In my last blog I talked optimistically about my first race of the season: a wintertriathlon. Well, unfortunately I had to skip that race because of a torn calf muscle. It happened in the middle of a run, after about forty minutes. During a rest-interval I noticed a slight pain in my right calf. I ignored it (stupid) and when my watch told me to pick up the pace I did. Of course I should have listened to my body because all of a sudden the pain got worse up to a point when only walking was possible.

Well, this happened on February 27^th. After twelve days I decided that enough was enough. The injury seemed to have gone, the wintertriathlon was approaching fast and I went out for a test run. At first everything felt fine, but after fifteen minutes the pain returned. This time it was more serious. So serious in fact that I’m still not able to run and I’ve got an ironman distance race scheduled for June 15^th. Yesterday I decided that I will give myself one more month to heal. If I’m not able to run at least pain free for an hour by May 15^th, I will not race at least until the end of August.

To my surprise I discovered that I’m not heartbroken. Yeah, things could be better, on the other hand: I’m not ill or anything like that. I’m just a 46 year old triathlete who has to accept that injuries do happen, especially when you get older. Apart from my right calf, I’m actually feeling pretty good because I’m still training 12-13 hours per week. Last week I rode > 400 K, and most of it on power cranks. I know from experience that even with very little running I can still have a good race come June. In 2005, my first PC-season, I ran a 3.21 marathon after a two month running break. Who knows, maybe history really does repeat itself.