I'll be sharing from time to time here about my journey back from injury. Rule number one with any injury is to follow your doctor's advice. In my case, very light exercise for the fist week or two, then gradually increasing. Go by feel. We triathletes know that as listen to your body. No running. Walking is great. Also great are swimming and indoor cycling. No running, and absolutely no outdoor riding. No hard efforts, so at the gym, only light loads. The idea is to avoid anything that could trigger more bleeding in the area around the wounds.
Two weeks ago I was doing a morning walk ever other day. Each walk left me exhausted, so I waited a day to let my battery charge up. Last Monday I started back to work half time. I did not do any other exercise as I was already tired all afternoon. But, each day was better. My strength and endrance are returning.
Today, August 29th, was my first swim. I could have started that sooner except for the weather and resuilting brown water conditions. I limited myself to short bursts in shallow water and a lot of exercises. Right at the beginning I felt great. After ten minutes or so I could feel how unsynchronized my movements haver become. My swimming always needed work, so that will go back to the top of the list, so to speak.
As you may know, I was planning to do the Honolulu Century Ride in September, Ironman California in October, and the Honolulu Marathon in December. I am still on for the marathon. I cannot ask for a deferral for IM Cali because I already took one last year.
Ideally, we would all live the Ironman life even without races. I am one of those people who train more consistently with a race on the calendar. Funny, because I have enough intrinsic motivation to train alone, whereas many athletes do better with group training. The important thing is to know yourself.
That being said, I went ahead and signed up for Honu next year. This goes beyond just having something to do. I was just getting good at it when a series of mishaps got in my way. Pattie's hip replacement. My hernia(s). Her cancer. My cancer. My bike crash. Last month I shared my frustration in the way things have been going. What feels like a stream of bad luck, especially with Honu. I really need to go back and settle that score. I was going to say once and for all, but no, to mark the beginning of a long string of solid finishes.
Next week I return to work full time and plan on doing light exercise every day. Same pattern I was using the spring, with duration and intensity dialed back. I get a CT scan on Tuesday to check for bleeding, and how well the remaining blood mass has cleared. I'm thinking I will be cleared to run after that. We'll see.