Road to recovery.

Quick update as I import a CD to itunes then sync it with my ipod shuffle-

So, I am yet to post my DNF horror story, but for any of you that my have heard, I DNFed one of the biggest races I've competed at. Yeah, I have a 1/2 complete blog waiting to be posted that talks about how upsetting it was. I'll post it soon.

Long story short, I've been injured since mid July. I raced on a bad hip and made it worse. I was paralyzed for a few days, tried to recovery quickly but my body didn't allow it. I took the ENTIRE month of August off of racing. I didn't stop working out, but I did stop racing on the weekends. It was very depressing and refreshing at the same time.

On Sunday, 6 weeks after my injury, I raced Barefoot Triathlon in Traverse City, MI. I had been running 30 min runs during the week but wasn't sure if I was going to be able to race like I normally do. I was scared that yet again, I was going to get off of my bike (hopefully in the lead), take a step and realize that it just wasn't going to happen. Luckily, that wasn't the story.

When I finished the bike leg of the race, (which, for the record, was the hardest bike course EVER) I ran into transition ready to start the run. I stuck my frozen toes into my run shoes. There was alot of pressure because there were a ton of people doing relays and all of the relayers were staring at my and cheering me on. I kept jamming my foot in the shoe but it was stuck, i looked down at my frozen toes and saw this lil piggy (my favorite pinky toe) sticking out of the shoe bent back like a gumby doll. My feet were so numb that i didn't realized I was breaking the lil guy off. I rejoined my pinky toe with the others and headed off. I started the run and ran my heart out. Literally, my heart was pumping outside of my chest. I'm pretty sure that i was pumping at an average bpm of 200 for the entire run. About 3/4 mile in I saw the 2nd place female and about 3/4 of a mile til the end I saw 2nd place female become 1st place female. No worries, I was just happy to finish the run w/out pain! Race results show that I ran my fastest 5k ever. I think the course was short- 3miles not 3.125. If that was the case, then at least I ran the 8min/miles I normally run. Which I'm satisfied with. Well, utimately, i HATE running 8:00min/miles but I will take it. My body rejects speed work and I keep getting injured over and over again. So, at this point, maintaining my speed from last year is good enough. I had ran 12 miles in the last 6 weeks. I'm happy I didn't lose anything.


The good news- i think I'm going to be okay. My panic attacks about not finishing Ironman have subsided. I think I will be able to finish and I *think I won't need an EMS at the end of it. Good news, eh?

Coach wrote my "get back into run shape" plan for the next month so I'm confident that if I stick with the plan, I'll be in good shape to race the half IM at club nationals followed by the 140.6 a month later. We'll see. Pray for me. Actually, don't pray for me, just hand me an ice pack or drugs when you see me. That'll probably serve a greater purpose. ;D thanks guys.

Okay, my lil pink ipod is ready to rock out. You'll hear from me again soon. Bye!!!