Its been a week (and I apologize for that)

Well... I ALMOST (caps, bold, italics anddd red) crushed it in Squamish. Actually, I was crushing it until T2, running for my life until 4km into the run, and in one-gear-best-average-speed autopilot until the finish line. Race Report to come in next post, but here is how the week went:

On Monday I went to the Chiropractor (Carla Cupido) and she worked on my arm and hip for about 20 minutes. The arm really felt better after, the hip felt really sore from all the digging in with the elbow and Graston tools. Tuesday I went to the sports doctor and right after to the Physio, both agreed that the arm pain seemed to be related to a nerve problem and not muscle sprain. My neck and upper back was really really tight, and the Physio (Jay) went right in there and loosened the cr..p out of everything. Clearly he got it right on, the arm was 80% better the following day. The sports doctor gave me some nerve relaxant to help with that as well, so I have been taking that for a week now. With lots of stretching (neck stretches) and some upper back work the arm is now 98%. I have to purposely work really really hard to feel the slightest remain of whatever I had. “Tricep Nerve” Case: CLOSED.

The hip is a whole different story. After Carla went in there Monday it was sore Tuesday (as expected). Tuesday afternoon I went to Physio and Jay also got in there and also told me that my hip alignment is off and glutes were weak again. I haven’t done my exercises in a while as the weather has been so nice, usually I never have problems in the winter as I spend lots of time in the gym avoiding the rain. Anyways, Wednesday I was sore to the point that I was not sure where the “injury” was hurting initially, as now that whole side of the hip felt like I got hit by a car or punched 100 times. “Hip Pain” Case: Hip alignment exercises + Glutes Strengthening.

The 3 days off (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) from everything became 4, and then the arm got better so swimming and gym were back on. Wednesday I went for a ride as the sports doctor said that it might help (and also the hip barely hurts when I ride) despite soreness. It did not make it worse so riding was back on schedule. The hip was better Thursday and Friday, but still sore. Friday was 1 week without running, and with the Squamish Triathlon in line for the weekend I decided to get in the treadmill and see how it went for 30 min. Aerobically speaking I felt surprisingly good, usually after a week I would feel a little more strained for air/uncomfortable. Leg turnover was good, technique was feeling smooth, shins 100%, but damn hip was still refusing to work properly… According to Carla my pain threshold is pretty high (and therefore I let her go in deep deep and am sore for 3 days after) so I set myself a limit. If it started hurting more than …. then I would stop. I never reached the “set” limit; the run started at 5:00/km and steadily increased speed to 3:40/km at the end. Ice ice ice after. Saturday I woke up no better but no worse. More hip alignment, therabands exercises, glutes, easy ride, AYCE sushi with Stefan and Andra (big mistake the day before a race, but we needed to prove the waiter wrong didn’t we??), prepare race package, no time for a swim, and off to bed.

Summary: The last 9 days leading to the Squamish Tri were much less than ideal … There were 4 days of rusting doing absolutely nothing. Swam 2 times after 6 days of no swimming, biked 4 times Wed to Sat, Run 30 min on Friday after a week, and spent a couple of hours working on the hip issue in the gym. Upside: Arm is 100%, I know what to do with the hip, and had a pretty decent race yesterday all things considered =)

Race report to come next post ~30min =P