Last time i wrote i was having a layoff from running due to injury and i had just started my #smarterNOTlonger journey with @bodybullet. Well running took a long time to get back as i was going very cautiously in building up distance very very slowly. It was frustrating to only be going out for a 10 minute run at very slow pace, but at least i was finally back running without the pain of old. I was signed up to do Carmarthenshire Duathlon in February (5k/30k/5k), but the weather had been filthy for weeks and it was cancelled due to the weather having affected the course - sand covering the route in north dock, llanelli, and where transition should be. I wasn't sure whether i was glad or disappointed, probably both! It would have been nice to race and test out my bike, see where i was at before the Dambuster duathlon a few weeks later, but at the same time i felt far from ready run wise, and was only just up to distance. As it happened i then got a cold from work, one of those that does the rounds and you try to avoid it but just as you think you've got away with it so it strikes you down! it laid me low in terms of no energy whatsoever, and even though i was still in work throughout, i felt groggy, headachy, and didn't train for 6 days!!!!! This made up my mind that i best not race Dambuster duathlon, which was a 10k/40k/5k age-group qualifier race. I was far from race ready after illness and my run was nowhere near where i wanted it to be. Disappointed, as it meant i missed all the duathlon season, as come March, where the majority of them occur, i was tied up with golf all but one weekend. Duathlon is my best multi-sport event probably, given my run was always my strength and i'm decent on the bike, but i was starting to doubt whether my run would ever be what it was before.
What i was finding was that i was missing sessions or switching them around in the week and never managing to do a full week's training. I'm not sure whether this was due to my early morning training routine being affected over the past few years with training shifting more to after work meaning some lie ins and some 5am wake ups, and therefore my body clock being all to pot, or whether my work was having it's affect as i had been pretty hectic and having no time to stop and think, or whether it was because i was never properly resting on weekends with training and then having a day at golf for my voluntary sport psychology work, which often meant a 5hr day on a sunday, either standing on a golf course, or travelling up to Celtic Manor, to work for 3 hrs, before returning home again. But anyways, what it meant was when i was training it was going well, but i was also missing too much for my liking, and missing some swim sessions.
However, a conversation by chance on twitter got me talking with @bigdaveakers a swim coach and ex international swimmer who was running swim clinics across the UK wherever a group of people could get together and Dave would go to them, only for the cost of his petrol. He happened to be coming down to Swansea for a swim meet for his swimmers and he agreed to see me. I spent 2 hrs in the pool with Dave, having him swim behind me to watch my stroke, whilst also watching me swim head on etc. This session was also great practice for open water as we had leisurely breaststrokers, fast lane swimmers, and annoying egotistical hairy men that wouldn't give way when i was tapping on their toes, all in the same wide single lane! However, Dave was brilliant and by giving me just 3 tips to work on during that session i'd knocked my stroke count down by 8 strokes and knocked 20 seconds off my normal 100m swim speed!!!!! I then treated Dave to dinner and we've become firm friends since! So much so that he came down again just a couple of weeks ago, and i was able to arrange a few others from my tri club to see him too. This time we were in the Wales National 50m Pool in Swansea, my first time in a 50m pool. I wasn't sure how it'd be beforehand, whether it would feel big like an open water swim, but i actually thoroughly enjoyed it as you had far longer to focus on your stroke. This time Dave was more adventurous and seeing him lying on the bottom of a 2m pool as you swim above him was quite surreal! What i have found though, is that even though i haven't been swimming 3 times weekly as i wanted, the new techniques bits from Dave have helped my swim improve and i'm definitely faster in the pool with less effort. My arm still plays up every now and then, and my chest is often tight when i go swimming, so the first wetsuit swim in the pool of 2014 was a tight chested painful affair! Hope i can get some good open water swims in before Outlaw Half on 1st June as 1.9k feels a long way with a tight chest and sore arm in a wetsuit! We did a mass start practice in the pool the other week though and i felt comfortable doing it, which is a good sign for the season ahead, just got to make that first foray into the murky waters of North Dock in Llanelli of 2014 and away we go! I can't recommend Dave enough, so look him up on twitter & let him know i sent you ;) check out: coach-dave.co.uk
Back to my sport psychology work…from the last weekend in February, to the last but one weekend in March i was doing golf work, with 2 whole weekends in March being taken up with stays away in Prestatyn and then Aberdovey for squad matches with the girls and boys squads. I got to see some beautiful coastline, i got to give my brand new shiny go faster car a good run out on the windy twisty country roads through Mid Wales, and i got to see how my golfers were faring right before the season started. However, it meant 2 whole weekends out of training with no long rides or runs and it meant returning to work each Monday tired and unrested. So March was the worst month of my life in terms of being fatigued, stressed, wishing my time away. However, the golf work has been a fantastic experience and given me a good grounding to start doing a small amount of private sport psychology type work in my spare time in the very near future. The amount of time taken up though by the commitment to golf meant that i realised it wasn't sustainable beyond this season and i won't be returning in the season 2014-2015, not when i train for 12+ hours a week (or am meant to at least), as well as working full-time, running my house, and trying to have a life, as well as my uni work!
Speaking of uni work, whilst this was all going on in March i also had my final assignment to write, a 5000 word piece on research methods! Not my strongest subject, lol, but at least with the lectures i had learnt more about statistics than i ever did during my undergraduate and doctorate degrees! I was trying to squeeze reading prep around all my commitments and training, and in the end used up my final 4 days of annual leave in March (on the weekend where i had been due to be racing away at Dambuster Duathlon) to churn out the essay and submit 2 weeks early so it was done and dusted! Yet to hear back my mark, but as long as it's a pass i don't really care. Next up is my dissertation, which is looking at imagery use amongst triathletes, and if you're interested then have a look at:
https://kwiksurveys.com/s.asp?sid=brwyp9rosa07odm265843 (you might need to copy and paste into a new address bar)
The survey is open for the 2014 season, and i'll have to collect some results data as the season goes along, before i shut it in October. But for now, i can't bear to think of doing anything like that, i'm just taking April to relax, unwind, and get back on track. As it happens i took a couple of days off at the start of April to try and relax, but i was still training and i reached a point this week where i just needed to rest completely. I took last Sunday off because all i wanted to do was sit and do nothing (although the housework always needs doing, damn it!), but this week, whilst i was still working, i just needed to come home each evening and sit, watch tv, and get an early night.
As it happens, so Simon from @bodybullet is very responsive to the training demands and life pressures of his athletes and has analysed how i've struggled to commit to a fuller training plan whilst also seeing how i perform when i'm better rested. So, he's hatching a plan where i get more rest, more "Hayley time" whilst still training 12+ hours and then hopefully being able to stick to the plan and start to make big gains :)
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| Off we trapse to the start line... |
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| Always gotta have a sprint finish ;) |
I'm not sure yet what the season will hold, as whilst i have been training as well as my body/time has allowed, i'm yet to go flat out to see what my pace is like over a sustained amount of time, and i'm also conscious of how much training i've missed and wondering the damage of that to my performance. However, what is vital, and what i keep reminding myself, is that triathlon is fun, it's about challenging yourself, it's about pushing yourself to see how far you can go, or how fast you can go, or whatever your goal is, but ultimately, it's about you, nobody else, and that's why i'm entering some sportives, and stepping up to the Half Ironman distance, to challenge myself, keep things fresh, see how i perform over longer distances…
I'm hoping my running is coming along, as my run time is now at 1:40 running very slowly at an easy heart rate, but distance still isn't beyond 10 miles yet due to this. I get problems with my achilles in terms of tightness and around the ankle, and i did have a flare up of my ITB bands which were having vice-like grip on my legs for a few weeks affecting my ability to run but thankfully that's eased now. I did my longest ever ride yesterday of 4:17 moving time and 66.4 miles which turned out to be my first 100+k ride on the bike too :) chose my hilliest ride to date so lots of first yesterdays. My knees didn't appreciate it, and it felt like an ironman ride was a long way off from where i was at, let along running a marathon, but maybe if i can keep building from here. I'm wary my body has constant niggles and pains like my back, knees, achilles, shoulders, etc. and i know that triathlon is a demanding sport, but i question whether my body is cut out for long distances so i'll see how it all comes together when i do the Outlaw Half…I'm just thankful that i survived March and now i can get back to enjoying life, enjoying having some fun as well as training well…work/life balance is vital in order to get the best out of yourself :)
Sorry for the essay folks, but it is nearly 4 months work of catching up ;) Until next time...
