Back In The Game!

Good news on the injury front thankfully, achilles, calf, shin splints etc all seem to be on the mend. Saturday was my 1st real test going long on my run for the 1st time in 2 weeks. Kinesio tape on, compression calf sleeves on and I was ready to rock. Kevin was my agony aunt, and partner for the run once again. I knew when he told me to stop talking about the injuries, that really meant shut the hell up! lol

We kept it flat, and the pace was steady, nice handy 8min 40sec average, which I was more than happy with, and for Kev, well, that’s a walk compared to his usual. Haha We completed a total of 14 miles and all felt good as far as my legs were concerned. A tad tired but that was to be expected really. My head was back on the straight and narrow and that’s the main thing, maybe I can salvage something from this marathon after all! I guess we’ll know in 5 weeks time!!! 🙂

Tuesdays was swim time with the Tri Club, my lane was Thomas, Josh, Jonny, Roger and myself. The pace seems to have increased this past few weeks for sure, I definitely needed to concentrate and focus that bit more to hold the pace set by Josh and Thomas. All was good though, warm up, drills and build set well planned as always. The main set was 1800m in total and once we got going it seemed to flow fast and we were done in no time. A great session as always planned by Mervyn, good work, cheers mate.

Wednesday was cycle time, and I was home from work as quickly as possible to make the most of the ever growing daylight hours. Wind had died down a little from what it had been earlier in the week which was pleasing, we really have had some shocking weather as of late. I made my way to Limavady, around Myroe and the bridges, my pace was good considering the lack of bike time I’ve had recently. I started some hills on my way towards Dungiven which brought my average well down, and the head wind on the last 5 mile straight to Ballykelly didn’t help the matter either. All in all though I was happy with how I felt, daylight ran out on me and I finished with 26 miles at an average of 17.5 mph.

Today is rest day, forced on me really as I’m off to Manchester later. On the plus side, my next training will be very exciting, I’ve got my 1st Velodrome session on Friday at the national cycling centre. Getting on the boards for the 1st time will be amazing, I’m a tad excited as I’m sure you can guess LOL 🙂 Aaron

Injured :(

The frustration of injury has hit, and my eagerness wants to override the necessity of rest! After last week’s physio and a fairly sore 10k run I knew my time to rest up had come. Achilles, calves and shins had said enough is enough. I’ve been nursing them for a few weeks if I’m honest, but I’ve tried to blank it out and soldier on with my new compression calf sleeves. No good though, and everyone has told me to rest a week or two with plenty of stretching, icing and it will work out in the end.
The good thing is though, I can cycle and swim pain free as well as going to the gym. So Saturday morning was gym time, some weights and core was the order of the day, maybe this set back is a good thing as I neglect weights and core, I guess most of us do don’t we, we think an extra run is better than a core session haha
Afternoon was swim session number 2 of the week. The pool was unfortunately busy, so it was a pretty frustrating session. Nevertheless, I got a good bit done, usual warm up, drills and a main set which was 50m and 100m sprints. All was going great for sure, and I managed a few 100m sprints in 1min 25secs. Very pleased with this, the last couple died off at 1:35 though lol
My club mate Tanya was swimming with me, so I can assure you the craic was good and I could barely swim for laughing 🙂 This made time go in fast so it was all good.
Sunday morning was cycle time, the wind was howling, and with some gusts, it made cycling dangerous. The forecast did give it to settle for an hour around mid morning though, so I used my rollers for a bit until the gusts would stop. This actually worked out pretty well, the gusts did settle, although the wind in general still made it a tough loop that I had planned.
I made some decent strava times on some sections which was pleasing, I even managed to get 1st place on a 6.5 mile section in which I’d been trying to win for a good few months now, my average was 22.1mph, 0.5 mph quicker than 2nd place. The 4 mile straight road home had a head wind which had me cycling at 100% effort and only doing 11 mph. Not cool I can tell you! Lol
Although the running is curbed at the minute, I’m still getting something done which keeps me motivated. I got 6 hours training complete last week so it’s not all bad. Another week of foam roller and stretching with ice and I might give a short run another try. Fingers crossed things have settled.
Aaron