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!

Challenge Henley Competition- The Results!

Well after an intense 2 weeks of spamming everyone with links of why and how they should vote for me, the Challenge Henley Competition finally finished yesterday... and all the hard work paid off. I won! By the end of the competition, friends, family and I had managed to rack up an awesome 575 votes, winning me my free place in the Challenge Henley Triathlon. NICE!

I would like the throw a massive thanks out there to everyone that voted for me. Obviously I can't thank you all individually that would take me all year, but there were a lot of people that stood out and put a lot of effort in to get me those extra votes that sealed the deal. They were:

• Luigi Baccerini- a cycling buddy that hassled all his workmates into voting for me as well as bribing his daughter to get her friends to vote too!
• Poppy Dinsey- for putting a plee out there her extremely popular What I Wore Today blog. Chutney is on it's way!
• All my family- for putting up with me hassling them to get their friends to vote
• James Shooter- For somehow busting out 40 votes in one morning
• Everyone who posted the link on their facebook status'- especially my mates from back home including Anna, Dani, Hailey, Cal, Laura and all the Perfects!
• Dr Stewart Laing for getting all this students to vote
• Heather for earning enough votes to be able to go out on a curry with me lol
• And anyone else I've missed out... There were a lot of you!

So what have I let myself in for? On the 18th September 2011 I'll be doing Challenge Henley, which is a full distance triathlon like an Ironman, just organised by a different company. It consists of the following:

     1. 3.8k Swim (In the Thames)

     2. 180k on the Bike

     3.  42k Run (a marathon- 4 laps of this course)

Yeah it's pretty dam big, and it's gonna be tough. However I've managed to talk my mate Andrew Hailey into doing the race with me, so it will be an interesting summer of training for the both of us when I'm back from Uni... It'll be a few months of solid eating, swimming, cycling, running and sleeping. Boosh.

So once again thanks to everyone that voted. Hopefully some of you will be able to come and watch, looks like it'll be a great event. And now I don't have to spend hours on facebook trying to get votes, I can get back to some decent training... well until the weather turns Arctic again!

How to vote for me so I can race for free. Please?

OK so as many of you have already seen I'm currently in a competition for Challenge Henley and I need as many votes as possible to win a free place at the race. I'm currently lying second which is cool but third place is pretty darn close... and I don't want to come third.

Here is the dummies guide of how to vote, it takes like 1 minute so if you haven't done it already please get clicking, every vote counts at the moment- it's tight!

Step 1: Go to the Challenge UK Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Challenge-UK/145733332122037

Step 2: Click the 'Like Button' for Challenge UK

Step 3: Scroll down the Challenge UK page to find my story (Entrant 4: Ben Butler) and hit the like button for that

Job done. Easy eh? If you've voted already then thanks a million, and a big up to all those that have posted the link on their facebook page and twitter etc. to squeeze a few extra votes out. It's getting close now! If I spend as much time training as I am trying to get people to vote for me this race will be a doddle haha!

Free entry for Challenge Henley? Yes please.

Right, so basically at the start of the month I entered a competition for a free place at Challenge Henley. To enter, I had to write (in 200 words) why they should chose me to get one of a two available free places. So I did.... And I got through to the next round. NICE!

Out of more than 100 people that entered, I and four others got chosen to be in the final five, and of this five two people will win the free places. Each of the final five's 200 word letters have been posted on the Challenge UK facebook page, and on the 14th December the two with the most 'likes' get the free places for Challenge Henley on the 18th September next year.

So whats the deal? Challenge Henley is an Ironman Distance Triathlon, which involves a 2 mile swim, a 112mile bike, and a marathon to finish! There's a reason why it's called Challenge... it's solid. Anyway these events are usually £300 to enter so if I got a free entry it would be pretty cool and also a massive test. Below is a video of the German Version of Challenge Henley, it's pretty cool.



To vote for me all you have to do is go to the Challenge UK facebook page here and 'like' that and then find my bit (Entrant 4: Ben Butler) and like that as well. If you can't find my blurby bit you can also find it here. Overall it should take less than a minute, unless you get lost somewhere.

Many thanks everyone, should be an interesting couple of weeks! Time to spam everyone.