Malteser's journey to the finish line

[malteser]

30 March pm -

work done, wife slightly better and little one in bed meant I had time to hop onto the turbo for a ride - 1hr 25 mins and 36k covered. Didn't want to push too much as I knew Sunday was going to be a biggy and DOMS were to be avoided.

31st March - programme said 90 minute run but in light of the long ride Sunday I chose not to do the run and went out for a nice 1.5 hour stroll with wife and bairn instead - enjoyable, though I don't track it as a workout ...

1st April - 110.5km of hell - see the race report for more detail ...

[malteser]

Week from hell ... Completely lost my mojo ... Motivation was rock bottom ... That, combined with a tough work week, meant that I got nothing done really ... Achilles in the left foot has been very tight so I have been scared to run for fear of doing some proper damage ... That does not excuse the meagre return of just 2 swims in a week ... I'm in Paris this weekend so will be doing lots of running in France ... In the meantime I have to get some riding and swimming done ... 3 day week at Work will mean lots of time pressure but it's gotta be done ...

[malteser]

Back in the pool today, mojo not quite back yet but I'm beginning to coax it back out of wherever it was hiding ... the pool was annoyingly crowded with ppl who know very little of lane swimming etiquette ... really f'ed me off but tried to keep calm and relax ... as a result there were a number of forced breaks etc., and the total result is 2.1km in 1 hour - very poor but with 10 ppl to a lane some of whom doing slow kick sets there was no real choice of banging out a more lengthy set -

rather annoyingly my back is starting to play up ... as a baby (3 months old) I had a growth on my spine the size of a tennis ball ... a benign tumor I'm told but one they had to cut out ... this was 1979 so surgery wasn't exactly advanced, and malta wasn't exactly at the cutting edge of medicine so the surgeon did a bit of a rough job ... 2 weeks after surgery it started growing back - three surgeries later it decided to stay away for good but it has left it's mark - a nice foot-long scar running between the shoulder blades ... after about 17 years of back pain they figured out that the surgeon had cut through the major muscles in the area ... and that due to the lack of medical knowledge, noone bothered to tell me I needed physio on a regular basis growing up to break the scar tissue down so that the muscle tissue could reconnect properly - the result, several years of physio later, is that the damage cannot be fully healed and I am left with weakened back muscles as a result of numerous fibres in the muscle tissue being connected by weaker, less supple, scar tissue ... put them under enough strain and the scar tissue connections tear causing me almighty pain and causing the muscles to seize for days ... last time it happened it was triggered by a hiccup mid-breath (followed by three painful bedridden days) ... I could feel the muscles aching during the swim, there's a very dull ache which I know is usually the precursor to a tear ... a back massage, some heat and some rest will usually do the trick but I don't want to stop swimming ... so it'll be careful short sessions for the rest of the week in the pool, nothing fancy, nothing long but just keeping the muscles moving ...

part of me was expecting this to happen, but I've gone without a proper tear for 2 years now ... really hoping it doesn't happen again

[Jack Hughes]

Hope it's holding up

Fascinating stuff though.

What's the longest you've been without a reoccurrence?
Wonder if the swimming and stuff you've done over the last few years have had any positive effect.

[malteser]

Wednesday April 11th

Double brick session at the gym

30 mins spin bike followed by 23 mins run (3.03km) followed by a further 35 mins spin and 28 mins run (4.1km)

First brick felt really rough ... I couldn't for the life of me fathom why ... Then came the realisation that this was just four hours after I had a steak and 2 glasses of red wine at a client lunch - numpty

After my sportive debacle I had decided to make every bike session count ... So I went for some high resistance reps ... The steak threatened to make a reappearance so toned it down a notch, but still please that I gave the legs a blasting ... Also pleased that the second run was faster and felt easier than the first (the steak must have gone into hiding)

Thursday was supposed to be swim and bike But I am on hols today and Monday so there was hell to pay for it on Thursday ... Worked strait through from 7:30am until 10pm, got home and then had to pack ... For my wonderful Paris Marathon DNS this Sunday

Was hoping to get a run in today in beautiful Paris but the wife and daughter had other plans ... Will have to make up for it tomorrow and Sunday ... Have brought the clobber with me, just need to find the time

Back still holding out ... I guess not swimming probably helps but I'm back in the pool on Monday ... This is the last time I book a hotel without a gym

[malteser]

I'm back from Paris ... and in terms of exercising it was not a good holiday ... the logistics of things just got the better of me ... when you're in a realtively small hotel room with a baby it's not a good idea ... Emily just wouldn't sleep with me and clare in the room and leaving the room was not an option either ... wonderful catch 22 ... so I ended up not having much of a choice

I couldn't tell my wife to spend the morning of our holidays on her own while I went out running - that would not have gone down well at all ... and I couldn't leave the room to run in the evening because all hell would break loose with the little one ... plus family food timings etc. ... everything that could've got in the way, did ... I got lots of walking done, and carried the little one loads during the walks, which in my head is at least some very minor conditioning work ... my back is in fact feeling the brunt of all that carrying - no major incidents but a soreness that is sometimes pleasant and at other times slightly alarming given my history.

We arrived home on Monday night absolutely shattered. I absolutely had to hit the gym on Tuesday, and hit it I did ... not for the intended swim and run but just for the run - the back soreness is making me tread very carefully ... a 1 hr run and 9.3km covered. My HR was nicely in z2 for the first 30 minutes or so and then it started to go up, until I was in z4. Slowed down a bit to bring the heart rate down and then did a couple of intervals ... the bottom of my left calf is not very happy and I now cannot go down stairs (or down pavements) or generally put sudden weight on my left leg without pain ... balls

for those of you who followed the general discussion thread you will know that Tuesday evening provided the lovely headache from hell. I was hoping to fit in a turbo ride but there was no chance. I woke up on Wednesday with no headache but a bit of chest tightness ... no idea where that is coming from but I am going to need to check myself out ... I doubt it's anything serious but I would prefer not to take any risks considering the training I am doing ... a full on physical may well be the way forward. I was a bit hesitant to exercise after that, I must admit ... so I didn't over lunch ... had meetings in the evening which meant that the session planned then also had to be cancelled - there's a lot of training that's going amiss, and that is going to have to stop now ...

i'm headed to the pool in 10 minutes ... hoping to avoid anything back, head or chest related (fat chance) ...

but at least a decision has been taken at the family level ... no more short city breaks until ironman, or at least, if there are any, the wife and daughter will have to endure the fact that I am going to have to train for a good portion of each day ... but the hassle of a city break with a young kid seems to be putting the wife off, so we may well stick to the plan ...

[malteser]

Good Swim ... I've got a big smile on my face, one because I wasn't expecting it, and 2 because it happened and I am (still) injury free - a touch knackered but that's a good feeling

decided not to aggravate anything and avoid drills, so just bashed out a 1 hour steady effort - 2,800m swum and one very happy uninjured bunny ...

[malteser]

so the injury has turned up ... not the back where it was expected, but the left leg ... the theatre of many shin splints ... about 6 minutes into a treadmill session yesterday I felt a stabbing pain in the leg ... every pace became painful ... it's tempo sessions that are doing it ... anything over 10.5kmph seems to be resulting in an injury - the body seems to want slow and long without upping the intensity ... I'm really miffed ... walking up and down stairs hurts, and tried to jog across at traffic lights this morning and I felt like the leg was going to buckle ... lots of voltaren gel applied, compression on ... and let's see what happens ...

I will be testing it on the bike this evening ... hopefully it doesn't respond and I will be able to get on with turbo and outdoor bike sessions ... if it doesn't then all my run sessions will become bike sessions ... should be interesting ...

[malteser]

swim this lunchtime ... after more than 2.5k yesterday I knew I would have to take it easy or risk an injury ... so take it easy I did ... I didn't overdo it on distance and I didn't overdo it on pace either ... 1.5k in 40 minutes ... slow and steady

[malteser]

20/4 pm ... 1 hr on the turbo ... Higher pace than previous rides ... Still a long way off where I want to be but it's a slow road to improvement ... 26.9km done ... Tomorrow more of the same