Back up and running

It's been a long time since my last update, so one would expect a lot might have happened... and yes, quite a lot has happened.

Between January and the start of April I was unable to run due to periostitis in my right tibia. Fortunately I was able to cycle and swim so I kept my fitness up by hammering to bike and pool. At first when I did my injury, 3 months of no running seemed like a lifetime but it actually hasn't been that bad- there's bigger things in life to worry about than how long I have to take off of running.

Anyway- my cycling and swimming is going well. Getting fitter every day... Almost. The local time trials have just started up- I've done a couple so far, placing 1st and 4th, and I've also come fifth in a couple of local road races. There's nothing quite like a road race or TT to get the legs burning and the lungs puffing.

I've been swimming training with the local Arfon Masters a couple of times a week and this has really helped my technique and swim speed. It also makes swimming slightly less monotonous and lonely than doing it by yourself- I highly recommend it to anyone! In the last week I've braved the cold waters of Snowdonias lakes for some open water swimming... which is lush (once you lose the feeling in your feet, hands and face)

A couple of weeks ago a friend and I headed to the South of France for a triathlon training camp at tri-topia. We hammered the training- putting in around 20 hours of hard swimming, cycling and running. No sightseeing. We hit some open water swims in the local rivers and lakes which was pretty nice... even if all you can see is brown! All the training meant we needed to replenish the calories- and that we did with copious amounts of french bread and awesome food cooked for us by the couple that run tri-topia; Sam and Lee.

I'm back up and running a few times a week now- gradually building up my run distances which feels good. And also what I've found quite interesting is that I'm not as slow as I thought I would be. I equalled by PB of my local 6k course without meaning to on Friday- which is pretty cool! But I still need to work on my endurance a fair bit.

It's now around 3 weeks until my first triathlon- The Snowdonia Slateman, and I can't wait. The course suits me, with a 750m open water swim and a very hilly bike leg. The run sounds like a killer; an 11k trail run up a slate mine and through a country park (the garmin route from a friend running it shown below). All in all it should be awesome and hopefully I can get my running up to a good level in the next few weeks.



As for Challenge Henley- The more I train the more I realise how demanding it's going to be. On June the 12th I have a middle distance Triathlon in Bala, which is pretty much half of what Henley will be- so it will be a good test! One little step at a time seems to be the way forwards. I don't want to get injured again, it sucks!

The break up

A few weeks ago whilst on a run, my right leg and I had a bit of a tiff. She started giving me lip about half way around my normal 6k loop, complaining that it hurt and it ended up getting out of hand. This ultimately led to our break up. Over 3 weeks on now and our relationship still isn't back to normal despite my calls, letters, and appointments with the doctor. The pain of the break up is worst when walking up stairs and down hills, and has been concluded as a case of Pes Ansernine Bursitus.

In other words. I'm injured. And it looks like I'll stay injured for a good few weeks, which sucks big time. I haven't been able to get any solid cycling done, or any running whatsoever since my fateful run 22 days ago. However after 3 visits to the doctors we've finally managed to whittle it down to a diagnosis. Basically the tendons that attach one of my hamstring muscles to the inside of my right lower leg is poorly. This diagram shows what the deal is pretty well:

The swollen bit is where the problem lies!

I've got an appointment with a local sports physio tomorrow so hopefully I'll find out what I can and can't do, and how long I'm going to be out of action for. In the meanwhile I'm concentrating on swimming, upper body strength and trying to get my dissertation finished by the time I'm back in action so that I'll have more time to train. It's also made me realise how much I take my body for granted so looking on the bright side it's been a lesson learnt.

However I can't wait to get back on the bike soon (I hope)! Look after those legs people! And yes, my right leg is female.

First Sunday ride of 2011

Solid Sunday ride this week- no point tootling around, as Chrissie Wellington says 'if you've got time to wipe the dribble from you mouth you're not going fast enough' haha

The road to Henley begins...

So it's now 2011, and with a big year of racing planned I thought I'd give people the low down on all the races I'll be doing in the lead up to Challenge Henley at the end of the summer. At the moment my season consists of 5 triathlons, which encompasses pretty much every race distance there is; sprint, olympic, middle, and full distance which should be interesting- but in addition to these I'll be hitting cycling time trials and probably some swimming and running races.

After a couple of weeks of interrupted training due to the mad weather and then spending my time eating copious amounts of rubbish over Christmas, I'm now raring to get some serious training done and start to pick up some speed (hopefully). I've been given a new training plan by the sports science students I'm working with, which looks solid and should lead to some good improvements if I stick to it. We're doing a bit of testing on Thursday to see what level I am at the moment on the bike, and then its a go go.

So all in all it's going to be an exciting and probably quite tiring year with the training and racing... add to that my degree plus work and I'm gonna be one busy guy! Anyway here are the main races I'm doing, when they are, what they involve and where you can enter them if you're interested...maybe see you there!