#SwoleMates: Why working out with your partner is the best thing ever

I recently answered some questions for the fantastic Laura Farman-Williams, founder of Girls Gone Sporty, and was really excited to end up in her finished article about the benefits of training with your partner.

I’d strongly recommend that you check out the article: #SwoleMates: Why working out with your partner is the best thing ever

Do you train with your partner? Why/why not?

28 days of interval training

Girls Gone Sporty Ambassador

Need some inspiration and plans to help you workout on your own? Check out this fantastic month-long series of workouts by Girls Gone Sporty:

28_days_of_interval_training

Push your boundaries, challenge your expectations! #PYBCYE

No more marathons

Here is today’s IDEAfit photo a day image to go with the caption ‘style’:

Castelli Flamma jersey from Stuart

I thought this blog post from Girls Gone Sporty on ‘Reasons not to sign up for the next race’ was particularly apt for how I’m feeling now: http://www.girlsgonesporty.com/articles/fitness/reasons-not-to-sign-up-for-the-next-race/ 

Essentially, the arguments against signing up for a that are listed are:

• Don’t run if your performance is suffering
• Don’t run if you’re not feeling motivated
• Avoid overtraining
• Decide whether the race fits into your overall training strategy
• Don’t run if you’re injured.

Right now, my performance are suffering, which is never motivational and I’m also running races that I don’t feel excited about entering – I’m doing them because I feel I have to. I don’t think I’m overtraining, but I have to remember that I’m a triathlete now and not just a runner, so I never have as much time as I used… and I’m working longer hours than I’m used to. I’m not injured, but I am still not feeling 100% after my illness, so racing probably isn’t helping me. As soon as Brighton Marathon is over with, I’ll be taking a break with plenty of sleep and some healthy food thrown in!

Today’s email from Brighton Marathon has told me that one of my idols, Paula Radcliffe, will be at the Expo… but on Saturday. I’d love to meet her, but I’ve planned to go to the Expo on Friday, so that I can rest on Saturday.

Anyway, I’ve managed to get some training in today. I cycled to and from work (as usual), and also made it to LRR training, although as I was coaching, I didn’t do an awful lot of running myself. That was just as well as I felt entirely exhausted. Then it was on to The Quays for my Tri Club swimming session.

I was nervous about swimming as I’ve had a lot of bad swims, but tonight was a good night. There were only three of us in the lane and the drills seemed to play to my strengths. We had a new warm up (200m front crawl, followed by 100m kicking) and then moved onto the main set. We had to swim 50m breathing every 3 strokes, followed by 50m breathing every 5 strokes. One of my lane mates commented on how difficult he found breathing every 5 strokes, so I commented that that’s how I usually breathe… unfortunately, that meant that Coach Peter made me breathe every 7 strokes. I was hyperventilating on every three strokes and then found I could do 25m of every 7, but then couldn’t quite get past 20m on the way back! This was followed by 25m kicking on our fronts, 25m kicking on our backs, 25m on our fronts and 25m on our backs. I’m not sure why, but I seem to find those drills relatively easy in relation to my lane mates, so I was able to have a nice breather at the end of each of them. After doing that a few times, we finished off our session with 400m front crawl, followed by 150m breast stroke, which is also a stroke that I enjoy. After not wanting to go out and train, it actually turned out to be a session that I loved (and was able to complete!)