Off Season

So most of you may know what happened to my 2013 season, but then again some of you may not know what happened.For those that have no idea what happened I am going to lay it out for you right now. June 8th I had a race out in Interlochen, Michigan where I came out of the water with a 23:30 and 1st place came out in 18:50's and 2nd place came out in 19:50's, so as you can see I had some heavy work to put in already.  I made a significant amount of time on the bike catching up to them both by under a minute. The strongest part of my triathlon was here and i was ready to blow the doors down. It was a 10k out and back run which caused some major damage. I moved to 2nd place by the 2 mile mark and was nipping at the heels of 1st place and there happened to be a MASSIVE hill that was .5 miles long and then the turn around spot on the top of the hill and a nice coast down. I knew if I hammered up this hill I would have the win easily especially with my stride I have going down hill. Unfortunately with in a .1 of a mile up the hill I encountered a straining in my hamstring and it was shortening my stride up dramatically, but I kept striding and striding to get up pass this hill and I was still making up some ground, but then it happened. I felt an instant sharp pain in my hamstring and it brought me to a stop and forced me to stretch. I was only half way up the hill and I saw 1st place still trucking up the hill and I noticed 3rd was catching up now. I continued on running with a limp in my stride. I reached the top and I was now 5 seconds ahead of 3rd and well over a minute behind 1st. I finished the race in 2nd place overall and opened my lead on 3rd, but I was not happy one bit. I tore my hamstring and within 3 hours of the race it was bruised and swollen. had to put my season on hold for a month or so. I went out after a month for a run and then felt a slight tension and decided to take another month off. Now I am into running again 3-6 miles a day at a moderate pace of 6:10-6:30's and I am struggling for cardio, but still putting the work in.

I had a sit down with my good friend Joe Axisa and he was asking what I want to do with my triathlon career and I told him that me returning may not happen, because I can not figure out what is wrong with my body. He re-ensured me that I need to get back into the sport and I should focus on 70.3's (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and 13.1 mile run), because my first year was superior to most other's first years. Now my main concern is getting back to the 70.3 World Championship and finishing what I started! We also came to a conclusion that I need to work solo and train myself and have a coach try and beat the living shit out of me. So now I am a solo act and working with what my body will give me and I am learning about nutrition which is the 4th discipline in my sport. Stay tuned for some Fall/Winter updates on my training status.. I am looking into Haines Florida for a 70.3 season opener on April 13th..