Gear for the year - Red Venom and Stoats

A couple of nice packages arrived on the doormat last week from 2 of my sponsors for the year.

Red Venom are the team I'm racing for in 2012. They've got a great range of Compression Gear here which I was using anyway. It's 1/3 of the price of anyone else and the quality is top notch. Anything I didn't already have I've certainly got now - consider me to be fully compressed.



The second package was from a fantastic new sponsor who I'm VERY happy with! Stoats make oat based products which you can buy at their website here. They'll be supplying me with bars and oats throughout the year - really well made from all natural ingredients. While I use gels for racing, I like to eat 'real food' during training and racing whenever possible - so to have these guys supporting me is very good news.

Rebelling body

I'm still two months away from the proper start of my race season, but it seems to be getting closer at a rather scary rate. I've got myself through a decent block of training, but my body has really been going through the mill to get me there. I've had issues and niggles before, but it's really nothing on the scale of this year.

The biggest issue I've been suffering with is my Psoas Muscle. I've always suffered with back problems on the bike - generally causing me to spend the last 20-25% of any 70.3 race sitting up, and suffering on any training ride of an hour +. It was only after one of my races last year that someone pointed out that it was my psoas muscle. It sits buried deep in the pelvis and as such is a very hard muscle to stretch and strengthen. Unfortunately it's crucial when crouched over on the bike - especially in TT position. So far it has caused me a lot of discomfort on my longer training rides - the only possible solution (as far as I can see anyway) I've got is to do core workouts every single day for 5-6 weeks and see if I can possibly turn the corner for the season. I'm left on my rides wondering how much stronger I'd be if my legs and not my back were the limiting factor, as it's my back that causes me problems, never the legs.

On top of this there's the constant worry of my weak ankles (8 sprains over the course of 2011, a couple of them stopping me running for a month a piece), needing 2-3 rehab/strength band sessions per week. I'm suffering a lot with ITB issues this year (popping over the knee on every leg bend), leading to or as a consequence of some really dodgy hips. Great fun :/

From where I'm sitting at the moment I'm feeling that the pieces are loosely in place, but I could do with another solid 4 week block to really give me some positivity. After a week long overseas work and family trip (timed to coincide with a rest week) I've picked up a cold and throat infection. This currently means that I've gone almost a week and a half on minimal training - never good for the psychie.

Swimming - Was posting PB's and some solid sessions a month ago, 3 swims in 2 weeks isn't doing me any favours though.
Run - Currently up on last year, a couple more consistent weeks and I'll be ready to start on the speed work. Will hopefully sneak a half marathon or two before race season trying to get down to 1.18-19.
Bike - We shall see. This is always the last discipline to come online and I'm planning to stick a couple of big weeks in over the next 6-8.....