Moments of Patience

I had a wonderful run yesterday. It was a head torch run after a long day at work. The lichen on the wooden steps in the Rivelin Valley luminescence in the light and moths occasionally bounced off my nose. I saw other head torch runners and bonked on my way home. I felt alive and vulnerable and mostly wobbly then I added a layer and ate food and got home OK.

I slept incredibly well.

Today I mountain biked and rode home the long way. When I managed to escape the roads I watched fire works. It was very special. I will sleep well again tonight. I wish I always felt this calm.

2014 Wakefield Tri club Cyclo-Cross

Well that went well. Obviously better than expected, because I wasn't expecting much. An early start to meet Addam, my Sheffield Triathlon club protege, for his novice race seemed to pay off.

I rode 3 trial laps with him before watching them race then had plenty of time to prep for my own event. The carefully purchased food I left in the fridge at home was replaced with a porridge which went down well and was just enough.  I spent a sizeable time looking for my dad whilst warming up but didn't actually find him until the start line.

I did one more circuit before our race, just to find out how slitherey the course had now become. I got a rocking start, up with Lynn Bland and Kev Saville and managed to lose that placing more gradually than usual. Thanks to a slight over-balance by me, bumping into people as usual, I crossed the timing mat at the end of lap one ahead of Lynn for the first time ever.

I tried to catch the next woman left ahead of me, Sinead, but she made a short distance on me then stayed there, no matter how hard I tried. As I started to tire I kept one eye on the riders behind to make sure I wasn't losing ground then tried a bit harder. I was speeding up past an enthusiastic TSK and Addam was cheering for Trep which made me smile every lap (mostly internally).

I did an excellent job of demonstrating the art of riding sideways right before my new friend, almost - but not quite - losing it on the penultimate lap and the greasiest corner of the race.

I did no better than I did the week before - only comparing to the placings of others but as TSK says, if that was a bad day, I can't complain.

From bad colds, great opportunities rise

Today is the first time I have had a scab on my knee wound. It's tiny. I can now start to believe it might actually heal. I took that good news and spent the morning preparing the bike for tomorrow's race. I couldn't find the source of the squealing noise that accompanied me over the line at Skipton and all feels well. I have even fixed a stiff brake cable, finding a short section of gear outer somewhat restricting flows. Oops, zero engineer points. After my 5am scrap blogging fest fuelled by early onset hangover and nibblings, I got up late and lunched late and got the car ready for carrying bikes again. My only regret was not eating more park in at last night's party. Cue purring with pride at my achievements yet positively in fear of what may come tomorrow. Pain, poor performance and disappointment or strength, efficiency and speed. I really don't know and it's worse than not knowing because I have over-trained. At least then I have failed well. They say improvements require 2 weeks to manifest so by that scale, tomorrow should reap the benefits of 2 days racing at Rapha. We will see and I will try and learn from it. It's a long time since I have been as fit as I was 2 weeks ago. I find out tomorrow how to make the most of it or how to lose it. Serious lesson learning territory.

day 2 of recovery. one way or t'other

A lie in, dental forms, van to garage. Counterproductivity compared to yesterday and a night out to let my hair down or rather, keep it tied up in plaits but there was beer and cake and great company. I am looking forward to a weekend. I lay in bed for a few hours not really enjoying much good sleep then got up to eat fruit. Wondering why I feel most prone to write when I am least capable and have little to say.

I seem to have accidentally jinxed today.  Wallet left at home,  vanu broken down in work car park and it's not like I can get the tram home cos I have no money. Missing turbo.  The only upside is I had a really productive day at work in between.

That's not going to do anything for my fitness now is it?

Waiting anxiously for TSK.

Seasonal Good Intentions (and nothing to do with Christmas)

I promised myself I was going to keep a training diary when I was recovering from my illness. I stuck to it in paper form for a while but it lapsed again when I dumped a pedal car on my head and I haven't taken it up again since. The next few years are now part of a bigger plan so I will take myself back up on the monotony and occasional eloquent glory and continue this blog as it was always meant to be - a record of the most epic and most mundane of my adventures. I choose (after a lot of setting up) a set of comedy stats from two days ago and a less composed record of yesterday's training events. If nothing more this should offer a more floral record of my exploits for me and more thorough waste of time for any of my friends and family stumbling back to this place whether I share my posts on Facebook or not. Facebook I find is largely written in order to amuse, entertain and wow others where my blog is through and through me so occasionally sweary, occasionally funny and epic and frequently dull. Tuesday's run stats. Near misses:1 Actual falls: 0 -not running fast enough.  Cartoon mice: 1 (made me think of Glynn R). Flamingos: 0. Salmon coloured bath tubs masquerading as flamingoes in the long grass: 1. That'll teach me to go out at dusk. Wednesday:planned swim session of 1 mile. Still building the endurance to do it all in one go. Proud of myself for finishing it since it was a) my first 50m swim b)my first after work swim c)started badly by swimming head first into someone because I set off in the wrong direction. The main cause of my exhaustion? Getting all the way to the bottom of the hill on my bike in the morning before realising I had forgotten my laptop. 35 minutes extra on the bike then.

Struggling & the Wonder of Dad. My 2014 pre-Three Peaks Blog.

Two weeks ago today I dropped a pedal car on my head at 21 miles per hour on a tarmac race track.  It wasn't my best day.

Given that I am taking the blood thinning drug, Rivoroxaban, and the fact that I broke my helmet, I had to go to A&E for a CT scan on my head to make sure I didn't have any small internal bleeds.  Small bleeds which in a normal body would usually sort themselves out in no time but in someone on blood thinning juice, could potentially spiral out of control, especially whilst tent camping overnight in the company of a bunch of boy scouts.

Not surprisingly I didn't enjoy the day in A&E and I spent my time mentally kicking myself for being so stupidly competitive (racing a 12 year old boy) and forgetting that I'm supposed to be taking it easy (racing moderately *is* my idea of taking it easy).

I have been very busy at work since then... very busy.  I have also been sleeping a lot - making up for poor nights sleep (because of the pain) by sleeping late and my body is recovering from the shock, fighting the infection that has flared up in my knee and making me sleep for a long time.  As a consequence I've been finding it hard to get out on my bike.  Even when I do have some time to go out, there's an emotional resistance, one which says, "best stay at home, you might crash and end up in A&E again".  I don't like this.

On Tuesday I went to the gym to do weights and then got home and sat on the turbo for an hour and I made it out off road on Wednesday night with a great bunch of people from Sheffield Triathlon Club.  They did my ego the power of good as I was helping them to learn some cyclo-cross techninques.  I also rode very gingerley yet at times very bravely considering my condition - and I was considering it.  It was always at the back of my mind as I bounced my skinny 'cross wheels down Rivelin Valley trails usually reserved for my mountain bike.  

I haven't been out on my bike since.  I do miss it but I am still tired and I admit to still being a little scared.

So yesterday I sat down and set myself some targets to achieve in between now and my major races this 'cross season and also next year's tri season.  I hope these intermediary hits will help me progress and give me the excuse I need to stop working every day and go and get some exercise at a reasonable hour of day (so that I can sleep at night).

For now though, I am staring down the barrel of the 3 Peaks Cyclo-cross on (what feels like) very little appropriate training.  It's over 3 months since Celtman and my diagnosis so that's my endurance in the can and with 2 weeks off because of my pedal car crash, I think my dad will be hauling me around by the bib shorts braces, not the other way around.  

Dad's been training as only he knows how (long and steady) and I think he's a wonderful 65 year old.  In fact, he's not allowed to be 65!  Every week he listens to me whine about my condition.  Every week he is resolutely confident about his ability to finish this year's race.  At least I know where I get my optimism from.

So I am heading out this weekend to do two cyclo-crosses in two days.  That is my contribution to endurance and fitness combined. Regardless of what motivational state of mind I am in, there is one thing that makes it easy to look forwards to next weekend and it's this...

(though I'm hoping there won't be any snow next weekend)