Patience, Grasshopper

I just thought I should provide an update to my faithful followers, although, sadly, there isn't that much to report.

I am still in physiotherapy for my sore hip and am a bit discouraged at the lack of progress there. I am being faithful with my exercises and obedient about my training restrictions but recovery remains elusive. It seems that I am OK if I do very little but if I try to do very much at all, I get into trouble again. Oddly, enough, walking seems to be the worst thing I can do. I went for a 1K walk on Wednesday night and paid for it the next day. That, together with walking around campus more this week because I started teaching a spring course, has set me back quite a lot.

I cancelled the trip to Pentiction that I was planning with Jordan and Sara. We were going to do some cycling on the Ironman course. I am also going to have to get rid of my entry for the Vulcan triathlon in June. It's not an A race for me but it's something I do look forward to so it's a bit of a disappointment.

I am trying to be patient and approach my situation as an opportunity to set new and different goals for this summer. My plan was to focus on weight loss and strength and flexibility training. It's hard to lose weight when you can't burn any calories, though. I am working on my upper body but can't work on anything below my upper abs at this point - even though that's what needs the most work! I wanted to go to yoga, too, but, honestly, my hips are so tight I can hardly get a stride going just to walk from the front of the house to the back! I'd look ridiculous in child's pose, with my butt way up in the air!

I do worry a little about things. I have to keep telling myself that injuries heal and that I won't be like this forever. Sometimes I feel like a decrepit old woman and I wonder if I'm kidding myself to think that I can ever be a long distance triathlete. I am trying to enjoy what I can in the short term and have a longer term vision of the future, after this is behind me. I've had to talk to myself a lot to keep it all in perspective.

Good!

I haven't done any workout longer than 10 minutes for the last month and I was starting to go stir crazy. I decided to go for a bike ride today and deal with whatever fallout there was.

Dan and I went out to a quiet secondary highway by Half Moon Lake. I was pumping up my tires before we left and broke the valve on my rear tire so I had to change the tube before we could go. While putting my wheel back on, I must have bumped the sensor for my computer because it wasn't registering anything. I couldn't figure out what needed adjusting to make it work again so we just got on with our ride.

There was a pretty serious crosswind, which felt like a headwind both out and back, but I rode in aero for most of the ride so that made it easier. My hip was burning a little bit into the ride so we decided to turn around at that point. I wanted to ride but not totally undo all the healing that has taken place so far.

After we got back, we clocked the distance in the Jeep and it was 15.4 km.

I love my bike! A couple weeks ago, I rode it about 3K, just lollygagging around the neighbourhood, so this was almost its inaugural outside ride. I felt like it was easier to go faster but of course I don't really know what my speed was.

Anyway, the flat tire, sore hip, non-functional computer, and wind were nothing at all compared to how wonderful it was to do this ride. It was very, very good for my mental health.