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June 29, 2007

Clarity

I don't even know where to begin.

Suffice it to say, this trip hasn't been easy so far. And I think it's also safe to say that the Philadelphia Airport may very well be the root of all evil. At this point I don't have time to go into all the details, nor would you probably want to read them.

But the short story is that while we made it to Portland (albeit at 5 am in the morning on Thursday instead of the 11 pm Wednesday night that we were supposed to get in), our baggage did not. Nor did my bike. No clothes, no shoes, no deoderant, no clean underwear, no helmet, no wetsuit, no bike. Did I mention no bike? Yes, that's right - my $4000 bike was lost somewhere in luggage land, likely in the Philly Airport. Not a comforting feeling.

While very disheartened I remained pretty upbeat about the whole thing through most of yesterday. We got to the hotel and caught up on some sleep. We took showers and even though we had to put back on the same dirty clothes, we felt better. We went out to the course and checked out what race day would bring. We ate a nice dinner near Portland.

But then somewhere around 7 or 8 last night when our baggage still hadn't arrived and we watched flight after flight come in WITHOUT our luggage in tow, I started to lose heart. We had driven out to the airport because there was a flight from Phoenix that the US Airways people were relatively certain our stuff would be on. We wanted to be there to just pick it up ourselves. But when it wasn't on that flight. And then it wasn't on the next and they told us the next possibility was a flight landing at 1:30 am this morning, I finally couldn't take it anymore.

Terribly discouraged, leaving the airport empty-handed again, headed to Target to at least get some clean underwear and a new t-shirt, I couldn't hold back my tears anymore. Because for the first time I let myself consider the fact that I may not get to race afterall. After flying the whole way across the country I still wasn't going to make it to the starting line.

And I think it went beyond that for me. The stress and frustration of the whole past month finally became too much to bear. Of getting hit by the truck, of dealing with the pain in my hip and in my ribs and many sleepless nights, dealing with lawyers and insurance companies, missing my huge A race at Eagleman, wondering how financially this was all going to work out, going to all the chiropractor appointments, pushing myself back into training, the stress of trying to decide if coming out to Portland was even a possibility let alone a good idea. And now here I was, getting through all that and I didn't have a bike or even a pair of running shoes. And I wasn't going to get to race afterall.

As we drove along in silence O (who was dealing with his own set of frustrations - afterall, this is quite possibly the worst case scenario for an equipment manager!) told me that while he wasn't sure what was going to happen this weekend, he did know that this was going to make a great story. Down the road (perhaps WAY down the road...:) we'd be able to tell about the adversity of this season thus far and how overcoming it had made a stronger, more determined athlete. Heck, we might even laugh about it.

And I think he's right. Because when someone performs well when everything goes right, well that's a very good story. But an even better story is when someone performs well when everything goes wrong. Terribly wrong. And let me tell you, I'm working on a pretty awesome story right now.

The good news is, at 6:30 am this morning (Friday) a fight landed in the Portland airport with not only my bike, but our 2 suitcases as well. O is on his way back from the airport with all 3 in tow as I type.

And while I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen tomorrow morning at 8:12 am when I dive into that cold, clear Lake Hagg I do know that if I swim, ride and run out all the anger and frustration and stress of the past couple weeks I may very well set some sort of record. :) And if I compete with the determination that it's taken to get through the past month, an amazing story it will make. Because despite all the interference and all the obstacles, my goals have never seemed so clear.

Posted by beth at 11:37 AM | Comments (8)

June 26, 2007

Threats Work

I think I scared my knee into submission because it seems to be feeling better. Apparently the threat of getting voted off the island had it worried. Good thing. I can only operate with so many things hurting at once and right now my ribs are still center stage on the pain front. Regardless, the knee was sore when I woke up but has gotten better throughout the day. It probably helped that I had the day off training wise.

Tomorrow I have a 1500 meter swim, a 35 min run, a 60 min ride, a chiropractor appointment and a plane ride to Portland! But first we go to Philadelphia. I pray my bike makes it. The best news of all is that we are in first class on the trip to Portland (back to reality on the ride back home Sunday). The plane tickets were a Christmas gift from my parents who used my father's frequent flyer miles and somehow a first class ticket landed in our hands. Thank you mom and dad! Anyway, I've never riden in first class so I'm looking forward to seeing what life is like on the other side of the curtain. Most importantly the seats are bigger and cushier. Given the fact that the flight from Philly to Portland is 6 hours, seat comfort will be of utmost importance. As will snack selection. I do like my snacks.

So that's that! Our hotel has free internet so I will probably be able to blog while we are away. Very important for a hotel to have free internet and of course free breakfast. That would be O and my biggest requirements when looking for lodging. Beds are optional. :)

Posted by beth at 7:47 PM | Comments (2)

June 25, 2007

Just Like Tetris

The guy at the bike store that showed us how to take my bike apart and fit it in it's case told us fitting in all the little pieces around the frame was just like a game of Tetris. Seeing as how I used to be addicted to Tetris on my computer (and Minesweeper for that matter) I should be good at making it work. Unfortunately not so much. Luckily I have a equipment manager extraordinaire to take care of stuff like that. Besides, I have to figure out how to get my bike pump in my suitcase... :)

Packing aside, I did 2 workouts today - a short 2000 yds in the pool this morning and then a bike workout on the trainer this evening. The bike workout involved riding hard for 3x4 min w/2 min rest. Last time I did this workout (right before Columbia) I recorded my ave MPH on the 3 hard parts as 21.0/21.0/21.4. Today I averaged 21.1/21.6/22.1. Well isn't that dandy?! But now my knee hurts (on my right side - not where I was hit). What the heck? I think I might have just twinged it a little while I was riding like a madman on the hard parts. I have tomorrow off in terms of training so I'm just going to ignore my knee until Wednesday at which point it better be feeling better or it's getting voted off the island. Seriously.

Good night!

Posted by beth at 9:23 PM | Comments (4)

June 24, 2007

Short and Sweet

This morning before church O and I headed to the track for a quick workout. After warmup it was 1.5 miles of easy jogging on the curves and running hard on the straights. Short and sweet. My hip felt good. And while I don't exactly feel like my fitness is 100% I am very glad to at least feel like my body is cooperating. Fitness can be regained but it's hard to find a new hip if your old one isn't working! :)

What a lazy weekend O and I have had! We were pretty busy on Friday doing lots of odds and ends but besides cleaning the house over Saturday and Sunday we didn't do much else! Lots of naps, watching track on tv, surfing the internet. My kind of weekend.

I am very excited for our trip to Oregon! We leave in 3 short days. I am super excited to be racing but also just really looking forward to riding in a plane and traveling to a new state. I haven't been to Oregon or anything farther west than Nevada (Las Vegas). What I am not looking forward to however, is the packing. I hate packing to begin with but now the added stress of trying to fit all of my tri equipment (bike, wetsuit, helmet, bike pump, bike shoes, run shoes, loads of clothes that I may or may not wear, water bottles, food, goggles, and the list goes on and on and on....) into just one suitcase and one bike case is not making it any better! Luckily I have a wonderful equipment manager who happens to be an expert in such things...

Posted by beth at 6:19 PM | Comments (0)

June 23, 2007

The Next Step

So last Friday I rode again outside for the first time. Then Saturday I did it again. Friday was in a park with friends. Saturday was in a park by myself. Baby steps. Today I took another huge step forward - riding by myself on real roads.

Actually, O rode with me for about 3 miles. Very helpful because he got me past the site of my accident. But he doesn't have a road bike and of course wasn't going to do my 45 miles with me. So as he turned around to go back home I rode off on my usual ride.

The first two rides I did last week at the park were surprisingly NOT nerve-racking. I'm not sure why but I really didn't have that much fear. I guess because it was a park. The traffic moves very slow, and the roads are well kept. Today was quite the opposite though. I was really pretty nervous out there. I got up and road early for the purpose of avoiding as much traffic as possible, but I still found myself suspicious of every car that looked like it wasn't going to stop in time (which means about 99.9% of the cars I saw). Part of it was probably the fact that I was back on my TT (Scotty is fixed!!) and I feel like I have a little less control on that bike. I sat up more often than usual to grab onto my brakes when the whoosh of a big truck would go by. AHHH!!

But then about 1:15 into the ride I saw one of my friends riding and although we weren't going in the same direction we did ride together for about 2 miles and all of a sudden I forgot that I was afraid. After he took off in another direction I felt myself relax a little and my HR (which had been quite high at times) slow down. I definitely have more fear than I should when I'm out there riding - you just can't be that afraid and still enjoy yourself. But I do think it will just keep getting better and better until all I have left is that "healthy" fear that we should all have when we are out on the roads. Just like anything, it's a process.

So other than some white-knuckle riding it was a great workout! Beautiful morning, shining sun, cool temps. Couldn't ask for more. 2:30 total, ~45 miles. Yesterday was a 3500 yd swim in the morning that reminded me why I do not like hard, short intervals with very little rest and an hour on the trainer easy after dinner. Tomorrow some running. We leave for Oregon in 3 days. Cannot wait!

Posted by beth at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)

June 22, 2007

My Ironsherpa

In case you were wondering... (as defined by Roman)

"An Ironsherpa is the person in your life who carries your load so that you can train and race. It can be your husband or wife. It can be your mother or father, sister or brother or perhaps your best friend.

An Ironsherpa is that person in your life who puts up with all your triathlon talk, who rubs your sore muscles, who cooks your recovery meals, who makes your bed on those early mornings, who takes the kids to school so you can swim, who understands why you prefer a long run to a good movie, who does not mind your constant dress code of workout clothes, who goes to the bike store with you and smiles politely while you discuss the merits of this or that wheel, who gives up his or her vacation plans around your race schedule, who washes your smelly socks, who buys your protein powder, who puts up with your bike lust, who works while you play, who makes your pre-race peanut butter and jelly sandwich, who took up running because you run, who understands why you are too tired, who understands why you really really need to ride today, and who stands in the crowd cheering you on as you cross the finish line."

Not too hard to figure out who my Ironsherpa is 'eh?

On this day 5 years ago O and I were married. It was about this time that the party was ending and he was driving me to the convenience store on the corner by my parent's house so that I could get a big Diet Pepsi. I really was thirsty after all that dancing!

In the anniversary card that O wrote out to me today he said "I believe in you and your dreams and I know you can accomplish them!"

Now let me just say - that's very easy to say that to someone. Very easy. I could spout that out to anyone I see, someone I don't even know. But what isn't so easy is backing up that statement with some incredible self-sacrifice and really meaning it. I know O believes in me. I know it with all my heart. Otherwise he wouldn't have sacrificed so much financially. He wouldn't have given up so much of his time. He wouldn't have put his personal agenda aside for my own dreams. He wouldn't be willing to put our hopes of having a family on hold. But he has done all that and more.

He's gotten up early with me to do workouts. He's spent countless Friday and Saturday nights doing fun stuff like mixing up fluid replacement bottles for my long ride the next morning. He's spent time learning how to take my bike apart and pack it in the carrying case when I'm sure he would have rather been doing something else.

He's sacrificed real vacations for trips to races instead. He's driven hundred of miles already, with many more to come. On race morning he's EVERYWHERE on the course. The day before the race he is meticulously explaining to me where the course goes.

He's worked up to 3 different jobs at a time so we could afford all this. I kid you not.

He's cleaned the whole house, gone for groceries, washed the cars, cut the grass, done the laundry, walked the dog way more than his fair share so I could either do a workout, rest for a workout or think about a workout.

He's rushed to the hospital in a panic after I got hit by a truck and then that same night washed my hair in the hospital shower as I stood there crying in pain.

He's listened to my complaining. He's quieted my own self-doubt. He's encouraged me when I needed it, kicked me in the butt when I needed it. He has celebrated my victories with me and he's been there to comfort my tears. He's been through all the ups and downs right by my side.

And he has never once complained. He has never once asked when it would be over so we could move on with our lives. On the contrary he keeps believing in me and keeps supporting me so I can achieve a dream. I'm convinced that there are very few people in this world like Oscar Shutt. And that I just may be the luckiest girl alive to have snagged him first.

Happy anniversary my love - 5 years down and many, many more to go.

Posted by beth at 9:58 PM | Comments (4)

June 21, 2007

More Facts

Fact #7 (or #8 if you count Corrado's fact :) - Roxy is afraid of balloons. Very afraid. So afraid in fact, that she turned down a Cheez-It to avoid them. And since when has that dog EVER turned down food?! Why do we have balloons you might ask? Answer - I got redemption on O tonight when we went to Red Robin for dinner and they found out it was his birthday recently. They came out singing and clapping and handed him balloons. HA! I laugh only because I was on the other end of this cruel joke back in May when it was my birthday and my mom insisted on telling the waitress. I got the same clapping and singing and O laughed. Who is laughing now buddy?

Fact #8 - I ran 4x800 on the track today. I needed/wanted to test that hip out to see if I could run hard on it for the June 30th race. And I'm very happy to report that things went well. My hip isn't 100% and in fact it probably won't be for some time. But I'm not limping and I'm not making it worse and nothing else is starting to hurt because I'm running on it. The 800s felt good this morning (2:57, 2:56, 2:57, 2:56) and while I've definitely lost some cardiovascular fitness I can't remember my legs ever feeling this good. That's what a 3 week taper will do for you I guess! :)

Fact #9 - Everyone (O, my coach, my chiropractor) thinks I should race at USAT Age Group Nationals and I'm now whole-heartedly agreeing! After the track workout this morning I definitely thought it was becoming a strong possibility. And I couldn't be more thrilled. I may not be able to achieve the goals that I had for this race at the beginning of the year but I want to race so badly I just CANNOT wait to get out there and get rolling! Absolutely thrilled! I'm so looking forward to the trip and the race itself. AND I got news that my tri bike should be ready to go tomorrow! I was starting to worry it wasn't going to be done before next Wednesday when we leave for Oregon but this turns out to not be the case! Very good deal!

Fact #10 - I had another swim lesson this afternoon after work! Eric worked another hour with me and seemed impressed with how far I've come since our last lesson. Definite improvement in my stroke. Of course I had so much room for improvement that it shouldn't be that surprising. :) Either way he is making me much more confident in my swim which, quite frankly, is half the battle.

Fact #11 - I have graduated! My coach thought I was back to normal enough to give me a regular training schedule (like I had all winter/spring) wherein I can see my training for several weeks at a time. I am so appreciative of how closely he worked with me (on a daily basis!) to get me back to training healthy but it's always hard for me to deal with the uncertainty of wondering each day what I will be doing for training the next day. I love to be able to look ahead a little and plan for the next few days in advance and probably most importantly of all, mentally prepare for what lies ahead. Love it, love it, love it!

Fact #12 - I have a lot to do tonight and if I don't get rolling soon it's not all getting done! Good night everyone! :)

Posted by beth at 7:30 PM | Comments (2)

June 20, 2007

Facts

Fact #1 - I had 2 doctors appointments today. One chiropractor. One trauma physician. O came to both of them with me.

Fact #2 - I did 2 workouts today - both after I got home from work/various doctors. One a 3500 yd swim workout that went well, another a 65 minute ride on the trainer that included multiple hard segments.

Fact #3 - My hip didn't hurt during either of my workouts. My ribs are getting better. Aforementioned trauma MD said the ribs would take about 8 weeks to get totally pain free but very deep breathing is good for them because it breaks up scar tissue. Sweet. I do lots of deep breathing.

Fact #4 - We measured Roxy's tail today and it was 12 inches long. Don't ask.

Fact #5 - Tonight was pizza night at the Shutt residence. I ate 2 slices of pizza. Here's the tricky part - O only cuts the pizza into 4 pieces total. You do the math on that one.

Fact #6 - It's late and I want to sleep so that's exactly what I'm going to do. Good night!

Posted by beth at 9:58 PM | Comments (1)

June 19, 2007

Early Morning Run

This morning I headed out for a 50 minute run around the Heights. Early morning running in the summer is just about my favorite. Not too many people out. Much cooler than the mid day heat and humidity. Nice and calm and you usually get to see a very cool sunrise. I highly recommend it. :)

My body continues to feel better although I can still detect some soreness in my hip. No tailbone pain today. No hamstring pain today. Just a little hip pain. I have a feeling it might be like the ribs and just take time.

After I finished the 50 minutes up I drove over to the YMCA to finish my "run" in the water. Another 30 minutes water running in the pool with some intervals to keep me entertained. And that was my workout for the day.

In other news I am delighted to report that the Nestle rep was at work today. A good majority of the tube feeding products we have on formulary at my hospital are made by Nestle (bet you didn't know they make tube feeding too!) and so therefore our Nestle rep is usually around every month or so. She takes care of us too. Always brings chocolate - anything Nestle - which makes a chocolate hound like me extremely pleased. Today she brought Chunkys. Now I'm not sure how I feel about these little delights. I had a friend in high school that absolutely loved them and would often times eat them right before races. I never prescribed to the pre-race Chunky, no, but I'm not one to turn chocolate away. So when our Nestle rep was passing them out I opened my immediately and gave it a shot. Raisin and peanut is an interesting combination. Still, it was covered in chocolate. Of course I ate the whole thing. But after some more thought I don't think I would purposely choose a Chunky over say a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup or a Snickers. Very thought provoking no?

Posted by beth at 6:20 PM | Comments (4)

June 18, 2007

Grease-Head

Roxy did it again - found some way to get dirty. This time she got grease from the steaks/burgers O grilled for dinner ALL OVER HER HEAD. Don't ask me how. Don't ask me why. Just don't ask. She's a funny little dog. She was from a pound and was abused before we got her. I wouldn't be surprised if she took a few blows to the head. But she makes us laugh like none other. Needless to say she got a bath tonight. And now she's racing around the house shaking off like crazy. How could you not love a mutt like that? :)

Today I had a day off from training. It had been 10 days since I was last off although several of those 10 days were pretty easy/light workouts. Regardless, both coach and I thought a day off was in order so a day off it was! And tomorrow another run! Very exciting...very exciting indeed.

I did have another chiropractor appointment in which Mr. Chiropractor cracked something deep within my joints that I'm pretty sure has never been cracked before. Wow. He says that there is still some tightness and immobility on my left where I was hit but that it's getting better. It's certainly starting to feel better. I'm starting to feel like a more normal person and back to my old normal body. All very good stuff. Now I just need my ribs and hip to cooperate and all will be well with the world again. Oh yeah - and if I could summon up some of that fitness that I've lost in the mean time? Well then all would REALLY be well with the world again. :)

But the truly big news today is the fact that it just happens to be the day that O was born!!! Today he is the BIG 3-0! Now O is a pretty easy going guy and really doesn't worry about too awful much but last night he did say to me "so I guess tonight is the last night I'll ever be in my 20s again". Hmm...put that way it's a little sad. But I have no doubt he will have a wonderful next 10 years, even better than his last decade, because that's just the way he is. You know those people that just seem to always be complaining about something and are always looking on the dark side of things? The people who are convinced everyone and everything are against them? Well O is the exact - and I mean EXACT opposite of that. He truly has the best attitude in life than anyone I've ever met. Happy birthday O. I love you more than you could know.

Posted by beth at 7:19 PM | Comments (6)

June 17, 2007

Turning the Heat Up

This morning I woke up to find that I had a 3 hour ride and a 30 minute water run brick on the training schedule. Good deal! But first church. Then collecting all the assorted equipment and nutrition. Then driving to the park (so I could run in the park pool given the fact that my YMCA is closed on Sundays now). Then getting everything in order. THEN starting ride. At 11:40. Add 3+ hours to that to get my estimated time of finish and you may notice that I seemed to have decided that riding in the hottest part of the day was a good idea. Ugh. And it's pretty hot here (for Pittsburgh at least) - in the mid 80s.

The good thing was that I was riding and not running. At least with riding you get some air flow. I'll have to admit though that it was still pretty hot out there. Air flow is great but when the air is 80+ degrees and humid it just doesn't feel as refreshing. :) I got lots of good practice taking in my fluids at least! I can definitely see how hot weather can turn the stomach. About 2:30 into the ride my insides were feeling kind of blah. Good thing I was almost done! For the last 40 minutes of the ride I daydreamed of jumping into the cool pool water. (it didn't help that I kept riding past the pool and seeing everyone having fun in there...)

After the ride O met me at the pool and we both went water running. The water felt so cold! Very refreshing once I got in though and almost a bit like an ice bath for my weary legs. We water ran for 30 minutes. Actually, I water ran for 30 minutes while O practiced his swim technique. :)

I'm very excited that my hip and tailbone were feeling good today! They usually don't bother me on the bike but since I ran yesterday I was concerned everything would be feeling a little sore. And my hamstring didn't tighten up like last time either. Very good progress. Chiropractors and coaches that know how to get people back on track are my 2 favorite things right now. :)

Alas, I can't believe the weekend is over already. Where does time go? Hope everyone has a great start to their week!

Week summary:

Monday - 1500 yd swim in am, 30 min trainer in pm
Tuesday - 30 min run in am (ouch)
Wednesday - 3000 yd swim in am, 30 min trainer in pm
Thursday - 1:15 pool run in am, 1 hour trainer in pm
Friday - 2:15 ride in am, 2000 yd swim in pm
Saturday - 40 min run/35 min water run in am, 3350 yd swim in am
Sunday - 3 hour ride/30 min water run brick in pm

Posted by beth at 7:04 PM | Comments (1)

June 16, 2007

To Altoona We Go!

As part of his birthday celebration O wanted to go to an Altoona Curve baseball game. They are the Pirates AA team. Despite the facts that the major league Pirates are about 20 minutes away and that O really loves to follow the Pirates, he still likes to watch (in person) minor league baseball better. Strange. But it's his birthday so who am I to judge? :) So anyway, it's off to Altoona (maybe 1.5 to 2 hours away) we go for an evening game and of course dinner at Friendly's first.

This morning I took care of some training. I was very delighted to see when I woke up this morning that my coach wanted me to try some running again today. Jackpot! He suggested a treadmill so that I could stop in the case that something hurt but I went for the high school track instead. In my 15 years of running I've learned at least this - treadmills and I don't get along. :) O joined me for the run. We tried to go to the high school track in our town but realized as we drove up that that wasn't going to work since they were hosting a Relay For Life event. Next we tried the high school north of us but we were again thwarted when we saw that they were resurfacing the track and nobody was allowed in. Bugger! We finally hit gold when we went to the high school south of us. So about 30 minutes and 3 counties (yes - we were in 3 different PA counties this morning!) later we finally started our run.

My instructions were to run for 30-40 minutes and stop if anything was hurting. We ran easy, around and around the track, and while I could feel that my tailbone and hip were a little sore they weren't getting worse and they didn't feel too bad, so I kept going. My hamstring didn't hurt at all and probably the best part of it all was that I felt much more fluid running. My stride was a little more normal - unlike last Tuesday when I just felt really off. I think my chiropractor friend has worked some magic! It will be interesting to see how I feel tomorrow and if I get really sore like I did last time I attempted to run. My feelings is that even if I get a little sore it won't be nearly as bad because as of about 5 hours post run neither my hip or tailbone hurt at all walking around. Very good deal.

After the run I headed to the YMCA to finish the rest of my "run" up in the pool - 35 more minutes of running in the water (1:15 total) and then a swim workout.

500 swim, 300 kick, 500 pull, 200 drill
50,100,150,200,250,300 all w/15 sec rest
200 easy drill
2x150 as 50 easy/50 build/50 fast w/30 sec rest
300 easy

Alas, there is baseball to watch and ice cream to eat. Have a great day everyone!

Posted by beth at 2:44 PM | Comments (0)

June 15, 2007

SunChips are Good

I couldn't really think of a title for this post so I decided to let you all know how I felt about SunChips. And yes, I did have to google "sunchips" to see if it was one word or two and if the "c" was capitalized or not.

Nonethless I've got lots of news to share!

News item #1 - Yesterday I had a pretty good day of training! I started things off with a 1:15 pool run with 2x(5,4,3,2,1 hard w/1/2 of the time for my rest). It was good. The lifeguard on duty was the young kid who listens to the good music on the radio and doesn't even realize that I'm there. He is much preferred over the older lady who listens to the bad music or no music at all and tries to talk to me the whole time. I guess I'm just not very social in the morning. Anyway, I also rode my trainer for 1 hour after dinner last night.

New item #2 - At the urging of my coach I set up an appointment with a chiropractor yesterday after work. He had suggested this to me when I first had my accident but once I started back into training and felt okay I sort of disregarded the suggestion. Then I tried to run. Then I knew things weren't quite right with my body just yet. My coach warned I was setting myself up for some sort of compensatory injury which I think it exactly what is developing along my tailbone on my right side. That and my left hamstring were really sore after I ran on Tuesday. So yesterday afternoon I went to my very first chiropractor appointment ever. I didn't know what to expect but I have to say it's very much like PT or going to an athletic trainer. And this doctor seems really good. Yesterday after asking me about a bazillion (yes - a whole bazillion!) questions to figure out what my issues were he had the therapist work on my soft tissue (hip, back, knee, etc...) and then he did some sort of laser treatment. Today I went back for another appointment and this time he did more what I expected out of a chiropractor - some bone cracking! :) He is of the opinion that my back and hips/pelvis are off-kilter due to the impact they took from the truck. The hamstrings and glutes apparently anchor the pelvis. And so because I'm sort of out of whack my body is trying to compensate and that's why when I tried to do that little 4 mile run last Tuesday I woke up the next morning feeling like I had run 24 miles instead. It really does make perfect sense.

So anyway, this chiropractor is quite nice and very helpful and he seems quite excited to work with me. He said more than once that he likes working with athletes more than the general population. :) I will see him a couple more times next week and maybe the week after until we can get me running healthy. I do have faith in what he is doing because it makes a lot of sense and truthfully the overwhelming feeling I had when I did try that run last Tuesday was not one of pain but rather one of just being "off". Hard to explain but my stride just felt so restricted and tight.

News item #3 - I am still up in the air about whether or not I will compete at USAT age group nationals. I feel like I could get through the swim and do fine on the bike but obviously the running is a little up in the air. In the past 2 weeks I've run 4 miles. And I'm not really sure how much I'll be able to do in the next 2 weeks before the race either. Luckily I seem to have the best coaches in the world that have been working with me on a daily basis. It's truly unbelievable to me - I email my coach what I did for the day, how I felt, what the chiropractor said and then he emails me back what to do the next day. We take a day at a time. And I am so thankful for his time and effort in getting me back out there. He likely coaches 100s of athletes and trust me when I say I am no where near one of the best (some of my teammates are absolutely amazing!) so it's not like he is just giving special treatment to the top athletes. Regardless, I think within a week or so we both will be able to determine if traveling out to Oregon for the race is a good idea or not. It's my only chance to qualify for the ITU age group worlds which was one of my top goals of the season, but it is what it is and if I'm not ready I will just have to come up with some other goals. Definitely not giving up hope just yet though. Time will tell.

News item #4 - I rode outside again today for my first time since my accident! And what a beautiful morning I was blessed with! I met my friend and her coach at a park. Unfortunately my friend was having mechanical issues with her bike so she had to turn back early but I rode with her coach for about 50 minutes and then by myself for another 1:25 (2:15 total). I wasn't nearly as scared as I thought I would be being back on the roads but it did help that (a) I started with someone and just wasn't by myself and (b) we rode in a low traffic park. I think the hard part is going to be riding by myself again back on the roads around my house that have a good amount of traffic. And I think it will be really hard to ride past the site of my accident. But I'm taking baby steps. My friend's coach told me that she thought it was great that I was back out on the roads so soon because she has known a lot of people that have had bad crashes or accidents that just don't get back on the bike again. That's not even an option for me. But I certainly did appreciate her comment.

News item #5 - After spending about 90 minutes trying to get a chest x-ray at my PCPs office I went for a swim this afternoon! I need the x-ray for my follow-up visit to the trauma clinic next week - to make sure those holes in my lungs are gone. Turns out my doctor at the hospital didn't write out the script for the x-ray correctly though. Bugger. They threatened to make me come back next week but darn it if I wasn't leaving that office with a picture of my ribs and lungs if it killed me! After some haggling we got things worked out and I finally walked out with the goods in hand. I hate when things that should take 5 minutes take 2 hours but what can you do? Nevertheless I got to the pool for a cool 2000 yd workout that included 10x100 on 1:30 and 5x50 on :50. I have to say, when I first start my swim workouts my ribs hurt. Bad. But they feel better as I go. I asked the chiropractor what the deal with these ribs was - like why aren't they feeling any better? He started off his answer with a "well, I'm not going to lie..." which is NEVER a good thing. But he basically said they will take a long time to feel better because they never get a rest. Since we use them when we breathe, 24 hours of the day, they don't get a chance to heal like say my hip when I'm sitting or sleeping or not using it. When I told my mom this on the phone today she told me the solution was simple. Stop breathing of course! Gotta love moms you know?! :)

Nevertheless this entry is far too long for any normal human to read. See what happens when I don't blog every day? Information overload! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! I think mine is going to be delightful - especially if I get to run. But I'm not holding my breathe...unless of course that would help my ribs to heal...

PS - I keep forgetting to mention that this is going on right now in my neck of the woods. Yes, that's right, Tiger and the gang are in town! Oakmont is about 10 minutes from where I live - I pass it every day on my way to work and I literally ride through the town on just about every single ride from my house. I'm not a huge golf fan but who can't appreciate someone like Tiger Woods? Anyway, Oakmont is a pretty nice place although I will say I'm still a little bitter about the time that O and I went to a wedding at the golf club there and they confiscated my jean jacket. (okay, maybe I shouldn't have worn something so casual to such a nice place but I had a very nice dress on underneath the jacket - I swear!) O and I then proceeded to get lost in trying to find the room we were supposed to be in and we were quickly reprimanded and escorted to the correct location. Geez people - take a chill pill! I guess after the jean jacket incident they were keeping close tabs on us... :)

Posted by beth at 6:38 PM | Comments (0)

June 13, 2007

Itchy Stitches Be Gone!

The highlight of my day BY FAR was the fact that I finally got rid of my nasty, crusty, itchy stitches! Yipppeeee!!!

I was determined to find someone at work today that would take them out. I just couldn't take it any more. I want to wash my hair with no worries of ripping part of my scalp off! So I set out with a new list of clinicians that I was going to ask. My main problem last week was that a whole new set of trauma residents showed up in the trauma unit just when I needed someone familiar. I didn't want to ask some random resident (or worse yet medical student) for fear that they would think ALL dietitians are as strange as I am. So I needed some time to befriend the new residents.

But first I started with some nurse practitioners. I hit gold with the very first one I asked! She took one look at the sutures in my eyelid and said "yep, those need to come out". So she told me she would page me when she had time.

Around 2 pm I get the call. I run to the floor she's on and meet her at her office where she is waiting with suture removal kit in hand. My excitement cannot be contained. She sits me down and gets ready and then says "this may hurt a little - I'll try not to pull too hard." I think those are the last words I remember before the pain shoots through my skull. Holy. Crap. What the heck just happened?! It's about this time that I recall that when the sutures were put in place I had not only some local lidocaine action but I also had a little IV morphine on board. Not so this time. I could have really used it. Long story short she got them all out but I was pretty sure I was going to need some new stitches in my lip where I had just chewed a new hole. Yikes!

Regardless I think my quality of life has just improved 10-fold. I really, really hated those stitches. :) I don't even care about the fact that I'm likely going to have a scar on my eyebrow now. She told me it would probably fade some but that it likely won't fully go away. Oh well. Battle scars I suppose.

ANYWAY - this morning I went to the pool and swam 3000 yds, a little bit more of a legitimate workout than Monday's 1500.

AM swim workout:
3000 yds total
wu: 500 easy, 6x50 on 1
ms: 3x(2x300) first set on 5, 2nd set on 4:45, 3rd set on 4:30
cd: 200 kick, 200 easy

This was nothing fast or particularly hard but I wanted to get a little more distance in. My ribs are still sore but not worse than before, even though I doubled the distance.

When I got home from work I hopped on my trainer for 30 easy minutes. My left hamstring had tightened up pretty significantly throughout the day which I'm attributing to yesterday's run. The spinning helped to loosen me up. I'm not sure if running is such a great idea tomorrow though. I'm waiting to see what my coach thinks and also how I feel in the morning but my planned run for tomorrow might turn into a pool run instead. We shall see.

Hope everyone has a great night!

Posted by beth at 7:44 PM | Comments (1)

June 12, 2007

A Run of Sorts

So this morning I woke up at 4:30 and even though my alarm wasn't going to go off until 4:45 I couldn't fall back asleep. I'm the kind of person that if I wake up at 4:44 and my alarm is going to go off at 4:45 - I will fall back asleep for that one minute and thoroughly enjoy it. Not so this morning. Why you might ask? Well - I had a run planned this morning and I was really quite anxious and excited to get on with it! :) I laid there in bed though waiting because I knew O wasn't nearly as excited at that time of morning to be getting up and he had agreed the night before to run with me.

My plan was to try a 30 minute run and see how I felt during and after. And that's exactly what I did! And while it was a definite improvement over the 5 minutes of jogging that I did on Saturday, I still would grade this run as a B- or maybe a 5 out of 10. I was able to do the full 30 minutes but I did feel some pain in my hip/tailbone area and while I could get through it, I wouldn't have wanted to (a) run harder or (b) run any longer. My assessment of the situation is that the run isn't quite there yet. I'm going to try again on Thursday.

When I got home from work today my goal was to hop on my trainer for about 30 minutes. I decided on a nap first though because Roxy talked me into it. She's sneaky like that - looking all comfortable on the bed with a long yawn. Just makes you real sleepy you know?! :) When I got up from the nap though I felt like everything hurt. My feet, my hip, my tailbone. And my ribs really hurt (although they always hurt when I get up from sleeping because I'm far too stubborn to give up sleeping on my belly). I walked around a little and while I felt better I still decided that I may be pushing my body a bit too hard right now. It's hard to imagine 30 minutes of easy jogging as too much training when about a month ago I was training more like 3 hours/day but the circumstances are what they are and I have to accept that. So I decided against the bike tonight in favor for a dinner (O is away tonight at his high school's graduation).

The good news is my new helmet came in the mail today! That means I can get back outside on my bike and since I feel best on my bike right now, I may be doing a lot of riding! I sent out an email to just about every cyclist friend I have to see who would want to ride with me on Friday or Saturday. I want to ride outside again soon but I definitely want to ride with someone my first time back. And I think I want to ride in the one park near where we live because half the park isn't open to traffic and the other half has a speed limit of about 30 mph. Small baby steps you know. :)

My plan for tomorrow is a swim workout in the am that is a little more bona fide than the 1500 yds I did yesterday and then maybe an easy spin on the trainer tomorrow night.

I have to admit I get a little down about this whole situation on occasion. I suppose the most frustrating thing is the thought of not being able to race the way I want or missing races altogether because I'm not healthy enough to get back out there. But I remind myself often that this is the hand I was dealt and that part of becoming a better athlete is learning how to deal with these obstacles. Every great triathlete out there has had to get through the valleys too. And quite frankly my "situation" could have been much worse. I will say one thing though. I have always been a determined person but I don't think I've ever in my life felt the kind of determination I feel right now to get better, to get back to training and to get back to some serious kick-butt racing. Whatever was smoldering deep down inside of me is now burning so strongly I'm having trouble controlling the heat! Now I just need my body to cooperate and I just need to be smart about all this and it could very well turn out to be the low that turns into a very big high. If only a little patience...and knowing that my timetable isn't always God's.

Posted by beth at 8:18 PM | Comments (1)

June 11, 2007

Double Day

I decided last night that I would like to try a little swim workout this morning so to the pool I went. How nice to see my regular 5:15 am crowd at the YMCA! Also nice - my goggles fit just above my eyelid laceration/stiches. I was pretty concerned that the top part of the goggle was going to land right on my sore spot and cause some unwanted pain. But my stiches were all nicely packed inside the goggle and my scalp stiches were underneath my swim cap. Sweet.

I didn't want to try anything crazy so I went for a 1500 meter total workout with some 50s and 100s thrown in for good measure. It was simple and short but it told me exactly what I needed to know - my ribs are still sore and swimming makes them hurt worse but the pain isn't unbearable and if need be, I could get through a race. Good deal.

When I got home from work I hopped on my bike for 30 minutes (on the trainer - still waiting for new helmet to arrive). I threw in some hard 1 minute segments just to test the systems out. You know how it goes - everything feels good until you go hard and then all of a sudden everything hurts. The good news is, my body feels good on the bike - nothing seems to hurt or be too pained.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to tackle the run again. We'll see how it feels if I go for longer than 5 minutes! Not going to push it though. I don't want to be creating havoc with other healthy body parts by compensating for parts that aren't quite healed yet.

So that's my story for the day! Hope you all have a great night!

Posted by beth at 7:58 PM | Comments (4)

June 10, 2007

As Expected

As expected when I got up this morning I was wishing I was in Cambridge, MD getting my wetsuit on and getting ready to race. As expected I was a little on the down side as I "watched" the race online (you can track athletes like in a marathon) and saw how an almost perfect day pushed people to amazing times! As expected I was disappointed as I looked through some of the pictures online and saw that the day before the race there was a clinic put on by the pros and Desiree Ficker and Natasha Badmann were there! As expected I was sad that I wasn't there, enjoying the day that I had really looked forward to for, well, for a very long time.

But after I let myself feel sorry for myself a little, I told myself to snap out of it. Because there will be other races and other times to meet my heros. There will be other nice days to PR and have a wonderful race. I just need to be patient. And seeing as how I'm so good at being patient that should be no problem.... (note a very large amount of sarcasm in previous sentence).

I want to race NOW! Never mind the fact that I can't run. I know these next couple weeks might be very frustrating for me. When I first had the accident last week I was so sore and in so much pain I was more concerned with getting up and down the steps in our house than with getting back on my bike. But now that I feel better and I just have a little pain here and there, I want to get back to training and racing ASAP.

The good news is is that I am feeling better and better. My ribs seem to hurt a little less each day and this morning I rode on the trainer for 40 minutes without any problems. My left leg seems to be a little sore at the knee and the hip, sort of like IT band pain, which was the problem yesterday when I tried to run. I'm going to try swimming tomorrow and then try running again Tuesday. I really, really, really, really want to go to Portland for Age Group Nationals. It's June 30th - will I be able to make it? I guess only time will tell! One things for certain, this accident has definitely fueled my desire to race. And that is never a bad thing.

Posted by beth at 3:20 PM | Comments (3)

June 9, 2007

Sounds the Trumpets!

Here is my new website! Definitely amateur in nature but we'll keep working on it. And if we ever have a few extra bucks laying around O and I might buy our last name so we can have a cool url! Tell me what you think!

Posted by beth at 7:36 PM | Comments (1)

Blah

I'm having one of those blah days when I can't seem to get myself moving. My desire to do anything has disintegrated! And when O and I got home from the pool this morning I discovered that Roxy had eaten the insurance paperwork that took me 1 hour to fill out yesterday. O made the call to the insurance company to report that the dog had eaten our homework. Really. Bad dog!

I am slowly but surely making progress on my list of things to do though. O and I went to the pool this morning and ran in the water for 45 minutes with 10x1 min hard, 1 min easy to spice things up. When we got home I really, really, really wanted to try real running so we changed clothes and set out for 10 easy minutes of jogging. After 5 minutes I decided it wasn't such a great idea. Nothing hurt horribly but my left leg just isn't right yet. I can't really even pinpoint what was bothering me - just sort of the left knee, hip, IT band, etc... Not ready for that yet I guess. Bummer.

We've also slowly but surely been making our way through cleaning the house. It's been weeks since it got a good clean. Gross!

And I've been working on my website too! It's almost done and ready for publication. It's nothing special, but it's kind of fun and I hope we can add to it through the years and triathlon seasons...

Posted by beth at 5:15 PM | Comments (0)

June 8, 2007

The Sweet Smell of Chlorine

Ah...the smell of chlorine in my nostrils again! I never knew I would miss it so much! :)

I returned to the pool this morning for some water running. I was sort of nervous, not knowing how it would feel or if my ribs would be too painful. I also had to drive myself over there since O was already at work. I hadn't driven in over a week!

I was greeted at the YMCA by all the usuals. They were worried about me! Seeing as how I'm there just about every day my absense (and then reading about my accident in the paper) had them concerned. That is so what I love about the YMCA!

My goal was to run easy in the water for 30 minutes. I went at 9:30 because the pool closes at 10 for cleaning. That way I wouldn't be able to sneak some more time in. :) It felt so good to MOVE a little! Water running isn't particularly difficult unless you put in a lot of effort so really it wasn't a challenging session but I just wanted to test out the waters (literally and figuratively!).

My hip and knee felt fine. I wouldn't want to attempt real running on them right now but in the water, with no pounding, I felt no pain. My ribs were sore of course. They are sore all the time; but it wasn't the kind of sore that I couldn't stand. At best my ribs sort of feel like when you drink way too much water and then try to run and you get a cramp high in your chest. At worst they feel like someone is stabbing a large knife through my chest. I only feel the knife kind of pain when I try to get up from laying down or actually am in the act of laying down or twist wrong. Every other activity is some degree of the cramping type pain. By the end of my 30 minutes in the water today I wasn't even really noticing my ribs that much. Good deal!

So I at least know I can run in the water! I'm going to try some more tomorrow and then on Sunday (when the pool is closed) try some easy spinning on my road bike. Progress is wonderful!

In the mean time I decided I wanted a website. While wishfully thinking and dreaming I sometimes research companies that might like to sponsor an amateur schmo like me. :) Depending on how my season unfolds I was thinking of applying for sponsorship to some of these companies but I noticed most applications want to know what your website is. Hmm... Now O and I are no web designers that is for sure! O knows more than me. I'm lucky I can figure out how to post blog entries (and Alison has made that so easy anyone could figure it out). But luckily our internet provider has a helpful little tool for people like us. Anyway, I'm really excited to put it together. Since O and I have found some serious extra time on our hands (what the heck are you supposed to do when you get home from work at 5 and don't have any training to do for the evening?) we started working on it last night. I can't wait to unveil the finished product!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Posted by beth at 2:07 PM | Comments (3)

June 6, 2007

Itchy Stiches

I don't want to dwell on my accident much longer. Afterall, it happened, it's over and as O always says "it is what it is." I know I'm incredibly lucky to be alive. My focus now is moving on, getting better and getting back to that starting line, a starting line, any starting line (oh, and dealing with more insurance companies than I ever could imagine). But regardless, one last reminder of last Friday, a picture in the Valley News Dispatch.

So I had another pretty good day at work today, surprisingly so because I had a pretty rough night last night. I spaced my pain meds out a little differently yesterday leading to a painful night of tossing and turning. And once I was in bed I was way too stubborn to get up and take some more medication. So I dealt with my ribs and woke up grumpy.

Once I got rolling on the day though things improved greatly. My favorite nurses in the surgical ICU where I work stole (borrowed?) me an abdominal binder to wear when I sleep! They use them for patients that have had surgery or pull them up around people's chests if they have rib fractures to sort of "keep everything tightly together". They convinced me to give it a try by telling me I'd sleep much better. I believe them. Those guys know what they are talking about! I do have to cut mine down to size a little but I'm going to give it a go tonight. :)

Otherwise my hip is feeling better and better and while my itchy stiches (does that rhyme almost?) seem to be getting worse I know it won't be much longer before the scabs will heal and I'll just have scars instead. :)

So now I'm off to order a new helmet. As soon as I can get back out there I want to. Everyone has told me that I need to get back out on the roads as soon as possible because the longer I wait the harder it will be. Luckily I have wonderful friends, several of which have already offered to ride with me my first time back. I don't even need to wait for Scotty to be get back in shape since I have my road bike. I do need my hip to feel better though. And oh...I definitely need that new helmet to be ready to go too...

Posted by beth at 7:15 PM | Comments (4)

June 5, 2007

Back to Work

Warning - my blog entries are likely to be very boring for the next few days as I won't have any training to write about. Oh wait, even when I DO have training to write about they are boring. Well in that case - read on! :)

So I went back to work today and it wasn't so bad! I will say that I was quite a bit more tired than I thought I would be. I guess I figured "just" working would be a piece of cake (since I usually work AND add an extra 2-3 hours of training into the day) but I'm sure my body is still working over time trying to heal itself and make things right. Luckily I had a pretty easy day at work though and a little after-dinner nap cured the sleepiness problem!

It was kind of fun to drive into work with O today too. I'm not supposed to drive for a bit yet but really what's holding me back on the driving front is the fact that both our cars are sticks and my left hip feels too sore to be pushing the clutch in and out all the time. Regardless, O took me in and picked me up today and will do so for the rest of the week. And how can you beat that? Front door service, saving on parking and gas AND O even agreed to let me listen to my podcast of choice on the way home. He reasoned that he always gets to listen to "his" sports on the radio but I never do so I choose to listen to this interview of Faris Al-Sutan. Faris is one of my favorites and he even had O laughing some. He seems like a real laid back kind of guy.

Anyway, I seem to be feeling better and better each day. My left side is still sore no doubt. I'm still limping a little due to the hip and the ribs are a bit bothersome. I was begging my co-workers today to stop making me laugh (that gets the ribs really aggitated!) but of course that only resulted in them making me laugh harder. The only bad part of the day was that I was quite unsuccessful in convincing any of the docs at work to take my stiches out. They are driving me crazy - soooooo itchy! And I don't get them out until June 20th!

Regardless, I am still feeling so blessed with everyone's nice comments and concern. I really, really appreciate it. When O and I got home today there were flowers waiting on our doorstep from one of my former teammates that has really been my cycling big-brother. He is not a triathlete but a pure cyclist instead and has definitely been through his fair share of accidents, crashes, etc... My other friend stopped by last night (also a triathlete!) and dropped off some DVDs and stuff to keep me occupied while I can't train. I seriously couldn't ask for better friends and family! No doubt about that...

And in other news I think I found a new race I want to do! Since I can't do Eagleman this weekend I won't be able to qualify for the Ironman 70.3 World Champs (1/2 IM) which are in Florida. That was my big goal for Eagleman. Luckily there are other qualifying races though, one of which is in Michigan in August! I'm not going to sign up just yet - I want to see how things progress but that sounds like a lot of fun and will still afford me a chance to qualify for Clearwater in November. Very fun. Who wouldn't want to swim in Lake Michigan anyway? :) On that note, I did talk with my coach yesterday who suggested I start with some water running as my first training stint back. I'm so anxious to start again but I'm definitely going to wait until at least Friday if not Saturday. And then of course longer if I'm still hurting.

Alas, I must find the pooch! She has been too quiet for too long which means she's probably eating those nice flowers that were sent today... :) Good night everyone!

Posted by beth at 8:09 PM | Comments (7)

June 4, 2007

Simply Overwhelmed

Well, I think my title says it all. I am just simply overwhelmed with everyone's kind, caring comments and support! You guys are the best! I truly appreciate your concern. It makes me feel so lucky, not only because my head didn't crack open Friday but also because I am so blessed to have so many people care about me! Thanks so much!

I am feeling better! My hip, while still sore, is feeling much looser to the point that I don't have to limp so much. If I have to put all my weight on it (like walking up stairs or putting on pants, etc...) it is not too happy but I can definitely feel improvement. My left knee and arm are still feeling banged up too but I can tell my major limiter is going to be the left side of my chest where my ribs are still very tender. Deep breathes and turning my body from side to side is not good. But hopefully with just a little more time they too will heal. My only other complaint is very itchy cuts, especially the one above my eye. As they heal and scab the itchness is driving me crazy! And I have strict orders not to pick from O!! (he can be pretty tough if he wants to be) All in all a pretty small list of problems considering what the list could have looked like! Of course the Percocet helps. :) And my outlook and mood is probably greatly enhanced by the fact that I finally got some really good sleep last night. As I feel better I'm a lot more comfortable laying down.

So my new focus is getting better! I figure if I can put all my energy and focus that I usually reserve for training into recovery I will be better in no time. :) My plan is to take this whole week off and MAYBE try some easy spinning on the trainer this upcoming weekend...of course only if I feel up to it and I'm not limping or feeling pain anywhere. That plan may change but I'm the kind of person that needs a plan (any plan, even if it's not the right plan) so I can have a goal to work on. Of course when I talk with my coach later today on the phone, this plan might be drastically different.... :)

I took today off work and O was nice enough to do the same so that we could get the insurance and police department stuff all sorted out. The policeman that was at the scene of the accident starts at 3 pm today so we will head over there soon. We've already taken poor Scotty to the bike shop to see what he needs. He may just need a new fork or he may need a whole new frame. Poor bugger probably never knew what hit him!

I am going back to work tomorrow. I'm not allowed to drive yet but my work place is kind of on the way for O to drop me off on his way to work so that's what we are going to do. Plus I really want my nasty looking stiches out and I'm thinking one of the trauma or surgery residents that I know well will do me the favor tomorrow... :)

Have a great day everyone!

Posted by beth at 12:26 PM | Comments (5)

June 3, 2007

Good News/Bad News

I'm the type of person that usually likes to hear the bad news first because then no matter what there is good news left to hear. But regardless of that - I'm going to tell you the good news first.

Good news - I'm alive. Nothing is broken, including my head.

Now the bad news - Friday afternoon about 5 minutes into my 2:30 training ride, a truck hit me.

To tell you the truth, I lost consciousness so I really can't tell you what happened. I do know this - I had the right of way as I was riding on the main road and had no stop signs or stop lights. I never even saw the truck coming. Maybe it was better that way. We learned later from the police report that the truck was trying to cross the road that I was riding down. He said he never saw me.

When I regained consciousness I was laying on the pavement with people all around me. The paramedics were there at that point and a man (not the man who hit me but someone who had stopped nonetheless) was standing over me holding his handkerchief to my bleeding head. Things are pretty foggy for me here. I remember them putting me in the ambulance and I remember the EMT telling me they were going to fly me to the Pittsburgh hospital because they didn't have the type of equipment they needed at the local hospital. I remember one of the flight EMTs telling me to close my eyes when they put me in the helicopter because stuff would get in my eyes otherwise. I remember it being really, really hot at first in the helicopter. And then I remember tears running down my face once the helicopter was in the air. I think the realization of what had just happened was starting to set in and all of a sudden I was just really, really scared. One of the flight crew held my hand and told me I was going to be okay. She told me they were just being safe by flying me down to a shock trauma center. I suppose above all I didn't know what was wrong with me and I just felt pain all over and I wondered what would happen.

The ensuing 5 or 6 hours were spent in the ER getting xrays and CT scans and this and that. O got to the hospital only about 20-30 minutes after me and that was a great relief to see him. The ER nurse told me my husband was here and I started to cry again.

After things calmed down the ER resident cleaned up my cuts and sutured up the laceration above my eye and on my scalp. Unfortunately it's big nasty looking black thread which doesn't come out for 2 weeks! I'm not really one to be concerned about how I look but my eye just does not look very nice. :)

At that point the docs told me they had reviewed all my xrays and nothing was broken! Thank God! I was so happy to hear that. I felt like every bone in my body was broken but I knew that feeling would go away eventually versus if I had had a fractured pelvis or needed surgery for a shattered leg and my recovery would have been much longer. The doc also told me that the CT of my head was negative - no bleeding in my brain or swelling. Even better news.

I thought I was going to get home that night but the doc came back again and said that after the radiologist reviewed the CT of my chest they saw two small pneumothoracies which are basically small holes in my lungs that let air escape out of my lungs and therefore my lungs were collapsed. I was not having any difficulty breathing but their protocol in that case is to keep patients overnight to make sure nothing happens and to take more xrays in the AM to make sure the pneumothoracies didn't get any bigger. Bugger.

So that lead to some more waiting around until finally around 7 pm or so I got a bed on one of the floors upstairs. Once upstairs they fed me (which surprisingly I wasn't even in the mood for - and since when do I not want to eat?!) and then the task of taking a shower. Oh my. The nurse let O help which was better than her having to help me. But that shower really hurt. It was about this point that I started to realize how incredibly sore I was and when the water hit all my cuts...well, you can imagine. I mostly just wanted to clean off all the blood and wash the blood out of my hair. I know, gross.

Anyway, so goes the night. I have never stayed overnight in a hospital before so it was an interesting night. The nurse came in what seemed like every hour to take my blood pressure to take blood or just check on me. And then I had an IV so every time I wanted to go to the bathroom I had to have the nurse help me. It's a very humbling situation. All of a sudden you can't do ANYTHING by yourself. I had been refusing my pain medicine up until about midnight Friday night when I realized that I just wasn't going to be able to sleep at all without it. Sore doesn't even begin to describe how I was feeling.

I woke up about 5 am and couldn't quite get back to bed so I watched tv for a while and counted down the time until O would be back. In the mean time they brought breakfast and all of a sudden I felt the pain that the patients I see all the time feel. Hospital food - major yuck! :) O got there around 9 (even though visiting hours on the weekend don't start until 1 pm!) and we hung out pretty much all day. We waited and waited and then waited some more. Every hour we would get up and take a lap around the floor. Me limping and holding my aching ribs! It felt good to get up though. Finally, around 8 pm I was discharged - the xray of my lungs looked good and besides being incredibly sore and banged up I was good to go!

So the summary of the story is - I am incredibly lucky. I see patients like myself ALL the time that have severe head trauma or fractures so bad they don't ever walk again or both. And basically all I have are some cuts and bruises and some small holes in my lungs that will heal in no time. I thank God so much for that. Of course I'm incredibly disappointed that my "A" race this upcoming weekend isn't going to happen. All my training this past winter/spring was based off Eagleman and even worse is that what I was hoping to base the whole 2nd half of my season off is a race that I had to qualify for at Eagleman. That's kind of screwed up now. But how can you be disappointed when you know you are lucky to be alive? I'm not sure when I'll be able to race again or even ride or run or swim. At this point I'm having trouble walking. But I know the body is amazing and right now I'm just going to take one day at a time. Who knows, maybe I'll be back spinning easy on the trainer in a week or two. Time will tell.

As for my bike - well, Scotty has seen better days. Basically the front fork was severed off. O and I took him out to the bike shop today to see if I needed a whole new frame or what. My helmet is cracked - thank God for it or that would have been my cracked head! I will have to say when I saw my helmet again with my blood smeared all over it, I got a little sick to my stomach.

Such is life you know! There was a poster hanging in my hospital room that I must have read about 100 times while I was laying there. It said:

"The magnitude of success can be measured only by looking at the obstacles which were overcome to acheive that success." Booker T Washington

A small bump in the road that will surely slow me down but that also surely won't stop me.

Posted by beth at 4:21 PM | Comments (15)