Triathlon at Retirement

My training has fallen behind a little bit lately. First, I took my dog to a dog agility competition over a weekend, losing out on two days of my own training (good training for the dog though). That would have been ok by itself, but right afterwards, we had an ice storm in Texas, and I could not drive anywhere for a few days restricting my training to the treadmill at home. I don't like running several days in a row due to risk of overuse injuries, but considering the circumstances, I did two days of quite decent workouts on the treadmill anyway. Then, my legs told me to take a rest from running and I was out of training options. On a Thursday, I was due to fly to Sweden for cross-country skiing, but I could not reach the airport because of the icy roads, so I had to postpone the flight one day. On the Friday, I actually took the long flight, travelling for three days! This was no training time of course. On the following Monday, I got myself to the ski track, and it was good. Aft

The anti-inflammatory medication was strong and quickly gave amazing results.  I soon went running, just for a mile, but it felt so good. Life was valuable and urgent.  I was sent to a merry-go-round of various doctors and diagnostics, all with their own tests. Not much came out of that, results were diffuse and mysterious except a back MRI that showed a slipped disc, some degeneration of the spine and pressure on the sciatic nerve, but nothing extreme. I was also sent to physical therapy which did not help. All the medical efforts were time consuming and expensive; general inflammation and back pain is difficult to diagnose and treat. I soon stopped going to specialists. I loved my work as a geologist in the oil industry, (but I am not sure my work always loved me), and I was soon back at full schedule and more. A high manager had heard about my collapse, and he personally contacted me with his own back pain story and advice: to self-treat with McKenzie exercises.  It worked   and I s