Home Sweet Home!

I finally got home for a well overdue long weekend, even if it was a very busy one. The main reason for my visit was to come home and see Deirdre and Martina (Physio and Strength and conditioning) to let them see how my leg was coming on, and they both seem really pleased with my progress and recovery. Have finally started putting a bit of impact through my leg and I am now able to start building things up slowly and if all things go to plan will be fit and ready for a very exciting season ahead. Finally things are starting to fall into place.

It was also great to get home and see my family, just to keep my mum sweet – “ It was brilliant to come home to my mummy!” (this should get me some brownie points;) )It was also great to help my dad out who just got a full hip replacement only 4weeks ago ( lets hope I don’t have his hips – that’s all I would need) He was a great co-pilot on the way up and down to Dublin all weekend, even if It was like having a driving instructor beside me.

Although I was at home I managed to get some solid consistent training in, some fantastic cycles with the guys from Banbridge Cycling Club. I really do love coming home and cycling especially when we had some decent dry weather for once.

Swimming for once was all done by myself in public sessions which was a bit different but really good I quite like training by myself every so often. Plus when I throw in the strength and conditioning with Martina I was a really solid couple of days of training in a different environment which helped to mix things up a bit.

Talking about different training environments I am back off to Spain next Monday for two weeks, (one week in Benidorm / one week in Aguilas) with the Triathlon Scotland Squad which should be a good race prep camp. Really looking forward to it!

Just when I thought everything was going to plan and falling into place, I found out that my proposed Bike sponsor for this season pulled out on me - not that they were planning on telling me it took a lot of chasing up on my part. They had strung me along for months – told me it was confirmed and even asked me what all I wanted and now tell me that they can’t give me anything.

So please if there is anyone out there that wants to sponsor me a Bike etc for this season it would be greatly appreciated if you could get in contact with me!

I will help give as much publicity etc as physically possible; it could be rather beneficial to anyone interested.

You can contact me on :- russellwhitetriathlete@yahoo.co.uk

27 weeks but finally some good news.

Last Monday I went and got the results for my MRI scan, and finally I have got some good news.

My scans showed that my leg has healed enough that the consultant is happy for me to start running again. FINALLY, ( I think I also got a world record for the slowest healing stress fracture it has been 27 weeks from getting my 1st x-ray after World Champs until the day I got my 2nd MRI results.)

So now I have to still be very careful and build my running up slowly and will require a lot of drills and conditioning, but hopefully if everything goes to plan I will be all ready for a successful season.

Other than that last week was pretty uneventful, just a good solid week of training with some very nice compu-trainer sessions.

I topped it off with a long ride with the guys on Sunday over Dukes Pass, which is a pretty good local climb, (still don’t know the area that well yet but I’m getting there) what made it so good was that it was covered in snow. I always wind the guys up that Scotland is a rubbish country and that they are just a small part of England ( I give as good as I get) but on Sunday I had to admit that Scotland does have some fantastic scenery, and it has some lovely riding. It was painful to compliment it but it was true.

I am heading home next weekend to get physio and make sure I am all ready to get back into the running, and will also be a good chance to see the Family who I have unfortunately not seen much of lately. Always love going home to get spoilt. And then once I come back over to Stirling, I will have a very Busy week getting ready to go back out to Spain for two weeks with Triathlon Scotland. (2weeks today) Which should be a very good solid block of training which I am really looking forward to. Recently I also set up a twitter account, so if you fancy following please do so, for more random frequent updates on how things are going.

http://twitter.com/#!/russellwhitetri

Home Alone.

I was in my chalet at uni all alone this weekend as the rest of the guys were away home and at various different things, so I had the whole place to myself, which was actually quite nice and a good time to get things sorted and get my head showered. I would love to have said that it was really productive but it wasn’t overly. I did manage to get a good bit of training in, watch a couple of dvd’s and eat a lot of Tesco cookies. What more could you ask for.

I was out today for my long ride (by myself) better than I expected, it wasn’t as boring as I thought it was going to be, mainly because I just kept getting lost and was more worried about where I was than being bored.

I came across I sign which I had to stop and take a picture of. It isn’t just a random sign it has a lot of significance since I have came over to University in Scotland. Since I have moved here I have got a lot of abuse (all friendly) from the triathletes that I live with. A lot of which revolves around what I say and the way I say things. I get laughed at so much for my accent. But there is one thing that I get even more abuse for and it is POTATOES! Yes potatoes, since September I have found out that Scottish people find people from Ireland and potatoes hilarious; they have some obsession with the Irish Famine. So every time I buy them they always comment on it, like ; “are you stocking up incase you run out of them again” and stupid stuff like that. So when I seen this sign I had to stop and take a picture, I couldn’t resist.

I would love to see the guys faces if I came home with one of these bags, it would be priceless. To be honest that is pretty good value.

Back to Stirling.

I have now been back to Stirling for 1 ½ weeks now, it’s been very busy trying to get organised and settled back in. Mum and Dad drove me over on the boat and stayed for a few days to help me get settled back in, and it was also nice to see my sister, Rebecca who came up from Glasgow (hadn’t seen her since I left to go out to Spain, so it turned into a really nice family long weekend.

So much has happened in such a short period of time, it’s been all go. I have started back to Uni which has been good loving all my new modules and got some pretty good lecturers which is a major plus. The Major event has been my Dad getting a hip operation, which seems to have gone pretty well, just wish I was able to be with him to look after him, but he seems to managing ok. I have also been trying to get some Sponsorship sorted for next season which is looking promising, so I will update when everything is confirmed. I have also been to see the consultant who is really pleased with my leg and believes that it is healed, but have been referred for an MRI scan just to get proof, but things are looking good. (: will know within two weeks and I should be all ready for race season.

People say that everything happens for a reason and that is the way I have been looking at this stress fracture. It has allowed me to get improve on my swimming and cycling even more and it has also flagged up conditioning issues with I have been trying to sort out so that it will not only prevent me from getting injured again but also will hopefully be performance enhancing.

For once Scottish weather has been good enough to allow some consistent training which will hopefully last, (have had a bit of snow on the hills but hopefully should all stay away)

Last week I did have one very eventful training session; went out for a 3hr group ride which ended up only being 1hr30, due to the fact that I punctured by front tyre while descending. Luckily being able to stay upright, I thought it would just be a simple tube ; how wrong I was! As it was cold and wet I decided to quicken things up by inflating the new tyre with an air canister, unfortunately when putting the wheel back on the type exploded with a massive bang shredding the tube and also ripping the tyre. To make things worse none of us had a spare tyre, making me stranded and therefore I had to phone for a lift home while the rest of the guys cycled back. Thankfully Dave McNamee offered to come and rescue me, for which I am truly grateful.

All in all it has been pretty good to get back to Uni and hopefully all will go to plan with the MRI next week and I really hope I get the news I want to hear. I will no doubt update on the result as soon as I get it. (:

One Week, Two Countries, and a very big difference in the weather!

SUNDAY 30^TH JANUARY 2011 (Aguilas, Spain)

7 DAYS LATER

SUNDAY 6^TH FEBRUARY 2011 (Banbridge, Northern Ireland)

………… What a difference !!!!