Reason for no blogging

Sorry for not blogging in over a week. It's been hectic at work and I haven't had any time to do any training until this weekend. The reason is I've transferred to a new site in central London. I went with good intentions and managed to find a hotel with a pool but leaving at 06:30 and not getting in until 19:30 made me too tired to contemplate swimming given I was really hungry when I got back.

I did a little training in walking about 4 miles on Wednesday (to and from the tubes on the way to work)

This week I'm back in my old hotel so will be aiming to do some swimming.

Still can't run though. HARUMPH!

Someone who I have grown to know during the last two years, the Great Britain C2 athlete Etienne Stott has recommended a book to me which I am thinking of downloading for my Kindle. The book in question is The Chimp Paradox: The Mind Management Programme to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness by Dr Steven Peters. Etienne recommended this book as we were talking about the Olympic selections and I thought it would be a big deal and was therefore scared by proxy as I want them (him and Tim Baillie) to qualify for the Games as I know them. I think this book will help me in my dream of completing the triathlon in September.


Went to pick up my bike yesterday and what can I say I bloody LOVE it. See picture below.

The new bike.

It weighs in at a paltry 10.6kg which I am amazed by. Had a few teething problems with my gearing but I have managed to fix this. Also built my turbo trainer and it is deployed in the back bedroom. The wife says it sound like an airplane is taking off when I'm on it.


Did some light training on my turbo trainer as well as two bike rides this weekend. Can't wait until next weekend so I can get back out on my bike. Really enjoying it.

Definitely going to have to purchase some SPD pedals and shoes for the bike as I can't get my trainers into the pedal clips that are on the bike at present which wouldn't be good for the tri.

Think I'll stick with some pedals and shoes by Shimano as they seem to be the market leader. Going to have to do some research though as I know nothing about SPD's.

Remember you can sponsor at the following address. http://www.justgiving.com/smoker2triathlete

Thanks for reading.

Michael

Injury update part 3 and bike is bought

Went to the physio last night and all I can say is I'm not built for running.

In summary:-

1. I have tight calves
2. I'm a supinator (basically I have very high arches)
3. I have tight hamstrings

All of which culminate in me having to run on the balls of my feet (forefoot striking) and all of which have led to me developing tendonitis in my achilles tendon.

The physio then applied some ultrasound to my achilles and advised me  to rest. He also advised me of some stretches that I should do before and after running.

He told me I am running in the right way for my body (forefoot striking) but I should do the majority of my running for training off road rather than road running which I had been doing.

He also advised me to do the majority of my training on my bike or in the pool to limit my chance of developing achilles problems.

This definitely brought forward my plans for buying a bike so I wen to Don Valley cycles in Doncaster and dropped onto a real bargain. I managed to pick up a Marsini custom aluminium racing bike with a Campagnolo groupset for the price of £250.00 as the bike had been part exchanged that day. Thanks to Martin for his help. I also bought a turbo trainer (Tacx Satori) so that I can do most of my training in the hotel when I'm away during the week.

It appears that after a few weeks down time. Operation Tri is now back on track.

Thanks for reading.

Michael

Injury update part 2

Well i've officially had enough of this achilles injury so I'm off to see a physio tonight.

Who knows what he'll say but I hope its good news and not a complete disaster to my tri.

Went swimming last night although I didn't really feel like it. Only swam 500m because I had a weird pain and clicking in my shoulder. Hope it's nothing serious.

Another blogpost after I get back from the physio will follow to give you all an update.

Thanks for reading.

Please remember you can sponsor me by clicking the link. http://www.justgiving.com/smoker2triathlete after all it is for a good cause.

Michael

Early morning swim

Well due to the fact I couldn't run yesterday (stupid achilles tendon when will you get better?) I decided to go for a swim on Wednesday morning as on Tuesday evening the pool is closed. I smashed out 0.5km in 15 minutes with two sets of 150m and two sets of 100m. My endurance is coming slowly but it is getting better.

The downside to this early morning swim was that I felt light headed when I got back to the hotel. This means I have learnt another lesson, DON'T EXERCISE ON AN EMPTY STOMACH. We'll chalk that one up to experience and I'm sure it won't be the last thing I learn on my quest to complete my first triathlon.

Please feel free to make a donation at the following address. http://www.justgiving.com/smoker2triathlete

Thanks for reading.

Michael

Swimming and the like

Firstly my achilles injury has gotten no better with rest. It doesn't hurt as much but it's still not good enough to run. Pretty annoyed about it to be honest. It still feels really tight. Another couple of days rest can't do it any harm.

Went swimming for the first time on Thursday and oh did I realise how unfit I've become. I only lasted for 500m in sets of 50-100m and felt so unfit. I'm so glad I decided to give up smoking now. Who knows what I'd be like in another 10 or so years.

I didn't have the inclination to train over the weekend due to having two hangovers on top of my injury and I had to have an early Valentine's day as I'm working away this week.

So on Monday I decided to go swimming again to further rest my injury and build up some endurance (which after Thursday I realised I didn't have). This time I managed 1km in sets of 100m which is an improvement. I did this in about 30 mins but to be honest spent a lot of time resting. With more exercise will come greater endurance so I was quite pleased at the end. Tired but pleased.

The only problem with Monday swimming is that Monday's are a very long day and I was quite happy having a nap when I woke up at 20:15 which was just in time for the 20:30 start. When you've been up since 04:30 that makes it a long day, hence the nap.

Well what else have I been up to? I've ordered some new laces (how exciting) from www.speedlaces.com which should save me some time on transitions.

I've set up my Justgiving page and am still waiting for my first donation. Come on people it's for a good cause as it's Cancer Research.

Other than that there's no new update from me. More swimming planned for later in the week, I may even go for a morning swim if I can get up but I'll definitely be swimming on Thursday as I doubt whether my ankle will be good enough to run on.