Our Triathlon Club now uses the Coaching Services of Mercury Multisport (which I am now a coach of) and on Monday I did my first swim at the newly opened GESAC (Glen Eira Sports and Aquatic Centre). It is a wonderful complex with several indoor pools and a 50m outdoor pool. Our swimming squads are held in the 50m outdoor pool. The water is quite warm, but the air temperature on a cold and rainy Melbourne night in May is very chilly. During the session there were several downpours. At first it feels strange swimming in warm water with cold water falling on your back, but as the session progressed I warmed up and stopped noticing the rain. Unfortunately the swim coach Sarah had to find other methods of keeping warm.
I've recently changed jobs and I have not only discovered a route to run at lunchtime, but also found a few work colleagues who are happy to join me on my runs. At the moment the runs are very slow and quite short (6km @ 6 min pace) but the distance and speed will slowly progress as the season wears on.
My new work has a group that plays basketball every Friday. I wasn't willing to risk injury before Ironman and then after Ironman I was keen to rest up and let my injuries recover. Having started back with my lunchtime runs, I was running out of excuses, so this Friday I played basketball. Amongst the people playing there is varying levels of ability, yet I was clearly the worst - this was probably the 10th time I have played basketball in my life (or maybe even less) and it showed.
I would have been happy if all I suffered from was inability, I scored 3 shots (6 points) from at least 20 attempts, but I did not escape the game unscathed. In the first 2 minutes I tangled legs with another player and landed heavily on my left knee. For a minute or so I could barely walk, I continued trying to move around and as my knee warmed up the pain went away. After the game the pain came back and upon inspection it looked like a golf ball was growing out of my knee. However that wasn't all. About halfway through the game (that lasted about an hour) my back seized up. My body is not used to stopping and starting and changing direction. I assumed it was just my hamstrings getting tight and pulling on my back so I continued playing but tried to avoid running or jumping (as if I wasn't already playing badly). After the game my back was really sore and continued getting worse. The next day, still sore, I realised it was not my hamstrings, instead I had re-activated the back injury I suffered last November. But wait, there's more. Walking home from the station I noticed I must have rolled my ankle (no recollection of doing this), my neck and shoulder were extremely sore (pre-existing shoulder injury) and somehow I seemed to have straining most of the muscles in my arms and several of my fingers were swollen.
Undaunted by these minor ailments I still ventured out on the Mercury Saturday morning ride. I have never done a ride with the Mercury group and seeing as I'm coaching a ride session next week, I figured I should see first hand what they are like. The riding position on a racing road bike is not unlike the foetal position and it is amazing how few injuries bother you while in this position. It rained for most of the ride, but still I was comfortable with no problems from my injuries even when riding up hill. The only difficulty came when I arrived home and tried to get off the bike - I nearly fell over, and then once off the bike I was unable to straighten back up, so hobbled around the house like a 90 year old.
The ride itself was a touch more difficult than I expected, or maybe I just rode a little harder than I should've in an attempt to keep up with lead group - a little silly for my first proper ride back. I now have quite sore quads and glutes to go with the basketball injuries. Elaine is doing a trail run with Mercury on Sunday morning. Originally I thought of participating in this as well, now I think I'll stay in the car and read a book.
All up the week contained 6 hours of training (141 Slowtwitch points) plus a game of basketball.
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