Slow and steady 09/23/2009
My legs and ribs had started to feel better last week and I had been spinning on the indoor trainer a couple of days which all felt great. Then Friday of last week I did a short run. Legs felt stiff and a little sore but overall pretty good. I decided to run again on Saturday this time the run had one downhill and one climb in it and the legs felt a little sore by the end of the run but overall ok. Within a couple hours though I felt like I had had felt the week after the race. My legs were in a bad way. I may have under estimated how badly my legs were damaged in the crash, so I'm back to measured approach to the active recovery. Knocked down but not out 09/10/2009
We will all get knocked down from time to time in life. Sometimes it might be physically, mentally, at work, at home, financially, spiritually, emotionally. For the most part what's great about humans is that we have the capability and capacity to bounce back. This doesn't always mean we will but mostly we have the opportunity and ability to. I've been knocked down a few times in life and I think I've always come through the other side stronger and with more knowledge (doesn't always mean I applied that knowledge in the future). At the time it's happening I don't always think about the knock down in the moment as an opportunity, but at some point theres a trigger that says "OK" what do I do, how do I overcome, what's the plan and I go formulate, and put into action the "plan". If you follow this blog you know recently I was actually knocked down, well more accurately fell down. In the moment I thought I might actually die, then I though no I'm just going to be in the hopital for months (all of this happened in a second), then in the moments following hitting the pole I realized I was alive and really not that seriously (life threatening) injured. The crash has forced me to put a big part of my life on hold at least temporarily. I really love training and racing trialthon but for the time being neither is happening. What's different this time is that from all the knockdowns in life I'm taking a different approach and frankly handling this one really well. In the past this would have devastated me, other than the physical devastation there would have been mental and emotional devastation which would have been far worse and acutally much more damaging. I could have been mad, disappointed that I didn't finish, that I didn't have a good day in the race, or that I didn't qualify for Kona. I mean my expectations were that finishing an Ironman isn't a problem for me, qualfying for Kona is a no brainer and that I should be able to race to a PR. Not doing any of these could have crumbled me. I've talked to a few people who had a rough day at IMC that didn't go perfectly for them, that didn't meet up to their expectations and I can feel the bitterness, the dissapointment and to some degree anger and I know where their heading and it's not good. So what am I doing to to deal with this knockdown. I'm healing physically it's been 11 days since the crash and I still hurt, my legs are swollen, black and blue and sore but they get better each and every day, my ribs are sore but again getting better. I've just come to the realization that it's going to take a couple more weeks before I can begin to train again in the meantime I'm doing what I can to speed the recovery, massage, icing, and now walking. Yep walking is my workout, and that is very hard thing to do for someone who truly races 140.6 miles. I know when I start back it will take a while to get back to where I feel fit again but it won't really take that long. I've just said my season is over. I had hoped to race Silverman in November but now I'm not planning on it. It still might happen but my expectations are that it won't and I'm Ok with that. Instead I've started to think about and plan for next season, laying out the races I want to race and the challeges I want to take on. Kona is always in the back of my mind as it's such a special race but honestly I'm not planning any races that are qualifiers. Instead I'm looking at mixing things up a bit and racing a mountain bike, road bike, paddle, run relay solo, in addition to several half Ironmans, some sprints, and maybe an international Ironman race (Western Australia sounds nice). I always race better when I'm doing it to have fun, this season was mostly fun. I'm going to Kona. I had already booked my trip to Kona for October with the expectation that I'd either be racing or relaxing. So I'm going and will be relaxing, spending time with Kristen, hopefully feeling good enough to do a little bike riding, some swimming, a little running and some paddling. Taking pictures of the race and taking in the race as a spectator (I still believe that everyone should experience the Ironman as spectator, TV just doesn't do it justice). I'm focusing on work. Work is always there and it's always busy, part of why I started doing triathlon was to get in shape after several years of too much focus on work (working 6 days a week 70-80 hrs a week for a couple of years). I can use this time to buckle down for a few weeks and do a little above and beyond effort and get ahead of the curve. At Microsoft we always seem to be just behind the curve no matter how much you work, that actually probably won't change but hey it's worth a shot. So I'm in a good place overall. Went to the doctor yesterday and he said he didn't think I had a broken rib, offered an x-ray but I declined as the prescrption was the same no matter what, rest it so I thought I'd do my part to reduce the cost of healthcare. I expect to get a little irritable, that's just a fact that exercise is my outlet but I'm taking it all in stride and moving forward. A couple of announcements coming up in the next couple weeks regarding coaching and charity events so even though there might not be much in the way of updates on the racing front there will be a few blog updates. Now I need to go enjo Slow Road to Recovery 09/07/2009
Well as most of you know things did not go exactly as I had hoped at Ironman Canada last Sunday. It started off well enough but ended with a pretty nasty bike crash and ride in an ambulance to the medical tent. My injuries mostly consisted of some serious contusions on my upper thighs and bicep and some scrapes and scratches. It also appears now that I may have cracked a rib. In short it's just more than a week later and I'm still pretty sore but I'm healing. Interestingly enough I didn't really have much in the way of dark bruises where I hit considering how hard I hit, but they're showing up now. The bruising is no where near where I hit the light pole. Basically all the soreness and bruising is moving through my quads and thighs as the deep pooled bruising is moving through my muscles. The good news is that I can actually bend my knees now more than a few degrees but my legs will still cramp up going downstairs or a ramp. My trouble is the sore rib. Why? Basically the legs will be back to a point where I can be active again in few days but the rib, well that's another story. That's going to keep my inactive for a while. So for now I don't have any plans but recover and relax. I was thinking about racing at Silverman in November but we'll see how quickly the body heals up. For now I'm just looking forward to some relaxation in Kona in a few weeks. I've been asked a few times now about whether I'm worried about getting on the bike? Absolutely not, to the contrary I'm ready to get back. One of the things you find when you ride is that it's not if you'll fall it's when and how hard. In the past three years I've ridden nearly 14,000 miles and have crashed 3 times. That's a lot of miles and not a lot of falls. So far the tally a broken hand, some scrapes and scratches, two big thigh contusions and a sore rib. More recovery updates as things improve or future race plans solidify. Ironman Canada Crash Report 09/01/2009
I was confident heading into Ironman Canada on Sunday. I had been racing great this season and my training has been fantastic. Probably in the best shape since college. I had a great plan was ready to post a great time. I slept well the night before the race. Went out for a 10 minute jog just before 4am to wake the body up and then had a little breakfast before getting showered and dressed and then walking down to the start. I got my bike tires inflated and my nutrition on my bike hit the porta-potty line which was only about 25 minutes and then got into my wetsuit and headed to the beach. I've been swimming well this year in training and in my other races. I positioned myself just off to the left of the main buoy line in the front row. At the start I got off fast but despite this with 2600 people all going the same place things still got a little physical for the first mile to the first turn. After the first turn I locked into a group of about 10 people and we swam as a group to the finish. I had a great swim, swimming 1:01:07 which was my fastest IM swim split by 4 minutes. In two years I've taken 15 minutes off my IM swim time which is huge. I was out of the water in 221st place and really happy and feeling great. Off on the bike I eased out of transition and got into my rhythm quickly. The first 40 miles of this ride is fast and my plan was to really hold back until I got over Richter Pass. Every few minutes I kept telling myself to back-off, back-off, back-off. I rode a really easy effort but was still just flying. I hit the 40 mile mark at the bottom of Richter Pass with an average of 25.6 mph and I went through the 56 mile mark in 2:22. Just after halfway my stomach staged a revolt, it had been bothering me for about 10 miles but at this point I started to throw-up (ala Norman Stadler in Kona). I continued to try and get nutrition, hydration and electrolytes down but it wasn't working. I was simply hurting at this point. At the out and back section of the course I had to stop at two different aid station porta-potties. As I headed up Yellow Lake which is a Tour De France style section with crowds all over the roads rooting the athletes on I decided that I'd finish the bike but I wasn't going to run. I didn't have anything to prove to anyone or myself by suffering through 26 miles of upset stomach in all likelihood walking most of the marathon in the 90 degree heat and forest fire smoke. I made it over Yellow Lake and descended well into Penticton (I still would have come off the bike in about 6:25). Then about 2 miles from the transition I was coming up to an intersection still going about 25 mph and I went over a steel plate covering a valve or something and my back wheel slipped out to the left and my bike shot right 4 feet into the curb, my front wheel hit the curb and knocked the bike out from under me and I flew off the bike through the air. In that instance I saw that I was going to hit a light pole. I was flying through the air with the pole heading towards my chest and mid section. In that instance I tucked my body a bit and my body rotated a bit and I hit the pole glancing off my ribs and took the direct hit on both thighs and my arm and fell to the ground. I feel really lucky that I didn't hit my head or chest directly into the pole as I probably wouldn’t be writing this if I had. There was a family there watching and a police officer as it was an intersection so they immediately called for a ambulance. I was assessing how badly I was hurt pretty quickly I figured nothing was broken. As I was lying on the ground the kid who was there with his family picked up my bike and was holding it for me, I politely informed him I wasn’t going to be riding it anymore today and he looked at me and said “that was epic”. The ambulance arrived within a couple minutes but pretty funny they parked right in the bike course and I had to tell them to move the ambulance back around the corner. They did a quick assessment to check if anything was broken checked my head and then loaded me on the stretcher and gurney and took me (and my bike) to the medical tent at the transition zone. I was hurting at this point because my legs were starting to cramp not from the crash but from the bike ride. They admitted me and did their triage assessment. The medical tent hadn't really gotten busy yet so it was pretty much just me and about 30 doctors and nurses. They got me in and sitting down and got ice on my legs and cleaned my few cuts and scratches and got me some electrolytes and took my vitals. After about 40 minutes I felt better and got up to try and hobble around. I was getting dizzy so they decided that was due to my stomach problems I was dehydrated so they took me in for an IV. At this point I was on my 4th doctor and would have to give the information and details of the crash over and over again. After two bags of saline they took me over to have a massage therapist to work on my legs a bit. So after 4 hours in the medical tent I started the long slow walk back to my hotel. After a shower, some food and phone calls to family, girlfriend and coach I walked back to the finish to get my bike and transition bags only to have everyone I passed say “congratulations” which I just politely and quietly replied “thanks”, it was just too much to explain. It was not the way I wanted to end my day but better on a day where things weren't going well than on a day when things are going well. Now two days later I’m very sore and not moving much at all as stairs, sitting, standing walking, curbs and getting into and out of bed is a major undertaking, but glad it wasn’t worse. I’m already plotting for my next race. For the record my bike fared much better than I did. A few little scratches on the wheel and handlebar. Thanks for all the support and well wishes and I'll be back to race another day. ****Below are a few pictures from the trip****  My bike is race ready  Race bags and gear is all organized and laid out  T1 bags  Swim start the day before the race. Lake Okanagan  A bit of the aftermath of the crash. Notice the nice detail from the light pole in my contusion.  Another contusion on my bicep. | Training Links
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