North Shore Tri Race Report
Another tri, another rainy day! I'm getting used to this. After nonchalantly getting myself to transition I realized I forgot my googles. No worries, I'll just ask around...someone always has an extra pair. This being a local sprint tri there were a lot of first-timers hence an extra pair of googles was hard to come by. Finally I found an older dude that had some as old as he was. With 5 minutes to race time I took 'em.
The 400m swim was in Lake Michigan from point to point. My rib injury was top of mind but my thought was I can make it through 6ish minutes of pain one last time. But the focus on my ribs immediately went away after the first few strokes because of the damn antique goggles I was wearing. I ended up flipping on my back 3 times to drain the leaking bastards, then finally halfway through I ripped them off my face and went old school. 400m didn't come quickly enough!
On the bike my legs were feeling good. I was racing without any electronics...no power meter, no Garmin, not even a stopwatch. It was awesome! I just went by feel. With a 2 loop out and back course I got some good splits on the lead guys. I was within contention at the first turn and found my self making up time as the race went on.
I came into T2 in 4th OA. I ended up passing 3rd within the first half mile. It felt great to push hard and not have pace on my wrist to look at.
By the final mile I figured out that 1st and 2nd had more time on me than I thought so I backed off a little. I held onto 3rd OA and coasted in.
This was a fun little race to end the season. I'm looking forward to a much needed break!
WTF is wrong with my ribs?
A few days after getting back from Vegas I finally followed my doctors orders and got the MRI. I didn't do it before since I really didn't want to know if something is seriously effed up which would detract from me racing in Vegas. I really thought it was an intercostal strain, serratus tear or lat tear. The results shocked me...2 fractures! One on the 6th and one on the 7th rib. The good news is they are non-displaced (kind of like a stress fracture). The bad news I need at least 8 weeks to let them heal.
So I've gone through pretty much the whole season training and racing with busted ribs! WTF?! Apparently the little bike crash I had the end of June was more serious than I thought. What's weird is the rib pain didn't surface until a couple weeks after the crash during a hard swim in a sprint triathlon. Never did I think I had a fracture.
Hello off-season
The plan is to give the body and mind a good rest until October 1st at which time I'll start cranking up again for 2014. With another early season Ironman (Ironman Texas - May 2014) and some big goals I need to get started soon. I'm also registered for Ironman Wisconsin in September 2014 with some even bigger goals. And if I end up qualifying for Hawaii at Texas that would mean 3 Ironman races in 2014. So I need to go into 2014 training F.R.E.S.H.
I have a few other aches and pains that I'll be addressing in this short off-season (right big toe, right hamstring and right glute). Lots of rest, stretching, massage, strength, etc. The hamstring is my biggest concern right now. I've had an annoying ache in that sucker since March. I'm calling it hamstring tendonitis (thanks Dr. Google!).
I'll check in again once the 2014 cranks up...
Nice write-up, Lar! Nice to follow the journey. I'm not quite as motivated as you, so I live vicariously thru the kids by inhaling chlorine fumes at the pool 6 days a week. Keep up the writing. Tell G and the munchkins we said Hey from The Fort. -Kman
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