Lots of red boxes everywhere in my Training Peaks over the last 3 week. Nothing coming out of me in the way of blogs. It came out of no where. So I thought. A new back pain that started when I got off the bike and could barely stand up. By the time I cooled down I could barely move.
Over the last few months my training has been punctuated by non stop niggling injuries and it all got too much. This latest one floored me. Sitting on the chair talking to my poor physio I was ready to throw it in and walk away and take up walking the dogs for sport. I was actually in tears. Honestly I am such a drama queen sometimes I am not sure how most people put up with me. The words I would use is I actually think I am hard to like.
So as you may have noticed the blog stopped. But also training basically stopped, rehab stopped and I fell in to a hole. It felt like that familiar old voice in my head telling me it’s ok to just lay down and say fuck it. I was sliding down the slippery slope of self loathing and depression again. I hadn’t felt this way in a few years and it scared me. Previously the way I have gotten through this has been to get out and exercise and release some positive endorphins. At that stage just walking up our flight of stairs was causing shooting pain up and down my back and exercise was the furthest thing from what would help me.
So after physio I took another look at what was happening. Basically my pelvis had twisted it self out of place. and it was causing my lower back to tilt to one side causing one side of my lower back muscles to pull tighter than the other side. Drawing a time line would be near impossible because this had been going on for decades. My left side is getting dominated by my hamstrings which is pulling the left hip backwards and my right side which is generally the weaker side is recruiting more quadriceps than anything else causing the hip to rotate forward and exacerbate the problem even further.
So since September when I first strained my hamstring and then straining my lower back while rehabbing my hamstring and then doing it again but in a different manner in December the pattern is clear as glass.
This problem is a chronic body position issue and a muscle recruitment issue. Last years efforts caught up to me and have finally come back to bite me in the arse.
So now I am back in to training. Albeit different to what I originally planned I am going pretty well. I have modified my bike fit as well as this in my belief is the biggest contributing factor to the injuries.
So I have taken a few step to try bring me back to square. I have added some shims under my right cleat. It looks ugly under the cleat, but I seam to be starting to settle on the seat slightly better. With my old set up my right hip rotates forward functionally creating a short leg. So every time I put power through the right leg the hip dives down and twists in the saddle. Hence the messy situation I had downstairs after Cairns Ironman last year. What shimming the right shoe does is effectively lengthens the leg which stops the pelvis from twisting as much. Because of that the left leg when beginning its power stroke isn’t having to recruit hamstring as much to try pull the pelvis back in to alignment. On the right pedal I have actually put an extender on it taking the foot out wider than I could do just by adjusting the cleats. What this does is gives my leg a bit more room when bringing the knee up in the Time trial position, this also allows the pelvis to stay straighter and not get pulled around as much during the entire pedal stroke.
The week just gone was a great one for volume. I did a bit over 21 hours of total training. Yep. Straight from Messed up back doing not much at all to 21 hours of training. Honestly as I got my hips square all pain subsided in my back and has stayed away. Not it is a matter of keeping my his square. It could have been significantly more bar for the Noosa pool closing for 2 days due to someone testing positive to COVID I had planned 2 more swims and another treadmill run. The weather also played a part as it fairly poured rain for 3 days straight. It caused some major flooding around the sunshine Coast 1 area I found was a bridge that was under water. It was a bit of a shame because the bridge was 65 km in to my ride at the bottom of a massive hill with no way around it. But in a real turn around in my mindset (10 days after my breakdown) I saw it as an opportunity to get more hill work in and went back up the hill singing. I ended up with a 5:30:00 ride with nearly 2000 meters of climbing in it. I was pretty toast when I got home but very happy with the ride overall.
Last week was meant to be a test week but after the back injury the week before, mentally I wasn’t up for max efforts on the bike, but especially on the run. So I will continue on and use the previous figures until Tweed Enduro and test after on the run. I think the bike itself will be a good test so I will give the run a go after Tweed and also do a swim TT in the pool.
This week see’s the start of a 6 week threshold block which will take me all the way to Tweed. So the shorter 5 minute efforts on Tuesdays will now be 8 minute efforts at a slightly lower power. On Fridays The 8 minute efforts done on either the trainer or a hill will no be replaced by 15 - 20 minute efforts again at a lower power level. These will either be done on the trainer or if I can get my self organised up a 20 minute climb called Montville. I am really keen to get out and do the efforts on this hill. To do them properly though I will likely have to drive out to the hill as it is nearly a 2 hour ride to get there and if I am doing 4 x 20 minute efforts I would be so cooked by the time I got home the next 3 days training would be compromised.
I am hoping to keep the consistency going this week my body seems to be on the right track with rehab and I am cautiously optimistic that I am at least on the right track with my rehab and hope that this will go some way towards helping me long term .
Stay healthy and talk next week.
Mick