Saturday, April 3, 2010

Waking up and Smelling the Coffee

If you look back over my last few posts, it might seem like I have a personality disorder! I am alternately planning for another race, committing to being determined, or skipping my workouts and feeling pathetic. Overall, although it might not seem like it, I have been really pumped about the upcoming season and so excited about where my training might lead this year. I have good friends and good support and lots of reasons why this should be a great season.

Sadly, though, I have had some injuries that have been nagging at me from the background and affecting how I've been feeling about my training. I have tried to ignore them to some extent and I have also tried to do what I could to relieve them. In February, I had a lot of trouble with general leg stiffness and soreness, which I was able to get under control by stretching, having massages, and pacing myself as far as training goes. But my hip flexors are now a growing threat to my triathlon success this year. They have been bothering me off and on for a few months but I've pushed through it and held off any major issues - until now. About two weeks ago, I went for a swim and was very surprised to have hip flexor pain afterward, from something as seemingly innocuous as flutter kicking. Then, last Monday, I went for a 10K bike ride around my neighbourhood and found that I truly could not walk that evening. My hip flexors had totally given up, even though the bike ride was so short. I had to hold onto something just to take a step. I took a couple days off and now, for the last three days, I have been swimming with a pull buoy so I don't have to use my legs. Still, I am having trouble walking normally.

It has slowly started to dawn on me that I can't continue this way - the proverbial waking up and smelling the coffee. I am nearing the end of the 100 day triathlon training challenge, which I don't want to give up on. And, it's finally spring here and I'm dying to get outside on my bike. But I can't deny the situation anymore.

Today I spoke to an accomplished and experienced triathlete who has a lot of knowledge and wisdom about training. She is concerned for me and, although she gave me a lot of very good ideas about how I can deal with this, she suggested that I re-think my race plans for this year. She said out loud what I have been trying not to think about for a while: A half iron may not be in the cards for me this year.

This saddens me terribly. I very much want to do Great White North again. Still, there is no way that I can deal with my injuries and ramp up my training at the same time. I have come to the realization that I will have to rollover my entry to next year.

I am learning that triathlon depends very much on strength and flexibility and that it is supported by good nutrition and a healthy weight. I think I have to address these things, which have been neglected aspects of my training until now, before I will be healthy and ready for success. I am going to take a break from biking and running for a couple of weeks and focus on swimming with the pull buoy. I will finish the last three weeks of the 100 day challenge this way. I'll gradually add biking and running back into my training but I am going to focus especially on strength training and stretching so I build the foundation I need for harder and longer training in the future.

This is the way it has to be and I am coming to terms with it.

4 comments:

  1. Sarah - that's sad to hear.

    I hope that you get another opinion on your race plans for 2010 - have you seen any physio or sport med related professionals to get their input?

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  2. I don't feel like my physio is giving me really good overall advice. I'm going to make an appointment with an exercise therapist at River Valley Health and talk to him about how to recover from this and prevent it in the future. It's bad enough right now that I am going to lose a lot of training time and my performance won't be any better than last year if I can't train as I should. But I won't make the final decision about GWN until the last possible day. I want to see how it goes, just in case!

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  3. when do you have to notify GWN if you're not going to be racing?

    sounds like a good plan though - thinking of you.

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  4. Thanks, Carla! GWN registration rollovers have to be requested before May 1. That gives me a little more than 3 weeks to see how this goes. I decided to make an appointment with a new sports physio - I'll see her tomorrow.

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