Thanks for the help...

Just a quick post to say thanks to Matt Hart and James Emery @ Torq for welcoming me to Team Torq and for agreeing to help me out for the upcoming season.

I have used Torq products for a number of years now, especially their Raw range and remain a firm believer that they are superior when it comes to nutrition and supplements.

If you don't already know, Torq products have no additives, preservatives or colourings meaning the ingredients they use are all natural. If you haven't checked out their website, I highly recommend it to you.

An interesting series of events...

Woo... More time has passed, too much for my liking... Some things are going well, some things are not... Let me start with the good stuff...

Swimming wise, I am happy with the progress I have been making as of late. It's definitely a bit of a weird one though, sometimes you make progress, sometimes you go backwards... I always use my swimming to monitor my physical state too, a couple of weeks ago I was feeling a bit low and this was confirmed when I was about 7 seconds per 100m off what I would normally hit in the pool. Rest was definitely overdue...

Unfortunately this came in the form of some debilitating back pain, not fun... I had a couple of faster run sessions with some intervals which tightened my gluts and hamstrings a bit... After a VO2 interval session, I was sitting a little awkwardly and this caused my SI joint to misalign and the next morning I could barely get out of bed... Not much to do but chill out, relax and catch up on some overdue admin...

After about 3 days, things had eased to the point I could start to do some easy running again... Unfortunately, with the lack of activity my legs and back had seized so much that I couldn't run for more than 20 minutes without being in pain... As such, I went back to the masseur who battered my shins subjecting me to agony for the next hour...

It has been almost a week since seeing the masseur and I have managed a couple of 40 minute runs at a pretty decent pace... The shins are holding up but I need a lot more treatment to get to where they need to be... I have managed to swim 6 hours over the last 3 and feel pretty good in the water... I will try a bit of cycling tomorrow after another swim and some cross training, maybe another run too...

My racing season is fast approaching and it's time to start performing not only for myself but also for my sponsors who share belief in my ability...

Long time...

Apologies for being slack... As I always say, time slips by and it has definitely been far too long since my last update...

So, what have I been up to? The same old stuff really, battling against the abysmal Winter we were subjected to and trying to keep those niggles from developing into anything more sinister...

The biggest news is a new sponsor in the form of Torq Nutrition (seriously good stuff) and that I am now working with a new coach, Dan Salcedo... You should check out his biography at TheTriLife... suffice to say, he knows his stuff and I am really happy to be working with him =)

Ok, back to the boring stuff...Due to the conditions and my dislike of being absolutely numb on the bike, I spent my of my Winter on the Turbo.. Woo =? It really isn't possible to keep the hours up to the same level as riding outside so my sessions consisted of lots of intervals an power work... No easy turbo sessions anymore unless it is in a double turbo day... Now I have made it back outside I have been feeling it a little on the longer rides, although I know this will only be for the next couple of weeks and then my riding will be sweet... Just need to start TT'ing and Crit racing again, but definitely not at Crystal Palace...

My Swimming is still making the necessary progress, trying to keep the weekly distance at about 23-25k with a couple of hard sessions in there to build the strength... I am not really stressing too much over my swimming as I know I have a couple of months to get that 1500m time down... I recently swam a 1500 at the Middlesex champs but it was on the back of a tough week... I ended up hitting 18:05, about 40 seconds off where I want to be... After speaking to Dan he did say not to worry as he would be more surprised if I was swimming well, sometimes you really need another person's view and this meant I could just shrug this swim off... This was almost a month ago but I am still hitting decent times in training, I managed to swim a 4.38 400m on Friday morning without even finding it much of an effort, yay =)

And finally, the running... Well, this has been a difficult one for me... I manage to get a few good weeks in my legs and then everything just seizes leaving my feeling pretty damn low... Having evaluated why this keeps happening it pretty much falls down to a lack of maintenance, massage really does stop me falling apart...

I have been hitting the cross trainer at the gym to get some interval work in and I really can't stress enough how effective it is... When I make it out running I feel solid and have a nice little kick of speed so I am not stressing too much... My aim over the next couple of weeks is to get a shed load of treatment and then to keep on top of it, just ashame massage is so damn expensive in town...

I did make it to race the Southern XC Championships this year though, yay... I was happy with my performance but had a little too much left in the tank... It was 15k of pure effort around Hampstead Heath, but I managed to make it through in under an hour finishing 138th overall... If only I could have found another minute I would have been in the top 100, definitely top 50 next year though =)

Right, time to eat lots and go swimming... 3 hours done, 2 to go... Here's hoping my new breadmaker delivered another awesome loaf... Yum...

Chris =)