Past 5 days of training.

Day 2: 11/7/13

Just a light run today. A slow 6km on grass to test out the back and it went well. I stretched extensively before I started to get plenty of blood flow through the sore muscles and particularly try to stretch out my generally tight right hip area.

I was cautious at first just getting a feel for my muscles and allowing my legs to warm up properly in the first couple of kms. After about 2kms I was finding a nice, easy rhythm and concentrated on being as symmetrical as possible. It is so important to try and have equal forces coming from both sides of the body. In a sport like triathlon, each discipline has a significant impact on the other two. If you don’t find some symmetry in everything you do you will develop imbalances in your body and, most likely, suffer subsequent injuries.

This run gave me confidence in the fact that my back was definitely improving and I should be able to gradually work back up to full training over the next few days.

Day 3: 12/7/13

Today I performed a 90 minute indoor spin and a 15 minute core workout. It was simply to turn the legs over for a medium length amount of time without too much stress. I remained in medium to low gears and kept a relatively high cadence. I had a 100km ride scheduled on my program but after having 3 days off from all training earlier in the week due to the injury, and still not fully recovered, it was important to gradually build myself up again.

Since it is only my base training period, it is essential to not push my body excessively and progress myself appropriately to peak in November.

Day 4: 13/7/13

I did a 1 hour 20 minute run this morning. I covered about 18kms, so my pace was around 4.30/km which I was really happy with. My scheduled long run was for a higher pace than that, as I’m preparing for the Run Melbourne half marathon next Sunday the 21^st of July. However, as with yesterday’s bike workout, I didn’t want to push my body too extensively, even though my back was feeling much better.

It felt great to be able to get that time in my legs and do it without any real issues related to the injury. I felt strong and stable through my core the whole time and was happy to be able to maintain a really consistent pace.

It was a great mental test. I had different variables to consider throughout the run with technique and always taking cues from my body as to how it was feeling in different areas to ensure I wasn’t going to re-aggravate my back.

Day 5: 14/7/13

Just a 75 minute indoor spin similar to the session I did two days ago. This was for active recovery after the long run yesterday.

At this time of year – first 3 weeks of July – doing lots of my bike sessions on the indoor trainer is essential. Why? The Tour De France is on!

I record it each night and watch it the next day, most of the time setting up the bike in front of the TV which occupies my mind very easily. The perfect way to get time on the bike for three weeks.

Day 6 15/7/13

My back is now feeling back to normal. Not tight or painful so I decided to do my scheduled 4km strength swim and 10km steady run.

My swim consisted of the following:

Ø  6 x 200m free with 50m back and 50m breaststroke between each. I built the speed gradually as the first few sets are a warm-up and the last few prepare me for the harder strength work.

Ø  1 set of 200m kicking.

Ø  The final 2km was 4 sets of 400m pull using paddles with a 100m breaststroke recovery.

I am trying to build my strength throughout my base and initial build training phases so that the closer I get to race season, the more I will be able to focus on speed.

I am really happy with how I have handled my training over the past week. I adjusted it to ensure I didn’t set myself back further than necessary with an early season injury and found my body returned to strenuous training feeling almost back to where I was.

This is just one example of how you need to be proactive and flexible when injury strikes.