Thursday, May 6, 2010

Recovery continues...

So as the days wear on....and I am still tired and sore by the way. Longest IM recovery to date. I thought a short run sounded good this AM but it was much shorter than planned and soon became a nice walk. My quads are trashed. The foam roller is still a pure torture session but one I try to endure a few times a day. I went to swim and after 1200 got out, why? Because I wanted to and I was tired.

Recovery from training is key to maximizing your next training session...recovering from IM is about feeling normal again and then maybe thinking about training. Since I returned home. I took my bike off the car, rinsed off the nastiness and hung it up in my office. Still up there, race wheels still on and no driving motivation to take it down. I rode my 20 year old Mtn Bike with my dog this morning, only because I could not run with him.

The license to eat what I want when I want has to expire soon. The first few days it is easily justified, I burned close to 10,000 calories and my body is in a caloric deficit?? Right, but when Thursday rolls around and I have been working hard to fill the deficit, reality says, time to back off the food. Its not like its cookies and processed junk, I am eating mostly good food- lots of dried fruit, nuts, avocado, chicken and fluids (as long as they are not fruit punch, lemon lime or orange flavored- which bring back IM memories). I actually have ankles today! Seems the cankles are subsiding. But good food also add pounds...so time to get back on the pay attention to what I eat train.

Sleep...I am still making up for lost sleep. Getting 8-9 hours of that solid, wake up drooling kind of sleep each night and am loving that. Hope that lasts for a while.

I was still so tired yesterday that I fell dead asleep during an MRI- they nurse was shaking my leg when it was done. So more on that....shoulder felt great on the swim (maybe it was the duct tape) and terrible on the bike. After I am aero for 90 minutes the shooting pains start and it is just no fun. As if Ironman is not enough!


So after the race I had an Arthogram + MRI. You can follow the link for the text book definition of an Arthogram or you can read mine....lay on the table, take an xray, large- really large needle is aimed at shoulder, exactly where the pain is, and it goes in. Now this is the lidocane and it burns as it goes in. Oh right and don't move since there is a giant needle in your shoulder. Lay there and it goes numb. Another needle for more lidocaine deeper. Wait and then out of my peripheral vision I see what looks like a 5ft needle coming towards me. Now this is when he puts the contrast into the joint and this is when I close my eyes and practice deep zen breathing.

Okay done- not painful so much but terrifying.

Off to the MRI for 30 minutes in a very small, dark, loud chamber. They hook me up with the noise cancelling head phones, put on 103.7 and away I go. I am trying to relax thinking why did I stop at Starbucks on the way, I need total relaxation, not caffeination. But amazing within 2 minutes I am out, so out I don't realize the procedure is over. The nurse says wow, you were very relaxed did you take a Valium. I say no, I did an Ironman.

So now we wait....hopefully there is no tear! If no tear then I do ART and PT and get the impingement worked out. If there is a tear, I suffer through October and then go under the knife to get it fixed before next season.

Oh the joys of being injured!

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