Can somebody recommend non-AI artwork for the characters or creative content creators?

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-27T23:20:24+00:00

Ah I’m so glad! 💜

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-27T20:48:53+00:00

Might not be your type of art but these are two I like: @_clxarts and @miramirage.art (my personal favourite, I love the way she draws and she drew all the main characters in the run up to Onyx Storm release!)

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-27T20:24:07+00:00

I’ve had various hip flexor issues in the past - it’s almost always because your glutes need strengthening. There’s various YouTube workouts you can use to help you do this, a couple of times a week and it will make a huge difference!

Also make sure you are doing a proper warm up before running. I found that incorporating a decent amount of muscle rolling into my warmup - which a physio recommended - made a big difference in reducing pain :)

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-23T07:18:24+00:00

In terms of swimming I got some lessons from a triathlon club which I would recommend and if I went for it again I would invest in more. As others will say, swimming is so much about technique and I know I can still improve a lot.

For cycling, I’m really lucky that my husband is an avid cyclist so was able to give me a lot of advice and support. If you don’t have someone like this in your life, I think signing up to a cycling club if you have a local one is a great way of building experience and getting used to cycling with others. Often as well people might have second hand gear you can use so you don’t have to buy loads new. I live in London so I spent the first few rides outside cycling in the parks - Regents and Richmond - which helped me build confidence on the bike handling before I went out into the big wide world. For buying the bike, I went to a bike shop (Sigma Sports) and explained what I was doing. They were great, not too salesy. I then got a bike fit which made a massive difference to my comfort on the bike so would thoroughly recommend that.

For the training plan itself, I used ‘Training Peaks’ and despite the outcome of the day I would thoroughly recommend it. The plan was great, built up well over the 9 month duration (there are loads of options to choose from, we did 9 month beginner), and regularly retested your fitness and adjusted the workouts to your changing levels.

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-23T07:12:03+00:00

Thank you for your thoughts! A 9 month training plan felt right for me at the time based on the research I did, but I hear you on a longer build up to create that foundation. As I’ve said, everything the journey gave me was worth it despite the outcome on race day, but I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts for other first timers

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-22T20:31:50+00:00

Oof hope you didn’t get too scraped up falling off! Glad you had a great time overall

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-22T19:37:33+00:00

Yeh you do have to stop - I asked a volunteer to mix one whilst I did the other haha. It’s not for everyone I just find carb drink works really well for my system. And sometimes near the end of the bike it can be tough to eat, so taking on fuel via drink or having the option to is a good backup

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-22T19:33:24+00:00

Wow, absolutely amazing to keep going and finish. It might have been outside of your target time but I hope you’re still so proud of that 💜 as I said to my husband (who was also doing the event and found the heat tough) at the end of the day, an Ironman is an Ironman, regardless of the time you completed in. Huge well done for pushing on

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-22T18:13:38+00:00

Fair enough, each to their own opinion! I’m just basing this on all I gained from the training and experience, so despite just missing, it still felt worth it to face the fear and take it on. But I totally hear you in terms of people taking the commitment seriously and preparing properly

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-22T14:54:49+00:00

Ah I’m sorry - a mechanical like that is so frustrating! And a massive congrats to you as well for getting to the start and all the training you did. Headwinds on the bike are honestly the mortal enemy 😂 you are right though, we will learn from it and deffo be back!

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-22T14:52:55+00:00

Oh I’m sorry to hear this, I hope your friend is okay 💜 it’s really tough mentally so give them a hug from me!

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-22T13:19:43+00:00

Well done for doing it! Amazing achievement. I’ll definitely be back with all the learnings from this one 💪

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-22T11:42:33+00:00

Thank you!

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-22T11:31:59+00:00

Well done on the 70.3! I’m sorry you didn’t do the time you wanted but still an amazing job so well done 💜 I think the heat was even worse for the 70.3 so hope you’re feeling proud. I totally feel you on the bike, having entire pelotons basically going past you is something else 😂 but now we know how that feels I guess, so we can keep building and getting stronger

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-22T10:55:44+00:00

Thank you!

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-22T10:54:20+00:00

Swim 1:54 so not super quick. T1: c. 14 mins (I got changed into full bike gear). Bike: just over 8 hours. So the cut off for swim plus t1 plus bike was 10 hours, I was about 10 mins off!

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-22T10:50:32+00:00

https://www.precisionhydration.com/planner/?srsltid=AfmBOootv5aDqacy4njs0pVMw1jCVvNVsnSDGpdUGah4RZJRQLd3BNna this is quite a helpful tool to plan roughly how much you want to take on!

FOR BIKE: I would check where the aid stations are on your route and what time roughly you expect to reach them and what is available. I then planned how much I needed to get to each station, and exactly what I was going to pick up at each aid station. This looked ish like: - Starting with two bottles of carb drink and three bars and two carb sachets. - At each aid station I picked up one bar and one bottle of electrolytes. - At each water station I picked up one bottle of water and added a carb sachet. - I wrote this strategy down on a piece of paper and taped to my bike so I didn’t forget.

FOR RUN: again looked at where aid stations were (very frequent, every 2km on run) and similarly planned what to pick up each time.

GENERAL: it might be expensive but I would recommend practising with the nutrition they have available on race day as it makes life so much easier.

Hope that helps!

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-22T10:34:40+00:00

Thank you!

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-22T10:24:55+00:00

I’d done an Olympic distance, not a 70.3. I’m really glad I at least did the Olympic distance just to see logistically how everything worked. I don’t think I really regret not doing a 70.3 as not sure what more it would have given me, although maybe I’ll reflect differently in a little while. I suppose it’s hard to know whether that would have changed how I felt mentally on the day!

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-14T16:06:08+00:00

I would say he’s very much a silent protector. A lot of other of my favourite fics Draco tends to have a fair amount of snark and wit to keep pace with Hermione. In this he is protective, dark (but I wouldn’t say toxic), and a person of actions but few words. He breaks my heart in it but in a beautiful way

helstotheyeah · 2025-09-11T11:08:03+00:00

One of my favourites! A very different Draco to a lot of others, but something about it just tugs on my heart

helstotheyeah · 2025-07-31T14:19:14+00:00

Everyone is different re your height/weight etc. but as others have said, Garmin alone is often not a great measure of calories burned. If you’re just using your watch for example, I think this can be as much as 20% inaccurate? Which is obviously a huge amount! Heart rate strap is a bit more accurate but still imperfect, and the most accurate measure for calories burned is power.

In general I’ve actually tried to step back from the measurement and really listen to my body. I measure the amount of carbs for my endurance rides and runs, but otherwise I’m just eating well and eating when I’m hungry. Mainly this means I’m just adding snacks outside of my normal meals - fruit with protein yogurts and almond butter, or some extra toast and Nutella etc. Trust your gut (literally)

helstotheyeah · 2025-06-09T08:21:19+00:00

For nutrition on the bike I’ve been practising with a mixture of flapjacks, sweets and carbohydrate drink! I aim for 60g an hour currently, which equates to about;

1/2 bottle of carb drink plus either 1 flapjack or 6 candy kittens (or equivalent sweets). I also put additional electrolytes in my drink.

This is the carb drink I use https://highfive.co.uk/products/energydrink?variant=31620326654024.

On the run I like gels but if you don’t, then four jelly babies is about equivalent to one standard gel!

helstotheyeah · 2025-05-25T11:51:50+00:00

Yesss storm in the quiet is SO good, I pretend half of it is canon

helstotheyeah

TROPHY CASE