It’s been quite some time since my
last post, but I lie here with a decent amount of free time so I figured it was
time for an update. I’m out in Wainwright, AB which means I have a lot of free
time and don’t need to spend it all drinking beer, though this is what I did
tonight.
The last few months have been
extremely challenging for me, especially on a mental and emotional level. I
never imagined it could have such a large and negative effect on my day to day life.
I’ve been dealing with injuries pretty much non-stop this
entire season so far. Some of the injuires I have been able to train through and others have stopped me dead in my tracks. I have a training plan and use a calendar to log my
workouts and how I feel so I can look back at it and see where I have been
inconsistent and how I felt after a particular workout. I’m going to summarize
the last few months to give an idea of what it’s been like. This is what I see when I look at my calendar.
January
·
Only trained the last two weeks, was supposed to start Jan. 6
·
Runs were 10-15min and bikes 20-30min (I should
note that my training plan had the expectation that I could bike 90-120min and
run 60+min. Needless to say I started behind, but had lots of time)
·
Primary issues holding me back: tight left hip
flexor and glute and a very tight left tricep, the excellent folk at River Valley Health have been helping me through many of my issues.
February
·
Started the month off with my first hockey game
of the year, which of course led to a pulled groin, adding to my list of
injuries and putting me even further back.
· The first weekend of Feb. was a snowboard trip, groin
held up ok, but my body did not. I got very sick, throat, head, nose, flu
symptoms, chills, everything. This persisted for the following week so I
accomplished little to no training.
·
Finally in week three I was only dealing with
congestion issues so I got in a few swims and 40min bikes. Overall, not a great month, especially since I was hoping to be 100% healthy by it.
March
·
Brought nice weather and some consistent
workloads.
·
1:20hr bikes and some short hard runs
·
Also had me going to Hawaii, only short runs and
a couple ocean swims, I was hoping to get in some nice and long exploratory
runs ubt it didn’t happen.
·
Brought my first hockey tourney of the year,
nervous about my groin but it held up fine. The outside of my right knee did
not. Felt like IT Band pain, but in my good leg and from a sport I’ve played my
whole life with no issues. This leads me to believe I have some deeper serious
issues going on that need to be addressed in the off season, if I can find the funds, I plan on working with RVH (River Valley Health) and their program to build athletes, I really think they can help fix me and make me better.
April
·
Started to feel like I was getting into
training. 1:45hr trainer rides and some hard runs, though nothing very long and
I was regularly experiencing right achilles issues and left leg IT Band
issues.
·
Overall very pleased with April until the 20th,
I decided to go for a ‘long’ slow run. 45min into this run I was feeling great
and even had the thought that I had turned the corner, I was cycling strong and
now having few to no issues running. With just 15min left I was headed up Groat
Road hill, not a demanding beast by any means but on the longer side. By the
time I got to the top I couldn’t even walk. I went from perfectly fine to
having such a sore foot I could barely walk. I hurried back to my car and drove
home. Hobbling around the house it felt like Plantar Fasciitis and did so until
the next day. The pain then moved to the 5th metatarsal (outside
bone in the foot) and even the ankle a bit. Went to the doc and was told it’s a
peroneal strain which makes perfect sense as you can see where the two tendons
attach, exactly where I had pain, initially under my foot and then to the
outside. Upon doing some research I saw this wasn’t uncommon for those running
in Newton’s, damn, because I love these shoes.
 |
| You can see the two tendons and where they attach. Cause of my pain. |
·
Needless to say, this was a low point for me and
I struggled to find motivation to continue with my other training.
May
·
Fast forward to mid May and things are
looking…..mediocre with flecks of good.
·
I have been able to put in some good outdoor
rides, though I’m struggling with motivation to get over 2hrs. I’ve been forced
to try running and it’s actually going ok. I have run 5, 7.5, 15, and 30min
runs. The 30min even involved some hills and I held up alright. I have access
to a pool here so I’ve been able to keep up on my swimming as well.
·
Time is running short, but I feel like I am still
progressing.
So what does this all mean you ask?
First and foremost is means accepting that I have to reevaluate my goals. Five
hours was my goal and it was going to take everything I had including a solid
and aggressive training program. As I’ve just shown, this hasn’t happened.
After reassessing I still think 5:30 is attainable and would be a PB by about
an hour, so I guess that is good…..
So
the plan is to still swim 35-36min. I am going to work very hard to draft off
of faster swimmers to get me there. For T1 and T2 I want to keep it under
10min, this shouldn’t been too hard to do. I believe I can bike 2:50 or faster
as long as the day doesn’t have crazy weather. This puts me roughly around 3:35
going out onto the run, which is so up in the air. I have no idea how my foot
is going to heal up and how it will hold up on the run. I feel I can run under
2hrs strictly off of swim/bike fitness, but you just never know. While training continues on, my body has good and bad days. Rarely do I have a day where this or that isn't tight and sore, but it's currently staying at a manageable
level and so I carry on.
I recently came to the realization
that not everything will always work out. I’ll see how my foot heals, but if it
just doesn’t get good enough, I’m going to bash the ever living hell out of the
swim and bike and really test myself and see what I’m capable of.
Next update will be sometime in June.
52 days until race day. Thanks for
tuning in folks.
