In other sport related news

Bad times over here with a serious injury in mid February. It’s a long story, probably not that interesting if it’s not your legs, and I’ll get upset if I start talking about it, so I won’t!

So in other news, and in the absence of being able to run, cycle or walk I’ve had to find other things to be doing with my time. Swimming with a pull buoy is my only activity option at the moment, and although not an ideal situation it’s been going well. I’ve had to ditch my multisport races for the foreseeable future, but this is a good opportunity to embrace my weaker discipline. I’ll be taking part in the Sport Relief Swimathon on Saturday, which is an exercise in mental endurance getting through a 5k pool swim. I’m really looking forward to open water season and thankfully my swim at Outlaw as part of a me-boyfriend-brother relay is still on the cards.

Whilst theoretically we all acknowledge that there is more to life than triathlon, reality goes that training doesn’t leave much time, energy or headspace for other interests a lot of the time. So I’ve been getting some intellectual and creative exercise, thinking about jobs and houses and big life things, and catching up with friends. I paint occasionally, and whilst this cyclist might be off of her bike, I still love the colour, energy and emotion of cycling. Hope you like the product!

And finally, a revelation from the weekend. Reading the fascinating book Gulp, by the superb Mary Roach (can highly recommend her other books also), it turns out that eating offal is totally the way forward. Muscle meat doesn’t touch it in terms of nutrition, and if you can get over the cultural yuck factor eating beef liver is as close as you’ll get to super food. Plus it’s way cheaper than muscle meats (at £1.80 per kilo) and presumably a far more environmentally and ethically sound approach to eating meat as it means a more efficient use of dead cows. AND, it’s really not that yuck. Speaking as a born and bred vegetarian for the first 24 years, if I can get it down and keep it down so can you! I don’t eat meat without good reason, so here’s why I jumped on beef liver..
It has:
More calcium than milk
3 times more iron than steak
More vitamin C than oranges
More vitamin E than spinach
4 times more vitamin B12 than mackerel
More potassium than bananas
More protein than eggs
And a whole host of other goodies besides.
If that weren’t enough, research has shown that beef liver can improve endurance by 800%. If you want the details, look up a 1951 beef liver endurance experiment on swimming rats. Enjoy!