I CAN do this

I haven't run in ELEVEN days. Life changes every day and one must go with the flow. I remind myself, I can do this.
I haven't raced since Timberman and as I reported earlier it was a great race for me. So, I thought......ok......if this is a season ending injury, at least I went out on a good race.

To recap, after Timberman, I decided not to do Racine for logistical reasons and who knows maybe that was the best plan. Perhaps I would have injured myself worse by racing that Half IM. The kids and I still went to the Dells and had an awesome time. We stayed at a fabulous water park that had both outdoor and indoor slides. We also had to do at least one touristy dells visit and we chose the Reptile House and OH was it a True Dells experience. No where else would you pay to watch a HUGE Boa eat a very cute and large white easter bunny. I am not kidding you. Luckily this boa was not hungry so we did not have to witness the feeding. A good time in the dells.





So, after coming back from the dells, I was ready to hit the training hard.  Excited to start training long for IM and have an A race at Pigman.  Ready to get going.  Merilee and I set out on Saturday and joined the MN Tri Club for the Century ride.  It was a beautiful day and the ride felt great.  We both felt strong.  We did a short transition run after and I kept saying, "my calf is really tight".  Didn't think much of it.  Well to make a long story short, I went for an hour trail run the next day(ran for about 4 miles in pain) and walked home in severe pain.  And that is the last day I have run.  Coach John said, "uhh, I think that sounds more than a tight calf, you better stay off that.....maybe a strained muscle??"

 I visited TRIA today and the word is my leg(lower left leg) needs to heal and recover some more but there should be time to heal and strengthen and still time to train for IM Florida.

 I CAN do this.
I will stay positive, I will continue to train by swimming and light biking. I will follow the strengthening exercises. I will stay healthy and strong, eating right.

Every now and then I get pulled into the dark side.......I start to go down the woe is me and what if's.  I notice when I am going into the dark side, every thing looks bleak and I start losing motivation and hope.  That is not right and not where I want to be.

I want to be in a place where I can control staying fit, following my rehab exercises, following my coaches plan, eating right, staying positive.  I believe these things will get me to the start line of IM Florida.  Whatever happens from there on race day........that will be ok.  Because I will know that I  did all I could to get me there.  I can do this.  I will do this.  I will not let this injury take me down.  I will not go to the dark side.

I will be at Turtleman taking pictures with Paul and Competitive Image so SMILE and I will cheer as loud as I can.

And I will definitely be GOING to Pigman(cuz its a girls road trip).......doing the best that I can(run or no run).

Life is good.  I think I'll enjoy it!

Picture taken in Ely, MN

More to come on that in a later post.