Post 149 - The background work

I’ve been doing a lot of background work over the winter and have implemented this as routine now. I had gradually introduced core strength work, stretching and weights while doing Ironman triathlons a few years ago. However, I have really upped this background work over the winter and will continue it, as it seems to be working.

Part of it is the rehabilitation work I have had to do for my shoulder, which I dislocated in a bike crash in July 2017, and my hand, which I broke in the same crash. There are ongoing visits to the hospital to see physiotherapists and specialists, and to have scans and X-rays etc. But the main rehabilitation work has been done at home. It has been tedious.

I have thick rehabilitation rubber bands scattered everywhere at home. One is tied to a door handle and I use it to do resistance exercises for my shoulder. I had a 500ml bottle of water, which became a 1 litre bottle, which became a 1500ml bottle, which became a 2 litre bottle, and I use this as a weight when doing shoulder raises and exercises lying down. I’ve a tennis ball which I repeatedly throw against the wall and catch, to strengthen the shoulder. I stretch and hold various shapes on the floor and on the edge of the bed, and I do various weights. I use another rubber band to twist my wrist and do resistance work in four different directions.

All in an effort to ensure that my shoulder and hand both recover as much as possible. They may not ever get back to how they were before the crash, but I’ll do all I can to give them the best chance. I have another specialist appointment and 2 MRI scans coming up, so it will be interesting to see how much progress both have made.

I have also been doing a lot of other core work, stretching and weights, partially inspired by the need to keep my (ageing) body supple and loose, partly to try to ensure I minimise the chances that I get injured, and to make sure I am strong and well-balanced, giving myself the best opportunity to be successful. I have fallen into a routine of sorts where four times a week I spend 40-60 minutes on this work. One evening mid-week, and one day at the weekend I will do most of the non-weights-based work, and one other mid-week evening and the other weekend day I will do the weights-based stuff.

In particular there is a lot of work to strengthen and stretch my glutes, abs and back. I do a lot of stretches now that I couldn’t do 6 months ago. I can do a lot more squatting (single and double legged) that I used to be able to do. I think the single leg squats have also helped my ankles get stronger and my balance to improve. There must be 15-20 different individual exercises per session that I do. And cumulatively, they are hopefully all making a difference.

There’s no immediate silver bullet, I’ve never felt an alleluia moment where I’ve been able to say “yes, I’m definitely significantly and notably better than I was” – it’s more of a gradual, slow improvement over time, unnoticeable from day to day and week to week, but over months and months the level gradually increases. It’s the same with the actual swim, bike and run training. Consistency leads to small gains which over time add up.

So, that all said, the day after the Galashiels triathlon, I was really disappointed to tweak my back. I was cycling to work, and after a mile along the canal I have to carry my bike up a set of steps onto the road. As I was carrying it, I felt a little tweak in my back. It got worse and worse all day at work, and it ended up really very sore. I was really annoyed, and the not knowing how long it would take to get better was frustrating. I did what I could for it in terms of heating it, icing it, taking a few anti-inflammatories, and stretching it out.

There were lessons to learn – my body was knackered the day after the triathlon, I should have been more careful. It’s not that I shouldn’t have cycled to work that day, but I should have been very careful when carrying the bike – I should have kept the weight of it closer to my centre of gravity and taken smaller steps. Fortunately it cleared up in a few days and didn’t impact my training too much.

Training went reasonably well this week, some good bike intervals - 12 sets of 3 minutes hard and 2 minutes recovery - the hard stuff was all over 300 watts, which was good. I did a set of 4 x 20 second sprints followed immediately by (probably just under) a mile, with 2:45 recovery on a warm Thursday evening club session, I even had shorts and t-shirt on and no leggings or jacket. My "mile" reps were 5:09, 4:58 (a bit of a surprise), 5:00 and 5:02. I went over to Glasgow on Friday night to watch a track 10,000m race. I hammered out an 80 minute hilly run and a 3-hour turbo/20 minute run brick session at the weekend and was knackered after a full and tough week of training. Bring on the Monday rest day...

Nice place to run

Capturing a sub-34 10k - wish I had a better camera

Capturing a sub-33 10k - wish I had a better camera

I’ll stick at it and continue to train hard for another week, and then take an easier week to recover from what will have been two tough weeks of training, let the body absorb it, rest a bit, recover a bit, and taper down for the Hawick sprint triathlon. I’m really up for this race, I can improve on my showing at the last race in Galashiels, the question is how much – I’m keen to find out…

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 16 Apr: RestTue 17 Apr: 1:30 turbo
Wed 18 Apr: 1:20 turbo (12 x 3 mins hard/2 easy, 300-320W)
Thu 19 Apr: 4 x (20 second sprint, 1 mile hard, 2:45 recovery) - 5:09, 4:58, 5:00, 5:02
Fri 20 Apr: Swim 2km (single arm drills)
Sat 21 Apr: 80 minute hilly run
Sun 22 Apr: 3:05 turbo, 20 minute run

Totals: Swim 2km, Bike 120 miles, Run 23 miles