March 23, 2015

Running

By Stephen Scanlon

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My Right Calf vs The Reading Half!

On my arrival back to the UK from Abu Dhabi, I had contacted a friend of mine who works as a sports therapist – I needed advice on what to do with my injured Achilles/Calf and I needed it fast. I hadn’t experienced similar pain since I tore my ‘Glute Medius’ and I was nervous that I had done some serious damage. After describing the pain I experienced, I was told that it was most likely a micro trauma injury and the best cure would be to rest it. I am still glad I decided to ease off for the last 4km of the run, I got away lucky in the end, I feel. Since Saturday 7thMarch, I have done no exercise except for two swims a week in London Aquatics Centre. It has been a tough couple of weeks mentally and I’ve also noticed my appetite drop significantly. I pray to God that the two weeks off will have helped at this stage, I’ve got three Triathlons booked between now and the end of May and I intend of competing in all of them, and I used to enjoy being able to justify 3-4 meals a day to my colleagues – now I just resemble that guy off Man vs Food!

Reading Half 22/3/15

Leading up to the Reading Half Marathon, honestly I was unsure of what to do. Should I give away my position to a friend? Should I go along, run it in under 2 hours and enjoy the event or should I race it?

I have recently bought 2XU Calf Guards that I wore and also strapped up my right limb! The race was on. I had decided to race it, but to ease into it. I started in the Red Wave which started 5 mins after the gun time. I stuck next to the 1:30 pacer for the first few miles, everything was feeling great. After I got the biggest hill on the course of the way we were approaching mile 5 and I had made the decision to push on. At this stage I had no pain in my calf. My hamstring were beginning to give out – but I knew this was because I hadn’t ran in two weeks more than anything. I kept up the 1:30 pace and at mile 10 I went for it. Mentally, I had broken it down to a fast park-run style event. This was probably the most fun part of the race, because of the fact I paced my self, I had loads left in the tank and actually just kept picking racers off which gave me a huge mental boost to keep pushing. In the end, I crossed the line in Madjeski Stadium in a time of 1:28:20. I was absolutely delighted. With a PB in the bag, it’s a week off running and 3 pool sessions before my next Triathlon.

Bicester Sprint 29/3/15

During the week leading up to the Reading Half I got some news that my ‘Old Man’ was back in the UK on a few days leave from working abroad and had signed up for the Bicester Sprint triathlon, on Sunday 29thof March. I found out that it was a 400m pool swim, 2 x 10km laps on the bike and a 5 x 1km lapped off road run. To be honest it sounded like an ideal transition back into Triathlon after a tough half marathon and a good excuse for some post race beers with my Dad. It was also a nice distance to try out my new wheels I bought for 2015 racing. To be honest I am not too sure what to expect going into the race but I have upped my swimming to 3 evenings a week for this week coming and I will most likely go out for a quick 40km bike ride on the 28thto make sure the wheels go round the way the should. I plan on laying off the running for a few weeks. Thankfully it normally only takes me 2-3 weeks running to get to my 39 minute race time back so I am in no rush to get back out on the road and prepare for WTS London on the 31stMay. I will use this race as a post injury benchmark race and work out what I need to focus on over the coming weeks.

With regard to training over the coming weeks, I plan to swim at least twice a week in the London Aquatics Centre. I find Mondays and Fridays are the quietest evenings with about ¾ people in a 50m lane which is more than enough space. Without wanting to complain over and over, for some reason Tuesday – Thursday evening sessions seems to attract swimmers who feel comfortable swimming breast stroke at a mild pace in the medium and fast lanes, creating tension between themselves and the faster swimmers and it just ruins the training buzz. I find sticking to the fast-medium lane on a Monday and Friday is ideal and stress free at the moment.

Now that I have upgraded my wheels on my TT bike I am aiming to keep my TT bike for racing only. My Triathlon club, Tri2o, will shortly start TT evenings along the A4 west of Reading which I may use the TT bike for but for my regular weekend spins on a Saturday or Sunday I will use an old Claude Butler road bike. Nice and heavy with standard spec, hopefully this will strengthen my bike work over the coming weeks.

As previously mentioned I don’t plan to run much for the moment. I feel I may be over cautious about the whole situation. I’ll continue applying Voltarol, wear my Calf Guards whenever I run and stretch and foam roll every night – I don’t think there’s more left to do after that!

Roll on Bicester Sprint!