High Knee Drills |
Now I know a lot of people might be saying "What the hell are you thinking??". I understand. What many of you may not know is my history with injuries. Check out my post, "Tale of the Tape" to see a complete list. I have found through my personal experiences that rehabbing an injury for myself begins as soon as I have the ability to use the injured appendage again. I push through a bit of pain, but also know when to back off to prevent further injury. I ice repeatedly immediately after training and I am always, always reassessing the injury and recalculating the best way to move forward. Many people would say, "Just forget about the race and take time to heal so you don't lose your whole season!" Well when I skated professionally I had to perform with injuries all the time or you didn't get paid. I once twisted my ankle so badly my leg turned purple up to my knee! I missed one day of shows. The next day I cast my ankle in trainers tape and showed up an hour or two before the first show. I spent the morning teaching myself to skate and ollie without the use of any movement in my ankle. I took some ibuprofen and finished the last few days of shows like that. What I learned from this and many other similar experiences is that we can push our bodies through a lot more than we suspect. I may now be at my best come race day, but I'll still do my best with the circumstances I have to work within.
The week did not go well for me. I did not train Tuesday for obvious reasons.
Wednesday I came home from work, still feeling fatigued from the previous weekends
racing, but because of training guilt felt I should at least get some core and weight training in. The usual hour in the gym went well, but was a struggle from my energy standpoint. I finished, showered and crawled into bed to relax for a while before going to sleep. I remarked to Chris that to prevent the chances of waking up with a migraine I should probably get up to stretch because I could feel my muscles tightening. Ever say something and in hindsight realize how on point it was? I woke up at 1am with a migraine. Nothing new to me, I get approximately 1 per week and have my whole life. I usually take some tylenol and a gravol and fall back asleep Caffeine works wonders for me, but I usually try to make it to morning or else I'm headache free, but wide awake in the middle of the night. Christine was even so amazing to massage my neck and shoulders until I feel asleep. I then awoke at 3am. The migraine should have been gone, but within minutes I began to realize how dire my situation had become. This was to be the worst migraine I have had in twenty years. It was gonna be a long, hard night. I began taking painkillers, but the nausea was too extreme and I began a vomiting streak that would last nearly the next 7 hours. It was accompanied with a first-time, crippling abdominal pain which left me unable to breath for up to 30 seconds at a time. Oh and let's not forget the drill that was boring through the back of my eye. For those of you who have never had a migraine it's not just a bad headache. Not even in the same realm. It's the worst pain and usually behind one of your eyes you can imagine and accompanied by unbelievable nausea. I had to call in sick to work Thursday and was still a mess by the following evening. So much so that I couldn't even get out of bed, much less meet up with my Tri partner Steph to swim.
At least a little bit of this week was salvaged by a 40km bike ride with Chris on Sunday afternoon. It wasn't hard for me to notice that her light and easy pace was leaving me gasping for air in the back. However, I'm glad to have an experienced cyclist to show me the ropes. Hopefully I can get my skills a little more polished in the next 10 weeks.
I'm looking forward to getting things back on track this week. Lots of running races coming up and only 10 weeks now until my first triathlon at Guelph Lake.
I'm not superstitious, but fingers crossed anyway.
The week did not go well for me. I did not train Tuesday for obvious reasons.
Wednesday I came home from work, still feeling fatigued from the previous weekends
My lifeline |
At least a little bit of this week was salvaged by a 40km bike ride with Chris on Sunday afternoon. It wasn't hard for me to notice that her light and easy pace was leaving me gasping for air in the back. However, I'm glad to have an experienced cyclist to show me the ropes. Hopefully I can get my skills a little more polished in the next 10 weeks.
I'm looking forward to getting things back on track this week. Lots of running races coming up and only 10 weeks now until my first triathlon at Guelph Lake.
I'm not superstitious, but fingers crossed anyway.
You did a good job with your incessant icing and resting of that knee.
ReplyDeleteI will teach you all I know about cycling but you have to listen to me! When I say suck my wheel you get down and lick it Mmm'kay?
:P
Hopefully you won't have another migraine from hell like that for another 20 years.