zzzzzzzz

Last night, Trigirl zonked out at 9pm instead of 10,11, 12 or later... and now feels, errr, like she should feel. In future, Trigirl's friends and family have permission to send her to bed early, if they, errrrrr, see the need.

scrummylicious lunch

Trigirl has just finished this mood-boosting lunch. Scrummy- licious!

Trigirl is now going to make Wonka's Chocolate Nut Surprise Bars for the Junior Trigirls, as per her promise. They are a buttery, golden syrupy, chocolatey, biscuity extravaganza.

Help Trigirl raise money to fight Parkinson's Disease

http://www.justgiving.com/trigirlsheila

Inspired by friend, S, Trigirl has set up a fund raising page to raise money for the Parkinson's Disease Society. Please sponsor her for the London Triathlon, 2nd August 2009.

Trigirl aims to raise at least £500.

Keep on running, girls!

Trigirl is excited that old friend, A, is getting into running. She has been enjoying emailing A with brain dumps on all things running-related.

Also, friend, S, has run her first half marathon and has managed to colllect over £500 in sponsorship. Raising this amount of cash is a feat that Trigirl has never achieved and she is now inspired.

Well done girls! Keep it up!

Happy Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras)!

Trigirl cooked the traditional mountain of crepes for the Junior Trigirls. Here is one of them sizzling in the pan.

Trigirl herself sneaked in a pancake. She tried it with banana, honey, lemon juice and raisins, but to be honest nothing quite beats simple sugar and lemon juice. Nothing ventured, nothing gained...

white, white wine

Tonight, M and Trigirl drowned various sorrows over a glass of white wine. The world felt like a better place afterwards.

weekly totals

This week Trigirl has logged 21.64 km of running, 58.72km of cycling and 1200m of swimming.

First, first, first

Trigirl has had a day of firsts... starting with her first ever run along the airport perimeter fence (pretty woods with added aviation interest!). Ironman ran with Trigirl, but did not appreciate the muddy patches. He was making jokes about leaving his wellies at home.

Later, she went to her first ever body pump class. M invited Trigirl to try the class, and Trigirl was very pleased to do it with her, since she is good fun, very knowledgeable about anything to do with exercise and very kind to Trigirl. The class was quite an experience. Trigirl had to do some squats with a weightlifting bar resting across her back and shoulders. After she had finished the exercises, she did not have the strength to lift the bar back over her head to the front of her body. Trigirl knew she needed to strengthen her arms and shoulders, but her inability to lift the bar over her head has highlighted this fact to her.

While cycling home from the leisure centre, Trigirl had a less pleasant new experience... some joker in a car bellowed at her as they drove past. The shock of this sudden, loud and abusive shouting made Trigirl's legs turn to jelly. She had to stop cycling to regain her composure. Trigirl was relieved that she did not fall off her bike.

undercarriage maintenance is critical

Trigirl is very pleased. She has been on a three-hour bike ride this morning without suffering any, ahem, breakdowns or faults in the undercarriage. Well done Cycle Chick G for sorting out Trigirl's saddle. Using a spirit level was inspired.

Spring is in the air

Trigirl did her first brick session of the year today. She was so warm after her ride that she stripped off to her shorts and sleeveless (!) vest for her run. It's amazing to think that only two or three weeks ago she was building snowmen.

Incidentally, Trigirl was very impressed with her efforts today. She managed to cover almost exactly 2km in her ten minute run. Not a bad effort with post-bike jelly legs!

London day out

Trigirl and the two Junior Trigirls have just come back home from a day out in London.

They briefly met up with Trigirl's old friend, K, from the Big Apple. Trigirl was delighted to see her again, after seven years, or more. After a swift coffee, K headed off to LHR, and the Trigirls nipped round to the Natural History Museum, with what seemed like the rest of the population of London, if not England. On arrival at the museum, the intrepid trio charged straight for the museum's main attraction: dinosaurs.

The little monsters loved the big monsters, apart from one small detail: Junior Trigirl 2 was scared of the roaring animatronic T. Rex and had to stay with the security guard while Trigirl and Junior Trigirl 1 went to admire him. Trigirl was actually very proud of Junior Trigirl 2 for agreeing to stay with the security guard by herself, although she was a very pretty security guard with long hair and beautifully manicured fingernails, which is just what Junior Trigirl 2 likes!

After too short a stay in the museum, the Trigirls had lunch with Swimming Man in his office and then beat a speedy retreat before the rush hour.

A good day.

ahhhh... Pilates, at last!

Trigirl's first Pilates class in three weeks. Fab!

Welcome back, Junior Trigirls!

The two Junior Trigirls returned today after a few days at Grandma and Grandad's house. Trigirl welcomed them with their favourite choccie muffins fresh out of the oven. Here is how you make them:

Ingredients (makes 12 muffins):
120g wholemeal SR flour
80 g white SR flour
40g honey
75g dark chocolate, cut into very small pieces (Trigirl uses 85% chocolate)
2tbsp cocoa
200ml milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 220C
2. Mix all the dry ingredients and honey together in a bowl.
3. Mix the eggs, milk and vanilla essence in a jug with a fork.
4. Pour the milky mixture into the dry ingredients and combine with a spoon.
5. Spoon mixture into greased muffin tin with space for 12 muffins
6. Put muffins in oven for around 7 mins

Welcome back, M!

Trigirl is aching slightly all over, from the ankles upwards. She has realised that the cause of this is probably not stretching enough. Normally Trigirl does not suffer from this problem because she goes to M's pilates classes several times per week, but M cancelled her classes due to snow and then went on holiday.

Trigirl is exceedingly pleased and relieved that M is now back.

weekly totals

This week Trigirl has run 33.5km, cycled 20km and swum 1726m.

Greetings from the sunshine

Ahhh, S, T & E emailed Trigirl from the Maldives with this photo of them in their idyll. Trigirl was delighted to hear from them, but after this morning's 10 mile run through the deep, slippery mud (with occasional patches of snow) she is absolutely green with envy, again. At least Ironman is back from Lanzarote and went running with Trigirl.

Happy Valentine's!

The postman hasn't even arrived yet and Trigirl has received TWO Valentine's cards.

Swimming: Relax, just do it...

When she was in the pool today, Trigirl remembered that swimming teacher, L, had told her to relax while swimming. You swim faster if you relax. Trigirl swam just under 750m today in just under 21 minutes, which is a good time for her.

fingers? what fingers?

As she does most days, Trigirl cycled the 1.5 miles home after the school drop-off this morning. It was so cold that when she got home she could not feel her fingers, despite her lovely warm gloves. Trigirl had to walk round the house in her shoes and helmet for about five minutes because her fingers were too numb to feel anything, let alone undo a helmet buckle or shoe laces. Trigirl wears lots of layers and is usually fairly impervious to the cold, so this is a new experience for her.

Trigirl is very envious of friend's M and Ironman who are still in Lanzarote, T, S & E who are in the Maldives (!!!!) and M, J, Z & Z who are jetting off to Disneyworld tomorrow.

Trigirl thinks she may have to revise today's plan for a run.

on and on and on

Trigirl is very impressed with her 1000m swim today. Although she was confident she could cover the distance, she was expecting to be exhausted at the end, but she felt like she could have gone on and on and on.

Junior Trigirl action

Junior Trigirl 1 creates her first blog today! http://mermaid-susanna.blogspot.com/

Junior Trigirl 2 draws this lovely family portrait

L-R: Swimming Man, Trigirl Junior 2 (with crown), Trigirl Junior 1, Trigirl

dedication is what you need

Today Trigirl embarked upon her London Triathlon training schedule. A 5K (running) time trial was first on the list. Trigirl was not too impressed with her time (24:43) but on the other hand that gives her plenty of room for improvement.

To be fair to Trigirl, conditions were far from ideal - due to the wintry conditions, she had to choose a busy route, so she would not encounter too much ice. This did mean that she had to stop to cross the road rather frequently.

After the run, Trigirl had to walk quite a lot of the way home since she lives in a quieter area where there is still lots of snow under foot.

spinning crazy

Trigirl missed yet another Sunday run due to snow and ice but instead had a fabulously hard and sweaty workout in the spinning class at the local leisure centre. After the class, she zoomed home, via Sainsbury's, and made the family a delicious meal - fishcakes, or a veggie option of cheesecakes, homemade tomato sauce and green beans. They, unfortunately, did not think it yummy, so did not eat much of it, and Trigirl was well and truly spun out as a result.

Losing her marbles?

Trigirl is seriously wondering about the state of her marbles. She was convinced it was Junior Trigirl 1's school trip today, despite having the correct date noted down in her calendar and it coinciding with Tirgirl's Grandma's 90th birthday. Trigirl nearly sent Swimmingman with Junior 1 down to the train station in the snow and ice. The school trip is a month from today, so this was not one of Trigirl's finest moments.

No Towel Day

Trigirl got out of the pool today, only to discover that she had forgotton to bring her towel. So dripping wet, she stood there wondering what to do... Ever resourceful, Trigirl jumped up and down in the shower cubicle to make as much water as possible fly off her body, then she crouched under the pathetic little hand dryer for as long as humanly possible (and she felt like such a twat, she had to explain her actions to all passers-by), and then she dried the last 20% of the water off her skin with her t-shirt.

Although Trigirl has proved that going to the pool without a towel on a cold winter's day is no problem, she does not recommend you try this yourself.

Mad Hair Day

Junior Trigirl 1 goes to school on 'Mad Hair Day' with pink, glittery hair.

Mother's Pride!

This lovely picture was presented to Trigirl today!

This shows Trigirl (far left) and Junior Trigirls in the snow. The snow fort that we made on Monday and Tuesday (see report below) is the mound in the middle; in front of that is the baby snow princess that we made late on Tuesday.

Trigirl is encouraging Junior Trigirl 1 to start her own blog.

green-eyed monster

Trigirl is the Green-Eyed Monster today... friends, M and Ironman, have done a bunk to Lanzarote. While churning out the lengths in the local swimming baths, and surveying the snow outside, she wistfully thought of M and I arriving in the warm, balmy sunshine and taking a dip in the sea.

want to come for a lovely indoor cycle ride anyone?

With snow and ice everywhere, Trigirl is reduced to exercise bike riding, the occasional swim and no running... sigh...

The question of the day: how do you make exercise bike riding fun?

yum, yum, YUM!

My friend, M, has told me to do something new every day. I have taken this particular piece of advice to heart (well done, M!)

Today's New Thing is a recipe - baked salmon with ginger:

http://www.waitrose.com/recipe/Baked_Salmon_and_Ginger.aspx

Very, very easy, and really, really, yummy.... so delicious in fact that I ate tomorrow's portion too! Not sure that M would advocate double portions...

snowball fight

This was taken just after our 'boys against girls' snowball fight. Since the boys are outnumbered they (he) lost.... Clue: you can tell by quantity of snow on coats...

I have put a snowball in the freezer, which the girls can get out in the summer.

snow fort

The snow fort in its full and final glory with my snow princesses.

the joy of snow

Woke up this morning and thought "It's time to create my first blog!"

Why? We have been snowed in since yesterday, so perhaps it's the result of cabin fever.

Needless to say, I did no swimming, biking or running yesterday. However, my children did give me two reward stickers for being a good mummy - one for making choccie muffins and another for making my first ever snow castle/igloo. This is an incomplete work, which we must finish today.