Slow Progress

It is amazing how quickly you loose fitness and conditioning. I was in pretty good condition for the London race, evidenced by my best ever 5km run split off the bike. However the combination of a 10 day taper (made longer due to the long haul flight) and a 2 week recovery period (where we eat badly and drank lots), has seen all my pre-race conditioning disappear.

I'm still feeling relatively fit, but my legs are struggling to withstand even small amounts of running. Previously it was usually my knee injury that gave me grief. Now my hamstring and calf muscles are pulling up sore after every run. My original plan of running every day has been put on hold until my leg muscles get their act back together.

In Iceland I did an easy 8km on the Wednesday, 5 days after the race. I pulled up OK, but not as good as I would expect after such an easy run. A week later, back in Australia, I went out for a lunchtime run. It felt terrible and I ended up only running 3km. Considering I'd only hopped off the plane at 5am that morning, I wasn't particularly worried. Feeling much better on Thursday I completed an easy 10km run, but felt very stiff in the hamstrings the next day. In fact the stiffness was so bad it stopped me going for my usual bike ride on Saturday morning and I didn't do any running that weekend (I did manage a bike ride on Sunday). Monday was a complete day of rest before doing another run on Tuesday - 7.5km that included 3 x 6km Tempo runs. The Tuesday run felt quite good but my calf muscles starting tightening on 3rd Tempo effort - so I cut the session short (was suppose to do 5 efforts).

We saw our Chiropractor on Wednesday and he suggested my problems were probably due to a deficiency in vitamins B and E, as I'd stopped taking these supplements since the race. Hopefully this will help my situation, otherwise my plans of building run mileage is simply not going to happen.

Since coming back from overseas, Elaine has remained in holiday mode and found excuses to avoid all running until yesterday. Reality hit pretty quick as she struggled to complete an easy 5km run. While my pre-London taper was about 10 days, Elaine's was over 2 weeks. Combined with doing no running for 20 days after the event, she really was starting again from scratch. However I don't believe this will be an issue. The significant break will have mentally refreshed Elaine and it shouldn't take long for her to regain fitness.

Serious training starts this weekend with a long ride out at Tynong. There is nothing to see at Tynong, but it offers country roads with no traffic lights and very few cars. Perfect for practicing long sustained efforts on the bike. The following two weekends will continue to have a bike focus before we head up to Bright for a 3 day training camp involving lots of riding up mountains.

Whilst all of the above mentioned training is designed with Challenge Melbourne in mind, it should provide an excellent fitness base that will see us easily get through the Noosa Olympic Distance Triathlon. Assuming we don't miss any key sessions.