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August 4, 2008
Contacts, Race Planning and More
I think I have a contact in my brain. And I'm a bit worried about it.
You see on Friday night, the night before the race, I went to take out my contacts and I couldn't find my left one. Gone. Missing. Out for lunch!
Of course much weeping and gnashing of teeth ensued. This happens to me every once in a while where I just can't find a contact and I have to dig around in my eye for a good 15 minutes before I can locate it. Annoying to say the least.
Well Friday night the search kept coming up missing. 15 minutes passed. 30 minutes. And I really wanted to go to bed! I thought I saw it. I pawed at my eye for a while. O pawed at my eye. Then I decided I was just seeing the glare of my eye in the mirror. Oh, it was an ugly scene. I love contacts but this part I could do without.
So for the first time ever, I just gave up. I've always found them...somewhere...in the recesses of my eyelid. But on Friday night we just couldn't find success. So I went to bed that night hoping that the contact wasn't slowly migrating into my brain.
I woke up the next morning and my eye hurt. Did it hurt because there was a piece of plastic lodged in it or did it hurt because I had scratched it repeatedly in attempts to get said piece of plastic out? Hard to tell. But I had a race to do.
New lesson learned - always bring extra contacts with you on a trip/to a race/on vacation. Because if you lose one you are doomed to a stomach ache for the rest of your time. You try rolling around with one blurry eye and one perfect vision eye. You get a little dizzy and sick to your stomach after a while.
I didn't really think much of it during the race. As previously documented, I was having other issues during the race. :)
But afterwards I immediately had to get the contact in the good eye out because having two blurry eyes was much better than having one good one and one blurry. That just throws you off.
Needless to say on the trip home yesterday, I wore my glasses. :)
I called my eye doctor today. At this point I'm pretty sure I lost the contact somewhere because I really don't think it could still be up swimming in my brain somewhere. And indeed, I googled "contact lost in eye" and just about every site I clicked on confirmed that the contact doesn't have many places to go because of some protective membrane encasing your eye (thank God!). But regardless, the lady at the eye doctor told me to come in just in case. So I have an appointment tomorrow. Let's hope for the best.
In any case, I spent the majority of today organizing my life. I woke up with the idea that I would do another 70.3 this year in an attempt to qualify for Clearwater. Then I decided against that and started looking for other races. Then I changed my mind again. And again. And again. Then I talked with my coach. Then things made sense again. I do tell you, self destruction would be a sure thing if it weren't for my coaches!
Anyway, we discussed what went wrong on Saturday (many things!) and what I need to do better in training and more importantly in racing a 70.3. I am armed and ready for my next one...which I eventually decided will be next year. If I didn't have any other races planned this year I would definitely find a way to try to qualify for Clearwater but the fact is, I have two very important (to me) Olympic distance races in October to focus on and that's what I'm going to do. 70.3 will have to wait for next year (where I've been instructed to plan more than one in the case that something goes wrong!). Opps...my mistake. :) In the mean time, without really trying, I pretty much planned all of next year too. Because you know we AGers will have to start signing up for races soon (and in fact I signed up for Columbia today!). I am excited for next year though because I *think* I've convinced O that we need to go to California for a race!! I've never been to California!
But now the focus is the US Open and BOUS and I added a nice little all female sprint in September in North Carolina just because I wanted to treat myself for missing out on Clearwater. Some woman buy purses or shoes or chocolate when they are feeling down - I treat myself to another race. HA!
And the focus is also on recovery. Which will be the focus this whole week. And I'm off to a good start. Yesterday before we left Michigan O and I took a nice swim in Lake Michigan (which was absolutely picture perfect, the exact opposite of the day before!) and that felt really good on my legs. And today I took off. Totally. I could get used to this! The usual stretching and icing and massage continue as well. I think I should be feeling better in no time.
Now if only I could find that missing contact... :)
And one last thing - I truly, truly appreciate everyone's nice comments and emails, texts, calls, etc... regarding my race Saturday. I am really just so happy to belong to such a wonderful community of fellow athletes who always know what to say - good or bad - through successes and failures. It really is quite special to me. Thanks guys!
Posted by beth at August 4, 2008 8:57 PM
Comments
I've never worn contacts, but I would be scared it was somewhere up there too! I'm glad to hear you're feeling better and making plans for next year. I hate that things didn't go well for you at Steelhead, but you are such an amazing athlete with such a great attitude, so we're all proud of you!! Rest up and take care!
Posted by: kellye at August 5, 2008 12:40 PM
Eeks - sorry about the contact. I've had that happen to me before... the last time was while riding the trainer. I rubbed my eye to get the sweat out, and there went the contact. :( Glad to hear that you're getting it checked out, though. Better to be safe than sorry.
Schedule stuff is exciting, but also can be daunting (planning, figuring out goals, etc). Best of luck! Which race in California???
Posted by: marit c-l at August 5, 2008 12:40 PM
I've never worn contacts, but I would be scared it was somewhere up there too! I'm glad to hear you're feeling better and making plans for next year. I hate that things didn't go well for you at Steelhead, but you are such an amazing athlete with such a great attitude, so we're all proud of you!! Rest up and take care!
Posted by: kellye at August 5, 2008 12:41 PM
Ugh, I have had so many contact problems that I wear my glasses 95% of the time, except for races (corneal ulcers, ripped contact and then unable to find other part -- which by the way sounds very similar to your situation. I couldn't decide if my eye was irritated because I had been digging around in it or if there was still part of contact in there. It turned out there was still part of a contact!). Luckily, my eyesite isn't too bad. I hope they find it or it's out and your eye feels better! I want Lasik but I'm too nervous about it :)
Posted by: Bri Gaal at August 5, 2008 2:20 PM
Ouch! Hope you find that contact! Reid sometimes has this issue and I get so scared to help him out, but I do. I just can't imagine "pawing" at my own eye. Yikes, I get the chills thinking about it. You guys are tough! Hope the Doc helps ;-)
E
Posted by: E Swanson at August 5, 2008 5:43 PM
I hope you find your contact! I keep telling myself I am going to get Lasik one of these days, but it scares me a little.
I signed up for Columbia too! I haven't even signed up for any races for the rest of this season, but I have had to sign up for races next year!
Which race in California? Wildflower perhaps? That was my first triathlon. It is a great race.
Posted by: maija at August 5, 2008 7:44 PM