 Hello all,
Overall my training is going well. The only thing that is not going quite to plan is the number of swim sessions that I’m getting in. The barrier being my love of sleep! I swim in the morning between 6.30-7.30am, I have to swim at this time so that I get my session in before work but the problem is simply getting out of bed to go to the pool!!
Although the swim will only take up about 10% of my overall race (about 65 minutes for 2.4 miles), I want to be well conditioned for it so I can save a lot of energy for the bike and the marathon. Therefore, for the rest of summer it is earlier to bed!
The other development this month is that I’ve been diagnosed with arthritis in my left knee. This was diagnosed with an MRI and my consultant described my knee as looking like that of someone who was in their 60’s (I turned 36 a few weeks ago!). My consultant strongly advised me to give up running. To say that this ‘bummed me out’ would be an understatement. I asked all of my running, cycling and triathlon buddies what they knew about training and racing with arthritis. I also checked out just about everything there is online about it; I found that the world is full of people who were told that they should not run anymore due to arthritis, but still love their running life!
The day after my final trawl through the internet on this issue, I went out into Richmond Park to do a gentle session on my bike. Once in the Park I saw a group of wheelchair athletes out training - a man who had his leg amputated at just below the knee out on his bike, and another man out running on a prosthetic blade with a below the knee amputation. My slightly sore knee didn’t seem to hurt so much after that. What I did get off the internet was that many runners with arthritis swore by good quality glucosamine and fish oil supplements. After taking these supplements for a while my knee is feeling so much better. I have also reduced my running volume slightly. My knee is not perfect but the pain has definitely subsided, so training for the big day goes on!
It took about eight weeks from when I first felt pain in my left knee to reach my diagnosis. I started taking some supplements and slightly modified my training and although my knee is not perfect my life has carried on pretty much as normal. The best thing about a quick diagnosis is that I was able to figure out what to do to manage my situation early on. The depressing thing with endometriosis is that this is not the case. For Charlotte it took six years (unbelievably a relatively quick diagnosis). She has now had four lots of surgery over the subsequent six years. I just wish that diagnosis didn’t take so long. The downsides of it taking so long to diagnose are almost too many to mention and of course there are no upsides. I would really like the funds raised from my Ironman to go to research into quicker, more effective diagnosis. For the most common serious gynaecological condition it is woeful the amount of time it takes to diagnose.
Speak soon,
Dan
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3.8km swim