Unstable footing

I’ve been meaning to update my blog but there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day, anyone else notice that? Still mustn’t complain, life is good and I’m just about managing to keep out of trouble.

I’ve been adapting to life as a parent and fitting in training around family life, using my commute and lunch hours to get some activity done. Most lunchtimes you’ll find me running around campus, working on getting my speed sorted out. If I run two laps, I really work hard at trying to beat my time for the first lap. It’s a very small thing, but I find it quite motivating.

I’ve also managed to get out running with Andy H and his youngest son David as they prepare for the Skipton Triathlon in April. This mostly consists of us all donning our head torches and getting pretty mud up as we run off-road. David being a lot younger and fitter is generally a good 50-100m in front of us, acting like a rabbit to mine and Andy’s greyhounds – not that either of us would ever be as quick as a greyhound you understand.

A couple of weeks back on one of these headtorch runs I turned my ankle, placing it down on a rock, it hurt like hell but after hobbling for a while I managed to run through the discomfort.
Not thinking much more about it I ran the following lunchtime and experienced quite a bit of pain in my left Achilles, on examination there was a pea size lump about 3cm above my heel. It’s been quite painful ever since, especially first thing in the morning or if I’ve not been moving for a while. The actual motion of running or cycling don’t seem to effect it, which seems weird. I’ve been taking anti-inflamitories and icing the area in the hope that it won’t develop into full-blown Achilles tendonitis – the internet is both a scary and helpful place for self diagnosing a running injury !

So it doesn’t feel too bad today, so maybe it’s worked. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see at the end of the week.

In other news I’ve entered the Jodrell Bank Sportive, I’ll be joining Andy H for this 80 mile pedal-fest around the Cheshire countryside. He assures me that it isn’t too hilly but there is one cobbled climb – that could be fun if it’s pissing it down ( which seems to be the norm when I race ).

My previous blog post was about my radio interview for Talk Radio Europe. You can actually listen to it here. It went really well, I didn’t sound as nervous as I felt and some people have actually said I sounded posh, surely they must have been listening to a different programme?

Some further exciting developments are in the pipeline regarding the book, I’ll update you when things are confirmed and I’m officially allowed to say. So watch this space.

You can find my latest ramblings for Triathlete Europe Magazine here

Stay out of trouble people 😉