I love it when a plan comes together...

 ... because, let's face it, it very rarely does these days! Since having kids, many spanners have been thrown into the works to prevent the competitive sporting cogs from ticking over smoothly. Chiefly, they are want to keep infecting themselves with every possible communicable disease going and then kindly sharing these diseases with you. It feels like for the past 2 - 3 years, since everything "opened up" post-pandemic, that we have just stumbled from one illness to the next, making any meaningful training completely impossible and any form of training plan completely pointless. 

Dysautonomically disgruntled.... but qualified for the GB sprint duathlon team again!

 I would love to write that since my last blog I have had a better run of luck on the health front and been able to get back to some consistent training and racing.... sadly, not so. In July I ran the Snowdon Race whilst suffering from what we later found to be our 3rd bout of covid. I set off up the mountain and my whole body just said "NO"! This year the race was cut short due to 90mph winds and freezing temperatures at the summit (typical July weather...), so with this knowledge I plodded on as I knew it was only two thirds of the usual distance. I was gutted to cross the line as 2nd vet 40, just 5 seconds behind the category winner. I had no idea and, knowing that I had taken it easy, was frustrated as I could have easily found those 5 seconds. But that is racing, and I made a judgment call on the day as my body gave out warnings, and so ultimately I did the right thing.

Snowdon Race / Ras yr Wyddfa in driving wind, hail, rain etc.

I had a lot of post-viral fatigue in the weeks after so took a full week off any exercise. Then, shortly after racing Totnes 10k at the start of August we got struck down with the next lurg doing the rounds, which started out as a tickly cough but then entrenched itself and the most hideous, harking, unshiftable cough I have ever had the displeasure to experience ensued. For all four of us - me, husband and both children - it then turned into a chest infection and we all required antibiotics. It lingered on for 12 weeks for me and 15 weeks for my husband, who also needed steroids and further antibiotics to shift his. This meant that for the duration of August, September and October I had to have multiple rest periods and the only exercise I was able to manage was some very low-key plodding. I did get carried away at a couple of parkruns and, at one at Eden Project in September - at which I miraculously managed a sub 20 minute clocking - I massively set myself back and flared up my post-covid dysautonomia: don't push your body when your body is still coughing up half the contents of its lungs people!

I was diagnosed with dysautonomia after seeing a cardiology specialist back in late May / early June. I am only just starting to get my head around what it is and what it means long term. Crucially, it is deemed "incurable". This sounds like a death sentence, but in reality I have learned that although once you get it you are stuck with it, in practice it is like having arthritis, whereby you have to live with it but you can manage it and there will be times of flare ups (triggered by further viral infections, fatigue or stress) and times where you barely notice it and the symptoms fade. For me it manifests itself as tachycardia (fast and also erratic heart rate). I also have symptoms compatible with POTS, so it is exacerbated by standing, walking, running (upright) activities, and relieved by sitting and recumbent activities. At night, my resting heart rate is only about 10 bpm above its previous normal (50 instead of 40) during a dysautonomia flare up, but when I get out of bed it shoots up from 50 to around 120bpm within 10 minutes of waking. Eating large meals also exacerbate it, as does stress and adrenaline. So when you think that racing spikes adrenaline levels plus is an upright, highly aerobic activity, you basically have a recipe there for a truly bonkers heart rate that goes off the scale of my previous parameters and makes any form of heart rate based pacing completely useless! The weirdest thing is, I don't feel any different. My garmin tells me that my h/r is spiking at 185bpm just doing an easy 9m/m warm up jog, but I feel totally comfortable, not out of breath, able to hold an easy conversation and essentially feeling like I do on a normal day when it is around 125bpm at this same pace and effort level. And no, it's not a faulty Garmin as it's been confirmed by ECG and holter monitoring. 

A dysautonomia day: 50bpm in bed, get up and suddenly I'm in zone 2 just preparing and eating breakfast and sat in the car driving to the race. Then start an easy warm up jog and it shoots up to the high 170s. 

At first I didn't really know if this spelled curtains for my competitive sporting ambitions. I am a Mum now first and foremost, so staying healthy and avoiding any undue risk is my top priority to ensure I am able to care for my children. Once the cardiologist did further checks to establish that this is not an actual heart issue and is an autonomic nervous system problem and that exercise is in fact one of the recommended treatments for autonomic dysfunction, I felt happier about starting to push myself again. And what I have noticed is that my heart rate spikes within the first ten minutes of exercise, then the exercise actually kicks it back into a more normal rhythm and rate. So I just have to make sure I do a proper warm up now so the spikes can occur and it can then calm down before the race and real effort begins. That's not to say it doesn't still affect me - I know it does. Mostly it winds me up as, as an athlete, I am used to training my body so it responds when I ask something of it. With this condition, my body does what the bloody hell it likes and I have very limited control over it. But I am starting to see patterns in it and becoming aware of its triggers and also some little fixes, so hopefully going forward I will just learn to live with it and ignore it. I hasten to add, the cardiologist I saw was privately through the Nuffield.... I am still waiting to se an NHS cardiologist after being referred on 9th April this year as an "urgent" case... which I think highlights the shocking state of our health system currently. 

So, that boring tedious health gubbins aside, this weekend just gone I lined up for my first multisport race since the European champs in Bilbao in September 2022. As we have pretty much been plagued by illness ever since then, all the ambitions I had for the 2023 season had to be jettisoned: no Euro sprint champs in Venice; no world champs in Ibiza; no half-iron triathlon in North Wales; no Euro champs standard distance qualifier at Thruxton. None of it. I was ill for every single one of these events. So I left signing up for the Devon Duathlon (a qualification race for the 2024 Euros) until the last minute. I almost didn't do it as I knew I had done such little training (just 2 bike rides outside on the actual road this entire year and very very few wattbike sessions in which my watts were down by around 40 - 50!), and a few slow 9m/m plods and the occasional parkrun. Hardly perfect race prep! But my husband encouraged me as he pointed out that for years I have had to travel hundreds of miles to attend qualifiers in Nottingham, Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Hampshire etc, and now finally we have a qualifying race in Devon, and in East Devon just 7 miles from my house no less, and I am considering not bothering! Truth be told, I was nervous to sign up to a local race for fear of being crap! Yes, there are reasons for that, but, for me, I would feel the pressure to perform and so maybe I'd rather not bother than trail in behind athletes that I am capable of beating when in good health and better trained. My husband said that this was my ego talking and to man up and get on with it and who cares what other people think as I know the truth. Sound advice! My phsyio and long-time supporter, Nigel Wilman, also pointed out that I am notoriously hard on myself, so when he asked where he thought I was at, and I said 70% fit, he said in reality that is probably more like 80-90% and I will probably still manage to pull of an age group win.... I lacked his faith and him saying that put a whole load more pressure on me to perform! But you only need top 4 to qualify and I hoped that I could do enough for that at least.

Race day and, thanks to waking up with a bucket load of pre-race nerves and adrenaline, my dysautonomia went totally batshit crazy and gave me the most erratic heart rate readings I've had since when I first got hit with this in the initial aftermath of covid in April this year. 125bpm just sat in the car driving to the race! In fact, I spent the entire morning in training zones 1 and 2, just having breakfast, getting dressed, doing all the normal life activities. My training zones are meaningless when my heart goes off piste like this! In warm up I felt comfy, though a heart rate of 180bpm suggested otherwise. I just try to ignore it and trust that it will settle. 

Off on the first run and I feel comfortable, tailing friend and local age group competitor Emilie Brock. I know she is in great shape at the moment and honestly, I wouldn't have expected to be able to stay with her, so when she isn't pulling away, I figure I am doing ok.... but can I hang on?! There is an interesting off road section through Woodbury Common, which is pebbly and muddy and rather dicey when wearing Nike Alpha Flys! Into T1 neck and neck with Emilie. Onto the bike and off on a rather technical, hilly, wet and pot-holey bike course. A lot of competitors later said that they considered it a dangerous route and not really suitable for a GB qualifying race, but I think for those of us who live and train on these Devonshire roads, it is just what we are used to, so I didn't actually find it that bad! Again, I found myself trailing in Emilie's wake for the entire length of the bike. I would draw her back on the uphills, and she would pull ahead again on the downhill sections. We arrived into and left T2 together. We didn't know if there were any other vet 40 ladies up ahead of us, but in fact there weren't and we were actually competing against each other for 1st and 2nd spot. I haven't done any brick sessions at all, so the last time I ran off a bike was in Bilbao in September 2022! So it took my legs a little while to work into their rhythm, but once they did I found myself feeling stronger and my pace picked up as the run went on. Coming back into the grounds of Bicton College, Em and I are still neck and neck. My "sprint finish" is never to be relied on as my fast twitch muscles gave up twitching about 10 years ago, so I went for a sustained push from about 200m out. Luckily I got a gap and crossed the line as 1st vet 40 and 6th female overall, just 5 seconds ahead of Em. Both of us therefore comfortably qualified for a spot on the GB sprint team. 

Whilst I was overjoyed with the result, which was far better than I would have expected given all my health setbacks this year, it also left me wondering what I could achieve if only I could have better health on my side. To think I managed 6th overall in a strong women's field on the back of no quality training and a year of endless bugs and fatigue is both encouraging but also frustrating. The location and date of the Euro champs has yet to be announced, but I just hope we have a better winter on the germ front and I am able to finally string some consistent training together to get fit for it. I might be able to wing a category win at a qualifying race on no preparation, but I won't be able to medal on the same appraoch!

Thanks go as always to my amazing phsyio Nigel of Honiton Physio. My body doesn't respond well to enforced illness layoffs as residual weaknesses and postpartum niggles start to creep back in, so it's thanks to him and his expertise that I have been able to keep on top of those. 

Next up, hopefully some fun off-road races in the build up to Christmas, then assess my goals for next year once the details of the champs are announced. 

40 not out! (But the night watchman's padding up...)

 A couple of weeks ago I turned 40. Yuck. 30 was quite exciting, heralding the true start of proper ‘adulting’ (home ownership, marriage, kids etc). At 40 I’ve now deduced that adulting isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It's rewarding, sure, but bugger me is it stressful, relentless and knackering! Furthermore, my best sporting years could well be behind me and this could potentially be life’s halfway point, given the as yet unknown length of innings I may have. I mean, age is but a number etc etc and I am far from “past it”, but I have noticed that recovery takes longer these days than when I took up running just over a decade ago; niggles are harder to ignore and run through as they are want to turn into full blown injuries; and generally I fatigue more easily and so cannot cope with the same volume or intensity of training that I once could. It’s hard to know whether much of this just is down to age or the fact that I am a busy Mum to a 4 year old and a 2 year old, the latter not being a terrific sleeper, and so a full night’s sleep has not featured in my recovery plan since pre-children in early 2019! I also no longer get the luxury of putting my feet up on the sofa after a race or hard session: it’s a case of jump in the shower and resume parenting as quickly as possible as the Mum-guilt is already kicking in at having abandoned them for an hour!

Then let’s talk about health issues and doctors visits: the older you get, the more of them there are! A particular recent health scare arose following a bout of covid in March. I felt fine with it at the time but about a week later, following a 13 mile trail run across Woodbury Common, I started experiencing ventricular ectopics (palpitations, essentially). Everyone gets these, many have a couple a day that go unnoticed, but having a high ectopic burden (too damn many of them!) can weaken the heart muscle and its pump function over time. 12 weeks on and I have been having continuous ectopics every 2, 3 or 5 beats that aren’t abating, so I am currently undergoing cardiology investigations to determine if something needs to be done about them (an ablation). I also suffered from an extremely high heart rate for the first 6 weeks following covid. My usual resting h/r is around 42bpm, a walk pace would be 80-90bpm, easy run 130bpm, all out 5k race pace 180bpm. In the 6 weeks post-covid I was at 55bpm resting, 130bpm just pottering around the house, 165bpm walking and over 200bpm at an easy run…. Needless to say, I didn’t attempt to race on this to find out the dizzy heights I might have reached! Anyway, the cardiologist suspects this is a form of post-covid dysautonomia and not actually a cardiac issue. A cardiac echo confirmed that my heart remains structurally sound. The solution? Most likely, time. Like many post-covid issues, you just have to let it run its course and hope that that course isn’t too damn long. The important thing is, if it wasn’t for my Garmin or being wired up to ECGs, I wouldn’t be aware of this high heart rate. I feel the same and it doesn’t feel like it is beating any faster. Jolly good as it means I have resumed racing and don’t feel too different or perform any differently (having had a month off all exercise and the ensuing drop in fitness accounted for), so the ectopics are clearly not too much of an immediate problem to my heart function. Not going to lie though, it was a worrying few months and it did make me question what would be my "me thing" if I could no longer run / cycle / perform to the level I have grown accustomed to. I mean, I could take up golf I suppose, but I doubt it would give the same endorphin release and, moreover, it’s too bloody time consuming!

Anyway, enough of the negativity. There are plus points to being 40: bottom end of a new 5 year age block for competing at age-group events; potential to win age group prizes in local races as well as top 3 overall; having the knowledge and conviction to do what works best for you and not be swayed by others: this applies both in sport and in life in general. A prime sporting example is that I now know that my legs do not handle speed work, so I simply don’t do it. I do the occasional hills session and a weekly parkrun at tempo pace to get into the anaerobic training zone. I also don’t do high volume sessions or high mileage as I simply don’t have the time. I do a daily set of specific strength exercises prescribed by my amazing physio, Nigel Wilman of Honiton Physio, to target my weak areas and make me more robust. This compensates for any lack of endurance training to ensure I can hold my form even when fatiguing towards the end of a race.

And so, to some recent race results. Up until May I hadn’t raced since the Templer 10 mile in November 2022. I was meant to do the Tough Runner Exeter Epic Trail at Escot in March, but it got cancelled with less than 48 hours notice. Over 4 months on and still absolutely no updates sent out on a rescheduled date, despite my three emails to the organiser to be told three times: “an update will be sent out in the next couple of weeks”. Still waiting. Seriously, a money-grabbing commercial outfit that doesn’t give a buggers about the runners. The thieving sods have pocketed my £28 and are away laughing. I digress…. Recent races. I’ve done three:

The Uplowman 10k in May. An undulating road race near Tiverton. A fabulously organised, cheap to enter event by Tiverton Harriers (Tough Runner could learn a few things here). I finished as 1^st lady in 41:10. Not bad considering this was following my full month off any training with the post-covid heart issues. My legs felt zippy and rested and full of running. It was a pleasing result.

Shiver Me Timbers 10 mile trail race in June. A coastal path race from Goodrington Sands to Brixham and back. Again, superbly organised and a beautiful trail route. The combination of distance (I don’t run over 6 miles in training) plus hills made this a challenge. The hot, humid weather didn’t help either! So I set off conservatively with another lady and we ran together for the first 3 miles. We then took a wrong turn as an arrow had been moved and added on an extra ¼ or so of a mile. The lady then pulled ahead and I was happy to settle in for a comfortable 2^nd place, finished 10 minutes ahead of the 3^rd lady. Finish time of 1h29, averaging 8:50m/m pace for 10 miles with 1500ft elevation.

Charnmouth Challenge fell race in July: my first race in the new vet 40 category. A coastal path challenge from Charmouth taking in 3 major climbs, including an ascent of Golden Cap – the highest point on the south-west coast path. 8 miles with 1700ft of ascent. I led the lady’s race up the first climb but as we topped out at Stonebarrow another lady pulled up on side and then put major time into me as we started to descend. I love a hill…. but I am pretty shit at running down them! She was then away and gone and I dug in for 2^nd place and comfortably first vet 40 (gotta take these old person wins now!). An average pace of 8:40m/m was an improvement on the Shiver Me Timbers race, given the increased elevation. I was pretty knackered by the end; it was another hot day and I don’t have the endurance to cope in the latter stages of these long races, so a fair bit of walking occurred on the final climb!

Next up? Snowdon International Race. 10 miles / 3000ft of climb. I have done this race twice before (2011 in 1h36m and 2015 on honeymoon, after being up all night violently puking with food poisoning from mussles(!) in 1h59). I’m now older, not as fit, not as well trained and having heart issues! My main aim will be to survive!

And of course, Saturdays wouldn't be Saturdays without a parkrun fix. Today's, celebrating the NHS@75 (which my husband proudly works for) was at Longrun Meadow in Taunton where I finished as 1st lady in 19:59. I've now done 314 parkruns at 74 different venues. It's the official start to the Dominey family weekend. The choice of location now gets swayed more by the quality of play park near the finish line than the quality of the post-run coffee, but hey ho, a Mum can't have everything!

"Come on chaps, keep up"!!! ;-) 

Thanks as always to Nigel at Honiton Phsyio for helping me keep on top of my niggles. Some pregnancy induced weaknesses crept back in in the enforced month I had off with the post-covid heart issues, so I have been paying him many visits and the combo of a well-placed knuckle in a strategic place plus strength, flexibility and activation exercises have enabled me to keep on top of the problems. 

European Sprint Duathlon champion 2022!

Went to Bilbao with bike, double buggy, two children, toys, bedding, baby monitors, clothing, bike kit, beach kit, sparkly unicorns, the kitchen sink,  you name it. Came back with all these things and a shiny gold medal! I can hardly believe it. 

In truth, I’m not entirely sure what outcome I expected going into the European Sprint Duathlon Championships in Bilbao, or what result I would have been happy with, but it’s safe to say that the gold medal was not something I had entertained as a realistic target. Maybe I could have dared to dream I could sneak a bronze if I got lucky on the day, but to better my silver from the Europeans in 2017, when I was footloose, child-free, not sleep-deprived and knackered, my weekly training volume was around 3 times more than it is now and when recovery was actually a thing too, well, it’s just not something I would have thought achievable given my current circumstances.

-      My second child is NOT a sleeper. She is 19 months old and has never once slept through the night (save just the one random night at about 8 weeks old)

-      I never allow my sport to come before my children, so I make sure my training sessions don’t go over the hour as I just feel bad for being apart from them for any longer than that

-      My second child still breastfeeds 6 times a day, so being apart from her for long periods is not an option

These are all very much my choices and so the fact that I was able to win the gold despite not prioritising training for this event to the extent I would have done in my pre-baby days just makes this race outcome all the more special.

And the championships were sooooooo amazing. Spain really know how to put on an event and to do it slickly, professionally but also with a party atmosphere. The course was fantastic, with the runs taking you in front of the Guigenheim and even running through the iconic spider installation outside it: quite a novelty! The bike suited me perfectly as it was hilly – basically 1000ft up over the first 10k, then 1000ft down over the second 10k. It was a draft legal bike race but drafting on a hill isn’t always feasible as you find that riders are either climbers and so don’t need the benefit of a draft, or they are powerhouses for the flat and so get dropped quickly on any hill. I am most definitely a climber! I was lying in second after the first 5k run, 15 seconds off the pace. On paper, the girl I was trailing is by far a better runner than me, having recently run several sub 18 minute 5ks. I haven’t broken 19 minutes since 2016 so to be only 15 seconds adrift after the 5k run was far better than I would have predicted. I caught her early on on the bike, on the short flat section out of the city, and latched onto her wheel. We were very evenly matched on the bike, both on the flat, uphill and downhill section. At the final dead turn on the course, less than 1km from dismounting for T2, we were still together, so I knew I had to push on now to make a break as if it came down to the run, I’d be running for silver, not gold. I got a gap and a faster T2 gave me a 30 second lead heading out onto the final 2.7k run. 

Run by the river

Bike course

The hilly but stunning bike course from the fenicular

I always run well off a bike, despite having done no brick sessions in training like I used to. The jelly legged feeling initially was ghastly – I haven’t competed at a triathlon or a duathlon since 2019 so it’s a feeling I’m simply not used to! – but I trusted that it would wear off and I would soon establish a rhythm. 2.7k is not much time to hang on, even if you’re knackered, so you just have to dig in. In truth, I was hurting. I am not used to pushing my body these days. I haven’t raced multisport for 3 years and even though I do frequent parkruns and occasional trail races, I never go “all in” at them, so I mentally geared myself up to embrace the pain, knowing that I’d need to commit fully from the gun and accept that yes it will hurt, but it is a short-lived hurt compared to the everlasting rewards that come with victory. When things get tough and I find myself wanting to back off I go to my manta “no one wants this more than me” and find that helps me refocus, regroup and push on again. 

I was pretty confident I was in contention for a medal on that final run as I’d only seen about 4 or 5 females ahead of me on the dead-turns on the bike course and I knew that some of those were in much younger age groups. Crossing the line to be announced as the 35-39 category winner (6th female overall out of all age groups) was a win for me but also for my children, my husband and my parents who all support me in pursuing my sporting interests. It was extra special to share the win with my children and to hopefully inspire them, even though they were both fast asleep in their buggy when I crossed the line! They did watch, cheer, wave flags and ring cowbells to support me on the course though and they looked super cute in their #Dom-squad support crew tees I had made for them!

Blue carpet finish line feels

Dom-squad support crew

Golden girl! Podium moment

We made a holiday of the event and stayed for a full week in a lovely apartment just outside of Bilbao in Getxo, just 5 minutes from two absolutely stunning beaches. The weather was perfect, the food delicious (and cheap!), and so we were able to enjoy 5 days as a family afterwards.

 

The amazing beach in Getxo just 5 mins walk from our apartment

The iconic Guigenheim and spider that we ran under on the run

View of city from top of the bike course

I have to stress that this victory is also dedicated to my amazing physio and sponsor, Nigel Wilman of Honiton Physio. I am injury prone, always have been, but the birth of my second child absolutely obliterated my body and left me unable to walk. When I limped, wincing in pain, into Nigel’s treatment room in March 2020, a month after giving birth, still in agony with my hip semi-dislocating itself with every step, I could not have dreamed that competitive sport just over a year later would have been possible. At that time I would just have taken being able to walk pain free so I could push a buggy and enjoy time outdoors with my toddler. It is all down to Nigel’s expertise and knowledge that I found myself physically in a position to be able to compete on an international stage once again. I cannot thank him or recommend him enough.

Thank you Nigel and Honiton Physio for skillfully fixing my broken parts!

And next? Well, my body is pretty knackered but I am gearing up to go again this coming Sunday at the Thruxton Mass Attack Duathlon which is a qualifying race for the 2023 World Duathlon Championships in Ibiza. Truth be told, I am not mentally raring to race, but I figure I just need to do enough to qualify (top 4 in age group) and I don’t need to go all out and win it to achieve that goal. Then after that I am having a break from the bike for a bit as winter cycling isn’t my thing and I just want to enjoy some low-key trail races for a bit with no pressure. Then we will reassess plans in the New Year.

You can run but you can't hide...

…. And now you can’t run because you picked up Covid, most likely picked it up whilst in fact running at a race.

After trying to outrun Covid for 2 1/2 years, it's finally got me. On Saturday I did the Otter Rail and River 10k multi terrain race. I had a decent run and finished as 1^st lady by 4 full minutes. I won this race in 2012, a decade ago, in 42:11, so to be only a minute slower ten years and two babies on, and in blisteringly hot conditions this year was a real confidence boost. I was on a post-race high. Three days later, Tuesday, I awake to a throat being slashed by razor blades, a snotty nose and general achiness, and this is why….

Balls....

Covid positive. Not bad going holding out for this long to get it considering that I have a one and a three year old who only have to enter a softplay / park / similar germ-festooned environment and deem that sampling every grotty surface within the place with a good lick is just as key as sampling the slides etc. We have had almost every other bug going this past year, including the ghastly strep throat infection we suspect our three year old picked up by licking the fence surrounding the elephant enclosure at Chester Zoo... But now I can finally say I’m part of the Covid crew. I think I might have got it from the runner guy I was chasing up a single track wooded section at the race. He was continually coughing, spluttering and firing snot rockets my way, so gentlemanly to share this germs with me. It’s the only place I can think I got it as we haven’t been anywhere else in close contact with people for the past week.

 In a way it’s probably best that I get it now as at least I have time to get over it and resume a bit of training before the European duathlon champs, which are in two months time. It's probably also good to get it and finally get it out of the way as, truth be told, I have been living in partial fear of it all this time and probably the fear of getting it is worse than actually getting it. Before this struck, training was going well. I use the word “training” in the loosest possible sense as all I really do these days is shoe-horn runs and rides in whenever I get the chance. A fellow triathlon friend recently asked what plan I was following and I just had to laugh! The “get out the door whenever I can get childcare” plan is basically as methodical as it gets these days! I don’t do brick sessions, I haven’t tested my FTP since pre-baby number two and so have no idea of my numbers on the bike. My run “sessions” are the weekly parkrun in which I put in a bit of effort, but all other runs are done at an easy pace to avoid injury. I swam 20 lengths after taking my daughter swimming the other day and that was the first and only swim I have done since September 2020. To be honest, I don’t even know if I can justify writing a blog about my sporting endeavors anymore as all I seem to be able to write about is what I don’t do rather than what I do!! So, to try and focus on some positives, here goes:

 

I have got my parkrun 5k time down to 19:22 and run several sub 20 minute times now.

I won the Otter Rail and River Run 10k in a time of 43:36 – a win by 4 full minutes and only just a shade over a minute slower than my winning time from 2012 when I was a decade younger and ran 50 miles a week (as opposed to a maximum of 20 now on a very good week)

Although I haven’t tested my FTP I know by my Wattbike workouts that my bike fitness has improved from the watts I am putting out versus heart rate etc.

Apart from a brief relapse of my sciatic nerve / back problem, I have been managing injuries for a year now and been able to run fairly consistently week on week

 So these are all positives. I just hope that covid doesn’t set me back too much and I can fit a good few weeks of training in and, who knows, maybe even a brick session or two, before we head out to Spain for the champs on 17^th September.

 Thanks as ever to Nigel Wilman at Honiton Physio for keeping my injuries at bay. I see Nigel for regular maintenance sessions and I also see Laura, who works At Honiton Physio, for sports massage sessions now too. I know I am injury prone and so pre-emptive physio and being diligent with my strengthening exercises are as important as the running and biking.

Otter Rail and River pics...

Just like old times... running with former club mate, Dave, of Exmouth Harriers

Cracking out the crop top despite the Mum-tum as it was scorchio!

Winner winner - great prizes. A hamper from a local farm shop!

Bike, buggy and babes x 2 are Bilbao bound!

 So, I have unexpectedly had the opportunity able to qualify for the 2022 European Duathlon Championships. How? Let me explain. Due to Covid (doesn’t everything seem to start with that sentence these days?), very few qualifying events were able to take place for the past two years. In fact, I think only 2 of the 6 scheduled qualifying races across 2020 and 2021 actually went ahead. This leads to the dilemma of only having approximately one third of the usual number of age-groupers officially qualified. Rather than run the champs with diminished fields they decided to open up the qualification process to allow you to submit any result from any official BTF duathlon qualifying event (for either worlds or Euros) from 2019 onwards. This meant that my two qualification races in 2019 at Darley Moor (worlds) and Bedford Autodrome (Euros) were eligible to secure me a place on the 2022 GB team! It does, however, mean that I am rather race rusty and, as I type this, I have only just this week fished the bike out of its stable where it has been wintering since September last year. There is much work to be done between now and September 18^th to get me fit and race ready.

 Truth be told, I have all but lost my biking mojo. Since having children I have become twitchier than a highly caffeinated ornithologist when riding out on the roads. So many drivers are just inconsiderate, impatient blockheads who do irrational and unpredictable things in order to prevent their journey from being 10 seconds longer by allowing the few extra seconds necessary to pass a cyclist safely. I would say that 90% of my rides involve some form of near miss or “woah, WTF are you playing at?!” moment. I think I am just aware of the heightened responsibility that comes with having two small people at home relying on me to get back safely in order to care for them. My 1 year old still breastfeeds every 3-4 hours too, thereby adding a further limiting factor on how long my rides can be. Luckily I have only qualified for the sprint event so don’t need a huge amount of endurance as I feel guilty for staying out exercising for anything much over the hour these days. I know Mums who do go out for longer, indeed, I know Mums who have completed an Ironman within a year of giving birth, and good on them if that is what is right for them. It’s just that, for me, I feel that they are little for such a little time and in years to come I know I won't be looking back and pining longingly for that 60 mile club coffee ride that I didn't go on, but I would certainly regret not witnessing Emmeline take her first solo steps (which, incidentally happened today, just 2 hours prior to me typing this!), or seeing Sylvester’s smiling happy face as he braves the big slide at the park for the first time because I was on a 60 mile coffee ride. It’s a balance as it is important to take time for yourself too, but I feel that for me the balance lies in around 1 hour of child-free exercise time 6 days a week. If that means I am less competitive at the championships because my rivals are doing double or even treble the training volume that I am, sobeit. I am also willing to bet that they are getting better sleep and recovery than me too!

 So, my goal for this year is now set. This has meant a bit of refocussing in terms of my training and racing plans. I was hoping to work up to a tough, hilly trail half marathon at the end of April, but as I no longer need long, slow, hilly endurance runs but faster, shorter, flatter efforts to run a fast 5k and 2.5k at the champs, I have sacked off this idea. I will still do some off-road races up to the 10k distance, just because I enjoy them and the process has to be enjoyable at the end of the day, but I don’t need to risk pushing the mileage up as that might invite injury in, and that is the last thing I want!

 I am so lucky to have the continued support of Nigel Wilman of Honiton Physio. With both 6-weekly ‘pre-hab’ physio sessions plus by diligently doing his personalised strengthening exercises each night, I am in a relatively good place injury wise. I almost daren’t type that as it feels like foolishly tempting fate as I know that I walk a constant tight-rope where injury is concerned and there hasn’t been a year since 2012 that I have made it through an entire season uninjured, so it is something I am not complacent about. But consistency in training is key to success and the longer I can stay injury free, the stronger and fitter I naturally become, even without hitting the high-intensity sessions that are eventually needed to eek out that final 5% of top end fitness. At the moment I don’t do any form of speed work; all my efforts come in the form of hills or parkrun. This is just what works for me and the 5% gains from speed have to offset against the injury risk.

 The short-term focus, however, is to finally shake off this seemingly interminable cold-cough combo we’ve all had. I’m on day 16 of it now, my daughter is on day 18. It’s relentless. I have vacillated between adding in additional rest days to getting frustrated that they aren’t helping and adopting a ‘sod it, I’ll just do something easy to stay sane’ approach and thus prolonging the recovery process. Today’s off road run was a super steady 9m/m pace and yet my H/R was up in the 160s on the flat, so I know I’m still not right as it should not feel that hard. Another day off tomorrow…. Up until this I had been enjoying lots of lovely trail runs and a couple of races too, taking first place at the 5 mile Axmouth Challenge in February and 2^nd place at the 9 mile Grizzly Cub in March. It’s just so nice to be back racing again after 3 years of either pregnancy or pandemic enforced break. It’s great to get those pre-race nerves and post-race buzz back. That said, the Euro champs will be a whole other level to local trail races and the ultimate challenge is not the race itself but actually getting to it with the stress of flying a bike, a baby, a buggy and a toddler out to Bilbao without losing one (or multiple) of those items in the process!!! The race itself will be the fun part if we do all manage to get there!

About to finish the Axmouth Challenge. 1st lady, 3rd overall.

Grizzly Cub - top of the infamous 'stairway to heaven'

Approaching the finish if the Grizzly Cub in Seaton

Grizzly prizes, presented by running local legend Jo Pavey

Fabulous prizes, including an amazing bottle of Lyme Bay sparkling wine which we enjoyed on Mother's Day!

 

Time to stop faffing and start focussing!

 10 months since my last blog post! I think that gives you an indication of how hectic life is as a full-time Mum of two! 

When I gave birth to my second child at the end of February 2021, my body was in a mess. No, I think the word “obliterated” would be a more accurate description! I got off relatively lightly with my first pregnancy, managing to run parkruns right up to my due date, but this time things were very different. A low lying placenta picked up at the 20 week scan meant I had to stop running right there and then (October 2020). I could still swim and cycle, but pools were pretty much shut from that point onwards with lockdowns and so the wattbike it had to be. But also around this time, I started getting pelvic pains, later diagnosed as pelvic girdle pain. It got continually worse as the pregnancy progressed and in the last 8 or so weeks I couldn’t even walk without being in severe pain, let alone contemplate running. I was pretty much sofa and bed bound towards the end. For someone so active, it was a huge deal and my mood plummeted. I just wanted my baby out so I could get my body back! I gave birth 2 days before my due date but, to my utter dismay, I still couldn’t walk. I had hoped giving birth would make the pelvic pain stop, but it didn’t, it actually got worse and to the point that my hip kept giving way underneath me and made it unsafe for me to carry my newborn baby girl up and down the stairs.

 Several toys were thrown out of prams (and we're not talking about the baby’s or the toddler’s here), and then I went and saw my trusty physio, Nigel Wilman at Honiton Physio, who instantly sprung into action. When he said he could have me back running in 8 weeks I wanted to laugh in his face! How could I possibly run when I was wincing just walking the few steps from the car door to his treatment room?! But I should have had faith – Wilman the Wonder phys worked his magic as ever… and I did a hell of a lot of tedious rehab exercises. But I got there. By the end of April, I had taken my first tentative ‘Bambi on crack’ like steps back to running.

 It has been very slow, cautious progress since then. It’s been hard not to compare myself to where I was after my first pregnancy, not least because my babies were born almost exactly 2 years apart, both in February, so I have always had in the back of my mind “by June I was down to a 20 minute parkrun”, “by August I had placed 2^nd at a competitive 10k race”, “by September I had qualified for the world duathlon champs” etc etc. It was a stupid and fruitless exercise that had no meaningful relevance anyway as I was starting from a completely different place this pregnancy having not run at all for 7 months prior and being unable to even walk more than a mile for 3 months, but still my perfectionist mindset went there, berating me for my enforced inertia, my slow comeback and allowing me to become frustrated at my self-perceived lack of progress. The only thing was to avoid any targets for the remainder of the year in order to be kind to myself and to give my broken, battered post-partum body the time it needed to heal. And that is what I did.

Christmas day was my last chance to go sub 21 minutes at a parkrun in 2021. I knew I was capable of it, but illness, weather conditions, course conditions and just general family chaos and lack of time to train properly meant it hadn’t happened. I had clocked a 21:03, a 21:04, a 21:09 and a 21:10 without specifically pushing to go sub-21, just racing whoever was there on the day for positions. Christmas Day was naff weather and, to be honest, priorities change once you have kids and dragging my offspring out in the rain so I could run a sub-21 minute parkrun seemed somewhat low on the list, so we sacked it off. Then on New Year’s Day, I clocked 20:35 at a very wet, blustery Exmouth without even pushing for it, so I think the right decision and a marker set for 2022!

August 2021, Exmouth parkrun with my 6 month old in the buggy

November, Penryn Campus parkrun - New female course record

September - Henstridge airfield parkrun

July - Haldon Forest parkrun

So, now a modicum of fitness appears to have returned, it’s time to start getting more focussed for the coming year. I turn 40 in 2023 and so the qualifying races for the 2023 Euro duathlon champs, which take place this year, are a feasible target as I will move up an age group when I actually race the champs the following year (assuming I qualify). So that gives me a few solid months to get fit ahead of the qualifiers, then over a year to really up my game ready to race the vet 40s, who are a fearsome bunch… often more competitive than the 30-39s who, like me, have all been out having babies!

I have totally lost focus on my wattbike sessions, just bimbling away for 25 minutes (30 always seemed over-indulgent when I know that me taking time out to exercise involves my husband taking time out of his hectic work schedule), responding to messages on Wattsapp, flicking through facebook or watching the latest installment of the “What Boris did next…” on the news. But the couple of sessions I have done so far in 2022 have been more focussed, with my goals in mind for motivation, and, with some good tunes playing, I have suddenly found an additional 20 Watts out of nowhere. Probably still approximately 30-40 watts down on my FTP from 2019, but I have no intentions on putting myself through that hell by testing just yet.

 I also need to beef myself up a bit. Breastfeeding does something weird to my metabolism – it seems to ramp it up to crazy speeds and so, despite eating more than I have ever eaten in my life, I weigh nearly a stone less than before conceiving. My body has also changed shape and I find it harder to build muscle now, so I am on a mission to bulk up. This photo of me at a muddy trail race before Christmas this year made me realise that this gal ain’t gonna hold her own on the bike with weedy thighs like this! So I’ve been adding nut butters, chia seeds, protein powder etc to my baked oats every breakfast and have managed to gain back 4 – 5lbs the past couple of weeks and, crucially, my thighs have got a bit more tone and shape to them, so it’s going on in the right places!!

 Incidentally, this was a really cool 7.5 mile race with a 30m long slide in the middle of it, and the fact that I came home with a win made it even sweeter as I had only been running up to 5 miles and so my goal was just to finish in one piece!

So, time to focus. Faff time is over. It’s hard to fit training around looking after 2 small people full time, so I shoehorn in workouts whenever I get chance, but I am going for quality of sessions rather than volume. Recovery is also important and something that is often hard to come by when the 10 month old still wakes two to three (sometimes four) times a night and when the toddler only has to sniff a germ wafting in breeze 10 miles away and gets ill and shares it with the whole household (no covid yet, thank God, but tonsillitis, Strep throat, 7 x cold/cough combos and 2 vomitting bugs, all since September).

My other goal for this year is to get back into doing some triathlon and duathlon coaching. I hope to be able to do my BTF Level 2 coaching qualification later in the year and so I will be looking to work with a couple of people before then to keep building up my portfolio. Message me if you're interested. I have a duathlon and novice/nervous specialism, but happy to coach other distances and disciplines too.