Its been a rough month, but I’m now in the thick of my prep for Ultraman Hawaii coming up this Thanksgiving weekend.
After my crash, I was out almost 2 weeks healing up. And I’ve only swum twice in the last month due to the accident, in part a result of some neck and shoulder issues. I’m going to see the chiropractor this week and hoping to get some alignment work done that will allow me to get back in the water and start focusing on that Day 1 10K swim.
Its odd, as my greatest strength (swimming) is now a weakness — this was not the plan. I will need some serious focus in the water if I hope to achieve my goal of winning the Ultraman swim this year and this setback was not part of the plan. I am trying not to panic and take it day by day. The good news is that with my swimming background I will be able to get back on track far more quickly than most, but I will have to rejigger my training plan to incorporate much more swimming over the next 90 days, as well as some significant strength work to regain much of the strength and muscle mass I lost while benched.
The good news is that my cycling (last year’s big limiter for me) is progressing nicely and I am light years ahead of where I was last year on the bike. Given that Ultraman is relatively bike-centric, this is good news and I am feeling great about both my power and endurance on the steed. Headed into lactate testing this week, so I will know much more about where things stand in a couple days.
As for the running, this is basically on track. My mileage is not too high, as I am focusing on developing most of my endurance on the bike and don’t want to ramp up the miles too early and risk injury. I will be fine on the run and on track for significant gains as long as I stay healthy.
Ultraman is on the brain and I have returned from Michigan more focused and ready to ramp it all into high gear — very excited. Some BIG training weeks await as the summer continues to unfold. As my boy and fellow UM competitor Jason Lester says, NEVER STOP!
