2 weeks to go until the Almere Ironman Distance race in Holland. And what do you know, I am struggling with injury. Not a happy chap and I am struggling to keep the right side of self pity! Going there would not be good. There are far more people suffering far more than I am and I need to keep that in mind when I feel sorry for myself. In the RAF Triathlon community, for example, take poor Roy Brunning. He has been struggling to race all season and has limped from one injury to another. Yet he still attends events to support and organises training and racing events. He is an example to us all and a reminder to me that I have actually had the best racing season ever.
So what do I do for the next 2 weeks? My shin means no running. In theory, I shouldn’t lose fitness as I have a big bank of training completed. But the mind plays tricks with me and tells me that I will be unable to run come 27 August. For a start, I have ordered some of these compression thingys.
I am not a fan of ‘fads’ but at the moment I am a desperate man and will try anything to gain an edge! I also have an appointment with a Sports Injury Clinic later today and I am hoping that some diagnosis will give some rehab tips to allow me to get to the start-line.
I do think that I need to reassess my goals for the race. I had been hoping for a sub 10 hour clocking – I know, an ambitious target in itself and only possible with good weather conditions. Now, I must take the race as it progresses and even consider going harder on the bike to account for a slower run. I can see the seasoned Ironman finishers cringing at these words because IM racing is very different to Half IM races that I have completed. But I will always have to race an event and not simply ‘taste’ an event. If I blow up, then so be it. I was confident about my running and it is my strongest discipline this year. Maybe this can carry me to a reasonable marathon on race day.
I have eased down on bike and swim training so the general fatigue I was feeling has all but disappeared. I completed a timed 3k swim in the pool at 49:23. I was happy with this as it was relaxed and would have brought me an IM swim time around 1:03. I suspect I will be slower come race day in the open water!
Injury update to follow!
3 comments:
Stop stressing, 2 weeks is a long time so let the injury recover. Maintain your fitness by swimming and cycling, you won't forget how to run in 2 weeks, and you may surprise yourself on race day by running fresh.
You have absolutely nothing to gain by running through the injury, and absolutely everything to lose.
Rest well buddy, then smash it up on race day.
plenty of RICE and Compression, you will be fine, thanks for the kind words but no blogging from me was a month of the doldrums and feeling sorry for myself, knowing season was over! why all those early mornings for this???
rest well and hit that course fresh and you will be fine.
dont set yourself time pressures (you will) try and enjoy it!
wise words from the Turbo
So what is the prognosis if I did just swimming up to race day? I did a 3 hour turbo today and I even feel the injury on the bike! This cannot be good. I am not convinced that the sports injury clinic got the injury sussed. However, they did point out some glaring inbalances that may have caused the injury.
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