Daz Does Tri

Photo finish from last night. Me in 4th. Held off a big bunch in the finish. OK, so time to take stock of where I am and where I want to get. * Last 2 races have been a little below expectation. To the point where they have been the very minimum of acceptable for where I am at. * I feel really tired and achey A LOT even when TSB is positive * I'm hitting targets in training for intervals * I've built a fairly solid base over the past 6 1/2 weeks now * Training hasn't had a whole load of consistency * When recovered I feel really fit It's fairly obvious that I've pushed a little too hard. I said yesterday, it's no bad thing BUT I need to bring that back into line. Race wise, off the 1500m, I get a VDOT of 60. That equates to bang on 17 min 5k. Training paces should be 400s in 75 and 200s in 37. I've been going way harder than that. Yes, fresh legged I am sure I would be quicker but I think a couple of weeks bringing everything back in line and training sligh...

First track race of the season! Pre-race... Build up has been pretty good. The only issue lately is that my legs are either totally smashed from intervals OR they are doing intervals. I've had very little chance to relax lately and feel like my legs are strong. I'm constantly moaning about the aches and pains. It's no bad thing, I need strength, BUT, it's frustrating that I feel tired and achey constantly. Today is no different. Legs feel heavy and fairly unresponsive although slightly better as the day has gone on. I did a shakeout 5k earlier and they felt pretty bad !! It's likely some nerves in there but either way I'm carrying a set of battered tools tonight. If I am honest, mid season I probably would have scratched the race and just jogged today.  Jacob can't race after his accident so I'm seeing it like a Park Run - it's just a really hard effort on battered legs so I'm not expecting a huge result. I guess anything in 4.30-4.40 range will ...

OK so today was the secret squirrel race in the diary. The Mallory Park 5k. Last October the times where off the charts so even though I am only 5 weeks back from injury I had secretly hoped to be pretty decent today. Decent cut back week (after 4 solid weeks) and the legs felt pretty good. Mallory is not accurate on the GPS - everyone comes up well long on the Garmin so to avoid getting down on myself I had decided to pace by power and ignore time and average pace settings. Power wise Bedford was 338w avge for 16.29 and London was 328w for 17.09. Recent training indicated 335w was probably likely for average so if it's a quick day it'll be good, if it's a bad day it should still be reasonable. I was hoping to go sub 17 (obviously lol) but 17.15 should be solid enough.  I set power targets as incrementing each mile from 330w -> 340w -> 350w (if I can hold it). I knew 330w was comfortable enough but 340 upwards was hard work off current training. I really didn't wa...

Every day am starting to feel a little closer to being 100% recovered. I feel a lot fitter than I thought I would but I guess keeping a lid on everything then I should! I'm at the stage where I previously got to - the knife edge between starting to run well and pushing too much and getting re-injured. If it happens again, I really only have myself to blame. Really positive news looking at track racing returning to almost normal levels from June so I have absolutely ages to get everything where it needs to be. I have made some significant changes, hopefully these take me as far as I would like to get. Things I have not taken seriously before - like recovery, strength &  nutrition - those are starting to pay off. This week I have done a lot of very slow shakeout runs, these are building the conditioning. I can slowly feel that foundation coming together. Don't get me wrong (I know DC is reading this!!) - I am not putting out any quick sessions yet BUT it's starting to fee...

I have been thinking a lot recently about the amount of cash I have thrown at recovery aids. It has made me think about all the various torture devices I have lying around the house. I thought it might be fun to go through and itemise them and then review the effectiveness of them. In no particular order ... The pokey - proddy selection Here we have the weird and wonderful items that I bought of amazon to reach the unreachable places. I have -  Calf roller - put your foot on and it allows you to roll into a calf stretch. £9.99. Slips on everything. Complete waste of money, doesn't do anything dropping your heel off a step would achieve.  God knows why I thought this would magically heal my perennially tight and sore calfs. Long roller stick - because Ange got fed up with me rolling my calfs with our rolling pin. £15.99. Does roll the back of your calf but doesn't do anything, actually scrub that it does slightly less than a normal roller because you can go easy on yoursel...

The art of getting to the unfittest point of injury before you start to re-build fitness again. Funny thing about getting injured is as you restart, generally on fresh legs, you actually initially feel worse as you start to increase load. As you reduce capacity (through layoff) the worst point is when you bottom out. That's when you really start doubting yourself and probably worse, doubting you can be arsed to keep thrashing yourself for this at 46 years old !! My aim at the minute is to plot the perfect comeback. In the rarefied position of having the benefit of masses of time on my hands before any racing starts in earnest, there really is little point in going at it like a jack hammer. This time, I am building from the ground up. Properly conditioning my body to be able to handle the increasing load and properly fueling my body to take on board 100% of the effort. Strength I am shocked at how beneficial this has been. OK that's a lie. I am shocked that I have spoken about w...

Rehab  - the art of getting the body back to being injury free. As a masters athlete my athletics journey looks something like this - 1./ Start to run, slowly with lots of aches 2./ Get a little better and start to run faster. Think about competing 3./ Get a niggle. Do some stretching and rolling 4./ Get faster still. Do some races. Niggle hurts more 5./ Buy something to try and miracle cure the injury 6./ Get injured, usually whilst in really good shape 7./ Hobble through. Loose fitness. Get frustrated. 8./ Rest. Get fat and do nothing. Aaaaannnnd back to step 1. Usually getting ever so slightly faster each time Strength Training The definition of madness is repeating the same thing and expecting different results! So now I am focussed on changing up. Specifically, (as I have often mentioned my avoidance of) strength training. I was today years old when I finally learned that if I have a niggle, stretching, icing, rolling, heating it is not going to make it go away. I have to make...