I haven’t been able to stay healthy for more than a year or two since 2014. Surgery for this, PT for that, etc. It has been really frustrating as I’ve only been able to race twice since 2014, both times in 2016.
Last year I developed a small tear in my hamstring that put my on the sidelines for a few months. PT worked well and I’ve felt great ever since and have been able to train at a decent level for most of this year. Deciding on whether to do Florida 70.3 in December or Tallahassee Marathon next February. I was leaning towards the marathon as my kid is about to be a senior at FSU so it would be fun to do the race while he’s still there.
Everything was going smoothly until last Wednesday. I was walking in my kitchen and it felt like a tendon or ligament in my left ankle snapped. It stopped me dead in my tracks and almost brought me to my knees. Hurt like hell for a second and went away. I just thought that was weird. Then it happened about 50x over the next 24 hours. A feeling like a tendon was snapping in and out of place. One of my brothers is a PT so I called him and told him what was happening. He said it was likely peroneal tendon subluxation and try to get to an ortho as soon as I can because it’s never going to stop without treatment.
Saw a PA-C at my ortho clinic on Thursday. She examined me and agreed with my brother. She set an MRI for last Friday and an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon today to go over the MRI.
Doc started by saying there was no tear to my peroneal tendon but to not get too excited about that news because the subluxation can’t be fixed by PT. Surgery is my only option if I want the problem to go away. Surgery scheduled for July 8th.
I cannot catch a break. Hence my (mostly) hyperbolic comment that I fucking give up. My brain still wants to do endurance events but my body just says otherwise. 56 years of playing sports, tris, running, etc. has taken its toll.
My thought here is that maybe some of these underlying issues are connected and you’ve finally gotten them fixed.
Swimming, cycling, and strength training seems like the path for the next 6 months though? No idea whatsoever in your specific case as it can be a bunch of reasons mingled with bad luck, but singling out the easy one I would look at diet too on either extreme (overweight causing issues or under nourished/ too much in a deficit)?
Other thought is, obviously this isn’t magic sauce, but I swear when I take collagen peptides 3x a week, I have less tendonitis kinda stuff.
I can definitely see a lot of upper body strength conditioning over the next few months. Plus swimming when I’m allowed in water. Followed by cycling when that’s greenlit. I might take a break from running for a while.
As luck would have it I joined a golf country club the week before with a start date of July 1st. Initiation fee already paid but I emailed the membership person yesterday to see if my start date could be pushed to November.
I totally agree. Amazon is a cesspool of China crap that you can’t trust anything. I alternate between two that I get at Costco: Vital Protein and then Orgain prebiotic + peptides.
I do one for a week and then switch to the other. I have no specific reason for switching other than I think just doing/using the same thing over and over probably isn’t the best for you.
I feel your pain. Had to skip my IM race this year then got back into a rhythm only to get pain and tendinitis in my foot, then messed up a nerve in my left knee, then had to travel for work, then got sick. I finally got motivated this year and seems everything is against me. I told the wife I’m about done with Triathlon because every time i get a couple days of good training, something stops me for a week. I’m having a hard time justifying the sacrifices for the setbacks.
If it makes you feel any better, I haven’t been healthy in 4 years. Injured in 2022, skipped Kona. Hip surgery in 2023. Knee surgery in 2025. Haven’t ran in over a year and have probably ran less than 150 miles in 4 years. Dr should hopefully clear me to run in August but there’s no guarantee I will be the same after my knee surgery. I like the idea of getting fit again but other priorities and interests have taken over. Work has been absolutely chaos and finding the time and mental capacity to train again is a challenge. Unsure if I will race again.
Welcome to your retirement years and the new paradigm of the old man athlete. In a sense you are lucky that you were just an AG’er your entire career, those of us that made it a living, start this downslide much earlier than you do. First adjustments have to be mental, but almost never are. We continue to measure our current selves with the former ones, and that’s what gets us into trouble. After some bouts with the things you have, and a host of other ailments, most eventually get that a major change is in order. If not, well those are the folks that just give up and take up golf or pickle ball.
You should count yourself lucky that you do not have any heart issues(yet), and you can be fixed and patched up. But if you want to keep racing, you have to eliminate much of what you want to do, and just figure out what you can do. My big weeks of running are 10+ miles, and done in 3 runs. And only for a portion of the year too, but knock on wood, I remain injury free. Of course I won’t be doing any marathons, halfs, or even 10k’s really, but 5k’s are my go to distance now and much easier to do speed work for..
Get off the pavement, get some cushy shoes, and don’t run back to back days. Listen to niggles, then act on that information. Not like the old days of running through shit, penalties are severe and prompt by ignoring warning signs. Take up a single sport for awhile, maybe forever if you have to. And just remember that the new paradigm shift you just made to suit the old/new you, will change again and again, accelerating exponentially every year after 65..
Make it fun, keep it fun, and likely you can still get results on Raceday. But the real winning is the everyday ability to just train and be healthy…
this is your issue that has not worked for 10 years,
too big goals.
you should be deciding on doing something that is sustainable and not something that takes 4 hours or more . you need to adapt volume AND intensity to what your body can handle. not something you have not been able to do for 10 years . for instance reduce your running by 50 % but walk more and once you have done that for 6 month or better 1 year than increase slowly (it could be walk with a back pack with 15 k of weights ) and when you have adapted to this then run a bit more but increase very slowly
same with bike and swim dont do what you think need to do,
do but what your body can actually handle to leave this constant train and injured cycle.
Overall point taken. Monty’s too. But this wasn’t a case of too much too soon and going beyond my limits.
Trust me. I was increasing distance very slowly. My longest run for the last year has only been four miles. It’s not like I went from no running to trying to run 18 miles. For the last six months every run was in the one to four mile range. In fact, I was following a beginner sprint triathlon training plan. I was taking baby steps. I wasn’t going to start an actual training plan for the marathon until October after I built a solid base again. I had not yet signed up for the race.
This is certainly an accumulated wear and tear type injury but the exercise that finally tweaked it was a strength training exercise (resisted lunges) and not running.
good so the running is working then lol
and this is the difficult thing while strenght training is important a lot of people also get injured from it and it needs to be done very carefully.
anyway I wish you good luck and dont give up!
It was resisted lateral cable lunges on my Tonal. You can see how this could stress the outside of one’s ankle. Not a movement or workout I normally do. It was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Resistance wasn’t much (20 lbs) but it was the awkward movement.
In fairness, i have done this workout numerous times. Just not in the usual routine. It was part of a leg day workout program. I also had zero indication that my ankle was in any kind of trouble. It wasn’t bothering me at all and the last time I ever had any problem with an ankle was probably an ankle sprain in high school 40 years ago.
My problem is the SPR in this diagram. It’s so loose that it no longer holds my peroneal tendon in place.
I always had my motivation linked to a race calendar. After turning 50, I ditched that and have found motivation in other dimensions: Being strong (gym), healthy (intake), focus on longevity and well-being - rather than just being fast (which I always loved). Took a while to get used to it, but training pretty much the same hours now (2 years later), much more free-running and enjoying cycling in free-zones (until somebody tries to drop me on a climb, of course). It´s actually OK to get older.
Just embrace it. Next up is impotence I suppose and then a walker …
