Road bike + snow = broken elbow

So last Monday I decided that I wanted to get home quickly, so even though it had started snowing I chose to ride my bike home from school. Even before I got on my bike I was thinking “This is a bad idea.” But I didn’t listen to the little voice of reason in my head and thought “What’s the worst that can happen?- Probably fall off my bike and scrape my knee, no lasting damage. Plus its f*cking cold out and it will save me time.” Well I was riding along and I guess I hit a patch of black ice, and my bike went one way I went the other, and naturally, put my hands out to stop me. A bad idea, since I ended up breaking the radial head on my left arm (which is at the elbow). At first I didn't think it was broken, “Just a bad sprain” I told myself. After not sleeping all night because I was in so much pain though, I caught the earliest bus in the morning and got to the ER at Grand River at 6:35am Tuesday morning. One look at my arm and the nurse said “you’ve got a broken elbow.” So I filled out the necessary paper work, got some x-rays, and by 8:00am was leaving the hospital with my arm in a sling and a confirmation that the elbow was indeed broken. =(

Now two years ago I probably would have lost my shit and been super pissed off, because, as one can probably imagine, it is very hard/ impossible to do any training with a broken elbow. I can’t run or swim, and I can only ride the stationary bikes at the gym because they are upright (and having done a 2 hour workout yesterday can tell you that they make your ass REALLY sore). But I haven’t lost my shit, instead I am taking this setback in stride and doing what I can. I am upset that I can’t swim, since that was coming along so nicely (PB in the 800m last week- 9:59.9- under 10 minutes!!!!). But there is nothing I can do about it so will be back in the water as soon as I can. I am taking this as my time off from running, which I probably wouldn’t ever have done if it hadn’t been forced. And I am working on different skills on the bike that I wouldn’t necessarily have focused on. And of course, so much water running- my favourite thing ever (I say very, very sarcastically).  I realize there is no point in being pissed off as there is nothing I can do about it. A mark of a maturing athlete I hope. =)

The lesson to be learned here is that you should never ride a road bike in snow. =)

Race recap of World's

World's Race Review

London was a fun city to be in for a week, although I can¹t say I¹m a
fan of the weather (too much rain). My brother and I were out
sight-seeing during the week leading up to the race and I ended up
with a cold on Friday night (sore throat, stuffed up nose, and feeling
pretty lethargic). Saturday wasn¹t much better so I was pretty upset,
having worked hard all year and looking at having a sub-par race due
to a bad cold. However, race adrenaline kicked in Sunday morning and I
was able to feel somewhat energized, although my nose was still pretty
clogged up. Having stood in bare feet for about an hour prior to the
race start it was almost a relief to be able to put my feet in the
water as it felt warmer than the ground I had been standing on. I
don¹t think I would have minded having the full length swim, however
it is what it is. I didn¹t have a great swim, swallowed water multiple
times and got hit and kicked far more than I am used to, however I
kept a calm head and didn¹t let that ruin my race. I exited the water
somewhere around 10th place, which is what I was expecting, and
managed to pass about five of those people in the long run-up to
transition. Heading out onto the bike I pushed hard right off the bat
and was quickly able to position myself in 2nd place, somewhere around
the 3km mark. There was one Aussie ahead of me but didn¹t seem to be
gaining or losing ground on me so I kept up the steady but relatively
hard pace. Around the 7km mark a Kiwi caught up to me and I worked
hard to stay with her for the first lap. However, I was getting pretty
fatigued trying to maintain her pace and I made a judgement call that
given her body type (slightly stockier), probably wasn¹t going to be a
fast runner. I let her go on the second lap although kept a strong
pace myself. I knew this decision could come back to bite me in the
ass later but given my experience at a race earlier in the year where
I gave it everything on the bike and had nothing left for the run, I
knew that I needed to save a little bit for the run. Approaching T2 I
caught the Aussie who was still ahead of me, but was caught by a few
people in transition as my hands were so cold that they didn¹t want to
function for me. In the end I had to start running with my shoelaces
not tightened as I couldn¹t get my fingers to co-operate for me. I
passed the couple of people who had caught me in transition in the
first hundred meters or so, leaving only the Kiwi ahead of me. After
about 2.5km I had warmed up enough to be able to tighten my shoelaces,
and my feet no longer felt like blocks of ice. Nothing was going to
stop me from going for gold so I kept running as hard as I could and
caught the Kiwi at about 4.5km. I didn¹t let up the pace though as I
had no idea who was behind me, so I just kept running as hard as I
could. I could feel my IT band getting very tight on the second and
third laps but tried to ignore it. The Canadians were awesome as there
seemed to be someone cheering for me around the entire run course.
Coming down the finishing chute was better than I had ever imagined as
it feels pretty awesome when someone announces you as the World
Champion. :P Upon crossing the finish line I felt like my cold
hit me in full force with a pounding head and feeling very weak. But I
was ecstatic about the finish (and that I had over 2 minutes on 2nd
place) so was able to celebrate with the other Canadians who were
finishing their races. I also was happy to see Keith having a great
race (since he hadn¹t run for three weeks and didn¹t know if he would
be able to in the race).  All in all it was a spectacular experience
and I look forward to Edmonton next September.

Update on the running and life

So I started running again back at the end of February. Everything was going great until I hit about 20 minutes. Then my leg started to hurt. I just chalked it up to shin splints since that would be expected at this point in the game. So I kept running, but by the time I was to be at 50 minutes my leg was hurting unbearably, keeping me awake at night and making it very difficult to concentrate on school work. After a teary e-mail to my coach it was determined I should stop running, as at this point in the game a stupid decision could take me out for triathlon season. It felt exactly like a stress fracture so I assumed the MRI results were wrong. So I started to look for answers. I got blood work done (soooo many vials, they must have checked EVERYTHING), a bone density scan, and a bone scan. I also had a gait analysis done by Sean Delanghe at Price Health Center in Waterloo. It revealed that I actually don’t have shitty form so my running technique is not likely to be the cause of my problems. The blood tests came back with good news- I’m as normal and healthy as can be. Bone density scan, which I was really worried about, came back also with normal results. So last thing to check was the bone scan. Also normal. So what is going on???? The sports doctor now suspects it may be chronic exertional compartment syndrome. I have an appointment to check this out on Saturday, where they will take $200 that I really don’t have and stick some needles into my muscles. Although on the one hand this can be fixed through surgery, it would require many weeks off from training (about 6). So although I want answers, now is not a good time to be told I need surgery. I will have to wait and see, but at the moment I am allowed to run for short amounts of time and ice right afterwards.

On the job front, I am lacking. No job for the summer at the moment. L I’m pretty stressed about this at the moment but I must have faith that something will come along. If you’re reading this and you have a job for me, I am willing to work anywhere in Southern/Central Ontario, for minimum wage, doing whatever needs to be done. Fingers are crossed. 

Reading Week in Arizona!!

So for reading week I went to Arizona with the C3 team to spend the week training in warm weather. While the weather wasn’t quite what I would define as ‘warm’ it was pleasant most days and the training was phenomenal. It is unfortunate that I was unable to do much running, however I am quickly becoming a professional power-walker so was able to take in the sights that way. The swimming was done in one of two outdoor pools throughout the week, both of which were beautiful. One was 50yards across with about 15-20 lanes and 25 yards long (which was different for most people there, but since UW is old we have a yards pool so that’s what I was used to). The other pool was at a luxury gym place on a golf course- free towel use, free soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, sunscreen, razors, and of course tampons. 

We were in Oro Valley, which is about 20 miles north of Tucson, and the bike lanes were fabulous. On most roads the bike lanes are wide enough to ride two abreast and the roads are well paved, not to mention that pretty much every road has bike lanes. Canada should take note. We did some particularly memorable rides including the infamous Mt. Lemmon climb as well as the ride out to Gate’s Pass.  Mt. Lemmon was pretty chilly and my toes had gone completely numb by the time I got to the top (which is just over 8000ft elevation). It was definitely worth it for the overly-large cookies at the top (and of course the sense of accomplishment for riding up a mountain for 3 hours). Coming down was exhilarating!! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! I averaged close to 50km/hr on the way down. Gates Pass was scenic, although I could have done without the extreme bumpiness! We did this ride on my last day in Arizona so I got a good sun burn and it was a great way to end a fantastic week. I should also mention that on the Wednesday we got snow!!! One local said they hadn’t had snow in seven years, although another said it had only been two. Regardless, snow is a rare occurrence so even the locals were taking pictures. Of course we went swimming outside while it was snowing, which was a lot of fun and definitely not something many people can say they’ve done! Another thing we did that I really enjoyed was hiking up to the Romero Pools. This required hiking up a mountain to find these pools of water which of course were basically melted snow at the time so were absolutely freezing. I was too chicken to go in, although I got my feet wet. Some of the more brave men in the group went right in and submerged themselves. Seeing their reactions I have no regrets about staying dry. Back in Canada it took several days to recover from the week of heavy training although I am happy to say that I am back into full swing again now. I am even training full-time with the varsity swim team! And I ran for 25 minutes today!! 

MRI Results!

So I had an MRI done on my leg at the end of Janurary to check up on the healing of the stress fracture. I got the results back recently and it shows that I have shin splints but that the stress fracture has healed!!! I was extremely excited about this, although my coach has me only power walking for a couple of weeks to build up leg strength. Anyways, I will take the good news and hope that the return to running is as smooth as possible. I am headed to Tucson on February 15^th for a triathlon training camp which is sure to be a lot of fun!!! The swimming and biking are going well so hopefully I will be very competitive this summer =)