Yesterday afternoon the Bela Bela stage of the Standard Bank 5i50 African Triathlon Series took place, and yes I have some FOMO 🙂 That said, I’m also feeling content that I did not opt to do it as I don’t feel I’m yet ready for it.
Why you may be asking?
Firstly, I’m not quite sure I’m done with cramps. According to the Triathlon SA 2015 magazine cramps can be caused by a number of things.. but for clarity sake cramps are the involuntary contraction of a muscle. It is sore!!!! They can occur in a number of places, for instance while swimming your spine or foot or ankle, for me it has also hit my hamstrings and calf. While cycling you could experience cramps in similar places, but for me it has been mostly my quadriceps that cramp. It used to happen after I’d ridden for about 40kms, thankfully because of the training I’m now able to ride past this point without cramping! BONUS! When I run the 10kms I’ve fortunately not experienced any cramps, but during my Two Oceans Half Marathon this year at the 18km I began to cramp around my one ankle. Now that was a first for me. I think it had to do with hydration and possibly a lack of nutrition. Lesson learnt and not to be repeated I hope.
We could also be getting cramps because it’s something our family suffers from, or you’ve suddenly increased the tempo of your exercise and duration, or the intensity has been increased, lack of salt in your diet, hydration or basically lack of training. In my case I think it’s been a combination of some of these .. if I’m honest I think mainly salt and lack of training.
To “fix” me, I’ve begun eating with more salt and taking SLOMag tablets to manage my seemingly lack of magnesium. My training has become more structured and focused. During my rides I’ve begun dropping a tablet of NUUN into my two bottles of water to keep me hydrated and electrolytes levels where they should be. 
So far these changes seem to be working, so sticking to them for now. I’m not convinced though, my fitness is where it should be to tackle a 5i50 Triathlon .. at least not yet! I will continue to put the time and effort in my training to meet that goal though 🙂
How’s the training going?
Well this week I’ve swum .. not early in the morning as I’d hoped, but after work. Managed to cut my 3km time by 30 sec, doesn’t seem a lot perhaps, but to me it is a move in the right direction. As the swim is the first of three disciplines in the Triathlon, being fast isn’t necessary great if one is weak in the other two disciplines – cycle and run. My goal now is to bring them all on par or as close to that as possible.
This past week I had two Spinning sessions, a single treadmill session followed by a road race 10km today(Sunday) and two swim sessions, one 3km and a 1.5km with a bit of indoor cycling to kill the #FOMO I had from missing the #5150BelaBelaTriathlon 🙂 This morning’s run was super special for me as I managed to break the illusive 60min mark, managing to run it in 58m39s, inclusive of the climbs and gravel the route had for good measure!
Next week we pick up the tempo, will be hoping to run right after work, spin, swim and some road cycle over the weekend. It will be September soon and then just 4 weeks in October. This is my goal happening 1 November 2015 —–>> 
Lots of work still in terms of fitness, nutrition, and most importantly my mental readiness before then! Need to continue putting in the time and effort, the reward will be reaped later I firmly believe and very worth all this time and effort!
EKL
My journey towards staying active and fit 
Reblogged this on mundodedkl.
LikeLike