Braunton! - Injury?

Ok, lets go back a week to my last blog post

So it's only natural that after talking (bragging) with people on Twitter about how I never get injured or ill then something was bound to happen. I'm just thankful that it wasn't an injury!!

Yup, guess what? I've picked up what seems to be more than just my normal niggle. I hate to say the 'I' word, but it looks like an injury is upon me - and really I can only blame myself.

On Monday night our small group of lunatics hit the track for a SESSION! which on the face of it didn't look too hard. Tuesday morning however I woke up feeling as though Shelly had been punching my in my lower back all night AND I'd swopped hamstrings with someone half my size. The problem didn't seem to be too much of an issue, my back is a well known weak point and I just put it all down to after workout tightness. The main annoyance was that my job involving sitting on my arse for hours on and and then throwing heavy stuff around seemed to be the worst thing possible and every day I came home feeling worse than when I'd left.

I had my planned Tuesday rest day, then had a bonus day off on Wednesday as I was off work on Thursday and had the whole day to train.

Thursday wasn't so good when I awoke and felt like a slab of concrete. I ended up spending most of the day sat on the sofa watching TV or on the computer annoying people on Twitter. Thanks to Twitter however I did haul myself off to the pool where I needed to get in my #sillyswimcomp and #winterswim efforts in. I was concerned my back would ruin my swim, that it would wreck any attempts to turn, but after warming up it was fine and although the 'ache' never left it also never got any worse.

Bouyed by my Thursday swim I attempted a run with the pup after work on Friday. As with my swim it really wasn't too bad although it was obvious from the start that there was no way I could run 'fast' 7 miles was dispatched comfortably enough. Bonus!!! My Friday night swim was also very successful, not without it's aches and pains, but I actually swam pretty damn well.
Saturday I met up with my clubmate pal Dave for a 40mile bike ride. Other than my back making it awkward for me to get on or off my bike it all went great. I didn't even get my normal freezing fingers due to the discovery that a pair of latex gloves under my normal bike gloves work wonders!

Then came Race Day and BRAUNTON 10!!! I have a nasty tradition of running two laps here as training for THE GRIZZLY but I knew in advance that was never on so I popped down to the pool for the early morning Tri Club Session. I struggled a little in the pool and then ran the mile from home to the race start still undecided about actually racing. Needless to say I raced and the tale of it IS HERE so I won't bore you with it now, the upshot is that my shrunken hamstrings lasted 9 miles before they threw their toys out of the pram in disgust with me.

So now my words have come back to haunt me TWICE, last week with illness and this week with injury! It could be worse though, a lot worse. Although I haven't been able to see anyone yet I'm fairly confident it's not anything too major. Nothing snapped and my legs/back still appear to have a full range of motion, I just have to be very careful achieving that range. I'm fully expecting to end up missing out on running for a couple of weeks (Rosie won't be happy). I'll be rigging the turbo trainer up tomorrow in a hope that my body will allow me to ride the bike instead.

Heck, it's January, I don't need them until November!! Plenty of time yet :-D

Lurgie-Ville

So it's only natural that after talking (bragging) with people on Twitter about how I never get injured or ill then something was bound to happen. I'm just thankful that it wasn't an injury!!

After writting my blog last week and sorting all manner of other training logs etc I felt as though I was ready to settle down to some half decent training. That afternoon I took the pup out for our regular 7 mile jaunt and I was simply awful!!! My legs didn't seem to have any energy at all and I had to take two walk breaks just to get myself round. Initially I just put it down to the crap factor I was feeling after a hard return week to work after the holidays, but when I got up for work on Saturday morning (1am) it was clear that the bad run was just the early signs of something more sinister.

For the rest of the weekend I was a total mess as I coughed, sneezed and sniffed my way around everything. Thoughts went through my head about going out to bury myself for 10miles on a kill or cure training session, it's something I've done before with relative success (although I've wiped myself out a few times too).

Strangly though after mentioning the dreaded lurgie on the social phenomenons that are Daily Mile and Twitter people started pointing out to me that I hadn't really had any time off since Kona, it may actually be the ideal time to take a little break. So that's exactly what I (thought I) did!

My other saving grace when it comes to illness is that I never 'seem' to be ill for long and while I know people who've been sick since before Christmas I was fairly confident this thing would blow over pretty sharpish and it seemed I was right when by Wednesday I was back to normal, I was quite enjoying the lazy lifestyle though so I decided I'd give myself the full week off afterall.

Friday came along and I was enjoying the new 'couch potato' lifestyle and I really didn't want to get back into training mode. That's really annoying when you've seen so many people who have to take time off and they're buzzing when they come back, they can't get out of the door quick enough.

I finally got my butt into gear and headed out with the pup expecting to fly down the road with these fresh legs that have been sitting recovering all week......... Ah, it doesn't really happen like that!! I suffered! I started steady and just couldn't have got any quicker if I'd have wanted to, it must just be first day back syndrome (I hoped).

Then I went swimming and made the big discovery, MY DAMN LURGIE HADN'T GONE!!! It must have just been hibernating because by the end of the session I was coughing so much I thought I was going to leave my lungs in the pool.

So what now? More time off? Not a chance, I'm back with this thing now until it's gone. It's had a chance, now we kill this thing my way!!! Next weekend is Braunton 10, if it's not all cleared up by then it can look out.

Hello. Remember Me?

Heck, what's happened to this blog? Where's it gone?
I've never been the most prolific blogger, there just isn't enough going on in my sheltered little life to post every day as some do. That and the fact that my sheltered home/work life isn't something I'm overly comfortable talking about limits my options slightly. Even so, a gap of close to two months is a big gap in anybodies book. Especially when that gap has included a couple of races, Christmas, my Birthday and even the UK's snow standstill. I'm sure I could have found things in amongst that little lot to splurge on about.
So, it's a new year and hopefully a new(ish) start to my training, racing and blogging personna - or (more likely) it'll just be the same old me spouting the same old crap!!!
So, a quick update! Where do I start?
Cornish Marathon (the last video post) - Was good fun, I started like an idiot and blew to pieces. Nothing new there then!
NDTC Kristmas Kaper - I didn't race this year, just did the race starting on poolside then set off shopping to but goodies for the ill-fated chunder mile which didn't even start! Mince pie anyone? I did take an 'interesting' little video clip from poolside (below) and you can find pics/results from the race HERE.

My Birthday was just my birthday. I worked as normal which left very little time, but the pressies and cards were great (even at my age) and Shelly even got my tickets to go see the Villa v Tottenham game on Boxing Day. It was a great day out and took me right back to my old Season Ticket days, even if the result wasn't as I'd hoped in this dreadful season that Villa are having :-(

Next up came the Christmas holiday (with that footy game). More pressies, more cards, more time getting fed and watered by the family. Nice!!! We also managed to sneak in the Wheaton Aston 10k while we were up there. Wheaton Aston is flat and fast, it's the course where I set my second fastest ever 10k time. Not this year though!!! As normal I started like an idiot and just hung on for as long as I could, finally finishing 16th in 37:13. It's a good 2m30s off my best, but that was 10 years ago when I was lean and mean so I won't complain about it. New Years Eve was quiet, I don't think either of us have any great passion for the event. We stayed in, drinking wine and watching TV then flicked over in time to watch the (quite immense) London Fireworks - that'll be where the 2.5% VAT rise goes then!!! Then we went and crashed out ready for the Tri Club NYD meet up at Woolacombe where we go for an off road scenic run, a group (15+) of hardy souls (not me) run into the sea for a bracing dip and then we stuff our faces with bacon sandwiches at training buddy Tim's beachside apartment. Good fun all round.
So what's left? I'm not really sure although I'm sure I'll think of loads as soon as I've pressed "Publish". I've got a few of races lined up for the months ahead (Braunton 10, Taunton Aquathlon, Grizzly) and I've entered Taunton Sprint Tri for the first time in 5 years, it'll be fun to see how my time compares to the past - hopefully it's better!!
So that's it I think. As always there's nothing too exciting, no massive multi-million pound bike/shoe sponsors to report, no training with the Ironman stars of the world. Just me, Shelly and the mutt, muddling along as normal ;-)

I'll try not to leave it so long next time!!