Somewhat Back in Action
Let’s keep this story short. One thing led to another, I had a sudden freak plantar fascia strain on mile 1 of a long run on a completely ordinary day despite no previous problems with that foot ever, and I ended up out of commission throughout April.
Regardless, I certainly have not been bored! Between administering, staffing, and sometimes coaching at nearly 40 workouts per week between ATC, Energy Lab, plus our corporate initiative with Turner, and all the other stuff that goes with managing small businesses. Also, I have been coaching a GREAT group of athletes, writing and getting published more regularly, and am now also serving on the USAT Southeast Regional Council. Overall, it has been a busy and fun spring!
May has been a rebuilding month and gradual return to training. Lots of water running, then Alter-G’ing, then a combo approach of the three, and now I’ve moved on to about half Alter-G and half regular running. Huge thanks to Josh Glass and Georgia Sports Chiropractic- without access to the Alter-G I certainly would not have been able to jump back into decent run training so soon! I should note I’ve learned that “rehabbing” takes up more time than regular training! Between driving to special locations to train, taking special steps to ensure you won’t hurt yourself, doing extra exercises and therapies, it’s like an extra 8 hours a week on top of normal training!
Cycling hard hurt my foot for several weeks so I got a litte hiatus there, too (read: I got out of shape) I have definitely done a lot more spectating than ever before and it’s been great in some ways but not so great in others. Namely, the fact that it’s nearly June and I haven’t “raced” and also because I have all my big races looming and fitness is a big question mark right now.
Here’s what’s been happening in race world..
Thanks for hosting, mom and dad!
April- Florida 70.3
I did the swim/bike for this race and it was a ton of fun. Got off the bike in 5th even with the hiccups so I felt pretty good about that, since normally I am trying to run up from farther back. Had many club members and some folks I’ve been coaching race and it was VERY exciting to watch. My parents also volunteered to host the pre-race party which was a blast. (Thanks, you guys!!!) Amazingly they agreed to do it again so this race is certainly on the schedule for 2015 again.
April- John Tanner
John made the podium!
This was my first triathlon six years ago. I have done it nearly every year- this year was only the second time I haven’t been able to. I did opt to transfer to a relay and Chrissy graciously agreed to be my runner. It ended up being hilarious but certainly entertaining! I had to walk transitions and was terrified of hurting my foot during those and the bike… Chrissy was less than a week post-Boston. Let’s just say there were no PRs.. but it was a good time.
On a non-triathlon related note, I have had the space to enjoy a few weekends that didn’t involve training at all. In April, I also got to travel to Charlotte to reconnect with a group of girlfriends from high school…. one is getting married and one just had a baby (aren’t we too young to have kids?!)
We also had a great trip to St John for Todd and Lauren’s wedding. Not much training to be had, but we did swim for miles in the beautiful clear water, including one rather epic “swim to dinner” where we swam to a place about 1.5 away through unknown waters.
Overall, it is never fun to be injured, but I am reminded of how fortunate I am to be able to swim, bike, run, and be relatively healthy.
