DNS FOR REDMAN 140.6, OR IS IT?

I guess technically it is not a DNS (Did Not Start) if I never registered for it, but it is as it reads, I am out for Redman 2015. This was the race that I was going to go mano y mano against Brad D from Brad's Ironman Journey. Here is the back story:

Brad D did IM Texas, I did Redman 140.6. We compared times. Brad D claims IM Texas is harder cause it is IM branded. I claim they are both 140.6 and are no different. Texas is flat, Oklahoma is flat. We beat our chest, we each claim we are badder than the other and from that I issued a challenge to him to race me one on one at Redman 140.6 in 2015, which he accepted. The table was set, the trash talk started and we were having fun with it! This was all beginning in 2013. So fast forward to 2015...

As you might remember from reading this blog, a few weeks ago I went to the Orthopedic guy to get my shoulder and my wrists checked out. At the time I was actually more concerned about my should pain than my wrists. It turned out that there was a touch of tendinitis in my shoulder, nothing that a shot of cortisone couldn't sure, which it did. The wrists however were a different story.

The doctor took x-rays and did some other tests and determined that I have moderate arthritis in my wrists. The keyword is moderate to me. Moderate is worse than some arthritis but is not as bad as severe arthritis. He wrote a script for some meds and then asked to come back in a few weeks. On my next visit, he suggested that I do Cortisone shots in my wrists, but warned me that once we start these shots, I was guaranteed to need to continue them until I was prepared to do surgery, which I am not.

So this leads me to my opening statement and title. Right now, I can not imagine being on a bike for 6 hours with my wrists the way they are. I know I could stay in aero the whole time, but that is not the way I am. My grip strength has diminished a lot already, and the thought of trying to hold on to handlebars for a race, including the months of training does seem to be in my favor. I thought this through and talked it over with my wife and came to the conclusion that an IM is not in my future this year in 2015. I am not totally shutting the door on another IM, but right now it ain;t happening. So I did what I had to do...

I called Brad D on the phone and let him know that I was not going to be able to race. This was a call I was dreading to make, but knew I had too. I started the challenge and I needed to end it. Brad understood completely since it was an injury issue and not because I was wussing out, and for that I am thankful.

Right now, I am good for rides under an hour, anything after that really starts bothering my hands, so it looks like a summer of sprint races. I still love the sport and I am not ready to give it up. So I will compete. I will swim hard, run hard and make it through the bike. It has been three years since I did a sprint race and I am looking forward to it.

3 for 1

I know it has been awhile since I have posted and for that I say sorry to the 3 or 4 of you that still read. I have been busy. So that is why you get a treat today. You get 3 topics for one post!  JACKPOT!!!  So let's get going!

1. I have to mention that last Sunday my bride and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary! (and we got to watch the Superbowl) We did get to have a nice evening out on Saturday and will hopefully celebrate later this month even more. I am truly blessed to have spent the past 24 years with this woman (18 in marriage and dated for 6) She is everything to me!  I love you babe!
2. The Superbowl. I only have two words for this game. LOVED. IT.  Yes, I thought the Seachokes were going to win, and probably should have won, but what can you say, the Pats made a wicked good play! The game was a great one, but the halftime show and commercials were horrible in my opinion. The Halftime show was just silly and boring. I wanted more Lenny Kravitz, and since when did Missy Elliot become relevant again? I mean, it is pretty sad when the most talked about thing in the halftime show is the dancing sharks. The commercials were about the most depressing and lame as any Superbowl ever. Come on advertisers, use those millions of dollars and give us some of the good stuff, not about dead kids and cars driving around "living the dream"  C'mon Man!
3. So the past few weeks I have been having some issues with my shoulder and my wrists have been bothering me for a long time, so I figured it was time to go get them checked out. I was really afraid my rotator cuff was unhappy and that it would be a serious injury because I was having trouble lifting my arm and I did not want to train for anything if I knew I was going to be out with shoulder surgery! So reluctantly I made an appointment with an ortho doctor and got it checked out. It turns out to be a good news/bad news type of visit.
1. Good news- It is not a rotator cuff issue at all, just some tendinitis in the shoulder. I got a cortisone shot in the shoulder, and with a few days off, and some shoulder exercises, I should be able to get it back to where it was.  Huge relief!  Huge!
2. Bad News- the wrists. It seems I have moderate arthritis in my wrists already, which he said was rare for someone my age. It can be managed, but it sounds like it can only get worse. I will be getting shots in my wrists in the future and hopefully managing it with medication. So that news could have been worse, and it is kind of a bummer, but I can handle it.

So there are three hot topics in one post. Now my goal is to get back to working on my 10 minute plank, and to run the majority of February, and then in march, start riding and swimming, building that base until Redman 2015 training starts sometime in May!