{"id":8668,"date":"2011-08-13T07:12:28","date_gmt":"2011-08-13T06:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/?p=8668"},"modified":"2011-08-13T07:12:28","modified_gmt":"2011-08-13T06:12:28","slug":"hardwick-triathlon-3-lessons-in-triathlon-preparation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/hardwick-triathlon-3-lessons-in-triathlon-preparation\/","title":{"rendered":"Hardwick Triathlon: 3 Lessons in Triathlon Preparation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here we go again, another triathlon to compete in on Sunday and the excuses are coming thick and fast. I&#8217;m competing in the Hardwick Triathlon in Tewkesbury tomorrow, but thanks to my recent lack of training due to <a title=\"Exercise - It's not good for you!\" href=\"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/2011\/excerise-its-not-good-for-you\/\">torn ligaments in my ankle<\/a> I was expecting it to be more of a training session and test of my ankle than an actual race.<\/p>\n<p>However, my ankle seemed to be getting better by last weekend so this week I&#8217;ve stepped up the training quite a bit and was feeling fairly good. I did a longish (8 mile) run last Sunday, had an easy swim on Tuesday along with a hard, 7 mile interval run. Swimming had been the worst thing for my ankle, but it didn&#8217;t feel too bad in the pool (albeit with a pull buoy). My shins were a bit sore to start with on the run but eased up later.<\/p>\n<p>I then had a nice 3 and a half hour fairly hard MTB ride at Brechfa on Wednesday and felt good. Thursday was another hard 30 mile ride on the road bike followed by an open water swim.<\/p>\n<p>All was looking good and the plan was to have an easy run on Friday followed by a rest day on Saturday ready for the race on Sunday. Maybe I wouldn&#8217;t be as out of shape as I thought after all<\/p>\n<p>I spent Friday morning working on someones garden, clearing out brambles, pulling up saplings and generally exerted myself a fair bit. All of the twisting, pulling, lifting and throwing didn&#8217;t really do me too many favours, my back was a little sore, but my ankle was sore too. In fact I didn&#8217;t stay there as long as I had intended because my ankle was hurting a little too much so stopped before it got too bad.<\/p>\n<p>I did try to do my scheduled 30 minute easy run though and my ankle was OK for this. My shins however weren&#8217;t. They were sore from the off but just got worse and worse until about a mile in where I just\u00a0couldn&#8217;t run anymore because of the pain. I stopped and walked painfully home. By the time I got there, my shins were still very painful and my hamstrings were feeling really tight too. I did my best to rest and recover last night as I watched my ankle swell up again. Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation, and Ibuprofen were all administered, all with little effect.<\/p>\n<p>So, once again it looks as though I have prepared terribly. I got over-excited about being able to run again following my ankle injury and have probably overdone it. Rather than build back up slowly with some easy sessions, I&#8217;ve gone too hard and now I&#8217;m paying the price.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m hoping the rest day today will sort me out a little bit, but at the moment things aren&#8217;t looking good for the race. My ankle is swollen, my hamstrings are knotted and I have no idea how my shins will be until I actually start trying to run tomorrow. They feel quite sore this morning and if they are anything like they were yesterday on my run then I won&#8217;t even be able to finish the race tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m trying to remain positive and hope that I&#8217;ll feel better by tomorrow and that the adrenalin will carry me through, but if not, then it&#8217;s a useful lesson or three.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lesson 1:<\/strong> I&#8217;m not as young as I used to be and injuries take a LOT longer to heal than I think. Even when they start to feel better I should probably wait another week or two before ramping up the training.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lesson 2:<\/strong> Ramping up my training after an injury really should be a gradual ramp, not an almighty step from next to nothing back into hard interval sessions. I may have only had a few weeks off but the sudden increase in training at a high intensity has played havoc with my shins and possibly my hamstrings too. I may have felt good, but my muscles weren&#8217;t ready for it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lesson 3:<\/strong> I should listen more &#8211; to my body that is. I said that my shins felt a little sore at the beginning of Tuesday&#8217;s run. That was a warning sign that I ignored. I still went on to do a very hard interval session and now have shin splints style pain when running. Had I listened to the warning signs and simply done a short easy run on Tuesday my shins would probably have been OK again by now.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll let you know how I go in the race, but at the moment it&#8217;s back to being a training session rather than a race, and probably only a swim and bike session at that. If my shins are as sore as they were yesterday then I won&#8217;t do the run section of the race as that will only make them worse and I don&#8217;t want to be posting about learning a fourth lesson about exasperating an injury thanks to the mistake of getting carried away on race day.<\/p>\n<p>Will I ever learn?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here we go again, another triathlon to compete in on Sunday and the excuses are coming thick and fast. I&#8217;m competing in the Hardwick Triathlon in Tewkesbury tomorrow, but thanks to my recent lack of training due to torn ligaments in my ankle I was expecting it to be more of a training session and&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1312,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[48,650],"tags":[178,1253,54,1516],"class_list":["post-8668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fitness","category-triathlon","tag-injury","tag-races","tag-training","tag-triathlon"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hardwick Triathlon: 3 Lessons in Triathlon Preparation  - A Simple Life of Luxury<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/hardwick-triathlon-3-lessons-in-triathlon-preparation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hardwick Triathlon: 3 Lessons in Triathlon Preparation  - A Simple Life of Luxury\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here we go again, another triathlon to compete in on Sunday and the excuses are coming thick and fast. 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