My Training - March

 165km  256km  12km  1 hour

February killed me. I ran myself ragged. To injury, through injury and beyond. The result was this right ankle ↴

Cankle

Whilst it was a deformity in victory, it kept me from running for a good two weeks and no lycra was donned what-so-ever, on the bike nor in the pool. Woe was me.

Fortunately, I fully recovered (no amputations were required) and whilst the speed in my step is not quite up to my pre-RUYD norm, there are no niggles or pains lingering. Having to put so much off in February to make way for all the running meant a heavy to-do list for March. Work was busy-busy-bumble-bee and life (changes) in general at the moment is quite monumental so training was a second thought for much of the month. To cap a crap month, I have been fighting a cold this past week and the annual saga that is 'gym membership renewal procrastination' has come and thankfully gone, after weeks of "well I didn't pay that last year" and "I can't be paying £5 for a half-hour swim in the meantime". Ah, what the pro athletes are missing!

Oh well, those evenings now aye? Light abounds as we now leave the office, and this certainly lifts the spirits. No wonder God saw to it on Day 1. After work I'm now heading to the parks to run in greenery and fresh(er) air before heading for home. Road safety is less of an issue too, another dark winter survived. 

Light has been switched on

I've had romantic liaisons with an old RUYD route or two across the little time I have been running this month. A particular fave has been the route I run home from Soho taking me to Greenwich, through its teeny tiled tunnel under the Thames to the Isle Of Dogs. It follows much of the same route of the VLM, though eerily silent in places the Deptford stretch would really benefit from the race-day steel band being a year-round thing. 

Back to Greenwich minus the pain

I've not attended Tuesday 'speed' training with the club that often lately, the irony is that there is so much standing around and something called 'warming up' which I don't care for too much. As a result I've been doing my own thing, very singular, and going against why I actually joined a club. I don't currently have the spright in my legs to keep up with the fast group on Thursday's 10 mile run either, so my £8 monthly fee is really going to no use. 

Back in the pool, I've taken a backward stroke. Swimming fitness does not hang around. You snooze, you lose. My lukewarm 100m pace has lost a couple of seconds, at a time when I really should have improved it as much at this stage of the season. Silly running and its silly challenges taking up my time. Fret not I've bought all the training aids, have technique lessons lined up and a few open water swims in the diary. I'm so eager to get faster in the water, I stare open-mouthed (maybe that's my problem?) at those who overtake me with ease. Technique is everything, though it certainly helps if you started competitively swimming at five over 29. With triathlon, as an athlete where seconds don't really count for much, there is very little to be gained from huge investments of time in your jammers. Sadly, it will always be more worth your while spending time on the bike and in your running shoes in order to PB. One thing that has shown no sign of deterioration is my self-taught (thanks YouTube) tumble-turn skills. Brilliant to have in the pool, absolutely useless for triathlon.

On the bike, on the turbo, I've not logged much distance (what a terrible waste of a month it's been *wails*) but the legs feel strong and my standard two hour sessions are comfortable. Now that we have the light, the plan is for early morning sessions around the Olympic Park on the regular. To think I barely clocked 100 miles on tarmac in preparation for last year's Ironman (you'd never advise that) there are real gains to be made this time around. Handling and hill climbing are two major skills I must master. Time to brave the road...oh, and that may then make the carbon wheel purchase more cost effective! Method to.

A full drawer signals a lack of training

As I was gym-less for much of the month, I only partook in the one weights session - I'll never grow up to be big and strong that way - which was all but evident when I came to sell my sofa. Sold to a couple of girls in my apartment block, lifting the 'heavy' side, having to ask the girl at the other end if we could drop it for a minute's rest (on more than one occasion) was embarrassing yes, but as I say, it was definitely the heavy side. My arms were shot for a good couple of days after. My masculinity still fragile.

Sofa move - Needed a lay down

Next month, I'm actually running a race...kind of. A renegade VLM if you will. Before the sound of birds and M People's 'Search For The Hero' flood the skies of London I'll be running the route backwards (in a directional sense) with these guys from Big Ben at 4am. Report to follow on that one.

I'm doing away with GPS and Strava for the month of April. Taking a month off from waiting around in the street for a signal and uploading run commutes of the same old data. Much like a nudist beach, I'm going free. 

I'll leave you with this warning I received late this month from a conversation had with the receptionist at the gym. I just wanted to go swimming:

Me: "May I go swimming please?" *hands membership card.
Gym Guy: "Did you just run here?"
Me: "Why yes, I did"
Gym Guy: "You should be careful, too much cardio is dangerous for you"

#CardioIsAKiller