June Stato

 June: It came and went in a blur

I feel like I began to get back into a rhythm of sorts during June having taking a short amount of time to recover the second half of May after the race.

I have started strength training again - well done me - 🤣 … although currently without weights (!) … but body weight resistance seems to be enough to give muscle aches and I don’t want to go too cra cra… I haven’t been swimming much, mostly because I didn’t do much at the start of the month. I’ve stopped being frustrated about my pacing but happy with being back in the pool with a focus on technique and swim css fitness (I can confidently say that after 3 whole sessions in July.. lol.. but I enjoyed being in the pool so feels like starting again with an element of realism about it all - I can only improve)

Whilst I didn’t saddle up too often I did get a couple of longer rides in which were excellent and have now started running longer too. Honestly given where I was a year ago I was dreaming/ hoping/ aiming to see if I could get back to where I am today. So I am chuffed. Aim now is to stay healthy and fit and carry on extending both bike and runs. Once I’ve done more work on core and flexibility I’m going to put in more interval type sessions to everything, although I have my Petersfield training plan (thanks Gemini) with some functional strength sessions that I’m kind of following may or may not include those, I enjoy intervals so will have a “chat” if they are not in the plan. 

I’m expecting July to be about the same, maybe slightly down on June in some places, as we have a couple of weeks R&R where the focus will be R& Yoga & R

Here’s the June stato not in a table or screen shot as I’m on my iPad away from home so keeping it simple:

Swim: 3 for 4.58km and 2hrs 15mins (down number, only 2mins in time (weirdly) and 1.5km in distance .. go figure)

Bike: 12 for 252.1km and 10hrs 47mins (up, number time and distance)

Run: 7 for 78.3k and 9hrs 3mins… down in number but up in time and distance (running longer)

Yoga: 6 and 2hrs 52… same number but slightly less time

Strength: 3 and 1hr 48… up (because the previous 2 months had been zero!)

Walk: 21 64.8km and  13hrs 44… slightly down 

Overall happy with June.

Focus for July - enjoy Popey La Pope’s 50th birthday celebrations, do some yoga…. Then carry on swim technique, LSRs, clean the bike and get out on that a couple of times. OH yeah and of course Strength 💪, well definitely core. 

Feb-Mar-Apr-May.. STATO

 Oh dear - I seem to have missed a few months... much has been going on so there's a summary below - being lazy with a little cut and paste from Garmin :D

So what happened exactly ... welllll...

February I caught a really nasty bug that settled in my sinus' and quite honestly I haven't felt as rough for so long from a bug since I don't know when - all in all the thing went on about 5 weeks... sinus', eyes (conjunctivitus * 2), ulcers on the roof of my mouth, a sore throat... and all that just rotating around and around.. it was crap. The saving grace really was the amount of yoga I did 🤣 you can see the big uptick in March.... great but not terribly conducive to either the 10k run I had randomly suggested to a neighbour for the start of March, or the 16k run I had entered with some friends mid-March. The 10k was a DNE (did not enter!)... but I was feeling good enough (and it was a nice day) to walk up and support - well it was being held at the local craft brewry so a pint of medicinal beer was the order of the day... and the neighbour did great as well. One for the calendar for next year!

The 10miler mid-march was seriously in doubt and the week before as I lost my voice again I was like - there's no way, not only have I not done enough training but I feel like crap.. however I started to feel a bit better by the end of the week so 2 days out I ventured out for a long walk that ended up being 16k, so I contacted the organisers afterall the weather forecast was set to be ok, and maybe I could walk it. I looked at the route and figured there were several places I could turn to the finish line early.... anyway I'll see about writing up a mini race report - as I ended up completing the distance (!!)... having recovered from that I headed towards April with my return to triathlon race in Mid-May beckoning... But not before my return to hockey after about 20 years (!) ... a 2020 reunion (postponed for you know what) was set to take place - and it was great fun.... really great seeing some people I've not see in decades although my hockey skills were a little to be desired. It was a great work out and I ached for days in weird places, but it was worth it. Obviously by the start of May I had pretty much commenced panic training, knowing I could do the run and bike distance I got myself into the pool and bashed out 1500m to see how "bad" my time would be - immediately letting go of comparison to IM Fit Karen who could swim like a swimmy fish. Anyway panic wetsuit swimming then commenced in a rather chilly local lake and soon race day was upon me. Definitely owe a race report for that - I approached it really chilled, no expectations, definitely none of previous years extreme stress over pre-race nerves as the only thing that counted was doing it and finishing it having enjoyed it not suffered it. ANYWAY I did have a great time and did surpass my expectations... it's great to feel back to my old fit self... no not IM fit BUT at Easter 2024 I had a vision of me being able to swim, run or bike with a spirit of freedom and comfort over a mile (swim), an hour (run) and hours on the bike. I am so happy to have achieved that aim I can't put into words how the last 4.5 years post surgery has been, starts, stops, stress, injury, a lot of pain... but now I finally feel like I'm back!

What next - well I've already started a plan (with help from AI of course - we are in that era) that should get me to a run distance of 36k for my off road event in November. I'm excited for that - knowing I've got to do a lot more strength and yoga then I've done in earlier years to keep me as injury free as possible... and yes strength took a back seat in April and May but has already made one 30min appearance in June... phew..  Here's to the rest of 2025!

Here's the training volumes this year from Garmin

SWIM:

 

BIKE:

RUN

STRENGTH:

YOGA:

January Stato

 Fanfare.....

January saw me halting running AGAIN for the right niggly calf... I wasn't impressed and have now wholly blamed my asics gel cumulus shoes... I turned back to these in late 2023 as New Balance, my sted fast running shoe brand from my training in the 2010s no longer did what I used to wear and everything I read felt like I didn't like any of their new versions (too tall, too squishy or too expensive). So I turned back to the brand previous to that and got my self some asics cumulus (as asics still did that, just version 561... ok maybe just 20 something), and then also got myself a pair of asics tri noosa.... now I won't go into all the specifics but one point of difference is the heal to toe drop - the old new balance were about 6mm, the tri noosa are about the same and the cumulus a whopping 10mm... so basically I'm blaming my calf strain issue on that 4mm difference - as I only get the strain after running in the cumulus - which I've happened to do slightly more of this winter because the noosa are a bit chilly (ie colder in cold weather - poor toes).

Anyway - long story short, I got less running in during January then ideal given I have a 10mile run coming up mid March... but at least by the end of the month I was running again AND I think I've found a new trainer to go alongside my Noosa's which, after one run, I already love (fingers crossed).. 

... Hello pretty 😍 

Anyway - the top of the post said stats - so here they are for Jan