Lucy Charles-Barclay says she doesn’t feel like “an injured athlete” anymore as she eases herself back into running.
The 2023 IRONMAN World Champion and winner of last year’s 70.3 Worlds has been on the sidelines – at least in running terms – since electing to have surgery in January to remove a plantaris tendon.
Instead she’s thrown herself into a swimming project to see if she can qualify for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this summer.
By her own admission that’s a longshot as the Team England qualifying mark is 16:26:99 and her best so far this year is 17:04 but it’s helped give the early season a focus and the trials for the 1,500 metres freestyle take place next Wednesday [15 April].
‘Definitely got some FOMO’
And in her latest video, which is embedded below, she reveals that she’s now done a number of run / walk sessions.
She said: “Obviously [triathlon] race season has kicked off recently and I’m not yet on the start line, so definitely got some FOMO.
“But I also feel really grateful that I am now back and doing swim, bike and run so I do feel like a fully-fledged triathlete – I don’t feel like an injured athlete anymore.
“But I can’t get too carried away and try an push my timeline because I want to be doing these top-level races.
“I’ve just got to stick to my plan and know that racing will come back.”
Patience the key
When that time comes she underlined that the big targets won’t come until the back-end of the season, which features those two IRONMAN World Championships.
She explained: “I don’t want to line up until I’m ready to compete at the highest level.
“With my timeline, I have got to do an IRONMAN to validate for Kona. I don’t foresee that being a performance where I’m going to set the world alight. It’s going to be a performance where I tick the box, I get the validation done, and then those bigger performances will just have to come later in the year.”
Going in the right direction
And she admitted that any time spent away from the sport is challenging to deal with, saying: “I always come across really quite positive in our videos, and for the most part, I definitely am.
“This is a little bit different to what I’ve experienced before, where an injury has been thrust upon me and I’ve kind of just had to deal with it. Whereas I chose to do this. And I knew it would be difficult, but I also kind of knew it would definitely be beneficial at some point. But there’s definitely times when it’s hard.
“I’ve been completely immersed in this swimming goal, which I’m chasing and working really hard for. But then the triathlon season kicks off and I’m like, oh, I’m not actually doing that. And that’s my real job. That’s what I want to get back to doing. And, yeah, it’s hard when you’re not doing it, but I also feel like I am going in the right direction to get back to that.
“So I feel in a good place. I think it’s really important not to compare where I’m at to anyone else because I’m on my own journey back to the start line.
“[The swimming training] ultimately is going to help me when I get back to triathlon as well. So it’s not like it’s a detriment to my triathlon career.”
