Update: Bad News and More Bad News
I received this custom Tri Kit in the mail a couple of days ago. I LOVE IT! and can't wait to race in it, but yesterday I learned that I will not be racing Ironman Lake Placid. Many of you may have noticed that I did not race Raleigh 70.3 last weekend. I won't be racing Eagleman 70.3 this upcoming weekend either. My season is up in flames and I'm working on accepting the facts of my situation and choosing the best path forward.
As any of you who have listened to the podcast series about my journey to "go pro" on Endurance Planet will know, it started with what I thought was inflammation in my hip, but I've discovered that it's much more than that. The "hip" injury is actually a stress reaction in my right femoral head where it meets the femoral neck, according to an MRI I had done a couple of weeks ago. The good news is that it's not a stress fracture, but only a stress reaction, because I was smart enough to stop running on it when the pain appeared. The bad news is that the stress reaction is in a bad place, a place of tension, where weight that I apply to that leg tends to put more strain on the affected area which makes it susceptible to reinjury. In fact, if I continue to aggravate the area, I could actually kill the bone. I was put on crutches and immediately knew I would not be racing Raleigh 70.3 or Eagleman 70.3. I won't be running anytime soon, can only do light cycling, and can swim but can't push off the wall. In my meeting with Dr. Sylvia Hesse, a fantastic orthopedic doctor in Manhattan, I mentioned that I've had issues with low testosterone due to overtraining. Hmmmm...are the two linked?? I hadn't thought to ask that question, but Dr. Hesse did. She had me do a bone scan and the results were terrifying. I have osteopenia in my hips and osteoporosis in my spine. To summarize...Overtraining led to low testosterone, which over prolonged periods can lead to low bone density, which led to the stress reaction I have today. I'm a mess.
Yesterday, at a follow-up meeting with Dr. Hesse, she assessed my progress and didn't like it. I still have a subtle dull ache in my hip area on the right side, indicating that I'm still injured. I had been on crutches for 2 1/2 weeks already, but was told that I will be on them for another 2 weeks. I also won't be able to race Ironman Lake Placid. The risk is too high that I will reinjure myself, or even cause another injury somewhere else due to my low bone density. My health is the priority so I will be focusing on restoring it for the rest of 2016, and though the racing season is up in flames, I may be able to take a page out of the phoenix's book and rise from the ashes next year.
I will continue to blog and speak about the health issues - I want you all to know of the problems that endurance training can cause so you can be careful in your own training approach. Stay tuned for my blog about low testosterone, why it happens, and what you can (naturally) do about it. I'll use my own story as a case study so that you might prevent or repair your own issues with low testosterone. It's more common than you think.
Until I can get back to health again, the Tri Kit will hang in my room waiting for me to return.
Be healthy, and train happy.
