Week 24 - Frustrating Times

This week has been the most frustrating, challenging and tough week since I started this journey. I have really hit a new low in terms of motivation to train, I just don't want to. While I am very grateful to still be alive having nearly killed myself, I am fed up and pissed off with my shoulder, and now shape. I am out of shape, unfit, overweight and lacking motivation. Not a good place with 6 weeks to go. I am fed up with training on the turbo and indoors; all I want to do is to be able to go for a run, plod up and down a pool or just go climbing in snowdonia on my bike. It is incredibly frustrating. With no training plan to follow, I have let my training slip, so I allow things to get in the way of training rather than making way for my training and fitting my life around it. I need to find a balance.

In terms of my injury however, things are great. I have now got full movement in my shoulder back, not bad for 3 weeks! It is still weak, and the bone hasn't quite finished healing yet, but my neck and trapeze muscle hurt more than my fracture, which I think is them getting used to the new position and being used after a while of inactivity. If you looked at me now, you wouldn't be able to tell I had a fracture in my shoulder, I can just about do everything with my shoulder/arm again, even managed to sleep on it last night. So I am very pleased with this. Also, whilst on the turbo at the weekend, I was able to support my entire body weight with my arm, so as soon as I get my helmet replaced (on my long list of things to do!) and bike back I am going back out on the road. Carefully at first to test it, then will try some proper climbing. I managed to throw my upper body round out of the saddle on the turbo with no pain, but it can never replicated real climbing so we will have to see. I may try running properly this week, and if I can I can slowly start building that up.

One of my many tasks this week (along with finding a house to live in for next week!) is to write myself a training plan. As soon as I have that, I can know what training I have, and make time for it. If time permits, I will be back in the pool next week, (the week I start work, so could be interesting) and then hopefully will be back out on the road. I have a lot of catching up to do. With 6 weeks left, and not too much fitness lost, I should be able to get myself into a reasonable shape. I need to quickly ramp up my long rides, to fit a few 180k rides in before my taper. My running I would like to be running half marathons again in a couple of weeks, depending on my foot and knees. If I can do that, I am in good stead for the marathon. The only problem is the swimming. I have lost a lot of strength in my shoulder, and probably all endurance. So I will have 5 weeks to build up and taper to a 4k race effectively. Luckily swimming only requires a small taper, so I can build right up to race week, hopefully fitting in some OW practise.

6 weeks to go, and hopefully this is my lowest point. The only way is up! And for all those wondering if I am still doing this, and why after my crash. Of course I am still doing this. I am far too stubborn to give up and not let myself do it, despite the fracture and crash. My confidence may be dented when I get back in the hills, but it will come back. And the main reason? I have dedicated the last 6 months of my life to this, there is no way I can stop. I need this, to show that the last 6 months, the changes, the sacrifices and everything have all been worth it. And most importantly, I need this for myself, to prove to myself that I can do it, and that it won't break me. This will be the hardest thing I will have ever done, but I intend to grab it by both horns and wrestle it all the way to the finish line, no matter how hard, how painful, how long, how difficult it is.

Bring it on.

Tim

Week 23 - Good signs

Looking back to where I was a week ago, both me and my doctors are a bit shocked really. To put it into context, for someone my age, I should be looking at immobilisation for 3-4 weeks, then regaining movement for a couple of weeks at around 5-6 weeks, and then another 4 weeks for full strength to return, possibly a bit less. Now whether it has been, the way the fracture was with the two ends touching, diet, all the sleep I have had, fitness, genetics, or more likely a combination of all of them, I had the first bits of movement back in just over a week. By the time I went to see the doctor after a week and a half, I had a fair amount of movement back, and he thought from my injuries that the accident was 3 weeks ago! Now at the end of the week, I have full movement backwards, well above horizontal sideways, and approaching horizontal forwards, all unaided. With a bit of force/help from my good arm I can get close to full movement back in my shoulder. Things are looking very good. By the end of this next week I should have full movement back in my arm. I am already out of my sling, and noticing things getting easier each day, such as reaching for the tap in the sink, or washing my face. Things that were impossible at the start of the week I can now do pain free. This puts my recovery well ahead of schedule, and I might actually get some training in before my Ironman! With the rate I am going, I will be back on my bike in another 2 weeks, and possibly running just before. I could be on my bike by the end of the week, but for once in my sporting career, I am going to be cautious and make sure the bone has fully healed, because if I fall on it again and it is not healed I will miss my Ironman. This week I can begin some intensive physio on my shoulder, to build up my strength again and get the rest of my flexibility back. Due to the crash, my collar bone has basically been pushed out of my shoulder in a 'V' shape, so I have lost about an inch from my collarbone, making my shoulder shorter and meaning everything has moved around. This shouldn't cause me any problems in the long run, however it means I have to get my muscles used to their new positions, and new ways of working, and effectively I have to relearn how to use my shoulder again. It is the weirdest feeling in the world trying to lift my arm. It doesn't hurt, I know how to do it, I remember how to do it, I just physically can't do it. I tell my muscles to lift my arm up, but they just don't know how. It could make swimming interesting... However, all in all, I am very pleased with the way my recovery is going.

My training on the other hand has been crap! I have only done a few session this week due to a combination of terrible rural buses and no car, glass mending men, moving house and now a lack of a turbo for the week. However, this week, with buses and lots of time, I shall be hitting the gym hard, on the bike, cross trainer, weights and flexibility stuff. I should get a good few weeks of solid training before my taper begins, and then it's the big day, only 7 weeks away! Cannot wait! With my crash, finishing my ironman is going to be even sweeter!

Train safe

Tim

Week 22 - Beginning Recovery

It has been an odd week. Admittedly the first few days were quite nice not having to train for the first time in 5 months, but then the frustration begins. By now I should have completed my first half ironman, I should be beginning the build up to my ironman and be training harder than ever, but I can't. I have given everything for this and centered my entire life around it, making sacrifices in all aspects of my life and putting everything into doing it, all to have it taken away by a small pothole and an accident. I could spend hours thinking about the what ifs, but it happened so I just need to deal with it.

But looking back now that I have recovered from the shock, I have come to realise how lucky I am. Yes it was unlucky to have had the accident, but it could have been so much worse. If I had gone over the top of my handlebars I would have broken my neck or back without a shadow of a doubt, and at that speed the odds of me surviving that would not be good. How I didn't break my hip when I landed on it, I have no idea, so I am very lucky to be alive. It certainly makes you think about things!

I went to see the doctor on thursday and asked about my Ironman, and he said that I will be fine to do it! Great news! To be honest, there was never even a consideration for not doing it, right from when I realised I had fractured my collarbone just after I crashed. Ever since I finished my exams, I have had a lot of free time, and everything is centered around healing up as quickly as possible. I am getting through disgraceful amounts of milk and sleeping around 4 times a day and it is paying off. The collar bone is now set and continuing to fuse abd make the join stronger, and I have got some movement back. If I take my sling off I can wander around the house and pretend nothing is wrong (as long as I don't move my arm!). Not bad for a week! My road rash has just about cleared up, so all is looking good. I have already done a session on the turbo, so will have only missed 6 days of training for cycling, the majority of which was probably very good for me! In terms of recovery, it will be about another 3/4 weeks til I am out on the roads, and another couple of weeks before I am able to climb and wrench it around properly. Running and swimming will both be another 4 weeks or so, swimming maybe a bit more depending on how much movement I lose, though I plan to be back in the pool sooner, doing single arm work, on my good arm. I have less than 8 weeks now til the big day.

The one other thing the doctor said is that there is no way I will be fit enough to do an ironman... nothing like a challenge. There is no way I won't finish it, even doing single arm for the entire swim. We wouldn't want to make it too easy! But in all seriousness, it will make finishing it even sweeter and satisfying, coming back from a fractured collar bone in 9 weeks.

Finally I would like to say thank you to everyone for their support, all my friends and fellow triathletes for their well wishes during my recovery.

Train safe!

Tim

Week 21 - A slight change...

I have to admit this isn't how I imagined I would be writing this week's update. As I'm sure most of you now know, I had quite a bad crash this morning out in the Peak District. Basically what happened was, out testing my new wheels, I was descending at about 73kph, 10kph more than normal, took a corner too wide, hit a pothole on the edge of the road and went down. Not entirely sure what happened, but I think the bike went out from under me, my forks took the hit snapping on both sides and my front wheel tub came off at one end and it ended up in a bush down the road, with me following it. More importantly, though I really don't want to admit it, is I took quite a hit. I've ripped the skin off my right elbow, hip, shoulder and back, left knee, taken a chunk out of my left thumb, got some bad bruising and fractured my collarbone. First and foremost, I am very lucky. I was doing 45 mph and had 2mm of lycra protection from the road which didn't stand a chance. My helmet is nearly in 2 pieces and certainly saved me from some serious head injuries. So always, ALWAYS wear a helmet, it is not worth taking the risk.

Now obviously this puts my Ironman in some serious problems. I have no idea how long my shoulder will take to heal. From the looks of the xray it is a clean break, and nothing is out of alignment. I am young and my bones heal quickly, but I will take it a day at a time. Currently I am still planning to compete but will be going for finishing rather than my sub-11 hours time. Hopefully I will be back on the turbo trainer i a week or so, as soon as I can move properly with no pain, and I have built myself a great endurance base, that should carry me to the finish with a few weeks out. Running will take longer as I can't jar it, so that and open roads will be 4-6 weeks depending on what the doctors say. Swimming will be the problem. If I have to do it all breast stroke the entire way, so be it. But it all depends on how quickly I heal. I will update you all as I know more information and get back to training.

Thank you to all of my friends and fellow triathletes who have offered their support, and train safe!!!!

Tim

Week 20 - The End Of The Build Period

Week 20 Totals:

Swim - 5.8k

Bike - 210.84k

Run - 66k

Totals at the end of the Build Period

Swim - 117.2k

Bike - 2624.79k

Run - 676.7k

Commute - 605k

Well I have to say it has been a bit of an anti-climax to reaching 2/3rds of the way there! Exams mean that this will have to be brief, and hence this being late (but training is still full on!) but all in all it has been a successful 20 weeks!

This week was a good week mainly. I missed a swim due to it being the World Paralympic Cup, so the Aquatics Centre was shut on friday, and being bank holiday, the local pool was shut on sunday when I planned to do it. However, my open water swimming is getting better, and I know what I need to work on to make myself more efficient in the water and reduce my swim time. I need to stop crossing my arms!

Cycling has been good too, with a massive increase in mileage this week, and some good riding. I am starting to feel a lot more fluid on the bike, and my climbing is steadily improving as I slog around the peak district. Running has been good too, my shins seem to be on and off, especially on at the start of the week, but I can run through it as my calfs loosen up, so I should hopefully be OK. I did a half marathon on sunday, late, after a massive BBQ, and with knackered legs. I clocked 1:50, so was slower than I wanted, but I still have 10 weeks to improve. The only bad side is that I seemed to have picked up an injury on my foot that hurts when I run. It has been agony this week (week 21 - more to follow), and all instincts point to stress fracture, but I really hope not!

As I enter the Peak phase, the training isn't really too different to what it was before. I have a week of basically the same as last week, and then taper down for my half IM. After that it is a week of recovery, and then a 4 week intensive build followed by a 3 week taper til the big day! It's going to go quickly!

Train safe

Tim

Week 19 - Getting the wetsuit out

Week 19 Totals:

Swim: 7.2k

Bike: 183.44k

Run: 62.8k

Commute: 23k

Totals So Far:

Swim: 111.4k

Bike: 241.95k

Run: 610.7k

Commute: 605k

Well, for a rest week it was fairly intense! I clocked up nearly a 17 hour training week! The start of the week seems like an age away, and it wasn't the best start to the week as it has been deadline week at uni, which means that I have been having 3-4 hours sleep a night during the week and catching up where I can! Trying to do this whilst training full time is suicide and my training really took a hit on some days, and was especially apparent over the weekend. However, all in all, it is nice to be back training properly, even if it has just rained most of the week!

After 5 months, I finally managed to try out my wetsuit and get some Open Water practice in. It was weird, and very, very cold! The wetsuit puts your body in the ideal swimming position, so you just glide through the water, and gives you a ton of buoyancy to make it easier to swim. But it can be very restrictive around the chest and shoulders, despite all the innovations they put in it. It will take some getting used to, so I will be down at Boundary Park every week practising, and trying to sort my head position out and stop crossing my arms! I am going to alter my training plan slightly so that I have 2 sessions a week in the pool doing my usual swim sets, and 1 session a week doing a long OW swim, gradually increasing the distance.

My cycling is getting better as I continue to put the mileage in, and I can tell I am becoming more fluid on the bike. My long ride on saturday was a tough one, with winds stronger than I have ever seen before and some crazy climbing! I did a lot in the Peak National Park, including the cat and fiddle, and coupled with the lack of sleep throughout the week, a run the day before that I probably pushed myself too hard on, and the fact that I didn't start eating early enough on the bike (lesson learnt!) I bonked about 80k into the ride. It is a horrible feeling just trying as hard as you can and seeing speeds that I could almost walk at. But it is supposed to be good for you in training, and I have learnt my lesson. Funnily enough, after eating lots, my run after was surprisingly good and the speed was quite high!

Overall, I am really beginning to see the benefits of my training the most in my running, as the speed work has pushed my average speed up and I get used to running for a long time. The only exception was my long run on sunday, where I was knackered from my long bike ride and then stupidly decided not to take any fluids/fuel out with me for a 90 minute run. I really felt it in the last third, so that is another lesson learnt! On the plus side, I was absolutely dead, and I still managed to clock up 17.4k, which is just short of the speed I am planning for, for my IM run so with fresh (well as fresh as they can be after 180k on the bike) legs, fluids and fuel and 11 more weeks of training, I should be fine!

This week is the final week of my build phase, before I start my 10 week peak to my Ironman. This phase includes a week peak, then a week to taper for my half IM on the 7th June, before I have a week of building/recovery then 4 solid, heavy weeks to peak then a 3 week taper to my Ironman. It will be tough. This week the hours increase (as ever!) and I bring my speed work back in to get some high intensity work back in and pick my speed up. My pool swims also increase to 3.5k, which is as long as they go, to help me get used to doing the entire 3.8k 'comfortably'. I shall continue to increase the distance I do in my wetsuit, so hopefully by the time I have done my Ironman I will be doing 4k straight swims. My cycling and running, will continue to consume my life...I should probably stock up on the food then!

Happy training

Tim

Week 18 - Wilmslow Triathlon

Week 18 Totals:

Swim: 4.8k

Bike: 150.5k

Run: 31.7l

Commute: 45k

Totals So Far:

Swim: 104.2k

Bike: 2230.51k

Run: 547.9k

Commute: 58.2

Well it is certainly nice to be back racing! It's the reason why I do this, and nothing can match the thrill of waiting to be set loose on a course, but I shall come to the race later. As a week, it certainly wasn't the best week for training. I was still mentally exhausted, and have been fighting a bit of an illness all week, which has annoyingly involved waking up a lot in the middle of the night drenched due to night sweats. Thankfully however, this seems to be clearing up. To top it all off, I someone managed to go out nearly every night this week (including the night before!) and have my shin splints return.

I started off the week with my usual 3k swim, with a 200-300-400-500 cycle as my main set, but felt terrible throughout the entire thing. My goggles (which were my new back up pair I was testing) were leaking, my arms felt dead and I never found a good rhythm. Being race week, I did no weights sessions, but it also meant I didn't do my usual long stretch after each session. Added on top of this with going out a lot, my recovery really took a hit this week. I wasn't eating properly, I was sleeping enough, and I wasn't resting enough. And it showed. I began to get really exhausted, and then on Friday, my shin splints returned because my calfs were too tired and tight. It was utter agony and left me fearing the worst for Sunday. All the sessions I had that week hadn't felt good, and the best session I had was the 2 hours I did on the bike on Sunday, having just got home from the race! However, on saturday I had a good hour of really easy riding on the bike, just going to watch the Two Cities Boat Race (which Manchester won!), barely getting my heart rate into Z1. I had a good sleep on friday night, and then despite having the end of year rowing ball on saturday night and getting into bed at about half 3, woke on Sunday morning (well got up, I was awake pretty much half an hour as always happens the night before a race) and it was time to race.

I had a quite big breakfast of white jam rolls (I never have white bread any more, but I didn't want any slow release carbs 2 hours before a race!) and packed the car. Arriving, I set up everything in transition just as I had visualised the night before. Again, my preperation was poor so I didn't have time for a warm up ride, but jog round the transition area to mentally prepare myself and see how my shins were, they seemed ok. Then it was time to go to the start. I had my SiS smart gel to give myself a bit of a boost before going into the pool. After the briefing, we were allowed a couple of lengths warm up and then it was time to go. I set off quickly, and soon caught the person who was off 10s ahead of me. Passing him I began to settle into a high rhythm and it felt good. It didn't feel fast but felt sustainable for around my 1.9k pace. I was out of the pool in roughly the middle of the pack, and I nearly did a double take seeing 6:25 on my watch! I certainly wasn't expecting that! I ran into transition, and after fumbling about with my race belt, was soon out, and pleased with a quick transition after lots of practising leading up to it. On to the bike, I sat behind a few people while I got my feet in my shoes, had a quick drink, and then began to put the hammer down. Looking at my bike computer, I soon noticed my cadence wasn't working, great! I must have knocked it when I was cleaning it the night before, more bad preperation! However, I had speed and distance, and within the first couple of k I had caught everyone in my wave and was holding about 38kph for the flats. I had a guy overtake me on a downhill, but I soon caught him on the flat, and then as we hit the first short climb I dropped him and never saw him again. So, with the previous pack 10 minutes ahead, it looked like it was to be a lonely bike ride. I just concentrated on keeping a good rhythm and kept checking round to keep pushing myself to make sure no one caught me. My heart rate was staying high, and with no cadence I only had speed to gearing to see how I was doing. I had to rely on feel and it was probably good training. Despite my HR being high, I knew I could keep at it, so I pushed a big gear and continued to fly down the course. I average 35kph for the entire ride, including the long transition runs so am very happy with that! I was first off the bike in my wave, and had another quick transition to lead out of T2, when I finally saw the others start to come in. However, it was the run that I was let down on. I managed to settle into a good pace, but couldn't push it as I could feel my shins start to tighten up, and I was just hoping that I could finish without them crippling me. Within about 2k I had been caught and now it was just a case of hanging on to whatever time I had built upto on the bike. My run pace was good, but more what I will be running for my IM, rather than 7k. After about 20 mins my shins started to loosen up, so I began to pick up the pace a bit, until I knew I was near the finish where I gave it everything. Unfortunately, due to more bad preperation, I thought the finish was about 500m later than I thought, so didn't get to push it as hard as I could, but my run time was 27:15 for the 6.7k including T2 so not too unhappy! I finished in a total time of 1:16:02, which put me 4th in my age group and 27th overall with the 18th fastest bike split! Makes me wonder how quick I could have gone if my Zipps had arrived on time! All in all, I was very pleased with the result. With the nice wheels and better shins, I might have been able to take a few minutes off, and only 3 and a half minutes would have put me in the top 10, but it was a good practice race. Now I have a week off all aerobic work to recover from the race, (which is good because even with my post race massage, my legs were dead on the climbs on my evening ride!) and then a 2 week build up to my half Ironman before I taper down in week 21 for that! Bring it on!

Happy training

Tim