Ironman Training: The Roller Coaster
This past week has felt like an unpleasant and slightly nauseating roller coaster ride. It started good with me being able to ride on my trainer several days in a row without any real discomfort. I even put in 42 miles on Tuesday! I thought I was all set to get back to training again.
I was cleared to run short distances on Wednesday and did a slow 3 miles on my treadmill pain free! However, as I've increased my activity, the pain in my right shoulder has lingered, despite not swimming for several days. My chiropractor and PT urged me to have it looked at as soon as possible. Of course, if I wasn't under the time constraint of the event, they each said they would wait a few weeks and see how it progresses. Unfortunately, time is of the essence, I have less than 5 weeks until the race.
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So, I was seen today by an orthopedic surgeon and he is questioning if I have a tear in my labrum. Once again, he said he would wait a month to see how I progress before imaging it, but I do have the time pressure so he ordered an MRI.
Sometimes it can take a week or two to get in for an MRI. Fortunately, I have a few connections! I'm not one to typically use them, but I'm feeling quite desperate for information and resolution. So, thankfully, I have a good friend who set me up to have it done tomorrow. Then, I will have some definitive answers about proceeding. The physician I saw said that if it is a tear, no more training. I need to rest it and see if it will heal on it's own. Of course, this is disappointing, but it will be good to know one way or another what path I need to take. I don't want to keep pushing and cause further injury. However, if it is something that I can work through, I would like to salvage the training time and move forward.
Once again, I was feeling very depressed about the potential of a significant shoulder injury. I was worried about my knee last week! I had just started feeling optimistic again, since I had started back slowly biking and running. As I was wallowing in my misery, I got a call from one of my best friends. She is the kindest, most loving, generous soul I have ever known. Her husband was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer in March. She wanted to let me know that the cancer had spread to his brain and they are terminating treatment. He will be going home on Hospice care at the end of the week. He is young and they have a young child, It is Not Fair! I am absolutely heart broken. He has just a few weeks left and would love to be able to take his beautiful, sweet wife out to dinner again and see his daughter celebrate another birthday. This news was like a cold bucket of water being thrown in my face. I have been moping around about potentially not doing the Ironman this year, but there is next year or the year after, or 5 years from now for me at this point. It truly is a minuscule setback in the grand scheme of life and I feel a bit ashamed of wasting time being upset about it!I should know more by this weekend, but in the meantime, I'll be busy enjoying life!
