Spectator.

It's Saturday afternoon and I'm officially not racing in San Diego International. I'm pretty bummed about this decision but I think it's best in the long run. I've been fighting off some shoulder problems as I've written about it ad nauseum. I figured I'd rest it for a couple of days and focus on the bike and run which was fine given SDIT was only a 1000m swim but the run was 10k. On Wednesday I had a 60 minute ride with some race pace intervals. I took it to the trainer so I could easily control my effort but also noticed some popping on the outside of the right knee. No pain, just the common tight IT band stuff that goes away with some warmup/stretching/massage. I warmed up and cooled down about 20 minutes each and stretched well in all planes. I felt pretty damn good otherwise.

Thursday I had a swim and a 30 minute run with some RP intervals. Obviously I skipped the swim and stretched my shoulders pecs and lats. In the afternoon I hit the run. Something was up I could tell within about 5 minutes. I run without music and am very aware to listen to my feet and breathing. My right footsrike was loud and slapping. Nice and soft on the left. I tried a couple of things like switching sides of the road, shortening my stride. I started feeling little bee-sting like twinges right around the outside of the knee, no signature IT band pain but enough to stop and stretch a couple of times. I still hit the intervals. During the last 10 minutes my hip, primarily TFL started really heating up. This whole time I wasn't worried at all because I was in taperlike mode and not overeaching at all so it couldn't be an injury, right? Well an hour later after the run my "hip" was really sore. I still didn't worry as I got right on the foam roller and tennis ball.

Friday was a day off and I couldn't do anything if I wanted to. I was practically limping on account of the soreness. By this time my shoulder was feeling a lot better, clicking and popping had subsided and no real dull pain like the days prior. I'm still thinking okay if I take Friday and Saturday off I'll probably still be cool to race. I wasn't panicking yet just trying to ice and massage my damn right leg thinking this can't be happening. If it wasn't better Saturday morning I was making other plans for Sunday.

I woke up this morning and took a hot shower and did some stretching. The first couple steps out of bed were not bad. It just felt like the day after a long run kind of. I put on my shoes and figured I'd do some light jogging, like once around the block to check it out. I got to the end of the street and walked back. That was all I had to do to realize if I show up and race, I could easily inflame the IT band and watch all my fitness go down the toilet for the next two months. My wife is a Physical Therapist and I've had full on ITband syndrome before. We talked at length about the situation and she (not signed up to race of course) recommended not racing. I recognized that ITBS had not manifested but also was aware of the warning signs. The writing was on the wall. I couldn't help fantasizing about overcoming obstacles, ribs, shoulder and hip to lay down a solid PR after all that "rest". It's all fanasy and a dream now as I'll be sleeping in tomorrow. I've only missed one race due to injury or illness, that was back in 2003 LJ half Marathon.

I'm looking back at my training and the plan is not suspect. What is becoming more obvious is how that big hit I took in the side found it's way through my body. I probably should have been getting chiropractic 2x week to have my body settle back in properly. This is where I'm heading. My PT checked my pelvis and it has a pretty pronounced posterior rotation on the right side. I'm going to wait for the muscle tension to subside a little then hit up the chiro.