A good week

This has been the best week's training i've managed to put in since being injured, and possibly since before the marathon. Still not running though.

Last Sunday had me out on the bike for about 85km. Down to Ardrossan and back in just under 3 hours. Head wind out and no obvious tail wind felt on the return. It must've been there though, because i came back much quicker than i went!

Monday, about 25km of cycling.

Tuesday, more cycling. This time 30km'ish

Wednesday, a change of pace. 2km recovery swim.

Thursday, 11km walk with 3-4kg on my back.

Friday, back on the bike. 35km.

Saturday. Same route as last Sunday with a visit to Port Glasgow first, to boost the distance. 95km covered. Again, that westerly wind slowed me on the way out and helped on the way back, although it didn't particularly feel like it was assisting.

Today, a jaunt to Largs. The wind was worserer than yesterday and i could feel it helping me back up the road until about 10km to go. At this point it seemed to be coming from all angles. 58km.

I'm not sure whether i prefer miles or km. Km sounds more impressive but all my distances are measured in miles in my head first of all. I'll just put whatever i feel like at that particular time.

Total Walked 11ish km or 7ish miles
Swam 2km or 1.25 miles
Cycled 243km or 150ish miles
Time training 11.5 hours

Was having some calf tenderness early in the week when climbing but none for the past couple of days. Physio again on Wednesday, so will hopefully be back attempting something resembling a run late next week.

A good week!

Still injured

Since last on here i've been using my bike a bit more to try and maintain some degree of fitness. This has worked to a point but you can't beat running for running fitness, unsurprisingly. As a consequence i have now returned to a degree of fatness.

My knee pain became calf pain for those who don't know and was particularly sore when running. Hence very little running. I rested from training on my feet for a week or so then tried an easy 4 mile run on Wednesday. The calf was feeling fine until about 10mins in. It started to get a bit tight but i thought it would be ok because i was taking it relatively easy. Can you see where this is going?

Approaching mile 3 i felt a ripping sensation in the calf. This was not terribly pleasant or even pleasantly terrible. Unable to run any further due to the combination of pain and fear of causing more damage, i hobbled the final mile home.

Went to A&E though i knew there'd be little they could do. Was advised i'd probably got a tear in the muscle. No real guidance beyond a bit of rest and take it easy. Fortunately i was able to get my physio appointment brought forward. It is now just a suspected muscle strain. John, the physio, approaches the treatment with great optimism which i find just as helpful as the exercise regimes he sets.

Hopefully i will be back properly on track very soon before the belly has a chance to get right out of control.