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| In my rugby days |
In the days when I played rugby, injury was just a fact of life. With a contact sport like that, it is rare that you don’t at least go from game to game with bruises, sprains and niggles, plus lots of strapping!! The queue for the physio at Wasps, my club, was never a short one! But with a start-stop sport like rugby, you can usually get by with those niggles.
With endurance sports, it’s a bit different. When you are doing any activity repetitively, be it swimming, cycling or running, it is only a matter of time before you are going to turn a tightness, or niggle into something that could potentially stop you training altogether. You can imagine on a 2 hour run, where each foot is likely to land 80-90 times per minute, how much more risk of exacerbating an injury there is, compared to playing on the wing in rugby where sudden injury is more of a risk, but more chronic injuries are not.
So I went into this past week nursing a really minor tightness in my left peroneal muscles (towards the base of my calf). In the early days in the sport, I would probably have trained through this (the rugby mentality was still strong!). But also, my goal used to be to finish a session, no matter what it took. Now, the end game has FAR more importance than individual, or even multiple runs could possibly have.
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| Deep water running |
Luckily, I was still able to do full bike and swim sessions, so missing a couple of runs would probably have more of a positive impact (allowing me to really train well in the pool and on the bike) than negative. At this stage, it is so important to believe that the benefit of being conservative and getting to the start line 100% far outweighs the risk of trying to add a tiny amount of extra fitness. Plus, I got to do a fartlek session as a deep water run session in the pool! (which actually turned out to be quite a lot of fun!)
I had also discussed my taper with Sean, and because I have always performed well on a 3 week taper, this week was going to be my last full week (with a slightly shorter long ride and run at the weekend).
So we flew to Airlie Beach for our acclimatisation camp on Thursday. I had a little bit of trepidation about the trip. This kind of trip is what the pro triathletes do to prepare for the world champs. I don’t see myself as an elite athlete. I try my best to train like one, eat like one, learn about sports physiology, psychology, recovery like one. But I’m just an ex rugby - playing vet, studying for a PhD, who happens to have qualified for a world championships, aren’t I? Isn’t it a bit decadent to be taking myself off just to train in the heat? Even if it is a chance to be "living the dream" of a pro.
I know what most of my wonderful friends would say about that comment. But we all have self – doubt. And going to Airlie Beach carrying a bit of an injury wasn’t ideal. I was prepared for the fact that Sean and Kristy were going to be doing bigger sessions than me, as their taper is shorter. But it was pretty tough to be finishing my runs when they were only just warming up for theirs!! At least it meant I had the chores done when they got back!!
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| At Dingo Beach |
We had a cracker of a ride on Saturday – to Dingo Beach (130km for me; Sean and Kristy also went out to Lake Proserpine, finishing up with an epic 180km ride). I had another niggle on the bike, in my hip this time. Not what I needed after the calf issue. But it seemed to be pretty transient, and probably related to pushing quite hard into headwind on some REALLY rough road!! (At least the road in Kona is meant to be smooth!) It gave me a bit of a scare though.
But most importantly, I came to realise (thanks in part to a great message from Pete) that it doesn’t matter if I have injuries at this point that force me to shorten or even miss sessions. The reason I am here isn’t for the training – I did all the hard yards back in the cold and wet in Melbourne. I am here to acclimatise, and look after my body so that I go to Hawaii with the best possible preparation I can.
Elite? Maybe not. No stone unturned? Absolutely.
Weeks to go = 3
Hours this week = 18.25
Swim = 14.4km
Bike = 273km
Run = 15.62km
