That no more running ever again panic feeling

This was the horrible reality I was pondering after our return from a three week holiday from South Africa. This ahead of preparation of building for Ironman Poland Gydnia. Not life threatening, this was leaving me however very uncertain about being able to prepare, let alone compete in or even finish the race.

I truly believed that my running “career” may draw to a close in the very near future. Meaning an end to any recreational running and meaning the end of any triathlon and the slow demise beginning much sooner than anticipated.

Such were my thoughts after a short 5 km run at an easy pace, which ended in tragic walking with resigned thoughts.

My “knee injury” which was a brutal stabbing ligament pain on the LHS of my right knee, made running painful. Very painful. Bringing me at times to a standstill.From the diagram below I speculate that majority of my injury to have been Pes Anserine Bursitis.

Today my run is slowly returning and the injury slowly becomes a thing of the past.

What I did try. Rest from bike, rest from running, complete rest, compression, physiotherapy with much effected area massage (time + $), various (de)stabilization exercises, ibuprofen gels, ice. Pretty much everything in the arsenal.

Ultimately the resolution has been a rudimentary static stretch that I believe is most likely lengthening the quadricep muscle group shortened through office work sitting, combined with cycling. I have seen this referred to as the Kneeling Shin Stretch.

I have added this with various others stretches such as a the Cobblers Stretch, and yoga’s Child Pose. The lion share of the stretch of my Quads resolved as above.

When I originally begun this stretch regularly as in daily I was barely able to bend my left knee, and not able to sit down fully. I can say that this has been the lion share of the correction. Toe very fair my physio was convinced my issues could be resolved through stretching. The actual specific efficacious stretching required in my experience is as above.

I hope this reading helps!

MTB Stellenbosch, South Africa with Chris and Team from “Casa’s”

Wow! What a trip. What an experience.

I had a mountain bike ride in South Africa.

Words cannot express how amazing having a guided MTB tour around Stellies’ by Chris Norton and his team is. Basically in a nutshell we got the benefit of riding along with a Pro South African Mountain Bike team. A team with all the patience to nursemaid this enthusiastic road riding triathlete and his fiance around what must be the most breathtaking mountain biking country in the world.

Stellenbosch.. amazing

We arrived fresh from our adventures around Kruger National Park, to meet Chris. I had arranged with Chris to have a week long guided adventure around Stellenbosh on the local trails that he and his team know so well.

Chris and the guys were super enthusiastic to take us through all the basics of what a MTB is, techniques and share the experience. As I said we are roadies with no MTB skills. The team took us through all skills we’d need on a formative Day-1. This was on the locally famous G-Spot trail just outside Stellenbosch.

Our week built-up to take on one of the final climbs of the infamous Cape Epic, a climb technically challenging and physically humbling. It was great! Chris’s enthusiastic assurance that “.. the view is great”, and that “only a few people from Stellenbosh have been here” is sooo True and so worth-it. Ourselves we definitely needed to have better skills. That is a learning path for sure. The days we felt like a road ride Chris and the team obliged, luckily only those days us roadies could show we are not complete novices.

Victory!

As I mentioned before Chris’s team are a development South African Pro-Team that compete in the Cape Epic. A nicer bunch of guys you will not find. We got on super well, and benefited from their patience and tuition. And shared some great laughs and jokes along the way. Sunny and I are banned from talking on rides since it normally ends in mayhem! 😉

We started each ride from Casa Cerveza… great coffee before and cool beers after. I do believe, that one of the now new dishes from Amsterdam, called Bitteballen may even be named in my memory. Be sure to ask for “Ash’s Balls”.

Next year we plan to return.. I want to talk to Chris about a point-to-point ride plan maybe, maybe around the karoo or something. We shall see.

Meeting locals is part of the fun

I highly recommend a trip to ride Stellenbosh’s amazing local trails. To get the fullest value and to cement a great memory, that this is complimented with getting in touch with Chris at Casa Cerveza, Stellenbosh for a full blown bespoke guided tour with him and his team. Have an adventure.

You can get in contact with Chris through his Instagram account @casacerveza_stellenbosch

Tri-Amsterdam 2018

Much awaited.. after much work travel.

Race Results

Tri-Amsteram bib# 222 59th overall..hmmm

Discipline	Time	RPE ?	TP
swim	00:38:22	3	http://tpks.ws/WYLNINPLHKOWANGI4KQJ55PEUA
T1	00:02:08	3	x
bike	2:33:44	4	http://tpks.ws/NVN7VZCF34STYFXU5MLYRY6XWA
T2	no idea	1	grrr…
run	01:50:07	4	http://tpks.ws/GP7SQJBWZTHBUDXPNY7375CKOU

? - Scale 1 - 5

* - swim was far too long

Overall

Race was a prep for Challenge Almere, another ‘B’ for 2018.

Not my best run compared to Swashbuckler earlier this year probably because warmer, understatement, but my best bike on a MD because of confidence.

Awesome, awesome, awesome supporter(s).

Good

Awesome bike, solid swim.

Didn’t screw up using Garmin

Decent result

Cool sunglasses

Bad

I treated the race like an Olympic because of the flat course not realistic for a long paced race i.e. I cooked the bike, but could have gone quicker even.

Before

Good

Practised breakfast. Scrambled egg with potato etc + coffee is my goto

Had the confidence to axe the bike big time

Bad

Not street smart enough on the bike dealing with drafters (12 metres – Ja) or a race that becomes a draft fest

Got baked by the heat on the run, more running and heat training if I plan to cane the run

Swim

Good

No problem with pace, really relaxed and I cut through the field (wow 7th AG in the swim, no effort and little training)

Bad

It was too long, can’t fix that

Some bad navigation

Bike

Good

I am slowly becoming an axe, I know this now. Lots of biking.

I knew positioning would be important and worked this

Bad

mmm… I think a slight amount of over-biking but was expected

Not street smart enough when a drafting field emerged on lap 2, far too stubborn

Drafting…complaining to officials will not help.

Don’t apply too much of this race to Challenge Almere

T2

Good

Ja – coped with bad, I was ready to spend less than 20 seconds in T2

Bad

My rack “moved” some idiot decided to overlay racks from the next race lost a lot of time

Run

Good

All to plan.

First 5km felt so so so easy.

5km divisions works for me.

Ashley break doesn’t bother me anymore it is most peoples comfort break and I feel great afterwards (mental??)

Bad

I over cooked(?) the last 5km – stopped for an “Ashley” break i.e ralph

Was well and truly baked at the end nothing left because of over biking and heat I think.

Could have been faster.. really should have been. The run was slow by what I can do.

 

(Why) Do Every Day Training Camp 2018

It was time for the long awaited Every Day Training Endurance Camp in Lanzarote and I was stoked and ready to go! A week away from work! I had no idea how much of a journey I was about to begin.

Firstly I have to shamelessly give my coach Jo (and Steven) a massive punt here, see https://everydaytraining.org.uk/. Track this for future camps and training! Change yourself.

How to ride a bike in Amsterdam, NL

So you have arrived in Amsterdam and there are bikes like everywhere, motorists give you space and there are cycle lanes in abundance. This has to be like the coolest thing ever, but it’s just way to full-on to leap into, where do you start??

Routines.. need them?

Recently my new job took me from a very orderly train, work, live lifestyle, to a massively unpredictable travel intense world with a lot of customer interaction. How on earth would I fit in my regimented triathlon schedule?? Was I going to have to drop from long distance tri, to something more reasonable?

Comparing the last few races of 2017

This is a touch OCD perhaps but I found it a very useful retrospective for the last few races while I have been working through pacing.

Challenge Mellorca 2017

# Challenge Mellorca 2017

The brief race format continues..

Ironman 70.3 Weymouth 2017

I haven’t been on top of the ol’ blog for like ever., although have still been disciplined about recording notes. Influence from a friend encourages me to get back on top of it. And maybe make some positive changes.

So without much ado my brief report style I have become fond of. It’s brutally honest.

4iii power meter and the Ultegra 6800 rear brake calliper

I was super excited when my new 4iii powermeter arrived. I had one on my Specialized Shiv, no problems and loved it. The new PM was for my Bergamont RS roadbike. The only catch was not enough clearance from the Ultegra 6800 rear calliper. The frame was clear, but not the ugly big Ultegra…yeuck. On top of that Bergamont had molded a special aero feed on the underside of the frame below the BB.

In fact no other alternative rear aero brake calliper feeds from the RHS, all feed from the centre or left.

Horror! Lucky the Bergamont has an inspection window on the bottom of the frame. With some luck a slot was cut through the inspection window cover. And et voila sorted using a Tektro T750 calliper (very good, stronger than the Ultegra)