Week 9: Recovery Week

This week I am (kind of) embarrassed to admit that I didn't do anything. If you remember, in September I was riding my bike home and was "doored" by a parked truck. The driver opened his door about 6 feet in front of me. I hit with my right side, flew off my bike and landed in the street on my left side. My 33 year old steel bike was destroyed but I was relatively ok. That is, until now. I've had a slow recovery with physical therapy and the chiropractor but for the last 2 weeks my lower back has been acting up. Something I have never experienced before and found it quite challenging. I also walked to and from work every day this week as I didn't win parking in the lottery this month...and it rained pretty much every day.

Monday - Rest Day
Thank god. Went shopping for a holiday party outfit with Elektra. No luck. Went to Suppenkueche for dinner. Yum.

Tuesday
My pool is still closed so planned on spinning in the morning but felt more like sleeping in. Then at night felt more like just vegging out and watching TV. My Boyfriend (TiVo) is lonely. Saw my chiro in the morning and he cracked it out, massaged and put me on "stim" (skeletomuscular electrostimuloation....it feels good, I swear). Felt great.

Wednesday
Track day but had dinner plans that night. Half-heartedly tried to persuade Yi to run in the in morning instead. Didn't work. I decided to do my stretch video and some core in the morning instead. I spent the rest of the day regretting that decision as my back killed me the entire day. It was so bad at one point that I felt like I was going to throw up. Called my chiropractor and left a message on his voicemail through tears. Left early and cried most of the 45 minute walk home. By the end of it I felt ok, less pain. Iced my back before I went out (old lady) and felt good the rest of the night. I am sure the three beers helped too.

Thursday
Saw my chiro in the morning and he told me that, eventually, I am going to be fine. That even though stretching is good for my back, it's not a good idea first thing out of bed and my pain the day before was basically my back giving me a big F.U. I was relieved that this should be a temporary problem. The discomfort is just horrible. I feel like I have no core muscles and because of that my back doesn't have support and is falling into my pelvis. Heh. That is not true of course but I've been sucking my gut in a lot. Felt good the rest of the day. Skipped a potentially fun holiday party to go home and ice my back and veg out to TV.

Friday
Back feels good. Finally got out my second fundraising reminder and am happy to report that I made my first fundraising deadline of $1,000 by December 14. The next deadline is March and it's $3,000. Working on planning a fundraising party for February. Tonight was my work holiday party at Asia SF. The Fabulous Jojo accompanied me. Was worried about managing a late night and open bar with an early Saturday morning Iron University (we learn about some Ironman things). I didn't really drink (and when I say I didn't really drink I mean I had three), danced a lot and before I knew it was 1am. Oops.

Saturday
Back feels like crap after all that dancing. Got up and made it to Sports Basement by 8:30am. Then sat for 4 hours in a metal chair in the freezing back room at the store while we learned about stuff. After "university" we had lunch. Mel sat down next to me and was telling me about how "no offence" but she is really concerned about her weight and all this eating/training. To which I looked down at my bag of Baked Lays and immediately felt guilty and silently put them down. Then I obsessed for the next 40 minutes about what she meant by "no offence." Bought two new ice packs on the way out. Came home, cleaned and was in my pajamas by 4pm and asleep by 9pm.

Sunday - Sprint Triathlon in Cupertino
Yeah, did I mention I didn't do any training this week? Also, my chiro insisted I "take it easy" on this race and not do it for time....which of course means nothing to me. Woke up at 5am and was out the door by 6:20 and on my way to the Stevens Creek Reservoir. It wasn't too cold in the city but in Cupertino it was a freezing 44 degrees...or maybe colder.

on the road

in Cupertino and freezing

Swim- 600 yards aka 1/4 of a mile
We had our wetsuits on and were headed down to the water by 8am. With the windchill, it was pretty cold, though the sun was out. Just standing around and waiting to go in the water was horrible. My toes were pretty much frozen in about 15 minutes. The coaches had us start in waves. I was assigned to the 3rd one but snuck into the 2nd one just to get it over with. Got in the water, floundered around, let water in my suit to warm up, peed (makes it warmer) and then we were starting. The swim was over before I even knew it. Felt pretty good about it even though my new thing is to start panicking during the last leg. It's weird, as soon as I can see the shore/finish line I start to freak out and hyperventilate. Also, my wetsuit is too big now and it's causing some chaffing and fatigue. Got out of the water and was surprised to discover that my face was completely numb...like Novocaine numb. That has never happened to me before. Made it up to transition and got ready for the bike.

Bike - 12 miles
I cannot express how cold this bike ride was. I swim with my tri shorts and sports bra under my wetsuit so my base layer is already wet...and my hair...and it's 44 degrees out. I saw frost, people. Got dressed and cried out when trying to get my socks on completely frozen feet. Yi got out of the water shortly after me so we were able to take off on the bike together. My toes alternated between feeling like bricks of ice to then thawing a bit on the climbs and aching with pain. I suffered this for about 50 minutes and then we were done.

heading off on the bike

Run- 3 miles
Yi and I got our stuff on for the run. In this picture below it's probably about 50 degrees out now but my shorts and sports bra and hair are still wet. The first 1/4 of mile was a steep downhill and given that neither Yi nor I could feel our ankles, feet and toes we decided to walk it. Then we kind of shuffled along and realized we needed to walk still. We walked about a half mile until the feeling came back and it wasn't quite so painful to run. We did pretty good. It was a quick out and back and we picked up on our speed quite a bit after the turn around.

out on the run

All in all, a very cold and tiring day. But rewarding. Yi and I came in at 1:48 which probably breaks down like 10-12 minutes for the swim, 50 minutes on the bike and 40 minutes on the run plus transition time. Came home and slept about 3-4 hours. Yay!