Injury update

Well firstly my achilles tendon is feeling better today. I was petrified it would be a long time until I could recommence weight bearing training. Not that I mind swimming but it is my strongest element and thus I think it requires less work.

I was speaking to some people who do more exercise than me and they advised the pain could have been caused by overstretching my achilles tendon through running in the wrong way.

Apparently heel striking is better for running than forefoot striking which is how I run currently. Now for thirty years forefoot striking hasn't caused me any injury but I normally run on grass as I come from a team sport background. Whereas now I am road running.

I can understand the mechanics of how forefoot striking could be bad when running as the achilles tendon is constantly in strain whereas with heel striking the tendon goes from no strain on landing to straining on pushing off.

I had decided to try and transition to heel striking but came across this interesting article on the New York Times website and now to be honest I'm in a quandary.

Do I transition to something which I have never done in my thirty (well to be honest nearer twenty) years of running with an aim to not causing my achilles to flare up again or do I stick with what I know and just try to stretch more before exercise?

Honestly who knew that my decision to do a triathlon could cause such a headache? I thought it was only swimming, riding a bike and running. How little I knew, I now have to consider how I run and I haven't even started training for the other elements.

I decided to do some bike research yesterday and know I need to raise £650 for a decent road bike. I then have to decide whether to risk SPD pedals or just go for toe clips. Toe clips will allow me a quicker second transition but will the SPD's be more efficient for the bike element? More decisions to be made in the future.

I still haven't approached anybody about helping with purchasing equipment, need to give myself a kick up the ar*e there.

This triathlon lark is harder than I first comprehended.

Right off for my first swim, I'll let you all know how I get on tomorrow at some point.

Michael