Yeah I’m striding, it’s official. I’m back running although busting out a 5K (first run since IM) didn’t feel so great on the ol’injury site. But at this point, it feels muscular and nothing that lots of stretching won’t help. Getting another massage tomorrow morning, thank goodness. I need it not only for the body but for the mind as well.

So proud of my Tiara Ditcher tonight, no stopping on the second loop of the swim and at a faster pace. Great job Kristina - you are going to love Ironman. Take pride in your aquatic accomplishments, they are huge. It’s swimming that makes triathlon hard core my dear and you are out there with the best of em’ fighting through and holding strong. Excellent job tonight!

Also great to see my fellow CDAer’s fighting it out tonight….Craig and Mike.  Great job boys, always a stellar performance.

Training starts back up on Sunday…..excited about the routine although not quite sure where the hell I’m going to fit it into my ridiculously over committed life. We’ll see…will I be able to hang on for the next 6 months while I’m in school or will something have to give? More drama to unfold…

Leading up to Ironman it was always, ‘get to June 22nd, get to Ironman’ never thinking before or after that date. Lately it’s been, ‘another busy week, just get to next week.’ Why? Why am I always rushing to the next thing, the next day, next week.

Why? It’s because I forget to live in the moment. Why? Because I’m a recovering type A from the northeast. That’s why. I am an expert at living two days ahead of where I currently am. Funny how I chose a career to not only requires but f#$@ing demands that I exist ‘in the moment’. I am so good at that when I’m working with my clients, I am able to pull myself out of the future and into the moment. Not sure why, maybe it’s because I’m working with people’s bodies, their lives. To truly be in a moment is such a cool thing to experience and also a great reminder that the rest of my life is into next week.

So I know I have alot on my plate right now. But, that’s my own doing and there is a big part of that piled up plate that is my lifeblood. I just can’t help think that this life is a one shot deal. So why give a crap about next week when really, all you truly have is the moment that you are in?

Living in the moment. It’s an art but if you can get there, it’s nothing less then organic. Try it…just ‘be’…even for 10 seconds.

After a very busy weekend, Monday came quickly this week. I thought, ‘damn…I need another weekend, I’m hurting, I’m tired, I am busy with work and have an assignment due tonight….why the hell am I back in school?’

Monday ensued as every other crazed day seems to do and I found myself driving to school still asking the question ‘what am I doing’, ‘didn’t I want to take a break after ironman?’, ‘why must everyday of my life be busy to the brim?’

Made my way to the classroom and was ever so quickly reminded of why I love massage school so much. Because you get a shitload of bodywork and being in the graduate program now I’m getting it from professionals. Not rookies, professionals and yeah baby, I’m getting all that lovin’ for free. So basically since Monday (and mind you it’s wednesday) I’ve had 2.5 hours of massage and an 1.5 hr of acupuncture between school and my ‘outside’ appointments. So yes, I love being back in school.

Sure it makes my life a bit more hectic but boy, does that all just slide to the side when I’m on the table. So yes I’m loving it and contrary to what I’ve been writing, I don’t just love it for the bodywork. I love it for the insight and knowledge that I’m receiving. The program is top notch, no big surprise coming from BCMT and it’s worth every penny, every minute of each hectic day. I love it, I’m a big spongy nerd who is just soaking it all up.

It’s a great time to be injured I tell ya, getting lots of great treatments and actually starting to make some progress. It’s slow but that’s what my body has decided it needs for this recovery. It’s doing the best job it can and I will get there. Had to rearrange the masta plan a bit today but Craig has me set up now so that I’m not so overwhelmed with workouts that I can’t really do right now. So starting back up on the plan officially August 4th. Have decided to bag the Boulder Marathon and keep my focus on the ol’PR at Cape Cod in late October.

Feel positive, getting strong and slowly but surely healing up.

I call this phase of healing ‘the last 5 pounds’ because it’s so hard to rid yourself of the last bit of pain and injury.  My SI joint is causing me constant pain, it goes from a solid 5 to a 10 but never subsides.  My adductors continually wake me up in the middle of the night as I roll over in my sleep.  Yes, this sucks but that doesn’t mean that its not ok or I won’t recover.  I will, I just need to exercise the major patience I have learned from my husband.

I should be well into my training for my fall marathons but instead I haven’t run since IM.  I’m getting a massage today and will hit the Joint afterwards.  I have another scheduled for Wednesday and another on Saturday.   That should really help.

We volunteered at Boulder Peak yesterday, we rode our mt. bikes over there and back then stood on our feet for 4+ hours.  I’m pretty sore this morning from that and have decided to take it easy today.  Congrats to all my teammates and clients that raced yesterday - it was hot and they were tough.

My recovery saga to be continued…..

Note to self and everyone else whose mother gives a damn: do not post an accident report detailing your worst crash ever along with list of injuries on your blog before talking to your mother who reads your blog.

Sorry Mom, won’t do it again.

So I’m on the mend and I’m kind of geeking out on the whole healing process. It’s been so incredible (once again) to experience the stages of recovery in the body. I rested and iced for the first 72 hours, yesterday I was able to walk around without assistance and today I saw clients in my practice. I’m still pretty battered and bruised but making huge strides everyday.

Sensations are changing, my low back is now screaming whereas a few days ago it was a mere whisper. My SI joint feels like it’s about to snap and the bruise on my right hip makes me feel like I’m looking through a kaleidoscope. I’m entering a new stage of healing, I’m out of the acute trauma and into sub-acute. It’s time for more movement, stretching and cross fiber friction baby! This stage is key for reducing scar tissue build up which is a bitch to deal with long term. I know, my left ankle is like a scar tissue taco. I’ll be chillin’ in sub-acute for a few weeks.

I’ve been taking 500 mgs of ibuprofen several times a day. Are you kidding me? No way, ibuprofen is crap. It’s all about the holistic heal up for moi. Arnica, ice, massage and my new favorite healing aid W-Zymes or WobEnzymes. It’s like Pac-Man for inflammation, eating up the debris, encouraging the healing. I think I’ll be hitting up acupuncture soon just for some cherries on my sunday. It’s also incredible to be a healthy body in the healing process, my body’s systems just know what to do and they are working 110%.

Oh and how could I forget, I went pool jogging today. It felt so good, I’m thinking a solid 2 weeks of pool jogging will seal the deal along with stretching and a few easy spins on the bike. This too shall pass.

And I thought the rug burn on my knee hurt…na, that wasn’t pain. I know this because I got up close and personal with pain on my ‘get back to my roots’ weekend in Winter Park. That’s Brian and I shortly before the moment of impact.

BJ I’m sure, can recall the incident better then I since he was right behind me on the trail. As far as what I recall? I recall being about half way through our ride on Tipperary Creek, after climbing for about an hour we were ready to hit the downhill. My favorite part, I have biked this trail several times, I know the downhill pretty well. The first part is steep and fast with loose rocks and a drop off to the left. My approach is always to just go with it and go for it, you can’t have hesitation, you simply have to go.

Brian led the descent, he set the pace and was flying. Somehow I wasn’t too far off his tail, I guess that meant, I was flying as well….yes, I was hauling. About a quarter mile down going about 20mph I started to fish tail. Next thing I see is my front wheel perpendicular to my bike and it stops, unfortunately for me, I kept going. Gravity soon took over and I took quite a blow to my right side…the epicenter of this impact the right hip. Ya dudes, I bailed hard.

I’m ok, I’m ok…I knew instantly that I was ok but I was shaking, extremely weak and nauseous. Brian heard sounds of the wreck and came back up to us. The boys cleaned out my wounds, I dusted myself off and got back on the bike for the rest of the downhill. I felt confident, mentally I was ok to continue. Really, I had no choice, I had to ride out. I was in good spirits. For the most part it was ok but the pain started to kick in and grew from there. I knew once I stopped moving I would be in a world of hurt and that biking was not actually helping my injuries. It was a Saturday of HTFU.

The extent of my injuries thus far:
1) my right femur and pelvis took the brunt of the impact and some juicy bruising is in the works
2) strained my adductors near the attachments, more tendon stress than muscle belly
3) cannot adduct or medially rotate my femur
4) other muscles that are hurting - hamstrings, TFL, Gluts, QL, obliques
5) doesn’t appear to be any ligament or joint damage
6) rock rash on my leg, elbow and a bit of flesh missing on my left hand
7) my right shoulder and upper arm is pretty sore and stiff

I’m better today then I was yesterday and I’ll just have to see what happens from here. Right now I’m doing a bit of lymph drainage on myself, icing, using arnica and keeping movement in my hip. The quality of my movement has increased but not the quantity. The pain has changed a bit too, still prominent but has dulled down a bit from last night.

I’ll come out of this just fine but the next few weeks will be nothing but making sure I rehab from this accident thoroughly. I’m hoping to get into the pool in a few days to start active recovery. In the meantime, ice and rest are my best friends. So my 12 mile run is out tomorrow seeing as walking without assistance is a huge feat but that’s alright its just some more pain training for the books. Any pain and discomfort I am in is overshadowed by the sheer joy that I didn’t die or break my head open on one of the many rocks that outline my landing area, I was so lucky. The consequences of this crash although painful are welcomed in lieu of what could have happened. I’m also elated that my work tools (hands, arms) are for the most part uninjured so I will be able to work this week.

In hindsight, yeah I was going too fast but I was having a great time! This will only make me tougher.

Thanks BJ, Brian, Petra and Molly for getting me ice, putting the ice back, getting me water and margaritas, food and helping me get around condo for the rest of our trip. I would have been screwed without you.

Yeah you heard me, what the what? What the freaking what people? I’m so busy, how the hell did I train for an Ironman? This is the question I’ve been asking myself. My conclusion, I’m just one of those people that can’t live without busy, I love busy. Busy is the busy I love to hate or hate to love, whatever. Hey, live each day to its fullest, right? Right.

Really, truly, I’m loving the switch off from training and I’ve spent the last few weeks reminding myself of what I missed over the last several months. Yoga, dance and days off. And this weekend, mt biking in WP. Going to visit our old friends Tipperary Creek and Red Gate followed by beers on the deck, sweaty and dirty. My little mt bike, poor baby, it’s been so neglected as seen in the cobweb closeup shots. But never fear, I’m firing up the fat tire and I’m getting back to my roots.

Just received my week #1 plan from Craig - I don’t think I’m going to open it for a few days.

One more week without a plan or techno-food, I’m going to live it up.  Recovery is going very well but it wasn’t until this week that I stopped feeling the underlying exhaustion that surprisingly held longer than expected.  The first week of recovery wasn’t as great as I imagined, I basically felt like crap.  Complete and total fatigue coupled with annoying cold like symptoms.  The second week although better is where I really started to feel my exhaustion.  I took a yoga class last Tuesday and it kicked my ass, it felt more difficult then IM.  I was sore for days afterwards and I still couldn’t get enough sleep.  I had a big week of massage last week, saw over 20 clients so I think that was contributing to my ability or lack thereof to knock out the final pieces of recovery.  This week is better already.

Sunday I hit the trail in Denver with some ladies for a 33 miles road ride.  No computer, no heart rate monitor and no idea how fast or how hard I was riding.  It was great freedom although I couldn’t help but envy the people out on tri bikes, I couldn’t help but think I was starting to miss the plan.   That has since changed after seeing BJ’s day #1 of training yesterday.  I’ve decided to embrace my last week of freedom as next week starts not only the plan but also 6 months of school at BCMT.  I’m going for their ‘graduate’ program to finish out my advanced certification in Sports and Orthopedic Massage while obtaining my Associates of Occupational Studies in massage therapy.

Met with Craig last week to discuss my new master for 2008 - peaking for the Cape Cod Marathon in October with a few stops along the way.  Best part….I’m only swimming and biking once a week.  Love it, now that’s my kind of plan.

Here’s the schedule:
8/17 Rattlesnake Sprint
8/24 Steamboat Tri
9/6 Oktoberfest Sprint
9/6 Skirt Chaser 5K
9/21 Boulder Marathon
10/26 Cape Cod Marathon
11/23 Volunteer at IM Arizona