Setbacks and improvements all in the same week
It’s been somewhat of a mixed and frustrating week this week, with work, as usual getting in the way of some of what I’d otherwise like to be doing.
I’ve had a rare couple of weeks at home, so that tends to be when I try and get a whole load of administrative chore out of the way rather than trying to do them whilst I’m travelling as well. Two of those were the offshore medical and survival training courses that I need to do to be able to work offshore.
The medical, as expected was no trouble, although I was a little surprised at some of the numbers. Peak expiration flow was off the scale, which is pretty much as expected but BP at 131/82 is at the top end of the “normal” scale, and RHR was a little fast at 54. I can only attribute this to being at the end of a hot sweaty day.
Also no problems on the offshore escape and survival training curse, which really was not good value for money. It consists of a morning of some very rudimentary first aid and then some drills with a smoke hood escaping from a smoke filled container. This was reasonably realistic with objects in the way and stairs to negotiate in the darkness, but without the heat and potential death. Then a bit of playing with fire extinguishers before a reasonable lunch. The afternoon was the pool session. First a bit of familiarisation with the life jacket and escape sets then survival suit on and into the pool to play with them under water. On the basic course you spend an entire day doing this stuff, with eight simulated helicopter escapes. This time only four: ditched helicopter into a raft, sinking chopper with no restrictions, sinking chopper with a window that you need to remove, capsized chopper with a window to remove. All that’s followed by sea survival drills, shower dry off and that’s it.
All in all about 6 hours of instruction, 12 people in the class paying £475 each. A nice little earner.
Tuesday night was a 13 mile TT on the bike, on a course I’ve not enjoyed in the past, but was looking forward to this time with much greater confidence on the bike this year despite having done less of it. The start is about 2 miles from my front door so I always ride out to this one, and as I opened the garage door to get the bike out, the heavens opened. It looked like just a passing summer shower, so I threw on a lightweight waterproof and headed out anyway. The roads on the way there were awash, looking more like streams than roads. Luckily by the start time, it had stopped raining and was beginning to dry, but would still be a problem on a twisty circuit with slick, skinny tyres. My plan was to take the first, twistier half then push as hard as poss on the second half.
Result – PB on that course by about 27 seconds, which I was particularly happy with given the conditions and cautious first half. Started at number 4, passed 1 and 2 and made up about ten seconds on number 3 but couldn’t catch him
my timing 35:22 / 12.56 mi / 21.31 / max 29.5/ AHR 160 / MHR 169 / cad ave 89 / max 109
Garmin File http://connect.garmin.com/dashboard?cid=6461571
Wednesday I decided to run into town to pick up the other bike from the shop where it had been for some minor attention, then ride it home. To avoid having to carry mike shoes etc, I decided to run in barefoot and carry my huaraches to ride home. Big Mistake as it turns out.
For various reasons I didn’t get going until lunchtime and as a result the tarmac was heating up pretty well in the 28C heat. By 1.5 miles I could feel the heat on my feet, by 2 miles I had to stop and put on my huaraches, but the damage was already done. Right foot, one burst bloody blister, left foot, on intact blister on the ball of the foot and a big blood blister on the big toe.
A little sore, but note enough to stop me doing Thursday’s yoga class. Although with the heat, it may have been not such a good idea anyway as I was dripping within about 15 mins and lost about 1.5kg over the session.
Friday, day off, offshore medical and foot healing nicely.
Saturday, easy bike ride, 25 miles on the Giant, HR cap 150, but managed to just peek above that http://connect.garmin.com/activity/104460227
Sunday – mistake compounded. Foot felt and looked fine, blood blister seemed solid now, so the planned final steady run before the HM was a goer. This time, absolutely no issues during the run at all, nice and steady HR OK, running to pace etc, nice route with a few new bits thrown in. Only problem was, that on taking my left shoe off, I was confronted with this
A blood blister about the size of half a grape, and the same colour, on the side of my left big toe. I was absolutely unaware of it during the run and it didn’t start hurting until much later. The wife persuaded me to take it to the local minor injuries unit. Current advice is to leave it alone. I’m giving it until Thursday at the latest. If it’s not sorted itself out by then, I’ll pop it and risk the infection, and tape it up for the HM. I persuaded someone else to run it with me, so I’d feel very guilty if I drop out now.
I have no plans for any more running this week, so I shouldn’t be aggravating it further.
The run was good though
T) 01:23:35 / 10.0 / 8:21 ave / AHR 145 / MHR 156
1) 16:36 / 8:18 / AHR 139
2) 16:20 / 8:10 / AHR 145
3) 17:37 / 8:48 / AHR 147 - gates and a 45 sec walking break
4) 16:37 / 8:18 / AHR 147
5) 16:23 / 8:11 / AHR 148
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