Well it was going to happen wasn't it? A little too much enthusiasm with my front crawl and I have a rotator cuff strain to show for it. It's incredibly frustrating. Cycling and running can continue but a week out of my next race I've had to reduce swimming to nothing near race pace, and my wetsuit still has a shiny new tag on it in the corner of my study. One of the instructors at the gym has given me some rehab exercises with stretchy yellow bands, which looks rather intriguing - I plan to try them out tomorrow. It does give me a good excuse to work on my upper arm definition, which is gaining a rather satisfying shape. I almost know the way to the beach.
In the meantime, I am determined to become a road demon and conquer the Welsh hills. The glorious sunshine and stunning scenery are definitely fantastic motivators and I've been clocking up some good mileage over the past couple of weeks, along with some increasing total ascent figures. I nearly came off my bike spectacularly on Monday, saved at the last minute from the hedgerow by a shred of counter-balance. Luckily no one witnessed me wobbling and squealing my way round the sharp (downhill) corner in question.
I have also signed my name on the official (and expensive) dotted line for next year's Ironman 70.3 UK race. There's no going back now! £200 later, I have a registration number and a date with a world of pain: 19th June 2011. Just under a year. £530 of fundraising to date, and I feel confident both about the time in hand for training and the fundraising efforts. I am negotiating sponsorship with a couple of businesses currently, which is exciting and will hopefully be fruitful - PSM sportswear have also very kindly agreed to garishly logo up my kit in return for their logo emblazoned across my lower back. The more the merrier - being a stylish triathlete with a honed tan was never going to much of an option.
I'm also trying to work on my nutrition, which seems to be a trial and error process. Some days I finish training and need a long nap, others I feel raring to go for the rest of the day... the cream tea I had this weekend by the beach probably didn't help. But it was very yummy. And I found a lovely wedding hat at a bargain price in the same tea shop, so most certainly a productive outing.
Anyway, cream teas aside, I have a week to go until the next race and my first competitive open water foray. I'm hoping it being a British, all-women's race in refinedWindsor that it will be a case of 'no, after you I insist' politesse amongst the competitors, but I fear elbows and a distinct lack of ladylike behaviour will instead be the order of the day. I will spend the morning channelling Elizabeth Bennett. She certainly wouldn't stand for being swam over.
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