I haven’t updated the blog since early March, but that’s not because there hasn’t been anything happening – quite the opposite in fact. If anything I’ve been a bit too busy recently.

Work has been relentlessly full-on since September as we are a bit under staffed currently and by a happy coincidence the referral rate to the Physio team I work in has also increased significantly – this is called sod’s law I believe.  Choosing the month of September to start a fairly involved exercise referral diploma is now proving a bad idea, but I am almost there with that one thankfully.

I also thought it would be a great idea to complete a rebound therapy train the trainers course in my spare time. Rebound therapy uses a trampoline and as well as being a great form of general exercise it can help people with a wide range of issues. I use it on a weekly basis in my day job but doing the extra training means I can run staff training courses privately. Why on earth would I want to as I have enough to keep me busy already, right? In short to help fund my triathlon activities! With my category having been dropped from the Rio Paralympics and funding/support from UK Sport/British Triathlon having been cut, it’s going to be an expensive season. I would have done this regardless as it’s a great therapy that I am keen to promote as I can see the benefits on a weekly basis with the clients I work with.

Oh yeah, I’ve managed to fit in a decent amount of training throughout the winter too. I don’t do mega hours like some people, mainly because I work and need some rest/recovery time, but I’ve consistently managed 10-12 hours a week on top of an active job.

I’ve been pretty good at dragging my sorry backside out of bed in the morning to swim 3 times a week. I’ve continued to work on swim and run technique with my coach Tim Williams at Perfect Condition in Cambridge and hopefully that will pay off during the season. I’ve been out on my bike for regular long steady miles and been hitting the turbo sessions when the weather’s poor, although in fairness it’s been a good winter here in the UK. Reluctantly I’ve even been doing some S&C work.

It’s not all been plain-sailing though. I’ve had a couple niggly injuries to deal with. The first was an Achilles problem following the Norwich half marathon in November (I was on the trampoline the next day which hurt the legs!) and this didn’t clear up until Christmas. I got back to running in January and February only to pick up a foot problem causing me to miss another month of running. It’s taken me a few weeks but I’m getting back some run fitness now and looking forward to the key races coming up.

Iain