sport

Race Report – Thames Turbo Sprint Triathlon

/ katieferg89 / 10 Comments

My answer now to the question ‘have you done a triathlon?’ can now officially change from ‘no because I hate swimming’ to ‘yes, I still hate swimming but the fun of the rest of it made it alright really’ . And by alright I mean quite fun. And by quite fun I mean I will probably do another one…

I picked Thames Turbo on the sole reason that my club was running a novice programme where this was the end goal.I also had several glasses of wine when I agreed to it. If I am honest, I basically ignored most of the training sessions and made up my own thing because a) marathon training took up a vast proportion of my time and b) I moved back home at the start of April and away from club sessions. Oh and c) I really don’t enjoy swimming in case you didn’t know that already.

Basically, there was a bit of googling and some laid back assumptions that I would get by. Actually, my training was pretty much useless if you want to think about dedicated triathlon training. I think I swam about once a fortnight on average and I just relied on my base running and cycling to get me by. I went to about one spin class and heavily relied on the fact that my commuting and every-other-weekend (ish) cycle legs would get me through (except for the fact that I stopped cycle commuting about 6 weeks ago). Oh and my first ‘proper’ brick in this block was two days before the race where I did a hilly parkrun and bashed around some Chiltern Hills for fun. I did no transition practice (but having done duathlons, not completely blind to it) and tested out my tri top on race day.

So, a potential disaster I hear you say?

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Foxtrot Oscar: When ‘Competitive’ becomes ‘Aggressive’

/ Kate O'C / 3 Comments

It’s confession time, chums. I played Touch Rugby with K-Ferg last night and did two things of note, neither of which involved scoring or assisting a try:

  1. Gave myself a touch of groin strain. Yum.
  2. Colossally overreacted to a man obstructing me by literally screaming “F**********CK YOOOOOOOOOU” in his face. Many eyebrows were raised.

I recently wrote a post (10 problems sporty girls will understand) where I stated that it annoys me when people, guys in particular, accuse me of being aggressive, when in fact I am just very competitive. My outburst last night however goes to prove that I can, on occasion, be quite aggressive, albeit contained to the sports pitch. But what I’m wondering is… why? Why does a competitive streak overflow from time-to-time and manifest itself as out-and-out aggression? Continue reading →

So, I’m pretty sure we shouldn’t scrap school PE…..

/ katieferg89 / 7 Comments

What are your memories of school sport and PE? Bitchy netball cliques, gym knickers and being forced to run around a cross country field?
Mine were anything but. Teamwork. Fun. Pride. Patience. Frustration. Ambition. Emotions, experiences and qualities that rounded my education and my personality. So why is it causing so many problems? How is it being allowed to fall by the wayside as the first ball to drop? You don’t let people skip maths because they just don’t like it or aren’t particularly good at it. So why are we frequently letting this happen with PE?

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10 Problems Sporty Girls Will Understand

/ Kate O'C / 6 Comments

Here’s a popular one from the archives for you peeps – still as true as ever! We’d love to hear your #sportygirlproblems in the comments below or on Twitter

1. Your bedroom is perpetually in need of hoovering.

Especially if you play anything that involves wearing studded or moulded boots… Why is it so damn hard to get rid of every last bit of mud / grass / dirt? Or worst of all, these little blighters:

artificial turf

Whoever thought 3G pitches were a good idea has CLEARLY never spent entire weeks, post-training session, picking rubber pellets out of crevasses they hadn’t realised they had.

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Fit Mammas: A day isn’t enough to celebrate our mothers!

/ katieferg89 / 4 Comments

Let’s face it – neither of us would be where we are now without the most important women in our lives – and we probably wouldn’t have the same attitudes towards health and wellbeing that we do without our mothers playing the laundry lady/taxi driver/#1 supporter/ role that they do!

So, on this rainy Mothering Sunday, when neither of us actually have the fortune to be with them, we’d like to celebrate the top women in our lives and what makes them so freakin’ awesome

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Q&A with Kate and Katie (Part 2)

/ Kate O'C / Leave a comment

Back for more are we? Really sold it to you with the Clare Balding love and egg hatred? In the second of our two-part, tell-all exposé, Katie reveals rather too much about her gross, old pants and Kate is thoroughly ‘smashing’…

  1. What would you always find in your fridge?

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Q&A with Kate and Katie (Part 1)

/ katieferg89 / 2 Comments

So, we’ve given you a little taster so far into some of the things that go into our minds, lives and eating and training habits….so er well done if you are still here! In a first of an exciting two-part thriller, we want to give you even more of an insight into what makes us tick. So without further ado, let’s dive into a few more questions – everything from sports and eggs to gin and Clare Balding…

  1. What is your favourite sport to play that is not part of your usual routine?

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Exercise Addiction vs Dedication…..Drawing the Fine Line

/ katieferg89 / 7 Comments

Are you dangerously addicted….or just dedicated?

A poignant question. And one I’m going to try and be open with.As much as I can. I’ve flitted either side of the line for years. I probably always will. When you’re on the more harmful side, you’ll try to kid yourself you’re on the other. And it’s not an easy decision to make. Exercise addiction isn’t on the DSM-V. Exercise is frequently prescribed as a coping mechanism for recovering from other mental disorders. Exercise is always good for you…right?

DISCLAIMER: I’m not a psychiatrist or psychologist nor any way trained in this field. This is a combination of my thoughts, discussions and general knowledge of the topic. Please, if something I cover resonates with you, talk to someone.

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So, what are you going to do with that degree then?

/ katieferg89 / 1 Comment

“You will never find a husband if you pick that subject”
“It’s not a real degree”
“So I guess you’ll be a PE teacher or work in a leisure centre”
Welcome to the types of comments you have to put up with on a regular basis if you choose a sports degree….
A bit rich considering the sheer amount of intelligence and precision that goes into commercial, professional and grassroots sport, politics and business.
So why are some people still so quick to write it off as soft?
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Confessions of a Lazy, Sporty Girl

/ Kate O'C / 1 Comment

I never used to consider myself to be particularly sporty. I’d always participated in games lessons at school and in various teams – hell, at the age of ten, I captained my primary school cricket team in a local competition, having never played until two weeks previously, but that’s a different story. It wasn’t until I went to university, met a lot of people who did little to no team-based activity, and I took up Rugby Union, that I was labelled ‘Sporty’.

It’s not a label I’ve ever fully embraced or, frankly, understood. Sure, I exercise, I play sport, I get antsy if I’ve been sat down or stuck indoors for too long, but  never crave a spot of pavement-pounding. Between you and me, exercise for its own sake is something I dread and (horror of horrors) find boring.

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