Unfolding

The past 18 months have been quite a ride. In summer 2008 I was racing my bike like a fiend. Loving the sport, the training, the competition, the possibilities. Then, I overtrained, crashed hard, and apparently dug myself into a hole. The end of the 2008 season was disappointing, mind bending, and hard. Priorities changed along with my perspective, but I continued to want to train, compete, succeed. Winter of 2008/2009 brought a strange and undefined health problem that took me to many doctors without a solution. In retrospect, I think i was overtrained, exhausted, and beaten down. My body needed to rest and recover and when I refused to listen, I got slapped around a little. Unable to train, unable to breathe. It was rough. But, February 2009 came and I started to ride, to train, hoping to get fit enough to race again at the level of the year before. The training was hard, the racing disappointing. Finally, I had clawed my way back into shape enough to feel like I could be a factor in races, and then BAM - Taken out at 30mph in a crit in Tulsa in May 2009. Shattered collarbone, broken ribs. Surgery required. 2 plates and 16 screws later, I had no more mojo to get back on my bike for the rest of the season. I couldn't bring myself to fight back into shape on what little base I'd accumulated during the spring. So, I rested, reevaluated. Adjusted priorities and goals.

It was then that I started dreaming of running again. I had stopped running in 2005 after years of injuries had repeatedly sidelined me from training. I was never a fast runner. But i loved it. The endorphins, the trails, the solitude, the views, the air. I had been so sad to give it up when I tossed the running shoes for the bike in 2005, but it seemed the only choice at the time. In Fall of 2009 I started to think, if I took it slow, kept up core strength, did cross training - maybe I could run without pain and injury. Maybe I could compete in a trail run. Maybe I could even do a triathlon again. So, i bought some running shoes, bought a book on chi running, and started to run.

I didn't get very far. In June of 2009, on a few rides after my injury, I started to have what I thought was a groin pull. It hurt getting on and off my bike and sometimes while riding. I had no trouble on a backpacking trip in September, but by October, it was hurting pretty badly. My little runs had become impossible - sore and achy from the waist down, but particularly my hips. The hip flexor tendonitis of 2002/2003 came back with just a few minutes of jogging.

Then I went to my surgeon for a follow up on my clavicle surgery in October 2009 and asked her if she knew any good hip doctors - I thought I needed some P.T. and once again, that I was just destined not to run. She asked some questions and took some xrays and told me that I had "FAI" - short for femoral acetabular impingement. That I could try physical therapy, could try a steroid injection, but if those didn't work, I'd need surgery.

So, here I am, March 2010. PT didn't solve the problem. I've decided to have surgery to fix dem hips. Right now, I'm planning on surgery in early April. Surgery on the second hip would be a few months later.

I'm not expecting surgery or recovery to be easy. Knowing myself, it is going to be incredibly hard to be laid up on crutches and inactive for months at a time. But, I am hopeful that afterwards I'll get back not only to biking pain free, but that I may be able to run again. I have set a goal in my mind that I'll do a triathlon in 2011. Maybe sooner. We shall see.

This is my story.