get me off this rollercoaster NOW

i love this blog. i love writing it. i love the people i have met through it. my goal for this blog was and has always been to keep things light, fun, positive and more than anything else, keep it real. i hope i have done that up to this point. so even though being injured isn't exactly the most positive thing to blog about, i need to write about it because it is reality and eventually we all find ourselves in "time-out" so to speak and it isn't any fun.

LOVE = running on my favorite trail at sunset

i will be the first to admit that i'm addicted  in love with running. let me clarify. it has nothing to do with weight control or exercise addiction but more from a sanity aspect. running is the one thing that centers me, calms me, creates a peaceful, easy feeling (cue up the Eagles), you get the picture, right? no amount of biking or swimming can create this same effect so when i CANNOT run, i get super cranky and emotional, just ask J-man. poor guy has had to deal with my crabby ass for the last 2+ weeks. here is an example of a conversation we had as we were heading out for a ride recently:

j-man: stop, there's a car coming (as he is waving the car to go and says out loud to the car to go ahead or something like that and i thought he was telling me to go, so i clip in and go ...yes, i proceed to take off in front of the oncoming car that the j-man is waving on). thankfully, the car stopped and let me go across.

j-man: WHAT ARE YOU DOING? i told the car to go, not you. your head just isn't in this today.

me: i'm not riding with you today. i'm turning around and going back home!

j-man(says nothing while looking back to see if i was really going to turn around).

ok, so i didn't end up turning around only threatened to, but looking back now, the conversation was kinda funny. i was super frustrated that day more than ever because i had constant pain the whole day and nothing i did helped ease it. let me rewind now and tell you what the problem is. as you may know from reading my last post, i have had chronic piriformis issues for quite some time. for the most part, the pain is totally manageable with proper amounts of stretching. i had a nice, long 4 1/2 year stretch with very little pain. however, i recently tweaked it (swimming with fins!) again and it has literally stopped me in my tracks. i really can't run and lord knows i have tried and when i try, i pay for it the rest of the day. i can really understand now, how people who have chronic pain can get addicted to pain medication. who wants to feel pain all day? i sympathize with those people. i'm not sure if i am fortunate or unfortunate that i cannot take most pain meds because i am severely allergic to them, so i just deal with it the best i can.

i want to sincerely apologize for not being a good blog visitor lately. between work, fitting in the physical therapy and fitting in some kind of training, it has left me exhausted mentally and physically. oh yeah, and staying up way past my bedtime to watch the Lightning sweep the Caps didn't help either, LOL!

i won't bore you with too many more details but i will tell you that the physical therapy seems to really be helping me strengthen my weakest link which is my hip/glute area. the pain seems to be subsiding but it is hard work. this lovely physical therapist who put humpty dumpty me back together the last time, is helping me again. she also noticed that my left leg is shorter than the other! now the mystery about why all of my injuries have been on the left side has been solved. i'm hopeful that with all of the strengthening exercises, stretches and a heel lift will get me back to where i was and quite possible even stronger. as for the triathlon next saturday ...up in the air. i will make the final decision to do it or not at the last minute. my PT thinks i can do it but i will see how things go over the weekend and next week. i will NOT do the triathlon if i'm half-assed (literally and figuratively). yes, i will be bummed to not be able to do it but i have to look at the whole picture here and the big picture is ironman florida. nuf said!

i want to say thanks to all of you (you know who you are), who called me, texted, emailed, and one person even sent me a card via snail mail to wish me fast healing. you all are just awesome and i'm so blessed to be surrounded by such positive people, even if most of you are hundreds or thousands of miles away.

also, if you haven't had a chance to check out the latest edition of The Athlete's Plate at Cook|Train|Eat|Race, then you really should. it not only made my mouth water but it brought tears to my eyes. again, just another example of the awesomeness of blogger friends. thank you Jason!

i hope each and every one of you has a fantastic weekend, whether racing, tapering or training. enjoy and be safe. i will be playing catch up on my blog reading and commenting.

much love and peace out!