Posts Tagged ‘ironman’

Just a quick entry to follow on from an earlier post to report that everything went to plan and I successfully completed my first Ironman.  The variety of training and conditioning work I did over the 6 months leading up to the event gave me every opportunity to complete this triathlon and actually enjoy it – which I really did! It’s also a terrific event, fantastic organisation with a great atmosphere organised by Race New Forest http://www.racenewforest.co.uk  If you are looking for a challenging but small and friendly Ironman distance event in a beautiful part of the country, organised by real enthusiasts and amongst like-minded athletes then this is the one. If you want to see the the fantastic scenery you can enjoy to ease the many hours of suffreing then go to the website and follow the Forestman film link or go direct to the Outdoors TV website who filmed the race via this link http://www.odtvplay.com/forestmanpromo.html

Huge congratulations to Stephen Price who is now officially an Ironman following his successful debut at Ironman Switzerland http://ironman.com/events/ironman/switzerland. I have worked closely with Stephen over the last 6 months as he prepared for this event, managing his aches and pains from increased and more structured training with regular massages and other treatments. As the day drew closer and training intensified we added in additional sessions to let him continue to train at the level he wanted to. This is a fantastic result completing a triathlon of this distance in a little over 12 hours.

You may have observed that my articles are all about my clients and their aches, pains, injuries, training, events and successes.  I’m passionate about what I do because I too am an active athlete and also have aches, pains, injuries, events and successes. 

I’m currently in an intense training period for my first Ironman in July  http://www.racenewforest.co.uk/09Forestman.htm  This requires a combination of long cycle rides, runs and open water swims.  I have found that my training is not about quantity, but the quality of what I do supplemented by massage and very importantly, conditioning.

Rather than focusing on how many hours I am doing each week, I have ensured my own injury prevention by concentrating on shorter, high intensity sessions. These consist of cadence runs, rides and tri-bricks coupled with conditioning at the end of each workout.  This ensures I maintain strong core stability which is pivotal to injury prevention. 

I still do the long rides and runs, but not exclusively; I realised early on that to build good fitness and stamina required sufficent rest. I see little point in training if you are already fatigued at the start as your risk of injury will increase. It is better to train at 100%  and enjoy the experience than force out ‘dead’ miles at 60% just because you feel you should. Your body has to repair and rebuild between workouts and if you do not allow sufficient recovery time the tissues will breakdown and injury will follow.

This is proven in my case by injury-free 6 months into my 9 month Ironman training programme, a series of running PBs and feeling energised by some long but great quality cycle rides.

Stephen is a client that I have been working with for sometime. He is an active and talented runner, cyclist and adventure sports enthusiast. We have focused primarily on injury prevention by using a variety of massage techniques to compliment his intense training. This year his main goal is the imposing challenge of completing his first Ironman event, the Swiss Ironman in July. We met at the start of the year to discuss a preventative treatment plan that would support the increased and varied endurance training he has planned to support his sub-10 hour goal. To achieve this he is leaving no stone unturned, having undergone various physical assessment tests and working to an individually tailored training plan to work around his work and personal commitments.

He has recognised he needs to maintain the ‘tools’ of his ambition (ie his body) and we agreed a 6-month contract at a discounted rate. This consists a bi-weekly treatment plan that fits in with his rest days or supports particularly intense training weeks. Further to the fixed appointments is the flexibility to add in extra dates so that we can respond to any injury or strain at the same discounted price.

Just a quick note of congratulations to Stephen and Paula [I do have to declare a very close personal interest in Paula - we are married!] who I have worked with and continue to do so through a programme of regular maintenance and injury prevention. They both successfully completed the Leith Hill Half Marathon http://www.trionium.com/  and achieved personal best times for the off-road, hilly event. Although for Stephen that was a little easy – he had never run it before!

I can directly vouch for how well they both ran as Paula had persuaded me to join them. It is an excellent event, very tough.

Both Stephen and Paula have a number of targets for the forthcoming year: for Paula the London Marathon in April and the Atlantic Coast Challenge (3 marathons in 3 days) http://www.votwo.co.uk/votwo2007/events-and-adventure/race_view.php?i=73 at the end of September 2009.

Stephen is building for the Swiss Ironman http://ironman.com/events/ironman/switzerland event in July and we have put together a specific package for him that compliments his training programme.