Uh oh – I’m Feeling Broken

With the British Sprint Triathlon Championships race over and done with, all efforts are now geared towards the European Championships which take place in Kitzbuhel, Austria exactly four weeks from today. As defending European Champion I should be going into this fit, fast and raring to go, but at the moment I feel far from that.

My race last weekend at the British Championships was OK but not great and I’ve been suffering since. I felt OK on Sunday, just a little sore. However on Monday my calves were really tight to the point where walking up and particularly down stairs was quite difficult. This is nothing unusual after a race though, just a normal case of DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). I don’t experience this much if at all in training, but do so after a race. It’s usually at it’s most sore two-three days after the race but then subsides quickly. This time the recovery hasn’t been quite so fast. My calves were hurting even more on Tuesday and then I developed some sort of lurgy as well.

The lurgy isn’t too bad, just a pounding headache, a sore throat, some ‘snottiness’ and a general feeling of lethargy. I laid off the training and focussed on recovery, but so far it hasn’t worked. It’s now Friday and the lurgy has yet to depart. More worrying is that my calves and particularly my right calf is still very sore. It’s tender just to touch it and stretching it just plain hurts. I’m scared to go anywhere near it with a foam roller!

I’ve done no training since Monday, and that was after a week or so of tapering and less training due to sciatica so my training load has dropped dramatically over the past couple of weeks. Needless to say the enforced lack of training means I’m not feeling much like a triathlete at the moment, much less like one ready to defend a European Championship title. This has been compounded by the fact that I’ve continued to eat like a triathlete and therefore have gained weight when really I should be losing it ready for an ‘A’-priority race – well, they do say you should feed a cold don’t they?

So, with 4 weeks to go, it’s time to get serious. The diet just HAS to improve, I need to lose 6kg in weight without losing any power. I need to get rid of this cold and somehow sort out my calves so that I can put in a solid block of training for three weeks before tapering for the race. Come on body, sort yourself out so that the mind has fewer excuses.

I did go to see Michele today for a little bit of physio… His comment when dealing with my calf was something along the lines of ‘You’ve done a god job on this’. He has recommended no running for a while and lots of hot and cold therapy and stretching followed by another physio session next week. Looks like it might be cycling. swimming and aqua-jogging for me for a while.

Tags: InjuryLurgyTrainingTriathlon