Friday 2nd July

Decision made, I am going to go for it and take part in the Europeans. Wili is showered and lubed and ready to go. I'm not though! Never been so unfit or unready for a race before but don't want to miss the opportunity to take part. Athlone here I come....

Thursday 1st July

Half an hour of sea swimming tonight in very big waves - even the jellyfish were surfing...

I have to tomorrow morning to make up my mind whether I am going to do Athlone. I'll see how I feel tomorrow. I was in Birmingham for the day yesterday and I suffered quite a bit with back stiffness and pain in my glutes. If I feel ok, I'll do a lot of stretching and foam rollering before the 3.5 hour drive on Saturday. Race is on Sunday - got my Ireland trisuit all ready to go - even though it arrived with a hole in the leg!

Tuesday 29th June

19 mile easyish cycle tonight with a reasonable pace. My back held out ok - just a few twinges.

Monday 28th June

Physio has cleared me to compete at the weekend but only at 85% effort and I am to pull out if I have any problems at all with my back. She wants me to taper from tomorrow and do lots and lots of stretching and work on the foam roller. My taper will have been longer than my training for the last month! This is good news but I am still very afraid of injuring myself again.

I tried a very slow and steady 4 mile run tonight - fine apart from a little stiffness in my hamstring afterwards. I then went on to my pilates class. I couldn't do a couple of the exercises as I felt it in my back but had a good stretch out. My hamstrings are very tight. So frustrated with all of this....

Saturday 26th June

14 mile cycle this morning to test out my back. It twinged a couple of times but generally ok. I kept the speed very steady and didn't push it, deliberately chosing a pretty flat route. I felt the reduction in my fitness with not training for nearly three weeks.

No hip tightness or tightness in my glutes afterwards either, possibly due to the new saddle position.

Tortured now by indecision and worry as to whether I should attempt Athlone next weekend. I really don't want to miss it but yet I don't want this muscle to tear again. Scared to train again really. Just a total nightmare at this stage of the season - very down about the whole thing.

Physio tomorrow morning - so let's see what she has to say about Athlone...

Friday 25th June

I met a friend from the triathlon club this evening to check my bike set up. Turns out, according to his calculations that my saddle is approx 1.5 inches too low.... and too far forward. He adjusted this and we went for a gentle 4 mile spin to test out the new position. It feels much better and I have more power in my legs. My back was ok with this too.

Thursday 24th June

Approx 1500m sea swim tonight. My back felt fine although I didn't push for any speed.

Wednesday 23rd June

A day's rest again due to a little stiffness then I tackled a 1200m swim tonight with no pain. Onwards and a little bit upwards....

Monday 21st June

A bad two weeks later, my blog starts up again. Never again do I want to go through the pain and disability I have suffered due to a torn back muscle! Physio is pleased with my progress though and has allowed me to start light training this week. So first session was a pilates class which I took very carefully and slowly. Still no pain during the class and the stretching has helped me a bit.

Saturday 5th June

Crooked Lake triathlon today. Everything started well, got down there and set up and went back to my car for a cup of tea and something to eat before the race. When I stood up again my back was stiff. I tried stretching it out and got some physio on the trigger points in my glutes. I didn't know whether to start or not but then decided to go for it and pull out if things got worse. I had a very good swim (15.22 nice and steady and I got a good line in the lake)(16.07 last year) a not so quick 1st transition (3.11) although it was a very long transition area, a very good bike (37.06)(38.56 last year) during which I felt very strong and then a not so quick transition 2 (2.44) due to me not being able to run in my cycle shoes. I then headed off to the run and my back was very stiff so with two big hills in the run I decided to walk the hills and try to run the downhills and the flat bits so I did that and still got 25.55 (24.33 last year) for the 5k. Finishing time of 1:24:20 (1:25:07 last year)which I was very pleased with despite the walking bits in the run.

Afterwards my back, glutes and hip have seized up very badly. Nightmare of a drive home due to the pain. I immediately got ice on it and am on anti-inflammatories. Very, very worried.

Sunday update: my back is very bad today and I can't stand upright. Continuing with ice and high doses of anti-inflammatories. The pain is very bad and is making me feel quite sick. I have an appointment with the physio on Monday so I just hope and pray she can sort me out. 4 weeks today to Athlone. Just very upset and very worried. My training has been going so well and I felt my strength coming back yesterday with being able to attack the triathlon. My back has not been bothering me much either. I just don't know what has happened - whether this has been building or whether I did something working in the garden on Friday. Fingers crossed that my physio can fix me....

Thursday 3rd June

Approx 1600m sea swim last night with the club. Nice conditions - warm and sunny, no waves and the tide was in for once :-)

Wednesday 2nd June

I took a rest day yesterday - didn't really want to but thought it was more sensible to double up today and have yesterday clear.

1600m swim in 30.35 minutes this morning. I really felt that - not used to the non-stop distance after doing so many swim set sessions. I will need to build more of these into my training plan to build up endurance.

Speed session on the bike tonight - 10 sets of 5 minutes flat out with 2 minutes recovery between them. 3 miles total of warm up and cool down, covering 26 miles in the whole session. Very good - I managed to maintain around 19.5 - 20 miles per hour for all of the 10 sets. Legs are a bit knackered now!

Monday 31st May

53 mile cycle on the bike today. I started off with very tired legs from yesterday but shook that off and probably had the best cycle so far of the year. I could have gone on and certainly could have run after it. Average pace of about 15.5 miles per hour for the 53 miles. The route was hilly in places and we had quite a head wind for parts of it. I feel a bit happier about things after today.

Sunday 30th May

No cycling yesterday due to rotten weather....

Liam Ball triathlon today up in Derry. Finished in 1:35:14 (official time )although I clocked it at 1.31:0 - and there was no finishing time for me in the first lot of results and then I was given that time... strange but very disappointing. I had a good swim - one of the first few out of the pool in my wave and transition was going well until the race director told me that my stuff was in the wrong place and made me move everything. This wasted at least 1 - 2 minutes. I wasn't happy with the bike but had a good run which should have been quicker than the 27 minutes time I was given. So not a happy bunny overall.

Friday 28th May

5 mile easy run this morning. Few niggles still from my glutes and my calves are very tight possibly from the Newtons. Think I might need a sports massage pretty soon. My plan is just to train up to Sunday and take the race as a B race and concentrate on Crooked Lake the following week as an A race. Well that's the outline plan anyway!!