Biking in bad weather wrecked my bike. Being alive wrecked my hips.

I have been really good about getting my bike training in, regardless of weather. In bad weather I ride my hybrid commuter bike around town (as opposed to riding my tri bike out of town). I noted on my ice-crystals-to-the-face ride two days ago that I was not getting through all the gears on my cassette. Hmmm... Quick trip to Bruce's Cycle reveals that grit -- and there was A LOT of it that I cleaned off just before going to Bruce's -- ruined my brake pads and my rear derailleur cable. Heh. Poor maintenance by the owner.

I have enjoyed a couple of days of positive results in the pool. I am feeling very good about swimming. I am improving remarkably and I feel confident that I will swim Ironman under 1:30:00. This was my original goal when I started with Paul but I am starting to think I would like to be a little bit faster than that. The median swim time for men 45-49 is very close to 1:15:00. I am starting to dream about going 1:16:00 to 1:20:00 which will be, I think, a remarkable personal accomplishment if I can manage it considering that I could not safely swim from one end of the pool to the other just 2 1/2 years ago.

Now... about my hips. I picked up a copy of my hip x-rays today as I have an ortho appointment next week.

Here is a healthy hip:

Here is an arthritic hip:

I am a complete lay person but even I note that the healthy hip has a nice, even space between the ball and socket. The arthritic hip has little or no space and is grinding bone on bone.

Here are my hips:

Not as bad as the arthritic hip from the demo photo. But even my layperson eye notes a lack of spacing - particularly at the bottom of the joint. The space on top has been reducing over a series of x-rays taken in the last three years. My layperson eye also cannot tell you which is my left hip and which is my right -- I think this is taken lying on my back so my left hip (which is worse than the right) appears on the right.

In my case this is, I am sure, the simple result of being alive. When I was in grade one I could not sit cross legged on the gym floor. I have never been able to touch my toes. I could only ever cross my left leg over my right and now I cannot cross my legs at all. I have always had poor hip mobility compared to my peers.

Fortunately my hips do not cause me any appreciable pain or problems when I am actually swimming, biking, or running. Lying down is the worst. The only real issue that comes up during a race is getting onto my bike. Basically I tip the bike over -- almost to the point that it's lying on its side on the ground -- put my right leg over and then raise my bike between my legs while hopping to the right so that the top tube rises centred between my legs. Ask me to show you sometime. It's quite a show. It's not problem except that my aero bottle empties all over the transition exit area and that's kind of embarrassing.