Road Block...week 18 Summary

Week 18 began with a bad start. I woke up Monday with a really sore achilles tendon. It hurt in the exact same spot I had the cyst removed last year. It was really painful when I tried to run and then I went out for a fifty mile bike ride and turned around after 1 mile. Besides the shooting pain through the achilles tendon it was a really nice bike ride. I made it off my street and almost got out to the Le Claire city limits before reaching a mile and deciding it wasn't worth the pain. I went to icing lots and called to make doctor's appointments. On Tuesday I did 2 swims and also felt good enough to do a time trial on my bike. I had a feeling the time trial would be my last ride for a few days so I wanted to make it a good one. I decided if riding was going to make the achilles hurt I needed to get my money's worth. I went 12.15 miles in 27 minutes and 28 seconds. It was an average speed of 26.5 mph. I did this time trial last year a few weeks later and averaged 25.7 so I'm ahead of where I was by a good amount. There was also much more wind this year. I had to work super hard to the turnaround on the out and back course and was only at a 23.4 mph average speed. When I turned it was complete fun for the next 6.1 miles. I averaged just over 32 mph on the way back with the wind at my back. The Zipp Sub-9 disc wheel is ridiculous at high speeds! The achilles pain did not allow me to run all week. I was able to tolerate the pain biking on Saturday and Sunday. I'm hoping to get it taken care of this week but every time I think it's better I work out and the pain returns within 90 seconds. It was pretty frustrating. I spent some time being a baby and worrying about it. "You can't control the uncontrollable." I have to remember that. I need to work harder at what I can do. When you have an injury it can be tougher on you mentally than physically. After my initial disappointment I decided to take the advice of "Red" from Shawshank Redemption..."Get busy living...or get busy dieing." Laying around feeling sorry for myself will not help me at all. It won't make me tougher in a race when things aren't going as planned. Although my volume was down I'm going to be tougher mentally from how I handle this injury. Every great story has a character that overcomes adversity. This is my first bit of adversity in 2010. This story will have a great ending on September 12th in Sandusky, Ohio. Thanks for reading. DREAM BIG!