A Welcome Relief

There's an incredible amount of craziness in the world right now, more than even the writers of Homeland could have dreamed up. It all brings with it an increased level of stress, at least it does for me, as among other things, I worry about the future of the Syrian refugees, and the people from the seven countries that Trump has banned from the US, who incidentally, do not represent countries from where terrorist attacks on the US have originated. All of this is just exactly the kind of chaos that breeds further terrorism. ISIS specializes in recruiting young men and women who feel alienated or at odds with their government or local leadership, and that is exactly what Trump is creating - a massive amount of people at odds with their leader. ISIS don't give a damn about borders, they recruit from inside the border, and it really doesn't matter what country you're from. If you're vulnerable, you're a good target. I believe in using our voice via social media and other tools to make a positive difference in the world, protesting where possible and ensuring our leaders speak out on our behalf. So that's my focus at the moment, and I'll do what I can to make a difference in my own small way. I'm also researching charities with the intention of using my personal 70.3 challenge as a way to raise funds for those who need it most - will confirm charities soon, but likely to center around those whose lives Trump is making most difficult.

So for me personally, it's a stressful time, and no doubt it is for many many others directly, or indirectly affected by recent events. However, I have found that the world of sport, and triathlon in particular, has been a very positive influence. The people involved tend to be can-do, good people, all encouraging each other to do well and be healthy. I've found the story of Mike Wardian and Sinead Kane , both of whom have just completed 7 marathons in 7 continents in 7 days, to be truly inspirational. Mike is an ultra-running ship-broker from Washington DC and you can read his story here. Sinead Kane is a blind Irish woman who refused to let her disability define her and has now done what most would deem impossible and is the first ever blind person to complete world marathon challenge. 

Here's another inspirational story - Gavan Hennigan is a Galway lad who went to school with my brother. He had a troubled youth, went off the rails for a while and really struggled with mental health issues, but overcame all of these challenges and has now become an extreme adventurer, and a role model for kids everywhere. He's done lots of extreme stuff which you can read about on his site, and most impressive of all, he is currently relentlessly rowing across the Atlantic! In an interview via satellite phone last week, he said that he's happily removed from all that's going on in the world, enjoying spending the time at one with nature, watching the stars and the sea life, and that it's all doing him the world of good. Nature is good like that, and it reminded me that I need to spend more time closer to nature to counter the effects of the current world events. It doesn't have to be a row across the Atlantic, it can be as simple as a leisurely bike ride, or a walk by the sea with the dog.

Stress can be triggered by world events, but it also comes with daily life, possibly more than we realise. On the face of it, my job is not stressful. I get to work from home as a product manager for a multi-national IT company (IBM) and only need to travel outside of Ireland about once a quarter. But I do get consumed by my job, our team is under pressure, and I take a lot of the burden of responsibility on myself. I worry about the future of the product I'm responsible for and it does keep me awake at night. This shouldn't be the case - at the end of the day, it's just a job and health and family are of course, much more important. I saw this very clearly when I was on maternity leave, removed from the daily pressures of work, but it didn't take me long after I went back, to get consumed by stress again. So, I find that the training for this half-ironman is doing me the world of good - in fact, it's almost a necessary coping mechanism and forces me to have some work life balance. I have prioritised training on my lunchbreak over stewing on a work problem, and have come back after lunch with a fresh and clear mind, and a totally different attitude, one which is invariably more positive, with the result that I achieve more faster. Nothing is insurmountable after a good hard workout! 

I notice that many large IT companies, such as Apple, Google and Microsoft, prioritize the health of their staff by building gyms on premises, hiring nutritionists to define healthy canteen lunch options and subsidising classes such as yoga, tabata etc. It's completely logical - a healthy staff is a productive staff. I can't understand why more companies don't prioritise exercise and health (physical and mental) at work. I am lucky - I work from home in a beautiful part of the world. I'm less than 5 mins away from a sea swim at any time, and my neigbours are the kindest, friendliest people you could meet. It's a lovely place to be, far removed from Trump and his cronies. I resolve for 2017 to take my head out of my work more often to notice and enjoy this. 70.3 training certainly helps! 

So...training. Last week I mentioned I would limit my running to 3km, 4km and 3km runs this week. I did that, and to be extra sure I wouldn't get injured, I did those runs on the treadmill at the gym. All went very well and I have finished the week running comfortably with no pain whatsoever, so looking forward to upping the distance this week, just by 1-2km.

I also took the approach this week of training every day, using my swim training as recovery and weaving in lots of strength and flexibility. I did a 3km run on Monday, 20km bike on Tuesday (at lunchtime, by the coast - it was heaven!), 4km run on Wed, 1.5km swim on Thurs night (followed by a tasty thai takeaway and a glass of wine - otherwise, what's the point?!), tabata class at the gym on Friday, 3km run on sat, 1.6km swim and a 45min turbo trainer session on sunday....I also did a few mornings of a 20min yoga sequence, did the 10-min strength workout whenever I got the opportunity, and used my 10-min foam roller recovery about three evenings. So nothing long distance but a lot of short sessions. It has worked out well and I feel strong and healthy going into this week. As usual, you can track my training on Garmin or Strava.

All in all, training is becoming less of a challenge and more of a welcome relief - my sanctuary from the madness in the world. That's what I'm grateful for this week.


 

70.3 Training Update Week 3 - Every day's a schoolday!

Three weeks in and I'm finally starting to feel power in my legs. This was preceded by a lot of creaking, tightness, and general pain. After a successful week 1, my knees started to hurt when I ran, both on the outside and directly under the patella. After some googling and conversations with my local gym instructor, I quickly realised that I had lots of weakness in my lower back, glutes, and quads, which led to bad tracking of the knee and two well-known conditions amongst runners - Runner's Knee and IT Band issues. I found a really good series of videos on Runner's World by Dr. Jordan Metzl, here's the one on runner's knee. So, nothing serious and certainly not something that would prevent me from continuing, but definitely a lot of strengthening work to be done before I could run again. 

So, I spent a lot of the last two weeks focusing on both strength and flexibility. These two videos have been key to those two weeks and I plan to continue to use them througout the next five months:

10-minute strength workout 
10-minute foam roller recovery  

Those two, combined with lots of jump squats (3x15) and 3 mins of planks have made up my home strength and flexibility work, and I have combined that with my regular friday Tabata class at the gym. 

So, having improved my strength and flexibility, I eventually got back on the bike and did a 20km ride over the weekend, as well as a 3km run this morning.

My plan has always been to use the first six weeks of my training to get to week 1 of the 16-week plan  which brings me up to the race. By then, I need to be doing a 10km run on the weekend as well as a 30km bike and a 1km swim. To get from where I am to the 10km run, I plan to run 3 times a week, doing 3km 4km and 3km in week one, and gradually increasing the distance each week by 10%. I am terrified of injury so hopeful that this will get me there!

Gratitude
It's not easy fitting training in when kids and life get in the way...this week my husband was away for the weekend at his friend's 40th. So, I'm grateful that my 5-year-old is actually interested in exercise and doesn't mind me hijacking our playtime together with a trip to the garage to work out together while the toddler napped. She patiently skips and does her yoga, while I do jump squats and sweat ;-). 
Also grateful that my husband doesn't mind me ditching him and the kids as soon as he walks in the door with a hangover, so that i can get a bike ride in before the sun goes down! 

 

 

70.3 Training Update Week 1

I have finally signed up for a half-ironman in June of this year, combining it with a long weekend away (without kids) to Elsinore in Denmark. Week 1 of a 24 week training plan done and I decided to blog about it...purely for accountability reasons - statistics tell me that if I make this commitment public I am more likely to achieve my goal. 

Background
I have done a few sprint and olympic distance triathlons in the past and have also run a lot of 5 and 10k races and one half marathon a few years back, but more recently, while pregnant with my second child, I developed a Morton's Neuroma (nerve thickening) in my right foot which took two years and finally surgery to resolve. During that time, I could swim and cycle but couldn't run so have not done any running for two years prior to starting this plan. I work fulltime and regularly travel internationally with my job, I have two kids and a husband who travels weekly with his job.

So why add a half ironman into the mix? If I'm honest, with the lifestyle that I have, when the weekends come around I'm pretty exhausted (read lazy) so if I don't have a big scary goal looming in the distance, I simply will not get off my ass to exercise. I prefer to aim for endurance over speed and for this race, it's just about finishing it injury-free....let's see how it pans out.  

I defined my training plan based on a 'super-simple 70.3 training plan I found online by Matt Fitzgerald.
I adjusted it to make it work for my timeframe (24 weeks) and my lifestyle (work, family, travel etc). Also, because I have been completely out of action for 8 weeks, I had to add in two strength and conditioning sessions to each week initially to try to regain the strength I had pre-op.  You can track my training here


Week 1 training update
Week 1 was very slow but pretty steady...started with an 800m swim on Monday, did a strength and conditioning session in our garage gym (a work in progress, pics to follow) on Tuesday, managed a 4km run and a 20km bike ride during my lunchbreaks Wednesday and Thursday, and did a Tabata session on Friday morning before work. I had intended to do another bike ride on Saturday but due to muscle pain after the Tabata I decided to let my body rest (last thing I want is to get injured in week 1), and instead took my bike to the bike shop for a service (where they  nearly convinced me to buy two new wheels for a mere €1000...still thinking about it!) and today (sunday) I jogged the 6km to my local gym, did a 1km swim there and then my daughter joined me for a play around in the kids pool. 

Gratitude
I have decided to note at least one thing I'm grateful for each week, to remind me during the tough times that it's not all bad! This week I am grateful for the fact that I could run 6km to my gym (albeit slowly) without pain! I have friends who are injured or sick who would absolutely love to be able to feel healthy enough to go for a run. Having been unable to run for two years I certainly appreciate every run I do.. And I hope that when I'm 50, 60 and 70 I will still be able to run. 

All done for this week!
 

Book Club meets Cook Club!

It was at one of our book club meet ups, after a couple of glasses of wine that I first heard about Tamara Samson. The name alone intrigued me and the description that followed completely drew me in. Tamara is a South African goddess-in-the-kitchen, who lives off-grid (yes, off-grid!) in Co. Leitrim with her son Tao. She is wild at heart and loves eating and living organically, has travelled the world and eventually decided to settle somewhere near Manorhamilton. She cooks jaw-droppingly delicious food, like nothing we've ever tasted before...and it's all organic! Naturally, we just had to meet her so we decided to ask her if she would come and cook for us in one of our houses and she agreed! 

So, on a very very stormy day in early December, we all (partners and kids too) plodded into Laragh's house by the sea in Barna. Laragh and her husband Dave were already at work helping Tamara to set up and before we knew it, we were perched on one side of the island watching Tamara work her magic on the other. 

The idea was that we would learn about this amazing food while watching, tasting, and helping out as needed. We nominated a note-taker, watched in wonder, and listened intently to everything Tamara had to say. My interest in food has always been about more than just the taste. I love to know where the food on my plate has come from and what it can do for my body, and Tamara talked us through every ingredient she used and why (for at least ten dishes!). She had asked us in advance for guidance on what we were particularly interested in, be it sugar/dairy-free treats, quick and healthy food for kids, gluten-free options etc. She incorporated all of our requests into her demonstration so that everyone got what they needed from the session and more. We were greeted with a 'taster' smoothie on arrival, which in addition to the usual smoothie ingredients like banana, avocado and nutmilk, also included turmeric and lots of ginger which added anti-inflammatory and digestive health benefits as well as a very decent kick!  She also made a tasty raw salad, mini bean burgers, mushroom and cashew nut cream pasta, a cream cheese substitute (recipe below), monkfish laksa and a very tasty cacao pudding for dessert! She also included an activity whereby one member of each couple made our own preserved lemons (recipe and uses below) to take home with us. There was so much to take in during the few hours we had her that I was very glad someone was taking notes...with a small baby who doesn't sleep much my attention span was not up to scratch! 

One of the issues many of us have when it comes to eating organic food is the cost of it. We can argue that it is worth paying for, and I believe that it is, but it would also be good to find cheaper ways of obtaining it, acknowledging that we can't all grow everything that we eat. Tamara recommended Suma, which is the UK’s largest independent wholefood wholesaler/distributor, specialising in vegetarian, fairly traded, organic, ethical and natural products. If you buy in bulk they will deliver to Irish addresses, so perfect for groups like ours who all like to buy organic - now we just need to merge our shopping lists!

I can't express how much we enjoyed the cook club and there really was so much more to it - too much to fit into a blog post. But the good news is, Tamara enjoyed it too and would be willing to do it again for other groups. So, if you're a member of a book club with a food slant, or just a group of friends keen on having a demonstration of cooking delicious, nutritious food, you should get in touch with her - [tamtravelling@hotmail.com/083-1944342]. We had several vegetarians in our group, hence the lack of meat but Tamara will cook to your tastes. 

We also brought a babysitter along to ensure the kids didn't get bored and the adults could focus on the cooking - I would recommend doing this if you take kids with you.

Tamara’s Travelling Cook Club

Here's a taster of the tips we got from Tamara....get in touch with her directly to arrange your own cook club event!

Raw Cacao Pudding
Ingredients: coconut oil; raw cacao powder x4 tbsp; avocado x1; vanilla pod; maple syrup ¾ tbspoon; bananas; pinch salt; 
Method: Blend the lot!

‘Cream cheese’ substitute
Method: Put some natural yoghurt into a J-cloth in a sieve overnight over a pot. In the morning there will be ‘cream cheese’ in the sieve and a pot full of whey (can be used later in fermenting). Add (optional): preserved lemons; chilli; garlic; olive oil

Preserved Lemons

Ingredients: 10 Lemons; Himalayan sea salt (big cup); Jar
Method: slice the lemon in to quarters. Put 1tsp salt into the bottom of the jar, then put 1tsp into the quartered lemon, trying to cover the whole inside of the lemon with salt. Put the lemons with the open end facing down into the jar, pressing them with your fingers towards the bottom so they can release juice. Keep adding lemons all the way to the top of the jar, while squishing them so that every part of the lemon is covered with juice. Close the jar and check that it is completely sealed. Leave the jar on your kitchen bench for three days (a few times a day you can turn it upside down to mix the salt into every part of the jar. Put it in the fridge for at least three weeks.

Uses for Preserved Lemons: any tomato based stew; risotto with kalamata tomatoes and olives; green beans/kale; chickpea stew with tomatoes.
 

The Eternal House Project - Carraig Ard

Back in July 2014, we bought a run-down old bungalow in a really beautiful part of Barna called Forramoyle East, and embarked on a renovation project to turn it into a warm, modern, energy efficient home....we completed phase 1 of the project in March 2015, when I was 8 months pregnant, and haven't done an awful lot since...we'll get back to it in 2016! Check out our project blog for more info on the renovation project, and here are some photos of where we had got to by the end of Phase 1:

At 2300 ft sq, it's just the right size for our little family and has low running costs which will hopefully allow us to continue to invest in the evolution of the house as we grow and change as a family.

The style is contemporary and over time, we'll add scandinavian furnishings to it - for now, we've got all our old furniture so it's a bit of a mish mash.

As well as updating the interior, we also need to invest in the garden, driveway and the wall surrounding the property - all of which are surprisingly expensive! And a nice side project which David has taken on is to convert part of the garage into a home gym. I'll add blog posts on each of these as and when we make progress.

Morton

Way back in March this year, when I was 7 months pregnant, I bought a beautiful new pair of very expensive flat boots. I thought i was doing my body a favour buying flat shoes - while carrying the baby weight my feet were swollen and I just couldn't hack high heels. However, after a day or so of wearing them, I felt as if I had something stuck under my right foot, around the fourth toe. I found nothing in there and, as it really wasn't too painful in comparison with the rest of the pregnancy-related health issues I was dealing with, I did nothing about it. When I increased my activity levels after Joseph was born however, it got worse and I felt pain in the joint and numbness in the toe so I went to see a physio.

8 months on and many physio sessions later, my foot is much worse (pain and numbness pretty much constantly) and I still have no clear diagnosis. I went through several supports and eventually proper orthotics, none of which helped. I recently tried a new physio, Tricia Strelioff. Tricia checked me over and said that she thinks I have developed Morton's Neuroma. She thinks the best treatment is going to be a corticosteroid injection. I've now had an MRI and next step is to go and see a radiologist called Dr. Derek Lohan, who can perform the injection assuming the MRI confirms the MN.

Anyway, all of this means no running for me at the moment, which on the upside has allowed me to develop a real love of swimming and cycling - more on those in the next couple of posts! Still...I do miss taking off on a fresh early morning run....bloody Morton...

A bit about me

Name: Claire Farrell
Age: 38
Family: Daughter of Margaret and Gabriel McLoughlin; wife of David Farrell; mother to Heidi (4) and Joseph (8 months)
Height: 168cm
Weight: 58kg
Home: Barna, Co. Galway, Ireland
Occupation: IT Product Manager for IBM (mainly working from home)

Interests

Nutrition
I love food and learning about how we can use food to prevent/heal disease and fuel our bodies for exercise. My eating philosophy is simply to eat more veg and my current favourite book is The Happy Pear, a book with healthy, simple and delicious veggie recipes. 

Health and Fitness
Now that my family is complete, and I am nearing forty, I have decided to focus on being fitter and stronger than I have ever been in my life (yes, it is possible after having babies!) and my chosen sport is triathlon. My aim is to do sprint and olympic distances in 2016 and at least one half-ironman in 2017 (the year i turn 40).

Interior Design
Both David and I have always wanted to have something non-standard about our homes and we love clever design, efficient use of space, and colour. However, I am not naturally creative and not very good at interior design! So I spend a lot of time looking for inspiration from others, using tools such as Pinterest, Houzz, interior design blogs ( e.g. Apartment Therapy, Design Milk, My Scandinavian Home) and sometimes plain old 'word of mouth'.