Triathlete saved by bicycle helmet

Published on Friday 22 July 2011


A sportswoman who was thrown from her bicycle in an accident says her safety helmet may have saved her life.

Great Britain triathlete and teacher Melanie Ryding suffered severe concussion and cannot remember what happened after coming off her bike during a routine ride through Little Harrowden.

Head injury: 1 week on

Flashbacks…

The light flashes on: I am in the back of an ambulance: There’s a person outside the open door, I cant make out who, and bustle all around, noises, people, its all confusing. The light is not on long enough for me to work out what is happening. Blackness again.

A curtained cubicle. I am lying flat on my back. I sense someone to my left. I can’t make out who it is. A man is talking about having to cut off my top. Blackness again.

A donut shaped machine: there is a whirring noise, I can see the machinery moving above me. A voice tells me that I must remain very still. I feel terrified. Then blackness.

Powerbreathe trial week 4: a difficult week

This week started really well. I think the progress on POWERbreathe is good, and I am securely on level 4 now. BUT – the mind progress is less! I still carry the inhaler to the track, and I did another tough session with coach on Tuesday, chest hurt but I wasn’t wheezing. I think I took the inhaler through habit rather than necessity, and on the final sprint rep, didn’t take it at all, breathing was fine, chest was fine, I was fine, and heart rate was lower than to be expected.
All in all, it seems progress is still being made, and I need to get used to not relying on that inhaler as much!

However, the POWERbreathe use was halted on Saturday, when something mysterious happened when I was out cycling. I cannot remember a thing about the incident, but I was found in the middle of the road unconscious, by a passing motorist. I woke up in hospital and was admitted for observation. A shock to say the least.

Powerbreathe trial: week 3 - back to tough training!

This was the start of the hard work training again. After a week of recovery post European champs, it was right back to tough hard fast training. I had my first track session in about 8 weeks with my run coach this week on Monday.

I forgot my asthma inhaler in the rush to get there in time. This made coach nervous but it would be a perfect chance to see if the Powerbreathe was making any difference. I ran a hard tough track sprint session, almost to the point of feeling unwell. It was very tough on the lungs, and although I got the pain in my chest that usually comes before wheezing, I didnt get any wheezing. When I checked my data I was working right at the top end of my heart rate zone 5, the maximum heart rate zone.

Nutrition: its all upside down!!

Following a photo that was taken of me with other athletes in Pontevedra while at the European championships, I suddenly realised that my coach Steve Casson had a point when he said I could probably improve my power to weight ratio. So I went in search of a nutritionist.

I was recommended Martin MacDonald, by more than one person on twitter including Becky White, a nutritionist and fitness professional who i know quite well. I decided to give him a go.

Training with heart rate Zones

Someone recently asked me if I could explain what the benefits of heart rate training was, so I thought I would try and explain, from my own personal viewpoint.

First what are the heart rate zones?

Zone 1: Energy efficient / recovery zone: the easiest workouts, used for recovery after harder workouts, or long slow runs / rides

What can metabolic assessments do for you?

I always knew metabolic assessments as ‘VO2 Max tests’. The first time I came across them was while on holiday in Austria quite a number of years ago. At that time, I knew very little about what it could tell me. As an obsessive for numbers, I hooked on the Vo2Max number, and pretty much ignored the rest of the information. Yes, it told me heart raze zones, but so what!?

Powerbreathe trial week 2

I went to the European championships this week. I did take the POWERbreathe with me, and hoped to be able to continue fitting in my 30 breaths twice a day, but knew it may be a logistical challenge. I did manage at least one of them per day.

Powerbreathe Trial; Week 1

Powerbreathe model: powerbreathe plus: fitness

Activity level: high – I am a Great Britain Age Group triathlete and train twice a day, usually around 10-12 hours per week (plus the day job!)

I was interested to take part in this trial because I am asthmatic. I have been for around 15 years. Nowadays it causes me little trouble and I do not take any regular steroids, however I mostly notice chest pain and breathing trouble when I am training hard, and that is when I need my blue inhaler.

Melanie in the running to carry Olympic torch

A county teacher and triathlete has been nominated to carry the Olympic Torch.

Published in the Northants ET, 
30 June 2011



Members of the public are being encouraged to nominate the person they believe most deserves to carry the Olympic Flame as it tours the UK and Melanie Ryding, of Wellingborough, has been one of the first to be picked out.

ETU European Triathlon Championships, Pontevedra, Spain.

Mel and clubmate paul Jennings, who went on to win a silver medal

Where do I start? It was a whirlwind journey to the start line of this race. For the two weeks leading up to it, I was nursing a medial ligament strain in my knee, so had not really been focussing on the race as such, and more on getting it as recovered as possible.

My original target was top ten, but with two weeks laid off the running leading up to the race, I realised this target maybe too much of a challenge. I decided to not worry about anything, and simply do the race to the best of my ability. I didn’t even look at the start list, and only looked at the course maps on Thursday. I think I got the NLP balance wrong in the opposite direction this time, but more of that later.

MCL Rehab

Its been a roller coaster couple of weeks to say the least. It took a turn on saturday 11th when an examination from my sports masseuse determined that I had to pull out of the race that I was due to compete in the very next day. This was the first time I have been told to pull out of a race, and the first time I have sustained an injury that has halted training.

I cried. Then I pulled myself back together and went to find one of my coaches and formulate a plan.

Strength rehab

David Sutton, my strength coach and I, met on the sunday. He said that although the ligament strain was relatively superficial, it was clearly still enough to cause a lot of pain and discomfort, the area was warm, therefore swollen, and a HUGE pack of ice was attached for the duration of the session. We worked on lower body strength, mainly working the other leg. By the end of the session i felt like I had been through a single leg marathon!

I visited the gym to see him again a few days later. The sessions were returned right back to basic plyometrics. I was told that unless I could hop and hold, single legged, there was no way I could run. Red rag=bull... I worked my butt off. By the second visit to the gym, I was asking him to make the sessions harder, and by the end, was able to step up onto a gym weights bench / seat, single legged, with a 20kg bag slung over my shoulder.

Cycle rehab

Cycling was restricted to the turbo trainer, so that if I had any trouble, I did not have to cycle back home from wherever I had got to on the road. After a days rest, I was told to try it out, very easy, and stop if I felt any pain. I built the cycling up over the next few days, from easy 20 minutes to a full Sufferfest training session, all be it still on medium effort and load. The main trouble was twisting my foot out of the cleat, but otherwise it seemed to be not too bad. Because the main pain was at full extension, it seemed to be ok with cycling, as the leg never fully extends when peddling. Ice was applied or a cyro wrap applied as much as I possibly could in between training and every day life and most of my spare time was spent on ice!

Swimming - business as usual.

Running

Running was of the cards completely, and I spent the allotted time on the cross trainer in the gym. Very boring, but necessary, and wise I would say. still ice every time i trained and every time i had some time spare. I iced the knee regularly for about a week. 8 days after the original injury I tried a very easy run and it seemed to be ok. on day 9 I tried a brick session, fullly expecting to have to bail after the bike. Not only was it ok, but the pace was much better than I thought, nothing lost at all, in fact, I may be as bold as to say I am running quite well! My first full tilt training session (brick, with pace intervals) was this morning. day 11 after the injury was sustained. The session went very well, almost as if I have never even had any time off.

And now?

I am looking forwards, not back. Who knows what the difference is, who knows if i am slower, or in fact faster, for having altered the training. I did not stop, i merely adapted training to my circumstances. It was only 10 days, I will not have lost much, and maybe the difference did me good?

Europeans this weekend, and now I can turn my attention back to that confident that I will be ok, the knee will be ok, and I will be able to do my best. As always.

European Preparations

I started this year’s race season with trepidation. I had four races in four weeks, with only a one week gap before competing in the European championships in Spain. Not ideal, to say the least!

So, when I qualified for this year’s Worlds in Beijing and next year’s Europeans in Israel in the first qualifiers respectively, I was pretty pleased to say the least. This meant that I did not have to race all races and could, instead prepare properly for my A race. A week’s recovery paced training followed by a week of training including short race paced intervals in all three disciplines will take me into the European Sprint Championships in Pontevedra, Spain, next weekend.

Usually, I use the GB team travel company, and stay in the team hotel. What this usually means for me is I get the atmosphere of being with all the team members, right in the thick of it. I love that, but what it also means, however, is that I am immersed in amongst hundreds of people all preparing for a very important race, and being one that prefers to train solo, it can also cause me stress. 

Travelling and accommodation

This year I have chosen to stay in a different hotel, still nearby, and get a hire car. I will never be far away from the action, but with the ability to separate myself. I found when I raced the Beaver and my husband was away for the weekend, that if I am alone before a race, I stay much calmer, chilled and more focussed.

Pre race expectations for a GB athlete

PARADE OF NATIONS, Euro champs, Athlone, 2010

The race is on Saturday, and I travel on Thursday. People often ask me why so early before a race? Well, as a GB triathlete, there are certain expectations of you. The opening ceremony is on Thursday evening. You are also given a couple of specific time slots (assigned for each country’s athletes specifically) in which you MUST register and collect your race pack. My race is on Saturday, so on Friday afternoon I will have to go and rack my bike at a certain time, no negotiation. Then there are also the team meetings with the team manager, so the days running up to a race can be pretty busy. I usually take myself off in between and do a bit of sight seeing. It’s a shame to get to all these lovely parts of the world without actually seeing them other than during a swim/bike/run!

Home comforts

My pre race breakfast, religiously, is Oats so simple porridge. I usually take that with me so I can be sure I will get some wherever I go. As well as that, I will take all my race drinks, gels and nutrition with me in single pouch format (the airlines get a bit twitchy about large quantities of powder!) I like to be self sustained, and not have to rely on finding things at my destination. Due to airline restrictions I am not allowed to carry gas (for quick tyre inflation) so I usually take a mini pump and get gas when I arrive, if I feel the need. Too often I have bought it then not used it and had to leave it there, which is a waste! I will probably take some green tea bags too, my new favourite drink!

Racing Abroad

Triathlon is triathlon. It’s much the same wherever you go. At ETU and ITU level the preparations, facilities and courses are all of a very consistently high standard. The changing factor is the crowd and the weather. That said, there is an immense sense of pride every time I pull that GB suit on. It is a feeling I really can’t describe, and you need to have done it to fully appreciate what I mean. The first GB representation for me was at the World championships in Australia in 2009. I was terrified, excited, elated all at once. I was in pieces at the start line, so nervous of racing at that level for the first time I was almost in tears. I am able to control that better now, but each time I stand at a start line with the GB trisuit on, I think of all the people that I had to beat to be standing there, how I am part of a team representing my country. I feel very proudly patriotic each time I am able to say that. I could, if I wanted to, wear that suit at every race I do. It’s special though. I choose to only wear it at European and World championships. That means that the twice a year that I pull it or the GB tracksuit on makes it all the more special for me.

I will never get bored of the incredible feeling I get racing abroad, representing my country. The result almost doesn’t matter, because for me it was all about the journey to earn the spot and get to the start line. Everything else is a bonus.

I race for Great Britain, I am incredibly proud to be able to say that, and even more proud to say that I have met people that are now also on the team because they read my story and I helped them to believe that they too could do it if they tried.

I will go to Spain next week and do my country proud. Wish me luck J

Melanie Ryding