Sunday 16 December 2012

Its arrived!

I had an early Christmas present arrive yesterday - a big box of SiS products, so now there really is no excuse

So, I have started straight away.  18 miles yesterday followed by SiS Rego Protein powder and a SiS Rego Night powder at 9pm last night.  I warmed up the chocolate Rego night - and thought it might taste a bit like hot chocolate.  It didn't unfortunately so I don't think I will warm it up tonight and will have it cold like a normal protein shake!  Didn't notice much different last night with my sleep - except having to get up for a wee because I drank close to bedtime.  I will have to see how that goes.

I trie the omega shots this morning - didn't realise they needed to be kept in the freezer but I have managed to clear a space!  Hmmmm, the taste is going to take a bit of getting used to to say the least!  I may try putting it in some orange juice tomorrow morning as it was a bit of a shock on its own.  But I am really keen to see the benefits of Omega 3 so I will be persevering.

The club run this morning, 46 miles fairly hilly miles in the Chilterns powered by Go Hydro in my SiS bottles, and a Go Isotonic Gel half way round.  Hoped that would be enough but I started feeling a bit weak near the end and had to have an energy bar.  Got home and had the SiS ReGo recovery.

So, 106 miles this week.  Now all the products have arrived I will be really interested to use them properly and see what happens!

Oh...and I haven't had any biscuits this week...(but I have had alot of eggs!)

Thursday 13 December 2012

The first stage…the chat with Tim



So, last week I had a call from Tim Lawson, the founder of SiS.  I admit I had preconceived ideas about what he would say.  I was convinced that the reason I reach for the biscuits and am starving after short rides is that I haven’t been eating or taking on energy drink whilst riding – WRONG!  He explained that there are benefits on riding ‘empty’, so I should ride with SiS Go Hydro Tabs in water and carry SiS Go energy gel just in case.  That was a surprise and I haven’t tried the Go Hydro tabs yet so look forward to that.  The important thing here is that as soon as I get back I should have SiS REGO recovery and nothing else for an hour or so to let it do its job unhindered.  This is fascinating, and totally different to what I have been doing which is to immediately have toast/peanut butter/banana/muesli bar  ie a lot of carbs when I get back from a ride.
I had a feeling Tim would say I was not taking on enough protein and sure enough…I am not taking in anywhere near enough protein!  If I increase the amount of protein I eat I will stop having those cravings for biscuits and junk because I won’t be hungry.  So 20g of protein for breakfast – 2 eggs, mix in some SiS REGO Protein powder into my porridge or even have a ‘fry up’ of bacon and egg on a pile of salad….interesting!  Tim also suggested I cook with coconut oil…I will have to do some googling to find ways to do that.  He also suggested some SiS REGO Night to help overnight recovery, improve sleep and stop me waking up starving.

The other thing we talked about was increasing my amount of Omega 3 intake, to get my skin, brain and heart to work better – and there is research to suggest that if you take enough for long enough it helps reduce body fat and increase muscle mass.  I have been taking an Omega 3 supplement from Boots every day, but apparently these are not concentrated enough, and the fish oil can be ‘bad’ and do more harm than good.  I suffer a bit with hair loss and dry skin, and the other benefits sound great so I really want to try the SiS Omega shots.  I will also start eating more oily fish such as mackerel.

So I have already started to put some ideas into action.  2 eggs for breakfast yesterday and I wasn’t even slightly hungry during the morning – had no biscuits all day!  Hooray!  Today I thought I would try mixing SiS REGO Protein powder into porridge but unfortunately didn’t like it, so I am now sitting here sipping a shake made up with SiS REGO Protein powder instead!  I am really keen and motivated to make this work, so I am going to stick to the advice….oh, and I need to stop buying biscuits – if they are not there I can’t be tempted to eat them!

Who am I?


I entered a competition a few weeks back to be part of the SiS Winter Academy, and never thought in a million years that I would be chosen….I am not much of an ‘athlete’ I am a 41 year old working mum of 2 who likes to cycle. But, amazingly an email came through from SiS to say that I had been chosen as one of the 9 – wow!

So, who am I?  Well, you may once have seen me broadcasting the weather on BBC (under my maiden name of Sarah Wilmshurst), but I left when I had my kids, spent a bit of time managing the BBC  Weather Centre and I now work as a severe weather advisor to emergency responders and government. 

When I was young I was a keen swimmer, swimming for school and a club but when I went to University that all seemed to lapse, and when I started work I did shifts and the exercise fell to second place.  Then I had 2 children and I noticed after the second one 7 years ago that my weight had gone up and I generally felt a bit rubbish.  So I joined a slimming club to lose the weight, and just as I reached target weight I saw an ad in a slimming magazine for a ride around Cuba for charity.  50 miles a day for 5 days….could I do it??? 

I decided to give it a try and I have never looked back!  I started on a comfort mountain bike, trundling along the Thames and getting to a standard where I could manage the 250 miles in Cuba – which I loved.  I was hooked.  I bought a lightweight hybrid when I got back and joined Maidenhead and District Cycling Club.  They didn’t seem to mind that I turned up each Sunday for the social ride on a hybrid whilst they were all on road bikes. I did my first few sportives on that hybrid – the biggest of which was the Wild Wales in 2009 when I unfortunately fell off over the handlebars and had a trip in an ambulance to hospital.  4 new teeth later and I was back on the bike, another charity ride around China in 2010.  It was time to get a road bike. 

I continued to do a few Sportives – improving quickly to be able to do 100km’s easily.  Now for the next challenge – I tried time trialling.  Again the friendly nature of my cycling club meant that they were fine with me trying a time trial on a road bike – and first time only managing 33 minutes for a 10.  I time trialled every week last year, 10’s and 25’s and improved so that I beat the 30 minute mark for the 10’s and 1:18 for the 25.  It was a good year.
\
Then this year I bought a new road bike, a lovely carbon Pinarello Quattro, which I have put time trail bars on. The year started well, I did the London Revolution (where I discovered SiS products) and managed the 2 days quite easily, and I got my 10 time trial time down to 28:04 on the new bike.  That was early in the season, and since then I have got stuck, and don’t seem to be improving – if anything I think my form has decreased.  Family commitments mean I can no longer make the time trails each week, but I continue to try to do at least 100 miles a week.  Most of these miles are done in 60-90 minute blocks at lunchtime, and a longer 3-4 hours on the Sunday club run. I have also bought a mountain bike – my brother is a keen mountain biker and he persuaded me to do the Kielder 100 (100 long, hilly miles – all off road).  He thought from having seen my form early in the year that I would manage it – but I missed the time cut off at 50 miles (I did have a puncture but I think I probably would have missed it anyway) and was sent back, so only managed 56 miles.  I REALLY want to be able to do the full 100 next year….but unless I improve my strength and stamina I have no hope.  I am also noticing that on club runs, new members join and I have to wait for them…..but within a few weeks they are zooming away and I am trailing behind.  What is going wrong?

I probably don’t have a good training plan.  I tend to just go out and ride – with little structure.  I have tried the odd interval session, and have loosely tried to stick to training plans that others have leant me but I don’t stick to them.  I also do no strength training which would also probably help.  But I think my main issue I think is my nutrition strategy.  I have a biscuit addiction and the weight I spent so long losing 7 years ago is creeping back on.  I use SIS products – but only on long rides.  I want to get the weight back off, feel more energetic on the bike and start to improve again. So, the SiS Winter Academy is just what I need….