Race Update

Well it’s been a while since my last blog for the team and loads has happened since my 7th place finish at Ironman South Africa, both good and bad! I recovered well after South Africa and decided to enter Ironman Regensburg in Germany with a couple of “shorter” races in between to open the system up a bit. After my recovery period I started back training and started back well, I received my new bike from Phian, which looks and rides great, but this is where my problems started. The first little ride I went on was just a 40min spin to try it out, but in my excitement I hadn’t got it set up quite right and had the saddle way too high and subsequently strained my right hamstring! I didn’t really notice it that much at the time but the next day it was very tight and I had a triple run day to get through. This definitely sent it “over the edge” and the next day when I went for my run I barely got 5 strides from my front door before I had to stop. No running for the next 10 days! After some intense treatment it was getting better and I was able to start with some easy running again. I next had a little sprint race, organised by the BRAT club in Birmingham. It was 750m/20km/5km. The swim went well, even though it was very cold, the bike started well but I hit a pot hole and snapped my tri bar pad off. No major problem as I could still ride, just not very aero. On the run the legs just didn’t work and were very tight. I got through it and somehow managed to finish 3rd. I had no business finishing 3rd being injured. There weren’t any problems after, which was good. The next week I did the little Beaver Olympic distance triathlon. A good tough event and I won it fairly easily. I tried to go as hard as I could but found it difficult to really “hurt” myself having built up an amount of fatigue in training as I did this race having ridden 5hrs the day before. All good though and the hamstring was getting better. After that was Ironman Regensburg. I felt okay going into this race. I was still tight through the hamstring but was confident I could produce a good result. My goal going into Regensburg was a top 5 result and I even thought that 3rd place was wide open and there for the talking! The race started well, I had a good swim and was out in 50mins which is a pretty normal pace for me. I think I was out in about 8th place. I started the 2 lap bike and after 15km I was in 4th place. We then hit the climb and straight away I could feel my hamstring getting tight. I felt like pulling the plug there and then but I was in 4th so thought I might as well carry on until everyone passes me. They didn’t! I eventually got caught towards the end of the second lap and we still had another 20km to go to get back to T2. I had to get back to T2 anyway so I carried on. I came into T2 in 5th place and wasn’t that far off 3rd place so thought I might as well carry on, maybe the hamstring will ease? It did for a couple of Km’s but then started to get tighter and tighter. When I got to 12km it was really pulling and when I got to the 15km point I started walking. I had to make a decision here, do I carry on just to get to the finish line, but risk further injury or do I pull out and live to fight another day? I decided to pull out. I was totally happy with my decision as I knew that if I got it sorted quickly then I could race again in a few weeks. Luckily the injury wasn’t too serious and I’ve been having some intense treatment including acupuncture, which is great! I started back running and did a couple of days to really test it out and I’ve come out of it fine. During this period I took part in a Castle series event as part of a Racetime Events relay team over in Cheshire. It was over a funny distance of 800m swim, 44km bike and 8km run. We won the event by 26mins! On top of that we won £5000 for Macmillan and an I-pad each! My next race is Ironman Switzerland on July 15th in Zurich. Let’s hope for a good one!!