After huge Oceanside win, Lionel Sanders now out for four to six weeks
Canadian star suffers stress fracture in his ribs after big win at Ironman 70.3 Oceanside
After a huge win at Ironman 70.3 Oceanside, an excited Lionel Sanders returned to hard training almost right away and has paid the price for his enthusiasm – according to a video just posted on the Canadian’s YouTube channel, he’s suffered “either a stress fracture or a stress reaction” on a couple of ribs. That means he won’t be at Ironman 70.3 St. George as he’d originally planned, and will have to take four to six weeks off of his normal training. He anticipates being able to do some cycling and running, but is unsure how much swimming he’ll be able to do as the ribs heal.
“It sucks when you’re super motivated and were flying high,” Sanders said. “I pushed a little too far and here’s my punishment.”
“I’m not upset other than I wish I would have listened to my body’s signals a bit better, because it certainly was telling me it was too much and I didn’t listen,” Sanders continued. “So, if there’s a lesson that I could convey to anyone … you have to be able to listen and not be afraid to … if your body is sending you signals of bad pain, you have to back off otherwise your going to be forced to take some race.”
Sanders has said that his big goal this year is the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. He’ll have to compete at another Ironman event to qualify for that race.
“If anything this is going to allow me to heal up fully, get in another base period, come out in the middle of the summer and get some more good racing in, then the goal is still the same, peaking at the end of October and I am confident I can still do that,” Sanders said.
