This Sunday, I am coming back to triathlon. Maybe I get to call myself a triathlete again? It has been so long….6 years actually since my last triathlon. I am not a recovering addict…just a recovering injured athlete.
In a way, once a triathlete, always a triathlete??? hmm
It may be a comeback to triathlon, but I think it is just me coming back to triathlon.
It started with the injury playing football in a charity Lemon Bowl…in the rain…degenerating my hip, etc and stopped running since it hurt to run…6 years ago. 4 months after the hip replacement, I suddenly got the urge to run. Oh, it was awkward as I tried to re-teach my body how to run with this new appendage/hip! But I kept riding. A lot. It is fun. And I ran a bit, too until it kinda felt ok. Then I added tennis back in…another sport I love more than running.
Then I pulled the other side a 2 years later while playing tennis. Running and so many things hurt again. So back to rehab using the same exercises from replacement surgery, rebalancing, riding, yoga, etc…anti-inflammatory diet, chiropractor, swimming…..and it kept getting a little better, but not quite enough. Sigh.
Finally, I am running again pain free although I have had to change chiropractors, ride hills, do yoga, and the anti-inflammatory diet oh, and the rolling out the tight spots daily just to continue the progress. Yes, I also had to run…more than once a month which I did a month before the triathlon ‘debut’.
Sunday is race day, and well, I have tested out swimming and off to go run….in my Speedo cause that IS what I always raced in.
And tested out running without socks this morning…with Body Glide.
Now, do I remember how to set up transition?? Should I try leaving shoes on the bike?? Should I practice transitions? oh, who cares!! You are not racing for a podium spot! Or am I? Hmm
Do I still have the competitive bug? I think so. That may never go away.
It is who I am.
Am I still a triathlete??
Who knows – I am so grateful just to be racing at all!!! THAT is a blessing in itself!
I won’t be running the 8-min pace I once did when I was placing in my AG six years ago, but I may still have just as much fun.
This morning (Friday) I was over-joyed just to run vs shuffle pain free and run faster than last time at 10:20 pace.
I am also thankful, my boyfriend Mark has been training for a big hilly cycling race, so I have been tagging along learning how to adjust nutrition (for him & me – sometimes throwing the ‘nutrition rules’ out the window) for this heat, humidity, hills and more hills, and it has gotten me into my best shape in 6 years. All this riding has helped my running, too.
All a really nice bonus! I have learned quite a bit about ‘lightening up’ with nutrition – another post maybe?? Maybe I don’t have to be so strict…and neither do you.
I am excited to just be racing triathlon again in a full triathlon event…..even if it is a sprint, it is a full event, not just a swim-run or a swim-bike. Now it will be swim-bike-run. Gulp.
If you are there, racing In the Inaugural Philly Women’s Triathlon by Delmo Sports, let me know and I will hi-5 you or hug you on the run. Cause I want to share that excitement!
What ‘old’ thing is now new again for you?? Where you need to adopt a new perspective? When is the last time you did something you once loved to do but haven’t due to an injury or other circumstance?
Or have you had a nutrition aha?? that seems totally unconventional but it works? Please share!
Sometimes, just doing or trying to do is good enough and more than enough!
And what you eat just doesn’t matter if you are feeding the soul…
hugs xo
joanna
wanna know how I did? Go to the results page…and go here for details on the next blog.