Bournemouth Triathlon

Well, racing and training never is straight forward! A week after having a good race in Sussex, I managed to tear my hip flexor. Unfortunately this has meant that I cannot power on the bike, certainly cant get out of the saddle and push, and running hasnt happened at all for the last week. However, that said, I still decided to get some tri practice in at Bournemouth, frustrated as I was, I had made the decision to train, so thought a bit of race practice would be a good idea. I went into the event planning on either finishing after the bike or a short run, just to get some running back into the legs, and to see how the hip was doing. The swim was a run in off the beach, so this meant that I was right at the back, as running into water just wasn’t going to happen, and the last thing I wanted to do was make the hip worse. I knew that though and despite the massive jellyfish enjoyed the swim and came out in 25mins. (they really do need to invest in some bigger bouys though, one tiny round orange ball is impossible to see 750m away, subsequently a few of us ended up a bit off course)

Out on the bike, the first hill was clear indication that I still couldn’t get any power through the left leg, or push out of the saddle. However, the competitive side of me wasn’t going to completely give up, and the female fish that had exited the swim nearly 5mins ahead of me was going to remain my target for the bike leg. My one goal of the race was to be the first lady back into transition, so I didn’t venture out the saddle and kept to a higher cadence, easier gear than I normally do. I successfully reeled her in towards the end of the bike section, and entered transition with about a minutes lead. What I should have done at that point is stopped, called it a day, rested up and be content with achieving my objective. However, I decided to go out on the rather long 10k, retrospectively, Im not sure why, as I was already in a fair bit of discomfort. I completed the distance, it wasn’t a run, more like a Quasimodo shuffle. Did I gain anything from doing it? Well no one likes a DNF next to their name, however, I should have been focusing on the bigger picture. I now have 5 weeks until Germany, and there will not be any running happening at all next week. So, the plan is a very easy week, physio, then hopefully a 3 week quality, injury free block, ready for the taper to Germany ( and of course lets not forget Alpe Dhuez short course at the end of April!). Its not ideal at this point in the season, but it happens, so the key thing is to learn from it, be sensible, recovery and get injury free!!