Blackfoot Ultra without me / A few notes on injuries

So, it is official - I won't start my first Ultra marathon this month due to a nagging hip flexor/groin injury. This past weekend I ran one loop of the official Blackfoot run, and man I have to say WHAT A BEAUTIFUL COURSE!!! If you ever have the chance to fit this race into your schedule, do it! You won't regret it.

This test run however, also showed me that my leg isn't really ready yet to run for multiple hours. With this race off my list, I am looking forward to what comes next and hopefully get this injury healed up.

A quick note on injuries:
Almost all the major injuries I had so far (= injuries were I was barely able to walk), were caused not by doing too much volume but rather by doing too much AND too quick (a.k.a. stupid things).

My first Achilles tendonitis was due to a steep 5km hike. I never did this sort of uphill hiking before, but since I was in good physical condition, I went up that hill pretty quick. The next day, I could feel the tendon the first time and shortly after my life turned into a 6-months nightmare. During the 7th month, I was able to slowly start running again and was fully recovered a few weeks later

My second Achilles tendonitis (on the other leg), was initiated in the gym while doing squats with weights. It was the first time for me in the gym during the off-season and instead of being smart about it, I ramped up the weights to quick and my second 6-months nightmare was about to begin. Luckily, it was the off-season and by the time summer came by I had it under control. 

My most recent longer-lasting injury (about 5 weeks now) happened while cycling too hard and too quick after a period of being off the bike for almost 6 months. I took part in a research study that involved hard cycling 14 days in a row. During the second week, I could feel some irritation in my hip flexor/groin area but kept on going hard. Again, I set myself up for the next injury, which now prevented me from participating in my first ultra marathon.

Writing it all out here will hopefully help me to identify these stupid things ("too much-too quick") right away and to respond "You know what, that sounds intriguing, but I pass!".

Stay healthy!

Stefan

My first 50-miler is coming up and I have groin pain - yeehaaaw

The Blackfoot Ultra is coming up (May 25) and I am dealing with some groin issues in my left leg for about three weeks now. I tried to run a few minutes every now and then but I still cannot get back to training. This is very frustrating but I guess I have to swallow that pill. Hopefully, it will heal up soon so that I am able to start at least and see where it takes me. The reason why I got this groin issue was that I participated in a research study that involved 14 consecutive days of intensive cycling. I was hoping that this study will get me into training and racing mode, which it did, but my legs, or rather some muscles in my groin area got over-used in the process. Looks like I was a bit too optimistic to agree to such a study after 6-months of no cycling at all. The result: perhaps no 50-miler for me and most likely no road racing next weekend, i.e. Velocity stage race without me :(

This winter/spring hasn't been the best start in the season. Besides the groin issue, I also pulled my right lower abdominal muscle while swimming (flip turn too far off the wall and pushing my legs into nothing). This lower abdominal pain never really felt extremely painful but was very persistent and took 4 months to totally disappear. Since I kept on running, I also started to developed a mild Plantar fasciitis on my left foot most likely due to favouring the left leg in order to minimize the pain from the injured abdominal muscle on the right side. Yeah, it crazy I know. Now since these conditions are gone, I recently added the groin issue on my list of injuries for this year.

Anyway, at least I am able to swim long and quite frequently without any problems. I wonder how long this will last for though - haha ;)

BTW, I also signed up for the Iron Horse 100 (100 km) in October this year, and for the Edmonton ITU Olympic Triathlon (June 23).

After this bumpy start into the season, I hope my time will come and I am able to excel during the second half of the year :)

May the 4th be with you!

Stefan