Really getting back into the groove now. Kicked off with a rest day last Friday before Jo and I headed down to her mums in Somerset with some decent training plans.

Saturday – plan was a long continuous ride followed by a run. The weather was terrible so probably the ideal plan. We headed on a big loop from Taunton NW to the coast, west abit and over Exmoor before returning. 81 miles back to taunton without stops. I left Jo at this point and did a further 35 miles without any stops and followed it with a 3 mile run. Ankle felt great. Well chuffed and very hungry. Don’t think a curry has ever tasted so good.

On Sunday we got up early to ride over to Sherborne to watch the Ironman. We cycled the bike course in reverse giving the two Tri Londoners in the race a load of encouragement. Following a coffee and delicious treacle tart in a Sherborne coffee shop we battled back into a headwind for tea. 120 miles.

I felt that Monday was a key day to getting back into decent training. I must nail a good days training and not get sidetracked into pottering and doing nothing. So…. Up for club swim session 6 till 7.30. Immediately headed off on the fixed in the rain for a 50 mile loop followed by a 6.5 mile run. All completed by noon at which point I had my breakfast. Then I headed to Sainsbury, then the movies followed by a massage, cooked tea and went to bed. Awesome day. Chuffed with myself.

Tuesday – up very early and out towards Kent to meet John for breakfast at 6.45am. He’d split his tyre on the way so after breakfast we agreed a new meet time – 11.30 at Box Hill giving him time to get it sorted. I did a big loop round in the rain to arrive bang on time – quite a fluke. Johns heart wasn’t really in it so we did a nice loop round to Cranleigh for lunch and then headed home. I got home having done 142 miles and immediately changed into run kit and headed out. Towards the end of Mondays run I could feel my right hamstring tightening and I could feel it again today so I stopped after 4 minutes and walked home.

Wednesday – I can tell the week is going well since for the first time in ages I manage to get up and do Laps of Regents park – planned this for Wednesday on numerous occassions but just felt too wasted following Tuesdays training. I managed a steady 36 miles in rain and a horrible wind. Followed this with a lunchtime run. Could feel the hamstring but decided to run through it to see if it loosened off – after 9 miles it didn’t … it was worse. Had to walk to swimming. Good session – 10 x 200m on 3 minutes main set – I focussed on keeping a long controlled stroke and still managed to hit them all between 2.40 and 2.45.

This morning headed out early to Regents Park again. Fun session – Jo was doing 2.5 hours race pace. I tagged along for bits of her ride but when Luis arrived he’d decided to do 20 minutes of 30 seconds all out, 30 seconds recovery. I initially let him go, then pushed to catch him and then did a few intervals where I waited from him to go by and then tried to jump onto his wheel. Great fun. Ended up with 66 miles in a little under 4 hours. Saw the physio this morning and she worked hard on the hamstring. Luckily it’s not pulled or strained is just tight. No running today or tomorrow. She’s staying late so she can see me tomorrow and with luck I will be able to run at the weekend.