Finally....

So, I haven't posted in forever, and, well, I haven't done all that many races this season, but I'm happy to report that I did have a few good results out of the few races I did, 1st Category 4 (ok so it is the lowest category in women's cycling, but a win is a win) at the Church Creek Time Trial, 1st Cat 4 at Dawg Days circuit race, and, finally, once again I managed an overall first place in a Sprint Tri.  Ok, so it was a small local sprint tri, but still, after 2 years of battling injury, it was nice to finally get another overall 1st in a Tri (last one was Dewey Beach in 2008, so it's been a while).  The course was both challenging (super hilly!) and fun.  And the cool thing was that the DC Tri Club, of which I'm still a member even though I moved to Hampton, pretty much dominated getting Overall 1st place in both the men's and women's Olympic division, and then me in the women's sprint.

As the big 4-O comes closer and closer (I just turned 39 but will race the 40-44 and overall Master's categories next year) it is good to know that it is still possible to bounce back from injury, well at least to the point where I can race again, and I haven't given up hope yet that I may still even now fully heal and be able to get faster.  As I sit here watching the Vuelta a Espana, Chris Horner is truly an inspiration, on the way to possibly winning his first-ever Grand Tour at age 42.  Just goes to show, some things do get better with age :)  Ok, so I did get my butt whooped by a bunch of 20 somethings at Patriot's Sprint Tri last weekend, but there's always next season, and maybe I really will be faster at 40...

Armed Forces Championships... check!

So, at this very same race last year is where I blew up my calf and ended my season.... I'm happy to report that this season I was able to make it through and still place in the middle!  Yes, my run sucked, but I made it through and without pain!  Here's the race report:

Swim:  The water was a balmy 62 degrees.  I say balmy because when it was 54 at the race in 2011 I got hypothermia.  So 62 felt downright nice in comparison.  The water was a bit, well, wavy, it is the Pacific Ocean after all, and the course was a bit longer than last year, but considering how much I hate full wet suit swims, I actually had a decent one and came out of the water in 5th.  I actually passed the girl that came out 4th in transition and it was off to the next leg...

Bike:  The course is flat and fast, although a bit windy.  I almost immediately caught up to one of the Canadian girls (they aren't scored against us, so this particular girl did beat me, but I when I talk about what place I was, I'm only counting US armed forces, in exchange for the 2 Canadians that beat me, I did pass 2 open men if that makes any difference for a trade :)  and we ended up riding together for the entire time.  Canadians rock btw. We caught up to a Marine and for about a lap were a group of 3, then one of the Navy girls caught us and we were now a foursome for a bit until we dropped the Marine despite my best efforts to keep the group together.  Fortunately, we soon gained 2 fellow Air Force triathletes (one is a former pro, the other recently got 2nd in her age group at Kona) and were a relatively large pack for the women's race, until we unfortunately dropped our recently commissioned 2LT (although if she just starts doing group rides regularly she'll be kicking our ass next year) and spent the last of the 4 laps as a group of 4, until the 2 stronger girls took off (might I add that one of them was a mere 1, yes 1 second off of Chrissie Wellington's bike split at Timberman in 2011) leaving me and my new Canadian friend as a twosome for the last half lap.  As one of the Navy women was off the front from the start, I was in 4th after the bike.

Run:  Ah the run.  Thanks to the aforementioned calf injury, to date I had only run 4.5 miles.  Which, as anyone who has ever trained for a 10k knows, is not quite enough if you are expecting a "good" result.  So... 47 (ridiculously slow) minutes later I finished in 12th.  I was happy with this though given the circumstances.  A little bummed that in the process enough Navy girls passed me that the Air Force women's team took 2nd as a result, but just happy to actually be walking after the race, instead of being carried to the medical clinic and then spending the next 9 days on crutches like last year.

For more on the race, check out these posts:
http://racechase.weebly.com/ (June 3rd)

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=4598188%3Bsb%3Dpost_latest_reply%3Bso%3DASC%3Bforum_view%3Dforum_view_collapsed%3B%3Bpage%3Dunread#unread

The Long Road to Recovery

Over the past year and a half I've tried several different therapies and therapists in my quest to recover from a calf strain that has turned into a chronic issue. In this time I've learned a few things:

 

1. Therapy that is causing you more pain is not for you. It's good for a therapist to believe in thier treatment and to be passionate about their work, but if the treatment is causing you more pain then you started with (by the time I finally broke up with my last therapist, I had pain not only in my calves, but my knees and back as well) then it's time to move on to something else.  Which leads me to the next thing I learned:

 

2.  Only you know your body.  Sure, doctors and therapists know how the body works, and they know solutions to certain problems.  But not everyone is the same, and not everyone responds the same way to a treatment that may have been successful for others.  In the end only you can choose what's best for you, and only you can actually feel how your body is responding to treatment.  If you've given a treatment a certain amount of time and you are not seeing results, you need to stop and assess how much more time and money you are willing to waste if you continue only to find out it doesn't work.

 

3.  Don't take "no" for an answer.  I had one therapist who gave me all of one exercise, told me I would be in chronic pain for the rest of my life, then sent me on my merry way with out so much as a follow-up appointment to see if the one exercise she did bother to give me had any effect.  There's almost always at least some form of treatment that will bring at least some relief.  We are complex organisms that can compensate for just about every injury.  Where there is a wll, there is a way, you just have to continue searching for the correct path.

 

4. Refocus.  My goal in the long term is still to do another Ironman.  But in the short term I will be concentrating on sprint distance this season.  And even though my run is lacking, it is the swim and bike I will focus upon since I am very limited in distance and speed in the run (for now).

 

So, how did I get here?

 

1. Incorrect shoes  - I got suckered into thinking to be a "good" runner I had to force myself to be a forefoot striker, even though it's not my natural gait, and bought shoes accordingly; needless to say, things didn't go well

2. Gait retraining - in itself not a bad idea, everyone can always improve their gait, but forcing a dramatic change that instead of causing less pain, causes more pain somewhere else is a bad idea (I've read several studies that indicate that the Pose method is a major contributor to calf injury)

3. Not listening to my body - I decided my race schedule was more important so I pressed on, instead of just missing races I've suffered over 2 seasons now

I still have yet to find that perfect combination of treatment methods to get me where I want to be, but at this point I am at least making progress, even if I am going two steps forward and one step back at a time, but I have a much higher degree of confidence that I am finally on the right path.  Above all else, I am listening to my body this time around.  So far this season I've only done one race, a short criterium, but despite being somewhat undertrained I did manage to place 3rd in the Women's 3/4 race, with no calf pain during the race, so at least I'm off to a decent start....

Back in the Saddle Again... sort of

I haven't kept up with the blog because, well, there hasn't been much to say.  I did finally heal to the point where I was able to complete the Patriot's Half Aquavelo in September (1st out of the 4 women who were also unable to run and signed up for the Aquavelo instead).  Most other triathletes are well into their season training plans by now, and already have signed up for their goal race and are training towards it.  Not me, instead I've been babying my calves and waiting until I can run without pain to actually start "training".  I have decided however, just now, that come hell or highwater, I will begin "training" (with an actual training plan) starting 3 weeks from now. I could go ahead and start a plan now, with a plan to get in shape to get in shape, but I decided that a haphazard approach will still get me to the fitness level I need to begin, and it gives me 3 more weeks to "train by feel", in other words, if I feel like being lazy and skipping a workout, or sleeping in and not getting up for swim practice, I will continue to do so, guilt-free, for 3 more weeks.  I've determined that at a bare minimum I will need 4 months to get prepared for the Military Champs (June 1st this year), so even if I suffer a repeat of last season, I will do whatever it takes to get myself as healthy and fast as possible for that race...