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!!!

Broken spoke creates resistance training!

So another week has gone by already, still not feeling 100% but still managed to get some training done. The highlight of the week has been today clocking 85 miles on a solo bike ride. I heard an awful sounding crack at 40 miles and on looking down seen a huge amount of play in the front wheel. I knew what it was straight away. The spoke had broke at the hub and was flapping around so I tried to bend it round another spoke until I got home. This wasn't happening so I bent the spoke enough to loosen it off and unscrew it from the nipple. Success! the spoke was out but the nipple was now rattling around freely within the wheel and of course the wheel was badly buckled. I loosened the brake off as much as I could but it was still creating resistance as it rolled. I initially thought of heading straight home which would still be 30 or so miles direct but as I cycled along I realised that I would be able to continue on the planned route. I finished the ride clocking 85 miles, I felt very strong at the end and would have liked to do another 10 miles but I had ran out of time and had to get home. This has been a big boost in my confidence and feel if I carry on at this rate I will be fine to do Ironman South Africa. I have had an easier week this week due to illness but still managed a 15 mile run earlier in the week and was very pleased to clock 59 minutes for a 3.5k swim. Confidence is growing with the fitness and I just hope to remain healthy and injury free. The problem I have now is that I am on Monday - Friday days for the next 5 weeks which I haven't done for a few years now. This means a total re-think of my training. Not sure how it will work out but time will tell I guess?

Colitis - Flare up

Well my body has decided to remind me that I suffer from Colitis this week. I felt ok at the start of last week and did a 17 mile run. That evening after entering the Ironman I had a not so good feeling deep in by bowel. Its hard to describe how it feels but its very uncomfortable, and a feeling I have come to know as the start of a "flare up". I thought I would try and ride it out without the use of the extra medication and just continue with the 3 doses a day of the standard medicine. Things seemed to be settling down again but then Saturday came and I just felt totally rubbish. I have given up holding out as I don't want things to get worse and have decided to take the extra medication. Hopefully this will settle things down quite quickly as I haven't got time to waste with the impending Ironman. The next concern is the extra medication kills off my immune system so I know that a cold/flu is on the way. Not ideal really but hopefully with it being now I will have time to get over it and get on with training. Another sad time in the life of Daz :-(

Ironman South Africa

OK, so now the secrets out my first and main event of the year will be Ironman South Africa. Both myself and Mat Stephenson have entered. Also Pete Norris from Cyprus has entered and for those who have served in Cyprus Haldane has also entered. Mat and I were planning to do Ironman Brazil but it filled up over the Christmas period. It would have been ideal as it was a month after the London Marathon and would have given us 5 months to train for it. We were disappointed when it filled up but we had a chat and decided it would have to be either South Africa or France. Mat didn't want to do France due to the amount of hills on the bike course, which left South Africa. The only down side I could point out was that it was on the 5th April and I thought it wouldn't leave enough time to train for it. So the day came and I decided to go for it, I entered with 84 days til race day. So the race is on now to be Ironman fit by April, the other concern is I will only have 3 weeks exactly to recover in time for the London Marathon. I will either be totally wasted for the marathon or it will feel easy without having to swim 2.4 miles and cycle 112 miles as a warm up! Other key races for 2009 will include the Dambuster, Inter-Services standard distance and middle distance, the Cleveland Steelman and Wensleydale Big Cheese which are middle distance, and a few sprints and olympics spread over the summer. All of these plans are subject to remaining healthy and injury free. This week has been another good week for training, highlights include a 60 mile ride and a 17 mile run plus all the other hours i've put in. I've been using the turbo quite a bit which surprises me and when using it i've been on the new time trial bike. I'm getting used to it and its feeling comfortable but i've not yet used it on the road. I haven't decided if I will use it for the Ironman or the sponsored bike from www.hilderthorpecycles.co.uk I will have to do some tests during training to see which I feel can offer the best balance of speed and comfort. Time will tell.