Obviously it's been a long while since my last post--as I see now,
almost two months. Thanks to those of you who have been checking and
encouraging me to post—sorry for the delay; I really appreciate the support!
The interruption was the result of a few
intertwining forces: 1) June was a busy
work month, was scheduled to work 25 days straight, unfortunately didn’t happen
(see #4), but I was rewarded at the end of this stretch with an amazing 5 days
of rejuvenation back home in South Dakota seeing my family over an extending 4th
of July weekend. 2) in the midst of June
and July I’ve been preparing two research project s at work (one on the stages
of change in the battle for patients to live a healthier life and the second project
is with minimalist running). It’s a big
weight off my shoulders to have them submitted to IRB (the people who decide if
the research is ethical to perform). 3)
As part of the preparation for the triathlon, I’ve needed to fine-tune my
activities in training, spending a little time with Melissa and friends, and
resting as much as possible, which has left little time, okay, NO time to
actually update the blog. And 4) much of
what I’ve experienced the past 6 weeks has been something I’ve been debating on
posting. But if I’m going to give an
accurate depiction of what training for an ironman triathlon entails…which was
my original thought behind this blog, then I have to give the unpleasant stuff
as well.
Most of this I imagine is pretty common stuff that just goes with the
territory. A lot of people training for
these events have a lot more difficult ailments to contend with, so please don’t
take any of this as complaining. Part of
my hesitation with sharing this stuff is, well, kinda uhhm…personal…and
certainly far from pretty. The other
part is that it’s a lot of unpleasant stuff that I try my best not to occupy my
time worrying about.
As I wrote in my last post I was out on a long run and felt a minor
hamstring strain so I had to do what I could to get home without further aggravation. That event set into motion a few weeks of cascading
misery. First, I tried to alleviate the hamstring
strain with high dose NSAIDs which did help the strain but gave me a likely
stomach ulcer. The ulcer developed over
a few days but presented itself when I was on a 12 mile run on a Saturday morning
before taking a 25 hour call at work that first weekend of June. I ignored the initial pains at 2 miles
thinking it would go away and was stopped dead in my tracks at mile 5.5. My stubbornness pushed me to not turn around early
but I would later find I’d need every step I could get and this was a poor
decision on my part to stick it out. The
next 6.5 miles to get home were nothing short of agony…equal parts crippling abdominal
pain, nausea, and dizziness came over me.
The 12 miles that normally takes about an hour and 20 or so minutes took
me just over 2 hours to complete. The
only reason I was moving that fast is that I had to get home so I could make it
to work on time.
Once home, I laid down for a few minutes to try to feel better, jumped
in a quick shower and was walking for the door when the vomiting started. I did make it to work and spent the entire
day either in the call-room bed or on a sofa in our office. If not for a seasoned intern working that day,
I would not have been able to stay at work as she did all the work without any
help from me as I lay on my back for 13 hours until it was time for her to go
home. That meant I was now to see and
take care of patients on my own, which I was certainly in no shape to do. I couldn’t eat or drink anything all
day. Without the two liters of IV fluids
I got from a friend who was also working in the hospital that night (thanks
Chris), I would have been down about 15 pounds on the day. I routinely get this dehydrated after my long
workouts but that is when I can tolerate fluids and quickly rebound. This day I couldn’t manage anything.
This led to a horrible bout of constipation with black stools the next
morning ending in my discovery of what hemorrhoids actually feel like. The black stool was a sign of the ulcer in my
stomach that was bleeding…fortunately the black stool quickly resolved meaning
the bleeding stopped and I was just left with stomach pain for the next few
weeks every time I ate because of the acid secretion in my stomach when I ate. Usually I have no problems with constipation
(eating about 5-6 bowls of cereal and drinking 2+ gallons of water per day
usually takes care of that) but this one instance did it. After a few excruciating days, the
hemorrhoids were calming down nicely.
Then came a 25 mile run the weekend I traveled back home to South
Dakota. My flight was delayed out of
Chicago and I ended up spending the night in Minneapolis rather than making it
all the way home to Aberdeen on Friday night as expected. I got to my hotel in Minneapolis at about
1:30am and the next morning (had I been in Aberdeen) I had a 25 mile run on the
schedule. My plane out of MSP didn’t
take off until 1:30pm but my brother and his family were planning on meeting my
aunt, uncle and cousins who live in Minneapolis for breakfast that morning at
8:30am. I’m just too damn stubborn to
not get the workout in so I woke up at 4:30 and got moving. Besides, I love running in Minneapolis and this
would give me an opportunity to do that!
I lived there for a short while and went to school about an hour north
of the city at St. John’s a few years back.
My run took me around the beautiful lakes of Minneapolis and through
downtown and back to my hotel—about 25 miles total. It was a very peaceful morning and great to
replay old memories as I ran through the city.
I was certain I would cross a few water fountains along the way to
hydrate so I didn’t bring any fluids with me.
Then next morning, my punishment for the previous day’s indiscretions of
a long run without fluids was the return of the hemorrhoids.
Next up in my battle of the hemorrhoids was the extremely hot Saturday
about 3 weeks ago now where it was 85 to 90 degrees at 5am, which is when I
started my long bike ride (120 miles on a mildly hilly route). Just 40 miles in I knew it was going to be a
long morning and by 60 miles I was battling trying to go faster (to get done
sooner and keep on pace) vs getting heat illness. I pushed as much as I could for a while but
didn’t want to have to call Melissa to pick me up, or worse an ambulance, so I
eventually had to slow down to a snail’s pace in order to make it on my
own. I started the bike ride with about 3
½ liters of fluid (~1 gallon) on my bike and stopped twice to replenish at a
gas station and a park. Seven hours and
120 miles later I found myself at the wrong end of the hydration spectrum, and
once again, with a raging bout of hemorrhoids.
This summer’s heat has really rattled my confidence for Hawaii since it
will be well into fall in Chicago before I go to Hawaii for the October 13th
race and Kona is typically 80-85 degrees, sunny, and humid. I know our current weather has been hotter than
that but I need to figure out how I can best acclimate to that heat when I
won’t have those conditions to train in at home. Still playing with a few ideas but I’m really
just hoping for a warm fall.
Fortunately the hemorrhoids are currently under control and don’t
really affect the training at all. While
I’m talking about that area, the other problem I had earlier this spring with
the increased bike mileage with training in California is pressure sores on my
groin that had developed into a seroma (a collection of blood and clear body
fluid, like a blister on the inside).
Fortunately they have not developed into abscesses (infectious material)
yet. After draining them myself (I’ll
spare you of that pleasant picture), and alternating my bike seat, they did
calm down for a few months but most recently I can feel one coming back (time
to switch back to my old bike saddle for a few weeks).
So in the midst of juggling work, training schedule, and life, I’ve had
a few other medical things thrown my way to keep me in check. These little issues certainly make me feel
grateful for being able to be as active as I am most days without any
problems. They’ve also been an all-too-frequent reminder to
slow down once in a while so as not to over-train--a constant see-saw for I think most all triathletes or marathoners.
Less than twelve weeks to go now.
The weeks are just flying by and each week that passes makes me a little
more concerned about my training, where I’ve been, and where I’m going. Confidence is something I’ll talk about in a
future post (coming soon). Thanks for
reading.
