Off-season Recap and 2012 Schedule

The 2012 triathlon season has started and I am currently heavy into my training with a race quickly approaching this upcoming weekend.  Before I get into discussing 2012, let me bring you up to speed with what I've been up to in the months since the Los Angeles Triathlon last year...

I have spent a large part my off season and the beginning of 2012 season battling a left ankle injury.  The injury began when I started to feel pain following the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in September of last year.  I decided to race through the pain two weeks later at the LA Triathlon, which may not have been the best idea.  The next several months consisted of several trips to the podiatrist and about 2 months of physical therapy.  During all of this, I maintained my conditioning through continued swim workouts, and tried to work in moderate cycle/run training while at the same time trying to avoid hindering the recovery of my ankle.  Things were progressing quite well until early February when I tweaked my ankle on a training ride.  My doctor had previously been going with the physical therapy and rest treatment, but with my season soon approaching, he decided it was best to get an MRI to evaluate whether there was any soft tissue damage or stress fractures.  The MRI results ended up coming back favorable with no apparent injury. The joint inflammation continued, so I was given a cortisone shot to treat the inflammation. Right now my ankle is not 100%, but is significantly improved and reacting favorable to the cortisone shot treatment.  I have ramped up my training and am on track towards meeting my training plan for the season.

During my ankle rehab and off-season workouts, there was also this:

That is the aftermath of me T-boning a pick-up truck on Paseo Del Mar in Ranchos Palos Verdes Estates in early January.  Essentially, the driver did not see me and decided to make an illegal U-turn right in front of me. As he made the turn and blocked my right-of-way, I did not have time to stop or swerve around him, so I essentially tucked my shoulder and braced for the impact.  I ended up having some pretty gnarly bruises on my knee, shoulder, and ribs, and also snapped a shifter into two pieces on my bar ends.  Other than that, my bike and my body were OK.  The crash could have definitely been worse.

Right now, I am just into the 2012 race season and my body is feeling quite well considering the off-season I had.  I have a pretty packed race schedule ahead of me.  There are a lot of the same races from last year, but also some new ones...the most prominent being Ironman 70.3 Switzerland on June 3rd.  I will discuss that race in greater detail in a future post, but shall just say I'm super excited about it.  My currently planned 2012 race schedule is the following:

Date	Race	Distance
2/25/2012	Race on the Base Reverse Sprint	Sprint
3/18/2012	Superseal Triathlon	Olympic Triathlon
5/5/2012	Avia Wildflower	Olympic or Long Course
6/3/2012	Ironman 70.3 Switzerland	Long Course Triathlon
6/24/2012	San Diego International Triathlon	International Triathlon
7/15/2012	Ironman 70.3 Vineman	Long Course Triathlon
8/4/2012	Camp Pendleton Sprint Triathlon	Sprint Triathlon
9/9/2012	Ironman 70.3 World Championship	Long Course Triathlon
9/23/2012	Los Angeles Triathlon	Olympic Triathlon

As always, my race schedule and results can be seen here.

My second race of the season is Superseal this coming Sunday in Coronado, CA. Come back later this week and I'll have a race preview posted. Till then, gute nacht.

MRI #2

I just got back from having my 2nd MRI taken this year. Back in February, it was on my right shoulder and that resulted in a laundry list if issues: torn labrum, impingement, arthritis. After going through several weeks of physical therapy, my shoulder is now feeling fine. The MRI taken today was on my right leg (tibia area).

Three weeks ago, I saw the doc because I was experiencing pain in my lower right leg during and following running. I had an x-ray taken and pointed out where it was hurting. Based on the location of the pain and lack of anything seen in the x-ray, he suggested that I had medial tibial stress syndrome (shin splints) and that there was little chance that it was a stress fracture. I was told I could continue to run and to follow the standard practices to get rid of the shin splints (run on soft surfaces, stretch, ice, use shoe insoles, etc.). So, I continued to run and the pain started to go away but then slowly came back when I started to increase my distance for Vineman. When I went back to the doc for my follow-up appointment this Monday, I showed him where the pain currently existed, which was higher than previously...about halfway between my ankle and knee. He indicated that the location of pain carried more risk of being a stress fracture and advised that I have an MRI to take a better look. That explains the reason for my 2nd MRI procedure this year. Good thing I have a nice insurance policy!

I now have a follow-up appointment next Wednesday to go over the MRI. If it shows nothing, I'm good to go for Vineman. If there is indication of a stress fracture, it is likely that I'll be told to not run. At that point I'll have to figure out what to do for Vineman. Walk the half marathon? Just stop after the bike leg? Not sure...I'll cross that bridge if I have to come to it.

I haven't run since Monday and my leg is feeling OK right now. I think I'll test it out with a couple mid distance runs over the weekend. This is not an ideal situation two weeks before Vineman, but I guess that's life. On the bright side, my swim and bike are feeling great right now.  

Completely unrelated, but here's a pic of a turkey wrap I made while camping at Wildflower. Mmmmm...