Got-a-Sec?

On my first night on the bike I decided 5k was a reasonable distance... by the end of my 5k I was red in the face, puffing and barely able to walk straight. As it's living in the pool cabin, I simply chucked myself in the pool to cool down. Good grief - it's hard work! Over the next few days it did get easier - to the point where I was listening happily to the radio whilst pedalling. And it was then that The Idea struck... there was a chap on 5 Live talking about doing his first 'sprint' triathlon and how he was training hard. I do the swimming anyway (I've been doing a mile a day for a few months now) and here I was pedalling away. All I had to do was try running... I decided to go and buy some trainers.

The lads in the local sports shop were really helpful, and didn't even laugh when I said I was thinking of doing a triathlon. I explained that I wanted a pair of trainers to see if I could run, and that I didn't want to pay a fortune in case my knees packed up after half a mile... They looked after me beautifully and I bought a lovely looking pair of trainers (staggeringly, my first ever trainers!) and, best of all, they were even pink. I took them home, changed into my nice baggy trousers and a T shirt, donned the trainers and off I went, just up the lane outside the house. I counted my steps and figured it was about 200m to the end of the lane. So a round trip of 400m then. I did 5 laps which was probably a bit under 2k and stopped. Fab - no problems at all! WOO HOO! I can run! Not bad after not running for about 32 years.... I had a few days not running, then bought some proper running trousers (the baggy ones had fallen down rather alarmingly) and off I went again. From the first step I was in trouble - shins hurting, knees hurting, everything aching. Did I stop? Nope. I kept going - up to the main road, about a mile to the Machen sign. And back. I did walk a bit, but ran as much as I could. Definitely sore afterwards. Which was fine, till the next day when I literally couldn't walk down the stairs - ouch, ouch and OUCH!

I sought physiotherapy advice. I have a Condition. Apparently very common in women, and it's called chondromalacia patella - put simply, I have pigeon toed kneecaps. They slope inwards, and they shouldn't. The lovely physio put ultrasound and ice on my knees to reduce the swelling, then gave me some exercises to do to straighten my kneecaps - legs out straight, bend the foot to 90 degrees, raise the leg, count to 3. Repeat 20 times for each leg. Then the same again with the foot turned out (harder). Repeat for 40... And no running for 2 weeks - that will then be just 2 weeks before the Triathlon competition. Eek! I email the organisers and ask if I can walk if I have to. Yep, no problem! I may yet be ok...