If It’s Not One Leg It’s the Other or How to Manage Injury in the Over 50 Triathlete

Possibly the most frustrating injury is one that arises from an activity other than triathlon training.  Say, for instance, that you have been careful with moderate increases in your training load.  You are getting enough sleep, taking rest days, and alternating activities to decrease the potential of overuse injury.

Then, responsibilities come up that are physically demanding.  Maybe you have to bend and twist, push and pull for 9 1/2  hours over the course of 2 days, “like” you are feeding a roaring, man-eating wood chipper.  Next thing you know, the back of your left leg feels somewhat over stretched and slightly weak.   There is no pain involved; it just feels a bit weird.  The next day it seems better, so you go ahead and go dancing that evening.  Nothing unusual and extremely fun!

After a good night’s sleep, the next afternoon, you do your routine on the spinning bike, which feels fine for the hour plus workout.  Unfortunately, by dinner time, your leg feels like using the stairs is Olympic.  Since your bedroom is downstairs in the basement, you decide to call it a day.

It’s a good thing you only have swimming planned for the next day and that goes well.  So, the day after that you try biking again, which has always been a good fall back for maintenance when the legs feel stressed.  Okay, maybe you went out and did some weeding for a couple of hours, but you were very careful with all up and down motions!  Alas, the leg relapses.

Now you are getting a little depressed because you have a triathlon in just under 4 weeks!  You’ve already been through the disappointment of training well, but getting badly injured right before an event.  That time you learned that running immediately after swimming (no biking in between) causes you to injure your calve muscles.  You’ve been deliberate about not doing that again.

So, you have to make some decisions.  You haven’t even tried running, but walking is okay, so you wonder if it is only the biking that is a problem. You experiment with a 1.9 mile run, which is quite enjoyable… until about 2 hours later, when you realize you need to sit for a while with your leg elevated (but still no pain).  You go from despondent to guardedly hopeful when this treatment seems to make a difference.  However, you have a more definite idea of your limits.

You need to have a have a discussion with yourself, a combination of pep talk and reality inventory.

• Even if you don’t heal in time for the triathlon, you have benefitted greatly from all the training.
• You can walk and attend to your daily chores; you are not bed ridden.
• People who are couch potatoes have their own set of injuries and complications.  Being inactive is not better.
• You can concentrate on swimming for the next 3-4 days and see how you feel. But no dancing Saturday night!
• The leg actually feels better if your day involves a fair amount of low pressure movement.  Grocery shopping today went fine.
• Your injury inducing activity is a result of labor required for the swimming pool you are getting for triathlon training.  Interesting irony.
• You may have to cut back on your ice cream consumption for a while….

We all have times when our bodies tell us to step back and take it easy.  It’s up to us to listen and not injure ourselves worse than we need to just because we are stubborn.  Can I get a witness?  (comment section below)