Well it’s been a long, long time so I will try to keep it succinct.
Back in late March, when I had the luxury of writing about sneakers and strength training, I was doing very well with my training indeed!
I had gotten to marathon distance on the trails and was on a perfect schedule.
But like every April before this one, this April became my nemesis.
To recap, in April of 2008, I was put out of action for 4 weeks with rip-roaring bilateral Achilles and bilabials anterior tendonitis.
In other words both the front and back of my lower legs were -unctional.
Bad biomechanics!
I got past that just in time to run and finish 2008’s Canadian Death Race as you see on the pictures here on the site of me crossing the line just over 24 hours after the start.
Last April I got either Pertussis or swine flu, no one is sure but I had respiratory problems for months past the race. Race day 2009 was a disaster, which I won’t recap but suffice it to say I had no business being there and had to quit at 30 miles.
OK, now in 2010 I’m doing great, right!?
Well I instructed at Greta Blackburn’s Fitcamp in Cancun in late April.
Greta, for those of you who don’t know, is the originator of the Fitness Boot Camp concept and has been doing them for 25+ years — long before most of the current crop of instructors were even out of grade school!
This one was special and you can read about it at Fitcamp.com but the theme was anti-aging and fitness and we had top people there including yours truly, Dr Joe Mercola, Phil Campbell the godfather of modern sprint and interval training, Bill Andrews discoverer of the human telomerase (longevity gene) and Marjorie Brook AIS guru to name just some of the presenters.
Greta is also one of my co-authors of our upcoming book, “The Immortality Edge” due out in January 2011, published by Wiley and Sons.
Anyway, I did what I always do, led a pack of fit younger people on some very cool but tough “fun runs”. Only 3 miles but chock full of sprints, band work, body weight exercises; these are monster workouts and everyone loves them including me!
But it had been a while since I had done this much speed work in such a short period of time.
Superimposed on top of my distance training it led to a devastating injury in the last 10 yards of the last sprint on the last day of the camp.
It felt like I actually slipped on something with my right foot and it seemed like the right leg went far out behind me.
The ensuing pop, pop, pop in both groins and below my belly button and the immediate seizing up of my movement told me immediately I had done some serious damage.
The words are “sports hernia” but it’s not a hernia at all. As a matter of fact, it has nothing to do with the inguinal canal or the gut like a real hernia does.
My MRI said it best: torn adductors from the right hip to the pubic bone, torn rectus abdominis off the symphysis pubis (the top of the pubic bone) and more of the same on the left side.
Grade 1 is the simple groin pull.
Grade 2, which I had, is fluid inflammation and partial tears: minimum 4 weeks to heal and often months.
Grade 3 is a complete tear and surgery is usually required.
I did see a surgeon but no one in my area was interested in even coming close to operating on this as much due to their own inexperience with the problems as the actual protocol for taking care of it.
I very quickly became aware of the absolute lack of information and consistency of what was available. Everyone had different opinions on how long it would take to get better and how to treat it. I can never pick anything simple!
So I rested, hit the Airdyne, stretched and strengthened.
Long story short, I did a 40 mile run in late June and had a great CDR prep camp last week.
So in spite of my nasty injury and some residual pain I am off to Grande Cache in 2 weeks to run my third Canadian Death Race.
Wish me luck!!
P.S. Greta will be hosting another monster fitness and longevity event in November at her home base in Malibu California and again in Cancun at the beautiful Ceiba del Mar on the Mayan Riviera. I plan on being at both of them so come see us and let us teach you how not to get hurt, how to live long and healthy and to be in top shape! Fitcamp.com