Training on the Go

Writing about training appears to be more difficult than the training itself!

I've been travelling a bit for work recently - something I was a bit nervous about when I signed up for the ironman...how would I fit training in around flights, jetlag, eating out and drinking wine every night? Realistically, I am not going to avoid any of those things, much and all as I like to think I could go without the meals out and wine....it's just too hard and doesn't really make any sense not to catch up with work colleagues when I get the chance. So, off to Boston I went last week with my running gear in my case....

 My hotel on the Charles River in Cambridge

I have travelled with my running gear many many times in the past, always with great intentions of working out while away, and almost always returned home with the gear unused. In the end, it became a choice of - if i take my gear I'll need to check a bag and wait around at the other end to pick it up, or...if I give in and leave my gear at home, i can fly through check in and arrivals...in my younger days, and without a scary goal ahead, I took the easy option. 

This time, older, wiser and more scared, I set my morning training up the day before, went for dinner with my colleagues at 6.30pm, was in bed by 9pm and up at 5am in time for half an hour of yoga in my room and a 5km run on the treadmill in the hotel gym...exciting i know but it did serve me well for the rest of the day, jetlag never hit, either while there or after I got home! I didn't stick rigidly to my training plan but I got the sessions in where I could...

 My early morning yoga allowed me this view of the Charles River.  

All that aside, and having had a great week at work and catching up with colleagues, I was so happy to get back to the somewhat remote part of the world I live in. Saturday training was all about a run with nature, not a car or human in sight for the first 6km, and I did a 10km comfortably which made my week. It's the little milestones along the way that I celebrate 😀.

My local running route 

  

I have been over-focusing on running in recent weeks (there's always one...) and got a bit obsessed with learning to run from scratch again - I figured the best way to avoid injury is to re-learn. So I found a few good videos on running technique (like this one by Meb Keflezighi) and I've been working to shorten my stride and increase my cadence, using my Garmin to tell me how I'm doing (it measures vertical oscillation, cadence, balance between my left and right foot etc). But as I got caught up in all of that, and in technique for swimming and cycling, I remembered a tip my swimming coach mentioned to me - it's a basic but key principle, applicable to all three disciplines, behind which is a promise of being a better triathlete. It's down to consistently propelling yourself forward, every movement should be focused on doing that. No bouncing up or down, no upward or downward movement in the pool, no side to side movement on the bike....all forward. If you focus on that one thing alone, so many other things just fall into place naturally. Triathletes tend to over-think things so it's nice to have a simple basic principle to fall back on...obvious really!  

As usual, you can track my training on Garmin or Strava.

Gratitude

Grateful to have the opportunity to travel, but also to come home to such a peaceful, beautiful part of the world. Also very happy to finally be able to comfortably run a 10km, albeit slowly!