Saturday, July 17, 2010

Getting back to normal?

The main focus of the last 13 days after IM Germany has been on letting my body recover and get back to "normal". Last week I did seven and a half hours of "training"--most of it was light spinning. This week will probably end up being double that with a few runs thrown in.

I'm actually racing tomorrow in the Stone Harbor triathlon--which is clearly a questionable call. It's a goofy local sprint which actually was my first triathlon back in 2001. I'm not ready to race and I don't have any expectations about my performance except that I'll probably end up being slow and a little annoyed by that fact. I wanted to use the race as a line in the sand marking my transition from post IM recovery to a serious training phase that will deliver me to Kona, which is 84 days from today.

My number one goal in this next period is to get my left hip healthy. I must find a way to avoid a debilitating repeat of my bike/run at IM Germany. To the end, I had a physical evaluation by a corrective exercise physical therapist. He was clearly able to diagnose my left/right imbalances and my significant deficincies in my hip flexors and most of my core muscle systems. I've started a multi-week cycle of 3 times per week of core/hip focused training and aggressive assissted stretching of my ITB. This has been an eye-opening experience so far. I've had three sessions to date and my glutes, hip flexors, etc are very sore and stiff. I have hope that this will ultimately correct my hip problem--I must get it fixed....

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