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The Road to San Juan

"Every day you wait is another day you'll never get back again."

The offseason. It is where triathletes eat, sleep in, and spend time with their friends and family. We reflect upon our most recent season, looking to see where we can improve and remembering what we did right. Amongst the weight gain, extra sleep, and too much time with family, we are also planning out our next season.  How can we do it better?  How can we take what we learned from the last season and succeed?

I may not be the best at the "on" season, but I excel at the offseason! After Austin 70.3, I took some time. I knew that I had close to 5 months before my next A race, but I needed to get triathlon off of my brain for at least a month. I took off about 3 weeks in October/November, and I must say that it was wonderful!

Cold Weather Night Running = Stylish
Mid-November was the time for me to pick back up my run.  I was doing great until Thanksgiving.  I ate way to much over the week and ended up with a food coma and a terrible stomach ache by Sunday night.  This knocked me out for a few days. By the time I got back into it, I had new pair of shoes and a pain in the top of my right foot to go with them. The shoes didn't work for me and I ended up purchasing the same pair I was using last season online.  They were discontinued so it took a little bit of time to find the right pair in the right size at the right price.  I finally found it, so I bought 2 pairs!

I had planned on starting my training for Puerto Rico 70.3 in December.  With a Mid-March race, that gave me just over 3 months to get it done. My shoulder had given me some trouble with training the last two years, but I managed to get three weeks in a row of swimming in without any major pain. I kept up my running, but only 1 to 2 times a week. Each time I ran, I had about 3 days of foot pain and limping afterwards.  I think my bike was still in the offseason over the month of December as we didn't spend any time together.

2015 arrived with under 80 days to go before the race. Reality sank in and I decided to really get going.   The first stop was the doctor to get my foot pain under control.  Since I had a stress fracture 2 years ago, I am very paranoid that every pain is a stress fracture.  Thankfully, the x-rays showed no broken bones, but I was diagnosed with a case of tendonitis. 

The Dr. put some extra support in the arch area under my insoles.  He told me to ice, stretch, and continue getting my sports massages every other week.  I could run, but I needed to let the pain be my guide. I have been running and the pain has subsided. I have continued with my massage therapy but added a dry needling session in last week as well. I have high hopes that I will soon be running pain free! 

Midtown Atlanta skyline during a long run
My bike and I recently got reaquainted.  I have been to a few classes at Energy Lab and have gotten to the point where I am enjoying it.  The first two sessions were pretty miserable since I hadn't been on the bike in a few months.  I haven't gotten a chance to swim yet, but I'm not worried.  I should be able to pick that back up quickly.  As long as I get at least 1 swim in a week, I will be good to go. 

So here we are, 54 days out from my next Half Ironman and things are looking good! I am so excited to race in San Juan, but I have to get to the start line first.

"Do a little more each day than you think you possibly can.”

Comments

  1. Massager therapy is relay healthy for health.It can used to relieve pain on various parts of the body like the shoulder, neck, and back.Pain relief body massage therapy Toronto safely activate the natural pain blockers of the body. This makes this massager a very outstanding substitute to drugs or surgery.

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