Monday, June 27, 2016

The Mystery Continues

Hi hi hi hi....

I'm still alive and somewhat kicking.  With my good leg anyway, ha ha.

I've had a few people message me asking me how I'm doing, what did the Doc say, etc.  Well, the ultrasound showed NOTHING.  Nada.  Zilch.  That's not to say that there isn't anything there.  Dr. Galea said he thinks something is there, we just have to find it.  So, I'm now going for an MRI.  He suspects that there might be some nerve entrapment happening.  How did that happen?  That's a good question.  My chiro thinks that I may have torn something and then scar tissue started to form and trapped the nerve thus the pain I was feeling when I was running.  I am a bit surprised that I don't feel it on the bike as well but I'm not taking any impact when I'm riding so that's probably one of the reasons.  If it is nerve entrapment then I'm looking at a nerve blocker and a PRP injection.  Hopefully that will help.  I'm going to see my chiro this week for some more ART as I think that there is still a fair bit of scar tissue around.  My RMT commented on how "crunchy" that area was so I figured it wouldn't hurt to address that.

Life has been incredibly busy these last couple of weeks.  Work has been ridiculous but, the big news is we've put our house up on the market, finally!  Our real estate agent said that it would be best to do it while we were away so we had a mad scramble to try and get it ready for showing this weekend.  Along with packing for a vacation.  This past week was pretty darn stressful.  I had sworn up and down that I didn't want to deal with this stuff before we went to Tremblant but once I got injured, it just seemed to happen.  And really, when they're showing the house, it's not really yours.  You have to make the bed every day, you have to hide your laundry and you can't leave anything on the kitchen counters.   Meh.  That's no way to live, ha ha.  We will be accepting offers when we're back on Wednesday so fingers crossed it sells!

As happy as I am to be on vacation, being here in Tremblant amidst all the hype that is Ironman 70.3, I'd be lying if I said I was ok.   Saturday morning they had a sprint and an Olympic race and as I watched people race down the finishing chute, tears welled up in my eyes.  Not racing yesterday was  really hard.  There were more tears shed at the start when I handed in my timing chip as well as after the race was done.   Listening to everyone talk about their race was tough.  I was happy for all my friends, everyone seemed to have a great day.  Inside, I was heartbroken.  I wanted to out be out there gutting it out.  I had such high hopes for this race.   I put my goals out there and I never got the chance to realize them.  It sucks.   I don't even know that I'll race at all this season.  I'm feeling pretty shitty.   I can't complain about the view though....



It's been 10 weeks since I've run any sort of distance.  I managed to run 3.5km on Saturday and that was my first run in 24 days.  I went slow and I didn't really notice the pain until I tried to pick up the pace a bit so I suppose that is a plus.  I will try to run again later on this week and see how that goes.   I think it's too early to say that I'm on my way back.  There are too many other aches and pains in this body to say that I feel good.  I don't.  I think this issue is affecting other areas of my body, my back in particular.   In fact, I'm pretty sure they're probably connected.  So we'll see how things go moving forward.  I do know that I need to do a lot of work on my core and hip stability.  So in addition to getting better I will need to be diligent about the little things.



Despite the super busy last few weeks, I have managed to squeeze in a few workouts.  Most notably a 115km bike ride on one of the hottest days of the summer so far.  I rode with a Strava friend that I had only met once before.  Liz dragged my butt all around Kleinburg, through Hockley valley and up all the hills.  It was a tough ride but it was fun and I learned a few things about road riding.  I have to say, the internet has definitely expanded my training circle.   She's organizing a 120km group ride in July that I'm hoping I'll be able to do.




These last few weeks have been really hard emotionally but I think now that the race is behind me, I can mentally re-focus and really put the effort in to getting better.

I have so many things I've been working on physically and mentally that I want to share with you guys so I'll work on getting those things on to "paper" and getting them up here.

Happy Monday - hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!  Who raced this weekend?


Sunday, June 12, 2016

Checking Out

Last week I was so hopeful that I still might be able to toe the line at Tremblant.  I'm not sure what happened this week, but a switch flipped.  I'm chalking it up to feeling not quite like myself.  I've felt very overwhelmed these last couple of weeks, mostly due to work and some family issues.  Last week, I had contemplated doing the swim / bike at Woodstock this weekend but by the middle of the week, I just wasn't interested.   My hamstring was bothering me a bit after my ride on Tuesday, then I didn't sleep well on Tuesday night.  I woke up on Wednesday feeling tired and by the end of the day, I had the worst sinus headache that stuck around until Friday.   This week had been incredibly trying because of work and by the end of the week, I had nothing left.

I haven't felt physically good or strong since just before this injury happened back in April.  Since April I have been on a physical and emotional roller coaster that has finally done me in.  I never thought that I'd get to this point, where I have become apathetic and disinterested, but I have.  I thought I'd be able to refocus and just work on my swimming and cycling but I haven't been able to do that.  I've checked out.  Perhaps after I see Dr. Galea on Wednesday, I will have a better idea of where things are at and maybe that will make me feel a bit better, who knows.

Yesterday was the first race of the season in my favourite race series and it was the first time in FIVE years that I haven't toed the line.  I went out to support G and my friend David who were both racing. All the big guns were out, including Lionel Sanders (yes, THE Lionel Sanders a.k.a  The Green Flash).  He was a race ambassador years ago for Multi Sport Canada so once in a while he will come back and do a few sprint races.   He is so fast it's insane.  He ran a 16 minute 5km OFF THE BIKE.  Seriously.  And, he's super nice to boot.  He hung around afterwards and chatted with people and answered questions.  I managed to snap a few shots as he was booking it towards the finish.


That is one serious pain face.
So many people I knew were racing.  It was a little difficult for me to just sit and watch.  As I was standing by the water, taking pictures, a woman came up to me and said "You're not racing?"  I said that I wasn't because I was injured, and I racked my brain to figure out where I knew her from.  We chatted for a bit and she said she read my blog.  She looked familiar but I couldn't figure out where I knew her from.  I wished her luck and then wandered off to check out the vendors outside of transition.  It wasn't until I was watching people come out of the swim that I realized who she was.  As soon as I saw her come out of the water,  I remembered her name.  It was Jordie Seaton, the woman that had me running scared last year.  She aged up from the 35-39 AG into the 40-44 AG last year and boy can she run.  I was touched that she came to talk to me at the start of the race and I felt like and idiot for not recognizing her.  I reconnected with her after the race and we had a great little chat (Jordie, if you're reading, THANK YOU, it was lovely chatting with you!)

Swimmers getting ready
G and David had good races and all in all, it seemed to be a pretty good day.  Another friend of mine, Miranda Tomenson, placed second overall.  She was a pro a few years ago, had knee surgery and took a good year off to rehab and rebuild.  She is SO strong, it was great to see her out there killing it.  And, it gave me a glimmer of hope that with some patience and diligence I will come back from whatever this is that I've done, stronger and more determined.  While I'm not looking forward to sitting on the sidelines at Tremblant, I am looking forward to getting away.  I really need a break.  I'm looking forward to hanging out with friends and not working.  

In other news, our basement is finished (and it looks AWESOME), which means that we're ready to list our house.  G is pushing to have that happen sooner rather than later.  The goal would be go have it listed just before we go to Tremblant so our agent can show it while we're gone and we don't have to worry about keeping everything in it's place or having to stay out after work because there's an open house.  That's kinda stressing me out because these next two weeks are going to be STUPID busy at work.  But, G works from home when he's not traveling so he said he could tidy things up and pack up all the little odds and ends that need to be put away.  

This is where the old pain cave was!  
We also found a place that we quite liked.   I didn't totally LOVE it (mostly because of cosmetic things like floor colour, counter top colours)  but it ticks a lot of the boxes we're looking for.  The bedrooms are big, there's good closet space, it's got a huge tub in the master bathroom and it's got a 2 car garage.  We're going to take another look at it tomorrow night and if we still like it, then we'll put in an offer on it.  AHHHHH!

Despite my low workout mojo, I did manage to do a few workouts this week.  So, I'm going to link up Holly and Tricia for their weekly wrap.  And in July I'm hoping that I will be able to start posting a bit more regularly on here.  I have so many partially written blog posts it's ridiculous.  



Anyway, here goes:

Monday:  OFF

Tuesday:  21.5km ride in the morning.  Never a bad way to start the day.


Wednesday:  Slept in

Thursday:  Went to work early

Friday:  1500m swim

Saturday:  Spectator and Cheerleader duties

Sunday:  43km windy as heck ride!


Total time:  just under 3 hours.  Yup.   Hopefully this week will be better.  

How was your week?  Head on over the the link up to check out what the rest of the Weekly Wrap crew got up to!  

 





Sunday, June 5, 2016

Where It's At: An Update + A Weekly Wrap

Heyyyyy....

I'm still alive.  This has been a very strange and emotional two weeks.  I went from going a million miles an hour to a dead stop at work, which is nice as I feel like I can breathe again.  Things were starting to feel like they were getting a little out of control so to have some calm back in my life is a good thing.

To add to the strange and emotional vibe, last week, it was announced that Gord Downie, singer of the Tragically Hip has terminal brain cancer.  He's only 52.   The Hip have never been one of my favourite bands (I should probably be kicked out of Canada for that) but they are Canadian icons.  For some reason, this news really upset me.  I'm not really sure why.  Perhaps because he's not much older than G.  And perhaps because his passing will mark the end of a band (and a voice) that helped shape the landscape of Canadian music.

On the injury front I have been wavering back and forth like a yoyo in terms of my race.  A week ago I had decided that it wasn't worth stressing over and that I wasn't going to do the race.  Then I went up north last weekend, got on my bike and rode 96km of hills in the scorching heat and thought, maybe, just maybe, I could do it.  This weekend, I slogged out 88km brutal km's on my tri bike and lamented my loss of strength and speed.   So right now I'm still not 100% sure what I'm going to do.  I think a lot will depend on what the ultrasound I'm having done tomorrow shows.  And, I still can't run so there's that.  I tried earlier on this week and the pain was still there.  Which leads me to believe that I have really done a number on myself.

Getting ready to tackle 96km with a whole bunch of other like minded folks.
These last 7 weeks have not been easy.   At the start of all of this I figured I'd be out maybe a couple of weeks but as time went on and the pain with running didn't really stop, I became concerned.  To make matters worse, my two chief health care practitioners don't agree on what the issue is.  My physio believes that what I have is proximal hamstring tendonopathy and my chiro still feels like this is all stemming from my piriforimis muscle.  The not knowing is killing me.  Everyone I've spoken to is shocked that I haven't had any imaging done.   Thanks to an amazing friend of mine who made some inquiries for me, I managed to get in to see Dr. Tony Galea on Friday.  Dr. Galea is one of the top sports medicine doctors in Canada.   He listened to my symptoms, had me get on the table and promptly poked my hamstring insertion point, which in turn made me almost fall off the table.  The pain was excruciating.  He manipulated a few spots further down from the insertion point and asked me if they hurt and I said no and that seemed to be a good thing.   Perhaps I tore something and it hasn't healed properly, who knows.  All I know is that I just want to get better.  

Injuries have a way of breaking you down mentally and I can honestly say that this injury has broken my spirit.  I haven't been myself for the last several weeks.   It kills me to sit on the sidelines and it kills me to watch the fitness I worked so hard for slowly disappear.   Everyone is getting excited for our upcoming race in Tremblant and I'm trying to keep my shit together and not break down in tears every time it comes up in conversation.  I'm sure I'll feel better once I have some definitive answers.  I'll get those on June 15th when I go in for my follow up appointment with Dr. Galea.  In the meantime,  I'm keeping up with my physio exercises and I'm working on strengthening my core and hips.  I haven't stopped swimming and I'm continuing to ride as my body will allow so there's that.  

Since I'm actually able to do some things, I figured I'd link up with Holly and Tricia's Weekly Wrap.  And, it's given me an excuse to get back on the blog.  I haven't felt very motivated to write to be honest.



Anyway....this is how my week went down!

Monday:  OFF.  I really needed sleep after two days in a row of cycling but I did my physio exercises!

Tuesday:  20km ride.  My legs were still feeling the weekend so I cut this short.  It was a beautiful morning for a ride though and I'm glad I made the effort to get out.  Physio work in p.m.



Wednesday:  2800m swim in the a.m. and then I laced up my shoes in the p.m. and went out for a short jaunt to celebrate Global Running Day.  3.88km.  Not pain free.   :(

Thursday:  40 minutes of strength training / physio work.  I was going to ride but my glut was still sore from the shockwave treatment I had the night before so I went to the gym instead.

Friday:  2350m swim + physio exercises

Saturday:  88km ride + physio exercises



Sunday:  2500m swim + physio exercises

Total time:  7h 40 minutes.  Most of that was spent on the bike, ha ha.

I know things could be worse but being a very focused and goal oriented gal, I sometimes find it difficult to get back on my feet and re-focus - when you invest so much of your self and your time into something you love, only to have it go sideways, well, it really sucks.  This is definitely the biggest set back I've had in all my years of racing so this is new territory for me.  I've never missed a goal race and now that's looking like a strong possibility.   But that's all I'm willing to say right now - a "possibility".  It's not definitive.   It ain't over till it's over, right?

How has everyone been?  It looks like summer has finally arrived in Toronto which is FABULOUS.  We've had fantastic weather for the last few weeks and it's only going to get better.  Bring on Summer!