My Journey through Hip Labrum Recovery: Entry 1 - Pre-Op

I am posting this entry coming off of an 8th place finish in my last race of the 2013 season, the Galveston 5150, in which my effort qualified me to race in the 2014 Hy-Vee WTC National Championships in Milwaukee, WI. We accomplished so many things this year, conquering Ironman, finishing in the top 10% of each race thereafter and qualifying for Hy-Vee. The journey was everything I had hoped for spiritually, physically and emotionally.

On July 31, 2013 I was well into a 6 mile planned run when I began to notice what felt like a side stitch on my right side. Since I was only a couple of miles from home, I decided to keep on trucking, told myself to suck it up and drank some water. The pain turned deeper over the next few days and was covering my lower abdominal wall, groin and quad. I started the self-diagnosis a week later and concluded that I had developed a sports hernia (WebMD is super scientific). I called the Ironman Sports Medicine Institute and they referred me to Dr. Mark Adickes, a very well respected hip and pelvic surgeon who has worked on many of the professional athletes here in Houston. After three weeks of dealing with the pain, I was finally able to see Dr. Adickes who immediately diagnosed hip dysplasia with possible sports hernia and ordered an arthrogram with four MRI's of the pelvis and hip.

The arthrogram was fairly uncomfortable as they basically take a 9 inch needle and gradually push it into your hip joint while injecting a dye which can be seen on the MRI's. The radiologist who did my arthrogram told me that he was confident there was "trauma" but would not elaborate as that was my doc's job. After four hours in the MRI machine, I was finally able to head home. I didn't hear back from the ortho's office for almost a week, so I finally called them and got the update (Adickes was out of town and was going to call the next day, sure....). It was not what I wanted to hear...torn labrum in the hip, negative sports hernia. Surgery recommended. Here is a simple diagram of the location of a labrum tear:

The next part of my journey is bittersweet. It's the blood, sweat, tears and dedication to the sport that transformed my life for the better; it's also the cause of the injury. My surgery is on October 10, less than two weeks, and I will know when I wake up the extent of the damage and potential recovery time. Two scars, best case scenario, five, tough hill to climb. Most athletes take 5-6 months to fully heal (think Ed Reed of the Houston Texans) which is an eternity for endurance athletes who work out everyday. The physical therapy will be the key to recovering quickly and I hope to be in treatment the day after the surgery.

I plan on keeping this blog going through the entire recovery so that others out there like me can see what it takes to get through the repair. Stay tuned.

2011 - 2013: In retrospect and the Ebbs and Flows

In Retrospect

2011
Exactly two years have passed since I completed my first triathlon, the 2011 TriPearl in San Antonio, TX. What a disaster. I breast-stroked the majority of a 300m pool swim, then hopped on my mountain bike for a 13 mile bike ride and polished off a 5k run with a 10min/mi split. I remember rounding the corner to the finish line and thinking how awesome I was for completing a triathlon. That, and how badly I felt like I needed to throw up. I was overweight, miserable in my job and unhealthy.

2012
After taking several months off and "focusing on getting stronger" (drinking beer and watching TV), I signed up for my first triathlon with an open water swim, Kemah 2012. This was a pinnacle moment in my entry into the sport. Emily had posted a picture of me completing the TriPearl on facebook, and a good friend saw the photo and told her husband, who happened to be a fraternity brother of mine, that I was doing triathlons just as he was. We were able to connect prior to the Kemah race, discovering not only that we enjoyed doing these things, but that we had purchased the same exact tri bike before the race. After another disaster (for me, Jamie actually won his age group), we kept in touch and began planning out our first official race season.

Three short-course races later, we had officially formed our partnership and signed up for the Oilman's half-iron distance race in October 2012. Since we were so awesome at this sport, we decided to only do one long training ride (56 miles) and skipped the planned 30min brick run to eat monster burritos at Freebirds. Again, we were awesome at this sport so it was all good. Race day nearly killed both of us and I am pretty sure that Jamie hacked up peppermint stick flavored gel for an entire week afterwards. That was the end of the 2012 season, but turned out to be just the beginning of the journey for us.

At the end of November 2012, and after much prayer and pondering the ramifications, we got the brilliant idea to sign up for Ironman Texas 2013. I can remember that being the most difficult click on my computer mouse ever and when I received the confirmation email, it became very real. We bantered about the race over the winter and concluded that if we were going to do this, we were going to do it the right way. So we each signed up for training plans and went to work in February 2013.

2013
The 2013 season kicked off with racing Kemah again in March. Determined to do better than 2012, we swam in a monsoon and ran sub 7's, finishing side by side. The training had paid off so far. The next race on the calendar was Galveston 70.3 in April and would be our mid-term exam of how well we had progressed in our training for IMTX. Stellar races from each of us, finishing in our goal times and  most importantly, nailing the nutritional components of the race. Four weeks out from IMTX, we were putting in the hours and feeling good.

May 19 showed up (as it does every year) and we were doing the death march down to the swim start of IMTX along with 2,500+ other lunatics. We jumped in the water at the same time, swam, biked and ran 140.6 miles, and ran through the finishing chute for an experience that you cannot possibly fathom unless you do it yourself. We had achieved what we were meant to do.

For endurance athletes, meeting goals and obtaining success only brings about hunger to do something more spectacular. We are Type A people: often stubborn, retentive, stress-driven and actionable in nature. So after a month's rest, we decided to jump back into the water and set our sights on qualifying for the USAT age-group national championships in the Galveston 5150 race being held in September 2013. 

Success at Bridgeland and Towne Lake paved the way for what would become of our effort in Galveston yesterday, September 22, 2013. We raced hard, facing 23mi/hr sustained headwinds on the bike and winding, hilly conditions on the run. We exhausted our bodies of all that we had and left nothing on the course. No regrets. It wasn't until the race director taped up the results and we scrolled down to our names that we are able to truly understand what we had accomplished: 7th and 8th place, separated by 41 seconds. We had done it.

Ebbs and Flows
People most often only recall their wins, the positive things they have done. In reality, it is impossible to win at everything you do and failure is not only part of the process, but is where the true inspiration lies. The above represents my positives, my wins. What it doesn't speak to is how much time I have devoted to the sport and taken away from other aspects of life. How painful, both physically and mentally, the races are (and they are actually the fun part). How many times I have been tempted to hit snooze, make up an excuse or just flat out skip an early morning training session. How each day I am more sore and tired than the last, but I am not satisfied, so I wake up and do it again the next day. How things go wrong on a training ride, and worse, during a race.

I had to be a broken man before I could be given the gift of a great friend, confidant and training partner, along with this great hobby. I had to fail miserably in this sport multiple times before I found success. I am injured and I am having surgery on my hip, but I am healthy and have prolonged my life. I am tired, but I am happy and my life has positive meaning and purpose, which I project to those around me. I have faith and am not afraid to share it along with the story that is my journey.

If you have not found your passion, keep looking. You will know when you have found it because it will become part of you and you will not be able to live without it. It doesn't have to be athletic in nature, but it must make you a better person and those around you better for knowing you. "You have become what you were meant to be." I knew I had achieved my purpose when my brother told me this, and I can only hope to continue becoming who I am meant to be. The next report will be after my hip surgery on October 10. Thanks for reading and go out and inspire someone today.

Personal mantras, Houston Triathlon and 17 days until 5150

I haven't taken to the blog in almost two months, not out of spite, mostly out of lack of inspiration. The build-up to and release of completing IMTX sort of left me in a vacuum with no real race goals for the summer. Vacations came and went and I continued to work hard on my training, focusing mainly on getting stronger on the bike and pressing my run times to the brink of exhaustion with each session. When I began the journey into triathlon, it was a challenge to cycle in higher heart rate zones and then polish the workout with a run off of the trainer. After significant time in the gym and on the pavement, I am finding it much easier to hammer on the bike and run negative splits afterwards. The issue with spending so much focus on training is that I lost my inspiration and got lost in the trees and forgot about the forest. It took a few negative life events to bring me back to equilibrium, and as one of my favorite scriptures says, "in your weakness, my strength is made perfect." I have set some new goals for 2013 and am happily back to racing.

If you are new to this sport you probably don't know who Jesse Thomas is. Any seasoned triathlete knows his story and follows his blog. To keep it short, Jesse was an all-American steeplechaser for Stanford and decided to try a triathlon, showing up with a borrowed bike and some aviator sunglasses. He won the race. Jesse is old school...he doesn't shave his legs, he doesn't buy into the hype and he is likable. Most importantly, he respects the sport and knows that it is a gift. He wrote a blog post that I thought was interesting for those moments that all of us come to when we need to dig deep and push through. The SNL references are classic: http://triathlon.competitor.com/2013/08/features/triathlife-with-jesse-thomas-mantra-power_82825

The post talks about having a personal mantra that you remind yourself of when your mind tells you that you cannot go any further. The relevance to my life is that I actually used it in the last couple of races and it works. BTB, KMF, SY, NGU.

The Houston Triathlon was held on Labor Day and turned out to be a great race (after being rained out last year). The swim is challenging (choppy water), the bike is flat and fast and the run is a windy route through Towne Lake. I turned in a 2:36 which is another PR and extreme progress for having only raced triathlon for less than 2 years. I ended up placing 12th in my age group (of 50) and 87th overall (of approx. 1,200). Progress.

My ultimate goal for the remainder of the year is to qualify for the Hy-Vee Age-Group National Championships and my only shot is to place in the top 15 of my age-group in the Galveston 5150 on Sept 22. I am hopeful, but remain fearful so that my training stays angry and with purpose. My swim needs improvement and I have to run sub 7:30 to do it....It should be an interesting day.

As I have done with each and every other blog post, I'll close with a thought. The scripture above is precise. Sometimes we get comfortable and forget what it's like to struggle. God likes the struggle because we are most receptive in this state. Take your frustrations, weaknesses, anger, stress, etc and harness it into positive energy. Ask yourself how you can better spend your time. Say a mantra or two.