The results are in

Nom nom nom.

No running again this week, with a beautifully formed bruise on the top of my foot where it looks like I've strained a tendon or some such. I've progressed from hobbling in pain to being able to walk normally, which I suppose is an improvement, but I'm still waitnig to hear back from a physio to see if there is anything else I can do, although I think some carefully placed plasazote under the balls of my feet will be in order to get my foot in the correct shape.

While that's been going on I have used this week to do an ftp test on Trainerroad and a critical swim speed test in the pool. Both results were really encouraging. On the turbo I was able to push out 275W ftp, which is a power pb, just. Bearing in mind that I had been ill the proceeding 2 weeks and that I had not done any focussed and consistent turbo work this was pretty good. I was expecting a 10-15watt loss, so this bodes well for the rest of the winter. In the pool I absolutely rinsed myself over the 400 and 200 metre tts. I completed the 400 in 7:09 and the 200 was in 3:31, which gives a CSS value of 1:49/100m. This might be a little low as I was holding 1:45s in my 100 repeat sets last week, and probably indicates that I need more endurance as I progress over the next few months.

Other than that it was 3 turbo sessions, finishing off with an hour yesterday afternoon. All good, except it left me in pieces for today's ride out with Simon; 3 hours of barely being able to turn the cranks whenever the road even slightly went uphill. It was pretty rugged, but the rain held off and there was the best cheese on toast in the world, so it wasn't all bad. The next couple of weeks are going to be really hard to fit sessions in, as work and home is particularly busy this month, but hey, no one said it would be easy.

Testing Times

Despite a few more coughing fits I've been able to string 9.5hrs training last week. A couple of good things. Firstly I did a couple of swims and the second one was 15x100m off 2:10, but each rep was done between 1:42 and 1:45, considerably quicker than I had expected. I was blowing really hard at the end but it was a lot more comfortable than it should be with so little swim training this year. This is really encouraging and gived me a useful vase to work from, although this week I will be doing a Critical Swim Speed test this week so that I can structure things even more.

The not so good. I ran Bushy Parkrun on Saturday which was my first run in two weeks. A steady 5km warmup and then I did the parkrun by starting near the back and running through the field to record 21:18, with every mile progressively faster. It felt really good to be running again and I felt really relaxed and comfortable with no twinges. All good until a couple of hours later and my foot started to get sore again. It's vexing that this is happening again so I'm going to get advice from a physio again and see if I can get some proper treatment. Being so far out from IMCH, it's relatively easy to keep a positive mental attitude but there's no doubt that as things gradually get closer to July, if I'm not running consistently then this is going to be hard to maintain.

So after a month or so of relatively unstructured training it's time to get things back on track. The first thing is to start a new TrainerRoad plan, following the full distance triathlon base medium volume plan which is 3-4 turbo sessions and a weekend ride and to also ensure that I'm doing at least 2 swims per week. Three would be better.

Hero to zero

Inadvertently, this week became a run week. 5 runs, with 4 of them being run commuting to and from work. I was very tired at the start of the week and was feeling the effects of the 12 hour week that had just gone. Monday was a much needed rest day and for whatever reason I just didn’t have the mojo to get on the turbo, I think because my legs felt really fried. While my runs were always slow to start I found that within 20 minutes I was running freely and comfortably.

I had decided to go back to Kingston Parkrun yesterday, for two reasons. Firstly it was the 14th anniversary of Parkrun so I wanted to get along and support, but also it was 8 weeks or so since my last one and I wanted to use it as a test for how my running is progressing. After an easy, slow warmup I went out pretty hard in the first couple of kms. I normally like to build through the run but this time I was blowing quite hard from the off. As a result the middle part was quite slow as I found myself a little alone, trying to chase down a small group in front. I eventually caught them and ran through and was really working hard by the time I got to a km to go. With a couple of hundred meters three of them came back last me and I let them go; I’m too old to sprint these days! Anyway, 16th and first in my age group and a comeback pb of 19:27. Cool! It was lovely to celebrate with some prosecco with friends afterwards. A very civilised way of conducting Parkrun!

It was in the evening that my hamstring and foot began to tighten and I knew I was going to get another attack of my foot problem. By this morning I couldn’t bear any weight on it at all, which meant my planned tt had to be canned. I’m frustrated, more at myself for not being a bit more conservative and doing too much. But that said, I’m not going to let myself get down about it.  My run training was going well and All I’ve got to do is deal with the problem and move on.

So next week could well be a turbo and swim week.  Swimming’s still going well with lots of drilling. The best thing is that I have nailed my tumble turns. As it was only me in the pool at one point this week, for a laugh I thought I’d try and tumble turn with the pullbuoy. In the past I’ve found it hard to plant my feet on the wall but with the buoy I had to really focus on this. Within a few lengths I had it nailed and now I don’t know what all the fuss was about. I guess it just clicked.

Anyway, it’s not time to dwell on what I can’t do, but what I can do. Onwards.

It wouldn't be triathlon training....

without an injury.

I tweaked my left Achilles last Sunday (not an official physiotherapy term, but one that we can all relate to and understand) last Sunday when I ran with Simon and Dale. It was fine at the time but was quite sore afterwards. The route we ran was considerably hillier than I have been used to recently and the additional stress ended up with the tweak. I left it a couple of days and it seemed fine so I ran home from work on Wednesday. It's a fairly flat 7 miles and with hindsight I should have taken the shorter route to test it out, but the need to get some run volume has been playing on my mind so I went for the longer option. With a couple of miles to go it was quite sore and I plodded on, again ignoring common sense and not walking. It's now settled down to a very mild ache and I have started to do my heel drops and calf stretching which I should have started weeks ago. I have been a good boy and been doing some core work though; the dirty dog, scorpion twist and plank are all back in my regular vernacular.

Cycling is going well with another couple of TR sessions in the week, a recovery 20 miles on Friday followed by 85 miles yesterday, riding out to Windsor and back with a bit of a loop around Surrey, avoiding the hills bar the climb up to Newlands. That's three 80+ mile rides this month so I think my aerobic endurance is hopefully growing along with my ftp. All this has been on the road bike so I am going to start to practice my pacing and nutrition on the TT bike over the coming weeks, starting with a 50m tt next weekend, if I make the start sheet.

I'm 12 weeks out from the Outlaw, so as long as I can get running again soon then I should still be on track. But, as usual, it's probably going to be a bit of a close run thing.

off my feet

So two weeks of solid bike work and quite chuffed that I have not missed any Trainerroad sessions since the first week, which has panned out as three turbo sessions with a long road ride each Saturday morning. Last week was my longest ride in about a year, covering a shade over 60 miles going out to Windsor and then finishing off with a little lap around home. Yesterday I was joined by Simon again and I found it pretty hard going as it was my fifth ride in five days, with the proceeding two being quite long sweetspot turbo sessions which left me feeling pretty battered. I have one more big bike week this week which I am hoping to finish off with a long tt ride on Saturday.

Running has been a bit of a false dawn. I was looking forward to the Hampton Court Half this morning until my foot flared up on Friday evening. It was ok on the bike but quite painful to walk on so there was no way I was going to run 13 miles on it, so today was a rest day. Once it clears up in a couple of days I need to get back on my feet and start to integrate some weekly running properly. I also need to enter a couple of races and see where I stand.

Holibobs

Last week was a much needed family holiday to Cornwall. I was in two minds about how much training I was going to try to squeeze in and the decision was eventually made for me with my right Achilles reacting badly to a gentle run just before going.  So the plan of putting in a few runs along sun drenched Cornish beaches were scuppered as was the idea of taking my wettie and doing a few open water kilometres when the bottom literally fell out of my wetsuit. I found the most enormous tear in it and it was time to pension it off. So I had a whole week off doing nothing except a few stretches, lots of frisbee throwing and some endurance pastie eating. Pretty good.

The Achilles continues to be problematic. I had a very comfortable and gentle 30 minutes' running yesterday and felt great but it was a different story when I woke up this morning as it was stupidly tight and tender. More stretching and then a hour's ride before breakfast; it was good to be back on the bike again. I have my last 10 mile tt on Saturday and then a couple of 25 tts which I would like to round off the season with a pb if possible before I get down to some hard work over the winter. TheBournemouth  Marathon looks doubtful unless I can shake this injury off soon.

My own worst enemy

So 14 weeks of no running and within 2 weeks of gently starting to do some light running my foot flares up again, however this time it was my right foot. :-/   I can't quite believe it. I cannot remember this happening before and it has got me really flummoxed and frankly a little bit worried. What the hell is going on inside there? It is partly my fault of course. Starting to run again, as well as beginning work again after a long summer break (which meant actually having to move off of the sofa and stand up for most of the day) and breaking in a new pair of work shoes. I don't know which of those would have been the trigger, probably partly all three, but it's hardly like I threw myself into full on marathon training and the fact that such a low level of activity should cause this to happen is the thing that concerns me most.  As I type this, I am watching an Army veteran who is a double leg amputee climbing a flagpole during the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games, so I probably need to stop my whinging. It'll all be fine eventually.

Speaking of the Paralympics, we went along to the Velodrome last weekend to watch some track cycling. It was immense. The racing, crowd, noise, atmosphere and not to mention the velodrome itself was mindblowing. We were fortunate enough to see 5 World records (3 set by GB) and another 3 Paralympic records. A brilliant morning of sport; loved every minute of it. While cheering on GB riders was thrilling, I couldn't help watching the riders who had major hurdles to overcome. The German sprinter with 1 leg doing a sub-11 second lap. Pedalling a bike that fast with 1 leg? I almost dropped my egg Mcmuffin in awe.

So I have been commuting on my bike. I was meant to do a 25 tt this morning but obviously my foot was not going to allow that, but hopefully I will be back into the swing of things by Tuesday with some gentle spinning to and from work. 

Onwards.

Riding my bike; paddling my kayak

Training things have been on a slow but steady rise over the course of the summer and I am seeing some improvement which is helping my fragile confidence. I stated a few posts ago that the plan was 3-4 bikes per week, a paddle and a swim. It's no surprise that it has been on the bike that most has been gained although I was starting from a very low point. The shock of setting an all-time worst for a 10 mile tt a few months ago was the starting point. All I have done, which any coach or Internet guru will tell you is key, is to be consistent. I have not tried to smash hundreds of miles or bury myself on the turbo, but simply to ride my bike up hills and ride some bits faster than normal. Keep it simple stupid. I've raced four 10 mile tts and seen a gradual improvement in performance. In fact, a couple of weeks ago on an absolutely beautiful still evening, I set a 10 pb, without trying much. One of those, 'Where did that come from?' type of performances, and then last Saturday I was on the G10/42 course again and it was back to feeling like an asthmatic ant carrying heavy shopping.  I can see from the numbers when I come back from a ride that my average speed is slowly creeping up while my rpe slowly gets lower. Let's hope I can keep that going.

Paddling was proving difficult recently. I went through a phase of simply not being able to stay upright in the Ranger for any length of time so I took a week off. Last night, I went back and I was not expecting much but it was much better. Adam accompanied me in a laance while I took to the island cut again. The first 15 minutes were really good, but then the catches started again. I've figured out what it is though. It's simply my core working very hard and gradually I lose control of my lower back and hips. I had a solid 40 minutes last night and walked away dry so that's a big step back in the right direction. I guess I need to really build up my core if I am to see some big improvement here.

My foot issue has had some developments. Firstly, I had my physio appointment a couple of weeks ago and after much prodding and poking, in a completely non-biblical sense by the very nice physio, Alison, she told me that she didn't know what was wrong. This is actually a good thing, because she has now referred me to have an MRI scan which will be the week after next. I have not run since 26th April and I have had no pain or discomfort in my foot for weeks now, so last night, after my paddle, I decided to test it out. My reasoning is two-fold. Either, it's healed, whatever it is and I'll be able to run on it or it hasn't and it may flare up again, in which case it will show up on the MRI. That said, I was not stupid. I ran for 8 minutes on grass at a very easy pace. So far, so good. Ironically, there was an article in 220 magazine this month where a reader was asking about pain on the outside of the foot. The two main culprits listed were the two things that seem to be my potential nemesis, peroneal tendon weakness or pressure on the cuboid and fifth metatarsal. The plan is to get myself some new footwear and do some small amounts of running and see how things go. In the meantime, more biking.

Moving the goalposts again

My foot injury continues to play havoc with my training and this season is now officially a write-off. It's settled down in that I can walk comfortably but if I have to stand on it for any length of time it soon starts to nag away. I have been doing 3 commutes per week on the Van Nic with one of  them being my 22 mile route home via Boxhill to get me out on a 'proper' ride. I have to be careful though. I have found out that trying to push any form of larger gear gets my foot grumbling again. Gentle spinning is allowed but anything racey is a no-no. I'm still using RICE on it, but I honestly don't think it's doing any good at all, but at least it makes me feel like I'm doing something. I can feel my fitness ebbing away and when this foot problem is resolved it's going to be a long climb back. There's another GP's appointment in the pipeline and then hopefully some treatment.

In the meantime I've been getting to grips with the Ranger. We've kind of reached a stalemate. I'm not good enough to paddle it properly and it's not tippy enough to throw me in the water, although I've had quite a few close calls. Tonight I will be out for my 3rd paddle this week in it. On Wednesday I even went out onto the open river and before I knew it I was in the middle of the Thames. It was a stunning sunset over Teddington and I just wish I had had the stability to take a picture on my camera phone but as it was deep in my BA pocket I thought better about getting it out.

So, I've done an hour's paddling and stayed upright. Now I have got to figure out how to start paddling with greater fluency. I think it's something to do with my recovery; maybe leaving the paddle in slightly too long? I need a goal and it now seems obvious. I'm going to aim to be able to paddle to Hampton Court and back in the Ranger before the end of the summer holidays. At the moment I stand more chance of unicycling to the Sahara, but like I've said before, no one said it would be easy. The bit that worries me is around Kingston Bridge as it's not easy to get out there if you take a swim, so I'll plug up and down between the bridge and Teddington lock for a few weeks and then a bit like Buzz lightyear,  I'll head to Thames Ditton and beyond.

I miss running

I have not run a step for 7 weeks and that's really starting to get to me. I miss the routine and certainty of that most simple of forms of exercise. I miss the fact that I can squeeze a really effective session into half an hour. I miss being outside, running through puddles, running fast, running slow, running long. It just makes me all the more keen to get this foot thing sorted so I can get my trainers back on in anger. Speaking of which I had another GP appointment yesterday; more tests and prodding and hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be able to get a referral for something a bit more concrete. In the meantime, more icing, more stretching, more nurofen gel.

Adam and I were back out on the river last night. It was a slow 40 minute paddle in the llances with the river up high (turns out they are now on red again). Absolutely bombed back in a fraction of the time it took to plug away against the flow. Afterwards I had another stability session in the ranger. Only 2 capsizes this time and I had a feeling that I was a bit more stable. Hopefully I'll be back in it again later in the week . Little and often in an attempt to get comfy in it.

Taking a carb holiday

Yesterday was the day of the Edinburgh Marathon. The day when I was meant to be taking another 10 minutes or so off my marathon pb and attain a 'good for age' time for a future London Marathon. The irony of me not being up in Scotland's capital running the race of my life but instead being poked and prodded by two podiatrists while I hobbled and limped about for a couple of hours was not lost on me. It turns out that my foot problem is considerably more complex than I had thought. Weak peroneal tendon; check. High arch; check. Inflammed sheath around a nerve; check.  Leg length difference; check. Complete lack of pronation; check. Completely useless orthotics; Yep, got those too.  I genuinely though that they were going to take photos and stick my feet into a medical journal.

What can I do? Well, in the main I am already doing the right thing by the stretching regime that I have but I need to focus more on my hips to get my left leg back in line. I actually need to concentrate on walking correctly and  straighten my left foot up, which is constantly pointing outwards and do the same when stretching. Other orthotics may well help but the ones I have are actually making my gait worse. I have very bent feet (my toes point upwards making the end of my foot concave which is then putting a lot of stress on the muscles in my foot to compensate) so they made up an orthotic which props up my forefoot and allows me to pronate properly. I noticed a difference straightaway, which was encouraging. Still a very long way to go. They seemed to think that I could be running again in 6 weeks but I just do not want to risk it. I am going to stick to 12 and then see how we go from there.

The other thing I am trying to control is my eating. Last week I went a bit nuts. I came home after a hard day at work on Friday and hit the food cupboards hard and then had a full dinner. I was just eating for the sake of something to do and as the second Cadbury's mini roll went in I thought 'This has got to stop.' So it has. I've been snacking on fruit rather than rubbish and trying to limit my carbs and portion sizes. Not dieting but just being conscious of what I am eating and being sensible.

Funnily enough, despite my foot forcing me to stop training for a couple of weeks, my mojo has begun to make an appearance. I guess because I have not been able to do any proper training it's made me want it more, even though in the last 2 weeks I would have settled for being able to walk normally. There's a 50 mile tt at the end of June and a 25 a couple of weeks after which I intend to enter and use that as an immediate focus to get myself on the bike and do some racing. I am hoping that this should be foot friendly.  I pick up my boat next week and so I'll be having a play around in that and no doubt be getting very wet. There's even a nasty rumour going around that Adam and I may be entering a Hasler.

Hodge; Shouldn't have done it though. It believe it's significantly delayed the healing of my foot. When will I learn? 

A diagnosis at last?

Since the invention of the internet, being a doctor, physio or any other member of the medical profession must be very annoying. A stream of people at your door all knowing what's wrong with them because they read a wiki article or saw a youtube clip of a similar problem and therefore they know exactly what's wrong and what the suitable medication or treatment must be. Forget the 5 year's worth of training and experience; just google it and hey presto you've got the answer. I hate those people; the problem is, I am one of those people. Being a MAMIL with a body that is spending more time failing than working, recently I have spent a disproportionate amount of my time typing in search words to get to the bottom of an injury. I have usually been wrong. I think however, that after the best part of 3 years or so suffering with this foot injury on and off I genuinely think I have got to the bottom of it.

The red herring has been plantar fascitis. After I had been suffering these attacks for a few years without any particular trigger I was finally diagnosed by a GP with PF and  I had my orthotics made up. The problem was that the GP did not see the swelling that my foot had when I would get this coming on. By the time I was having my foot prodded it was back to normal and she looked at my high arches and simply assumed it was PF. So, PF it is. Orthotics made, carry on, treat the symptoms, be acreful and it'll go away. But of course, it never did.

This time it was different because when I went to see her my foot was like a balloon, badly swollen red and hot. As I stated in the last post she mentioned tendonitis, so that evening I decided to investigate this further and so the google search of 'tendonitis AND foot' was plugged into the laptop. Within 30 seconds I think I finally found the answer to my injury.

The peroneal tendon runs down the outside of the leg, underneath the ankle bone and then splits into two becoming the peroneus longus and the peroneus brevis. The peroneus brevis attaches to the outer part of the midfoot at the fifth metatarsal. This is EXACTLY where the hotspot of my pain is before the swelling starts in full earnest and when the swelling goes down. I cannot walk on the outside of my foot and pronate properly because the discomfort from there is so intense. If I move my foot to the side, which is part of the peroneal tendon's job I can feel tightness around my ankle bone which is EXACTLY along the line of the peroneal tendon.The other quite intriguing fact is that whenever I have iced my foot I have invariably rubbed the pack EXACTLY along the line of the peroneal tendons.

Here's a quote describing peroneal tendonitis;

Patients with peroneal tendonitis present with pain and, occasionally, swelling in the outside and back (posterolateral) part of the ankle (Figure 1). This tends to be a chronic condition, so there is often no precipitating event. However, sometimes patients will report an activity that aggravated their symptoms. Essentially, the tendons are repetitively overloaded and the subsequent inflammatory response (attempt at healing) creates pain and discomfort. This inflammatory response is the reason why patients with peroneal tendonitis will often have startup pain and pain first thing in the morning.

Patients with peroneal tendonitis will often walk with a limp. Looking at the outside of the ankle, there will may be some subtle (or not so subtle) swelling behind the lateral malleolus [the prominent bone on the outside of the ankle]. Pressing on this area will often create discomfort. Many patients will have a higher arch foot (subtle cavus foot) with increased ankle inversion compared to eversion.

This is EXACTLY what I have been suffering. OK, I don't have a medical degree and I am far too stupid to ever study for one but I feel 99% certain that this is the problem. There are far too many similarities, in particular the hot spot of pain where the peroneus brevis attaches for it to be anything else. That said, I'll still have the blood test for gout and wait for the x-ray results to come, but I'll be extremely surprised if either of those come back with anything.

So what now? Well, I'm going to stick with the 8 weeks off. This has been recurring very regularly and I feel there's a good chance that I have seriously knackered this tendon; the swelling has simply been too pronounced for it to be a light injury. The usual RICE protocol will be used but once the swelling has gone down I will also work on my ankle flexibility which should help alleviate some of the stress on this tendon. It looks like I might be visiting Amazon for a wobble board. I am concerned that I might have just done too much damage to ever be able to get back to running properly again; only time will tell on that one but I'm just glad that I think I've finally found the answer.

On the couch

The world's most famous sufferer of gout.

While I have the podiatrist booked in for next week I found out that the resident physio at the Royal was around last night so I took the opportunity to get another opinion. I really wanted someone to see the state of my foot while it was ballooned up in the hope that that might make a diagnosis more accurate. Que an email to Linda the physioterrorist with my various ailments post DW and an apology at the bottom, 'I'm normally fit and healthy.'  (Although I'm not sure I believe that anymore)

We started with the wrist and numb fingers. She jabbed a thumb into my forearm and within a couple of minutes the numbness started to abate. To be fair, it's been getting much better lately anyway, particualry at night when I've found it most annoying but  I had felt something in my wrist give way during the race so I knew that there must be some damage and swelling in there. It still feels a little strange if I try to use a screwdriver or open a jam jar but it is much, much better, but Linda gave me a couple of exercises to do in order to keep it going.

We then turned to my foot and the slight numbness I have in my left big toe. This toe always suffers. If my feet get cold on the bike or in the water then this toe is my little personal barometer which tells me I'm cold and will be the first and usually only thing to go numb. It seems that my sciatic nerve has pressure on it still, and is causing the toe to get pins and needles (or as little wheezy says, 'go fizzy'). Again, more dynamic and static exercises to stretch out my hams where the nerve has to thread its way through, in the hope this will release the pressure over time.

Now to the swelling on my foot. She was not happy about this at all and fairly quickly ruled out anything to do with the plantar fascia which does not usually cause swelling of this sort. And she was quite impressed (or disgusted; not sure which) about the colour of my foot compared to my other one, being a rather unhealthy red. Linda came up with 2 potential causes. Firstly, a stress fracture. In my mind this seems to make sense to me. Two days after the Tadworth 10 and really motoring downhill I get an attack; last week, two days after doing jump squats I get an attack. However there have been quite a few times when it's happened but I cannot pin down what the trigger could have been, except for the fact of course that I may have been jogging with an 18kg kayak on my shoulder and just doing a long run and one would assume that would be enough to aggravate it, although I wouldn't realise it.

The other option? Gout!! My diet isn't the best in the world but I'm hardly having a fry up for breakfast everyday. Usually the pain for gout occurs in the big toe and not where I have it  (maybe the numbness is it? Linda seems to think not) It seems unlikely that it is gout but there's no doubt I would be upset if it was, although Linda was at pains to tell me that it's not just diet related and restricted to people who drink too much and it would be a lot easier to treat than a stress fracture.

Okay, so, armed with this I went to my GP again today. Thankfully, my foot was still swollen so I was able to show my GP what state it was in. Again, she ruled out PF straight away. I mentioned gout and so she booked me in for a blood test next week to hopefully rule this out. She felt it was not a stress fracture due to the recurring nature of the pain. This kind of makes sense but maybe it's small so settles after time but can be aggravated by a larger force than usual, like running down hill for instance? She seemed to think it was some form of tendonitis that is continually being aggravated. Anyway, she packed me off to the hospital to get x-rayed.

From what I have read it seems unlikely that a stress fracture would show up on an x-ray. In fact the radiologist asked me to hang around so that they could check the x-ray as he was quite impressed with the swelling as well and I think assumed I had really broken my foot somewhere.  The fact that 2 minutes later he sent me home, rather indicates that probably, very little will come of the x-ray. Huuummpppffff. I go back in a week's time to get the results (or lack thereof)

So what should I do now? I guess, the best thing I can do is assume it's a stress fracture or tendonitis and treat for that, which basically means a complete break from running for an extended period. I think I should take a good 8 weeks off and continue to do my core and conditioning (without the jump squats of course) and do some cycling and paddling which both being low impact should not be a problem. That makes an autumn marathon very unlikely and frankly, quite risky, so it looks like a focus on half marathons towards the end of the year. Not what I'd planned, but at the moment, very little is.

A consolation is this photograph. While it was taken about 20 seconds into the DW, we are in time, our hands are high and we've got pretty good extension (rotation could be better though! ;-)  Thank's Bob!! Proof that coaching works.

Struggling again

Two sundays ago I finally got out onto my bike with Simon for the first time this year. It was not pretty but as I kept telling myself as I struggled around the Surrey hills for two hours, what could I expect? Whitedown was particularly brutal with the last kick at the top of the hill almost getting me to dismount. I have never dismounted to get up a hill and I didn't intend to start now but I did need to coast easily for the next 15 minutes and spin gently home as a result. last sunday I was out with Simon again. This time it was a little easier and longer at 3 hours with 75 kms on the clock.

In the middle of the week I had a couple of gentle runs and more importantly I started a strength and conditioning program that I am hoping will allow me to run without getting injured. How ironic then that the same programme has now left me with my left foot in tatters. The exercises and reps are designed to strengthen my hamstrings and calves as well as working on my core strength. One of the exercises was to do jump squats and I think that it may have been these that are now responsble for my foot once again being swollen. Frustrating is not the word. I am booked it to see a podiatrist next week which will hopefully start the process of getting rid of this injury once and for all, although I am certain that it's going to be a lot of work before I can run freely again. In the meantime it's RICE, stretching and nurofen.

My left foot - part 2

One K1 paddle on monday night with Adam and a run on Tuesday has been followed by four days hobbling around after stretching / tweaking / twisting my left ankle and achilles. Not during a hard training session but while sleeping in bed.  I must be one of the few people that can injure themselves while unconscious; it beggars belief.

Normal service will be resumed......

A cunning plan

This week and the next week or so has been about planning for the next nine months or so in the lead up to my chosen long course event next summer. I have even been busy colour coding the various periods within the training cycle. Heck, I might even write the odd macro or two. ;-) All this is in the pursuit of what I would define as my 'perfect' race, which I know I am a very long way from. After the Little Woody I felt tired and needed a bit of a break, but I have kept ticking over and I have really enjoyed commuting to work on my Van Nic, absolutely spanking it past the stationary queues of traffic. I have ordered some goodies from Wiggle which I am going to use to give my old Trek a bit of an overhaul in preparation for what the worst of winter will throw at it while the Van Nic gets bolted to the turbo for the winter.

I am unfortunately a bit crocked again. I tried to go for a long run last week but had to cut it short to one hour when my left achilles flared up quite badly, which obviously is hardly good news for a serious sub-3 attempt at the Luton Marathon. Disappointing, but if there's one thing I've learnt then it's worth re-adjusting goals rather than just throwing them out the window. A marathon pb is still very much possible but I am going to have to work really hard on my rehab in order to be able to run for 3 hours plus.

I've had a great weekend up in Loughborough for a 20 year Uni reunion with friends visiting old haunts and playing the odd round of golf. I had not been back in 15 years or so and it was odd seeing the places after such a long time and I felt quite old :-( Quite sad to see that my favourite pub no longer exists and is now an estate agents' office. Bah!