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
RUN
STRENGTH:
