Training Interupted

OUCH!

  

This is what a torn calf muscle looks like. I know it looks bad.  It doesn't feel so hot either.  I'm in a boot for probably four weeks.  On the bright side, I can swim and I can cycle, as long as I have no pain.  I went and had this little gem of a picture taken by the Sports Medicine doctor (Dr. Laura Lendermon at Lendermon Sports Medicine) on Friday, and proceeded to feel sorry for myself all weekend. Now it's time to make the best of it and heal as quickly as I can.  Maybe I can get a little extra swim time in.

The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living

So I have been reading this book with a group of guys and discussing the themes and topics within the pages.  Don't pick this up if you don't want to look inward and you don't want to reflect on the past, or to create a new future. Miller talks about life is like living within our own story.  We can write the story or we can let the story come to us and be written for us.

One quote that struck me was this: "I've wondered, though, if one of the reasons we fail to acknowledge the brilliance of life is because we don't want the responsibility inherent in the acknowledgement.  We don't want to be characters in a story because characters have to move and breathe and face conflict with courage.  And if life isn't remarkable, then we don't have to do any of that; we can be unwilling victims rather than grateful participants."

So my thought is: isn't this one of the reasons I compete in triathlons? Isn't this one of the reasons I go to Colorado to climb and hike mountains?  Isn't this why I want my kids to be their best?  I think it is.  I think it is because I want a better story for my life and I want my kids to have a better story for their lives.

OK, Let the Frustration & Panic Begin

As I have mentioned before I am doing Ironman Florida in November. I am very excited and would like to do well.  I have no illusions about winning, or getting on the podium, or even qualifying for Kona.  I just want to do the best that I can and let's face it, I am competitive and I want to fair well against some other people that I know are going to be doing the race.

Here are my problems: 1) I haven't lost the weight that I intended to lose, so that by March I can begin training at a lower and more ideal weight. 2) My training has been very inconsistent over the fall and winter to this point, so I haven't addressed the need to ramp up my running mileage, or swimming technique deficiencies, that I know exist. 3) And the biggest, I am now dealing with an injury.  A couple of weeks ago I felt an explosion in my calf. I am not injury prone.  I immediately started icing it every thirty minutes, put a compression sleeve on it, and kept it elevated. I even did some cold laser therapy for the purpose of speeding up the healing process. And of course, I basically did nothing in the way of training for the last two weeks (except swim a couple of times). An now, over the weekend, I felt the "pop" in my calf again.

This is getting to be a little too much.  I only have 38 weeks from this past Saturday to get all of this done.  It is truly "GO Time".  I don't have time for injuries, I don't have any other margin for error for lack of training or lack of commitment.


Let's see where this lands us.  Until next time....