As of Aug. 2 I had the following:

dislocated shoulder, broken right hand, fractured ribs, collapsed lung, almost completely torn off my right leg at the groin exposing my intestines, completely shattered left femur.

Its called never say die. Yeah I've been depressed but I haven't given up. I was trying for the Miami Half Ironman, and I still am just a year later. Every little thing becomes a victory. You grasp every insignificant improvement. My legs were completely destroyed so I focused on my swimming (my weak sport). I went from 22-25 strokes per 50 yrds to 15-17 strokes. I swim twice as fast now as well.

There is so much in triathlons that you can always practice on something else. If you are more specific about your injuries there is all sorts of people who can tell you how to minimize your downtime. There would also be plenty of suggestions on ways you can continue to work out and become a stronger athlete. I would start with swimming, but its also possible some strength training for core, upper body, or lower legs would help too, anything that doesn't use the hips to bad.

I personally spent a lot of time reading about the sport to stay motivated. Worked out as much as I could, and always kept in mind life could be worse.

Rob

go to a doc and see what's going on.

i thought I had a stress fracture in my foot and saw the doc yesterday and am clear to run again. (once i get an insert for my shoe and freakishly high arches)

I never had issues with IBS until I started half ironman run training. It def. sounds like you have muscle strength and leg flexibility issues which means you should be hitting the gym lots while you are 'recovering'. when i was recovering from IBS it was key to avoid any repetitive stress, i.e., I stopped running and biking for 2 weeks, but by nipping it early I still had a season. I've heard of lots of people running through it and having to take a whole season to heal.

The key to prevention is stretching the IB suffeciently so it doesn't pull from the stress of running. Google IB stretches (spell it out lol) and you'll get lots of hits.

While you are healing I would def. get in the gym and do a strength regime with your lower legs. I never got great run times (sub 6 mins) until I started biking ALOT, and I didn't get good biking ALOT until I developed strong legs in part by functional strength training.

With all the damage I did to my legs I can't run and basically have the same issues as you. Very weak muscles and tendons. Rather then running through it and most likely hurting myself more I am biking (fine if you don't overdo it and strain your tendons) and really really emphasizing the weights to develop the muscles I need to start running again.

Like I said focus on stretching (prevent future reinjury) and then weight lifting (prevent future reinjury as well as maintain / increase level of fitness) until you are pain free. Pain free equals injury free and then slowly start your running program first.

Health first, Races second. Best of luck.

Rob

So here it is March 7...how's it going?