Ironman triathlon injuries.

Ironman injuries

First up is injury prevention.

Don't overtrain.

Good coaches will help to prevent this happenning. However your coach is unlikely to be by your side all the time(only if you are married or live next door to them), so it helps to learn to listen to your body very carefully. And respond the right way(ahh?... a day off.... ahh?.... revert the hard to training session to something more easy). Really stating the obvious, but again it is a reminder.

So what does this entail. Firstly for example it entails oneself thinking consciously of what is happening when we are getting sick. Getting sick a few times in short succession is pointing towards a weakened immune system, which is a bad sign.

Having the background medical knowledge helps alot but it is not essential. Common sense can prevail.

Don't race when you are sick.

Watched a guy doing an elite ITU race last year and noticed he was coughing during the bike. In the run he was at the very back and breathing really hard. Caught up with him after the race and found he came to a sticky end; fainting and being carted off by the ambulance. That is an extreme example, but I say under no circumstances should we race if sick. You can get away with it in non-elite races but it is just not worth it. Am sure the pros with any longevity in the sport know this. Heres a suggestion, wait until you feel back to full health, do a couple of normal days training, still feeling no ill effects, then do a sprint distance tri in your training. That should ensure you make up for the missed race. If the missed race was a half ironman or so, then do a quick olympic distance tri for your training day. There has to be a way around racing when you are ill.

And yes I have done two age group races while still under the cloud of inflenza, and no it wasn't worth it. One of them I was 100meters into the swim and all of a sudden my arms and the rest of my body just went flat.

If you are well enough to start you might try, but obviously it would make sense to pull out if you weren't feeling up to taking it out/getting the required placing. I don't recommend starting and pushing untill you drop under any circumstances though(when under a cloud of ill health).

So basically am not going to give a definition of what 'sick' entails on this site. I could try but it would take too long. Common an obvious reasons not to start are gastro-intestinal illnesses for example. Otherwise consult a doctor who understands what you are doing and use common sense if you deteriorate.

NOTE: Injury prevention and management is dealt with also on the stretching link.

Sports injuries basics.

27/06/2007

Have been thinking to write on this subject for some time, as it is quite common in triathlon/ironman from what I see.

It is purposely written without using medical terminology.

Will discuss here some basics related to chronic(long term cause/resolution) and acute(short term cause) injuries.

Was advised by a very prominant pro triathlete/ironman from days gone by that injuries go hand in hand with the job.

In my own case like many others it is not my job, but still managed a few injuries along the way.

Personally I like to listen to my body closely and hold back when something is up. Some years back I developed and acute tear of a tendon behind the knee, and even though I was very fit and could have kept going hard, I took a month or so out.

-With acute injuries, the R.I.C.E method is often followed, that is Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation.

All four of these methods are useful to reduce the initial swelling and pain, but there is one important element missing and that is anti-inflammatories(the likes of aspirin and ibroprofen).

So yes, have treated myself with little outside assistance (but knowledge from my background), for a very serious partial rupturing of multiple tendons and ligaments of the foot and knee at the same time. I believe you don't want to over do any of the above (R.I.C.E and anti-inflammatories) and to keep up easy movement.

So what is all this about? We all want to remove pain so that is important, but a bigger take on it is to reduce the bodies 'over reaction' to the trauma. Basically the body is too good at healing itself and works a bit fast. Working to fast is painful due to all the 'repair cells' rushing to the injury, and it can also result in 'excess' scar tissue. An example of excess scarring is a ligament healing too fast and ending up 'shortened'.

Injuries involving ligaments(for example) will often also require some easy stretching to get the range of movement back to its original state. The timing and techniques required of this easy stretching will depend on an individual case by case basis.

Once the initial swelling subsides it can be useful to increase the blood supply and techniques used are ultrasound and light massage/easy movements

Complete ruptures require surgical repair, but for the rest the body is amazing at healing itself. Managed well, the injury will very often return to its initial state/strength.

-With chronic injuries the treatments are different and quite broad. An injury that last several years or more is a reasonable definition of long term(or chronic). Chronic injuries can very in severity from very minor to very severe. With long term injuries it is not uncommon to carry on as normal as possible and try and train through it.

Long term injuries can be completely resolved, but are likely to require more time to do so(compared with acute injuries).

Won't go into detailed treatments of chronic injuries as there are alot of people out there proposing all sorts of things! Cutting back on very strenuous activities and keeping weight off the body are good starting points though. Keeping weight off(or at least maintaining a healthy body mass index) can be hard, but is important. Strengthening and some stretching exercises of the area associated with the chronic injury to provide support are also useful(commonly recommended by physiotherapists).

Well thats my take on the basics.

Am sure you can gain more knowledge on the subject by searching the internet or talking with informed people. It should help your understanding if the inevitable occurs.

Oh yeah, prevention is better than cure so:

- try dirt trails for a run rather than the hard pavement,

- listen to the signals your body is sending you,

- use good technique when exercising,

- replace well worn run shoes and be sure they suit your foot plant style,

- maintain muscle balance in all areas of the body,

- take time out from training during illness such as flu viruses, or at least cut back to easy sessions.

- use common sense, etc..............................

And if you over do it ........... burn out

On a different note, my boat sharing mate was in hospital for a week recently so went to visit and tried to point some things out to him. He was laid low by an undiagnosed cause. I think it is chronic fatigue(long term stressors) and told him as much and a doctor taking a blood sample. Nothing showed up on all the tests and there is a possibility it was set off by a virus. Bloods can show this early on. However viruses also hit the body when it is under alot of stress or weakened for any other reason. Read him some background on 'chronic fatigue syndrome' which I think is useful, and some recovery ideas to get back to full health.

Think of 'chronic fatigue' because my mate has been doing the most physical of work around 10 hours a day, 7 days a week for several months on end. In his spare time he is like a human dynamo and I usually have a day off after an adventure with him.

Also did do some work/play stints like the above myself(some time ago), but the longest was about 2 months, then I would use the start of the university year to put my feet up.

Got close to blowing an internal fuse one year by working and playing too hard. Come to think of it I did have to replace an internal fuse soon after. Takes a few months at best to replace a fuse by healing, would prefer a replaceable bit of copper wire.

Some injury stories including my own

Going from doing shorter olympic distance style triathlons to an event like ironman takes some knowledge. It is all pretty much out there if you have time to search it out. One mistake I made was attacking the uphill sections of the 180km bike a bit hard. Felt strong on the bike so rode it the same way I always have in olympic distance races. The result was tearing to some tendons in the proximal insertion of my gastronemius muscles. These minor tears didn't stop me training post-Wanaka, but they have slowed me down. Ouch.....

Well it has been 6 weeks since completing the 'Challenge Wanaka' and my last training effort a few days ago showed up my tendons behind my knee are still repairing themselves. They are sore and this is not unexpected. It does not bother me as am well aware tendons can take 2-3 months to heal(reason being a poor blood supply to tendons and it is similiar for ligaments ).

I did manage to inflame these tendons a bit with some hard training about 2 1/2 months after the ironman and in other cycle rides before that. The tendon injury problem completely resolve at aabout 4 months and I did take the last few weeks off that time off doing leg exercises.

A work mate colleague a few years back told me how he had done some permanent damage to his back after completing an ironman. So be a bit cautious in your first ironman I would say, unless you have managed to replicate the race particularly well in training in which case you might get away with it.

Another injury I had which really bothered me because of the long list of differential diagnosis was some hip inflammation. It is still there(very faintly) after several years and looks to be just tightening of the hip flexor/extensor muscle groups. Stretching and I mean forceful stretches that are held seem to make a difference. I do believe alot of pressure must be applied to this region for an effective stretch. Well it was very annoying but there are plenty of worse injuries to have.