Posts Tagged ‘race new forest’

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

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.