Wednesday 11 May 2016

These are crazy days




Probably the craziest but most special few weeks of my life have got me to today , the birth of my son is the proudest moment of my life and has showed me a while new world of tiredness . 

Luckily I only missed 8 days of training, but my diet and recovery obviously took a big hit from the highs and stress of everything and the lack of sleep, in this time I actually lost weight which wasn't great as this had meant I had basically survived on coffee and toast for 4 days then just grabbed food as I went in the week after. I'm a creature of habit and live a routine so getting back in the swing of everything I've found extremely hard for many reasons.

Motivation to get out and train was hard to find when you have a little person you just want to spend every second with, but luckily for me I have a very supportive wife who kicked me out the house and got me back on my bike, once out I had really missed the training, the time to clear my head and take the last 8 days in.ive never been one of these people who just loves being out on the bike taking in the view and enjoying a cafe stop , I want to get out smash it and get home , but now I haven't got endless time training has to be justified and I'm enjoying it more than ever . This has also made the biggest change which is my obsession with tinkering and messing with everything has gone as I just haven't got the time to pick apart every little thing which is a very good thing.

Training since the days off has been very strong, I've been focusing on getting every session spot on and pushing that bit harder, one thing I haven't been able to shake is the problem that has been haunting me for a few months now and it's really beating me up, luckily it's all off the bike and with a lot of research and chats with people in the know it seems I have Piriformis Syndrome!. This is waiting to be fully diagnosed but I've got a visit to team sponsor function jigsaw soon, and I'm very confident they will not only confirm the problem but most importantly help me repair any damage and get back to full strength, I've been nailing their active kit with the roller and trigger point ball and with some carefully selected stretches from billy harriss from Tri force endurance ( previously sprint Tri coach ) it's helping keep it slightly under control and only effecting me in blocks off the bike. Time off the bike is not  an option for me right now as I've already lost a lot of 2016 already so I'm going to keep hitting it and keep fingers and toes crossed I can keep going .

I've looked into races again and getting some local races in again to get that racing buzz back and giving the giant tt bike the ride outs it deserves. I've got the Bristol South 10 this weekend on the U7b in dursley , a course I know well but never seem to get right, but it's close to home and I know it well so it serves as a perfect race to get me back on it.

Tiredness will be my enemy along with the leg for now, but hopefully il get back into some sort of routine soon and can get everything nailed down , especially the nutrition as I was hitting it so well and really feeling the benefits both on and off the bike.

Right now I'm grateful that the likes Matt Bottrill and simon de burgh have really helped keep me on track and focused in a no pressure sensible approach to my training and nutrition / gym work which was badly needed as I normally beat myself for missing sessions etc but everything has to be day by day at the moment , last night wasn't going to be a missed session and it was on the turbo in between evening meal and the little ones bed time, I hate the turbo always have but was well motivated and got a good sweetspot session out ,but it took a lot out of my sore leg and a painful rough nights already limited sleep was ahead and the thought of returning to work today and a very wet early morning commute wasn't filling me with joy.

its been two months since I raced last raced and I had planned to get my turbo frame built up the same as my tt position for training ( cranks should be here today to finish that off ) and ive not really touched the tt bike as basically I have one good bike with half decent but getting old kit on it so I’ve got to look after it as I can’t afford to replace it , but this means I’ve been missing the benefits of riding the tt bike more ( I  might get some clip ons for the road bike but fear I will start looking like a triathlete ) so I’m interested to see how Saturdays race goes and how much not touching a tt bike for 2 months has affected me.

the real goal now is to get ready for races in July and august and probably keep the season rolling into September , I think I’ve still got plenty of time to make this year a success and maybe go chasing some pbs, I’ve missed a lot of the fast courses in the last two seasons meaning my 10 pb is still 19:33 and my 25 pb 49:56 which is way off what I know I can get on a good course , but these things will come , I’m much more relaxed in my approach and just enjoying the training which I’ve never really done before , its always been get out get it done and get home , now its make the most of every session and the time I have and don't overthink things.

I did tell a small white lie at the start, I have slightly tinkered with position, but only for an extension change that I’m pretty confident will work and I wanted to change last year, I’m also trying the sworks tt helmet out in a few club events but again just little bits that I want to try not the old days of stripping the bike down and starting from scratch.

all in all this is the most relaxed I’ve been about my racing since I started and it feels good, yes I’m dead on my feet, my diet is all to pot and I’ve missed some training but I’m motivated to get things better than they were before, the team bottrill guys are destroying result sheets all over the place so that adds to the motivation, I was very lucky to be asked to join and justifying my place with the top guys in the team is a must for me and I’ve got some catching up to do.

So what does the rest of may hold? I’ve got the U7b Saturday then off to the H10/181 the week after ( don't want to be to far from home ), I haven't really planned far ahead at the moment but most things are focused toward the national 100, I’m sadly missing the 50 this year as I don't want to be staying away from home for the night just yet and with a 05:30 start I wouldn't go well being as sleep deprived as I am and driving down on the morning of the event, the National TTT should be good and the TOC the day before ( which I might miss the TOC depending on how everything is going ) but the rest of June is pretty wide open at the moment and a scout through the event lists is needed.