Following the Scottish Road Relays, I had a bit of a shock
at the hospital. I dislocated my shoulder and broke my hand nearly 2 years ago
in a bike crash, and I have been rehabilitating both consistently (and
tediously) ever since. I was lucky to have a good physio who understood the
sporting side of things, and I’d been pushing both my physio and my consultant,
saying that “good enough for average daily life of going to work and being able
to sleep without pain” wasn’t really good enough for me, with my aspirations to
compete at world championship level in triathlon and duathlon.
I’d had an invasive MRI arthrogram, injecting stuff into
my shoulder to show up the interior in a scan. My physio had seen the results,
maybe hadn’t interpreted them totally correctly, and assured me that when I
went to discuss them with the consultant, he would simply say “there is no more
we can do,” and that would be the end of the two-year process. My physio had
even gone so far as to say I could dial the rehab right back.
So I was surprised when the consultant said “I can offer you
surgery…” He was pretty neutral about this, said it was up to me, explained the
possible risks versus the possible rewards. I kept questioning him. He
explained there was humerus bone head damage and cartilage damage, which could
be operated on. I kept questioning and questioning and he eventually said “it’s
up to you, if you want it here’s my number, call any time in the next year.”
And that was that. Food for thought. I don’t know what I’ll do, but if I do
anything it will be in the off-season winter months when I don’t need to be
riding bikes and swimming.
I looked ahead to the next running target, a 3K on Glasgow
Green – a flat, fast out and back course along the Clyde. I really wanted to
break 9 minutes. I started running the Aberdeen Proms 3K races way back in
2003, starting off at 10:30 or so, and over a few years saw this time decrease
to 9:06, set in around 2005. I hadn’t run a 3k since. I hoped I could break 9.
If I had ambitions to run the Grangemouth 10K in mid-April under 32 minutes, I’d
need to be breaking 9 for the 3k.
So I turned up to Glasgow. It was windy. I was never going
to be so comfortably under 3k that the conditions wouldn’t matter. So I was
doubtful. It was fast running – I don’t usually race such short distances, and
don’t really train for them either. I got into a race with a couple of others,
letting the lead two go in the first half, reeling them in by the turn, pulling
away from them after the turn, feeling reasonable, then having this bubble
burst a bit with the Garmin beeping for the mile split. I knew what it needed
to say, and it was just under 10 seconds down on this. I’d never make that up
in the final 4 minutes. But I’d go as hard as I could.
The big yin on a big wall in Glasgow
I ended up fading a bit in the final quarter as the lack of
speed training took its toll and the two overtook me. I just couldn’t stick it.
I wasn’t quite sure where the finish was – it was quite an informal race with
no big finish gantry or banner, so I couldn’t really time a sprint finish. The
leader ran 9:03, I was third in 9:08. A bit disappointing, but there we go. A
sub-9 is something to be achieved and worked for, so if I want to do it, I will
have to work for it rather than just turning up without having trained
specifically for it.
I was disappointed with the implications for the Grangemouth
10k in a couple of weeks. I’ve beaten sub-32 10k runners all winter in
cross-country but now it didn’t look like I’d do it. I was also a bit
disappointed that I won’t get another chance to do a 3k this year, if I am
moving back to triathlon over the summer. I've started experimenting with running in tri shorts rather than the more traditional, baggier running shorts, and a tighter vest - this came from the ParkRun I did a month or so ago on Bere island in windy conditions, where the wind caused my shorts and vest to act like parachutes, with a definite slowing effect. I figure if I'm running at 10-11 mph, into a similar speed of wind, that's 22mph against me (comparable to cycling speeds), and you wouldn't dream of wearing baggy bike gear as it would slow you down so much.
Anyway – I looked ahead to the next target. The Grangemouth 10k,
in 16 days. Time enough to get a decent training block in, and taper down for
this one, as it was a big target for me. The day after the 3k was a nice day, I
didn’t want to run too hard to let the legs recover, I planned a turbo but the
weather was too nice so I took the bike over to Arthur’s seat and did 6 hill
repeats (I suppose with half an eye on the Scottish duathlon championships, the
week after Grangemouth). The session went reasonably well, with each repeat
taking around 3:45, and averaging up to 360 watts. Not bad. I did a strong
fartlek the following day, then my legs were really feeling it. I had to talk
to myself about not getting carried away – I took the next day off, and the day
after that very easily.
I got a last-minute sports massage too, in an effort to get
the legs as good as possible. This was quite a big deal for me, as the last
sports massage I had in summer 2014 literally nearly killed me, with both my
legs turning septic – it also ruined that entire year’s work, trashed what I
thought was a very good chance of qualifying for Kona and left me with a huge
fear of any sort of sports massage. I survived this one, which was a big plus.
I’ve no idea what happened the last time – dirty massage oil? Dirty hands? Me
being on the edge? Who knows…
I didn’t want to stress the legs too much after the massage
so rather than a hard run, I did a turbo tempo, again with an eye on the
duathlon. 1 hour at 252 watts and 144bpm was a reasonable session (versus 1:06
at 286 watts in the duathlon last year, after a 10k run…) The next evening I
went down to do three repeats of the full lap at the meadows (about 1.42
miles). The first two were good (7:15, 7:17). The third one was terrible
(7:37). A bad lap and a dark mood. My feet were on fire and my legs had
nothing.
I’ve got massive callouses on both of my feet, under my
little toes. I have unusual (terrible) biomechanics that mean I land on a very
small part of my foot right under my little toes, and huge callouses have built
up, which get very painful when I run. I mean excruciating. On fire. Especially
when I run fast in training, or race. I needed to sort this or I would be DNFing
in Grangemouth (Did Not Finish). Cue emergency phone calls to podiatrists… I
got an appointment and got the callouses pared back and got some foot cream and
callous files. Hopefully this would help.
I did a cruisy swim, 4000 yards at 1:44/100m pace, with a pleasingly
low heart rate at the end – replicating an ironman – if I go ahead with the
ironman I am willing to sacrifice a few minutes in the swim for a lower heart
rate starting the bike, which also means the pool training I do won’t be as
intense, which means I’ll be fresher. I followed this with a better hill
session, which gave me a boost, getting stronger throughout, with no foot pain.
But I was only running hard for a minute at a time, with 2 minutes of recovery.
I didn’t know how my scalped feet would react to a continuous hard run…
I did a great long slow run in the hills in the Scottish Borders
the next day, running up and up and up, into the mist, into the snow, into the
forest. It was a brilliant 80 minutes of running, with no speed or time
pressures, up in the snow and mist. Unreal. Then it was “taper week”. A key
session for taper week has become 4 x half a mile on Tuesday. My times for this
were good, my feet were still sore but not as bad as they were, but I’d noticed
now my hip was sore. It didn’t seem to be restricting my running, but I couldn’t
bend over down my left side. Hopefully it will resolve itself. I did so much
stretching and mobility work and self-massaging and tennis-balling (painful), so I tried
to give it every chance.
I went out the following evening for an easy bike ride (the
benefits of summer approaching, and brighter evenings), did a mini fartlek the
next day, then Deirdre arrived. We did a Saturday ParkRun at Loch Ore (a really
great location, blue skies, blue loch, nice easy running, fantastic) and a bit of a drive
round Fife. My hip was playing up and my legs were a bit sore. I just started
feeling like Grangemouth was slipping away, which was a shame – I’d been
targeting this race all winter, I’d had the fitness to break 32, and now it was
slipping away. Much like the 3K, Grangemouth would be my only chance at a 10K
this year. Breaking 32 has been a 16-year target…
Nice place to run
Race day was windy. Another negative. I started going
through scenarios. I’d start anyway, and I knew it was a 2-lap course, so if at
5K my hip was sore, my feet were sore, my time was down, I’d just bail out. I
thought it wouldn’t be worth trashing my legs with the duathlon only a week
away. I feel I can have a good crack at the duathlon – the running won’t be as
flat-out (and therefore damaging) in the duathlon as in a standalone 10K. I was
third last year in the Scottish duathlon championships, having never ridden my (“new”
second-hand) bike on the road and having not done a great deal of bike training
over that winter. This year, my running fitness is probably slightly better,
and I’ve got a year of biking behind me, so I fancy a good crack at it.
I knew I needed 5:08 pace to break 32. It was break 32 or
bust for me. The first two miles were perfect, tucked into a group, sheltering
as much as possible from the wind, 5:09 and 5:07. My feet started to feel sore,
but not agonisingly so. I got to halfway not quite on course for sub-32 but
well on course for a PB (i.e. sub-32:52). I thought I’d rattle on as hard as I
could and see what happened.
The group started to break up. One guy ran away – bravely into
the wind. I couldn’t follow him, with a 5:19 slowest mile into the wind, and
5:12 and 5:14 either side of that. I was starting to catch a couple of runners
who had started too fast. This was a good spur for me to keep going, and a
sub-group of three formed as we passed the stadium with 3k to go. With 2k to
go, one was dropping away, one was pulling away, and I was in the middle –
being kept honest – with a guy ahead to focus on and keep as close as possible,
and a guy behind to keep behind.
With hindsight, I had over-eaten the previous day and I
started feeling that horrible urge. I hoped I could hold it, and hold my pace
too. It didn’t give me any excuses as mile 6 was 5:05 and I ran strongly down
the home straight inside the athletics stadium to post 32:17, a 35-second PB. I
was really surprised, with an immediate trip to the toilet giving me time to
reflect. Sub-32 would have been on if there had been no wind. I’m just about in
shape to do it. But I’ll have to be content with 32:17, a new PB, finally
bringing my 10K PB “into line” with my other PBs – for years my 10K PB had been
my worst PB. And hopefully next year I will finally do it. Deirdre also ran a
PB, 2 weeks before she will do the London marathon – good going.
And with that, my out-and-out running season ends. I will
recover as well as I can for the Scottish duathlon championships, where I hope
to have a good race. I keep talking about the ironman. Every decision I’ve made
in the last 18 months has been with the ironman in mind.
And yet I can’t bring myself to enter it. It’s so much
money, so high risk, all the eggs in one basket, it will be my sixth Ironman UK
race and tenth ironman start, they aren’t all that exciting any more, Ironman
UK in Bolton is not a great venue, logistics are a pain, they’ve changed the
bike course this year to something the previous course record holder has
described as awful/dangerous/terrible/shocking, it will “ruin” my summer
(indeed the rest of 2019), it will hamper my performance at the world sprint
and standard triathlon championships in September 2019, it will ruin my running
(I could crack on with running and get those sub-9 and sub-32 times), but yet I
feel that it’s now or never with the ironman. The timing will never again be as
good as it is now.
Maybe one day soon I was actually bite the bullet and enter
it…
Training done was as follows:
No comments:
Post a Comment