Well this was a challenging week on the training front for sure. I was able to get in most workouts but I definitely suffered in the confidence category tied to pain resurfacing in my surgically repaired ankle. As for the totals, I trained 153 miles. Two Swims. One Brick Workout albeit a very short run. Two straight runs.........I had to miss one tied to the pain. One straight trainer ride and a long 80 mile bike. The week was going very well until midday on Wednesday. Tuesday night I had a tough trainer ride followed by a 15 minute run. It went very well. I woke up early on Wednesday for a 4am 6 mile run. This also went fine. I experienced zero pain during the run but hours later, shooting pain developed right where my torn tendon was repaired. It was not a consistent pain. It would come and go but if I stepped down the wrong way, the pain was a 10 on a scale of 1-10. It was very discouraging for sure. I could not do a toe raise without excruciating pain which was not a great sign but I held on to hope or at least I tried to. On Thursday, I stuck to a swim only and pushed my scheduled trainer ride to Friday morning. I was happy that the 90 minute trainer ride only produced minimal pain if I was sitting up in the seat. When my ankle was at its worst, I could not get out of the saddle so I, of course, tried to get out of the saddle and it did not initiate pain. I swam again Friday night then slept on the thought of trying my long run on Saturday. My kids had soccer and softball games so I did not have to make a decision about the run until the afternoon and that is when I chose to give it a shot. I was extremely nervous. My thought process was that in a worst case scenario, I just need to get off the bike in Kona with enough time to walk the course if my ankle is in a bad place. That being said, I was prepared to walk 13 miles on Saturday. The schedule only called for a 110 minute run but I figured I would need to cover as many miles walking as I would running. I began the walk and a few minutes in changed the settings on my Garmin to a 1 minute run, 3 minute walk. I gingerly started out for the first minute of run. I was literally crawling only slightly faster than if I was walking. I felt the pain but I tried to push through hoping it would pass. Not to get all religious on you but at this point, I gave it all to God. I asked him to hold me together and I just kept my 1-3 interval. 13.1 miles later I had survived. I was definitely not 100% but I felt okay with the results. On Sunday the big test would be a 5 hour ride and while I felt a little pain at the beginning of the ride I had no pain by the end. As I sit here to type, I have intermittent pain but nothing too terrible and thankfully I am in the middle of a recovery week. I can handle the pain. What troubles me is the uncertainty. I never take a step with 100% confidence and that forces me to be uneasy all of the time. All I can do is keep moving forward. My goal is to get to the start line healthy. If I do that and extreme circumstances do not invade my race day (10 flat tires as an example), I can get to the finish line......KNOCK ON WOOD!!
As for fundraising, I am still not pushing very hard but I did post daily on Facebook while I continued to work with friends and family to get things in order for a big push. We raised approximately $2,000 more which is really nice. A friend and teammate of mine from the 2006 Ironteam that went to Ironman Coeur d'Alene surprised me with a really nice donation on Sunday night. Some folks that had never heard my story stepped up and then there were folks that have stood by my side many times that came to the rescue yet again. I am so blessed to have crossed paths with some amazing people..........the blessings that came from my trying times. I just sent out the first batch of letters in the mail today and as soon as I click 'publish' on this post I will continue stuffing envelopes, sending emails all while watching Gonzaga and North Carolina play some hoops.
Chat with you next week. If you are so inclined to make a donation and join this #Road2Kona, you can do so by clicking
HERE.
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