Author: Buck

After all my big talk about managing the pain of running with no socks and the getting bad blisters, it turns out recovering from them is vastly worse.

They went from scratched-looking to red raw open wounds.

It’s been 6 days and they are still raw. I’ve been washing them in salt water, pouring raw salt on them, and dabbing them with rubbing alcohol. The pain is enough to make me sweat. At least the rubbing alcohol only lasts a few minutes, pouring salt on is intense for twice as long.  And they still won’t heal. Stubborn.

They say that 60% of your tri training should be on the bike as that’s where you are going to be spending the majority of your race. I’ve been putting it off as it’s horrible and boring.

I finally bit the bullet, cleaned out the shed and set up the bike on the torture device/ turbo trainer.

I did one session after my epic run the other day. It was good training but I was sweating and panting, kept pausing to take drinks and generally make excuses to rest for a second. I had it in a low, mostly manageable gear, apart from the 5 minutes in top gear. I kept trying to shift up, to build muscles and stamina, but quickly dropped down again.

I am really getting focused on my training.

I’ve cleaned out my shed and set my bike up on the turbo trainer. I did a session yesterday and today.

I did this week’s task of 2½ miles at race pace the day before those.

Things are coming together.

After all my talk of why I couldn’t fit an aftermarket exhaust silencer (“end can”) on my bike I got talking to someone on Twitter. He said to try a certain brand, so I went and looked. They said you could just straight swap the can, no retune, no remapping the computer for the fuel injection.

Huh.

More ups and downs with my training. I went out for this week’s fast run on Saturday and just had nothing. It was shameful. I don’t know whether it was starting off at race pace, not fuelling properly beforehand, wearing too hot clothing, all of the above or nothing, but I just couldn’t. I ran 1.6 miles and had to stop and get my breath. I turned around and came home. I was devastated.

On Sunday I got an early finish so forced myself out. I was going to do the 8 mile run I’d done the week before. Set off at a relaxed pace for a mile, a mile faster, faster, a mile breather then belt it back. 8.37, good start, 7.23, good, faster, noticed I was doing 6.45 pace, sod it, let’s do it! No breather, straight into race pace! I did the first half mile, turned a corner onto a straight and the wind was in my face. I had to dig in and really push, got 6.46, turned around and had to get my breath back at race pace. I had to use every mental trick I have to keep going (it doesn’t hurt any worse, just keep going to the corner, to that lamp post, done a mile and half, that’s three quarters, this is furthest I’ve done at this pace, another quarter mile and I’ll quit, etc) did it in 6.44. Redeemed myself. I had to stop for a few breaths, then continued at a jog for that mile. Got 8.10, OK, it’s back on, upped the pace again 7.32, and an extra .3 of a mile to make it a 10K in 47 minutes. All in all, pleased with that.