The Giant Eagle Triathlon

My first olympic distance pro race back since my injury! I was very excited and nervous to be racing again. It was a little nerve racking as I had no idea how I would feel in my first longer race back. Anyway, leading up to the race I had a nice and relaxing taper week up north in Cheboygan, MI enjoying beautiful Mullet Lake with my family. I had a chance to bike some very hilly routes and train in a clear and wonderful lake with either Ross or my dad kyaking next to me to guide me through my swim workouts. It is fun to switch the training up like that sometimes! Soon, it came time to unpack from vacation to quickly pack up for the trip to Ohio. Ross and I headed down to Columbus for the Giant Eagle Triathlon (a point to point race where we ended up running down town Columbus). We were both so excited to be on the road traveling to a race again. It had been awhile! I felt ready to go as I knew I had prepared well through training, despite my limited run training as I am still in the process of building back to full strength. As race morning came, I was calm and had a quiet mind. I knew my race targets and that was what I needed to focus on. For the swim, it was a really tight beach start (not much room to spread out) so there were a couple of rows of girls, which made it challenging at first to spread out in the swim. I didn't get a great start spot, which I believe slowed me down a bit at the start as I was caught in a mob of girls making it hard to get my stroke settled in. I got kicked in the face pretty hard twice...oops! That hurt! But, I ended up settling in about :10 back from the leaders and worked my way to close the gap as best as I could. I was happy to be within in seconds from the leaders! Getting on the bike, I stuck to my plan of going out conservatively for the first 10-15 minutes (not my usual plan). I surged where I could to see if I could settle at a new pace. I could tell my biking was a tad off yet as I have had to rebuild intensity here in my training as well. I ended up getting passed by 3 girls, but kept one in sight and didn't loose too much ground on her coming into the run. I continued to remain calm and took off on the run. Again, I stuck to my race targets and settled in finding my run form and cadence and then remained steady. I passed a girl on the run and continued to test the limit a little bit by putting in a couple more surges to see if I could setting at a new pace. I wasn't sure what I would have on the run, but felt solid. I ended up having my best 10K time by a minute, which was so cool as I have done very little speed work. I knew I wanted to surge into the finish line and I ended up 6th! I was very happy with this and with how I stuck to my race plan. Again, it felt like such a gift to be racing and running without pain. I enjoyed the Giant Eagle Triathlon and thought the point to point bike made it in an interesting experience with having 2 separate transition areas. Now I am looking forward to my next race, a local sprint race, and then traveling to the Chicago Triathlon at the end of August. I have a lot of work to do in the meantime, but I look forward to being a part of the racing world again!

Overcoming Setbacks

Since my "season-opener" race in Clermont, FL in March, I have been dealing with a significant injury. The week leading up to the March race, I had been dealing with some muscle tightness in the hip flexor area that didn't seem to want to go away despite stretching and massaging. However, the tightness I was feeling still seemed to be muscle related and I assumed that I was ok to continue as long as I kept this area as loose as possible. At least that is what I thought. I completed my race and didn't feel any sort of tightness during-must be all that adrenaline! It wasn't until the next few days when I tried to resume my normal training that I knew there was something significantly going on in my left groin area. I immediately had to stop running as I had difficulty lifting my leg and even walking without a limp. I had several tests done in the meantime to figure out what might be going on. It was thought to be a tendon tear at first, but then an MRI showed a stress fracture in the lesser trochanter (a bony process on the femur where the hip flexor attaches). The pain from this type of injury shows up in the groin area so it was quite painful for a long time (months!). It was most likely caused due to repetitive use. One possiblity for the cause was that I had some muscular imbalance going on that caused one side of my body to be over-working for a time, thus, eventually leading to an injury. Anyway, I was devasted to hear the news of having a stress fracture. I, nor the doctors, had no idea when I would be able to return to normal training and even begin to think about running again. Everyone is different in their healing time so I had to learn what I could tolerate and when. Having to significantly reduce my training time and intensity was very difficult (my bike training had to be reduced as well). Well, I had to learn to rest and be smart in not over stressing the injury area! Almost everything seemed to hurt in the injury location for a couple of months since the hip flexor is involved in so much of the training acitivies done for triathlon. I have been back to running for almost 2 months now! I can say that I did my best to use the extra time I had to grow in other areas. I learned to trust God in his plan for my recovery as I could only control what I could control. I took time to focus on my nutrition and learned how I could best prepare my body to return to training/racing again. I learned to listen to my body in new ways, which I hope will help in preventing future injuries. I also learned how important it is to have a good support team such as an amazing husband who was so encouraging and uplifting, my family, and encouraging friends. In addition, Ryan, my physical therapist from Shoreline Sport and Spine, Metro Health Sport's Doctor, Dr. Kornoelje, Train out Pain Chiropractor, Jason Ross (who performs active release therapy), and my coach, Barb Lindquist, were all so important in my recovery process as they helped educate and guide me. Through their efforts, they guided me in what types of training and excercises I could do before building back my running to prepare my body to come back stronger through targeting weaknesses! They helped me learn patterns of weaknesses in my body, which I am so thankful I am more aware of now. Further, those involved in my training and recovery encouraged me to use my extra time to grow in the ways I could control, which was great advice. Looking back, I am realizing blessings through the injury process even though it was tough to sit back and have to cancel race after race as I was still recovering. I thank God for his blessings and teachings through this recovery process. I was able to compete in a local race, July 16 (Tri del sol), as a way to test the run and put a race together again. I won the race, which was so exciting. I enjoyed myself and felt really solid despite my limited run training. It truly felt like a gift to be able run again pain free! My next race, 2 weeks later, was the The Giant Eagle Triathlon in Columbus, OH on July 31st. My first Olympic distance and pro race back.