"Painful, but not serious"

This was the quote from my chiro, Dr Peter McGlynn on Monday when I 1/2 walked, 1/2 staggered into his clinic on Monday.

I write this, as I am never one to make excuses...either I was good enough or I was not!!

Last weekend after punching out a solid 36k run on Saturday with Trav, Arch & Benny followed by an open water swim and an easy hour on the bike in the afternoon I was all pumped looking towards Busso in two weeks (at that time). Headed off to the movies in the afternoon and conceded to bed early with the plan of a 6 hour ride on the Sunday with the boys. (Last one in training for the year).

Feeling like I needed a sleep in, and having nothing planned for the day, I decided that I would get my ride done during the late morning/mid afternoon. This is where things went wrong....I did a quick sweep of the lounge floor and moved a few chairs. On returning the chairs, which I did incorrectly, I slumped to the floor in extreme agony after hurting my lower back.

Lucky I had great support there to help me get over to the couch to try and lay down. Thanks Carla :-). Our conversation soon turned to the Ironman with both having experienced a few ironman's between us (10) our focus was not about the training that I have done (every boxed ticked until that point) it was more about getting treatment to get me there in the best shape.

My first phone call was to Andrew (Coach) who reassured me that the training had been done. From there he rang his good mate/chiro Dr Peter McGlynn to org to get me there first thing Monday. Pain killers were my food of choice Sunday to try and get the body to relax and the pain to settle.

That night I headed to bed and looked in the mirror only to realise that my head was directly over my right side of the body as my back had spasmed to that point. I headed in to see Dr Peter who diagnosed me with a L5 Vertebrae injury which resulted in reaction to my S1 nerve system, which decides if you have power in your legs or not.....something that you need in a Triathlon. His quote (which did ease my mind) was "It is painful, but not serious." Dr Peter has been fantastic in explaining how it happened and what I need to do to recover from it and has given me full confidence that with the right treatment, both by him and myself it will stay in place moving forward.

After 2 Chiro treatments and 2 massages this week, my back is close to 100%. I have been well looked after and know that I am going to hit Busso as originally planned. I have a couple of small testers over the weekend and have already completed a couple.

My week has been an easy one and this has forced an early taper, albeit by a few days. But with plenty of swimming, a small ride and run to date, things are back on plan.

For once I have been smart about recovery and listening to what I should be doing to aid this....maybe I am getting wiser!?!?!

The weekend involves a med-long ride with a small run, followed by a sprint distance race on Sunday. After lengthy discussions with Dr Peter and Coach Andrew, I know that this is the best thing for me, both for confidence and for race strategy.

For Now...

X-Man

PS.....The definition of stupidity??

Doing the same thing over and expecting different results.

I can relate this to triathletes who stick to the same coach and the same program and expect a different result.

Woof Woof