Holy wow. It's been a minute. Just re-read my post from mid June. Since then the wheels have absolutely
come off. First off, I started doing intervals to get even better swimming and biking. This somehow caused an arthritic flare in my (wait for it) left hip. Yeah... apparently i'm going to have hip problems to navigate now too. At first I thought it was just some groin pain. But nope. The good news is I have good separation between hip and bone. The bad news is I have what's called Cam formations (think misshapen hips) which will cause issues.
My best guess is that I was a bit aggravated from racing hard and then made it worse by going all out swimming (with what I've come to think was improper form) and biking hard. I think my swim form may have been not ideal causing me to kind of twist sharply and torque my hip. That's my best guess anyway. This happened at the end of June. I stopped running before July 4th, did rehab and PT for 2 MONTHS and changed how I walk, run, swim. I have added weight training and core work to the other things I do as a result. I cancelled too many races to count and did not attend the races in Mexico City or Boulder (fml). I also have had some personal non sports related issues so it's been kind of terrible.
Ok, enough crying about that, here's the good news... I'm getting better. I didn't run for 2 full months, couldn't walk for a full month but I'm coming back. I think I've figured it out and even my triathlon at OBX. My swim was ok, my bike was quite good, my run started good but had a slow mile 2 and 3 (I bet because I haven't run in two months). But I had very little pain afterwards. I pre-emptively essentially cancelled the rest of the season (of course not Key West though). I'm shutting it down to reset on building back better. I always say if it aint broke, don't fix it'; but if its broke... So here we are.
I had once in a lifetime season last year. The first half of this year was good to great and like I said I really think my attitude and performance were on point. This year has been about perseverance, finalizing my stoicism training, and mentally making space for a come back.
There's a reason why Mohammed Ali is my favorite athlete of all time. It wasn't because of his greatness, it was because of his resilience. 3 time champ. Each time, almost literally becoming a different athlete, a different persona. Like the 40 year old big league pitcher who doesn't throw 90 anymore but knows how to get outs. That is what I'm embracing. I'm grateful that I was grateful when I was at my best. Now I'm grateful for the opportunity to show I can come back again.
