Guess we all get these, but I’ve not had one for so long just didn’t see it coming.

Not the best start from a healthy eating point of view, as my wife had booked me a table at Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant, The Fat Duck in Bray as a Christmas present. Absolutely my kind of thing, but absolutely not hers so as I wolfed down my Red Cabbage Gazpacho, Snail Porridge and Umbles to name a few, she sat there and watched. To be fair, she made up for it the next day at his pub, The Hinds Head as that was more her thing but a good solid couple of days on good food and wine took me out of the training zone. Couple that with a fall down the stairs at the cottage where we stayed, probably not the best few days I’ll have training for IMUK. In my defence, the stairs were very narrow and steep but once I slipped, that was it. Left most of my skin off the left cheek of my arse on the stairs, and as I hit the fall at the bottom and catapulted into the kitchen, I managed to hurt my elbow and neck.

Still, got home on the Saturday and the following day went round the Bike and Tri show at Manchester. Really enjoyed it and for £6 entrance, thought it was fine. Walking a little strange as I had some chaffing issues having no skin on my arse but got round it.

On the Monday, I thought I’d better get a good run in as the Wilmslow Half Marathon is looming so off I went. All was fine if a little slow and I did 14 miles with no great problems. I know there is no proven medical research to show that compression socks or calf guards work, but all I will say is I forgot my calf guards on the run, and the following day my legs were quite sore so hopefully I wont be making that mistake again.

Wednesday is normally a big training day for me, but today I was off to watch City in Barcelona. If you’d have told me a few years ago that I’d be doing that in a competitive match, I’d have had you locked up but here we were, on the way to the Nou Camp. I was just on a day trip, so it was up at 4 in the morning to get on the flight, a day in Barcelona then straight home. Thoroughly enjoyed the day, but again, there was a lot of good food and wine so that put me back again. I know nobody force-feeds it me, but I enjoy my food and wine, and I’m hardly a professional athlete so I just enjoyed myself. Eventually got home at 3.30 on Thursday morning so double tired, but it could have been a lot worse. Some of the flights had to divert to Newcastle because of the fog that was about and by the time they got coached back, it was about 11.00 so I was one of the lucky ones!!

Thursday didn’t really happen so off to the gym on Friday. Again, this is one of my big days, but I just couldn’t get into it. Did a 50 minute pyramid interval on the bike followed by a 6km run but it was a struggle. Managed a 1500m swim in the afternoon but my mind just wasn’t into it, probably my body saying “enough for one week, you cant burn the candle at both ends.”

Saturday just chilled and woke up Sunday so much better. Didn’t want to risk too much as Wilmslow HM is next weekend so just went out for a 10k run, with calf guards on!! That felt good so back in the gym on Monday for some core work. Again, felt miles better so I thought I was back on it only for my knee to swell up. Not sure why it has but was gutted that I may have to pull out of Wilmslow. When I woke up this morning, first thing I did was move my knee, and I didn’t get a pain. I’ve given it more rest today and feels ok, going to try the gym in the morning and see how it goes. If its all ok, will have a swim after it as need to catch up on that.

Fingers crossed for the morning. 🙂