So, it has been a little while since the previous post. Yet again time seems to have slipped me by. Quite a bit has happened since my last post, although none of it particularly beneficial to my progress.
A few weeks after my last post I went to Athlone, Ireland to compete in a European Cup race. My training had been a little sporadic coming into this race resulting from pool closures and some niggles on my left shin, but I thought I may be able to make it through and pick up some much needed points. Unfortunately, this was not the case.
I had a bit of a poor swim and ended up towards the back of the field coming around the final turn buoy. I knew there were a few people around so I was not too worried as it was feasible to catch up on the bike. Swimming upstream the current was strong and caused the other athletes to push me under the turn buoy. I ended up getting my left arm and knee stuck in the buoy rope and this cost me around 8 seconds, this ended up being the difference between making a bike pack which subsequently caught the lead pack. Our pack worked poorly and we lost more time to the leaders. End of race.
I returned home a few days later a little down due to my poor performance. It was only 2 weeks until the London Triathlon at the Excel Centre so I resumed my training with the hope of getting 6-8 days of good work completed. I pushed hard in all three disciplines until the Wednesday preceding the race and started my taper from there. I felt really tired and miserable from the Wednesday though which is not like me and knew I was unlikely to race well. Race day came and I still felt tired and had the shakes just before the swim start, crap.
The hooter sounded and I just tried to stay in contention with the front guys for as long as possible. This ended up being until the turn buoy and I just slipped further and further back. I hit T1 and just resigned myself to getting into a bike pack and working again. This plan came together after about 10k and we had a pack of about 10 athletes andI decided not to bother trying to pull through as my legs felt bad enough. Coming into T2 no ground had been made on the front packs so I just put my head down and ran. I came across the line several minutes down on the winners and posted a pretty terrible run split, considering the course was well short. Sad face.
I then took a week off and decided to resume training once I felt happy to do so. I had a solid Monday training for just over 6 hours and decided to crit race on Tuesday. I did my hour run in the morning feeling pretty good and rode to the race that evening. My legs felt good despite pulling some early turns and quickly the last lap came around. As we came up the final hill an idiot decided to sprint up the grass on the outside of me and then pull straight across my line, nice one. The resulting crash left me on the floor with a rather sore elbow.
I got up and shouted at him muttering a few profanities and after calming down assessed the damage. A cut to each knee, a deep cut to my left elbow and a right elbow I could barely move, but at least my new shoes and bike were ok, haha. I knew my elbow was possibly broken and with the help of my friends caught a cab home so I could go to hospital. After an X-ray I was booked into the fracture clinic the following day for an expert's opinion, "all clear" thankfully.
What I didn't realise was my left knee took a whack, either on my bars or stem and swelled to twice it's original size, so much so I couldn't even see my kneecap. I knew there wasn't any ligament damage and it was just a haematoma (bruise with pronounced swelling), but this has ended up being more problematic than the elbow. After 2 weeks it has almost settled down so I will try to run tomorrow for 20 minutes, fingers crossed.
Fundamentally that is the end of my racing season, back into winter training I go. I have to prioritise my swimming and running to get them to an appropriate level for the next season. After my 2 weeks off I am really looking forward to training again, it is indeed true that absence makes the heart grow fonder. I just have to make it through tomorrow and things will continue to improve from there.
A few weeks after my last post I went to Athlone, Ireland to compete in a European Cup race. My training had been a little sporadic coming into this race resulting from pool closures and some niggles on my left shin, but I thought I may be able to make it through and pick up some much needed points. Unfortunately, this was not the case.
I had a bit of a poor swim and ended up towards the back of the field coming around the final turn buoy. I knew there were a few people around so I was not too worried as it was feasible to catch up on the bike. Swimming upstream the current was strong and caused the other athletes to push me under the turn buoy. I ended up getting my left arm and knee stuck in the buoy rope and this cost me around 8 seconds, this ended up being the difference between making a bike pack which subsequently caught the lead pack. Our pack worked poorly and we lost more time to the leaders. End of race.
I returned home a few days later a little down due to my poor performance. It was only 2 weeks until the London Triathlon at the Excel Centre so I resumed my training with the hope of getting 6-8 days of good work completed. I pushed hard in all three disciplines until the Wednesday preceding the race and started my taper from there. I felt really tired and miserable from the Wednesday though which is not like me and knew I was unlikely to race well. Race day came and I still felt tired and had the shakes just before the swim start, crap.
The hooter sounded and I just tried to stay in contention with the front guys for as long as possible. This ended up being until the turn buoy and I just slipped further and further back. I hit T1 and just resigned myself to getting into a bike pack and working again. This plan came together after about 10k and we had a pack of about 10 athletes andI decided not to bother trying to pull through as my legs felt bad enough. Coming into T2 no ground had been made on the front packs so I just put my head down and ran. I came across the line several minutes down on the winners and posted a pretty terrible run split, considering the course was well short. Sad face.
I then took a week off and decided to resume training once I felt happy to do so. I had a solid Monday training for just over 6 hours and decided to crit race on Tuesday. I did my hour run in the morning feeling pretty good and rode to the race that evening. My legs felt good despite pulling some early turns and quickly the last lap came around. As we came up the final hill an idiot decided to sprint up the grass on the outside of me and then pull straight across my line, nice one. The resulting crash left me on the floor with a rather sore elbow.
I got up and shouted at him muttering a few profanities and after calming down assessed the damage. A cut to each knee, a deep cut to my left elbow and a right elbow I could barely move, but at least my new shoes and bike were ok, haha. I knew my elbow was possibly broken and with the help of my friends caught a cab home so I could go to hospital. After an X-ray I was booked into the fracture clinic the following day for an expert's opinion, "all clear" thankfully.
What I didn't realise was my left knee took a whack, either on my bars or stem and swelled to twice it's original size, so much so I couldn't even see my kneecap. I knew there wasn't any ligament damage and it was just a haematoma (bruise with pronounced swelling), but this has ended up being more problematic than the elbow. After 2 weeks it has almost settled down so I will try to run tomorrow for 20 minutes, fingers crossed.
Fundamentally that is the end of my racing season, back into winter training I go. I have to prioritise my swimming and running to get them to an appropriate level for the next season. After my 2 weeks off I am really looking forward to training again, it is indeed true that absence makes the heart grow fonder. I just have to make it through tomorrow and things will continue to improve from there.
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