Am I doing this right?

So, today is Sept 23rd and I'll write a little more real time after my first introduction post.

I'm sorting through what I think is high hamstring tendonitis. It never hurts that much but it's nagging and possibly the source of a lack of full power. I'm working every day now to strengthen and stretch my hamstrings. I just do not know if running is making it worse or not. Today is the day after running 9 miles and it's a little "loud". Though this was made worse by sitting in my car. I felt OK up until I drove in. Even my core and stretching did not really hurt.  Is it just the sitting? I'm trying to stand more at work. I have better shoes. I'm going to go on a walk after lunch and give the area some bloodflow.

Dreamer

 

I find that the better side of my athletic self is realized when I blog. So, though its sort of a pain to describe workouts, hopes and dreams and all, it does actually keep me engaged in my dreams and so I begin again.

Today is Tuesday September 16th 2015. By way of introduction, I'm a 49 year old male, married with two kids who are young teenagers now. I live in Maine and am employed as a Analyst for Unum Life Insurance Company in Portland. I live some 25 miles north in Freeport, home of good old LL Bean. Life is good. No complaints.

I've never been an outstanding athlete. I never played sports in school but was a good skier and have loved cycling and sports generally. At times in life these have all hooked up and I find some success. Like rowing in College. Later I found I'm pretty good at cycling competitively. I like to run and can swim OK. As such, I find triathlon to work for me.

In this past year I failed to some extent to really pull my inner athlete out of the box. I was pretty good at tri in 2008 where the prior 3 years of running investment was paying off and my cycling was starting to gel. In the following years my focus became bikes and bikes alone. I quit tri and got into Time Trial. I won the State TT series for my age group in 2011 and then sort of "retired  on top" and really made no racing plans for 2012 or 2013. Why? Well besides having a work crisis of sorts where career changes and work were just simply very difficult, I had also been challenged to sort out  this ringing in my ears which, for me,  was exacerbated by exercise. As it turns out this life challenge of having a TV set buzz in your head all the time is something that most everyone can adjust to in a few years, however some of us suffer so greatly they kill themselves. Depression is another real challenge and I had my bouts with that from time to time.  Try it sometime: Put an irritating sound on in the room, say a radio station that is not tuned in completely. Now, bust the dial,  never turn it off and never leave the room. You get a sense of the suffocation effect.  I pulled out of this funk in late 2013 after 18 months of confusion. In fact whatever it took to overcome this has been incredibly energizing in general. Life is as good as it's ever been and my ears ring. So what.