Saturday, November 11, 2017

Back to Competitive Exercising

It's been a while since I've posted here so I figured I was long due for an update.  A couple years ago I came down with some hip injuries and decided to get them treated (details are found here and here).  I went through with my surgeries (ended up getting both treated) in April 2016 and after what seemed like a super long rehabilitation, I am back to competitive exercising.  Rather than boring words, I thought I'd just post some pictures from some of the races (and a running trip to Switzerland) from the past few months.

SoCal Summer Trail Run 12K (7/21/17)



Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier Swim (8/6/17)




Blacklist LA HBDLA 5K (9/3/17)




Malibu Triathlon (9/16/17)






Switzerland (9/22/17-10/2/17)












Manhattan Beach 10K (10/7/17)





Palm Springs Tram Road Challenge 6K (10/28/17)






Friday, March 18, 2016

My Hip




I now know why I can't dance!!! All of these years and I finally have an answer.  As I wrote in my last blog entry here, I injured my left hip last spring while I was in peak early season training mode. At the time, I got an MRI taken that revealed inflammation/tendinitis in my left hip.  To my surprise, it also revealed a labral tear in my right hip which was asymptomatic at the time.  A lot has happened since then and I'll spare the details, except for the fact that during my rehab I ended up aggravating the labral tear which led me to visit a hip specialist for another look at the MRI.  During that visit I found out the reason for my inability to dance for all of these years: I have femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) in my hip joints.  FAI is a condition in which there is abnormal contact between the ball (femoral head) and socket (acetabulum) in the hip joint.  In my case the femoral head has a flat portion that inhibits the joint rotation, likely contributed to the labral tear, and definitely ruins my dancing game.  After many months of pursuing non-surgical treatments with no success, I have reached the decision to go the surgical route with the ultimate goal of fixing my hip problem for good.  On April 1st I will be undergoing a hip arthroscopy in order to fix the labral tear and reshape the femoral head.  This means I will have a 3 month rehabilitation following the procedure which will take me from crutches to full recovery.  In the end the surgery will be worth it because the world needs me to dance. I also hope to get back to that triathlon thing that has been absent from me for the past year.  That will definitely be nice.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Is it already mid June???

Hey all!  I’ve been sorta quiet here lately.  This is mostly because I’ve been facing some adversity in my racing and health, but I’ve received some recent information on one of those items so I thought now would be a good time for an update for the few of you who may be interested.
 
First the racing…

I raced a couple Continental Cup races in La Paz and Monterrey Mexico earlier this year which I wouldn’t really describe as successful races, but rather good learning experiences.  The main issue with both races was my swim.  It wasn’t a problem of being out of swimming shape, but more due to the fact that I was super duper rusty with respect to pack swimming in the open water.  At that time I was swimming well in the comforts of the pool, but I was not ready for the mayhem of a mass start open water race.  At La Paz I got beat up pretty bad at the first turn buoy and ended up dropping off the main pack.  I rode with another American athlete during the spread out bike leg and finished with a fairly decent run split. This put me 14th in a relatively small field.  About a month later I unwittingly joined a fairly fast field to race in Monterrey.  The swim was the same story as La Paz except worse.  I again found myself in some big time turbulence during the swim which sucked away my energy and caused me to lose the pack shortly after the 300m turnaround.  At La Paz I still had people around me when I entered T1 but this time I was alone.  Most people would have called it a day, but I figured that since I had travelled all the way down to Mexico, I was going to make the trip worthwhile and finish the thing.  I ended up grinding out the 40K bike alone and then ran with the little I had left to finish before they started tearing down the finish chute. I didn’t finish last, but close.  Following these ITU races my plan was to do some local non-draft races and then give the ITU stuff another try in Magog, Canada at the end of July.  But, I haven’t raced since. 

This leads me to my health…


Going into my race in Monterrey my left quad had been bothering me slightly.  I went ahead and raced and the following day my quad was screaming at me.  I took some time off to let it heal but the issues never completely went away.  When I tried to get back into high intensity training things just got worse.  During this time I pulled out of a couple planned races (Vineman Monte Rio & San Diego International Triathlon) thinking that I just needed more time, but I soon realized it wasn’t just time that I needed.  So, I ended up going to the doctor, got an MRI, and got the results last Friday.  In the left hip area I’ve got some psoas tendinitis / inflammation going on and on the right side there’s a small labral tear.  I haven’t really had any pain in the right side, go figure!  So, what this means is that I have some PT ahead of me and need to build back the running slowly so I don’t bring back the symptoms.  I’m a little bummed because I was on track to fix the issues I had with my earlier races and am confident I would have had a successful race in Magog if I was healthy.  But, I guess that’s the way things go.  With my near term triathlon racing plans uncertain I’m going to keep on with ocean racing and build back my health to see if I can get back on track for some late season racing.  I’ll try to come back here more often to status how things are going!


They must have had an intern making the bike rack labels in La Paz

Our race in La Paz was mid-afternoon, so the age group race after us finished at night with a finish-line rave

Junior Men racing in Monterrey the day before my race

Junior Men in Monterrey





Monday, February 16, 2015

2015 Here We Go




Hey everyone!  It's mid-February and I'm back into triathlon mode.  So, I figured it would be a good idea to get back on this blog and inform the interwebs of what I've been up to recently and what I have planned for 2015.

I ended my 2014 season a couple races earlier than planned due to exhaustion and the desire to just take a break from racing.  That was good though because it allowed me time to get my yoga on and attend the occasional concert or LACMA exhibit.  I also spent some time refining my surfing skillz and took a pretty memorable CMH heli-ski trip in early January.  Later that month I went on a three day coastal ride from San Francisco to Santa Barbara with a rad group of people brought together by Rehab United Physical Therapy and Sports Performance Center. The break from triathlon was fun but it's now time to put those adventure sports (and their associated injury risk) back on the shelf and focus on my swim/bike/run.

The big news for this year is I have decided to pull the trigger and get my elite (pro) license. Racing elite should be a challenge but I'm really looking forward to it.  The other big news is that I am going to give the ITU draft legal racing a try this year.  I feel that type of racing suits my strengths and personality, and I'm really excited give it a go.  So, here's what I currently have planned for the year:

Date Race Location
2/21 Tritonman San Diego, CA
3/15 Superseal Coronado, CA
3/21 La Paz CAMTRI Triathlon American Cup La Paz, MEX
5/2 Monterrey CAMTRI Triathlon American Championships Monterrey, MEX
5/31 Vineman Monte Rio Monte Rio, CA
6/7 Escape From Alcatraz San Francisco, CA
6/28 San Diego International Triathlon San Diego, CA
8/22 Kelowana CAMTRI Sprint Triathlon American Cup Kelowana, CAN
9/19 Malibu Triathlon Malibu, CA
10/11 San Juan CAMTRI Triathlon American Cup San Juan, PUR
10/25 Life Time Triathlon Oceanside Oceanside, CA

As always things may change but I'll try to keep the latest schedule plans on my Schedule and Results page.  Come race with me...I hope to see you out there!