Not So Much Like Lemonade.....

This is my Journey into the World of Ironman. It's my journal/documentation of the ups and downs of what it takes to be an age-group athlete training for an Ironman triathlon. This is more of a way for me to remember what I am doing over the course of the training season, as any Ironman Athlete can tell you, sometimes the days can blur into one training day of swim, bike, run after another. So, while some may not find this at all interesting, those that wonder...could I do an Ironman? Do I have what it takes to do an Ironman? I give you a peek into my journey and days to complete my next Ironman.  Forgive any misspelled words/awkward sounding sentences. I'm pretty happy just to get them down on paper. Consider it a test of your mental skills to figure out what I'm saying. Hope you enjoy reading my journey.  I'll see you at the Finishline!!!



THE LAST TWO WEEKS summed up in two sentences.

I'm pretty sure, this has been the worst two weeks ever in my Ironman training history. Mainly because it's been riddled with injury.

I've gone from doing two disciplines...to floating in a dam hot tub for training.  I have been struggling for a bit now with some left leg pain, so much so that the last few weeks, it has started to radiate pain down my hamstring, and into my knee, then on the last few long runs...into my heel. It's amazing all the things you start thinking when your injured. It really messes with your mind.

It has caused me to miss the last two long rides on my bike. I made it two hours on the 6th, mainly because I had a sensory reaction to my shoulder adjustment. I was "floating" while riding my bike. Then I was just losing power, I couldn't maintain my new power. I resorted to just finish the time, but even then I was feeling so "off" I had to stop. I laid down, and literally fell asleep for 7 hours.  I have had similar experiences from getting adjustments (the Spine Cont Ed course at my old job in AZ). So I knew I had to sleep it off.   I chalked it up to a one time thing. And moved on.   Then, I did my run the next day...and the pain radiated down into my heel. I was feeling pretty defeated. I slept most of this day too.

Went to PT on Friday.  Got some exercises for my leg, he told me to hold off on running to calm things down, and then I came home. Only to find that the pain was getting worse in my leg from the exercises. I couldn't get relief.  Saturday and Sunday were more red days, as I was in so much pain, that I resorted to my E STim, and some heavy drugs to knock out the pain. I couldn't sit in anyway without pain, shooting out of my hip. laying in bed, etc. I hit some major down moments. I wondered...if this is something more serious.  I can't run, biking was too painful, I haven't swam in 50 days... maybe, I'm going to have to bail on my races if this doesn't get better.

This few weeks had been a major challenge.  2015 has been giving me some major challenges.

This second week from hell started with a lower then average power on the bike.   Off to my PT on Tuesday. My shoulder is better, and FINALLY , I got CLEARED to get back in the pool and go EASY with my swimming.

On Wed.  I started out my bike ride, once again stuck on the trainer due to weather.  And I made it exactly 45 min into my ride, before I stopped.  I was having so much pain. I couldn't push past it. I luckily had my bike fitter call, and we tweaked a few things, my seat got re adjusted (the modern marvels of video recording and emailing )) He said my position looked good.  I trust him, I know he knows what he was doing, but then where is all this fricking pain coming from.  I feel like my left leg is shifting "out" when I pedal down.  I just....shit.

Ok, lets make the best of this...I'll go swim. I CAN SWIM!! I CAN SWIM!!!   Well, maybe not.  It's about patience and the journey, right?  I arrived to the Y only to learn that the pool was closed due to a broken pipe. Hopefully fixed by Friday.   Oh so close....yet oh so far.  Breathe.

So When Thur rolled around, I headed into PT for my shoulder.  While I walked up to/well hobbled up to him. He took one look at me, on the verge of tears from pain, and pulled me into the private room. After doing a full exam of my leg/back/hip. It was not my sciatic as I thought. But a significantly SI Joint out of place.  He was able to adjust it and I felt immediately better. But He wanted me to take a few days off to let it calm down.  No pushing on the bike, no running, but I could swim....if the damm pool was open.    Here is the dark place of training. OR the dark place of injury.

But, I can say there was much relief knowing it was just my SI joint. I've had that in the past, but this was so significantly painful, it didn't even relate to how it felt in the past, so I didn't even connect the dots to recognize that it was the same thing. It's never radiated down to my heel before.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

Luckily, my training is starting to ease up. So I'm not missing to much. But that also is frustrating because I"m missing some of the more important sessions.  I'm 26 days out from my 70.3.  I was looking forward to maybe improving my time. Now I just want to focus on staying healthy and using it more as a training race, finish and make sure I'm healthy for Boulder IM in Aug (76 days out).

I finished out this week with an easy bike ride on Saturday. And while I still had some tweaking on my leg, it felt a lot better. I'm doing my self SI adjustments every 3 hours and cont with my shoulder exercises.  I wanted so much to run tonight, but  I am trying to focus on what I need to do to get healthy.  I've done the work, I can look back on the weeks before in my training.   I can do the race. I have the faith that I know what it takes to get through it, I just hate that I may not be able to go at my full potential.

Tomorrow starts three weeks to race day.   Just Breathe, My Mantra for the rest of training: