One thing that I am not very good at is telling my story in a timely manner. Whether it is going well or not. I started this blog in 2014 with that being the goal. Over the next few months I am going to put out more content. I do not know exactly what it will look like, but I want to get back to sharing my story on a more consistent basis.
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“We all suffer setbacks and injuries, but never give up on your dreams”
- Meb
After Boston I took a few weeks to rest and reset, then began training for a summer road racing season. Everything was going great. I was having the best post marathon training I had. In June I placed 2nd at the historic Lictchfield Road Race in one of my best season openers. I often have terrible season openers only to be ready to roll in a few weeks. This time it was not the case and I was excited for the rest of the season, especially because I had never run some of the more celebrated summer road races, like Bix and Falmouth. Unfortunately, events not entirely in my control forced me to change my summer schedule.
A few days before Peachtree I began to feel tightness in my hip, and it was progressively got worse as the race neared. Since I was so close to the race, I decided to just go all in for the race then deal with the pain after. During the race, I felt awful for the first three miles, most likely because my hip was not feeling great. Once we started climbing up the hills of the second half, I started to feel better and my confidence grew and I took a shot at the win hitting the front around 5 miles. In the end, heading back down 10th Street it was déjà vu for the third time. I had the lead at the turn only to be passed over the next 800m. Given how I felt for most of the race, I was happy with a third place finish, but I had to now deal with whatever was going on in my hip. I was able to get an MRI quickly and the results came back as a stress reaction (basically a pre-stress fracture) in my pelvic bone. Fortunately I was able to catch this injury early and it did not develop into a stress fracture, but it was still an unwarranted setback.
Since this happened a while ago, I am back running. Only after a month or so I began running on the Alter G and cross training with the Elliptigo (both of which are indispensable resources while injured). I have also started taking Calcium Orotate paired with Vitamin D. While there are some things that I could have done to prevent this injury, one being taking supplements like Vitamin D, training at a high level requires you to push the limits of your body. It also requires a realistic approach to how you are feeling, knowing when to push and when pull back. Over the years I have become much better at finding that line, but at I get older and my body changes, it requires an ever-constant awareness of how training is affecting myself.
From here I am headed to the Twin Cities, which have been kind to me in the past, for the Medtronic TC 10 Mile on October 7th. As of now, I do not have another race on the schedule, but I will be finding few more before training for a late winter/early spring marathon.
Learn more about Tyler on his blog, tylerpennelrunning.com.