My biggest challenge Yet

So far this year has been full of so many surprises, unexpected and incredibly low lows and brilliant highs. It really has been impossible to predict what will happen next. I started the year building my body for a string of running road races in the spring time. After I seemed to find something in the fall of 2015 training and racing consistently with the cross country team at McMaster and at the same time building towards the Houston Marathon in January, it was all for nothing as my hip, low back, and tibia was in shambles after a race at Queens in late October. In November, I was back to putting in big mileage training for the upcoming Houston Marathon capped off with some runs in the high 30s (38.5 km was the longest), some big long workouts and tempo runs, but by December 6 I had to call it quits after the pain (stress fracture) in my tibia was too much to run on. Again I took a few weeks off and by December 21st I was back running - like an idiot I ran 100km in my first week back, and 120 km the next week. Problem was really that I was off school those two weeks so had a lot of time on my hands. Anyways, throughout the fall I continued cycling and doing indoor trainer workouts, and then when I was injured in early December my bike volume really shot up. After doing alot of swimming in the summer of 2015 when cross country season started in September I had stopped, and didn't get back in the water until January where I would only swim 2x/week on the weekends. In January, although Houston was off the schedule, I was building nicely once again, this time I was following along with the Jack Daniels Running Formula for some direction. Although I didn't know it at the time, my self-coached program that I developed over the years was actually very similar to his that he describes in his books, we just used different terms. For instance he would describe workouts as I (interval) pace where I used to call them 5km pace, or T pace I would call half-marathon pace, or M pace I would call uptempo. Anyways so I started strictly following his program with his terminology and January was a fantastic month of training. I ran a very consistent mileage at around 135, 136, 137, 139 kilometers, was biking 5 days per week, and swimming like I previously mentioned on the weekend. On the weekends I would do a double run on the Saturday where I would swim then run 10 miles back home from the pool, and then jump straight into the car to run another 10 or 11 miles on the AlterG treadmill at about 83% of my body weight to reduce the impact. After those 4 weeks I picked up a knee injury that forced me to take a week off running, and again my bike mileage amped up. After a week I was back and running strong, stronger than ever actually and was destroying my workouts. I continued to bike regularly now following the trainerRoad plan I've discussed in previous posts, and swim on weekends but the thing is is that at this time I was still really only biking and swimming as a mode of cross training - A way of building my cardiovascular fitness without the impact of running. I still 100% identified myself as a runner and nothing else. I had a great race at the Achilles 5km where I ran 15:27 in crazy windy conditions, and then a great race at the Race Roster 8km with a 7th overall finish and 25:55 on a very hilly course with frigid cold and windy conditions. I figured it was equivalent to about a 24 high or low 25 which would by a breakthrough run. After the race though on my long run the next day half way through I felt something very strange in my left knee, and my regular blog readers will know that it went downhill in a hurry from hear. I had described the pain like a barb wire wrapping super tight around my entire knee and the back of my leg. I couldn't run period. Biking did not hurt it though, and now my swimming went from 2x/week to 7x/week. I was now training for a cycling time trial and then would be doing some Aquabike (Swim/Bike) races after that. I was unable to run for pretty much 2 months straight, and then built it back very slowly as I competed quite regularly and was winning Aquabike events all over Ontario. I had some incredible performances in Milton, Guelph where I won on back to back days in the Olympic and then the Sprint event the next day, and then a huge win in Welland over the Long Course distance. After my race in Milton, I contacted a swim coach Sheryl Ross who really has helped me more than words can describe. She completely turned me swimming around from where early in the year I would never have even imagined in my wildest dreams that I would be able to swim as fast as I am now. I mean just last week we did a set of 100s leaving on 1:20 coming in at 1:15. Early in the year I couldn't swim a 1:20 let alone a single 1:25 period. Early in the year if I was swimming 1:30s it was a good day. Under her direction my swimming continued to improve, and my biking was incredibly strong. July I had a massive training month added 2 more wins at Niagara, and in Kingston. Slowly but surely my mindset was starting to change. I was started to think more and more about going after triathlon full-time, instead of merely just doing these events/disciplines in times where I'm injured from running. In August my running was still very slowly coming back. I was up to about 80-100km per week, but the knee injury from April was still lingering and my biggest issue seemed to be overwhelming stifftness in my legs at the beginning of runs. In Orillia, where I would run off the bike for the first time of the season, the stiffness was almost overwhelming enough for me to pull out of the race. I got off the bike and what I had feared happened in that when my legs hit the ground I felt like it took every ounce of my strength to pick them up and keep on running. I told my Dad I'm done only a couple hundred meters in because I literally felt like the tin man. But I kept going and finished with the fastest run split of the day by two minutes, and only finished third and not in second because of horrible transitions. The stiffness/pain plagued my running throughout August, and then the week before my next race at Guelph my other knee started acting up. I had been needing to take boat loads of Advil to get through runs and I think early in the week before the race my stomach had enough. I couldn't stop throwing up, got a fever, and ended up needing to go to the hospital. After a late night, and a rough couple of days afterwards, I went to Guelph on the weekend with the intention of switching in the swim/bike, but I decided to do the full Triathlon, and really had what I consider the best win of my career given the circumstances going into and throughout the race. I then went to the Provincial Championships in Welland, and won the Aquabike event with a great performance, and then my focus was entirely on Miami. I did a 10k in Burlington the second week of October and won easily with a decent run, and then this past weekend did the Niagara Falls Half Marathon where I placed 9th. I was not trying to go to the well in this race, and ran pretty conservatively using it more as a big training workout for the Half-Ironman National Championship race in Miami November 13. After the race, my calves and legs in general were absolutely shredded due to a poor choice in footwear on my part (I picked one of the Skechers models that is more geared to 5km/10km unless your Meb Keflezighi when I should've used the other Skechers racing flats that I'm more used to). The last couple days have been a little rough for running, having to battle unbelievable stiffness in my legs (stiffness probably isn't the right word, more full on pain), but I'm keeping going. I have been running on a stress fracture in my right tibia for the last month and a half, but at this point nothing will stop me from competing in Miami. In fact, based on my performance in Miami I may apply for my Professional Card to compete as a Professional Triathlete next year. I really would never have thought early in the year, that I would even be considering this, crazy how circumstances change. Miami will be the longest race I've ever competed in, and probably the toughest, but still despite all the challenges my body has thrown at me this season I am so excited to push myself like I never have before. This year has been a struggle I'm not going to lie, and yes there have been many many times throughout the season where I've balled my eyes out and said I'm done, I can't take constantly being in pain when I'm trying to do what I love most, and yet even with all that I will go to Miami and give it my all not to prove anything to anyone, but instead because persevering through countless challenges is what makes me who I am, and there is nothing that give more pleasure then pushing my body well outside of its comfort zone and reaching new heights.