After a rather hair-raising start to the month, James talks recovery & looking forward to the open water...

Blame it on the law of averages, fate… or just a stereotypical BMW driver not looking at a roundabout. Either way I soon found myself flying across a shiny green bonnet & in a heap on the Cheshire asphalt. Wilmslow is the Mecca of footballer’s mansions and here I am rolling across the floor like one of their own.

The latter reason is why I'm currently nursing a very sore hip and back after returning from a training ride and being taken out. The bike hasn't fared too well from the whole ordeal, which combined with my forced break from training has meant for a very somber week. I'll be ok - but entering a very important period of training in the lead up to British Middle Distance Championship at Bala it’s far from ideal and I need to get back to it soon.

Moving on, I was looking forward to the Open Water swimming season firing up. USwim Dock 9 at Salford Quays is right next to the Capital FM studios where I work and it's a really good atmosphere down there - music, coffee and post swim flapjacks. Wednesday nights and Saturdays morning will become a permanent fixture in the training program this spring/summer, with Saturdays being followed a run session in a group organised by my coach, Paul Savage.

It'll be the first time I've really trained in a group - big or small - so I'm hoping that being surrounded by better swimmers and runners will drag me along. I enjoy getting out into the open water - it makes a nice change - but can be a touch chilly, so this will only serve to toughen me up away from the relative coziness of the pool.

I have recovered well from the ASICS Greater Manchester Marathon, where I ran above my expectations in what is a great confidence builder for my Iron Distance marathon. It proves the run training was soaking in nicely. As Dan alluded to his March blog, having 3 sports to train does keep it interesting and helps stave off that single sport injury potential, which I was beginning to feel with my upped running mileage. Pre-car accident, Paul and I were lining up some good swim and bike focused training to bring that up to scratch alongside the running, but I'm dragging a week behind already now.

Base fitness was the main buzzword of winter and this has paid of nicely leading into the 2015 season so it's seems. Training indoors on the turbo is arguably where my hardest efforts are done. Revisiting specific sessions are easily measurable, a good chance to catch up with all the on-demand sport from the weekend(!) and not at all distracting when the girlfriend walks in and starts taking photos at probably not your most attractive moment!

James' next blog will be on Wednesday 27 May. Read his previous post here.