Still in recovery mode

Still recuperating but back doing some work and enjoying the lifestyle I signed up for : time to read a book, practice the guitar(sometimes twice a day), play with the children and train. Each year I have a period of intense work for a few months just to ensure that I have enough money earned for the year and then I can relax. Although this time I think I overdid it.

On the training front I'm up to running 3x a week of 6km each time in my runamocs 2mm sole no insole. I only have slight discomfort on the inside of my left ankle. Last Saturday I ran(not a race) the 4.5km run route of my local sprint triathlons. About a third of it is on flat but very stoney trail which was a bit too much for me in my runamocs and socks but once on the road section heading towards the finish I really started flowing and was running quicker. I was 10min slower than I have run in a race but the that was mostly tip toeing throught the stones on the trail

I'm really in a positive frame of mind and hope to be racing on the 4 December although it depends on my swim times in training. I've been back swimming in the pond since the 1st Oct as usual and it just didn't as cold this year and my feet haven't been as cold (they are generally warmer and that is down to barefooting). I have my first time trial first week in November and if the signs are good I'll race - my goal is to only race if my swim has continued to improve. My ankle weight is up to 1.5kg when swimming in the pool and when I first swam with that weight and the balls in my hand I thought it was a challenge too far but het 2months later it is still hard but my body has yet again adapted. But this week I am swimming 6 times 3 pool 3 pond and I've noticed by the end of each session it is a case of survival.

Every second week I am doing a time trial on the bike on the turbo and then practicing flying mounts and dismounts. The idea of timetrials every second week is to imitate racing a lot (when I raced my best I raced a lot). And true to form I had a disppointmenting time trial last Sunday and as a reulted I got annoyed with myself so I ramped up my training this week and it was fantastic. And that is also how my racing used to happen in my best seasons start with a few bad races which fire me up for the rest of the seasons racing and training. So we shall see

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Feet feel great

Should have mentioned feet feel great and I have been doing so short jogs. I am hoping the moment I've been waiting for has arrived and that my feet and ankles have finally clicked into place and they are fully recovered from conventional shoes and orthotic. Touch wood!

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Taking a few days off training

All the signs were there: tiredness, grumpiness, not sleeping well and feeling better during and after training especially on the bike. I needed sometime off. I've only missed a couple of bike sessions and the occasional swim (either children off sick or pool closed) for almost 12 months. And I've really been enjoying it especially the bike. I swam Monday but I'm not doing any training until I do my 30min test on my turbo Sunday morning. Taking time off is always hard. I didn't want to break my streak of almost unbroken training and now I've decided that I'm enjoying it. I can't just blame the training I've been working hard and speding a lot of time with Cameron and Emily

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Eased up on the cycling

I have decided to ease up a bit on the sprints on the bike on the turbo for a few sessions. After I finished Sunday's road ride , I did 30miles , my left thigh and hip were sore again and I decided to do some lighter stuff until it gets better. I have been avoiding this for the last few months but as I have no races comong up and want to race next summer missing a bit of ycling noew to get it better makes sense.

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Ankle improvement

My weak ankles are showing signs of improvement. When walking down the hill(down steps) from taking the children to school in my huaraches, that have previously caused tenderness, I found myself bounding down them today and no discomfort - I enjoyed it.

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Barefoot run update and other training.

It's on hold since the children and have returned to school, I've had some ankle tenderness from walking down the hill. And I'm doing extra walking.

The thigh strain I picked up from doing sprints on the bike - it actually came from experimenting with shoe cleat position and then sprinting - is getting better

I'm winding down the length of my Sunday ride I did 40miles Sunday just gone. and I'm only swimming open water in the pond over the next 4 weeks with and without wetsuit.

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Torrential rain ruins training plans

Normally on a Sunday is my long bike ride followed later on by 4x250m(approx)hard in Pandoras Pond which after Fridays swim in the pond when I set a pb by 22secs for that session I was expecting another pb however the weather has spoilt it.
Ihad 47moles on the road planned for the bike and normally a rain doesn't stop me but we are in a real tropical that tends to last 3 days and it was just too heavy to go out. I did an hour of hard intervals on the turbo instead.

Training has been very consistant since our return from the UK in July, I don't know if it is the lack of running that has given me more energy or the right level of effort on my mid-week bike sessions but I have hardly missed a session and had no easy/recovery weeks. That have been some weeks were I haven't wanted to train but I make myself start the warm up or even have a longer warm up and that felt fine. Yesterday I did my short barefoot jog in heavy rain and my ankles are feeling a little sore but I felt no tiredness and was looking forward to today. It is almost I have passed through a stage were my body has adapt4ed to the hard work. A bit like this guy Paulo Sousa (a former coach of Simon Whitfield) talks about. But we shall see.

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First official barefoot run

Swim-I've been too busy and lacking the motivation for blogging. Training has become almost automatic and regular over the last few months that I lost interest in posting about it.

I've been swimming 5 times a week - 2 in the pool and 3 in Pandora's Pond. The pond sessions have been intervals between the bouys. 3 different sessions of hard timed intervals in all conditions. I know I can swim the distances but my problem was/is having the confidence swimming them hard. And what can I say it is working, I feel really at home in the water - I swim hard and when I feel I can't keep up the pace - I do.

Bike - I have been dealing with a pain on the outside of my left knee , which I think was caused by twisting my cycle shoe from my new pedals and the realise tension was set too hard. And I have what feels like a thigh strain both of these don't stop me from cycling but I would stiffen up when sitting down and when in bed. They are both almost better. I planned to race the swim and bike and try the run even though I hadn't run since last March. But these problems stopped that which was probably for the best. I'm not going to race at all this summer just keep on working getting better and better in the water, on the bike and run.

Run. I have been doing a lot of barefoot walking but have been having problems with the really rough footpaths near my house. So this week I had a few test jogson smoother concrete sections and it felt good so I thought I try an official barefoot run. So this morning I went down to the concrete bikepath on the ocean front, that has smooth concrete and goes for miles, with Emily and ran barefoot for about 5min which was enough because I could feel my arches a bit, there is no rush to do loads so I am going to do it 3times a week and add a little bit each time. It was very enjoyable and I had to make myself stop and not over do it as I often do with new activities

I've revised my triathlon plans and the goal is to aim at the Ironman but that is my next post

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Relearning how to run

I've been spending the last few years to relearn how to swim from scratch and I'm doing the same with running. Going without conventional shoes. Going from running , walking with custom orthotics and supportive shoes has been a lot harder than I thought it would be, suffering with painfuls ankles. However I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. When this discomfort stops I can learn to to barefoot run with the help of this video.

Learn to Run Barefoot with Lee Saxby and Terra Plana from GTB Goodtruebeautiful GmbH on Vimeo.

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Still seeking motivation for training

Training is still a struggle at present. There seems to be so many other things going on, with children , the house and of course the big trip to the UK where I know I'll have no training opportunities unless I can start running again. I plan to try tomorrow.

My best training has been cycling to and from swiming twice a week and my longer weekend ride. I've been enjoying swimming after I've made myself go. And last Sunday I enjoyed cycling in the rain.

Last weekend we finished most of the packing for the move on the 11thJune and the waiting has been getting to us. specially as one day this week I had to drive over to Napier 3times. We keep saying afetr the 11th we will hardly be using the car.

Business is also so very busy and I've had good responses from long term clinets about the redesigns of there websites. My favourite is Ericksen Honda particularly Matt who is so upbeat and positive and really appreciates my effort. He passed on a compliment from the Honda bosses in Auckland who apparently loved it and wished the main Honda website could me more like it.

Other fun clients are twin wedding photograpers, one has recently just recovered from a disease that almost took a leg but she is still more positive than some of my other clients.

A new project I thought I had just finished, a simple online registration of tradespeople who would be matched to jobs by an agent, has just become a lot more complicated and is evolving into something bigger minute by minute. The clients Sue and David are just realising all the possibilities there 'simple' website could do. And now they have big plans and I just hope I have the skills or can learn the skills for what they want.

These are all positive people who appreciate my efforts and knowledge and advice. But I get a lot of negative people who don't say thankyou and just nit pick about nothing. I had a new experience yesterday, a client who runs an electrical company, wanted me to do another website for his wifes holiday home business. So I finished meeting with them and went straight to talk to one of their employees who I just finished a website for his holiday home. He told me he basically didn't like part of the design (an essential). I consult my clients about the design and way before any coding is done then I show them and consult again after I have coded a proper page because as I go along I make changes, take things out, add details or something might not work as well I thought. But he decides to tell me this when it is finished this has never happened at this stage of the process before. I always have a meeting after I've finished, a sort of refinement meeting , changing little tings maybe a word here and there or a photo. I went home in a grump and had to recode my pages. I wasted an afternoon I had earmarked for another client. And there was no thankyou or a sorry. I just try and remember the positives and try not to dwell on it.

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Blog posting and swim thoughts

I felt I was a bit lazy in posting in 2009 so in an effort to try and get to 104 posts for the year an average of 2 a week, here goes.

Swam this morning, added 200m to my total so it was 1000m with band and balls, my 500g weight fell off after 3x100m the plastic zips ties aren't working I'm going to try old cycle inner tubes. 4x300m + 200m with just ankle band on. I'm increasing my harder stuff with just the ankle band, which has an added strength element as well as technique because over 1500m I find I am swimming the first half or maybe the first 1000m okay and then fading quickly so I figure that I need some more strength endurance.

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