Surviving the festive period

This can be a dangerous time of year due to the excesses which we all undertake.  It's difficult to avoid the rich food and the copious amounts of alcohol as you catch up with friends and family and totally switch off from work.  Triathletes tend to take November and December as a wind down period having trained all year however for me I missed so much of last year with my hamstring injury that I'm certainly not "over trained".  So I am slowly building back up.
In my last blog I promised I would fit in two turbo sessions - well that almost cost me a very serious injury.  On boxing day the weather was beautiful, crisp, cold and blue skies with no wind so rather than get on my turbo trainer I decided to head out at mid-day when the chance of ice was lower and go out for my first bike ride in 6 weeks.  It was fantastic being out and the roads were ok.  However on a fast decent when I was doing 35 mph I got a speed wobble on my front wheel.  This is where the wheel starts vibrating and moving from side to side affecting the whole bike.  Your arse certainly tightens as does your whole body which makes the wobble worse as what you need to do is relax.  I got myself into the position that sorts the wobble and the bike began to behave but I felt sick so took it easy for the rest of the ride.  Coming off the bike in just lycra and a crash helmet would certainly have set my training back or even worse ended it.  Later that day a friend of mine posted the same had happened to him at the same spot so it must have been the road conditions.
I've had lots of regular running on road and off road and not only managed back to back 10 mile runs at Chatelherault but also did my first 3 laps in one go meaning the mileage is increasing.
But yesterday I remembered I had promised 2 bike sessions so I went out and set the turbo up and climbed on.  It was only a short session to spin my running legs from the day before but it made me realise I need to get mentally prepared for the turbo because it is so boring but essential training.  At least there are no speed wobbles - I'm going to have to build up my confidence after that one on my next downhill.
This afternoon I am trail running with Rosie Bell a past winner of the West Highland Way race and I intend to pick her brains in preparation for my 100 mile run along the same trail.  I need to understand the nutritional requirements because after taking food on you will be running so it needs to be simple food.  Also runners have been known to hallucinate when running over 70 miles and there is also the issue of running for at least 5 hours in the dark.  So plenty to learn and what better way to do it that while running through some beautiful countryside in the sunshine. This break has been fantastic so far and the training means the extra food & wine shouldn't have any impact on the waistline!  Hope you are all having a wonderful Xmas and thinking what you'd like to achieve in 2015.  All the best.