I finished!

If there is still anyone that checks this blog, this will be one of my last posts. This post is simply to share a video that Mette has put together of my Vineman event. I had an absolute blast and really tried to enjoy every minute of this experience. The video is posted on YouTube and is a little too long to just upload here. Follow this link to the video.

What a difference a letter makes.

After all that noise I made about making a doctors appointment, I didn't even go. It's almost like my leg knew I was talking about it and decided it had played out it's hand. I woke up last Thursday morning and it felt better. My thinking is that it is getting better on it's own and in general I feel the best medicine is to allow it to rest and recover on it's own.

Good news is I did run for about 2 miles on Sunday and it felt OK. Not great, just OK. I'll continue to slowly build up my workout routine again over the next few weeks in hopes to get back on track. There is still 5+ months of training remaining before my event on August 1 which I am confident will be sufficient. If I end up a little undertrained, but healthy, that will be so much better than overtrained and hurt. This is what I have always stressed to the runners in the marathon program and now it is time for me to listen to my own advice. I even got a reminder of this in a fortune cookie the other day. It said something to the effect of... To be successful in life, you must learn to listen to your own advice... Sounds good to me, I'll have to do that.

I did get a new bike last week and I'm looking forward to getting on the road with it. I'm going to do a trainer workout tonight with the team. Depending on how that goes, I'll do a real ride later in the week.

I've got to be careful not to become too much of a whiner. It's been three weeks since I got injured and it's still not good enough to do any serious working out on. It's driving me nuts and now doubt about my ability to stay (get) healthy is starting to creep into my mind. I'm not sure why, but I have been hesitating making an appointment with the doctor. Perhaps it's because I am so sure by the time he got around to referring me to the right specialist, my leg would be all better on it's own. I did break down finally, so now I do actually have an appointment on Thursday... Any one want to take any bets on what he's going to do? Here is the scenario as I see it going down. After I tell him how I injured it, he tells me about Rest-Ice-Compress and Elevate and here is a prescription for some industrial strength anti-inflammatory (basically 800mg. of Advil). "Call me in a week". Guess what doc, I've been doing that for 3 weeks... This is the Kaiser way I swear. If they hold you off long enough you won't need to see a specialist because you get all better (maybe) on your own. Of course I do it to myself by not making an appointment right away. Had I done that, I would have been in the system already and who knows, I might not be in the same boat as I am now.
I really shouldn't be so cynical. Kaiser has been good for our family as a whole. I just have to play the game. I'm hoping I can convince the doc to get me in line for an MRI so I can get a better picture of whats going on in there. I'll give an update on this later in the week. In the mean time, I'll try to keep enjoying laying around getting fat and lazy.

STOP, THIEF!!
Some jerk stole my bike out of my truck last night. I was parked right in front of my house and this asshole had the balls to break into my truck and make off with my bike... Can you tell I'm a little upset off about this. In the grand scheme of things it's not the end of the world, but it still hurts a little. I've been trying to see the upside of this situation, but I haven't quite gotten there yet. My bike was getting a little old. I mean I bought it almost a whole year ago and the rear tire was getting a little worn from the trainer sessions... No it's not working, I liked my bike and it's going to cost me to replace it. Maybe that's the upside, I get to help the economy by going out and buying a new bike. Anyway, in the end it is just a thing that can be replaced and it will be fun looking for a new bike. I'm a little torn if I should get a triathlon specific bike or another straight road bike. Any thoughts?

JAZ IS IN THE HOUSE!

On a much happier note, meet Jaz, the latest addition to the Thallaug family. We adopted him last week and he is a sweetheart. The SPCA estimated his age at about 4-5 month, I think he might be a little older. No matter, he's going to be a great dog as soon as I get him to stop chewing on everything. He was listed as a hound mix and his markings are almost spot on for an American Fox Hound. I'm not sure what else he might be. All I know is that he is going to be a great running companion one of these days.

Things have been hit or miss as far as training goes. A couple of weeks ago I injured my quad and it is still not good. It's probably time to see the doc, just to be safe. I don't think it is anything really serious, but it is not getting better fast enough. I know the best thing to do is to lay low for a while, but it's hard sitting on the sidelines when you know there is so much you need to be doing. I will try to do the smart thing and back off till it gets better. At least I can still swim. I thought that cycling would still be OK, but I know better now after the bike leg last Sunday. Running is definitely out of the question. Any kind of load on the leg is painful in a really bad charlie horse kind of a way