Getting ready for my first DNF race

Tomorrow is my first half iron race of this season and I know going into it that I'll end up with my first ever DNF. How do I know? Well my ankle has been probed and checked multiple times. I had MRI done about 2 weeks ago and then few days later I saw specialist who made few remarks - one word he repeated several times looking at my MRI was 'IMPRESSIVE' which is not a very good sign when doctor looks at the pictures of your bones, ligaments and soft tissue.

That consultation was pretty scary for me as I really like to run. During the discussion with the doctor I learned about lose piece of bone in my heel (which is not a problem), few ligament tears around my ankle (which is likely caused by few ankle sprains and I should not worry about it much) and last which is more scary is swollen bone right under my ankle. That is the cause of all the pain I have been going through during and post runs. I have that bone slightly enlarged on my both feet which is genetical and should not cause issues. But the one on my right leg has swollen which causes some extra rubbing on the ligaments in that area and running is what irritates it. So I have been off running for over 4 weeks now and I have 4 more to go. Let me qualify that - I was not running on the roads, treadmill or anywhere else but the deep pool. I started to actually enjoy (if you can imagine that) my short runs in the pool - especially when Craig has me do some harder intervals. I get a lot of stares and few people wonder whether I'm trying to swim or what the heck I do. I got a lot of stares in Orlando when I went to the 50m pool and ran up and down the 50m lane while people in other lanes were swimming. Long explaining to do and they understood once I started swimming my cooldown 200 meters ;-).

So my ankle is the reason why I will be bailing after the bike tomorrow. I will much rather enjoy more years of triathlon than having one more race and then possibly surgery. Good thing in all this is that I can still swim and bike so we have been doing some more serious work in the pool and on the bike. We will see tomorrow how that is working out. I expect the swim to be pretty good and on the bike I'll be somewhat limited as I should not be standing up even on the hills so I'll need to grind up those two or three hills we have on the course.

Good luck to all my EnMu peers racing this weekend and also to all of you jumping into races over this weekend.

Well that did not last long

Plans are great, but life events can change them quickly. I was planning to do a duathlon race that is to start in about 45 minutes - well I'll not be racing today. Poor Ian has been throwing up the whole night so I decided to stay home with him and Dasa. Change of plans seems to be the theme of this racing season. There is a positive in this though - my ankle has been healing, but I'm not 100% sure what is with it. On Monday I should hear results of MRI that I had last night. So if anything is torn I will be in better not racing on it ... always finding positives in life's happenings. I hope your weekend is shaping up better than ours. I really hope this stomach bug will be gone soon and Ian will be back in biking shape soon.

Giving good example

This is just a short one.

The other day Ian was watching one of his favorite episode of Backyardigans - Race around the world that has really catchy songs and is about the friends racing each other in a long race (more like adventure race). After the show he notice my HR monitor laying on the counter. He grabbed it, then I heard few beeps as he started it up (and it complained about no HR and foot pod). Then he said "I'm racer daddy" and started to run circles between kitchen, living room and dining room. Each lap he pressed the lap button and after about 7 laps he said he had won and wanted a medal. I went to my office and grabbed one of my half marathon medals and gave it to him. He was so proud that he took the medal with him to bed that night. Moments like this reinforce my conviction that the training I do is not only for my own benefit... I always love to see him genuinely excited about sports.

Fighting through rough patches in the race

This post is not about me. This post is about importance of fighting your way through the rough patches in races. I just read about Matty Reed race in California 70.3 this past weekend. If you have not heard the story - here is condensed version. Matty was first kicked in the face during the swim and later had asthma attack (still in the water). That is one rough start of a race. But he fought through this rough patch. During the bike he moved up to third place and on the run moved all the way up to the front. He crossed the finish line with 2 minutes lead on Andy Potts. That is definitely way to fight trough adversity.

Way to go Matty and great start of the season with securing second win in second race - no less than first attempt at 70.3. I wonder whether we will see Matty in Kona later this year. Many ITU athletes are making this move.

Seeking motivation to train? Here is a good dose of it.

It is the end of the season in the North East and there are no more triathlons where I live. Except maybe the ones organized by YMCA that get you do 10 minutes of each. Which is not really a lot of racing. Anyways the days are getting shorter and there is less time to get your training in. Just yesterday I started a long run at 2:30pm and finished when it was pitch black with no stars. On days like that one may need some motivation boost. The following two videos can give you some - they work for me, they may work for you as well. Check the Kona videos out. It is amazing to see the form these top pro athletes have.

EMS offering Suunto T6c for 319 USD with free ship and 25 USD card

If you have been putting off the T6c purchase, now may be the time to take the plunge - EMS offers the T6c at very reasonable 319 USD with free shipping and 25 USD Gear Bucks Card. That is pretty good deal if you ask me. Just remember to use the Gear Bucks card before end of September.

Blog cloud

This is interesting - the site Wordle can generate a word cloud from any text, RSS feed or blog. I did not have success with the direct address, but the RSS feed option worked for me. Here is what this bog looks like in the cloud:

Go generate your own cloud. I wish it would let me navigate from the words to most popular articles. But hey this at least looks cool when it has no real function other than visually please and show the frequency of words used on this blog. Apparently I use 'new' a lot.

Speedy bike

I really need to get one of those for my upcoming race.

Twitter added to the site

This last week I discovered the Twitter service that allows people to share with others what they are just doing. It is more convenient than blogging - I can now post short notes instead of writing longer posts to the blog. So even though I may not be able to post longer articles on the blog you will still be able to see what I'm doing if you check the box on the right side of the blog top page.

If you decide to test out Twitter let me know I will add you to people that I follow.