With spring in the air, Claire's training has stepped up a gear in preparation for her first triathlon in May. Is it paying off? Read more...

The month of March started with me doing my first ever brick session.  Before breakfast, I cycled my distance and then started to run.  What on earth my legs thought they were doing I don’t know as they were not cooperating with my brain at all! 

It was such a peculiar experience knowing that I was trying to run but yet felt I had jelly instead of legs.  This clearly is something I’ll need to work on as it took a mile for everything to settle down.  So with my knee pain quickly kicking in, I only ran 2 miles but was pleased that my run time hadn’t worsened despite the odd sensations. 

Sadly, the next day was the last time I managed to run.  My knee and hip pain had become so bad when running that I really felt I might be doing more damage to keep persevering and so booked a sports massage to see if my problems could be diagnosed.  It seems that through years of lack of regular sports related exercise, my ‘IT band’ running from hip to knee has become so tight, it is reluctant to stretch when I run.  This has resulted in my kneecap trying to be pulled to one side hence the pain I’m experiencing.  I was given several exercises to improve the flexibility of the tendon but have given running a complete rest for 3 weeks. 

I have now started using the cross trainer to get back into running and that has been pain free.  I have no illusions though that when I try to run on the roads, I’ll still suffer. But hopefully, with continuous stretches each day, my IT band will settle down.  We’ll have to see but whatever happens, I’ll run in some fashion when I compete in my first triathlon in May.

My swimming has continued to improve and this and cycling has not been affected by my IT band issues thankfully.  I was making some gains in my time since my swimming lesson but still was disappointed with how out of breath I felt. 

After looking at other swimmers, I decided that I’d have to slow my leg kick down, despite what technique I’d recently been taught.  So having consumed a banana an hour before swimming, I set off for another pool session and managed to do 400m without stopping and took 2 minutes off my time.  I was so excited I carried on and did another 400m straight off!  I felt ecstatic, especially as my time was now the same as my breaststroke.  I actually couldn’t wait to go back to the pool to see if this was a miracle.  So 2 days later with a bowl of porridge and a banana for energy, I repeated the success in the same time.   “This is what it must feel like to win a gold medal,” I thought!  That should give you some idea what this achievement meant to me. 

I’m relieved to say I’ve maintained this standard throughout the month but feel my next goal is to better it.  But can I? 

It’s been so windy each time I’ve cycled that I haven’t made any improvement on my ride time which is disappointing. But, looking on the bright side, I haven’t got worse either. I do look forward to warmer, calmer conditions but accept that I need to push harder in training too, regardless of the weather.  I know it’s all in the mind and I have the ability to do this but it’s going to take some determination to manage it.  I have had my first puncture but luckily it was when I got home but it will be so annoying if that happens on race day. 

I haven’t looked into wet suits and other related kit yet and must get round to this but where to shop and finding the time is my dilemma.  I have been given a nutrition guide which has been interesting but it also seems daunting to read about consuming specific grams of carbohydrate and protein per kg of body weight.  I’ve not got onboard with that level of detail so far.  My bananas seem to be doing me good!

Claire's next post will be on Wednesday 6 May. Read here previous post here.