Training vs. Race Day

The below paragraph is from an article I read on www.xtri.com. I thought it was a good explanation of how sometimes as athletes we expect our body to do things on race day that we have not done in training. I find this very true for the Ironman distance...

The physics of you moving your body down the road or through the water, using your hands, your bike, or your feet is simply work. Work X applied to the mass of your body yields speed Y on the course. Your fitness is then simply an expression of your body's ability to perform work. Your body is adapted to perform Work X, yielding Speed Y, but there's only one problem...it's lazy. If you ask your body to do X, it will ever only be an X body. The purpose of training is simply to apply a load greater than X, forcing your body to adapt to this greater load. Over time, your body adapts and is able to perform Work > X, yielding Speed > Y.

You can find the complete article here.

Surgery Progress Report

On Wednesday it will be 4 weeks since surgery. Day by day my progress has been amazing and both Kevin from Rausch PT and Mike from SPI are very positive about my results. I have been seeing Kevin 2 times a week and seeing Mike 3-4 times a week. I was able to get into the pool this week and have been swimming for 30 minutes at a time, then doing some aqua therapy for another 30 minutes. All this combined with my nutritionist Stella has led to a quick recovery.

I started to get on my stationary road bike as well and I have to say I was like a little kid on his first bike. I spin for 30 minutes at a time and then do one 45 minute spin once a week. I am on the bike 3-4 times a week on top of my PT, SPI, and aqua therapy. I really have the positive attitude that I am going to come out of this surgery quickly and faster than average. With that being said I have not set my expectations too high to where I would be disappointed if this was not achieved.

I believe that one of the biggest reasons that I have been able to quickly recover is the fact that I made it a mission to get in the best shape of my life before I went under the knife. No, I wasn't in Ironman shape but I was still in great shape going into this. I took it seriously because when I decided to have the surgery, 4 different people told me this was the key to the recovery. Mac, Mike, Kevin, and my Surgeon all said that if I wanted to come out of this ahead of the game the works starts now. I can't agree or stress this enough to anyone who is having surgery.

Week by week I am progressing and making it a priority to get better and better. Next week I can start aqua jogging which will be the next huge step!

Thanks for reading, Go Chargers!

Meeting with Dr. Snibbe 10-22-09

Today I had my follow up with Dr. Snibbe out in Beverly Hills to recap my procedure and determine what my next step would be towards recovery. He showed me pictures of the procedure and explained every picture to me and what he did. Although it looked like a foreign language to me, he was able to make it clear to me what he had performed. My Mom must have been confused because I did have Labral Tear, she thought that he said I didn't the day of the surgery. He showed me the way he repaired the Labrum and then showed me all the bone that he shaved off. It was amazing to see the spur on my femoral head and how big it was, he said that was causing most of my pain. He said that my biggest concern would actually be my right hip because my left is going to feel so good that I might notice the slightest impingement on my right if I had one. But he only operates if it really is necessary of course...

So I got my stitches out and proceeded to learn that I could now start Physical Therapy, spin on a stationary bike with no resistance, work on range of motion in the pool, and work out my Core and Upper Body. I am stoked! I can't believe that after 1 week of hip surgery I am able to do this, really makes me completely confident that I had the right doctor do this surgery. I'll be taking a pill to stop the bone from growing back because its initial reaction is obviously to grow again after it was shaved. I will be on crutches for another week followed by 1 crutch a week after. Then I am free to walk!

I can aqua jog in 2 more weeks, swim freestyle in 3 more weeks, and will be progressively working on my range of motion. The bad news is that I can't run outside on hard surface for 3 months, yes months! But that puts me at the start of the year, 100% healthy. I will have fitness from aqua jogging and I will also be able to be riding and swimming along with core work up until then. I am not worried about it, if anything it gives me motivation during the winter where it is usually a hard time to find it!

I start Physical Therapy on Monday with Kevin Rausch and I will be seeing Mike over at SPI for some upper body/core work. Between those two guys and going to the pool working on my range of motion, I will for sure stay busy!