Years ago, my mother used to say to me, she'd say "In this world, Elwood, you can be oh so so smart, or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart... I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.
My little off last week caused a bit more damage than first thought, scratches and bruises I can cope with, if cyber dyne ever wish to remodel their CSM 101 T-800 model, I would be happy to oblige, however, once the adrenaline and other post accident hormones that got secreted into my system had worn off, I realised that I had damaged my adductor muscle, probably wrenched it when I hit the deck.
This only came to light when I tried to get in the car to go to work and discovered I couldn't lift my leg up when in the sitting position. It just needed to be lifted up by hand, made gear changing a laugh a minute. The pain is not too bad, no running or cycling the past week, probably give it another 7-10 days.
Swimming on the other hand, has surprisingly improved, my aim for winterswim was to knock a minute off my base time, last Friday, doing FC my adductor would twinge with each leg kick, my 400m time was 12 secs slower, than my quickest. So reducing my leg movements today to little more than a slight stabilising flutter, not a big kick, the stabilising movement coming from below the knee to minimise pain, the 400m time was 9 secs quicker with less leg movement and more upper body movement. So kicking is over rated.
Also learned over the past few months with winterswim, my times are quicker in the late afternoon, even after a nine hour shift, rather than first thing in the morning, I prefer early morning training as most races are at stupid o'clock anyway so trying to replicate the race body clock, didn't produce the quickest times, likewise with running and cycling, always quicker in the afternoon. Hey there you go.
Feel free to ignore the next bit, maybe I should have put it in the Shit list, but I don't like putting things in there, you only make your own fate, and sometimes shit happens. I was trying to work out why I came off the bike, I consider myself an average rider, go out in all weathers, ride within my limits, treat every other road user as someone who will try to knock me off, and, the only logical conclusion I could come too, was I lost concentration due to me breaking my own cardinal sin of bringing my work out of the workplace. No I didn't park a 757 in the back garden without my better halfs permission. An ex colleague has filed a grievance against me, and most of the department, along with other staff members. Now part of my job is to ensure that my colleagues maintain a standard that is safe, I have the minimum standard, below which they get taken out of the work position, and I have a Best Practice standard. I try to ensure that they maintain above this best practice, if they fall below that they are still safe but there is a buffer which allows me to get them back up to best practice, rather than unsafe.
Perhaps " I've found smog at the end of my rainbow ".
Moving onto a lighter note, in this months 220 mag, there is an article about 50 one hour session. The first paragraph reads,
" Now is not the time of the year to be grinding out five-hour rides and 40km runs......but doing shorter workouts allows you to focus on other aspects of training, like technique,speed, power and efficiency.
At the start of this training log I think I put:
The new season starts now, I never really have a definitive season, it just blends, the Triathlon events have ceased but there are still events to be had, training continues, do what you feel you need to over the autumn/winter months. Some say it should be base training, with long slow runs and rides. OK, you may get the odd day when the sun comes out, the temperature approaches double figures, you have time off, your family say you can go out, the moon is blue and the planets have aligned, but what if that doesn't happen.
I advocate speed training for winter, and if the above happens go for it, but a LSD run/bike, getting cold, wet, miserable, and hacked off may not be the best. Speed, fast hard intervals, getting warm and staying warm, staying happy, the rain is lashing down, the wind howling and the pillars of heaven are shaking, but that quick hard session leaves a deep down warm feeling, you push it out, the steam rises from your body, you know in an hour you will be back home, a quality session in the bag, handling a bike at speed on a wet road, nervous at first, but a few shaky moments and your confidence improves .
Must be psychic.
Oh, and Mr Graves article about drafting in last months Tri plus, had a lot of regurgated stuff about chasing the press vehicles, this was from the late eighties, early nineties, Allen, Tinley era.
Happy trails, and
" if you find out who the stranger in the bath tub is" can you let me know.
Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.