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.

"I run very fast because I desperately want to stand very still."

People ask me all the time why I do what I do. I normally give them a quick reply that includes health benefits, challenging myself or because it is my "thing." Occasionally, if I feel as though someone can understand, appreciate or benefit from the metaphor, I will tell them about my journey and how training and racing is my therapy. This morning my brother sent me what I consider to be a very profound (and hilarious) link to an article/comic written by a staff member from the website, The Oatmeal. Check it out: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/running This guy has obviously been asked multiple times why he does what he does, and his response is hands down better than mine...

The Blerch
We are all born with this, the built-in devil's advocate, the "wretched lazy beast" that tells us to do the opposite of what we know to be true and good. It's the voice telling you to stay in bed when you are running late, telling you that tomorrow is a new day and you can work extra hard to put off today's tasks. For me, it's the voice telling me that I am too tired to keep going or that quitting is a viable option. With practice, you can silence this beast and put it in the back of your mind. With even more practice, you can harness the negativity to fuel your body, mind and spirit to exceed its limits. And just as the author suggests, The Blerch will never go away because it is part of our anatomy. It will be here "morning, noon and night" and if you let it, it will eventually catch up with you. There is a scientific principle whereby negative force is used to create positive energy. Think of how a jet ski works, water is pulled in via an intake valve, passed through a jet, and redistributed via opposite force to create propulsion. Same principle exists when you jog and your feet brace for impact, then use this negative force to roll forward onto the forefoot, propelling you to take your next step. Harness the negative force and destroy The Blerch....

The Feeding
My friends and family members assume that I have taken on the form of a rabbit and eat salad for every meal. I assume this is because my body has trimmed down considerably over the last 12 months. I swear that I have had more voices of concern than I would have ever gotten had I been 40 pounds overweight...What they don't realize is that I have only lost a net 6 pounds (which I probably needed to get rid of), but my body fat percentage has dropped down to single digits, which would have equated to a net loss of 20+ pounds. I have actually replaced fat stores with body mass, aka, muscle. Most athletes do not lose weight (unless its needed) but instead replace stored weight with mass weight, aka, fat for muscle. I don't eat salad for every meal. I have never tried tofu. I eat candy. I eat ice cream (low-fat). I eat hamburgers (limited to 1x/week). And I LOVE beer, drinking not guzzling. See the trend? Moderation. The only time I actually watch what I eat is 2-3 days prior to a race and it is pretty much to limit fiber and saturated fats that are hard to get rid of. Otherwise, Emily can attest, I am a human garbage disposal. BUT, I stay away from excess, believing there is such a thing as too much of a good thing...It's simple math:

(What I put into my body) - (What my body naturally burns + Calories burned by exercise) = Net Calories Stored



 

We should all strive to keep this equation as close to 0 as possible. For example, I consume calories based upon my activity level for the day. If it is Wednesday, I know that I have a long run scheduled which will burn anywhere from 1,000-1,500 calories, so I must take in at least 3,500-4,000 calories on that day just to break even...Please also remember that the equation works as a loss generator as well. If you'd like to burn calories, you must either put less in or burn more off. Seems simple, but most people tend to overlook the simple theory. Maybe it's The Blerch striking again?

 

Selfishness and Krakens

"Running is a magical shortcut to that euphoria." I agree. For me, triathlon training is an escape from a world that only takes and never gives. When I am swimming, biking or running, I am taking back my freedom. I can go anywhere I want as quickly as I want and with no regard to the issues of the day. The "high" is a real thing unlike any manufactured buzz and can be obtained free of charge (and without jail time). Emily can always tell when I have gone a significant time without "escaping" and she will always avert by telling me to get out of the house. Once I go out and "slay the Kracken" I feel an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and I am ready to return to earth. Refreshed. Pick up your sword...

 

Vanity

Let's begin this section by remembering what we as triathletes train and race in. Spandex. Biker shorts. Speedos. Goggles. Alien starship bikes. There is absolutely nothing vain about what I do. Trust me, I have seen my race photos and I NEVER buy them because they are atrocious. I have never, ever, thought that I looked good doing what I do and have never raced or done a training session because I just had to try on a new pair of shorts. Vanity is slow and uncalculated and has no place in my sport. Vanity causes wrecks and will never push you to placing in the top 10 of a race. As the author suggests, endurance athletes don't have beach bodies. Instead of biceps, pecs and traps, we have legs and shoulders. We get abs because we breathe so heavily that the muscles expand and contract naturally, not as a result of the number of sit-ups we do (the illustrations cracked me up). I don't go to a tanning bed, but I am tan, because I spend a considerable amount of time outdoors. The best idea from the article is the following: don't wear your athleticism "like a fashion statement;" instead, find your strength by measuring it internally each day.

 

Agony

What I do in my spare time is agonizing. Each day represents a new hurdle to jump and presents itself much more difficult than the last. There are injuries, fatigue and you will ALWAYS find someone who is faster than you are. But that is what keeps you going. Knowing that if you try harder, you will get better. If I am tired and I continue on with the workout, it is an exponential value-add to my preparedness for the next race. There are times when I hate my Garmin watch so much because it is completely disconnected from my brain, i.e., the mileage it has tracked is significantly less than what I feel like I have done. But then there are times when it surprises me...maybe I am giving a 7:30/mile effort on a run and I look down and it is measuring a 6:47/mile. Awesome. Surprise yourself with what you can accomplish with willpower and how amazing it feels to finish an agonizing task.

 

The Void

The world we live in is very "noisy." We are in the midst of a technological revolution, no different than the industrial revolution of the early 20th century. There is sensory overload all around us. However, there exists a whole world out there void from Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman, abortion, racism, etc. and it's peaceful. Perhaps if people had better things to do than sit around and stew about things they cannot control, there would be much less hatred in the world. I train for triathlons because the void makes me feel better, and ipso facto, makes me a better person. I find the void everyday because it is a freedom that can never be taken away.

 

Great article....







pull yourself out of the cave...

1 Kings 19:10-14

I must admit that for the past several weeks I have retreated to my cave. Not in the literal sense, as we have been extremely busy, but in the spiritual sense. I read somewhere recently that the challenge as a believer is not when you are in the midst of turmoil but rather when you are in the midst of serenity. This is true for me. When times are good, I find myself not relying on God's word and spirit to guide me, putting more emphasis on my own judgement. This action always seems to follow a major challenge in my journey and a time of ultimate peace in my life. A few hiccups here and there, topped with the stresses of jobs and personal issues and you find yourself back to yearning for God to hear your prayers. Thing is, the spirit is always there, what we lose is the sense of hearing God's voice.

I was sitting on the couch on Sunday, watching the live webcast of Houston's First Baptist Church when the computer died from a low battery. I got up, plugged it back in, and as I did, the pastor began telling the 1 Kings 19 story of Elijah's retreat to a cave on Mt. Horeb, in which he was so frustrated with the world that he retreated until he could again hear God's voice. Normally I would have listened and taken the lesson for what it was worth. This time was different. Not two days prior, I had read the same story in the daily devotional that I get in my email inbox. It's times like these when I find it very difficult to argue against my beliefs...against a God who speaks to us through events and scriptures. A God who brings us out of our caves with his voice and helps us to remember how fulfilling life is when we serve rather than receive. The tangible to my life was harboring stress and anger over the last few weeks, and hiding myself in a cave of self-doubt. It is very difficult to serve and encourage others when you are in this state. The way in which this action was broken for me, some would say a coincidental alignment of events, I believe was divine intervention. 

My knee injury from Ironman Texas has healed to a point where I feel comfortable testing it out in a race setting. I am confident in my swimming and running, but am still living in the cave with my biking. This blog was founded on the premise that this sport saved my life, and once again, I feel like I am being called to march on, pressing forward to the next challenge, and sharing my story with others who are going through the same trials.

Proof that my dedication has paid off, I finally broke the 7min mile barrier for a distance longer than 5k:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/341476883#.UeB8CCSm73w.twitter

Tomorrow presents its own set of challenges as I race the Shadow Creek Ranch sprint. I am hopeful to break the hour mark and place within the top 10 of my age group. Whether this is achieved or not, I am thankful that I am putting myself out there again and not living in the cave.

Debunking the Myth: Men Over 40 Think Twice About Reading Bloomberg

I have finally had enough and am taking it to the street, that street being Bloomberg. Here is the poorly written, and even more importantly, poorly researched article written on June 21, 2013:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-20/men-over-40-should-think-twice-before-running-triathlons.html

Nice headline. "Running triathlons." Really? That is how you start the article? Let me guess, the writer has never "ran" a triathlon....

Don't get me wrong, there are a couple nuggets of truth in this article...athletes aged 40-49 and 50-59 make up two of the largest age groups competing in triathlon. True. The swim leg of the race is where the most fatalities occur. True. Competition changes are coming. Probably true. The rest of the article is basically a well-publicized and well-marketed warning label for those who compete in the sport, with very little data research and interpretation. Weird that a media behemoth would conjure fear in its audience for hits to its website...Now it's my (and probably all triathlete's) turn:

Let me preface this post by stating that my heart goes out to the families of those who have passed by competing in this sport that we all share the same passion for. It is a travesty and I truly believe that as participation increases, individual awareness and event coordinator controls will eventually increase (fortunately or unfortunately, save for another discussion...think wave swim starts). Now to the research/science behind what is going on. You can do a google search and find a plethora of published, reputable studies on SIPE risks among triathletes. At the end of the day, the 99.99% cause of death in triathletes is SIPE. The other .01% would be primarily reflective of accidents while on the bike course. As with any death due to disease or ailment, there are risk factors that can be tested for to determine causality.

Open this article and scroll to page 4: http://www.endurancetriathletes.com/AJEM_oct_2010.pdf  This table illustrates a controlled study of 1,411 participants distributed among age-groups and gender, pairing with the actual USAT distribution of those same groups. The first thing you should note is that there were 31 deaths, or 2.2% of athletes. The next thing you should note is that the 3 largest groups based on # of participants have the highest rate of deaths, makes sense so far. The group with the largest number of deaths is 40-49, hence the title of the Bloomberg article. Interestingly enough, what does not correlate to the Bloomberg article is the fact that that 22 (65%) of the 31 total deaths in the study were women, not men. 24 of the 31 deaths had normal blood pressure (or no known abnormal blood pressure prior to racing). 30 of the 31 deaths were non-diabetics. So we can scratch off diabetes and abnormal blood pressure from causality.

 Here are the nutritional risk factors:

• 22 of the 31 (71%) deaths had low, or no, vitamin C concentration in their system during autopsy
• 27 of the 31 (87%) deaths had low, or no, vitamin E concentration in their system during autopsy
• 26 of 31 (84%) had low, or no, flax seed oil in their system during autopsy

 Here are, in my opinion, the truly tangible risk factors:

• 23 of 31 (74%) athletes who perished were categorized by surviving family members and friends as “not strong” swimmers
• 26 of 31 (84%) athletes who perished did NOT participate in a pre-race warm-up swim
• 22 of 31 (71%) athletes who perished drank less than 1L of fluids prior to the swim
• 22 of 31 (71%) athletes who perished did so in an OWS, not a pool
• 18 of 31 (58%) athletes who perished did so wearing a wetsuit
• 21 of 31 (68%) athletes who perished did so on a SHORT course triathlon, that is, events less than 70.3 and 140.6
• 19 of 31 (61%) athletes who perished trained in lower heat index environments vs. hotter climates

My interpretation of the statistical data is as follows:

• Women aged 40-60 are most susceptible to death from SIPE while competing in triathlon
• 90% of athletes who perished were in good health, as evidenced by normal blood pressure and non-diabetic characteristics
• Events that utilize an OWS and allow wetsuits are more likely to have fatalities
• Athletes who take the opportunity to do a warm-up swim before the gun are less likely to perish
• Athletes who are properly hydrated before the gun are less likely to perish
• Athletes who have properly supplemented their nutrition are less likely to perish
• Training in hotter climates reduces the risk of death in competition
• Athletes participating in short-course events are more likely to perish given the above risk factors

After reviewing this study, along with additional research available in various medical journals, we can conclude that the vast majority of deaths in triathlon occur by individuals who are ill-prepared for the race they are competing in. Whether it is a hydration, nutrition or acclimation (water, wetsuit, venue, etc.) issue, athletes are more likely to perish if they forego the proper training for the event they are competing in. Reading that statement over again, it seems common sense. The most interesting data point to me is the fact that 70% of fatalities occurred in short-course events. I have to presume this is due to the fact that athletes who compete in long-course events are better prepared, perhaps out of fear, for the event they are competing in. It would be interesting to see a data point on how many events those who perished competed in prior to their death. Were they seasoned athletes or more casual about their racing and/or training?

I did this research because the article evoked a fear in me and I wanted some support for the theory. We will all eventually be in these age-groups! I love this sport and NEVER want to hear of, or know of, anyone who passes while in competition. I pray to God that it never happens to me or anyone I know. That being said, I think we need more definitive data than the blanket statement that the Bloomberg article made. I hope this sheds some light on what is becoming quite a controversial topic in our sport.

And remember, sometimes finishing the race = winning the race....Know your limitations before the gun and race your race accordingly.

Relaxed, recharged and at peace

"No man is an island."
True statement. But after leaving St. John after a seven day hiatus from my existence in Houston, I am envious of the serenity and solitude that an island possesses. I made a commitment to rest, yes rest, a foreign concept to me, for the past thirty days following ironman which culminated with a trip to the virgin islands last week. Serene was the view from the beaches that we visited, and solitary was my life away from emails, conference calls and board meetings. Much overdue. Check out the view from the balcony of the villa we stayed in (apologies for the fedora, when in Rome...):

Although this was in theory a vacation, I still made a point to do something active each day. I was able to fit in some open water swimming, snorkeling without fins and even went for a jog. The jog was a disaster and my quads were destroyed for the rest of the week. Here's why:

Although the sea is accessible, we are not at sea level. Much to the contrary, the roads such as the above, disappear by cornering and falling straight down into a 200-300' descent. Not terrible on the way down, extremely difficult on the way back home. I got in approximately 2.2 miles which took an hour to achieve. In Houston, I can run 2.2 miles in under 15 minutes without elevating my heart rate. The views on the run were rewarding and the solitude was good therapy, and I felt a recharging of my body when I was finished. Damn those hills....

In my past life, vacation was something we did because I felt like it had to be done. I would go away for a few days, be stressed out the entire time and then come home more exhausted than I left. Not on this trip. I have put my body through so much turmoil (albeit enjoyable and rewarding) and my mind has been so busy at work that the island lifestyle was much appreciated. For the first time in my life, I felt what it was like to relax, to recharge and to find peace. I returned to Houston with energy and motivation to take on the next challenge. I cannot express how important it is to take a step back, relax and reassess.

Many thanks to my mother and father-in-law for setting up the trip and to Emily for making sure that I was on board to go. I have never seen such great snorkeling, eaten such great food and enjoyed the beach so much as I did on this trip....