Thursday, January 19, 2012

Lawdy, I'm 4-0!

Well, yesterday was the big day - the day I began a new decade and the day I entered a new age group!  (Well technically, in the triathlon world, I entered that age group on January 1!)


My hubby made a birthday dinner, including this awesome quinoa! 

My birthday cupcakes...again, thank you to the Hubby.  I ate 1/2 of the one on the lower right.  Yum!

I thought I was going to take 40 by storm...first, with the Houston Marathon and next with the Texas 70.3.  So things are not quite going as planned. And yes, it sorta sucks. I am experiencing both sadness and anger over this stupid hip injury.  To me, age is just a number - I've never worried about getting older.  I am more fit than I was in my 20s (thanks to too much fun in college and post marriage weight gain), I am stronger both physically and mentally than I was at 30 and I have some big huge goals for my 40s.  But, injuries tend to...well...make me feel my age.  Especially when the Orthopedic gave me a prescription for Celebrex.  An ARTHRITIS medication (thank you to the Hubby for pointing that out).  Yeah, I tried the samples and they did nothing.  I threw away the Rx.

So the hip thing has to heal on it's own.  I can help it along by doing my exercises from Dr. Chiro and not doing anything too crazy (like running a marathon).  However, today is the day my focus is shifting.  The Houston Marathon is behind me now and Galveston is getting closer and closer.  In fact, there are only 73 days until the race!

Holy shiznit people, how did that happen????

ONLY 73 DAYS UNTIL RACE DAY!

I e-mailed Dr. Chiro late yesterday to get his opinion on the various activities he thinks I should/should not do.  Then, I e-mailed Coach to get her thoughts.  She is not worried.  That's fine, because I am worried enough for the both of us!

So here's the plan - I will try the elliptical.  If it irritates the hip, I will try aqua jogging.  This should hopefully only be needed for a few weeks, but let's be honest here - I don't have time to spare.  I need to get the cardio going again asap.  I am also going to try some swimming, but will use the pull buoy to avoid bothering the hip.  And then there's the bike - I attempted a 30 minute ride on Sunday.  The good news - it felt great to be on the bike again!  The bad news - it hurt my hip when I unclipped my right foot (which is the one I always unclip 1st) and it hurt a little when I first started peddling.  More good news - once I got going, the hip felt okay. This seemed like a good start - the hubby is going to switch out the peddles to my old ones, so I don't have to clip in/out for another week or two.  The goal here is to do enough to keep my fitness level and gradually build, but not enough to keep the hip from healing.  (fingers crossed)

I am not sure if I can pull this off...I know that 4 weeks ago, I was riding 1 1/2 hours at a time on the bike and was swimming 2,000 and running...well, running 18 miles.  But, for the past 3 weeks I have not done much more than my stretching and strengthening exercises for the hip.

Yesterday, I began my journey into my 40s.  Today, I begin my journey to that 70.3.

Oh holy hell, this is going to be interesting.

Have you had to use the elliptical as an alternative to running?  How about aqua jogging?

10 comments:

JunieB said...

wtf? 40? girl i thought 35!

yes to both. I have done the elliptical when i had knee issues back in ummm for the 2008 houston marathon i guess it was..i had to drop to the half but at least i could train with that until i could run again. then when i had the stress fracture i could aqua jog, but that took me to swimming and my first tri in the summer of 2009. it wasnt a lot, but it was something and it helped!

Unknown said...

You body will remember all of your training. Take it easy because you don't want to chance prolonging your injury. HAPPY B-DAY! www.dashingdiva.net

Lisa said...

Yes, I've done both. I did the aqua jogging when I had a tibia stress fracture that took forever to heal. It's boring but it does help & it made me tired. That might be better for the hip than the elliptical. For the record, an elliptical will not help a tibia stress fracture heal if you're on it going 90 mph with some tension on it. ;-)

I know how you feel & it will get better.

Happy Birthday!!!!

saroy said...

I'm a day late, but happy birthday Christy!

Tina @GottaRunNow said...

Happy birthday! 70.3 sounds like fun - in a crazy sort of way!

Duckie said...

Happy birthday! You'll get your fitness back quickly. I've never tried aqua jogging. I used the elliptical a little but as my recent injury was irritated by that too, I settle for swimming and biking... after a considerable amount of time off. TORTURE!! Still, my first run back felt a little awkward but honestly, I am still rebuilding slowly but running better than ever. Good luck!

That Pink Girl said...

Happy birthday!!!
73 days? Have mercy.

Laura said...

Happy birthday!! Best wishes on your journey to 70.3, I hope your body heals up quickly. I have done the elliptical but not aqua jogging, although I've heard that's one of the best imitators of running. Do you have access to the arc trainer? It's a more intense elliptical, I think it does a better job of using the running muscles. Keep us posted!

Donna said...

Just found your blog via Swim, Bike, Mom. I'm also in Houston. I had to do some elliptical training, in lieu of running, a few years ago and it went well. I was pretty worried because it was about 4 weeks before I did Galveston 70.3. I did it for about 3 weeks, and was able to maintain fitness.

Anne said...

You make 40 look good!

And I've done aqua jogging for a couple of months following a hip injury. It works! The elliptical did not. It's still putting strain on the hip, which is not what they mean by "rest." Provided the injury is muscular, aqua jogging and doing exercises to strengthen the glutes, hamstrings and quads will go a long way.