Sunday 1 February 2015

Sensible head

It's been a crap week weather wise with the snow on the road and pavements increased the risk on injury so I didn't venture out.  On Tuesday I enjoyed the swimming training.  It was tough with a surprise time trial thrown in but with a lot of us doing a sprint triathlon in May, we need to work on our 750m time.  Although I haven't been swimming much recently, I felt comfortable working hard and in the end we did 2.2km.  I knew I had worked hard because the next day I was tired.
Yesterday was really looking forward to 3 laps at Chatelherault (15 miles) but it didn't go to plan.  Half way round the first lap I started to feel sick.  My morning routine was normal with porridge 75 minutes before exercise so I'd have sufficient fuel.  At the end of the first lap we had a break as some needed to "lose some weight" but when we started the second lap I knew I was in trouble.  The pace was fine but I felt empty.  My left calf wasn't happy but I've never turned back on this run before.  I thought through the situation.  What would I lose if I stopped against what would I gain.  I stopped having completed 1.25 laps and walked back.  I spent the afternoon on the couch and must have fallen asleep for an hour so obviously something wasn't right.
This morning I repeated my routine and ran  2 laps at an easy pace with my pal who had done 4 laps the day before so he was looking for a relaxed pace.  My calf was tightening up on the 2nd lap but I felt great.  I'm trying to see the physio this week as I want the calf checked but I think I made the right decision yesterday and today so that I can get back to some serious training in the next few weeks.
I recon my training is a month behind but there is nothing I can do about that.  Worrying about it certainly won't help.  So I'll build up the miles slowly and get some more time on my bike as come May I have a sprint triathlon and a half ironman.  Winter is a difficult time for all athletes and there are lots of niggling injuries affecting everyone but the key is making sure they get sorted so we can all achieve our goals.  Train hard and train safe my friends.