The Road To Kona 2021: Step 1: Fix My Ugly Feet?

I've been living in denial for a few years now.   I kept telling myself that these weren't really bunions, that this was just bone growth caused by irritation.  Don't make me name the bone 'cause I only remember the end result:  a small bone somewhere in the joint of my big toe isn't tracking properly, causing constant irritation.  The result is that the bone responds by adding material in a protective response.  Just like a blister forms to protect your skin from irritation but it really doesn't make you stop, it just freakin' hurts, this extra bone growth hasn't stopped me from running entirely. So, it just gets worse over time.  Until it's time to fix it. Well, I think that time is coming sooner rather than later.

Why Now?

I'm a little self-conscious of the way my feet look. The bone growth is a little ugly but I hadn't really thought that many people noticed.  Until one yoga class in May. After the class, an older woman (and by that I mean a woman even older than me), came up to me and shyly asked: "Can I ask you a question?"  Sure, anyone can ask me a question - whether I answer is another matter right?  But in a yoga class, I don't expect anything more invasive than "where did you get your tights?"  So, I was a little surprised when she asked "Are you getting surgery on your bunions? "   Yikes!! I didn't realize they were so bad!  Yes, my feet are a bit messed up and long runs become yet another exercise in pain management. I've known for a while that if I ever want to do another marathon or Ironman, I'd either have to get surgery on at least my right foot in order to manage enough training to put in a race effort.  So, that's part 1 of the answer to "Why now?":  my feet are ugly and other people notice it. Take a look:

The toe separators are a permanent thing for me - ignore them for now.  And ignore the fact that I desperately need a pedicure. Whatever.  Notice the big knob on the side of my feet?  The right is worse and that will be the first surgery.

Ironman Canada Penticton?

Unless you were living under a triathlon rock, you've likely heard that Penticton City Council unanimously agreed to proceed towards ironing out a 5-year agreement to bring Ironman back to Penticton.  Back where Ironman really began in North America.  Back to a community that truly embraced the sport and the athletes.  Back to the course where it really began for many of us.  Back to a city that became a second home to so many of that last weekend of August.

So many athletes are already talking about returning to Penticton for 2020 but I change age groups in 2021 so that's when I want to be truly ready.  If I make it to the start line next year, I'll probably be walking much of the marathon.

Nothing is certain yet but I have made an appointment with the podiatry surgeon for June 3 to see what he says. What does the surgery entail?  What is the recovery time?  What is the recovery like?  Can he take out neuroma #2 while he's at it?  Yes, neuroma #2 is becoming a real little bitch these days and it's time for her to go. I'm tired of hurting all the time.  Like I said to the woman who asked about my ugly bunions, "If you see me running, it's safe to assume my feet are hurting."

Hitting Rock Bottom

Four and a half weeks into getting shingles, I'm still on pain meds and my skin is painful.  My training basically stopped for 4 weeks but I've managed a few short bike rides in the last two days. Just easy ones with no timer, no computer, just me and my bike.  I know the rides were only about 15k and that's about my limit right now.  My low fitness level is just one reason.  Shingles might be visually evident by the rash but the muscles in the area are also affected.  In my case, my neck, left shoulder and left upper back are stiff and sore all the time, even with 1200mg/ day of gabipentin.  Until I'm healthy, a few short easy rides are about all I dare to do so my fitness won't be coming back very fast or soon. So, if I'm relatively unfit right now, what's another few weeks of downtime.  Thus, we come to my decision to finally cave and consult with my podiatrist on bunion surgery. And I hope he can take care of my painful Morton's Neuroma at the same time.  I guess we'll know more after June 3.  Until then, I'll still be attending my pity party of one.

If I was into stress eating, this would probably be my meal of choice right now.

Pity Party Of One But There Is Some Hope On The Horizon

During my Pity Party of One where I was contemplating my training potential for the year, I found a grain of hope.  It came in the form of a technical article that is far above my scientific knowledge to understand but someone smarter than me outlined the key findings for me.

Just for kicks and giggles, I'm going to share the actual title of the article here:

"Skeletal Muscles Do Not Undergo Apoptosis During Either Atrophy or Programmed Cell Death-Revisiting the Myonuclear Domain Hypothesis"

If you understand that, you are way, way smarter than me. I tried to read through the article but most of it was like reading a foreign language.  The conclusion was moderately comprehensible and I had read a summary that made me happy about the message.  In a nutshell,  if you've done resistance (weight)  training previously, at any time in your past, the trained muscles responded by created more nucleii.  Now, mature muscle cells contain multiple nucleii. The results of the study suggges that when you stop training for any reason, whether it be injury, illness, lack of time, anything really, the extra nucleii that were created remain in the muscle cells.  It was previously assumed that extra cell nucleii created during resistance training died when the muscle atrophied after resistance training stopped.  However, the study suggests that these extra nucleii may, in fact, stick around.  Then, when you resume weight training after a break, there are more nucleii in your muscles that are responding to the work.  The result is a faster muscular response to the return to resistance training.

Yay!  At least there is some grain of hope, a possible silver lining to my return to training.  My plan all along was to to get back to the gym first anyway to establish a strong physical base.  I have this thought floating around in my head that I can return to moderate strength training sooner than I can return to full on  triathlon training.  Not sure if that is the case but it's the plan right now. We shall see.

Other Reasons To Hit The Gym:  Aging and Injury Prevention

Muscle and other cells die out as we age.  Specifically, after we hit 50 (and I've successfully done that), you and I will lose 1% of our muscle mass annually.  The only way to counteract this in order to maintain strength and/or muscle mass is to do resistance training specifically directed at building strength and mass.  Do the work, people, if you want to still be strong and fast!

And injury prevention is a no-brainer:  who wouldn't want that?  Our summers are short enough in Canada, we all want to take advantage of every warm, sunny day we can be active and outside.  We don't want to waste any of our summer days inside and sidelined by injury.  Strength training will help you do that.  Barring a current injury or illness, what's stopping you?  Find a gym, a training partner, a trainer, whatever you need in order to get in the gym and do the work.  Hopefully, I will see you there?

Take It Outside

Since our summers are short, it would be awesome to do some of our strength training outside.   As long as you've properly protected your skin with adequate sunscreen, it would be awesome to do some strength training outside.   I'm thinking TRX, aren't you?  I have some thoughts on that one and we'll see how it goes. If it goes well, you'll be the first to know!

I'm not likely to find as beautiful a spot to train as this to train but we still have some pretty nice spots here in Edmonton. You'll see!!

Starting Over: From Hero To Zero And Back Again: I Will Dig Myself Out Of This Hole

I used to be a pretty damn good triathlete.  Not a great one, not a pro, but I was pretty good.  I've raced every distance from sprint to Ironman and I had a pretty good run at it for about 10 years.  If I had to describe my level of racing, it's fair to say I was an elite level age group athlete.  When I raced, I'd almost always be on the podium in a triathlon of just about any distance. More times than not, in local races I'd finish first in my age group. Even at Ironman distance, I won my age group a few times and finished on the podium a few more times.  Looking back on those best days racing is almost surreal now. I feel like I've fallen so far that the woman who raced with such passion and had that talent is a different person.  Can I find her again? Maybe she won't be quite as fast since she's 10 and 15 years older but it that fire and that talent still there?  Do I want to find it?

The Deep End - It Sucks

Shingles knocked me out.  Other than recovery from a major bike crash 20 years ago, I'd never gone through this kind of pain. I couldn't sleep or eat.  The pain was both relentless and intermittent, dull aches and sharp and stabbing.  During these first two weeks, training hasn't even been a remote thought or possibility.  I've been able to make it through the work day but I pretty much collapse when I get home. Supper and then to bed is about all I've been able to manage.  After the initial course of anti-viral medication, I was given medication for nerve pain and, now after nearly a week on that, we finally settled on a dosage that allowed me to function without being totally knocked out. At my most recent visit to the doctor, April 25, just over 2 weeks into this virus, the doctor recommended no training for another 5 to 7 days. Normally, I would be counting the days and updating the count, putting me at being able to do some training starting around May 1.  Quite honestly, though, I still feel like I've been hit by a truck but at least the truck has slowed down a bit.  I did a yoga class Monday and that was OK but it was my limit for that day.  I still have no real training mojo.  I feel like I'm really in the Deep End.

Goal Setting:  Summer Race?  Who Am I Kidding!?

I thought I'd be bold and set a goal race for myself. It would be right here in black and white and I'd have to keep myself accountable.  I was feeling better on Saturday and I thought the trajectory to recovery was an straight uphill from there.  Wrong!!  Sunday came and I felt like I'd been hit the stupid truck again. (Why can't that guy learn to drive?!!)   First things first as I'm not sure yet how soon my training mojo will return.

From Hero To Zero:  I Never Thought This Would Happen To Me

Ok so maybe "Hero" is a bit of an exaggeration but I've always tried to lead by at least providing some small examples. I admit to having gotten more than a bit lazy about my swim and run training over the past few years but I've never skimped on bike training. I coach/lead a few bike workouts a week through the winter indoor ride season. This past fall and winter, I was on Zwift.  A lot.  I had more than one person comment "you're always on Zwift". I did a few race series on Zwift and an a absolute blast working myself into the ground, literally.  I finished more than one event so spent, I couldn't even stay on my bike to do a cool down.

No, I'm not taking a nap here. This is me after one of the Zwift Fondo stages this past winter.  I actually had a lot of fun with that one.

By the end of February, I was probably in the best bike shape I'd ever been in this early in the season.  Then, March came and it was time to get ready to re-locate our business and that's when the real downward spiral to this all started.  Stress is one of the common causes of shingles and re-locating your home or your business is one surefire way to add some stress to your life. By the end of March, my half marathon training program was nothing but a memory and I hadn't been in the pool in 2 months.  By the time I finally got shingles, I'd already lost a fair amount of fitness and for some of that pitiful state, I had no one to blame but myself.  Would I have dug myself into a bigger hole had I made time to train somehow during the time we were moving, who knows?  Maybe shingles would have just hit earlier, who knows?  There are lots of maybes but one thing is for sure:  in terms of fitness and race training, I'm starting from scratch on this one. From "Hero to Zero", that's me and I'm not happy about it. (And, yes, I know the term "hero" is an exaggeration.)

Rock Bottom:   I Hope This Is It

Please let this be my rock bottom.  I'd love to pick a goal race for this summer but I'm not confident I can start training soon enough to get ready for anything I'd call "racing" this summer.  I did one short yoga class and that was my limit for now.  So a full triathlon training schedule is just a dream right now.  For now, I'd settle for healthy and ready to get going.  One morning last week, I had to choke back a few tears just getting ready for work:  everything hurt, even my skin, I hate relying on medication to get through the day.  For now, my path out of the deep end remains undefined.  If I had enough energy right now, I'd be pissed off.  Too tired for that right now and it sucks.  A lot. 

This is my bike.  It is lonely.  When will we be reunited?

Desperately Seeking Advice

I know I'm not the first and I won't be the last to have an unplanned early season break from training.  Injury and illness will happen.  If you've got any words of encouragement or your own examples, I'm all ears. I've got lots of time to read and listen so spill!  How long were you down?  How did you re-start?  How did you modify your goals?  What were your successes?  HELP!!

(FYI, I'm not really desperate.  The subtitle here is a loose reference to a moderately well-known 80's era movie starring one of the most iconic artists of  the day.  If you know the 80's, you'll know what I'm talking about.)