(Not) back at it

Posted by Katie

I don't have a training plan in place for the Ironman... and I have on good authority that Matt does not either. It's not that I haven't thought about it but more that I just have no idea where to start... I loved my half-iron plan... can I just double that? Unclear.

I do have this vague elephant in the room feeling like I should be doing something....

Seen on our drive last week... subtle... very subtle.

My other excuse is that my lower back is still somehow a total disaster from my injury in September. Mine is a classic story of how NOT to recover from an injury, here is what I did:

1.  Have a massive fall trail running
2.  Take exactly 1 day off and then go right back to half-iron training/tapering
3.  Have some clear signs that something is no right on a run, swim the next day hard anyway
4. Barely stumble back to the car post swim
5. Carry on and do a half-ironman anyway
6. Run half marathon harder than intended
7. Smarten up and decide NOT to do CIM* (my only smart move)
8. Move apartments and completely trash any recovery of back in the process
9. Go to the doctors and told pain killers and rest...
10. Do nothing for 1 month
11.  Try to run 4 miles.. feel terrible, continue doing nothing
12. Ski hard on icy conditions, realize that everything hurts
13. FINALLY smarten up and book massages/PT appointments/all the things

 I have been really un-smart about this whole thing that really should have been long since healed and wasn't even a major injury in the first place. So instead of base building I am crankily sitting on the couch. The good news is I found an awesome physical therapist whose hobbies include... wait for it... "swimming, biking, running and alpine skiing".  This person did not even bat an eyelash when I said I was doing an Ironman in July, his first question was "Cool! Which one?". I've only had one evaluation appointment so far but I am really hopeful. So far the theory is that a nerve root in my lumbar spine area is being pressed causing pain and left side weakness. It was crazy how week my toe strength was on the left side (implicates the L4 vertebrae)... that explains so much about my telemark ski turns on the left side also :P 

Stock Xray picture... I don't think HIPAA 

I had an xray last week, PT and a massage coming up this week... here's to 2015 getting healthy!