About the Health Freak
Hi, my name is Clayton and I was born in North Carolina on January, 1989, moved to Okinawa, Japan when I was three years old and I’ve just moved to Dallas, Texas for college.
I started training for triathlons when I was 16, having no idea what kind of sport it is…Ever since, I’ve had injury after injury after injury and my worst one came a little after my 18th birthday. It was right after an event called “challenge 1000km” which the local bike store held every winter to keep the athletes in shape. It’s an event where participants take on the “challenge” to bike 1000kilometers in a month. It was my second time doing this and unfortunately, I was lazy enough to wait till the last week to squeeze in a little over 600km of the distance along with having a 50km run week, that is, without any base training. A couple days after the event finished, I went out for a short run, it was somewhat chilly outside, somewhere around the 60s or so. Just about ten minutes into the run, my right leg started twitching and after a few more steps it was in pain, the worst I’ve ever felt. So, I started limping and using my left leg excessively to support my body weight and walk. Another couple steps and the left leg felt just as bad. The next morning, I took a day off from school to go to the doctor, who put me through three different tests(cat scans, x-rays, etc…) and he said, “you’ve torn both of your hamstrings, this is very rare and you’ve got it pretty bad. It’s most likely from over training and the lack of stretching”. It was an injury bad enough to grind 6weeks off of training. Unfortunately, my doctor didn’t know what to do, he only told me to do basic stretches for 6weeks.
After the 6weeks of stretching was over, I went out for the slowest jog in my life and again, my right leg was in pain. I went to a different doctor. He didn’t know what to do either but atleast he was honest. Another couple weeks passed and I went to a chiropractor far away from my house. He knew exactly what to do. So, the rehab session started and the first thing the chiropractor did was, he jabbed his thumb right in my thigh and started “moving” the damaged portion of my muscle toward my knee. It was even more painful than the injury itself. The second session and on was all about training, mainly light weights and resistance bands. It was one of the most intense training sessions I’ve ever had but after two weeks, I was back on my feet and jogging. I went another 3weeks and I’d say I got my endurance level back up to 70% of what I had before.
Ever since my first visit to the chiropractic, I was motivated to learn more about my body, knowing that I’m the only one who can understand and take care of my own body. I’ve been reading about training methods and nutrition. I have taken my first step to becoming a “health freak” and this is my “diary”. Enjoy!
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