Well on the rehab trail and making a plan for the season!

Still no racing, but I am now able to train all three sports, so things are definitely looking up.

I’ve been scratching my head about what races to do this year all through the winter. I ruled out targeting this year’s GB age-group team for the world championships some time ago as too expensive (the 2015 championships are in the Americas again, Chicago, this time). With my off-season training disrupted for a month or so, qualifying would be a tough proposition anyway, so I had decided to focus on local races or trying some new ones.

On the other hand, going to the worlds won’t get any less expensive the following year either, with Mexico hosting the 2016 championships. (Triathlon’s obviously popular in Mexico and they fielded one of the largest teams at the 2014 Edmonton champs.) So, if I want to pull on my GB tri-suit in the next couple of years, the target has to be next year’s European championships, in Portugal. As in previous years though, the GB qualifying races for these championships are a year in advance. In other words, the same races I’d decided to skip…

Something of a dilemma, but I have hesitantly entered St. Neot’s and I’m thinking about going back to Nottingham as well. Both are 2015 world champs qualifiers as well as 2016 European champs qualifiers, and St. Neot’s is the British Sprint Championships too, so I think we can say competition will be tough!

It hasn’t even been straightforward to select which local races to do, particularly fitted around these ‘A’ races. Try Tri aren’t running several of my favourite races of previous years, and their May Day triathlon is the same day as the Hart sprint tri (one which I haven’t done but have heard is good and doubles as the first in the Tri2O summer club championships). Going to the St. Neot’s qualifying race rules out The Fix Events All Nations tri and the Offbeat Events (formerly Concept Sport) Salisbury Fast Twitch, both that same weekend. Their Southampton Fast Twitch (one that I haven’t done) is also out if I want some open water race practice before St. Neot’s because the only local possibility I can find is the Lymington triathlon with its swim in the seawater baths. Then, another clash between two events I’ve really enjoyed: the Human Race Eton SuperSprints are the same day as the Emsworth-Basingstoke Relay. After that, the Concorde triathlon has been rebranded the Bradfield triathlon and moved from August to May, landing just six days before Nottingham, so that isn’t going to work. Even looking beyond the month of the qualifiers and into June, the Wokingham triathlon (another I haven’t done before, but very local and race 2 in the club champs) is the day before the Jubilee River swim which Jon and I have already entered again.

I guess it’s good to be spoilt for choice!

So, lots of thinking (dithering!) this month, but also lots of training. I’ve managed to pick up the biking, and although I feel a bit rusty on the road bike, there are glimmers of hope. It seems like all my cycling buddies are using TrainerRoad or Zwift or both, and I probably ought to be spending quality time on the turbo too… but it’s so nice to be outside with the weather on your face! Swimming has been going well, and I’m definitely benefitting from training once or twice every week. I’ve been able to resume running again too. It’s too early to say where I’ll be come May, but I’ve made a good start. Taking advice from the physio and PT sessions with Nic, I’ve kept up regular strength & conditioning work too. This much training would have been unsustainable a year or two ago, so it’s nice to see the long-term progression.

Onto April and I’ll continue to split my training week between all three sports and S&C work, and, a bit nervously, introduce some high intensity race-focused workouts.

Finally, here’s the comparison between this month’s training, last month, and this month last year.