Disclaimer: This blog is a documentation of my now second Ironman Journey
for AZ Ironman 2013. I’m doing this race for a former patient, Sunny, who
recently passed away this summer from a brain tumor. I hope that I can honor
her well as I take her on my journey. Format will be random, i.e. quick
journal format, random thoughts, motivational quotes, pictures of random
moments and memories along my journey. For the most part, it’s documentation
for me and may not be to exciting for anyone else to read, but for those of you
brave enough to ever wonder…could I do an Ironman or even just a
triathlon? I then offer you a firsthand account of what goes on in the
mind of an Ironman age group triathlete including all the highs, lows,
emotions, fears, rants, etc, etc. Please forgive any spelling mistakes
as I’m sure I am just happy to get everything written down, just chalk it up to
fatigue from lots of training!
Current Stats Overall:
SWIM: ~176,112
Yds
BIKE: ~ 1305.56
Miles
RUN: ~ 387.61
Miles
Strength: ~ 24:55 hr/min
Other
~ 11:30 hr/min (PT, Stretch, etc. )
Total Training Hours: 289:01
hours/minutes
This week was a total bust. I’m so frustrated and pissed right now. I’m
embarrassed to even make an entry this week. I also see the irony of this week
to, as I notice that it’s Week Thirteen. A cruel joke on my training? It was a crap shoot from the first day of
training this week. I woke on Monday and while at work, I transferred a pt for
an eval in the morning. Well, I attempted a transfer with a pt, and they
started to lose their balance, and was starting to sit down hard in the w/c. So
I was on the patient to slow the decent, and felt a “tweak” in my back. It didn’t
feel that bad, so I didn’t think too much of it. I switched my eval to a Sara
Lift. I knew better. When I got to the office, I recall thinking, oh this may
not be good, so I got ice on it right away. But then I didn’t think much else.
I just got back to work as it’s been crazy busy and didn’t have time to do much
else. I got to swim that night. It was short and fast. I didn’t notice anything
really except for a small twinge when I would push off the wall. Once changed I
was on my way home to do my bike workout. By the time I got home, I had
radiating pain down my back and to the back of my right knee. Shit, shit, shit.
I could only figure that the “tweak” was more than a tweak. It felt like the
residual back pain when I had my back injury at work back in 2010. So I skipped
my bike workout, and did a PT session, got on my inversion table. It felt
better, but better safe than sorry. I skipped my bike workout on the
trainer. Woke Tuesday with that nagging
pain in my back, took Ibuprofen and off to work. As the day wore on, it just got progressively
worse. Full day again, so not much time to ice or rest. Once home. I again,
decided to make it my rest day. And rested, with a 3 hour nap and drugs. Wednesday, I was back at the pool. It was a
long workout. 2900 yds. I choose to skip all kicking, and swam the entire
distance with the pull buoy. It felt okay. I actually felt like it relaxed a
bit. But then I had a 2 hour run. Again, I choose to skip it for better safe
than sorry. I came home did some more PT exercises and rested. Thursday was
another long day at work, And while I didn’t feel great in my back, it felt
less than the last couple days. So debating what to do for my workout once
home, I came home and wanted to be conservative, so I was going to not do any
intensity and just get some ‘time on the bike”. But rest first. I laid down. And
promptly slept from 5:30 PM until 8:30ish AM the next day. So…a 15 hour nap? Another rest day unscheduled. I did however
wake with zero back pain. So I headed out on a very easy 7 mile run. Which felt
good to get back to running/jogging. I did my workout, but by mile 5 I could
tell my back was starting to not feel happy. So I stopped and walked the last
two miles. Home again, shower, and off
for the many errands I needed to run.
And a blessed 90 minute massage that night. I felt good after the
massage. Home and sleep. I woke on Saturday, feeling pain free. Was really
wishing I could skip work so I could enjoy not having the nagging chronic pain come
back. But off to work and by lunch, my back was back to hurting. I was planning on a trainer ride when I got
home, as it usually opens up my back and feels good, and doesn’t cause pain.
But I was so discouraged when I got home, I basically just had a good cry,
grabbed some beer, some of my heavier drugs and headed over for some girl time
to help my girl friend setup her nursery and have movie night and dinner. I did
feel better with more rest. Sunday, I
again wanted to get on my trainer, but trying to be smart about it. Still
feeling very discouraged and emotional, I skipped all things related to
training. I caught up on cleaning the house, bills, etc. And I have now only
worked out 3:42 hr/mins this week. I’m
not sure whether to laugh, cry, scream, or swear. Maybe this is my mental breakdown with my
back being aggravated at work. The stress I’ve been under has met its breaking
point here at Week 13. Refocusing is key as I have a race in 2 weeks. And I’m 6
weeks out from Ironman. Hmmm…. Thinking back,
I think my breakdown moment was five weeks out from Ironman the last time. But
at least injury wasn’t involved. I’m still nervous that my prep isn’t enough
with the intensity vs volume. That’s where this race on the 20th is very important, as it will give me the
confidence that I need to know what I’m doing is going to work. Just talking about it, I’m feeling the
pressure. Okay, I need to refocus. FOCUS on what things I can control…..
So what’s my Plan?
1.
Keep at healthy as possible without losing the
fitness you need to do your races. More time with PT, Massage, rest
2.
Nutrition…get it finely tuned for
the race. Write out your game plan.
3.
Breath….a week of rest may be just
what you need to regroup and refocus on the ultimate goal. Racing Ironman for
Sunny.
4.
Use a pull buoy swimming until your
back feels better, stop early with any pain.
5.
Skip high intensity runs…or runs altogether
if necessary for your back to feel better.
6.
Bike is okay, it’s never hurt your
back before, and when down in aero, and it actually feels better. Focus more on
Trainer work.
7.
Just remember that it’s about the
bike, your bike fitness will get you through the run if you can’t do as much
running as you like. You have read enough research about that. YOU KNOW
THIS!!!
8.
RELAX
9.
BREATHE!
10.
Everything will work out as it
should.
What Doesn’t Kill
You Only Makes
You Stronger, Right?
No comments:
Post a Comment