Victoria Stears – #thetrilifereporter – month 3

• Posted onjofrancis
• in thetrilifereporters
• onMay 3, 2016
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It felt like things just fell into place this month. I went out on my first outdoor cycle of the year, learnt to relax in my swimming and got a few extra miles into my legs, it was also noticeably warmer and sunnier which helped.

As you may already know, I’m a pretty lazy swimmer and tend to opt for breast stroke over front crawl just because…well…it’s early in the morning, I’m still half asleep and breast stroke is just oh so easy. But this month I managed to snap out of my lazy spell (sort of…) and swam front crawl for at least half of my main sets which I was pretty pleased with. I think one of the reasons I opt for breast stoke is that my front crawl technique is just not that good which makes it feel like I have to put in so much more effort to get it right. I’ve had a few good conversations with people in my lanes though and one of my aims for May is to book a swimming lesson with an instructor at my pool so that I can see what needs improving.

In terms of cycling, it was so good to get outside and get some real miles under my belt. There’s nothing sadder than cycling indoors on the turbo on a dark and gloomy evening. Honestly, you just feel so sorry for yourself if you’re not in the right frame of mind for a session like that. I also decided to cycle MTB miles rather than road miles during April as I fancied something a bit more technical. My Bianchi has been dusted off though and is ready for plenty of May miles.

As for my running, well, I finally went to the physio as I’ve been struggling with pain in my feet. I’ve actually been struggling for the past two years and just chose to run through the pain but it became pretty bad at the beginning of April when all I wanted to do was run, but each run left me barely able to walk the next day. Things are starting to feel a little bit better though and I managed to run quite a lot during the second part of the month.

I also had a work trip to NYC which meant I was sans pool and bike for a week (I couldn’t face the sad looking bike in the hotel gym) so spent that week focussing on good quality running which was incredible. I was really looking forward to that week as there are times when all I want to do is run, rather than the other disciplines of triathlon. Whilst I don’t think New York is the best place for running, mostly as I was using it as a form of commuting instead of the subway and so had to battle traffic lights and tourists all the time, it was really great fun and made me fall in love with running all over again. I also got to run Brooklyn Bridge which was on my bucket list. In my head I’ve been telling myself that after this year of triathlon is done I would revert back to ‘just running’. Somewhat surprisingly though, I found myself really missing the pool whilst I was away…so I guess that makes me a real triathlete now, right?

So, on the whole I have really enjoyed the training I’ve been doing as part of thetrilife Masters Program this month and it no longer feels like an effort to fit training in as it just feels like part of my lifestyle now. I’m rather pleased with that.