Few days left!

I’ve been saying to myself for weeks that I’d write an entry for my blog, after realising that my last entry was back in May. Ironman Wales is now only a couple of days away, so thought’d I’d best write a pre race entry before the race report is due! To be honest there’s not been much to write about unfortunately I seem to be plagued by injury and accidents this year.

At the start of the year I had tendonist of my right shin again, So my plans my plans for some quality half marathons to work on my run speed was spoiled. I was then forced to make the decision to pull out of the Marshman Half Ironman in May as was only running 30 minutes easy during the week preceding. Lacking a running base I was then not race fit to do my planned Half Ironman distance events in June.

June was a ‘good’ month with my running coming along, we spent a week training in Majorca, staying with a friend on the East side of the Island, where we had never been before. Sunny and dry – it was just what I needed after starting to feel a bit low and frustrated from injury. We logged a lot of bike miles and a good amount of sea swimming and running alongside in the week. Then just after building my long run, In fact my first long run over 2 hours whilst running downhill I put my foot in a rabbit hole I hadn’t seen and partially tore my lateral ankle ligaments. With my elephant sized ankle I was forced again to take a break from running and cycling. Its now beginning of August and I’ve yet to do any racing. Comparatively this time last year I’d done 2 half’s, Ironman Nice and was about to do Ironman UK. Needless to say my motivation took a bit of a nose dive, a not a great start to an Ironman Build phase. Working as a Physiotherapist I had access to treatment (borrowed cryocuff!) and managed to getting the swelling down within a week and range of movement back the week after, and even do a little bit of easy running. Then 3 weeks ago, whilst out on an easy bike ride in the evening I was knocked off my bike, by a careless driver turning into the junction I was riding past. My legs suffered little damage except a few cuts and bruises. But somehow I went over the front corner of his car landing directly on the top of my left shoulder and head. I’ve never been involved in a crash, either as a driver or cyclist before and was a bit over whelmed as 2 patrol cars and a paramedic arrived and I was escorted to A&E. At the scene I was most annoyed the my brand new helmet (although served its purpose well) was going to need to be replaced, but later as swelling and soreness set in and I couldn’t move my arm above shoulder height the real impact of the crash set in. I guess I was lucky that I suffered no broken bone, but 3 weeks on and I still have some bruising and my acromioclavicular joint is still sore although I’ve managed to get back swimming I’ve not yet managed to get back full strength, So I’m swimming Nemo style with a ‘Gimpy fin’ – the swim on Sunday should be interesting  Needless to say I have no idea how I might fair this weekend, so I’m just going to go out with the aim of enjoying it. If you can enjoy the cold, wind and rain tats forecasted!