Planning next season

So i had to consider what i focused on next season. In my first season i just entered all the local races i fancied, and then added in Bala as an additional olympic distance. For my 2nd season i had more clue about having a base phase, a build phase, and then race phase, and how this affected training. Therefore, when looking at races, i considered the ones i fancied, but also looked at how they fitted in with what i identified as my 'A' races. Having flirted with the idea of ironman wales, with the hype pretty inspiring when you're cheering on the sidelines, i spoke with Rose from the club and decided that with my MSc affecting training time, plus my own goal of seeing how fast i can get, i decided to stick to focusing on olympic distances (1500m swim, 40k bike, 10k run) with sprint events (750m swim, 20k bike, 5k run) as a warm up roughly 4 weeks before my main races. i also decided to enter the 3 local duathlons (run/bike/run) as i might actually be pretty decent at this given swim is my weakest sport of the 3.

However, during the winter months i was still battling with my calf injury which was hampering my running distance wise so having already dropped out of merthyr mawr pudding run i also decided not to run the llanelli half marathon as i hadn't got my mileage up. However, i did partake in 3 of the 5 xcountry races within the local league competing for celtic tri. This was challenging, but great fun, and brilliant to be part of a mass team event like this. Seeing all our club colours together is pretty awesome!

Hopefully we have done enough to get back promoted to division 1 for the ladies. The last 2 races were proper xcountry, trail, mud, sharp hills, the lot! The last race was our home race in margam park. Not only was it bitterly cold, there was also a stinging head wind which made running seem like being stuck in mud and being forced backwards. That 4 miles felt like 10! results are pending, but given the turn out i'm pretty confident both men and women's teams have done themselves proud :)

What is encouraging is having decided to ditch physio because he had no clue basically and seemed to be haphazardly guessing, whilst inflicting great pain in my calf each session, i have switched to a local osteopath, Mike Griffiths, who is better known as batman in triathlon circles, and just a few sessions with him, coupled with an increased stretching regime, plus using my new compressport calf guards and full legs for recovery, has meant that after a run my calves are no longer tight (apart from a stupidly hilly xcountry 8 miler a couple of weeks ago). So, just days before my first duathlon, i'm confident my calves are almost fully recovered...this shows that complete rest isn't always the cure, and i'm happy with how i handled my injury, regardless of the criticism i got from some quarters on Facebook. Next up, exciting, but anxiety provoking news led to a major decision...