Since the beginning of August I have been on a much different schedule than before. A running related injury caused a tsunami of other problems that I have found difficult to get over. Its partially (probably entirely) my fault. For starters I have to admit that triathlon is far from just swim, bike and run workouts. The problem is that that's how I treated it for so long. Second, it seems like that I haven't learned much after nearly two decades spent with competitive running. Lastly, media and social networking, while great, must be seperated from training.
I had got in a solid few months of training by August, through the New Zealand winter, when a seemingly easy long run made me rewrite all plans I had for the remainder of the 2015 season.
On Saturday I did a fast(er) 10k run and on Sunday, during a 19k easy run (originally scheduled) I couldn't help myself and was beating Strava CR's on mainly uphill sections. Towards the end of the run I started to feel my calf and the pain persisted for days. Not even a week later my left knee started to hurt during an easy training ride. Then again I pulled my left adductor muscle when racing the dog uphill.. Few days later, as I was favorizing my right leg my right calf (achilles) started to hurt. By then I was doing very easy jogs and rides days apart from each other. Then, out of a blue (after all of this really not) when I was focusing on minor signs of right achilles pain my left achilles flared up. It was so intense that for a while I thought that one more step and it would tear. That was mid-September, just before I flew back to Hungary for two weeks. Then I took a long break from running and cycling (22 and 23 days to be precise). First run was just a week ago again when I felt a very minor calf pain only. While it was minor I thought I would wait a few days before trying to run again. Well, this last try ended up miserably and walked home again.
I just cycled a little over an hour pain-free today, however, I am far from being convinced that all is well with my left knee. The x-ray in September didn't show anything and for the time being I am holding back on getting an MRI on my knee.
I started strength training at home and if anything this should make a huge difference. And time, of course.
The bright side is that I have been able to focus on my swimming and I am confident that I am swimming as fast as ever. This is the great thing about triathlon that while a person is out due to an injury its very likely that he/she can still perform other sports.
While it saddens me that I am unable to compete in New Zealand right now I am glad that it all surfaced right now, when Xterra racing was put on a temporary hold anyways. I can only hope that I learn from this sequence of mistakes and that 2016 and the following years will be (finally) injury-free and successful.
I had got in a solid few months of training by August, through the New Zealand winter, when a seemingly easy long run made me rewrite all plans I had for the remainder of the 2015 season.
On Saturday I did a fast(er) 10k run and on Sunday, during a 19k easy run (originally scheduled) I couldn't help myself and was beating Strava CR's on mainly uphill sections. Towards the end of the run I started to feel my calf and the pain persisted for days. Not even a week later my left knee started to hurt during an easy training ride. Then again I pulled my left adductor muscle when racing the dog uphill.. Few days later, as I was favorizing my right leg my right calf (achilles) started to hurt. By then I was doing very easy jogs and rides days apart from each other. Then, out of a blue (after all of this really not) when I was focusing on minor signs of right achilles pain my left achilles flared up. It was so intense that for a while I thought that one more step and it would tear. That was mid-September, just before I flew back to Hungary for two weeks. Then I took a long break from running and cycling (22 and 23 days to be precise). First run was just a week ago again when I felt a very minor calf pain only. While it was minor I thought I would wait a few days before trying to run again. Well, this last try ended up miserably and walked home again.
I just cycled a little over an hour pain-free today, however, I am far from being convinced that all is well with my left knee. The x-ray in September didn't show anything and for the time being I am holding back on getting an MRI on my knee.
I started strength training at home and if anything this should make a huge difference. And time, of course.
The bright side is that I have been able to focus on my swimming and I am confident that I am swimming as fast as ever. This is the great thing about triathlon that while a person is out due to an injury its very likely that he/she can still perform other sports.
While it saddens me that I am unable to compete in New Zealand right now I am glad that it all surfaced right now, when Xterra racing was put on a temporary hold anyways. I can only hope that I learn from this sequence of mistakes and that 2016 and the following years will be (finally) injury-free and successful.
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