NEW GOAL: USAT NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GRAND SLAM

I have not posted in a while as there was nothing material to share.  I've recovered from my stumble in the XTERRA desert trail race but I've been sort of "wandering in the desert" of Arizona trying to figure out what I want to do with multisports now that I am drawing a social security check.  While enduring the normal aches and pains that accompany the aging process,  I've been fighting the urge to retire from multisport.

I've been able to run up to two times per week on desert trails, if you can call a 10 min/mile pace running. I've started swimming twice a week and continued to bike twice a week.  While this effort has allowed me to maintain a modest level of fitness, the pain in my knees has made the effort much less enjoyable than in the past.

I have not entered any races and haven't felt the urge to race,  because I know I'm not fit enough to race at the level I expect of myself.  I have started a long series of golf lessons to prepare for the inevitable.

I recently visited a rheumatologist to get a second opinion regarding my knees.  At the first visit he used what looked like a horse syringe to withdraw 35 cc's of milky opaque fluid from my left knee.  Highly inflamed.  At the second visit I got his report.  A flare up of pseudo gout with an underlayment of osteoarthritis and future rheumatoid arthritis.  Treatment is "there is no curative treatment" for pseudo gout.  I can try a medicine that is used for "real" gout that may help prevent a flare up such as I experienced.  The more practical "treatment"  is to just drain the knee when it happens in the future.

2012 USAT DUATHLON and 2011 USAT TRIATHLON JERSEYS

So I accepted the facts and looked for what I could do that would keep me motivated for at least this year.  Recently a notice from the USAT arrived in my email announcing the date and location of the USAT Aquabike (swim/bike) National Championship.  And there is a USAT Aquathalon (swim/run) National Championship also. Since I have already won National Championships in both Triathlon (2011) and Duathlon (2012), why not go for the remaining two multisport event national championships and call it the Age Group USAT National Championship Grand Slam.   Has anybody else achieved this?  If so please let me know.