In my last post I mentioned a couple worrisome injuries that have been hampering my CFE Ironman training plan thus far: my foot and my back.
Good news: the foot’s gotten better.
Bad news: the back’s gotten worse.
You can read all about my foot issues in Foot Fight and Foot Fight 2.
In this post we’ll dig into my back.
I’ll explain the symptoms, the root problems, the causes and the fixes.
NB: I’m officially old.
Flashback to November:
Q1: This’ll be your first Ironman. Are you worried, excited, in shock, all of the above?
Answer: “…The biggest part of training for something like this is making the commitment, waking up and showing up every day – and that’s what I’m going to do. I want to show up on November 17th knowing that I put everything I could into this thing – no regrets. So no, I’m not scared that I won’t finish, because if I don’t finish it won’t be due to something I could have changed.”
Flash forward to today:
The theme of my past eight months of training has been to put in the work, prepare for the unexpected and take all steps necessary to show up on Nov. 17 feeling ready, with butterflies in my stomach, excitement, pride, some natural anxiety, but with zero doubt.
The race is six weeks from today, and I feel great. Endurance-wise, I know I can get through this thing. Hell, if I needed to, I could get through it tomorrow. I’ve followed my training, built up the mileage, honed my confidence and already see myself as an Ironman. Like I said back in November:
“Becoming an Ironman (or an ultra runner, or a brain surgeon, or a freakin’ fairy princess) isn’t something that happens overnight. When I start the 2.4 mile swim, the transformation and achievement will already be done. Crossing that finish line will just be like walking across stage on graduation day. Work’s done – now you just have to prove it and get your medal.”
Now is the time to continue building those last few miles, nurture that confidence, and try to find and address any of those last hurdles that might come your way. While working through a long brick workout yesterday, I found the last hurdle I need to focus on for these last six weeks in order to show up to Ironman Village next month with not a doubt in my mind that I’m ready. Ironically, it goes back to one of the first blog posts I wrote.
I need to take care of my poor, neglected muscles, tendons and joints.
On the surface, triathlon appears to be comprised of three skills: swimming, cycling and running.
But when you drill down, there are two other arenas that deserve just as much attention as those three obvious sports.
Can you guess what they are?
Sunscreen and sportswear?
Fish oil and financing?
Technology and travel?
Nope. The answers we were looking for are stretching and nutrition.
Stretching and nutrition can heavily influence your performance in triathlon, and we’ve talked about both subjects a few times already on this blog (see A beginner’s guide to endurance grubbin’, Fill your tank like a frugal caveman and Stretch like gumby).
As with most triathlon topics, there’s no shortage of information and advice. That’s why it’s important to try out various approaches and figure out what works best for you.
Recently, I’ve incorporated rolling out with a lacrosse ball into my mobility routine and it’s helping me bounce back from my foot injury, recover after exercising, increase flexibility and (hopefully) prevent future injuries.
I don’t see many people using lacrosse balls to stretch at the gym, so I’m assuming it hasn’t caught on with the masses.
In case you haven’t experimented with this tactic yet, I’m going to share some of the tips that I’ve found useful thus far, so that you can try them out and see if they work for you too.
Here are my five tips for stretching with a lacrosse ball.
Do you know how to properly stretch? We’ve all done it. You’re getting ready to head out for a run or play a game of flag football with buddies and you start to do the typical torso rotation, twisting your hips a couple times, leaning over to touch your toes, arch that back and look up towards the sky, swing the arms back and forth a couple times. Okay. Good to go!
Wrong.
If you were to visit my townhouse, you’d probably think it’s a nice place, but nothing all that spectacular.
It serves me well as a low-maintenance base for the moment, but the ceilings stand low, carpet is nearing replacement, most walls are blank and I don’t have surround sound or cable.
I like the quiet, tree-lined street I live on and occasionally wrestle with simple projects to step the house’s game up. But you won’t see it featured in any home-design magazines.
However, the house does boast one undeniably spectacular feature: the couch.