The reason I cancelled is I have another injury. Following my race two weeks ago Saturday, I took a recovery bike ride on Sunday and swam/ran on Monday. Tuesday morning I could hardly walk. It appeared I had a good case of the shin splints on my right leg. Haven't had shin splints since High School. So I followed the RICE rule (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) but continued to swim and bike as the pain was not excruciating for those exercises (as compared to attempted running). After a week nothing much changed so I started with the heat and self massage treatments. OK, that's not going well, maybe I have something other than shin splints. What about a stress fracture of the tibia or navicular bone (google it)? Healing time is up to 6 weeks, ugh, I can't have that. Did you know Frank Shorter ran the 1976 Olympic Marathon with a stress fracture and still took the silver medal? Just a trivia diversion for those under the age of 40. Or, maybe I have External Compartment Syndrome (ECS)?
After some self diagnosis aided by the Internet, I ruled out shin splints (they appear on the interior of the leg, my swelling is on the exterior). I ruled out stress fracture (the pain usually localizes after a few days, mine didn't). That left me with ECS or a simple tendon/ligament strain. The foot is complicated, 24 bones per foot, almost 1/4 of all the bones in your body are in your feet. Take a look at my right leg almost two weeks after the pain first appeared. You can't even see the ankle bones for the swelling. Guess I better not attempt a 70.3 race (with a half marathon run) on that puffy lower leg. So, wait for healing and the opportunity to race another day.Now, it's time for a confession that may have a nexus regarding my injury. I'm old school when it comes to training and athletics. I mean really old school. I keep things relatively simple. I have never had an athletic coach except for high school and college track, and they were conscripts (Any teacher here want to coach track? Pay is $500 per season.). I have never consulted a nutritionist for dietary, training or race needs. I simply follow the crave theory. If I crave it, I eat it. Well, not exactly true. I do try to show reasonable constraint but I don't exclude anything in particular from my diet. I have never used supplements unless you call multi-vitamins a supplement. I don't get regular massages or physical therapy for athletic purposes (I have received them occasionally for injury recovery). I have never had a professional triathlon bike fitting, swim evaluation, or running evaluation. I don't have a physical trainer. I'm not sure what "core" workouts mean, but I imagine you exercise everything but the arms and legs. How do you do that? And, while I used to keep track of training and race efforts with a pencil and paper, now I no longer bother keeping track at all. Certainly you don't care how far I biked on Jan 6th 2002. I know I don't.
