Getting there!

Hi there! Hope everyone had a good Easter.

So I may have forgotten to update my blog after my race a couple of weeks ago... So I'll let you know how I did now.

My Swim time + T1 was 6:08, my T1, Bike and T2 was 1:02:30 and finally the bit where it all went wrong was the run which I completed in 40:19! D: The reason I had such a shocker of a run was because I got a pretty horrific stitch, it came on as soon as I jumped off the bike. I was hoping that I would just be able to run it off but I was wrong, I had to walk the first lap then  jog/walk the second lap. I felt pretty bad, I'm not going to lie! However, looking back now, I can take the positives from it; I had a good swim, and as far as my cycling is concerned I had a pretty good ride. :)

Two weeks on and I've had some good training and feel almost back to normal! I stress the word almost. Coming home for Easter has been good so far; I've been able to get out and see people from college and school and+ been able to get some training in with the lads from The Endurance Store  and TriTeamWigan. The Endurance Store do a really good mini duathlon every Tuesday; It's only a bike/run, but i's still difficult. The ride is always hard and the run is just as bad; for me it's a good way to see how I'm running off the bike, which at the moment is going quite well. I manage to keep at 5:30 per mile pace off the bike even if it was only 2 and a half miles!

I also quite like going to park runs, I think it's a great way to get some race pace training in (and also a good way to try and get a gift voucher from sweatshop, if you manage to win! Last Saturday I did the Park Run at Bolton and managed to get a new PB, I somehow managed to take off 26 seconds! 

Everything was going great until Sunday, when I woke up at 6 ready for The Endurance Store Sunday ride when I realised my throat was killing; naturally I thought I'd just slept with my gob open but to be on the safe side, I checked my throat in the bathroom, only to reveal ulcerated tonsils! So that was me back in bed.  Now I'm sat here with tonsillitis, waiting for it to clear up before I can start training again; It really does feel very stop start at the moment.

That's all from me now, hopefully you'll hear from me before the BUCS Sprint on the 4th of May.

Until then, take it easy!

James    

Not long now!

Hi again! It's not long now until my first race of the year, in fact it's tomorrow! I'm really looking forward to it as well! I'm doing the Clitheroe pool triathlon, which is a 400m swim, 30km bike and a 7km trail run; If you're in the area come and have a watch!

At the moment though, I'm not quite 100% fit; three months ago, during a 10k, I developed a pain in my foot. I finished the race, but for the next week I couldn't put my foot down.
I went to see a podiatrist to have it looked at and, lo and behold, stress fracture! Go me! It was recommended by the podiatrist that I took 6/7 weeks off running to make sure it would heal up, so I did just that.

After six weeks, I went for another check up and was given the all clear to start running again; So I went out on a slow 4 miler, but when I got in I couldn't walk again. You can imagine how annoyed I was.
My foot has been doing this for the past two months, every time I ran it would hurt and afterwards I wouldn't be able to walk again. However, finally (three months later), my foot has decided to stop hurting! Hurray! A bit too late though really as it chose to do this just six days before my first race! Good one...

So tomorrow I'll be starting my season off and hopefully I'll have a good day. The weather doesn't look to great, but this is Lancashire so what else would you expect? Not being able to run has actually done me a favour as I've been able to focus on my cycling and swimming which, if I'm honest with you, were the bits that needed work...a lot of work.
I think it has been paying off as well, I feel stronger on the bike and stronger in the pool.

Not being able to run has really opened my eyes, cycling and swimming are actually quite enjoyable. Albeit when the sun's out and it's about 18 degrees... I joke, of course, cycling isn't even fun then!

Anyway, I'm going to finish this sticky toffee pudding and get my stuff ready for tomorrow.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it!