Training Review - Week 51 - Dec 18 to 24

Monday swim session turned out to be a bit of a non-event. I got a lane to myself and no plan so I decided just to do a steady swim.

Tuesday I had my first trip to Kirkhill with Dexter for this holiday. We did a bit of sliding and a bit of jogging and he was generally pretty well behaved. From there I went to the pool with a plan to do a set of 100m reps on 2 minute starts. I managed 7 in 1:34-1:36 before running out of gas. Fairly similar to this time last year. 

Wednesday Dec and I went out to Kirkhill again. We went for a bit of adventuring off the main tracks to try and avoid the ice, and made some new friends (a vizla called Lucas who kept following us and escaped his owner twice in the process). Towards the end of the run I decided to take the route down through the box park since the rest of the biking tracks had all been clear of ice. And about 20 meters later I was lying in a heap on the ground and I had to straighten my leg out. After I stopped screaming, I managed to fish my phone out of my bag and call an ambulance and for at least the next 6 to 13 weeks my blog now takes a massive segue. 


First up I am going to have a bit of a rant about the ambulance 999 central call room. I had to spend 7 minutes trying to explain to them where Kirkhill Forest was and then because it still wasn't in their computer. I eventually resorted to telling them "That is fine, I will just lie here and die because you can't use fucking google!" at which point he resorted to getting his supervisor, who was as equally fuckwitted. They eventually settled on Kinellar which is about 4 miles away, and the other side of Blackburn (which doesn't exist according to the ambulance control room). But they agreed to give my version of the directions as a note to the local driver. 

I then phoned Mrs M to update her as calmly as I could.

Dexter meanwhile kept poking me and wondering why I was lying around on the trail being lazy while he wanted to get on home for his lunch. 

The NHS then changed gear as the ambulance arrived at the Kirkhill car park. They were very fortunate to bump in to a couple of mountain bikers in the car park and asked them if they had seen me. They had not, but they both voluntarily set off back up the hill in search of me and luckily one of them found me within a few minutes. 

I am hugely grateful to them as their help meant the ambulance crew were able to find me within about half an hour of my call rather than waiting for the mountain rescue crew to arrive and search the entire hillside for me. If anyone reading this knows a mountain biker with a pink Orange 5 that was out on Kirkhill on December 20th, buy him a drink for me, or give me his details and I will send him something nice for Christmas.

They were also able to bring Mrs M up from the car park so she could get Dexter and my car keys.

The ambulance crew then called in their special access team and their very cool little 6-wheeler off-road truck to come and get me while I went through an entire canister of gas and air and their entire supply of morphine. 

Fraser, Grant, Chris and John, from the ambulance service you are heroes and I can't thank you enough for getting me safely and relatively comfortably off the hill. For all that the central control room were crap, the local ambulance team were absolute stars. 

On arrival at the hospital the NHS went back to a more sedate gear. After getting x-rays took about an hour, I was then put in a cast, and eventually the Registrar rocked up. I explained to him that it was definitely broken, I even pointed to where I thought the breaks were. He dismissed me as if I might know nothing of what was going on and went in search of the X-rays, only to return 5 minutes later and tell me I definitely had broken both tibia and fibula and that those breaks were exactly where I told him. He then told me he was off to talk to the Consultant about the way forward and then returned to tell me I was going to surgery the next day so they could investigate my ankle and probably put some screws in it. 

So I got shipped to the Orthopaedic ward and tucked away in a single room, where I was interrogated for about the 7th time about my birthdate, age, address, allergies, etc. (Dear NHS, sort this out and you can cut your waiting times in half!). Then the Consultant showed up early evening to say actually I wasn't going to get my surgery for a week, and I could go home. Only for the nurse to point out that they had all spent so long asking me questions that the physiotherapist and pharmacist had left for the day and I wouldn't be able to get crutches, instructions, or drugs to take home with me. So I was staying overnight until they could sort all that in the morning. 

At least by this time I was back to getting some good drugs, and I didn't really mind that I was going to be overnight. Up until that point I had expected to be in overnight so that they could operate in the morning anyway. 

Mrs M arrived back with a change of clothes and some food which got me back to feeling a bit more human. 

So my 2017 End of Year Review blog can be written a fortnight early. That will give me something to do this week. And my 2018 Plan will need ripping up and starting again. 



Target totals -  Swim 2.0 miles. Bike 56.0 miles. Run 14.0 miles. 
1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 30 mins of yoga. 

Monday - Swim with TPT 2,800m in 53 mins.

Tuesday - Run at Kirkhill with Dexter 3.5 miles in 51 mins.
Swim at bucksburn 900m in 20 mins.
Stretching session.

Wednesday - Run at Kirkhill with Dexter 4.6 miles 68 minutes.

Thursday - Fucked!

Friday - 

Saturday - 

Sunday - 


Actuals - Swim 2.3 miles (3,700 m). Bike 0 miles. Run 8.1 miles. 
0 short core, 0 short light weights and 1 stretching / rollering session. 0 mins of yoga.

Cumulative (Cumulative target) [Cumulative Stretch target]
S 134.0 (123.0) [141.5], 
B 2,301.8 (2,276.0) [2,731.2], 
R 810.1 (795.0) [898.4].