For this weeks Blog I had the opportunity to reflect on the injury I caused to my left calf in training on Boxing Day towards the end of a 15 Km run and with thoughts of the re-strain two weeks ago at the Splash and Dash Event.
Nikki the Physio from the Capital Sports Medicine had done her magic and prepared me as best she could for the Scorching 100th Event – Half Ironman. The Half Ironman consists of a 2 km swim, 90 km cycle and a Half Marathon run of 21.1 kms. Nikki taped my calf and reinforced that I would be okay for the swim and cycle, however I had to walk only for the Half Marathon. Coach Ray met up with me at Registration with his other athletes / clients competing and reminded me to not get carried away with the run phase and to follow Nikki’s advice. After a few final points of advice near the start line on Sunday 24 January 2016 it was game on.
I went to the left of the field to avoid getting knocked around by the mass of swimmers which happens at these events, but went too far to the left and got tangled in the thick patch of the seaweed before turning around the buoy. Once out into the open it was choppy. I had two laps to do, however on the second lap I fortunately avoided the seaweed, but instead was blinded by the rising sun, so I simply followed the swimmer in front of me.
The swim was over and I noticed on my Garmin I had swam 2500 metres, guessing that the final turning buoy may have drifted coupled with going slightly off course.
Onto the bike for the 90 km ride I ensured I had a compression sleeve for my left leg. It worked well with no problems especially when battling the hills and head winds, with the downhills and tailwinds being great.
Back into transition then off for the run which was to be a power-walk for me. I slid an additional compression sleeve over the one I had for the bike and another one on my right calf. Another Qwik Kiwi athlete, Di Chesmar, was on the course armed with her camera due to her injury and every time she saw me, she reminded me to walk and that she was watching me. I completed the Half Marathon in 2 hours 56 minutes so pretty happy with that and the calf held out well.
The Splash and Dash was next on the agenda on Wednesday night. This consisted of a 1300 metre sea swim and a 5 km run. After discussing it with Coach Ray and Physio Nikki it was time to test the run with caution. So once my swim was completed it was a mixture of power walking and slow jogging to test the calf. Everything went well. This time I had another Qwik Kiwi athlete, Helen Majorhazi, reminding me to take it easy on the Calf. So back into training with running as I will have a slow jog on it on Sunday (31 January 2016) and then a final (hopefully) Physio with Nikki to get the all clear.
Bring on Ironman – 5 March 2016 and UltraMan Oz 14-16 May 2016.
– Humps