Self-Flagellation

Last weekend Helen and I went for a little run around the head of Nidderdale and I'm sorry to say that it hurt, at 15 miles my left glute was sending deep stabbing pains down my leg, so I've had to succumb to the inevitable - my various niggles are not getting any better, so I'm on an injury-induced period of no running. Truth be told, I haven't been in good shape since doing the UTMB, I definitely didn't get enough decent rest afterwards so I suppose I've only got myself to blame. It's hard to stop though isn't it?

A friend told me to focus on swimming for the time being and that's what I've done, I'm doing 3 x 1hr sessions a week and things are coming together a bit, I hope to be back up to last year's standard before too long and I'm already looking at some potential 2015 triathlons.  But, it's not enough to keep mind and body going so I have again resorted to the gym and renewed my acquaintance with the hill climb machine. If you've ever dipped into the dubious annals of my blog, you'll know I've used this machine extensively over the last few years and it's undoubtedly done wonders for my leg strength, but I hate it with a burning passion. In fact, "burning" is a great word to use in this context because that's exactly what it does to your legs: I do 3 x 10m intervals on it with about 20secs break between each in order to wipe the sweat off and let the lactate drain from my legs, it is truly agonising if done at the correct tempo. I usually set a minimum threshold of 90ft/minute, meaning I come away with 2700ft in the bag at the very least. I've been trying to push this a bit though, and last night managed 2906ft, nearly killing myself in the process. Jesus, it was hard .... those first five minutes are probably the worst and it's hard to push through the pain as your legs get accustomed to it. Looking back over my training log, 2906ft is my best effort this year so I suppose I should be pleased, however it doesn't come close to the 3000ft in 28.17 I managed pre-BGR in 2012 (still the gym record). I can't see me getting close to that any time soon if I'm honest, it would take some severe work. Anyhow, I finished off the session with 10 minutes on the elliptical trainer to gently let my legs recover and then into the weight room for some strength work. It might sound odd, but I have got one quad that's bigger than the other so I'm trying to even things up a bit - single leg presses are the order of the day.

Tough swim sesh this morning with Em, the pool was busy and the resultant chop on the water's surface made things tough. We cracked the set as planned, but both of us were tired. Em led the last interval of the session and it was our slowest, just within our self-induced limit. I suppose it's been a hard week, notwithstanding the fact that I'm not running at the moment. I wonder if I'll be fit for the Tour of Pendle next Saturday? I'm guessing not.

It's my birthday this weekend, so I intend to take things easy. I was hoping for a bit of nice weather so I could get out on the bike, but it's very wet and bleak here in Yorkshire right now. It might be a weekend to sit in front of the telly with a decent bottlle of red.