My last blog post was a race recap from Ironman Vineman back in the fall of 2016. When I hit the publish button on that post I remember thinking that was it, the grand finale. Another milestone achieved and time to move onto something else. Hung my try bike on the wall and never unpacked my gear bags. Since I can't sit still for too long, three months later I started a training block for Texas 70.3. Feeling good and ready to burn off the 15 lbs I put on in "retirement."
Training up to that race was normal...never felt fatigued, sore, injured, etc. and I showed up to Galveston, in a monsoon, ready to just go out and have fun. No time targets. No worries. We stayed with friends at their beach house and I was totally relaxed for this race. I swam pretty well, biked ok and started the run with some life left in my legs--the first loop was under my training pace and the wheels fell off on the second loop. I honestly cannot remember my finish time, but its something in the 5:40 range. I was sore, tired and just glad to be done.
Over the course of the next several months I just sort of floated around and took things easy. I was cycling and swimming more than usual and running about the same as my normal routine. This went on until Harvey blew through and I shut things down totally for about a month to lend as much of my time to friends and family as possible. In early October I received an email advertising the Rock Raccoon 50 miler, so naturally I signed up. Never ran this far and had no idea what I was getting myself into. Perfect.
I've been a runner since college and was happy going back to my roots--I actually enjoyed the miles that I was logging to prepare for the 50 miler. For context, the first week started with 6 on Tues, 8 on Wed, 4 on Thurs 16 on Sat and 10 on Sun. Brutal. On a particular weekend in mid-Dec I had 20 scheduled on Sat with a recovery 10 on Sun. I finished up on Sat and felt extremely tired afterwards, so I went home and took it easy the rest of the day. Got up the next morning and did 5 with Jack in the stroller (our Sunday routine), dropped him off with Emily and then took off for the rest of the miles. About two miles later, I felt a pop in the hip joint and I cramped from mid-abdomen to my knee cap. Walked home and immediately stretched it out and soaked in the tub. I tried to run a couple of days later and couldn't go more than a quarter mile without doubling over in pain. And here we are.
I did an MRI in early January and saw two doctors post-imaging...the initial MRI showed femoroacetibular impingement (FAI), a pincer on the head of the femur, 4-5 distinct labrum defects (tears), 3 distinct cartilage defects (tears) and early stage osteoarthritis. I went to see the orthopedist and expected him to tell me I had a labrum tear--I had no idea that he would spend 20 minutes reading off all of the things going wrong in my hip. There are two paths to take in this scenario: you can do Suppartz or PRP injections and follow-up with PT or you can do PT to prepare for surgery. The former would apply to new and/or small defects in the hip, the latter for revision surgeries and/or large quantities of defects. I fall into the latter with all of the other lucky folks out there. So I setup PT and had my first visit yesterday.
Slowly feeling better about my predicament and feeling like we had a plan, I went to PT to get the show on the road. Met my new best friend Kim, sat down with her to talk about the injury and was quickly interrupted. We went back through the MRI one more time and you also have a "pretty gnarly sports hernia." Thanks Kim, now let's go bed these legs into a pretzel and talk about how much it hurts.
I had a miserable nights sleep last night. I am sore and achy, and I get sharp pains with certain movements. Imagine a painful itch that you can't scratch that has been lingering on for a month. I spend my day managing pain in between meetings--Tylenol throughout the day and hydrocodone at night. I can't sit too long, so I stand up. Then I can't stand too long so I sit down (thank God for my electronic riser desk). And sleeping is the worst. Can't tie my shoes. Can't pick up my kid. I swim and it feels better, that is, until I'm not swimming and it hurts like hell. Same with cycling. And I can't run.
So what now? I have to do 3 weeks of PT to track pain levels and flexibility and report results back to Dr. Harris. There's a 10% chance that pain will fall to a level of comfort but it won't fix the problems. From what I understand, the PT is primarily to ready my body for surgery and is also posturing for insurance to approve a revision surgery. Dr. Harris will repair the hip and we'll interview a couple of urologists to repair the sports hernia at the same time. I'll start rehab the day after surgery and they'll put me on a recumbent bike immediately. I won't swim for 8 weeks and won't take a step out of crutches or a brace for 12 weeks.
I've succumbed to the fact that endurance sports are out of the question for me, likely for the rest of my trip on this earth. At this point, I just want the pain to go away and to be able to casually exercise. The tri bike that I built from scratch is sold and hopefully in the hands of someone who can use it. I've got another baby boy on the way in June. Life is still good, just different.
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