5 Year Anniversary

[Tri Hard Alan]

5 years for me today  :) I had a right hand side BHR with Dr Ronan Treacy.

General life, I don't even think about the hip. Haven't for a long time. I sometimes notice the smaller Range of Movement on that side when doing things like Yoga, Pilates, Circuits etc sessions but one of the benefits of the Covid situation is my Fiancée working from home and these are her main keep fit activities so we often do them together.  The increase in these activities has increased that ROM.

Running and Triathlon wise, things have also improved. Not so much in performance. But then some of that may be due to a lack of Races due to Covid and as such a lack of structure to my training. I have been on Furlough since April so no lack of milage but without target races I didn't have any real structure. But what has improved is the way the hip feels under stress. Last year was good but this year was even better. I feel now I have complete control with the key factor being running form with a particular emphasis on keeping very upright and not running "sitting" in a ragged manner. Working on my regular strengthening exercises and increasing my run cadence and shortening stride have got me to a position if I feel a twinge I can make a minor adjustment and all is great.

Drilling in to the detail of performance..... I did a half marathon at the end of last year, 28th December, with a target to run at 4.30 min per K pace and hot that exactly for a 1.34.38 time. I upped the training in Jan and then did another Half in Feb with a target of 4.25 min per K and hit that exactly as well for a time and post op PB of 1.33.05. In March I did a short distance Duathlon with a 3.15km run-16km bike-1.68km run and averaged 3.54 min per K and first run and 4.00 min per k on the 2nd run. Add the 2 runs together and that is a sub 20 minute 5k and that is the closest I came to that particular goal. Frustratingly. And then Covid kicked in and the world changed.
I carried on Bike and Run training but a hamstring injury in May stopped me running for a month. Once the Lakes opened for swimming in June I waited a few weeks and then did 3 Virtual Triathlons where you do the distances on your own and then submit the times on a website. The first one was a Half Ironman which is 1.9k swim, 90k Bike and Half Marathon run. And this was my first since the surgery and one of my goals for the year. Swim was awful as not enough time to get up to my normal speed but a 2 hour 46 min bike, average speed 32kph and a 1.50 half marathon were not bad for a total time of 5.16. I will definitely try to do a real life one next year.
Another hamstring twinge stopped my run training in August, just when real triathlons were starting to take place again. I managed to get 3 completed in September. The first was a Sprint (750m swim, 23k bike, 5k run) in an evening Tri at my favourite venue Eton Dorney where I came second in my Age Group and won a prize averaging 4.10 min per K on teh run. I then did another Sprint, this time 750m swim, 20k bike, 5k run at Blenheim, a very big, popular UK event which I also did last year. I was quicker across all 3 disciplines averaging 4.20 min per K on the run, which is a lumpy course, and a big improvement on last year where I averaged 4.30 min per K. I was 69th overall from 1980 participants and 4th from 188 in my AG. Was happy with that. My last race was an Olympic distance (1500m swim, 40k bike, 10k run) again at Eton Dorney. On a horrendous day weather wise I had a dreadful swim but another sold run averaging 4.10 min per K again.

For the rest of the year.... I did set myself a target of running everyday in October and only a few more days to complete that. This is something I have never done, even before surgery. I eased of the intensity but it has been very comfortable and clocked up 235km so far. Will get to about 290km by the end of the month. By far and away by biggest total. I am hoping to get another Duathlon in next month and will do another Half Marathon in Dec to try and get a 1.32.XX time. My current long runs are at 20km and did do a 26km one earlier in the year. If I can get that up to 30km with no issues I may well do a marathon before the end of the year. We will see.

[Pat Walter]

Congratulations on your 5 year anniversary. Thank You so much for stopping by and giving us an update. Great you are doing well, as most people do. congratulations on all the marathon wins and participations. So happy for you. Hope you will share many, many more updates for your anniversaries in the future.
Pat

[petemeads]

Hi Alan, glad to hear you are going so well and have managed some great results despite this funny situation we find ourselves in. My 6th anniversary is in 3 weeks so I will post again then, just wanted to say I have approached October similarly to you, inspired by (not)parkrun I have so far done at least 5k every day, and all but 1 was running/jogging - 188km so far so over 200km by Saturday. Unheard of, running every day, but I feel pretty good and the hips are working well. Nothing like your pace, though - not been sub 25 min 5k since May, and that was running downhill!

[Tri Hard Alan]

Hi Pete,

Nice to hear from you and glad you are doing well also. Interesting to hear you took on the same October challenge I did of running everyday and probably a bigger achievement than mine in that you have been operated on both sides and the second more recently so well done on that.

I also became a Vegetarian around this time last year.  I don't think it has had any direct influence on my running or Triathlons but has enabled me to manage my weight better. And that's not to say I was ever overweight before but would range from 80kg (seen as my ideal racing weight) up to about 84kg (not ideal as it does slow me a little). Since Feb I have been between 76 and 77kg, the longest I have ever held that weight. I talk about this particular journey in more detail in my Blog:

http://www.triblogs.com/blog/TriHardAlan/

Alan

[petemeads]

Hi again!

Read your blog entry re:vegetarianism - I was veggie myself from 1987 to 2014 (with fish & chips on Fridays) because my girlfriend/wife is veggie. Ran my best marathons and mountain events (Bob Graham etc) whilst veggie. Reverted to limited meat-eating hoping to improve my bones and joints a bit, not sure how much it has helped but will continue the experiment...

I was about 70kg in 2013 but did 5:2 fasting diet to shed the 5kg of fat I was carrying around needlessly, currently between 60 - 62 kg but with nothing like the strength I had when I was an active rock-climber so some muscle has been lost as well. Sarcopenia to go with Osteopenia I suppose... The reduced weight helps the biking uphill, ruins the downhills and headwind flats! And I still don't float so struggle with swimming in fresh water so no intention of trying triathlon - maybe a duathlon someday.

Regarding coincidences, we were in Tenerife in November at the Hard Rock, ran every day but not biked there at all yet. Walked up the big hill a few years ago, always fancied the concept of a downhill marathon to the sea from the summit!