The Road to Torun (Part 9) – Golf & Sprinting dont mix, Pain is a constant, Injury is never far away.

An interesting week and a bit since my last update. I got over the disappointment of Sheffield very quickly and was back on the training plan on Tuesday night with 4x200m @ 90% effort in spikes. A very enjoyable session, hit every mark with ease and felt good the next day.

That was until I decided to play a round of golf (my other favourite past time) as after my round my lower back on the right hand side was feeling stiff as it usually does after golf. However that didn’t stop me doing a strength and conditioning session that night, but sure enough the next day the stiffness turned into soreness. However, again that didn’t stop me doing my weekly Pilates session that morning which gave the back a good stretch and the pain turned into a lesser ache. Later that night I went along to training as usual, but had to abort after the drills, not due to the back but because my knees started protesting. In hindsight I’d probably been overly eager with my S&C + Pilates + Golf + Training after racing at the weekend.

Luckily the knee pain was temporary and I could get back onto it a few days later, which looked something like:

• Sunday was a Technical Speed session with 6x50m Block starts at full pace, racing my training partner (this is always a fun session).
• Tuesday S&C only, no track session
• Thursday was speed endurance 10x100m – the first 9 at 16s and the last one at 14s with 50m walk recovery in between.
• Friday a Block Start 101 session with Trevor Hodgson, who is a fantastic M50 sprinter. I have picked up so many bad habits but with Trevor’s help I can sort myself out.

Further afield I was speaking to a few of my fellow M60 athletes from around the UK and many have picked up injuries or are being super careful when training whilst not quite 100%. I hope that all make speedy recoveries ahead of the Scottish, British and World Championships over the next few weeks and months.

Being a masters athlete doesn’t come without a lot of hard work and usually a fair amount of pain and discomfort. This is the price we pay for pushing our bodies so hard. Our biggest challenge isn’t limited those we compete against, but our ability to stay fit and healthy enough to race to the best of our abilities.

Finally this time some of my UK&I kit has started to arrive:

Until next time …