Tibialis Posterior Syndrome (The latest injury)

Am I the most unlucky athlete around? Life just seems to be injury or illness and I'm getting fed up of it. The latest suspected diagnosis is Tibialis Posterior Syndrome. The details of the injury can be found at http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/front/ankle/tibialisposterior.htm I am lucky to be on the East Riding Talented Athlete Scheme and as a result I have priority treatment available locally with the physio. I am in hospital on Thursday to confirm the doctors suspicions about whats wrong with me. I hope things start to pick up soon or it will be swim, bike and a bloody long walk in South Africa! I'm rapidly loosing my motivation to train now as it just seems to be one knock back after another. If I can be back running in the next 2 weeks I will be happy, but after already being off running for 10 days things don't look good for the Ironman.

112 Mile Turbo Workout!

Yes that's correct, you did read the title properly! On Saturday I did a 18.4 mile run at an average of 6:53 per mile. This rounded off my weeks running with a total of 52 miles. This week I am having a few days off running as I am having problems with shin splints. Now to the headline story, the monster turbo set. I never thought I would see the day that I would do an Ironman bike split on the turbo trainer. I set up the dining room as usual with the laptop in front of me, the first movie of the day was American Gangster, this was chosen for the reason that its over 2 hours long and would see the first part of the ride off. I had a pack of Jaffa cakes and a banana on stand by and a 750ml bottle of High 5 4:1 in the bottle cage. Beth took the picture early on before the sweat had started to flow! I had on my X Socks as the calf's were a little tight from the day before, but generally the legs felt ok as I had spent yesterday evening and last night in my new Skins tights for recovery. At about 2 hours 45 I stopped for a bladder emptying trip up stairs and made myself a coffee, and then it was straight back to business. I had been maintaining about 23.7 mph for the first 90 mile but then things were slowly beginning to slow down. By 105 miles I was in the low 23's / high 22's and by 109 miles in the 22 mph zone and slowing rapidly. I hit the magic 112 miles in 4 hours 48 mins and 36 seconds. I then did the last 12 mins of the hour as a warm down finishing with 115.7 miles. I would be pleased to do that on race day but I know that on the heavy road surface that South Africa course has and allowing for the wind etc that its not very likely to break the 5 hour mark and will more likely be about 5 hours 20 on a good day. Still its been a good workout and a mental boost. Turboman will be proud of me!!

Bike Position

Anthea took a couple of pictures during last nights turbo session for me. I wanted to see how my position is on the TT bike in comparison to my road bike with clip-on tri bars. It feels comfortable for 1-2 hours on the turbo but as I've said before, I've not ridden it on the road yet. I know how comfortable the TCR Advanced is and I know I can race on it and feel good for the run. I wish the weather would pick up soon so I can do some proper testing in order to make the decision which bike to use for Ironman South Africa. The course is mainly flat so common sense says the TT bike, but if the angles are to severe then it will be hard to run off the bike. What do you fellow bloggers think!!

Nice weather

OK so not quite as bad as the picture yet! Today I managed to get 83 miles under my belt on the road. I met with the Bridlington Cycling club but they had only planned a 44 mile loop. I rode with them for 23 miles on the front of the bunch all the way out with a tail wind. The weather was very windy and the odd dusting of hail stones was falling. I wanted to do more than they had planned so at 23 miles split off in a different direction. I had to change my route as the hail/sleet got heavier and I didn't want to get stuck on the Yorkshire wolds. I did a small loop and ended up on the reverse of the outward ride. I had a strong head wind back and then when I got to Bridlington I did a 17 mile loop again with lots of showers of sleet and hail, at the end of the loop I felt OK so I did the same 17 mile again. When I got back I had clocked 83 miles. I was pleased to have got a long ride in as I originally scheduled it for Saturday but I was tired from Fridays 18.7 mile run. That was a tough run on a very hilly circuit on a windy afternoon/evening and ended up finishing in the dark. I managed to get 50 mile of running in last week which is a good total and I am pleased with the way the training is going at the moment. Looking ahead the next few days will be on the turbo trainer given the amount of snow that's forecast. Feeling more confident about South Africa as the weeks tick by. Only 9 weeks today until race day!!!