Aching Body But A Happy Brain!!

Today was a good day.  I have been having some issues with various aching body parts, some of which got bad enough to cut short a run at the beginning of the week, and took the bike in to make sure there weren't any fit issues.  I think a few small things got solved and hopefully the aches and pains will subside.  In the meantime, I am rolling and mashing various muscle groups with the evil denizens of my trigger point therapy kit.  I am also a duck served cold as I am icing about half of my body these days.  Note to self: Never, EVER crash bike again!!

Yesterday, I swam for the first time since the crash and it was a little demoralizing since I was feeling really strong in the pool before the crash.  The shoulder wasn't overly offended by the swim but the amount of strength I have lost in three weeks is astounding.  Still, it was a glorious swim.

It's hard to imagine water this beautiful in a lake.  The underwater visibility exceeded any other place I have been, including the Caribbean.  The waters of the East Bay were cool and crystal clear all the way to the bottom.  I spent a lot of the swim positioned over a deep drop off that had a bed of aquatic plants at the bottom.  I could see little silver fish schooling in the beds and something was throwing up streams of bubbles that reminded me of champagne.  It made me realize how long it had been since I went diving.  I may have to remedy that soon.  Some things are just good for the soul.

I was forced to cancel my Colorado trip.  This induced a ridiculous amount of whining and self-pity, eliciting a "there's nothing I can do about that.  Let's move on!" response from DW.  Easy for him to say as he sits in Colorado for the rest of the summer.  I'm not bitter... not at all.

Instead, the Duck is headed to Kentucky.  I will be spending time there working throughout August.  The final weekend I will be there is a weekend that I had originally planned to do a local sprint race to warm up for TriRock Austin.  I did spot a race in Kentucky on that same weekend and will consider doing it if I can work out a day off.

The carrot I offered myself for missing Colorado is that I promised myself I would take two weekends off, one in September and one in October, and add two races to my calendar after Austin.  I am now pointed towards Galveston 5150 and the Toyota US Open Tri in Dallas.  I am looking forward to some great weekends of racing (along with enough nerves to raise Frankenstein's monster from the dead-ish).  After that, I am considering my (very short) racing season over and looking plans for the winter.

SO, about all those aches and pains?  Yeah, they need to GO AWAY!!  I have built some exciting momentum lately and am totally determined to maintain it, body willing.   I am pretty excited for the future and wonder what the next few months holds.  I am bringing the run together, the bike is a rock star, the swim was coming along until the shoulder injury.  If I can get back into things in the next week or so, I am not too worried.  The worst that happens is that I have to lose time on the swim.  Considering that this time last year I was totally crippled with a partial tear of the Achilles tendon, I will take it.

It's really coming together!

I am looking forward to getting some good experience with the technical side of race day, transitions, managing nerves and nutrition, etc.  If I have some quality learning experiences here, I will set myself up beautifully for next season.  Onward and upward!