TRAINING WITH NO INHALER AND A COUGH

Three weeks ago, I hit the track in a cold evening with a slight tickle in my throat. I am an asthmatic and I struggle in the cold sometimes and on this particular night my inhaler was out. Nevertheless, I felt ok and ran with my team on the track and of course I struggled a little. Afterwards, I struggled with my asthma and my tickly throat had turned into a cough.

The week to come was a long painful week. My chest was bad and I had to put training on hold. I hate not being able to train, but by the end of the week I was feeling much better and managed to complete a 6-mile run.

LEGS MADE OF LEAD?

I hit the track again with my team after recovering. This time though, after 5 days without training properly, my legs felt so heavy and they didn’t want to work. I was trying to run as quick as I usually do but in hindsight, I should’ve taken it a lot easier.

I managed to complete my training for the last two weeks and last weekend I took part in a Park Run, hoping to get a PB of under 20 minutes. My legs just didn’t want to work and still felt heavy; I managed to somehow finish the race in 20:43.

BACK INTO THE POOL AND ONTO THE ROADS

I’ve now recovered from my shoulder injury that I inflicted on myself at the start of December so I’ve finally managed to hit the pool. Swimming has always been my worst leg of the triathlon and to be honest I really don’t like it. Regardless, I still have to train in the pools if I’m to reach my ultimate goal so I embarked on a 2,200m swim. Say it quietly, but halfway through I got into some rhythm and started to actually enjoy it… a little!

The annoying thing about public lane swimming is that I’m not quick enough to be in the fast lane, but too quick for the middle lane (although half the people in the middle lane should be in the slow lane). It’s hard to swim to any sort of pace.

I’m learning to keep big gaps to give myself plenty of room, but in all honesty I just want to swim in the lakes. As much as it’s cold and dirty, I do prefer it.

As the weather has started to warm up (a little) I’ve managed to hit the road a few times on my bike and I’m loving it. It’s been tough, but you can’t beat some of the countryside roads in Staffordshire. I ride some of the Staffordshire 70.3 route and it’s making me want to take part in the race AGAIN! I’ll decide in the next few weeks if I will…

THE BUZZ IS BACK

After a full week of training I have started to get excited for racing again, I’m feeling good at the moment and there’s so much more improvement to come. I will be taking part in the Stafford Half Marathon in March and my first triathlon will be at the start of April, when I’ll take part in the Lichfield Sprint Triathlon. I’m actually thinking of now doing three 70.3 triathlons and possibly a marathon at the end of the year! Am I starting to go a bit mad?