The Three R's

Ok, time to put on the big boy pants!

It’s what Jaime had written in my Training Peaks log for my first week back in Bend.  It couldn’t have been more appropriate. 

It had been two weeks since my injury and I wasn’t handling the inactivity very well.  I was tired of feeling helpless, so to speak, in the recovery of my foot.  Jaime kept instilling in me that I needed to be patient, not to worry, rest, relax, recover – the three r’s.

 

The foot was slowly feeling better.  I was now able to put my full weight on the ball of my foot without pain.  The joint was still a bit puffed but not bothering me.  What was bothering me was the inactivity and lack of focused training.  As a person who was overweight at one time I kept thinking all the inactivity would cause me to be like that girl in Willy Wonka that blew up into an oversized beach ball and had to be rolled out of the movie by the Oompa Loompas. 

When I injured my foot I had one salvation and that was swimming.  Still, my swimming sessions were clunky at best.  No flip turns, couldn’t point my toes, all buoy.  Save for one nice pool in Whitefish, MT, my swimming options were pretty much catch as catch can.  The most memorable came at Fairmont Hot Springs where my swim workout became the talk of a drunken group of rednecks and a gaggle of middle school Lolitas.  Perhaps the sign on the pool reminding patrons that only one alcoholic drink could be consumed at a time while at the pool should have been a dead give away that I was no longer at Juniper Pool. 

The return to the bike was a bit smoother.  I purchased some clipless pedals so that I could ride my mountain bike with regular shoes.  The attempts at this went well.  I rode the forest service roads and climbed the hills around Georgetown Lake, Montana without discomfort.  It felt good and I could feel the bit in my mouth that I was chomping.  I was ready to charge out of the starting gate and make up for lost time.  My family and I were returning to Bend and I was already planning a ride out to Elk Lake to see how the foot was going to feel in clips. 

Our return coincided with some of the warmest weather Bend had seen in some time.  We got to the house and I flipped on the air conditioning.  I tried to remember the last time I had to use the air conditioner.  We unpacked and I set things out for my ride.  One would have thought after two weeks of sleeping in a various assortment of beds that my bed at home would be so comforting that I’d sleep sound and hard.  It didn’t happen.  I was warm and tossed and turned all night.  It was clear that our AC wasn’t a happy camper and with guests coming in a couple of days it was imperative that it be fixed quickly.  I called the repairman and resigned myself to the fact that the ride would have to wait. 

As I folded laundry I reflected, ok brooded, on how the events of the day had transpired against me and kept me off the road.  In reality it was probably divine intervention.  For my first ride back in clips I probably didn’t need to ride 60 miles and climb over 4000 feet in elevation.  Had I been able to ride out to Elk Lake I more than likely would have pushed it and potentially damaged my foot and set myself back further and possibly messed up my chances at racing at Lake Stevens.  As it stands now I’ll get back on track with a manageable training schedule that will allow me to gradually work back into the swim, bike, and run without taxing my system or potentially causing more damage to my foot.  Lake Stevens will still be the goal and we’ll see if I can fit a couple of other smaller races onto the docket depending upon how my foot feels.  My guess is that it will be a game day decision for a couple more weeks.

It’s hard to sit back and rest, relax, and recoup while everyone else around you is training and racing.  It requires patience, maturity, and not looking for immediate gratification.  In essence, it requires growing up a bit.

Time to slip on those big boy pants.  Hopefully they will fit me.  It’s time to get back (albeit slowly and smartly) onto a regular and consistent training schedule.