Calf Problems!

After a few good weeks of training, I am really looking forward to racing the National Duathlon Champs on Sunday. The distances are 10k run, 40k bike, 5k run. However, after some previous speedy run sessions with no adverse affects, my calfs really knotted up yesterday. I reduced my hard session slightly in the hope to be fresh for Sunday by completing the same turbo session as last week but only going up to 7 sets on the pyramid. Then, on the 400m run reps I just completed 4 reps at a reduced speed. Overall, the runs felt very easy at 1:24 pace but the calfs decided to stop being flexible. This has happened to me before and I am not sure why. Could it be that I was stuck in a car travelling for over 8 hours the day before? Or is it just that I have reduced the efforts slightly? Who knows! I just hope that the legs work ok on Sunday.

My swimming continues to improve. Although I know that I will never be a ‘swimmer’, after 5 years of battling with technique changes I now know how I swim. The technique is ok but I do not generate great speed. That said, I am probably swimming as fast in training as I ever have. I have not completed any time trials yet but the sessions indicate that I will be no worse than last year in the H20. I completed a main set of 12 x 100m with big Nige Porter today. I started off with 1:29s feeling nice and smooth. My lack of swim fitness soon kicked in though and I fell into 1:31s with the odd 1:30. Raising the threshold to consistent 1:29s is the aim. The good thing is that I feel when the form is bad and I can back off with the effort and ‘click’ back into a smoother feel. That is something that I could never previously do and it shows that the technique sessions at Swimshack throughout the winter have been beneficial. I am sure that I can gain speed as my fitness increases but the real test is how far behind I am when I get out of the water after an open water 1500m triathlon leg! A 22 min 1500m would be cool and enable me to capitalize on my bike run speed to capture a better overall result.

However, one thing that has been on my mind lately is when does one stop searching for speed gains and switch to minimizing speed losses! I came to this sport quite late but now that I am in the 45 – 49 age group the future may entail concentrating on stemming the age induced drop off! A sad thought but let’s be thankful for the 5 year age group system and the fact that we can still be active – can’t wait until I am 50 now!