How hard is it to count to 16?

Now with injury behind me – touch wood – it’s time to get some speed back in my legs. This week was a move in the right direction: a 10m TT and a 5k road race showed that I’m not too far off PB pace. And today was a chance to put it all together at the Buxton sprint, run by Xtramile events.

400m pool swim but I still managed to get lost, at least my ability to count got lost: I ended up doing 450m – doh! 400m split was only 8 secs off a 400m TT PB so happy with that. The sports complex in Buxton only opened last year and it’s pretty nice.

Flew out of T1 then out on the bike: up Long Hill, down Goyt’s lane to Errwood reservoir. Turn left and up to the Cat & Fiddle – roads that many ManTri members will be familiar with. Then left again and fast descent back to Buxton. Only 20k but 380m of climbing. I opted for my road bike due to the hills and forecast suggesting wet descents, but it stayed dry.

Quick T2 and out on the run, two laps, through the park, then uphill along the A53, left and left again, fast downhill along Macclesfield Road, then left back to the sports complex. 5.8k in total. A nice finish area: recovery drink on offer, results available straight away, quite a good goodie bag. 4^th overall, 2^nd in M40-44, pleased with that, but no cigar – LOL.

Enjoyed it, a nice local race which is a bit more challenging than your usual sprint due to the hills. Recommend it.

Update and Liverpool 5i50

Since Lanza I’ve been doing a good impression of a yo-yo: up & down, up & down. Training, motivation, injuries, weight - all have been going up and down. It’s actually been quite enjoyable, taking it easy with no pressure to stick to a training schedule. Even had a beer or two J

The injury to my left calf has been troublesome with lots of trips to the physio, recovery runs, progress then set backs. However, I got through a race on Sunday and my leg held up so hopefully things are on the up.

The race on Sunday was the Liverpool 5i50. As I got set up, the drizzle turned to persistent rain, slowly washing away my motivation to race. However, as we queued up to get in the water I pumped myself up and got the game face on. The water was warm so actually nice to be out of the rain.

Once we got going I really enjoyed myself, the swim and bike went fine, the race was well organized, on closed roads and the support was good. The rain had stopped but the roads were wet and it was a bit gusty so caution needed. Locked my back wheel up on one of the 180 degree turns but only wobbled.

Finally on the run, how would the left calf behave? The plan was to take it easy-ish and go around at ironman pace, i.e. 4:45-5:00 min per k. But the leg felt good and I settled into a comfortable pace of ~4:10 per k and even pushed on a bit in the last 2.5k.

My times were ok, but getting a good time wasn’t the point, nor was it even possible considering I’m in a “recovery/prep” phase. My main aims were to get a bit more race experience, have a hard workout, enjoy, and continue the rehab, so all in all pleased with the day out.

After I was done, we watched the “elite” race which kicked off at 11:30. Four Man Tri club mates were racing, Roger Witz-Barnes, Joe Skipper, Paul Hawkins and Tim Fletcher, along side two-time Ironman World Champ Chris McCormack plus a bunch of other ITU pros. It was great to see the guys do so well alongside some pretty stiff competition.

My times
Swim: 25:37
T1: 01:36
Bike: 1:09:22
T2: 01:52
Run: 39:25 
Total: 2:18:10
77th out of 556