English
After almost five months Down Under, I’m now back home and settling in well. I have kit everywhere, a mountain of unopened post dating back from November and more laundry than Dot Cotton would know what to do with, but despite all that, it’s surprisingly good to be back. Although I miss not having the beach on my doorstep and glorious sunshine beating down, I had started missing home, so I guess I must be a home bird at heart. Both my sisters, my mum and my little one-year-old nephew came to meet me at Heathrow and after 20+ hours on a plane I can’t tell you how great it was to see them.
I miraculously seem to have escaped without suffering from jetlag (wearing my compression ‘pyjamas’ and drinking water like a loon must work) and am already back into training here. I did a great 85-mile ride on Easter Monday, the majority of which was the Cotswold Spring Classic, and was amazed to actually be too hot for most of the ride – what have you done to the weather, it’s really nice?! I have to admit the long ride wasn’t all about training, though, it was more about burning off the vast quantities of chocolate and cake I ate over the Easter weekend (see pic of me & my cousin Josh who baked me a welcome home cake – thanks Josh!)
My last few weeks in Oz were hectic to say the least: I had been struggling with a foot niggle for a little while which has turned out to be plantar fasciitis, so I was swimming and biking heaps to make up for my lack of running while getting physio/rehabbing my foot. For those of you unfamiliar with the dreaded PF, it is tissue which runs along the base of your foot and is usually caused by tight calves. Its calling card is sharp foot pain in and around the heel first thing in the morning and sometimes while running. In short, it’s a total pain in the butt.
Although this is far from an ideal way to be approaching the UK race season, I am putting all my energy into getting it right and also learning from mistakes I made. I realise now my motivation levels were at an all-time high, especially during my first couple of months in Oz, so I was training and training and training but not necessarily listening to my body as much as I ought to have. I was asking a lot of myself and not always getting the rest and recovery I should have done.
As I see it, I now have two choices: be totally bummed that I have an injury a few weeks out from the first UK races or use the usual drive, passion and energy I have for racing to ensure I’m fully rehabbed and fighting fit for mid-late season. It’s option two for me, please, and it was the latter I was thinking about as I was just aqua-running in the pool at lunchtime today. As my mum loves to say – if life gives you lemons, make lemonade – so I guess I am on official lemonade duties right now.
I realise this is becoming a bit of a mammoth bloggle so I will quickly close by saying a huge well done to Ozzer (Ian Osborne) who raced at Ironman Australia 10 days ago and had the race of his life. Not only did he take about 90minutes off his IM PB to break 10 hours (9:55) in challenging conditions, but he also qualified for Hawaii (Ironman World Championships) at the same time. A few weeks before the race he wasn’t even certain whether he’d get to start because he’d also had PF problems, so he’s proof – if ever it was needed – that hard work, a positive attitude and perseverance go a long, long way. All the way to Kona ;-)