An Injury is a Setback - Mission 16/60

I'll be honest - having an injury sucks! And I'm not exactly doing a perfect job of dealing with it. As you may know I had a solo bike crash on February 14th. It was yet another challenge to deal with Mission 16/60. Everyone has challenges to face any time they undertake something new or difficult. With triathlon, especially with the longer distances (70.3 and 140.6 miles), the amount of training and time that goes into preparation is significant. And even though you may have goals and ambitions, LIFE happens. Illness, injury, family concerns, job concerns, other commitments - there are just so many things that can derail you or change plans or interrupt what you thought you were committed to.
as I have been working towards my short and long term goals, including

The biggest challenges, until the bike crash, have had nothing to do with triathlon training. The loss of my "day job" after surviving an incredibly stressful 12+ months has proved to be a significant disturbance in my mindset and mental health. In the process I've been reminded that I thrive on structure and routine and not having that makes everything a little more challenging. Seeing the job loss as an "opportunity" was easy to say but taking action on that opportunity is something else altogether.

On the day of the bike crash some of those feelings - anger, disappointment, regret, and especially frustration - were still hovering there in the background. I rode on my own that day in order to enjoy a little of the freedom that going on a 60 mile ride under your own physical power on a beautiful day can provide. The crash happened so fast that there wasn't time to avoid it. It was a silly mistake mainly caused by a lack of attention.

These past few weeks have been very frustrating. At first the frustration stemmed from knowing I made a mistake that could have been avoided. The feelings have also included regret knowing that while Linda is here for me, helping me "pick up the pieces" and get back to normal, it is something I wish she didn't have to do. There is also  a bit of sadness and disappointment because I know I can't be 100% for Ironman California 70.3 (Oceanside) as training takes a back seat to healing and recovering.

When you train for triathlon, especially when you start doing 70.3's and fulls, you begin to view yourself as superhuman in some ways. You think, "I swam 2 and a half miles, rode a bike 112 miles, and then ran a marathon. That was hard and I did a LOT of training just to prepare. How hard can it be to get back in the pool now and swim a couple thousand yards and then go ride for a few hours?" If you've been sick, or injured, or sidelined for whatever reason, the answer is that it can still be damned hard!

You are NOT immune to having normal human responses to training. Just because you rode your bike 100 miles on 6 different occasions while you trained for a race last year doesn't mean you can just jump back on the bike and crank out another 100 miles now if you haven't done a proper build up to do it. Just because swimming 4000 meters in about an hour is something you can go back into your training log and find that you did more than once doesn't mean that swimming 2500 yards in the pool after 3 weeks off is going to be easy. It is remarkably hard to remember this when you've grown accustomed to being able to do these things. However, starting back up exactly where you left off is going to catch up with you. You are inviting injury or other setbacks if you don't properly prepare the body, even if your mind is prepared.

Take the time to build back up to where you were before the injury or setback. Allow for more recovery time. Don't sacrifice your future progress for a quick, feel good workout that makes you believe (falsely) that you can just pick up where you left off. There has to have been an erosion of your strength and conditioning. How much depends on where you happened to be with your training when the set back occurred. Maybe it will be just a few days or maybe it will take many weeks to get back to where you were. Patience is critical, as is forgiving yourself for "losing ground".

With all of this said I must admit that I am not a poster boy to hold up as an example. I'm in the midst of trying to claw my way back into training, probably too quickly if you ask Linda. It is, and will continue to be, anything but a straight line back into "normal" training.