Paralysis by analysis……

Ok I admit it, I’m a woman, No not that bit! This bit => I'm predisposed to over thinking things…...

The Swim:

 

 

When I signed up for my first open water swim last year; I probably tried on at least 500 wetsuits before I found the perfect one. Mostly because, unlike the majority, I do breaststroke and generally don’t like to make things easy for myself! “Normal” wetsuits are slow and prone to rubbing, triathlon wetsuits are made of smooth neoprene and are made for triathletes. (Who have err washboard stomachs and no “lady bumps”....) They have lots of floaty stuff in the legs to compensate for heavy muscles and because most triathletes dislike the swim and are weaker at this discipline. They also want to save their legs for the next two disciplines so are happy for them to just float along behind them. Try doing breaststroke with no legs though and you may as well go home now.

- You see right there, that’s a clue to my over analytical brain, breaststroke is not a “non swimmers” stroke of choice because it is arguably the most technical to master. A good racing breaststroke is not as fast as a good freestyle but can easily equal a poor one. It also has the added advantage of not having to guess which direction you’re swimming in and when the “What if that thing out of finding Nemo is down there!?” thing starts to freak you out, (…or the water is less than 10 Deg C!) you can take your face out of the water for a bit. You’ll struggle to do that in free unless you’re actually an owl…..

 

......OK occasionally I do free (in a Zone3!) ;-)

I finally discovered the Aquaskin by Aquasphere, an ultra thin wetsuit that just about keeps you from freezing but most importantly doesn’t leave you with your ankles sticking out of the water and a week’s worth of back pain. (Speedo also do something similar if you’re also a frustrated open water breaststroke swimmer)


The Bike:

 

When Father Christmas “forgot” to leave a shiny new bike under the Christmas tree, I visited pretty much all the bike shops in Yorkshire and read all the reviews before I finally bought my bike. I paid about £300 more for an upgraded spec so that I got a colour that errrr “goes faster”. I still have no cycling shoes with two and a half months to go because I haven’t found any that tick all the boxes.

Note to self: Bare feet tick no boxes in cycling….

The Run:

Much to my personal trainer’s annoyance I'm currently running in front of a mirror instead of on the road where I'm meant to be in order to analyse my far from perfect “technique” (or rather lack of it!).
 -There's a reason for this; just before Christmas my crappy technique, various muscle imbalances probably from a 5th metatarsal fracture a couple of years ago along with a tendency to push too hard too soon lead to a horrible hip injury where I virtually tore myself in half. It took 3months to get back to where I was before Christmas in terms of the run and it's still giving me some issues 4months on.

Yes I know I'm “training myself” to run on a treadmill, that the road is not going to be coming towards me (unless I fall towards it in complete exhaustion or as a result of my habitual clumsiness) but while I am still running like Phoebe out of friends rather than Mo Farah the mirror is staying.
 

                                                      

                                                 .......and yes "no comment" on the colour!

 

I am also on the apparently futile hunt for the perfect pair of trainers as my beloved Vibram Five Fingers are doing a great job of making me a better, stronger runner but I can’t put them on in under 5mins with dry feet never mind with wet sandy ones. I have now bought a pair of Saucony Hattoris which have solved the big toe rubbing I get from my Vibrams, are slightly more padded so allow me to run a little bit faster but have the spectacular disadvantage of taking even longer to put on than my Vibrams so while they are my “right now” trainers they are not “the ones”.

Everything else:

I’ve read all the books from “swim smooth” to “chi running” and am now back to “triathlon for dummies”. I subscribe to H2O magazine and read everything on the Kinetic Revolution webpages, and NKT, and sports injury clinic……… in fact anything you put within reach.

My PT has to constantly tell me to “stop over thinking it” and has now resorted to throwing a ball at me to disengage my brain while I am trying to balance on one leg. My physio tells me not to be so “hypercritical” while chatting about how to correct my multiple “dysfunctions” and ripping to pieces yet another non-functioning body part.

......my PT does not look like this and his errr balls are smaller! ;-P

It’s hard to be positive when you’re having a hard rubber ball thrown at your head, or trying to catch it before it hits the window or when you have a grown man separating your ribs one at a time. But if I was being negative I wouldn’t throw the ball back or offer up another part of my body for a usually painful reconstruction would I?

So putting aside the fact I (not to mention the “team” I employ) clearly have sado masochistic tendencies, why do I keep coming back for more?

# Reason No1 I am a woman so clearly never going to be happy with anything however perfect.

# Reason No2 It’s not perfect.

I’m not completely deluded. (Debate this all you like!) I do realise I’m never likely to be a pro athlete anytime soon, but that’s the point isn’t it? If you say “Well I’m no Jessica Ennis so why leave the sofa!?” you’re probably right but by standing up and taking a single step you’ve already out performed the majority of people who stay put. It’s not about competing with the elite; it’s about personal challenge, outperforming your last attempt, however fast or slow that was and constantly striving to be better than last time. That’s one thing I do have in common with Jess Ennis. She is always going to run faster, throw further and jump higher than me, but the way we approach our sports can be the same.

 

 

The “just do it” philosophy……….
This approach frustrates me almost as much as my thinking everything through before putting one foot in front of another clearly does some other people. Some people are lucky, they have no dysfunctions, (That they’re acknowledging!) they have a bigger stubborn streak (Debatable!) and a higher pain threshold (Questionable!) than me and probably a job that doesn’t require walking the next day. Some people are lucky and for a short time can get away with “just doing it”. But are you ever going to reach your full potential or keep going injury free long term with this approach? Granted some events; Marathons, Ironmans etc require as much mental as physical strength and if you wait for the perfect time or the perfect event or until you can hit all your fitness targets then you may never do it, so I suppose there has to at some point be an element of “just do it”. For me though I have to feel confident I’ve built a solid foundation before I can really go after something. The times that I’ve pushed too hard and not been ready I’ve generally broken something and ended up skulking into the physio on a Monday morning. Maybe it’s a self-fulfilling prophesy, maybe the lack of confidence leads to the injury, maybe the fact I injure myself easily leads to the lack of confidence. Who can say?

 Last year I know I wasn’t ready for the Great North Swim. I hadn’t given myself enough time, hadn’t done enough training, wasn’t strong enough and I wasn’t happy with my gear or the environment I needed to perform in. I could have “just done it” and I probably am stubborn enough to have got round. But it would have hurt like hell, would not have been enjoyable and would I really have been up for signing for something else this year?
As it was the event was cancelled (Divine intervention!) and I had an additional 3 months to prepare. I knew going into the later Poole Bay swim that yes it was scary, yes it would be demanding but that yes I was ready. I had built a solid foundation and yes I could do it. I did have a good event and I did enjoy it but most importantly I walked away intact and ready to sign up for something else.

In those three months I also started working with my PT. The reason I chose to work with him is not so he could shout at me, chase me round a field and leave me in a sweaty mess on the floor. By his own admission "it takes no skill to do that...." He also doesn't shout, he does that silent disapproval thing which is far worse! I work with him because he's a corrective exercise specialist, he stops me standing there for ten minutes debating which is the better foot to put forward first but at the same time assesses whether I am ready to step forward and when I do how I can step forward in a more efficient way. He's sorted out my posture (....with a broom handle! and no don't ask!) and got my rotator cuff working so I don't tear my shoulders to pieces every time I get in the pool. The standing on one leg thing is something to do with making me "a runner" which if he achieves that someone should give him a medal!

So yes I analyse things but it’s my body! You don’t have to walk in it tomorrow and last time I checked you probably aren’t the one putting yourself out there.

"Before you accuse, criticize, and abuse

- walk a mile in my shoes".

…….and by the way, they’re size 5 minimalist ones! ;-)