For months I’ve been quite happy to be reasonably inactive, at least compared to when I was training full-on for Ironman Wales. I’ve been keeping fit and not even thinking about another Ironman but now, just a few weeks after signing up for the Outlaw 2015 triathlon, I’m preparing myself for another long one and it’s consuming all my thoughts again. In fact, my big problem is that Outlaw is so far away and I have to fill nine or ten months until I get to the start line.
I’m itching to get going with my training. I’ve been looking at which training plan to follow and I seem to have settled quite quickly on Don Fink’s ‘Iron Fit’ book. There are three plans I could follow and I’m going to go for the hardest one, obviously, mainly because I’m a bloke and that’s what blokes do. I’m fairly confident I can fit in all the hours needed to train but I guess only time will tell. The plan won’t start until the last week of December, so until then I’ll busy myself with getting my fitness up and doing the other 101 things that life requires I do on a weekly basis. I’m really hoping that I can get our house extension finished by the end of the year and that will be a major headache out of the way. I’ll also need to build up my new TT bike, but that can take a back seat until about February.
I’ve been struggling somewhat with a knee injury but, thankfully, it seems to be sorting itself out. I was getting quite worried as it seemed to be getting progressively worse. About two weeks ago, I started to administer some self-applied physio based mainly on strengthening exercises I’d learned from multiple trips to see physios over the years. They seemed to have worked as, last Saturday evening, I was sat watching the Ryder Cup golf on TV and, to relieve the boredom, I was gently pushing my kneecap about when I heard and felt an enormous crunch from the joint that sounded like a bus jumping out of gear. I was a bit shocked at first but I actually think it was a good thing as it’s felt much better ever since. I’ve carried on with the strength exercises but, fingers crossed, I’m hoping I’m on the road to recovery.
Despite the fantastic warm weather we’ve had recently, I thought it would be a good idea to get my turbo trainer out of moth balls and fire up my Chrissie Wellington Audio Lab workout on the iPod. As mentioned earlier, we’re in the middle of major building work on our house and so I was faced with a problem in that my garage has now been more or less completely demolished and there’s nothing in its place until we build a new shed. That has left my bike in our little bedroom upstairs along with untold amounts of junk from the garage and conservatory (which we’ve also knocked down). When I want to go for a ride, it requires gentle and accurate manhandling of my carbon pride and joy down the stairs, through the lounge and out of the door and it’s a real faff. Great idea though it was to set my turbo trainer up again, once I had got it downstairs, I was left with few options as to where to put it.
Spot the bike…
As you can see, my temporary man cave is a tad open to the elements but at least I don’t have to worry about the windows steaming up.
Chase The Potato: The Life of Tri 