Has it really been a week?

Time is doing Strange Things at the moment.  I can't believe it's a week since I last posted.  There's work and training and even my watch is telling me "Take a recovery week!" now.  8 days straight of exercise with no rest days kinda just happened.  And there's sort of a reason for it.

I blame Paul.  He put the idea there.  He'll know what I mean and I'm not ready to really talk about it yet.  But I've bought and read a lot of books and there are still a few left to read in the pile.  And there's some more talking and thinking to do, but I'm pretty much decided.  Thing is, when I've decided on something it's really kinda hard to not think about it and it colours almost everything I do.  And it meant that I was distracted from scheduling training properly and I "forgot" about recovery.  It meant I got quite tired as I went from very little cardio to a buttload of it without ramping it up properly.

I'm going to re-brand my blog when the time is right.  I finally have a new name that I think will fit nicely - it's taken a while and it finally came to me this evening.  I need to find a better layout so I can categorise the various aspects of the blog a bit better than it is at the moment, so if anyone has any helpful hints on that with Blogger templates it'd be handy to have a chat.

Gym wilderness

Since I got my latest personal trainer (Geoff the Awesome), I've been in a bit of a resistence training wilderness.  When we do training sessions, he gets me doing stuff that I can sometimes do by myself, but quite often not; either because I don't have the equipment available (like the Bulgarian Bags) or because I need a spotter or more learning of the technique (like the handstands I did the other week - yes, me, handstands!  I've never done one in my life until recently.)  That, along with the need to work on my inner quads and glutes at the moment means I'm, for want of a better phrase, "making it up" somewhat in the gym.

Today's fun was:-

• 5 minutes on the x-trainer to warm up
• bulgarian split-squats: 3x10x2 (with 2x 14kg dumbbells
• kettlebell swings - 3x15 (with a 20kg kettlebell)
• standing side-crunches - 3x10x2 (with a 20kg kettlebell)
• jerks - 3x10 (with the Olympic Bar with 2x 5kg)
• standing on an upturned bosu (squishy side down) - 3x10 squats, 3x10 alternate toe-touches
• assisted pull-ups - 2x8 wide overhand, 2x8 narrow underhand, 2x8 ring-style, 2x8 dips (no rest between grip changes, 35kg assist)
• swiss-ball bridges and hamstring curls - 3x15 curls with 30s hold at the start of each set
• plyometric cleans - 20 with a bare Olympic Bar
• cool-down and stretch

Now, I have no idea if that's well-balanced enough or not.  What do people think?

Also, today I commuted to work on my fixed-up commuter bike for the first time since I got knocked off.  Tell you what, I've improved in power/cadence/other technical stuff while I've been away from bicycle commuting.

Race reports

I've taken part in 5 races this year so far; 2x Parkruns, 1x Clapham Common 10K, and 2x Thames Turbo Sprint Triathlons.  And I've not really done proper race reports on any of them.

To be honest, I won't bother with any Parkrun race reports unless there's something unusal or exceptional about one in particular.  Same goes for the Clapham 10Ks.  I kinda wanted to do race reports for the triathlons, but having had two DNFs so far, out of two races, I've not really felt the love for writing about it.  However, they both saw PBs in the swim (plus T1) and bike legs.  So it's a bit rubbish to let them pass without mention.

TTT race #1 this year; I knocked 16s off swim plus T1 and with my lovely new bike I knocked off 48s on the bike leg despite having done no swimming for months or cycling for weeks.  Race #2 was -windy- but with the absolute times in the pool of 55s faster than race 1 and 37s faster on the bike with my spanky new wheels and into a bit of a headwind all the way back from the far roundabout to the end of the bike stage, it's all very very encouraging for a sub 01:20 time in race #3 if I manage to complete the run.

Since I first started doing TTTs last year, I've gone up the swim ranks in my age category from 58.2% down the field to 26.2%; and in the bike from 70.9% down the field to 26.2% as well!  Overall I'm now 02:32 faster in swim plus T1 compared with the first race (23.8% faster) and 07:45 faster in the bike (17.8% faster) and there's definitely more to come.  Less run data of course, due to not running in 2 of the 5 races to date, but that improved from the first race by 02:51 so far (9.1% faster).

I'm really hoping to be able to give a full-race report at the end of the month and maybe to have dropped a pound or two so I look less like a sofa in my tri suit ;o)

Small victories. Or "progress".

Since Parkrun on 2nd April, I've run twice (750m tops in each of the first two Thames Turbo Sprint Triathlons).  It didn't go very well either time with my left knee squealing in pain, so I've been working on strengthening my inner quads (Vastus Medialis Obliques) and glutes (pretty much the whole of them) with weighted walking lunges, swiss ball bridges and swiss ball hamstring curls.  I've also been on the ibuprofen and icing my knee (not religiously).

This morning, as there's no other reasonable opportunity before the next Sprint Tri (I'm doing photos for Parkrun next Saturday and some bikey stuff the following week), I ran the Wimbledon Parkrun.  And there was not a hint of a niggle of a whisper of anything from my knee.  Zip.  Zilch.  Nuffin.  Oh and I smashed my PB by 57s :oD  (and went up the WAVA Age Grading from 58.1% to 60.3% - interestingly, looking at the calculator and cross-referencing with my VO2max, I -should- be able to do a 24:08 at my current fitness level, though that's probably on tarmac/paving rather than gravel paths and woodland floor as the Parkrun is).

Icing and Ibuprofen and sitting on my ass for the rest of today and no more running until the next Sprint Tri.  Just in case.  More strength work for my inner quads and butt and I -think- it might be good.  Only time will tell.

Self-treatment

My knee is playing up.  Has been for weeks.  First time was the first Clapham 10K of the season.  It hurt for 6km of the 10km course and I ran through it.  It then felt fine and I got hit by a car on my bike resulting in both knees being pretty bruised on all sides and swollen on all sides with tangerine-sized lumps.  Shortly after that I ran a 5km Parkrun and it niggled a little but didn't particularly hurt.  So I thought it was all fine.

About 3-4 days after that, I did a training 5km run which hurt roughly 2km into it and I thought I'd just run through it like I did with the 10km race.  But it got worse.  And worse.  And then a LOT worse.  I slowed right down, then I couldn't even jog slowly, then even walking was excruciating to the point where the joint just didn't work right at all and started to buckle.  So I hopped hopped home, iced it and heated it and ate Ibuprofen like Smarties.  Next day, I could barely walk but I -had- to be at work, so I went in and tried to stay off it as much as possible.  Over the next few days it felt better and quickly was back to feeling normal.  So I thought I was going to be fine for the first Thames Turbo Sprint Triathlon.  I always had in the back of my head that if it started to hurt, I'd pull up in the run.

Lo and behold, I put in a reasonable swim (a PB), then a good bike (another PB) and kicked off into the run.  My knee felt OK for the first 500m or so, then went downhill and I pulled up around the 1km marker and threw in the towel.  I stayed off it for a whole week in the vain hope that it'd be fine for the next Thames Turbo Sprint Triathlon on the following Monday - 7 days after the first one.

I put in an even better swim (a new PB) and a monster (for me) cycle in gusting headwinds (another new PB), and I started the run feeling good.  Willing my knee to feel fine, it did for the first 750m or so and then headed South again.  Pulling up again, DNFing again, I was pretty sure it's a case of one quad being stronger than the other.  I decided I'm going to self-treat and do it properly this time.

My thinking... if I go to the doctor for a referral to a physio, the likely diagnoses are either runner's knee (which I can treat with ice, heat, ibuprofen and rest firstly and then work on strengthening my inner quad to realign the patella) or something worse which will take longer to fix.  So, by taking the next 4 weeks to self-treat and rehabilitate as if for runner's knee I'm really not losing out.  If it gives up in the next race after 4 weeks of Doing It My Way, I'll then go to the doctor for a referral.  I'm damned if I'm going to DNF every bloody triathlon this year and not run more than 1km without my knee telling me where to get off.