Just back from my evening swim session.  Swam 1000m in just under 30 mins, which isn’t too bad for me.

Needless to say I am absolutely whacked now though.  I remember being tired after swimming when I was 10 years old, and I was a lot fitter in those days.



Still with the shins still hurting me swimming is good recovery, and also as I am going to target sub 30 minutes for my 1500m swim in the Swanage Tri in August, the more time I can spend in the pool the better.

Time for some room service, a couple of episodes of Breaking Bad and then some sleep.

TTFN

So……….I suffer from shin splints when I run.  I am sure that a lot of runners get this; however with me it seems that any time I take a step up in distance or effort it’s guaranteed to sideline me for a few weeks afterwards with shin splints.  So what do I need to do about this you may ask???

Well firstly I have been performing stretching and foam roller exercises to try and recover quickly.  Secondly I have been staying off of running, and thirdly I have been having a little think.

According to some research conducted in America, you exert 3 – 4 times your bodyweight through your feet on a 10 mile run.  So somebody who weighs in at a rather portly 217 lbs (holy crap that looks like a lot when written down like that) is exerting somewhere between 651 and 868lbs of force through my feet when I run.  That is 62 stone in weight, or 395kg (for all you Europeans out there)

Essentially this is rather a lot, and it is not surprising that I get shin splints and any manner of other injuries when running.

If I can get down to 13.5 stone, or around 190lbs then I reduce the force through my feet to 570 – 760lbs, which is a huge drop.

So that’s the skinny (if you pardon the pun).  Time to lose weight.  I have decided to adopt the 5:2 intermittent fasting routine of dieting because its easier for me to fast on two days and eat reasonably well on the others than it is to commit to a consistent calorie deficit.  Mostly this is down to my working schedule, and also down to laziness.

So, fast days for me will be Mondays and Thursdays.  I have done my first fast day today, only eating a lunch of around 600 calories and it has been a lot easier than I expected.  I am going to set up a new area of my blog to track weight loss as this may be something that others are interested in over time, and will also be good to look back on.

Anyway must dash as have been in the car for the last 4 hours driving to Leeds and Breaking Bad on Netflix is calling my name.  

I went out for a run after work with my colleague Dan.  Dan hasn’t run for years and is keen to get into it.  We did just under 2 miles of run / walk to ease Dan in, and all was good.

Then I decided to do a few more miles at a quicker pace just to keep my miles for the week up.  After another couple of miles I was struck with shin pain in both shins.

I have had this before, and it hurts.  Am still not sure what causes this, but I have a guess my supreme lack of lower leg flexibility is something to do with it.

Anyway being the sensible man that I am I decided to carry on for a couple more miles (I had to get back to the car somehow) and then after an 45 mile drive home I have pulled on my attractive compression leggings, drunk a couple of beers and decided to post this.  My shins are still hurting me, but the beer definitely is helping.

Fingers crossed that leaving the running until Saturday’s Park Run will be enough time to recover.

So here we go, the first post on my blog all about how I am going to become an Ironman.

Needless to say there will be some trials and tribulations along the way, but I am determined and have the best motivation in the world.

More on this to come.