Kevins Training Diary 2022

So the bulk of this fortnight was the World Championships in Targu Mures, and both those races, and a lot of the surrounding recces and the like, get their own posts which I have only half written. Then the second week I was hit by a cold or flu (not Covid according to daily LFTs) so was basically just trying to do something minimal every day to keep my streak going without aggravating my illness.  By Friday I was at least able to get out in the sun on the bike, and I put in weights and core sessions in the evening as well. I clearly wasn't over the cold though as I struggled to a 21 minute Parkrun on the Saturday morning. I got back in the pool for a half freestyle / half breaststroke paddle on Sunday, so I at least feel like I am back to a place where I can start to train normally again from tomorrow. I have 9 weeks until the World Aquathlon Champs. That seems like plenty of time to re-gear to just swimming and running. But obviously that would be too simple....

 This one is on my list as an Annual Target.  "Stretch Targets Medal at the Scottish Aquathlon Champs. " Every time I have raced this event I have finished on the podium. Every time I have failed to win it. This year there were only 4 starters on the list, and having looked up their race history, I couldn't tell if I would finish 1st or 4th. In previous 7 races there hasn't been more than a minute and a half between all of us and last time I raced each of them I got beaten. I know I am running well, I think I am almost back to swimming well so this is as good a chance as I am going to get to put my name on a Scottish title. Ayr is just out of same-day-racing range. It is technically possible now that they moved the start time back by an hour, but it would have meant a very early start and racing straight off the back of 3 hours sat in the car. So, a friend and  I travelled down the afternoon before and stayed in a local hotel. That meant a chilled out dinner in the lo...

So the big news from this fortnight should come in two parts, and neither of them are here.  I am going to post a separate race report about the Scottish Champs at Ayr, and then multiple posts about Romania. So this is a purely numbers effort, along with an opportunity to say that British Airways are crap with bikes, but Wizz Air were excellent.  I am in Targu Mures, and all set for my races tomorrow and Wednesday. I have done too much since I got here but I felt I needed to in order to get confidence on the mountain bike course and to try and acclimatise to the temperature.  The bike and run courses are both tough. The bike course is right on my technical limit in a couple of places, and there is a chance I will have to walk a climb section, especially on the later laps. The run has a climb that even the pros are walking up, but is effectively a Scottish cross country or hill running course in summer, with hard packed trails and plenty of ups and downs, just super h...

I have had a bit of an up and down fortnight again.  I have been swimming enough. Not fast, but consistent. And I manage to get in a decent swim in the river. Doing my full 2k distance despite struggling with the cold on the second half, and being borderline hypothermic for the next 20 minutes.  Last weekend I was in Inverness at the North District Championships, retaining my 400m hurdles title again. Then I did the 5k and through 3k was having a great day, but then my hip decided that it was unhappy and almost like a switch it went back to the state it was before I got the injections. And it has stayed like that since. I am back to being in perpetual pain and limping everywhere. But despite that I managed another fast 5k this weekend, missing my PB by just 3 seconds, in a notable wind. But I have limped even worse since then. Then I went out and crashed my new bike, and have cracked the frame. It looks tiny, but I need to get a second opinion and a repair done on it in t...

So I was about due for another stupid injury, and this one was as close as I have been to causing a missed training day for the last 2 years. I had a collision at basketball that compressed my neck and left me with a possible concussion, and a notable neck injury. I went to the GP and the Physio and got contrasting advice, and then obviously followed the one I liked. Two weeks off all training was never going to happen, especially this close to Romania. Being careful, not doing anything risking a potential crash on the bike, avoiding tumble turns, upside-down yoga poses, anything that caused dizziness, nausea or headaches, and not doing anything that caused greater than 4 out of 10 pain in my neck, I could work with that.  I missed the whole week of swimming from that point, and gave up yoga and weights as a precaution. I only did a very short jog on the Wednesday, and I am going to have to fluff my "How little can you do and still call it a session?" down to 0.8 miles to...

I am now back in the office more regularly and have had to adjust my training times to suit. That means more early morning sessions rather than lunchtimes. I am not great in the mornings so they are a struggle and are much less beneficial, but they need to be done.  I did Aberdeen Parkrun again in the middle of this fortnight. The weather was slightly better, and as such I managed to take a huge chunk of my 5k PB, moving it to 18:39, and still feeling like there was more in the tank on a warmer day.  And then my hip has started to give me some signals that everything is not quite right throughout the second week. I woke up in the middle of Wednesday night feeling like I had been stabbed, and have been unable to sleep on that side since, but I can't tell if this is the injections wearing off or if I have done a minor injury to the area. My brain can't interpret the signals from anything in that area after 12 years of being overloaded with pain so I have tried to just ...

I have had a couple of attempts but haven't managed to beat my 5k from Inverurie, so 19 minutes is still out there waiting for me, and I missed a chance for both a PB and a sub-11 minute run at a 3k race at the beach this week. I can blame the weather a little bit for both of this weeks as it wasn't great, but I think the larger factor has been me just not getting the races right. Big picture, being disappointed with a 19:20 5k, an 11:03 3k and a 19:19 5k with a big headwind, all within 8 days, on tired legs, in the middle of a heavy training block, is a different world from where I was even at the turn of the year. I have done all my running speed targets for the year already, and even felt the need to write new ones, and have plenty more races coming to take big chunks off those times. I almost did enough mountain bike miles (63.1) to get my whole fortnight of bike miles.  I have finally booked everything for going to Romania (apart from the bus from Heathrow to Luton). I hav...