After picking up an injury during IRONMAN 70.3 MALLORCA 2019 which turned out to be a grade 2 tear of my right calf muscle, I had to pull out of pretty much all of my races between May – July whilst the calf recovers. I then decided to not take part in the races I had planned in August & September, knowing that I would be just getting back up to race speed again.

This left me with one big race to focus all of my efforts on, the New York City Marathon in November.

I ran this race in 2017 and 2018 and loved both experiences. For me, New York is the best race in the world. I love running there and especially the atmosphere of running those first 13.1 miles in Brooklyn, the place is electric on race day.

I decided to start my “official” New York City Marathon training on the 10th June, 20 weeks before race day.

I picked this week for two reasons, firstly, I did my first run since tearing the calf, on the 8th June and that went without issue and secondly, I am going to use the first three weeks to steadily build up the running before starting to work with a new running coach on the 1st July.

After two successful coaching blocks with two different coaches (Matt Rees for Chicago & New York 2018 and Peak Performance for Tokyo 2019), I once again decided to seek help from a professional. I thought about going with Matt or PP again but I do like to learn from these coaching blocks and by working with different people, you get to see different methods and techniques.

So for New York and hopefully Boston 2020, I will be working with Purdue Performance.

I mostly wanted to have a coach with me to push me harder than I would training by myself, that comfort zone is a nice place and difficult to get yourself out of. Also, I felt it would be massively beneficial to have a coach help me with the rehab from the calf tear and no doubt hold me back from doing too much too soon. We have all been injured at some point and all guilty of the same thing, wanting to get straight back on the horse and smashing out sessions like pre-injury.

Week 1:

• Running: 4 Miles – 34mins
• Bike: 130.7 Miles – 6hrs 32min
• Swimming: 9,050yrds – 2hrs 44min

One of the biggest things I took from my Tokyo Marathon training with Peak Performance was the value of cross training. For Tokyo, only 30% of my training time was spent running with over 60% of the time spent on the bike. This was due to training for Ironman but the result on my running strength in Tokyo was huge. I aim to continue incorporating the swim and bike elements into this training cycle too.

In week 1, I only ran twice. Two 2-mile runs. This may not sound like much for a marathon training plan, but these are the first tentative steps on the road to recovery. Both of these runs were at an easy pace over a flat profile and soft ground all aimed at keeping the stress on the calf low whilst the muscles continue to regrow. The new muscles do need some stress to help strengthen them as they re-grow. The best way to do this is by running.

Alongside my running, I am also doing calf stretches three times per day, 30 secs per leg. This will ensure that the new muscle has the flexibility to cope with running and by continuing this past the recovery phase, I will be increasing the flexibility in comparison to pre-injury which will hopefully reduce the risk of re-injuring further down the line. In four weeks time, I can add in calf strengthening, again with the same aim of making the calf stronger than before and reducing risk of injury.

I am also spending 15 mins every day using resistance bands to improve the strength in my hip flexors and glutes. This is an area my physio has pointed out as a weaker area and something I have been putting off for the past 18 months. The usual excuses, I don’t have the right equipment or time, etc, etc, etc. So I brought a pack of resistance bands and set my alarm for 15 mins early to make the time.

Swimming this week was a technique set, focusing on the catch and pull mainly. A speed session of 6 x 25m, 8 x 50m, and 10 x 100m plus a 400m time trial and then a distance swim set. The rough plan is to repeat these three sets each week going forward.

Cycling of six rides, all on the indoor trainer using Zwift to control the power. Three of these were hard race pace sessions aimed at getting the legs used to holding a high wattage for a long duration, one session was sprint intervals followed by 45min at race pace again, working on endurance. The fifth ride was intervals but at high watts to build up the cycling muscles and the sixth was a 60min recovery spin.

Week 2:

• Running: 6 Miles – 46mins
• Bike: 245.7 Miles – 13hrs 59min
• Swimming: 7,959yrds – 2hrs 32min

As mentioned in week 1, I spent 15mins each morning doing the hip & glute strengthening and the 3mins of daily calf stretches.

Following a successful first week back running, the plan for this week was to continue with the 2-mile runs keeping them flat but three this time. Happy to report that all three went without issue, no pain or aches so things are improving.

Three swims again but one distance swim, one technique set (same as last week) and instead of a speed session I went for my first open water swim of the year at Salford Quays, it was a tad chilly in there but soon warmed up and no doubt a damn sight warmer than the sea swim will be at next weeks Abersoch Sprint Triathlon.

A big week on the bike was rounded off on Sunday where I took part in the White Rose Classic Sportive. This is a 122-mile sportive which goes through the Yorkshire Dales and into Cumbria before returning back to the Dales and yes it was one hilly beast coming in at 11,200ft of climbing. Monday – Friday I still stuck to the usual five rides, the same bunch as week 1 just missing the interval set.