I suppose I should start with why I got into the sport of triathlon. I have been a runner for many years. I started racing in 2002 and I was hooked. It started with a harmless 5k, and then I signed up for more and more, and then 10k's, half marathons, and then marathons. I ran my first marathon in 2004. I had been training for a marathon in Cape Cod at the end of October, and I got to the point where I thought "I am done. I cannot train anymore", so one Saturday morning (four weeks before my planned marathon) I woke up and drove up to Bristol NH and ran the first New Hampshire marathon around Newfound Lake. It was very hilly, and looking back I was not prepared, but I ran a 3:50 marathon and being the first of what is now an annual race, it was very small. I had left immediately after the race - didn't wait for results - a few days later I got a check in the mail for $75, I had placed 3rd overall woman. Back to that afternoon... I said that I would never run another marathon. My legs felt like they had been run over by a truck. But the next day I woke up... and I was hooked. The next year I ran the Marine Corps marathon in Washington DC; the Boston marathon in 2006 as a charity runner (I hadn't qualified) then the following year the Marathon of the Lehigh Valley in Allentown PA; and in 2008 the Baystate marathon in Lowell MA. This time, my 5th marathon, I was finally at a point where I knew how to train, knew what worked for me and what didn't, and I was prepared. I was so prepared that I ran a 3:32 marathon, and when I was finished felt like I could do it again, and even ran back to my hotel a mile away. I had qualified for Boston, so I registered immediately, and planned to run it in 2009.
January 2009 rolled around, and I began training for the April race. Everything was going great, I had no problem getting myself up in the morning when it was below zero outside, snow on the ground... I loved it. I love the discipline, love having a schedule and knowing what I have to do that day. Many people that don't "get it" think that it becomes more of a burden, and that you don't enjoy it anymore... but I completely disagree with that. I absolutely love the training. April 5, 2009... two weeks before Boston. Decided to run the Great Bay half marathon in Newmarket as a training run. This was my last long run before the marathon, I had planned to run 17 miles this day, and I lived 2 miles from the race start, so I jogged down, and planned to run back after which would give me my 17 miles. This is a very hilly course, and it also changes surfaces many times - pavement to gravel to pavement to gravel... I was around mile 5 when I felt something very painful in the back of my left ankle. I continued anyway, and by the time I had finished my ankle hurt so bad I could barely run home.
First thing Monday morning, I called Access Sports Medicine in Exeter and made an appointment with Dr. Josh Segill. I heard that he was the best dr around, and I wanted to make sure I could be "fixed" so that I could run Boston in two weeks. Long story short... I had a tear in my left achilles. It was not ruptured, so I didn't need surgery, but it was looking bleak for me to run Boston. I was still determined, and went to PT three times a week for those next two weeks... and finally towards the end of the second week accepted that I would not be able to run the marathon that year. It was okay, I had qualified in October, so I was qualified for the next two Bostons. There was still 2010.
I was out of the running scene for about 7 weeks. It was at this time that I pulled my old road bike out, and started riding to and from work, and taking long rides in between...trying to keep myself sane. I started riding about 100-150 miles a week. I enjoyed riding, but it was nothing like the high that I got from running. It did the trick though to keep me from going crazy through all of this.
Once I could start running again, I jumped right back into the racing scene. My first 5k back, I set a PR. I continued running and racing through the year, and also continued riding. When the fall came, I had set another PR in a 5k, running a 6:50 average pace. I had also gone to fitwerx in Peabody and bought myself a carbon fiber 2010 Felt Z4 with full ultegra components. This just reflects my personality... and my mantra.. Go Big or Go Home. Probably would've made sense to get into racing a bit first before spending over $3k on a bike... but that's not me.
It was at this point, September of 2009, that I decided I was going to get into triathlons. I joined an online forum and started reading posts by others - questions, advice, race reports - and got really pumped up for my new adventure. September was also a kind of bad month... I dealt with plantar faciitis, a stress fracture in the same foot I had torn my achilles in, etc. etc.
Fast forward to December 21, 2009... the first day of my Boston marathon training. I told myself that I was going to run this marathon, and then transition into triathlons. I had taken swimming lessons when I was very young, and on maybe my second or third lesson got water up my nose and gave up. Swimming just wasn't for me. Since then, the only "swimming" I had done was jumping out of a boat to cool down in the water and climbing right back in. I could keep myself afloat - I can tread water like there's no tomorrow - but had no idea how to swim.
January 2010... I decided if I was going to get into triathlons, I should have a coach. I had never had a coach before, made my own training schedules, played around with different things.. trial and error really. This time I was going to do it right. I found my coach through the forum that I had joined online. He is out in Oregon, but would post my training schedule through a log on line, and I would have unlimited access to him via text, phone, email. He is an amazing athlete - qualified for Kona in IMAZ in '09 with a time of 9:29 and change. Amazing.
We were going to focus my training on getting me through the Boston marathon in April, and then continue on to start my tri season in May, and work up to a half ironman in September, with some sprint and olympic distance races through the summer in between. So I ran, and ran and ran, and rode my trainer through the winter, and started...gulp...trying to learn to swim. I took a couple lessons at the pool, and made sure to get in there at least three times a week to practice. I'll get back to swimming in a bit.
February 27 rolls around. I was running great. I had done many long runs keeping a good pace, feeling great. I had an 18 mile run on the books for this day, and had no problems to this point. It was a nasty day. We had had a huge wind/ice storm that took out power for a few days. It was snowing again, and was super slushy outside. I started my run and was fine until somewhere around mile 9... when all of a sudden I felt a horrible pain and assumed that I had pulled my groin muscle. I finished the run anyway (this is becoming a trend). I let my coach know that this had happened, and we decided I'd take a few days off from running. As the week went on, it didn't get better, in fact it only felt worse. Finally a week later I went back to the sports medicine doc. My regular dr was booked up for at least another week, so I got in with another one of the doctors. He didn't really do his own investigating, just listened to me tell him what happened and where I hurt, and diagnosed me with a hip adductor strain. Once again, into PT. My first appointment with the therapist... and another diagnosis. She noticed that the right side of my pelvis was tilted forward and felt that this was not a hip adductor strain at all, but something to do with my pelvis and nerves, etc. After a few PT sessions and not getting any better, I started to get very frustrated. I was less than a month from Boston and could barely walk, let alone run. At this point I couldn't ride my bike either, it was too painful to sit on it. I could swim (well, if you call what I do swimming) but had to use a pull buoy and couldn't use my legs at all.
I ended up going to see Jeff Donatello, a chiropractor in York. He took an xray and as we looked at it, he said my spine looked like the leaning tower of pisa. Another diagnosis. Jeff started adjusting me three times a week... at this point there was still (though dwindling) some hope of me running Boston. As it got closer to April 19, the hope was dwindling more and more. It now came down to... do I try to run Boston just to finish? Um, nope. If I know I'm not going to do well in a race, I would rather not run it. Do I try to run Boston and risk injuring myself further and ruin my first triathlon season? Um, again, nope.
So I decided I wasn't going to run Boston. My mental therapy: I signed up for Baystate again in October of this year, I figured I had to redeem myself somehow.
My coach was awesome through my injury. He really paid attention to me and how I was feeling. He started me out running on the treadmill only so that I could control my pace and time, and if I started hurting, stop. I started out running a mile at a 12:00 pace. This was barely doable. It was still very painful. Through many adjusments and much direction from my coach, I was able to get down to a 10:00 mile, and off the treadmill onto the track. Weeks later, I was back on the road. I had my first triathlon coming up May 23, and it was just before that that I was finally able to run without pain again. Before I get into that though, I need to jump back to swimming. Ahhh... swimming. That needs a post of its own.
