Jet-lag & Training!

The last fortnight of training has been quite tough, because I had a week in Canada in the middle of it with work. I was worried about how I'd fit training in with travelling and working - on one of the days the conference lasted from 7.30am to midnight so there was absolutely no opportunity for training then! Luckily jet lag meant I was up early most mornings so I managed to get some training done before breakfast. While none of my training was perfectly as I'd like it this fortnight, I stuck to my schedule with the exception of 1 day and I think I continued my good progress!

W/C: 13th August

Mon: 45min steady
Tues: 2 x 2miles tempo. Great session clocking 13.55 and 13.05 (the first effort was slightly uphill. I got chased by a very scary dog and it's vicious thug of an owner on the last effort, who responded to me asking him to call the dog off with a load of swearing. This probably speeded me up a bit though I did take a detour through a hedge!
Weds: Travelling to Canada, as soon as I arrived I tried to adjust my body clock and headed straight to the gym for my first attempt at cycling in weeks. 10min run, 10min cycle, 10min run. All went well and it was nice to get on a bike again!
Thurs: 75min long run. REALLY HARD. It was far too hot and humid and I was far too jet lagged and generally tired for this, but I managed a decent run - when I got back I measured it at 8.5 miles so I wasn't quite as slow as I thought. Though I did have to stop and sit under a tree for a few mins half way through, just to recover from the heat!
Fri: 6x800m (90s recovery) on the treadmill. Not the easiest way to do an 800m session, especially as I hate running on treadmills, but I got it done!
Sat: Rest with full conference day!
Sun: 10min run, 15min cycle, 20min run. Actually enjoyed getting in the gym on the treadmill, putting my music on and getting this done after yesterday's long working day!

W/C 20th August

Mon: 10min run, 20min bike, 20min run. Spent the day walking round Toronto, which seems like good extra training to me!
Tues & Weds: Rest. I was so tired from travelling and jet lag and the long days in Canada that I had absolutely no energy to run or do anything apart from sleep.
Thurs: 45min steady run. Really struggled to pick my legs up. Have been feeling dizzy with jet lag!
Fri: 10miles in 80mins. I was feeling really dizzy all day but didn't want my training to be affected any more so my boyfriend came out with me on this mammouth run to keep me company and I equipped him with energy gels, just in case I got dizzy while running! Luckily as soon as I got out in the fresh air and start running my body decided to co-operate and I had a lovely long run with the boyf before a nice Friday evening relaxing on the sofa! Just what I needed after a tough couple of weeks.
Sat: First Brick session on my racing bike - I was a bit cautious beforehand because I really did not want to have any problems so close to the World Duathlon Champs. I faffed around a bit, and then had a word with myself - it's only 4 weeks till D-Day and I have to take some risks. So I blasted out an awesome session of 10mins run, 25mins bike and 15mins run - hitting it all hard and giving it 100%. I was exhausted after and (as I discovered on Sunday) didn't do a good enough job of rehydrating!
Sun: Ellesmere 10km - 41.07, 8th Lady Race report to follow. Good hard workout and some warm weather training!

All in all it's been rather tough the last couple of weeks to fit everything in. I've definitely done the best I could though. It's quite surprising how hotel facilities vary so much. Considering I was staying in a 45 storey hotel I was expecting a decent size gym, but instead there were only 2 treadmills and 1 bike, meaning there was often quite a queue for the equiptment! It was nice to get a long run done in Canada and get out to explore a bit more of the area, but running in new places is hard as I'm always worried about getting lost or running into less nice areas. Luckily I was able to stick close to the river and enjoy some nice scenery without running into any problems (apart from the massive hill back up to the hotel - but I did get some support from pedestrians just for trying to run up it!)
The next couple of weeks of training are going to be really really tough as I ramp up the bike sessions in preparation for Nancy. I've had to promise my boyfriend that my permanent tiredness is only temporary as I've not been much fun the last week with training, work and jet lag to contend with. Luckily he makes it a lot easier for me by cooking dinner while I'm out training - it definitely helps with recovery to get in to a nice hot meal waiting for me. It's amazing how much of a difference having a good support team makes when trying to balance everything and get the best out of myself and my training.
I'm already looking forward to October and calming the training down a bit to build a good cycling base - something that I don't have at the moment. I need to get everything in balance a bit more and get the life:work:training sorted, however for now I'm just going to focus on doing everything I can to get fit for the World Duathlon Champs! Wish me luck!