This weekend saw a visit to the Bike & Triathlon show at the Manchester Central Convention Centre. A great variety of things to do, see and of course buy ranging from a few quid on discounted items all the way up to the top end - no not the £7-10k full carbon race bikes but the £20k endless pools that were being demonstrated. The first thing we saw almost upon arrival was the demonstration in one of these pools (which by the way would be a lovely addition to the back garden!). From what I can gather the guy in the wet stuff was a regular punter who happened to have signed up. The demonstration went through training techniques, drills, intervals and of course showcased some of the items available to buy!
The interesting, but not surprising, piece of information to come from the demo is that I train badly. That isn't to say I have poor technique (although I know I do) or anything but more the fact most people get in the pool swim back and forth jump out and think they've had a good session. The coach went in to explaining the longer you swim/train the more fatigued you become and the more likely poor form is likely to creep in - obvious really when you step back and consider it. He then followed up with examples of drills and interval sets that can be done of 100m distances with short breaks before the next set all the while showcasing the features of the endless pool - just in case you had a spare £20k in your sky rocket! It, along with a couple of tips form the Smooth Swim stand, were probably the highlights of training info I took away. Other interesting stands include the Girona Training Camp stand offering training camp holidays in Girona surprisingly but it is something I hadn't thought about before and may be an idea for the future should I step up distances as they cater for all abilities.
 |
| Definitely Not!!! |
 |
| More than likely! |
So as the day wrapped up and a couple of items added to my goody back off for some tea and a well earned sit down before Sunday rolled around and I'd be back out training.
All looked well for a brick session on Sunday the pool was open, the bike was good and my legs were OK after a day wandering about. Then I started thinking about trying to blat out a good swim in a 15m family pool so that idea got crossed off and I resorted to a true brick of bike/run. A quick ride out to Hornby Pool and back and I was really pushing on the way out with the wind behind me, unfortunately I pushed too hard and the way back into the wind was definitely hard work. Upon return home I jumped off the bike and could barely walk so rather than risk injury I called it quits and settled for the good hard ride.
With the ride out of the way time to undo any good with an afternoon watching England beat the Welsh in the RBS 6 Nations!
Tuesday - a visit back to The Lancaster Physiotherapy Clinic to check my progress. The good news is that as most of the pain has gone some trigger point haven't re-knotted. So after 30mins of glute & Piriformis trigger release I'm let loose back to the world of training again with yet more stretching and strength work to do - hopefully though I can get it all boxed off before my next visit and return to getting 5k runs in. My only worry about hte upcoming Tri Events is not being able to complete them due to the run portion causing pain but like I say hopefully <crosses fingers, toes, legs & eyes> the physio will do its job and I can tape on the day to help.
*I have nor I doubt ever been in any way, shape or form been under the mis-guided notion that I will or can train to the level to compete in Iron Distance Triathlons