*Left: 16 months* *Right: 11 months*
April started off rough for me.
Ankle Pain
I felt the familiar tingling pain in my posterior tibial tendons of my ankles that I felt before both of them failed and led to me getting my surgeries. It was really unexplainable because I have been paying such great attention to how my feet feel during and after every workout to make sure that I am not pushing myself too far. In this moment of terror over some of the pain returning, my mind came up with a million "What if?" scenarios. Around the same time, I happened to watch a random movie that had a firefighter coming back from an injury. His motto was to stay off the What If? Bus. When my friends and colleagues commented on the fact that I was limping again and my spirit was breaking, that is how I responded when they asked me what this return in pain meant for my road to recovery.
Repeat after me: We are NOT going to take a ride on the What If? Bus.
The only What if? I entertained was: What if this will pass as quickly as it came on?
Only one choice ------------------------->
The Plague
I later found out that my ankle pain may have been an early warning signal that I was getting sick. A few days later, I came down with a high fever, body aches, nausea, vertigo, a cough....just to name a few of my symptoms. I rarely get sick, as in 1 bad time every few years and nothing but 1-2 day colds/viruses in between. I took to my normal regimen of NyQuil and DayQuil cold and flu, which contain a nice cocktail of drugs that fight almost any illness. It was a Tuesday when I first realized I was coming down with something. By Wednesday morning, I was full fledged sick, so sick that I had to cancel my classes and take the day off from work. The next two days, I had things that I couldn't miss with my students, so I came in just for teaching and went straight home after that. By the time I realized how sick I was, I had already missed the window that going to the doctor and getting some kind of prescription would help me. So ultimately, I ended up on literal bed rest for an entire week. No workouts. Bare minimum work. It took the whole next week to get back into my normal routine.
The only perk of getting sick-> Forced rest for my feet. It wasn't nearly as hard to take a week off of training since I was too sick to train anyways. By the time my body felt better, my feet did too. Crisis averted.
TRI Training
My swimming continues to improve. I'm sub 6 mins at the 300m distance now, despite missing 3 practices due to my illness.
In terms of biking, now that the weather is warmer, I'm biking outside a few times a week. My handling and overall riding skills are improving. My biggest weakness is climbing hills. My lower body power and calf strength took a huge hit with all that non and partial weight bearing time. I'm working on my leg strength in my gym workouts but it will take more time to get back to my pre-surgery power.
Running- well, we know I can't quite do that yet. I have developed an awesome power/race walk technique. I am technically walking (one foot is always on the ground), but at more of a jog rhythm. I do walk/jog intervals fairly well by alternating this type of walking with more traditional jogging. It has brought my mile time down considerably, now hovering between 12 and 13 mins per mile. Speedy!!!!
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2014- The most AMAZING Day!
5:00 am- Alarm
5:05 am- Win #1: Checked email and saw that I had received the top rankings possible in my first peer faculty evaluation (Another faculty member observed my teaching and wrote an evaluation)
5:45-7:15 am- Win #2: Swim practice, another great workout
9:00 am- Win #3: Found out that my local bike shop opened early enough for me to drop my bike off before going to work. After a near crash on the Sunday prior to this day, I needed to get the gears checked out and routine maintenance performed.
10:25 am- Win #4: Received a phone call from a neighboring university telling me that I was selected for a prestigious research fellowship to be completed alongside my faculty position at my university
10:30 am- Win #5: As I was on the phone with the previous person, I received a call from one of my research mentors giving me the opportunity to join her in writing a grant.
11:15 am- Win #6: As I was teaching, I received a call from a company rep telling me that an expensive piece of equipment I ordered is due to be shipped (after a few months of jumping through hoops for approval from my university)
4:30 pm- Win #7: The health statistics course I created finally got formally approved to be added to our curriculum after almost 4 months stuck in the approval process.
5:30 pm- Win #8: I went to pick up my bike and they returned my bike with the gear problems fixed and the tune-up performed...all FREE of charge! My bike is fixed meaning I can get back out on the road AND it didn't cost me anything??? So cool.
After picking up my bike, I went home, ate dinner, showered, and jumped in my bed. I stayed up past midnight reflecting on what an amazing day it was. I didn't want it to end. In one day I had achieved so much greatness professionally and physically. I guess I have built up a lot of good Karma with everything that I have been through.
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Reflection
I stayed positive and dodged a major bullet with my feet. They weren't really re-injured. I fought trough my sickness and got my life back on track to set up for one of the best days of my life. After a short sick leave break, I continued to stick to my training. My first race since my surgeries, a sprint triathlon (300m pool swim/12 mile bike/5k run) is in a few weeks. Physically, I feel ready. Mentally....not sure, that is another battle I will have to fight. The pieces of my life continue to fall back into place. I am learning day by day just how strong I am and was to make it through these surgeries to present, a place where I am excelling again in all areas of my life.
And...classes have ended for the spring semester. Just finals to go before completing my first year as a college professor!
