02.04.2012 Lessons Learned

It seems that sometimes I have to re-learn lessons that I already know or should have known.  This week was a case in point that looking back in hindsight, all the clues were in plain sight and had I put them together might have made things a little different yesterday and saved me a whole lot of pain.

First off the clues from early in the week.

• Tuesday's run, about half way into an 8 mile run, my right hip "pinged" hard causing radiating pain from the hip to the ankle.  While it hurt like anything, it went away within 10 to 15 seconds and I continued my run.
• Wednesday's bike crash, while it was a minor slow speed fall and skid, something just didn't feel "right" after that.
• Thursday my back, (which is well screwed up from an auto accident years ago) decided to go south on me.  I put this down to the previous nights "gravity lesson".
• And the marker I really should have been listening to all week was my morning fasting glucose reading were above normal.  This marker will always tell me something is going south in my body and I KNOW to listen to it.  This week I didn't bother.

For yesterday's ride I had the intention of returning to the bigs, for pulling off my first triple digit ride in over 20 years.  My hope was to end up with at least 100 miles on the clock by the time I got home.  My body however had other plans.

I had been planning on riding THIS LOOP, I figured that given 89 miles, I could find a few bonus miles out there to round it up to an even 100.  What I got instead was THIS.

The wind was out of the NW yesterday and was a steady 12-15 mph and did not stop.  I'd figured that I would be ok going into the wind till Collinsville, then I'd have the tailwind to push me home.

I was maybe 10 miles into the ride and still had not settled into a comfortable pace.  My right calf felt like it was on the edge of cramping with every pedal revolution, at least I kept telling myself it was a cramp.  After all, if you repeat the lie often enough it becomes the truth right?  Nope, not in my case.  By the time I was crawling into Pilot Point at about mile 36 the cold hard truth was sinking in, that my right calf wasn't cramping, it was developing a raging case of tendonitis.  I hit a Quicky Mart for a bathroom break and took the opportunity to relax a little and stretch the calf in the hopes it would go away, no such luck.  Another five miles up the road and I shot a quick text message to my wife that I was having trouble just to alert her I would need a pickup.  At that point, I was still thinking I could cut west at Tioga, ride the tailwind to Gunter and head south on Preston with the wind and still manage a decently long ride.  The ride to Gunter, even with the tailwind was sheer hell.  More than a few times I ended up kicking out of my right pedal and letting my right leg hang and just pedaling with my left.  At that point, I knew my ride was done and I was stopping in Gunter and waiting for my wife.

And now my whole game plan for February has been changed.  I'd been eyeballing a 200 kilometer ride with the Lone Star Randonneurs later this month, I don't think that's going to be happening.  At best, I think mid to late March may be reasonable now for my first brevet.

My new plan now is to take at least a week off from the bike and running, (how I'm going to stay sane is another issue).  Lots of RICE, (Rest, Ice, Compression, and elevation) combined with anti inflammatory medications.  If I'm lucky I might be able to get back on the bike for some easy rides in two weeks.  If I don't let this heal and try and push it, things will go south quickly.  I'd rather take two weeks off now, than several months later.