"Keep Your Motor Running”

America’s Paradise Triathlon is once again upon us and young, old and in between, in condition, barely in condition and the out of condition bodies will test their metal. Consider this: injury rates in marathons generally peak at 20 percent. Triathlons yield nearly a third or 33%.

Statistics tell us there is something inherently involved in this three-sport race that causes a disproportionate amount of injuries. Sports injury specialists look at statistics to guide doctors and race coordinators to the likelihood of specific types of injuries or conditions that can develop during training and race day. Understanding the higher incidence of injuries in specific parts of the body helps us develop strength and conditioning strategies long before the start of a race. An additional concern, from these statistics, is how many athletes in preparation for this event never made it to the starting line as a result of injuries during training?

Most injuries do not happen at the time the pain begins, unless it was a direct trauma such as getting kicked in the nose while swimming, a fall or collision while biking or twisting an ankle on one of our infamous potholes (sorry, I could not resist). Most of the injuries that occur are set up by the following:

• Poor body alignment
• Tight muscles
• Weak muscles
• Leg length discrepancies (One leg shorter than the other)
• Poor training techniques
• Faulty or poor fitting equipment
• Poor dietary and hydration habits

The American College of Sports Medicine’s Team Physician Course teaches physicians that most injuries occur from micro-trauma, micro-trauma, micro-trauma, BOOM! INJURY!!! Unfortunately, most of the time we don’t even feel these little rips and tears until they become a full blown injury. So, especially in a Half-Ironman triathlon the cumulative weaknesses can come to fruition before, during or after the event. Three different sports. Mechanics in each, placing demand stress loads on various structures. Then the abrupt change in mechanics required at each change-over...no wonder weak areas become very susceptible to injuries!

Are you competing? Here’s the bottom line. Before taking a car or SUV on a particularly difficult journey, an intelligent person would take their vehicle to an expert mechanic. The mechanic would check the alignment of the wheels to ensure they did not wear unevenly, check the brakes to make sure they would hold up under pressure, make sure the engine was being supplied with the proper fluids, lubricants and fuel so it ran properly and did not overheat or lock up.

You can make a similar case for the human body. Get it checked out. Not only for an intense competition like this but for the long road of life. Seek out specialists in structure and function to evaluate your muscles, joints and internal physiology to look for weaknesses and be able to recommend steps to reach the end of your journey in a functional and pain-free state. Isn’t that what winning the race of life should include?

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