Approaching Easter and once again the weather is absolute
rubbish. Heavy rain and winds here in
Cardiff but snowing a bit higher up on the mountains. This cold, wet weather is
now forecast to last until mid April. I seem to remember no Indian summer for
us last autumn and it getting cold last year already in October. So to my mind that’s about six months of
winter! How does that work? Therefore,
for everyone, training outside has been challenging to say the least. I suppose
I’ve been lucky in that through work I’ve had a few weeks away in warmer climes
(Australia, South Africa and Morocco) and probably got a bit more Vitamin D
than most. However, as anyone who travels regularly will know, it’s very
difficult to do quality training whilst travelling.
I got my registration documents and race number this week
for the London Marathon, 21st April. It’s coming far too quickly for
me to do it justice. Then again it’s not far enough before the Euro AG Triathlon
champs for me to recover. But I’m glad I got in through the ballot. I see that
the ballot closed at 125,000 entries and I guess there are no more than 25,000
places for ballot entry so those are quite long odds. London was my first and
only marathon (outside of Ironman) which I did ten years ago. This is my third
ballot application since then so that’s not too bad. Thinking back to that
first marathon, I was so unprepared. I remember I bought a couple of pairs of
generic running shoes in the States at a flea market. No doubt they were fakes
as I got both for $20. It was only a few years later, and knackered legs, that I
found out I was a very heavy over pronator and if I’d kept with that type of
shoe I probably wouldn’t be able to walk now, let alone run. These days, with
the help of the internet, I’m fully kitted up with the right gear and I know
what to do. It’s just a matter of doing it!
For my very long pre marathon run I chose this weekend to enter the San
Dominico 20 mile race in Merthyr Tydfil. The current temperature prediction for
Merthyr for Sunday is -2C to zero. It will probably be either raining or
snowing. Oh what fun!
So to review, like most I guess, I’ve done most of my
training indoors in the last three months. In fact, looking at my logs, the
last time I was out on the road on a TT bike in anger was at the London Tri
back in September. I have tested both my
new TREK Triathlon bike and my second hand road training bike out on the flats
but not really training. It’s all been
on the mountain bike, spin classes and on the turbo trainer. Run and swim training has been ok, but as
always, subject to managing little niggles. In the three months I’ve hit both 5km and half marathon PB’s which I’m
really happy with. However my swim times are rubbish. I entered a few events at the
recent Welsh Masters Swim Championships but bailed out after only two of the
events. Although my 400m time was 10 secs better than last year it wasn’t what
I was hoping for with the training I’ve been doing (I also wanted to watch the
rugby which might have had something to do with it).
I suppose the biggest fear of veteran age groupers is being
hampered or fully curtailed by those injuries and conditions that you are more
susceptible to getting, and take much longer to recover from, as you get
older. I consider myself fit for my age
(as you get older you always have to say that –“ I did well in that race for my age”) but the older you get the
harder it is to get over any injury. A
while back, before I was 50, I had a discussion in a pub with some guys who had
already turned 50 and more. They swore that the “tipping point” was 50 years of
age. This is when things really start to
go downhill. I didn’t believe them at the time. Now I do.
As an example, I got a new heart rate monitor for Xmas. So
the first time I used it after Xmas I got this (after a long run).
A very nice rash and graze from the hrm strap. OK, now I cover the offending bits with a
plaster and smother it in Vaseline, but three months later the scar is still
very prominent and does not want to go away. 15 - 20 years ago it would have
disappeared in a couple of weeks. 25
years or more ago, it would have been gone in a week. That’s the problem as you
get older. You just hope you don’t come
off your bike as any cuts or grazes will mark you more than an Ironman tattoo. One of the biggest problems for older
athletes is that whilst you can generate large, strong muscles with training
and the right diet, protein shakes,
amino acids etc. there’s not a lot you can do with the supporting soft tissue
(tendon’s, ligaments etc.). Which, no matter what you do, basically shrink and
get hard with age and struggle to support the muscles you’re trying to develop. Hence my two big problems of swimmers
shoulder (rotator cuff injury) and Achilles tendonitis. I know all ages can get
these problems it’s just that it’s much harder to manage when you’re older. It
requires lots of work on the supporting muscles (around those you are actually
using) with strength exercises, physio, and particularly in my case with my
Achilles, ice the tendon after every run to get the blood flowing through.
I’ve had a few days off training this week as I’ve had pipes
through my nose into my gullet measuring pressure and pH (for 24hrs). Not easy
to train like that, especially with a monitor strapped to your side and a cold
(but snot’s the issue!). It’s another age related thing, but not
directly to exercise and fitness, just age. There’s so many other little things
I could go on about (don’t get me started on bone density, mineral deficiency
and stress fractures) it becomes boring but worse, very negative. I think you just have to keep going and see
what happens. Two things I hope I never
get problems with are shingles and inner ear (balance) problems. These are two
conditions prevalent in the over 50’s and I know quite a few friends and
athletes being knocked for six and out of things for months/years by these. For
shingles, it’s estimated that 1 in 4 over 50 year olds, who have had chicken
pox will get it to some degree. I don’t think (haha) I’m a hypochondriac, just
pro-active in my heath, but when I was offered a vaccine against shingles last
year (for money) I jumped at it.
My next goal?
To be able to walk on Monday after the 20 miler.
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