SO, last year I was a bit lame (Lazy, not limping). I did Southwell sprint triathlon, Foremarke Hall Triathlon and the run section of the Castle Howard olympic distance team relay. Now I'm thinking about it I'm like "Gaa... is this all I did last year?!". I think it is. Massive lame points! Anyway, new year, new start. Lots has been happening. Firstly, you will be pleased to know that my bike and I are reconciled and are good mates again :-) We had to suck it up and get over it for Southwell, and we did:
Cheers to Aidy for the quality photo just after the bike mount.
FYI, if you don't like pictures of minging feet don't scroll down!
In other news, I have stupidly signed up for The Vitruvian this year, which is half ironman or middle distance. It felt like this was a bit of a leap from sprint distance, so I also signed up for the Dambuster, which is the olympic distance at the same place (the beautiful Rutland Water) a couple of months before. I was caught up in the excitement of my friend doing the Vit last year, which I marshalled for. Amazing atmosphere and good vibes all over the shop. This lead to some serious thought about how I was going to tackle the open water section (of 1.9km!). There was no dodging it, I had to get my head around front crawl. I'd blagged my way through the indoor pool sprints with breast stroke, but it just wasn't going to cut the mustard for open water. Luckily, winter is a good time to swim seeing as often running and cycling outside become difficult, so I prioritised swimming (getting into a routine of twice or three times a week). I considered a couple of sessions with a swim coach, and got a list of 6 or 7 registered with my local pool. Whilst thinking about this, I ended up speaking to one of the coaches whilst I was in the pool one day. She told me not to pay for any sessions as I could already swim front crawl. I just needed my technique tweaking. She gave me a few different tips, one particularly about breathing, which really helped (thanks Bev!). I went from feeling exhausted, gasping for breath and stopping after two lengths, feeling unable to carry on, to being able to swim in a maintainable rhythm. Credit to Jonny too for being a good swim drill master! I still find it hard to see what I would be able to achieve distance wise, as I have fallen into that black hole of being too fast for the slow lane and a bit slow the fast lane (there are only two lanes!) and swim etiquette dictates I hold off at the end of the length to let the faster person pass. The pool misrepresents open water anyway. Having swum outside in a wetsuit (in the docks!) I'm fully aware it will feel like I may be starting all over again when I start open water practice (starting 1st of May, exciting!). I think I need to get a wetsuit more suited to swimming too, as mine feels too restrictive in the shoulders. But yeah, I need to get some events in, otherwise all that swim practice will have gone to waste!
Running has been fine, thanks to born-again runner Fran. She's come back from a fractured leg even more eager than she was before! Together we've cracked a half marathon (with another due next weekend) and a sub-hour 10km (in Lincoln, which was one Fran had always had an eye on to do, so it was nice to do it there). We do laugh about her being naturally being suited to running, which she is, and me naturally NOT being, which I'm not! We went for a sports massage where the masseuse found knots in my muscles everywhere, causing me to squeal like a stuck pig, whereas Fran was zen personified, practically glowing (with smugness!) The evidence is also on my feet (see photos! They are grim!) which seem to gradually being worn away/dropping off as demonstrated below (to save Facebook friends from being subjected to it!) The weird thing is looking at these photos and not even thinking about stopping running! This is the new normal for my feet!
So next stop biking (had one bash on the new clip in shoes but since then gale force winds have stopped play!) which is going to involve a new bike as soon as work pulls their finger out on the bike to work scheme ! I'll leave you for now with some revolting toe photos. Please feel free NOT to continue looking :) catch you next time!
Big toe left foot, been black since a blood blister from Lincoln 10km over a week ago. Also showing here how my big toe rubs my second toe (can just see around the nail)
Little toe left foot. Both little toes regularly "shed" usually like a snake, all at once. This uppermost bit of this is quite sore where it tapers back into live skin. Also it looks red in the centre because a new blood blister was popping up after tonights attempt at 13.1 miles (had to be stopped because of this toe)
Right foot, had that black spot for a while. Rubbed a bit on the side of the big toe. Main issue here is big toe rubbing skin off the second toe...
...which can be seen more clearly here.
Little toe on right foot looking close to 'shedding'
little toe and next toe rubbage on right foot.
Having seen the feet live, I was perfectly able to view the photos without becoming squeamish. Makes me grateful for my hard as nails feet!
ReplyDeleteWell - we've done massage, perhaps the next stop(for you) should be a podiatrist or chiropodist to get some professional advice on foot care instead of just me and Vix nagging you about surgical spirit!
By the way - thanks Sue ... I've been called many things before, but never Serene!
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