I quit. It seemed like a great deal at the time, signing up early for a half-Ironman distance triathlon this April for about $160. But there's a major problem with signing up for these races ahead of time, and that's that one must stay healthy and injury-free to participate in them. I've had good success so far in showing up to races ready and able, but this time the odds have caught up with me, and I'm forced to use two of the most powerful words in the English language. I quit.
In this case, I'm injured. Remarkably, I've avoided sickness all winter long, the first time I've managed that since I can't remember when, but I've made up for healthiness by being not just injured but doubly so. First, I have this ongoing hip problem that first surfaced way back in late 2008 when I picked up running after a two-year hiatus. It's taken a little over another two years for it to become a problem. Second, I have a pulled groin, which is a recent injury I recently suffered chasing skirts in a 400m interval during a speed workout about a month ago. Neither injury affects any activity except running. (My swimming and biking remain fine, insofar as I'm ever able to say that my swimming is fine.) Together, these injuries hint that my running core is weak and in desperate need of improvement.
They also suggest that I'm not a distance runner and should stick with the shorter, less grinding distances I find comfortable. I had been pushing for extra distance in my runs for several months, and I think the coincidental onset of these injuries is not just bad luck. Though I've run for many years of my life, starting during my mid-teens, I've mostly stuck with the about-three-miles run. It's a good distance. It comprised my favorite loop around the neighborhood I grew up in, it's the distance around the track at Memorial Park in Houston, and it's the distance of the run in most sprint triathlons.
The problem with the about-three-miles distance, though, is that it doesn't net you any respect. Sprint triathlons and 5K races aren't really real, just ask any amateur athlete; to impress, you must go for body-grinding and mind-numbing long distances like Ironman triathlons and full marathons, even though such distances come at the cost of slowing down a great deal. So that is what we amateur athletes do; we slow down and go for distance.
I got suckered into this trap. But no more. From now on I have it as a goal to stick with what I'm good at and enjoy most: fast speeds and short distances. Happily, this involves doing something else I'm good at: embracing contrariness.
2 comments:
I am with you here.
Bailed out of running years ago.
My current max. distance is 360ft. with at target time of 16.2 seconds.
Bummer about your injuries.
What muscles groups are used in running that are not used in biking?
Anonymous— I'm guessing the 120 yards has to do with the length of a soccer field? What about running from one corner to the farthest one, diagonal across the field? And where does the 16.2 seconds come in?
As for your question about muscle groups, ostensibly, running and biking use the same muscles, but any real-world experience transitioning from one to the other reveals that this is not so. Though the muscles involved during each activity are mostly the same, the muscles are stressed differently. My impression is that biking favors the quads over the hamstrings and involves smoother, more even motions, whereas running relies more on the muscles on the back of the body as well as all those little support muscles and tendons.
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