Miles in the bag

Hi all,

Chuffed to bit..........Over a Thousand people have now viewed my blog! Thanks all.

Its been over a week since my last update and much water, or should I say miles, have passed under the bridge. 103miles of swimming, cycling and running last week and totals for this week already total over 60.

My new bike arrived and I must say that I am very pleased with it. I am now the lucky owner of a CUBE Aerium Pro and its definitely quicker than my Boardman Team Carbon but suspect most of this is down to the tyres and wheels. Proof of this will be when I next do the club standard route and compare times with previous ones.

It comes with mostly Ultegra shifters, these have taken a bit to get use too and if I am honest I prefer the Rivals that are fitted on the Boardman. I also have some doubts about the Sella Italia perch that came with the CUBE, its very hard but as I have not done any serious mileage yet (Only been 30mile on it) I will keep an open mind.

I am now using the Boardman as my commuter. In a straight line its 6.4mile to work but I have made a vow never to cycle the same way twice in one week and if this weather had been a little better I am sure I would have many more miles under my belt. So far this week I have not had a single ride to work or run in dry conditions, this and the conditions on some of Wiltshire's country lanes and its slowly turning me into a better cyclist.

Getting my toes wet again has been fun, although I have not ventured into open water yet the pool swims I have had have been great........great to get back in that is! The first two dips were used to get the swim muscles acquainted to it again and I now appear to be where I was last September.

Onwards and upwards, in a months time I will be 40 and this cookie has no intentions of going quietly!!

Great expectations

What a difference a week can make.........
I had previously drafted an update that dwelt on my poor diet and how depressed I had been with recent performances when training (even though I had only just tentatively started back). Only four days after the initial draft and my morose thoughts have lifted, causing me to delete in total my previous depressive ramblings and place more positive words in there place.

Have started to ride too and from work, its only a 14 mile round trip but with the longer lighter days I am hoping to take detours and extend this figure. I have had a couple of soakings already but as another Celtic Tri member mentioned last week, I cant predict what the weather will be like on the fateful day so I might as well train in all weathers to ensure that all bases are covered.

Last ride out was with two club members, Anthony and Hayley, after only 9 miles I felt totally smashed! Its really evident that I need to work on my power to weight ratio as every incline I had to work really hard in order to keep up with them. Subsequenly I decided not to climb over the major hill on the planned route and opted to do an undulating 30 mile TT. Not pleased with my lack of 'oomph' but pleased with the 17.9mph average speed.

My running is slowly getting there, been struggling to do 3 mile but my last run the day before yesterday was quite comfortable(ish). Going to do this run twice more and then start, if I am ready, to add distance on. Plan is to run at least 4 times a week, three short efforts followed by one long one.

At long last my wound is now healed enough to go swimming, even surprised myself by giving it an extra couple of days to ensure it was OK. It felt so good to be back in the pool this morning for my return swim, it was only 1400meters (Zoggs Predator goggles are the biz! Will review them properly after a couple more swims) and wanted to go further but as I plan do to quite a bit of swimming this week, did not want to trash  muscles that had not been used for a while.

So this is it, four weeks more recuperation than I thought but I am now able to do everything I had been doing prior to the operation, just not as quick or as long. Challenge is now not to go out there and do too much too soon while managing my personal expectations and continuing to push myself.

Getting back on track

Question, how can you go from running 6mile in under an hour to struggling to complete 3? Answer is, you have an operation and be 'immobilised' for 5, very frustrating weeks. Getting back into the swing has not been as bad as I though it would however and I know its a marathon and not a sprint. Pretty sure in fact that within a month I will be back to running 6mile easy.

One positive is that my cycling does not appear to have taken too much of a backward step, I can happily cover 30mile without pain or feeling as if I want to be sick. The latter is more down to me taking it easy and slowly building things back up, getting my 'sit bones' used to a race saddle again and not wanting to do something silly and risk the chance of more time off training. 

My previously reported open wound is now almost healed; hoping that it will be good enough for me to start swimming again by the weekend and am flirting with the idea of my come back swim being an open water one this Friday, I will not risk infection though if my wound is not healed fully.

Letters have been sent to prospective sponsors, will do my best to reward them with as much publicity as possible if positive results are achieved.

Thanks to those that read my blog and provide feedback in order for me to improve it.

Until next time............