On Track October

The relaxation is over and I am now back on it!

One of my main goals for this winter is to stay healthy and I am extremely happy to have hit the target in the first month! I learned a lot in the early part of this year battling constant chest infections and taking antiobiotics for weeks and weeks. I am keeping my promise to stick to the things that worked to keep me healthy from June to this point.

They are in brief:

• Taking Zinc, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Yakult, Omega 3 (2,000mg) daily (yes it's a pain but it's all keeping me topped up)
• Taking my Super Greens daily. It tastes like dirt (not selling it I know!) but it's a good boost of antioxidants, especially on days when I don't quite manage to eat enough greens! Synergy
• Limiting alcohol! By that I mean one or two at the weekend. When I had 6 weeks with no alcohol in the summer, miraculously my chest infections stopped! 
• Ensuring my diet has as much quality to it as I can manage, consistently
• Keeping on top of my prehab so that my Achilles and I remain on speaking terms (we are currently on a break!)

My Achilles started giving me a few issues when I returned to running from Cozumel, which was pretty upsetting and a bit of a downer. Thankfully I know exactly who to go and see. I trotted off to London to see my Sports Medicine Consultant and he diagnosed that the Achilles was a bit inflamed and said that sometimes if you take a total break the Achilles does get grumpy! So basically I can never have time off from the prehab exercises!

I have not run for 2 weeks and I'm taking anti-inflammatory tablets, wearing an anti-inflammatory patch at night and taking antibiotics! I have also resumed the heavy calf loading that my Achilles needs and have been doing that daily to get it super strong!

The two weeks is up tomorrow and I have no discomfort these days so hopefully I will be back to running next week with no problems :)

Training has been going brilliantly. Since I came back from Cozumel I have been more motivated that I have ever known! I have only missed 2 sessions this month, mainly because taking antibiotics for my Achilles sent my stomach into serious overdrive, I won't elaborate further!!!

I am back to swimming and loving it as much as ever :) I had a video analysis done in September with Ali at Tri Swim Coaching so I know where I need to focus my attention until the next video session. I love swimming with the squad and let's be honest now it's dark and cold we all need a little help to jump in the pool! 

I have been on the turbo a lot more than I would have liked but hey it's keeping me fit and thank goodness for You Tube and Netflix, helping to while away the hours. I am starting to build up my weekend ride and look forward to getting stronger with company on some group rides over winter :)

My weekly chats with my coach Michelle Dillon are helping me to keep striving to improve. She keeps my mind and training on the straight and narrow! It's not an easy job I can tell you!!! She does it with a huge smile, care and compassion. 

Next up.... In November, hopefully some 10k run races to start to really build my run strength. So much missed training this year means I need a strong, consistent winter :)