Next Race Looming, Time To Get Some Excuses In!

Odiham this Wednesday will be my first race since Brize and to be honest, the elusive holy grail of training, namely consistency, has eluded me a little bit. Swimming and biking have been ok, but my dodgy calfs have threatened to hamper my progress yet again! A week after Brize I felt my left lower calf sting a bit towards the end of a 10 x 400m session. I finished the session as planned (yes I know I should have stopped as soon as I felt the twinge!) and jogged 10 min to home as my cool down and although it didn't feel right I felt as though it was nothing major. I popped some anti inflammatory pills, iced it and compressed it. I then took the decision to not run for a week. I hate not running but I thought it was a better idea to 'nurse it' rather than 'push it', especially at this stage of the season. It was a worry at first but I seemed to have got away with it and it was a timely reminder to not get carried away with the running...consistency, consistency, consistency!

Anyway, it seems to have settled down and I have completed a solid run week since my mini running layoff and all seems well. It's such a relief, as I really hate not being able to run and I am a total pain to live with when my running isn't going to plan! Just ask my long suffering wife!

Another aspect of my training I'm trying to address is wetsuit/open water swimming, or the lack of it. I usually open water swim at Ripon racecourse but since a competitor sadly died during the swim of the Ripon Tri last year, strict rules and regs have been introduced and you have to have an induction before being allowed to swim and I haven't been able to get to one yet. So, in the absence of any open water, I thought I'd do a wetsuit swim in the pool instead. I totally boiled! I managed about 2km before the unbearable heat made my skin feel as though it was melting!

However, my times were much faster in neoprene so it was a confidence boost if nothing else!

I'm looking forward to Odiham on Weds but as it's close to Dambuster I will be 'training through' in favour of trying to put in a decent performance at Dambuster (for a change!). So my taper for Odiham starts and ends on Tuesday!

I think I've got enough pre-race excuses in there!

Train well.