Injured.

Now, I'm not the sort to sit and throw myself a pity party. I don't run around going "poor me! poor me!" What I am doing, however, is being really frustrated. I HATE BEING INJURED.

Here's the deal: I began teaching spinning classes about 8 weeks ago. Now, up to that point, I was spinning once, MAYBE twice a week in addition to the weekly ride. I wear tennis shoes in class and put them into the toe cages. So for the last 6 weeks, I've had at least two intense spinning classes/week, and for two of them had 3 (I subbed for somebody). Still, felt fine....

...up until two weeks ago when I began having some pain on the top of my foot. Didn't think anything of it. Then two Saturdays ago we had our awesome ride from Fairfax out to Hwy 1, down the coast and back up, up UP Bolinas Ridge to ride back inland past Alpine Dam and back down to Fairfax. Later that day I went for a 1 1/2 hour trail run through Redwood Regional Park which was also AWESOME. That night I went to a concert at the Fillmore where I stood for 4 hours, literally one person away from Mr. John Butler (TOTALLY worth standing...he was AWESOME!).

Sunday...the top of my foot was totally swollen and I could barely bend my toes without having pain shooting through my foot. I tried to do a light 45 minute swim that afternoon but even the force of the water on top of my foot hurt too much. I got out feeling very upset and defeated...Vineman was 4 weeks away!

Doctor visit last Friday...doctor says he's sure it's not a stress fracture b/c I'd be in a lot more pain if it was. However, he does think there's some pretty bad swelling of the tendons from OVERUSE! So, as I worriedly said "BUT I HAVE A HALF IRONMAN IN 3 WEEKS!!" he said "well, my advice to you is to rest as much as you can in the next week. If you can rest a lot, ice 3 times a day and take the NSAIDs three times a day, I have every bit of confidence this will get better in a week and you'll be fine."

All last year, everybody harped on me to 'train right.'

So...heeding YOUR advice and the doctor's...I made a decision that will help me to be ready for Vineman so I can go kick some triathlete @$$ instead of kicking some WC Velo cyclist @$$ and ruining myself. Hence, did not make that awesome, awesome ride last Saturday which was a battle royale, to say the least. It sounded like lots of fun. [Sticking out bottom lip here and pouting] I HATE missing fun. >:-P

Still, it was the right decision. I know my race day competitiveness would've come out to play last Saturday, and it really was the last thing I needed for my foot. Swelling is getting better. I have a different doctor appointment today with Dr. Hannaford. Seems he's the running guru. I'm already going to get orthotics for my shoes because I have nearly flat feet, but it will be nice to have another opinion from somebody who really JUST works with athletes. However, I was impressed with my podiatrist I saw through my insurance as well.

So, we'll see what happens. The interesting thing I've noted is that for the last few weeks, I've been training about 11-12 hours/week and never felt better. I've taken the last 3 days off and my back is SO STIFF! Amazing how our bodies show us how much they love exercise.

Still working on my report from one of the best weekends of the year - the Berryessa Swim/Tahoe Ride. I need to convert my videos so that I can hopefully upload them to YouTube so that I can post them in the report. That will come soon...

More later. Let's hope the foot keeps getting better, because I WANT TO ROCK VINEMAN!!