[16:02 07 Dec 06 Jane]
My Knee! Oh no, I've gone and got an injury. Went for a harmless horrible 4 mile jog last Sunday - and the knee went. Still painful, and strict instructions NOT to run - HURRAY I shout - no running! Now I can just get on with the sport I love (get my Pulsfit training sessions) and get swimming. After a tentative cycle, I find that the knee doesn't object to peddling either - so its just the running that's out. So why have I suddenly this great urge to run? There's a gale blowing - rain beating - and I want to be out there, running like the wind, hair streaming behind (if I had long hair), fleet of foot and light as a feather. I FEEL at this moment that I could do just that! It's that old chestnut - why on earth do we long to do the very thing we can't? In reality I'd HATE to go running now, would feel like a ton of bricks wading through a bog with rats tail hair. Probably just as well I can only dream. Off to gaze at bike and carry on dreaming...
[12:06 05 Dec 06 Jane]
Things can only get better! Maybe you know the feeling – Go to the track for good run session – tired but sure it will go when start running. This is not really my thing, but everyone keeps saying you have to go through this to improve – so it’s 6 x 800 m with 200 recovery. We set off. Immediately everyone streaks ahead. I keep telling myself to ignore the others and ‘do my thing’. The coach says ‘well done Jane’ each time I stagger past him, and I try to persuade myself that he’s not being patronising – which I know he’s not. The end of the session comes – for some. Whilst they are packing up their things, I am about to set off on rep number 6. By the time I finish most have gone home and a few remain discussing their next X country race. Would I like to be part of the team? (This is an inter Club event, and I would be representing my club). No! I say, somewhat curtly I am afraid, and try to explain that I can’t take that sort of public humiliation.
I’m not a runner. Swimming is my sport, and I’m good at it (Nat. Champion in my age group for 1500m). I used to be a useful runner (3 times bronze medallist at the National Biathlon Championships) but something has gone horribly wrong with my running.
So why have I decided to desert the sport I love and persist battling on with the one I am hating? It’s the Triathlon bug!
Several of my friends have branched out into this sport, and some have achieved Iron Man status – I want to do it too.
So, I got a bike! Now falling in love is not something that happens every day. I fell in love many years ago – not with a person, but a place; a certain town in Cornwall to be exact. Every time I think of it my stomach churns and I feel a glow all over. It never disappoints me and this love is never unrequited. It’s happened again. I have fallen in love with my BIKE! But first I had better get to grips wit