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Sunday, September 8, 2013

AWOL

I have been a little quiet since Samoa, I thought about updating my blog a couple of times but was taking more of an ostrich sticking it's head in the sand approach...

I will refer back to my last entry where I touched on the issue at hand:

My hip and quad started to tighten up after about 15km but I managed to maintain my tootle pace to the finish. 

This.

Sadly I have not run since the Samoa race 4 weeks ago and am now 5 weeks away from Kona.
It is still not clear what the problem actually is, initially I thought it was related to me falling over and landing on my butt/back at the pool and causing referred pain into my thigh, but now it seems more localised to my hip/groin and the words "stress fracture" have been uttered as a possibility.
All should be revealed in the next day or so though with an MRI booked for tomorrow which will tell me my fate.  I really don't know what it will come back as, some of my symptoms seem more muscular and some more boney.  It had definitely improved in the last 4 weeks though and I have attempted running and did manage a 3.5km run last week which was not particularly comfortable but wasn't quite "pull the pin pain" as Chris Hanna would say.
I have been running in the pool at least 3 times a week in an attempt to preserve my run fitness which is as boring as hell but makes me feel like I am doing something.
So I am in a bit of a funny place right now and I would be lying if I said this issue wasn't occupying a lot of space in my mind.

I had decided a while ago that I needed to be realistic about Kona this time - last time I had all these aspiriations of being on the podium which was a nice idea but not very realistic.  The girls at the top of my age group are FAST, it is so competitive that even with my best race ever I wouldn't even be close.  So I decided that my time and place were irrelevant, all I want to do is finish the race I started in 2009.  So with that in mind, hip or no hip, I will be crossing that finish line.  I just hope I can run for at least some of it because walking a marathon will take a long time and I will then probably have to walk back to the condo because no-one will want to stand around and wait for me...

Swimming and biking are going well though, I am swimming well in the pool but that doesn't always translate into fast open water swimming for me...
We have been getting some good long rides in and have started Windtrainer Wednesday which is exposing me to new levels of discomfort on the bike.  My power does seem a bit better but maybe that is the effect of no running.
Going to new places by bike


We had a little pre Kona simulation this weekend organised by Andrew Howse who is a Kona veteran but not competing this year.  J-Rad and I decided to skip the swim (can't break my no open water swimming before Labour Day rule and it would have been too fricken cold) and I skipped the run for obvious reasons, so it was just a solid bike.  I rode solo and kept to my Ironman power so it was a good hit out.  I did feel a bit left out when the rest of the Kona group dispersed for a run but I had some cool people to hang out with and had a delicious bikkie so all was not lost.
Nice day for a swim if you are a polar bear
And it is also hard to be too depressed when you have just become a homeowner! That's right, we will be moving out of the Castle and into our very own home which is BRAND NEW! OMG! We will have a garage and insulation and a dish washer - holy bejesus! We are not going to know ourselves.  So Ironman training is being followed up with packing and cleaning/tidying/gardening which is hard work but will be so good once we are in.  We will be poor but will be warm and clean and sunny.
Check out our new shower head.  Hopefully it doesn't try and beam me up
And it is also hard to be too depressed when you have tickets to see Bruce Springsteen the day after spectating Ironman NZ!! How is that for a dream weekend!

So fingers crossed for a non-boney MRI report and hopefully next time I update this I will be running on land again.
Why run the Waikato River Trails when you can walk them...

Bright lights of Auckland by boat

A blog is not complete without a PC shot.