Sunday, June 17, 2018

On the Mend

            One week into recovery from the bike crash, but only 6 days to go until race day! This has been a multi-faceted recovery, as I dealt with open wounds, a sprained shoulder, and a concussion. Monday morning I visited our neighbor Jackie, who is an ER nurse, and she took a scrubber with alcohol and gave my shoulder, hip, and hand a good, and painful, cleaning. Per the advise of Amy, my Dr. Quinn of essential oils, I’ve been using oils on the open wounds, and oils for the shoulder sprain. I’ve also used Frankincense for the concussion as well. Per additional advise, I’ve also taken multiple Epsom salt baths to aid in healing and relieve soreness.
            I took the first 3 days completely off (unless you count rollerblading on the third day). On Thursday (4 days after), I rode my bike on the trainer for an easy 35 minutes. Friday, I ran an easy 3 miles on the treadmill. Since concussion symptoms did not return with activity, on Saturday, I did a 2 hour trainer ride with 1:45 at Race Effort, followed by a 3 mile treadmill run at 7:19 pace (1% incline). I felt relatively good with that. Sunday, I did a longer run of 6.4 miles at easy pace.
            For the shoulder sprain, I have been icing, oiling, working on range of motion (100% ROM!) and I started working with bands for strengthening it. My road rash has healed considerably, though my hip has not closed over yet. I put Tegaderm on, which is a clear sealant over it, which is also supposed to help it heal faster and allow me to swim. I would like to try swimming a little bit this week to see how my shoulder fares, but also because last time I crashed and sprained my other shoulder, it recovered much faster when I was able to return to swimming.
            The above was a description of how I have been faring physically for the past week. Mentally, it has been about taking it one day at a time. I’m also exploring options of what to wear on top to race in because I would like short sleeves to cover by shoulder. I don’t want my wetsuit to rub on it, nor do I want it to get any sun exposure. I feel like I was preparing myself to do well, but I’ve played through a lot of scenarios and thought about how I would deal with it mentally on race day. What if my shoulder gets too tired in the swim? What if I have to sidestroke a chunk of it? I feel like my swim should have been under 35 minutes (pending water conditions), but what if it takes me 45 minutes or more? What if I flat on the bike? What if I struggle through the run? What if, after all of my hard work and fighting to put myself back together in time for this race, I don’t do well at all? I’ve heard that self-doubt creeps in during taper.
            There are a lot of things that I cannot control. I have to be prepared to roll with them as they happen. I can control how I respond. In the end, my biggest goal of the day will be to enjoy it. For some crazy reason, I have enjoyed hard, long swims. I’ve enjoyed biking over 50 miles. I’ve enjoyed running over 10 miles (even on a treadmill at times!). I know it’s going to hurt, but isn’t that part of what makes it so much fun?

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