Fat (g)	43.0 (26.8%)
Fruit & Veg	10.0

Difficult week ahead

The weekend was great... lovely champagne on Saturday morning, best beef ever at The Cinnamon Club - a beautiful, perfectly seasoned and cooked piece of Wagyu beef(* - full menu below).  I'm  a bit miffed that we didn't get any photos of us, but there was a nice one of me:-

So.  This week.  I have the all clear from the physio so can get on with gymming etc. in theory.  But.  The first triatholon of the year (for me) is on Monday.  So I can't really go nuts.  I need to focus on swimming, running and cycling (hah!) this week and not overdo it, so no gymming allowed.

Loose plan:-
Monday - fast 400m swim, tumble-turn practice (done)

Tuesday - 5km run after work (done)
Wednesday - long cycle on the gym bikes (to toughen up my bum!)
Thursday - fast 400m swim, tumble-turn practice
Friday - medium cycle on the gym bikes (done on a real bike); 4km run after work (done - 5km), carb taper
Saturday - rest, test bike, carb taper
Sunday - rest, carb load
Monday - RACE!

There's really not enough time between now and Monday to make much of a difference than toughen my poor bottom for the cycling a bit.  The fast swims are to get back used to the feel of fast swimming after that long old 5km one.  Running will give me confidence that I can actually run more than anything else!

And here, in its full glory, is the menu from Saturday evening's dinner...

Tasting Menu with matching wines

Norwegian king crab and tamarind salad, cured organic salmon
Orvieto Classico Superiore, Castello della Sala, Umbria /Latium, Italy, 2006
-

Tandoori red snapper, coriander chutney
Torrontes, Fabre Montmayou, Mendoza, Argentina 2006
-

Steamed chickpea cake
-

Pomegranate and mint sorbet
-

Hunter’s style rabbit tikka with dill and mustard
Pinot Noir, Fraser, Murdoch James Estate, Martinborough, New Zealand, 2005
-

Baked wild African prawn with ‘kadhai’ spices
Marsanne, Saint-Joseph, M..Chapoutier, Rhône, France 2007
-

Fillet steak of Wagyu beef with stir-fried morels, saffron sauce
Cabernet Sauvignon, Jumbuk Vineyard, Clare Valley, Australia, 2001

-

Apple desserts
Coteaux du Layon St Aubin, Dom des Barres, Loire Valley, France, 2007
-

Coffee and petits fours

Too tired but all-clear from the physio

This morning was my last physio visit, so it turned out.  I got there at 07:30 and left all of 8 minutes later, with an all-clear and an instruction to get back into running gently and maybe ski in Japan next time as the snow is all powder and lovely and soft to fall on ;o)

I've not had a lot of sleep in the last three nights, so I've decided not to run after work today.  Crashing out on the tube on the way home leaves me groggy still when I get home and I'm not up to running in that state.  At some point in the next three days I'll run.

For now, I'm on the orange and mango squash and early to bed.  Keeping it a bit under maintenance the last couple of days as the weekend is going to be indulgent :o)

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop, blueberries and flaked almonds
S - skinny latte and a banana
S - Dorset Cereals bar; 3 berries and cherries
L - salad; lettuce, sweet pepper, celery, cherry tomatoes, pomegranate seeds, capers and roasted chicken breast with a splash of lemon juice
S - beef jerky
S - cottage cheese with pomegranate seeds
D - sausage and butternut squash and sweet potato mash

Exercise - rest

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1670 1782]
Protein (g)	150.8 (37.2%)
Carbohydrate (g)	173.8 (40.1%)
Fat (g)	40.9 (22.7%)
Fruit & Veg	11.5

Noms and tri prep

The Pulp fruit puree was both good and bad.  Straight out of the pouch and into a glass and it doesn't look like much at all!

I squeezed the last little bit out of the pouch into my mouth and it was utterly divine.  Sweet and tangy with a distinct taste of strawberry and apple, but not so much the blueberry.  I then made a bit of a mistake and diluted it with water; probably a bit too much water and probably not mixed well enough as it ended up tasting like water with bits in and not very sweet or fruity.

So, for 1 of your 5 a day, this is a great option if you need to be able to transport it easily and not have messy peel, stones or cores to hang on to in your bag afterwards.  It tastes great.  But I'd say it's not so great diluted with still water.

Having run yesterday in a very respectable way, despite it feeling quite slow, today was about putting in a fast 400m to get used to swimming at a decent pace after Sunday's slow 5km.  And I whacked in 400m in 06:48 which isn't too shabby.  However, it's a short pool and that makes it a bit faster than usual due to powerful push-off at each end.  I'll need to whack in another run tomorrow (take it up to the full 5km) and another fast swim in the next few days and then it's tailing off and sorting out the nutrition in time for the bank holiday triathlon., probably one slowish run and one longer slow swim next week.

Dinner was a break from boredom again tonight; veal escalopes with lemon and garlic sauce with plain rice and egg florentine:-

Definitely needs more spinach in the egg florentine next time, but otherwise it was incredible!  The roasted garlic and lemon sauce was intense and perfect with the veal.

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop, flaked almonds and blueberries
S - Dorset Cereals bar; 3 berries and cherries
*swim*
S - 1 scoop in skimmed milk and a Pulp
L - salad; lettuce, sweet pepper, cherry tomatoes, pomegranate seeds, capers and roasted chicken breast
S - banana and pistachio nuts
S - beef jerky
D - veal escalope, garlic and lemon sauce, plain rice and egg florentine

Exercise - 29 minutes swimming (including 400m time trial at the start)

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1913 2020]
Protein (g)	177.1 (37.8%)
Carbohydrate (g)	173.6 (34.7%)
Fat (g)	57.1 (27.4%)
Fruit & Veg	10.1

Review coming up!

I got a freebie!  A "Pulp" fruit puree to try:-

Apple, strawberry and blueberry.  100% fruit.  Pureed.  1 pouch is 1 of your 5 a day.  So, I'll try it tomorrow and let you all know what I think.

I also have some new running/gym/triathlon gear to talk about, from Pearl Izumi.  I ran in it today, so it got a good try out.

Norty!

Oh I -was- naughty today.

I got home from work, got changed and went for a run!  Physio said last time I saw her that I wasn't to run (I honestly think she thinks my butt hurts a lot more than it does, despite me insisting that I'm only "aware" of it and that there is no actual pain any more at all).  I was supposed to see her last Thursday, but we had to postpone to this Thursday.  I can't wait another week to start running (or not) in advance of the second Thames Turbo sprint triathlon on bank holiday Monday so I absolutely had to run today.

And it was fine.  4.073km in 00:22:15; that's 10.91 kilometres per hour!  Fastest I've ever run!  And everything feels fine; well, OK, my legs are a bit achey still from Sunday but that's another matter.

And I'm back on track with the macro-nutrients today as well :o)

I had a very pretty breakfast of the usual greek yogurt with bits in this morning:-

And a slightly indulgent dinner of beef chilli with couscous and veg with grated cheese on top:-

Little bit under for today, and low on (good) fat, so might have to find another snack later... maybe involving peanut butter.

...OK, so it ended up being a mini Babybel and some pistachios :o)

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop, fruit compote and grape nuts
S -"lunchies" - apricot and yogurt bar
L - salad; lettuce, sweet pepper, cherry tomatoes, pomegranate seeds, spring onions, capers and chicken breast
S - carrot and houmous
S -beef jerky
*run*
S - 1 scoop in semi-skimmed milk
D - beef chilli with couscous, peas and sweetcorn with grated organic cheddar
S - Mini Babybel and pistachios

Exercise - 22 minutes run (HRmax 188, HRavg 182)

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	2012 2023]
Protein (g)	184.8 (37.5%)
Carbohydrate (g)	164.0 (31.2%)
Fat (g)	68.7 (31.3%)
Fruit & Veg	10.6

Back to it

Sort of.  Maintenance levels and aiming for highish protein. 2 weeks to the first triathlon and I'm still not allowed to run and not done any weight training of note since busting my butt... hm.

Despite over-doing the carbs and under-doing the fat today, I did have fun with leftover fruit after dinner - whizzed up frozen banana pieces with frozen raspberries and fresh strawberries; it's like sorbet:-

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop, blueberries and flaked almonds
S - banana
L - salad; leftover couscous with apricot, peas, cherry tomatoes, roast chicken breast
S - beef jerky
D - beef chilli with couscous, peas and sweetcorn
S - blended frozen banana, frozen raspberries and fresh strawberries

Exercise - rest day

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1715 1793]
Protein (g)	148.7 (36.1%)
Carbohydrate (g)	206.4 (47.0%)
Fat (g)	31.1 (17.0%)
Fruit & Veg	12.1

Carb loading (well, tried to)

The day before the huge swim, I decided to try to carbo load, seeing as it was going to be well over an hour of continuous high-output effort.  The tricky part was that we were having friends over for dinner on Saturday... still, I didn't hit the wall, bonk or otherwise have a fuelling problem during the swim, so I must've done -something- right.

And this is what Mr TOTKat cooked for dinner - pork shoulder with sage, rosemary, garlic, bay leaves, a sprinkle of sugar, honey, mustard, dried cranberries and beer:-

So this is how Saturday went, I got the carb bit very right but the fat was a bit high and protein a bit low:-

B - porridge with raisins, chopped banana and a splash of milk
S - carrot and caramelised onion houmous
L - toasted bagel with ham and lettuce
S - Vegetable Crisps
S - Pistachios and Kettle Chips
D - baguette with houmous, pork shoulder, cousous with apricots, courgette and onion with pine nuts, baby carrots
S - Eton Mess (strawberries, whipped cream and meringue)

Exercise - rest day

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	3003 1779]
Protein (g)	89.0 (12.2%)
Carbohydrate (g)	328.9 (42.3%)
Fat (g)	147.6 (45.5%)
Fruit & Veg	11.1

And the day of the 5km swim itself was a teeeeensy bit carb heavy too:-

B - porridge with raisins and chopped banana with a splash of milk
*swim*
S - bottle of Lucozade Body Fuel (Orange)
L - ciabatta with 2 slices of bacon and ketchup, large chocolate chip cookie
L - leftover shredded pork with mayonnaise, mango chutney and lettuce in a toasted pitta bread
S - banana, mango and passion fruit puree
S - cottage cheese with pomegranate seeds
D - stew; leftover shredded pork, carrots, new potatoes, baby carrots, chick peas, tinned tomatoes and a toasted pitta bread and wine
S - 6x leftover Divine mini eggs

Exercise - about 2 hours swimming

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	2970 2871]
Protein (g)	108.6 (15.1%)
Carbohydrate (g)	334.5 (43.7%)
Fat (g)	70.6 (22.1%)
Alcohol (g)	78 (19.0%)
Fruit & Veg	6.8

So is it coming or what?

Tracking status on my new laptop...

...er, so is it coming or what?

Teensy bit whacked out

So I swam.

Having done all of about 3 swims this year so far, and only one of those being in the last fortnight, I swam 5000m today for charity.  Still with the tail end of a chest infection.  And I didn't drown (too much, well of course the guy in front of me for 1/2 the time caused enough wake to force water into my face quite a few times, but I didn't actually drown or anything).  There were three of us sharing a lane; one tiny whippet of a boy who did 2.5km and one of the pool staff members who was also doing 5km with me.  Annoyingly the bloke and I were similarly paced, so we would overtake each other and then whoever was behind would speed up a bit.  The last two times I overtook him (length 128 and length 153) I got mind-bendingly bad cramp in my left ankle, the kind I sometimes get at night that's so bad I end up curled up in a ball in tears with my foot at a mad angle 'cause the joint is so badly spasmed.  And it lasted for 6-8 lengths each time, which was very much not amusing.

I got to length 158 and the lap counter leaned down to say "the next one is your very last one", I was so surprised I squeaked "REALLY!?" (I thought I had 10 more to go at that point) and then zoomed off for the last two lengths and put in my fastest length overall on the last one !

Yes, it wasn't the best time nor one that I feel is representative of what I'm capable of but given the circumstances I think under 2 hours was pretty damned good going.  So I finished in 01:57 and wobbled out of the pool, demanding bacon sarnies :o) and happily accepting my medal:-

Feeling quite light-headed, but a lot better after a bacon buttie, tea and a huge chocolate chip cookie!

Half day!

I've got a half day off today to go to some filming in the early evening; yay!  It means some careful planning is required around spacing out meals today so I don't get hungry.  Handily, we buy lots of chicken breasts and roast them up in batches so it's really easy to make salads, sarnies and stuffed pitta breads which is exactly what I'll be doing for later.  It is a lowish fruit and veg day, but I'm usually extremely good with that, so I'm not going to cry over a day that has only just 5 portions :o)

Nommy lunch today:-

One other new thing is that in an attempt to cut out even more of the more highly processed foods from my diet (though TBH as we make almost every meal and snack from scratch and make sure pre-made stuff, like cereal/nut bars, doesn't have crap in it there aren't many there now - low fat mayonnaise, low fat spread, whey protein powder, the odd slice of supermarket bread, the occasional glug of low fat salad dressing), I'm going to try ditching low fat spreads/margarines in favour of real butter for spreading (and stop being lazy about honey & mustard salad dressing and make it myself instead of reaching for a bottle of pre-made stuff).  I've already made the change a very long time ago when baking breads and I use cold pressed olive oil as a baking fat and now it's time to try changing what I spread on things.  The tricky part will be that I like a thick spread on my toasted bread products and butter is much more calorific than the things I've got used to, so I'll have to be a bit meaner with my spreading and at least initially weigh it all.  And the other tricky bit is storage so that it's neither like rock nor a greasy puddle.

B - porridge made with water, raisins, banana, splash of milk and 1 scoop
L - salad; ham, boiled eggs, lettuce and pomegranate seeds with mayonnaise
S - beef jerky
S - tangerines
D - wholemeal pitta stuffed with chicken breast and lettuce
S - Dorset Cereals bar; 3 berries and cherries
S - 2x slices of wholemeal granary toast with butter and Marmite

Exercise - yep, still resting!

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1712 1779]
Protein (g)	135.9 (33.0%)
Carbohydrate (g)	191.0 (35.0%)
Fat (g)	43.3 (32.0%)
Fruit Veg	5.7

Maintaining nicely

Doing no exercise makes it a lot easier to maintain weight.  Calorie burn due to exercise is an inexact science (but then so is calorific benefit from dietary nutrients, so *shrug*) and it really makes it harder to work out how much to eat to keep things ticking over.  The macro-nutrient split isn't so hard to figure out, it's the overall amount.  So while I've been laid-up and snot-filled, I've maintained pretty much bang on the middle of my target weight range (despite having had an average of 100kcals more than maintenance per day of the last 12 day period).  Of course, this is not ideal and I will be getting back on the exercise train pretty soon so it'll all get difficult again.  Hey ho.  And I'm pretty sure that I'm getting muscle loss... it's been 4 weeks since I've done any proper weight training and 3 weeks since I've done any real exercise!

Thursday went like this:-

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop, fruit compote and grape nuts
S - banana
L - gaspacho soup and a roasted chicken breast
S - tangerines
S - beef jerky
D -pork and onion sausages with potato, sweet potato and carrot mash
S - 6x leftover mini (decent) chocolate eggs

Exercise - still resting

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1692 1781]
Protein (g)	139.9 (33.6%)
Carbohydrate (g)	147.1 (33.1%)
Fat (g)	61.5 (33.2%)
Fruit & Veg	11.2

Swimathon training completely off

Not being up to the planned long swim today, there's now no time left to do any training that would make the slightest bit of difference to Sunday's Swimathon.  I'm off work again today; having had a better day yesterday, I deteriorated late afternoon and have delightful green/brown snot today, rather than the yellowy stuff from before.  Anyhoo.  No swimming, no work and definitely an afternoon nap later.

Today is all about rest, getting lots of fluids and fruit and veg...

Morning snack was a new try-out of cottage cheese with pomegranate seeds:-

Lunch was the usual salad, but with some herbs as my taste buds are very depressed with this chest thing:-

Along with a blackcurrant Lemsip:-

One afternoon snack of something that came as a free sample in the grocery shopping; a deeeelicious yogurt:-

And dinner, due to total fed-upness with the usual humdrum and lack of inspiration and enthusiasm, and a need for carbs, is lean steak mince with onion and tomato sauce over fresh tagliatelle (cooked by Mr TOTKat :o)) :-

B - porridge made with water, with raisins and chopped banana
S - cottage cheese with pomegranate seeds
L - salad; chicken breast, cherry tomatoes, orange pepper, celery, capers, lettuce, pomegranate seeds, lemon juice, thyme and black pepper
S - Tim's Dairy Wholemilk Toffee Yogurt
S - Dr. Karg Emmental and Pumpkin crispbread with cottage cheese
D - fresh tagliatelle, lean steak mince, tomato and onion sauce

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1749 1782]
Protein (g)	116.6 (27.7%)
Carbohydrate (g)	228.6 (50.9%)
Fat (g)	40.1 (21.4%)
Fruit &Veg	10.4

Swimathon training completely off

Not being up to the planned long swim today, there's now no time left to do any training that would make the slightest bit of difference to Sunday's Swimathon.  I'm off work again today; having had a better day yesterday, I deteriorated late afternoon and have delightful green/brown snot today, rather than the yellowy stuff from before.  Anyhoo.  No swimming, no work and definitely an afternoon nap later.

Today is all about rest, getting lots of fluids and fruit and veg...

Morning snack was a new try-out of cottage cheese with pomegranate seeds:-

Lunch was the usual salad, but with some herbs as my taste buds are very depressed with this chest thing:-

Along with a blackcurrant Lemsip:-

One afternoon snack of something that came as a free sample in the grocery shopping; a deeeelicious yogurt.  And dinner, due to total fed-upness with the usual humdrum and lack of inspiration and enthusiasm, and a need for carbs, is lean steak mince with onion and tomato sauce over fresh tagliatelle.


B - porridge made with water, with raisins and chopped banana
S - cottage cheese with pomegranate seeds
L - salad; chicken breast, cherry tomatoes, orange pepper, celery, capers, lettuce, pomegranate seeds, lemon juice, thyme and black pepper
S - Tim's Dairy Toffee Yogurt
S - (not sure yet)
D - fresh tagliatelle, lean steak mince, tomato and onion sauce

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1650 1782]
Protein (g)	107.5 (27.1%)
Carbohydrate (g)	223.3 (52.7%)
Fat (g)	35.8 (20.3%)
Fruit & Veg	12.0

Hearty, spicy food

Nom!  I made a roasted vegetable soup for first lunch today:-

 

• 1x huge, fat courgette (about 240g), topped, tailed and split length-ways
• 2x red peppers (about 130g), topped, de-seeded and split in half
• 2x huge double-handfuls of cherry tomatoes (about 200g)

Arrange all of that on a baking try, drizzle with 20ml olive oil and season with salt and black pepper.  Roast at a lowish heat, about 150-160C, for about an hour until things start to look quite chewy.

• 6x celery stalks (about 170g)
• 1x garlic clove (about 3g)
• 30g capers
• 1x stock cube dissolved in about 500ml boiling water

Let everything cool down a bit (make sure you get all the oil and chewy bits off the baking tray, use the hot stock if you need to to shift it) , put it in something big enough and tall enough so you can blend it until mostly smooth without splattering yourself and the kitchen.  Blend it up!  Serve either at room temperature or re-heated.  Makes 2 very generous portions at around 170kcals per portion.  Remember that the chilli heat is't going to accumulate, so don't panic when you first taste it!  A nice dollop of cool sour cream or creme fraiche goes nicely on top.  Also, one portion provides all five of your 5 a day!

Calories (kcal)	170.1
Carbohydrate (g)	12.3
Protein (g)	4.8
Fat (g)	11.6
Fibre (g)	4.6
Fruit & Veg	5.1

Still laid low

Woke up wheezing and aching this morning, mostly in the chest and lower ribs.  Still filling tissues and feeling flattened, so no school today.  Ended up crashed out on the sofa, asleep, for 2 hours this afternoon despite awfully "difficult" music playing.

My training plan for Sunday now looks like this:-

7th - 1600m normal swim - DONE!
8th - rest
9th - 1600m normal swim rest
10th - rest
11th - 3200m distance swim rest
12th - 850m sprint swim rest
13th - rest
14th - 1600m normal swim 2500m normal swim (if I'm up to it)
15th - rest
16th - 850m gentle swim
17th - rest
18th - 5000m challenge!

Hah.  *sigh*

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop and 40g fruity muesli
S - 1 slice wholemeal granary toast with Marmite
S - banana
L - salad; chicken breast, lettuce, sweet pepper, capers, celery, pomegranate seeds and mustard and honey dressing
S - 1/2 toasted ciabatta with stilton mashed up with Philadelphia
S - 1/2 toasted ciabatta with black cherry conserve
D - venison sausages with onion and courgette ribbons

Exercise - none, rest, 2 hour nap!

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1770 1781]
Protein (g)	140.7 (32.8%)
Carbohydrate (g)	182.7 (39.9%)
Fat (g)	52.2 (27.4%)
Fruit & Veg	11.0

Long-term inspiration...

...thanks to Stumptuous.  3/4 weeks is just a blip, I'm in this for the long haul.  I want to be mobile, fit and active when I get "old"; not feeble, sickly and dependent on other people.  And it's never to late to start...

Only a little walk again today, up to the village and back but it's better than sitting on my arse all day.

B - toasted wholemeal seeded bagel with Marmite
S - banana
L - ham, Philadelphia, lettuce and mustard on a seeded wholemeal roll
S - banana, blueberry, blackberry, raspberry and orange juice smoothie
S - 2 soft boiled eggs, mashed up with mayonnaise and shredded lettuce
D - beef chilli with couscous, peas and sweetcorn

Exercise - longish walk, not measured or recorded

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1618 1778]
Protein (g)	100.7 (25.9%)
Carbohydrate (g)	205.7 (49.5%)
Fat (g)	42.6 (24.6%)
Fruit & Veg	9.7

Hm. OK.

So I was going to be doing a final distance swim today, 3200m, then tapering off the rest of the week before the 5000m next Sunday.  Except, although my nose is far less productive today, the cold has headed down onto my chest and breathing is exactly as difficult as when my nose was completely stuffed and runny.  So I'm tired, breathless, fuzzy in the head and weak.  Oh, and despite stuffing my face for the last 3 days, my weight hasn't changed at all.

4 weeks now with pretty much no weight training (I've done two light sessions on two weekends), 3 weeks with pretty much no cardio exercise (one 1600m swim since I've been back from skiing), and I'm pretty sure that despite being slap-bang in the middle of my target weight range, I've gained fat and lost muscle.  I can't use my body-fat measurement machine because it works on electrical impedance and is keenly affected by hydration levels which are utterly out of whack with having a cold, so I can't really assess the situation in a quantitative way and it's all just subjective in how I feel.  And having a cold makes me feel squishy anyway, so it'll all just so hard to tell.  I am pretty sure there is some muscle loss, however.  It is disappointing, having spent 10 months working on improving my muscles, strength and fitness, to have quite a bit of that work set back.  I know it's not through lack of determination or enthusiasm on my part, I can't beat myself up about it because there's pretty much nothing I can do about it until I'm over both my injury and my cold.  Nevertheless, it is still disappointing.

As for the Swimathon next Sunday; I'll definitely finish the 5km, there's no doubt there at all.  It's just that I don't think I'll put in a representative time which is quite disappointing.  I wanted to do the 5km in 01:40 (or less), but I think that without a swim on Friday last week and no distance swim today, probably no sprint swim tomorrow... well, there's really not going to be much benefit to be had from the normal swim on Wednesday and the gentle swim on Friday at all.  Given that, I reckon I could put in a time anywhere between 01:50 and 02:00.  Again; disappointing.

And then there's the 2nd Thames Turbo Triathlon in 3 weeks time.  I've not run in months, cycled in very much longer and 3 weeks really isn't very long to get on with training never mind the fact it's actually going to be 2 weeks because I'm going to be still coldy for some of next week and tapering (hah, tapering down from no exercise; funny) for the rest of it for the Swimathon.  Again, I'm sure I'll finish the triathlon, but the time will be abysmal.  I suppose at least it means I'll be very likely to improve for the 3rd one.

Slightly torpedoed

I have a stinking cold (my first for nearly three years now!).  My ribs ache and I got naff all sleep.  I am filling tissues at a rate of knots.  Obviously my 1600m training swim planned for today is right off the cards; I can barely breathe whilst sat still, never mind face down in water whilst exerting myself.

Sod.

The physio also found a really sore bit higher up my back this morning that she was surprised she hadn't found previously.  So she worked on that a bit and said still to lay off the running.  *sigh*  Thames Turbo Sprint Triathlon #2 is in just over 3 weeks time now.  I need to do something soon otherwise that will be off the cards too!


B - muesli with banana and semi-skimmed milk
S - 2x mini Babybel Light
L - chicken breast and lettuce in a wholemeal pitta with baked beans
S - Dorset Cereals bar - 3 berries and cherries
D - breaded prawns, followed by mash-topped fish pie and broccoli

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1818 1797]
Protein (g)	121.5 (27.7%)
Carbohydrate (g)	191.5 (40.9%)
Fat (g)	61.5 (31.5%)
Fruit & Veg	5.8

Start of training

Training for the 5km swim started today with a 1600m "normal" swim, alternating strokes, doing legs only and arms only to get going with checking the basics.  I've not done a lot of swimming since January and with less than 2 weeks to go to Swimathon, there's certainly some work to do, so I have a plan:-

7th - 1600m normal swim
8th - rest
9th - 1600m normal swim
10th - rest
11th - 3200m distance swim
12th - 850m sprint swim
13th - rest
14th - 1600m normal swim
15th - rest
16th - 850m gentle swim
17th - rest
18th - 5000m challenge!

I'm over half way to my sponsorship target, thanks to some generous people at work and people I work with through work, but there's still more to go.  I'm hoping I will actually make the target, but this close to the event it's not looking so good.

Anyhoo, today went like this...

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop, blueberries and grape nuts
S - banana
*swim*
S - 1 scoop in skimmed milk
L - salad; a chicken breast, cherry tomatoes, sweet pepper, capers, pomegranate seeds and lettuce with honey and mustard dressing
S - Dorset Cereals bar; 3 fruit, nuts and seeds
S - carrots and houmous
D - salad; a salmon fillet, sweet pepper, toasted pine nuts and lettuce with olive oil dressing and a ciabatta roll

Exercise - 33 minutes swim

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	2102 2091]
Protein (g)	155.5 (29.9%)
Carbohydrate (g)	194.8 (35.1%)
Fat (g)	81.0 (35%)
Fruit & Veg	10.0

Swimathon 2010

I've signed up with less than 2 weeks to go, to complete the 5km challenge in this year's Swimathon (for Marie Curie Cancer Care).   5km is a heck of a long way to swim... for reference, in the 30m pool I'll be doing it in, it will be 167 lengths; in the pool near where I work, it would be 294 lengths!  I've only ever swum 3.2km in one day before and that was over 10 years ago now.  It's going to be long, it's going to be tiring, but it's something I can actually do right now when the physio won't let me do much else.  We're in the sporting season now, and dammit I want to do sport!  Especially when it's for a good charity.

So, please take a look at my fund-raising page and donate if you can.  It would mean a lot to me, and a lot to the Marie Curie Cancer Care fund too!

First Triathlon of the year

(of course, I wasn't competing due to busted-butt fallout)

We got up at 5am (unholy, especially so soon after the clocks went forward!) and stuffed in some food; I had Cheerios with milk, something I've not had in months, and Mr TOTKat had a proper brekkie as he was competing.   Drove on out to the place, thinking we'd be really early, only to find that they were serious about the parking around there and most people were already there before 6am registration opening.  It was sodding freezing, to say the least.  We got Mr TOTKat registered and sat down for 2nd breakfast (I had 1/2 a 9 bar, Flax and Mr TOTKat had a peanut butter sandwich), then prepared the transition stuff.  Race numbers are handed out based on your 400m swim times and Mr TOTKat had over-estimated his time by about 30s so he was still quite early in the field, but 30s-worth of competitors too far down the field and ended up having to overtake quite a bit in the pool while I shivered by the side of the pool.

Bike transition went OK and Mr TOTKat was off like a rocket, but I didn't really see it as the end of the bike route is quite a long way from the central area (there's a 7 minute transition break between bike and run to allow people time to get back from the end of the bike route to the transition area).

Having overtaken a few more people on the bike route, he was off on the run and lost a few places there, but given he's been recovering from a knee problem since October and not had much running training at all, it was a really good time!

All done and some nice goodies from the race sponsors, including some Thames Turbo beer!  Mr TOTKat finished the last of the tea from the vacuum flask and we headed home to warm up.  Next time, we'll hang around a bit afterwards as there are spot prizes and a bit of social.  It was just too cold for me to wait this time as I'd been standing still a lot in low temperatures (and yes I was wearing a vest, technical mid layer, technical fleece and "fashion" fleece on top and my snow boots and I was -still- cold!).

Good race overall, good finishing time too, so I'm rather proud :o)

My go next time and hopefully it'll be less blimmin' freezing!

Easter dinner

And here's the lamb saddle dinner (with apricots, prunes, potato, sweet potato, carrot, parsnip and broccoli):-

That lamb was extremely succulent and soft.  De-heee-licious!

Right!

This week has been very off target.  The aim was to maintain weight while being on low exercise at the moment (I do 2x physio exercises every day at the moment, but no running or weight training until the physio says I can - however... (see below)).  And then there was accidental dinner out on Monday and yesterday was an utter blowout with Gourmet Burger Kitchen burger and chips for lunch and instead of going out in the late afternoon/evening and only having a nut bar in the evening, we came home and had takeaway pizza and wine because we didn't make the cut in the numbers for the audience for the recording we'd turned up for.  The result being that there's a lot of *ahem* "transit" at the moment, some fluid retention due to the huge amounts of salt plus alcohol and now I'm 2lbs heavier than I was yesterday.  Of course it'll drop off a reasonable amount over the next couple of days but might not be on target for maintenance again.  Only time will tell.

Sometimes you can get away with a big cheat like that, but I think this might have been pushing it a bit ;o)  I did, however, have a naughty little gym today.  No impact: 12 minutes on the Wave, 12 minutes on the cross-trainer, 3x 60s planks, 3x 10 bicep curls with 2x 7kg, 3x 12 tricep dips, 3x 10 pull-ups (27kg assist), 3x 15 double reverse crunches.

So.  I really really hope that the physio says I can get back to weight training when I see her on Tuesday, less fussed about running but it'd be nice.  If see say yes... RIGHT! Back to it with avengeance!

Today is our Easter celebration meal day due to not wanting to eat a big roast the day before the triathlon on Monday.  I got a beautiful saddle of lamb from the Leadenhall Market butcher, which I'm going to roast with apricots and prunes and serve with piles of veg.

B - toasted wholemeal, seeded bagel with Marmite XO
L - roasted chicken breast and lettuce on granary bread
*gym*
S - 1 scoop in semi-skimmed milk
S - 1/2 toasted bagel with ham and lettuce
D - roast saddle of lamb with apricots and prunes, with potato, parsnip, carrot and broccoli

Exercise - 45 minutes of gym, 20 minutes hardcore hoovering

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1845 2206]
Protein (g)	142.1 (31.5%)
Carbohydrate (g)	196.5 (40.9%)
Fat (g)	55.2 (27.6%)
Fruit & Veg	5.0