While 2018 concluded with a stale mate, I drew quite a few earth-shattering conclusions from these setbacks, the most salient of which I will share below. Caught in the aftermath of moving anyways, I spent most of January dialing in what I think is a radical departure from where I was pursuing my Journey from.

After talking to several lifelong Athlete friends as well as physiologists and health professionals  I’ve know for decades, I’ve come to an earth shattering conclusion I had considered before; but that I hated the thought of. It was really too scary to think about; but it is inescapable, and it is this:

After being out of Triathlon shape for 12 years (June 30th 2002- July [20?] 2014 start of Journey), I’m totally detrained and detuned. I may as well be starting from zero, and in fact, I am, no two ways about it.  What my Journey up to now has done for me, is to  show that my body and mind have the ability to adapt and progress with training; but no more than that. Probably my greatest advantage is that my body and mind have been there before and I know what has to be done and how.

What I didn’t realize (or maybe didn’t want to acknowledge), is the level at which I can reenter the world of training. I approached my Journey with the same Alpha mindset of training I used to relish in the 1980s; it no longer is that way and never will be again. It is not that I can’t train like I used to and adapt, I just can’t do it as fast, and I need bucket loads more recuperation time, and be ever vigilant to remain healthy.

This is evident by all the injuries I’ve suffered since that 1st measly mile I ran on July [24] 2014, the first day of my Journey back in SoCal. I have to progress slower, I need more recuperation, I need more time to adapt for the tissues to handle the stress put on them. I just can’t do it the same way, I have to be extremely careful in how I design my training, recovery, and always be on the lookout for potential injuries.

Having written the above and experienced the epiphanies above, I would have thought that I had my future progress figured out in 2019, and that injuries would be a thing of the past. 

However well intentioned I was at the beginning of 2019, the year would take an evolution all its own and cause me to arrive at a sobering conclusion by December!

In January, I had met someone who walks 15Miles per day and is a fixture around the neighborhood. This chance meeting would be central to igniting my epiphany in November/December.

In May I rode my famous 90 Mile Decker ride (mentioned here), but later that month I managed to wrap the rear derailleur around the rear wheel spokes, and through the rear stay. The frame was toast and in need of major repair!

[7 weeks later], June 23rd, my Fuji came back all fixed, but just like last year’s RailRoad crash and the subsequent interruption, I had lost my biking focus and had moved on to running in view of several races I had taken note of.

It was back to running, and on July 4th, I ran the Pacific Palisades 5k (mentioned here) to a successful finish, so I thought! Later in August, I ran a 7:45Mile which I hadn’t done for a decade or more. I was looking for a Mile race to prove myself. I found it! The Ghoul Mile, just before Halloween on October 29.

Through September, I was making great progress in running in view of the upcoming Mile race. All through this running pursuit since destroying the Fuji, I was experiencing a few glitches and mild irritations in my running, but I felt they were rather minor and just to be kept in check.

At the beginning of October, in view of running a fast Mile in the upcoming race, I contacted a friend of mine who is a running coach, and had once been an Olympian in another lifetime. After videoing my running form, we determined a few stride alterations that would benefit my mechanics. I promptly adopted these, BIG MISTAKE!

On October 19th, just a week after my form tweaks, I promptly blew out my left Hamstring and Gluteus. In addition, I managed to injure something deep within the hip socket by the acetabulum. Once again, I was a wreck, and I did it all running.

I still raced on Halloween; but it hurt something fierce, and I had to keep the speed down to a manageable level of pain, and to preclude further injury. I made a few efforts to save the conditioning I had in the following days post race; but I finally experienced the straw that broke the camel’s back!

On November 7th, in the middle of a measly 3Mile run, I just quit ( just as abruptly as Forrest Gump in the desert), because I was so tired of hurting all the time! I had had it with running injured, it was that simple! If I couldn’t run pain-free, I would just not run anymore, simple as that!

I was going to take time to mend my current injuries, and then start walking until I was pain-free. After all, I reasoned that if I couldn’t even walk pain-free, I sure couldn’t run pain-free! I would do this no matter how long it took.

I didn’t Swim/Bike, or Run for the next 22 days. On the 29th, the day after Thanksgiving, I WALKED! I had been beaten into submission, I had swallowed my pride, my body had won, and it wanted my brain to listen! It was a rude awakening when mere walking caused pain initially!

[When you let go of the Ego, then you will find yourself]

I walked all through December. In fact, I enjoyed it tremendously and it was quite challenging. I walked so well that by the 24th, the day before Christmas, I walked a brisk 4Miles in 59:30 minutes, just a tad over 4mph, all without any hint of pain:)

My first Walk/Run was January 4th, 2020. I’m getting ahead of myself; but it’s entirely pertinent to setting up my mind shift in 2020! I’ll just leave it here that I ended 2019 firmly convinced I should have zero expectations for the 1st year of the upcoming decade!

Journey well, Claude