Two weeks ago I decided to play soccer, innocent enough, right? The next morning I wake up barely able to lift my leg without tremor inducing pain. The next night I woke up every hour with shooting pain down my quad to my thigh. WTF? It took me four days to go to my family physician (after one visit to my sports doc) only to find out it is all based around the stenosis I have in my L5/S1 joint.
So after prescription for some pain medication (Vicodin) and another drug (MethylPREDNISolone) and a week later I am actually able to sleep through the night and walk around without looking like a 70 year old man. Thank God!
Of course there is never a good time for injury to occur, but this was a particularly bad time for the simple fact that I was looking to start my Two Year Plan to IMAZ 2014 the day after Ironman Arizona. This injury pretty much nixed any of that happening. The plan now is to get healthy, loss weight (I am up over 200lbs right now...holy crap!!!), and then start a training program.
That's it for now. Cheers.
I have been MIA for the better part of three months now and there has been a lot going on, but little time to write about it. So here is what I am going to do, write some bullet points about what has happened followed by some bullet points of what my plans are. Here I go with "what has happened":
- Racing - Summer ended and I didn't do any more races. Coaching my daughters' soccer team coupled with my extensive mid-Atlantic didn't lend itself to racing. One word...priorities (e.g. family).
- Death - My Grandmother passed about right around Labor Day. I wasn't especially close to her, but she was my last remaining grandparent. It kind of finalized what was a crappy month or so where I lost my dog, my best friends mother and then my grandmother.
- Soccer - I coached my middle daughters' soccer team and had a great time doing so. They weren't the most talented group, but they were a lot of fun. My daughter, the smallest on the team, played awesome and really surprised me (and every other parent). I am so proud of her.
- Baby - My littlest one is now a one year old just awesome. She is always happy, always puts a smile on my face. She isn't walking yet, but will be soon.
- Training - My training has been hot and cold. Some weeks I am putting in six days of biking/running, other weeks I am lucky to get in two. I don't have a goal and thus I don't have a plan.
- Swimming - I have had to put my membership at the YMCA on hold for four months due to economical reasons. It sucks, but I just can pony up the extra $70 a month right now. Business is not great, so we have to make cuts.
- Minivan - We are now a minivan family as we have gotten rid of our GMC Acadia. Again, it came down to cost cutting, but also convenience. I never thought I would be driving a minivan.
- Job - I have posted for a new position that I have a decent shot of getting, but there is competition. It was supposed to get filled quickly, but it seems as though it is going to take longer due to many factors.
- Sandy - My home was slightly affected by Hurricane Sandy, but not nearly as badly as so many family and friends of mine. Actually, my parents main residence is in Lavallette, NJ, one of the towns more severely impacted by the storm (it is just three miles north of Seaside Heights and four miles south of Mantoloking). The good news is that they were in Arizona when the storm hit. The bad news is that they are not letting anyone onto the island to check on their houses or gather belongings. It is very frustrating but I have to assume it is for every one's safety.
Here is "what my plans are":
- Job - I plan on having a new job either by the end of the year or by early 2014, unless things turn around drastically in my current position.
- Training - I hope to participate in the Bucks County Road Runners Winter Series starting in December. I took the past two years off, but I think it is time to get back in it. It is a great way to improve/maintain fitness through the winter months.
- Races - I haven't picked out my schedule for 2013, but I want to try and do only a couple sprints tris, three or four olympic tris, and one or two half iron distance tris. I also want to do a few half marathons and some other road races here and there to improve my speed. This is something that I have gotten away from over the past two years, I need to get fast (relative term) again.
- Vacation - I hope to be able to take the family on a vacation this year, Disney maybe, or even just somewhere tropical. We all need it very badly.
- Everton - I have a friend who is a pilot for American Airlines who has offered to let me tag along to Manchester, England. This is great news because I have an in with Tim Howard of Everton FC (in Liverpool, a mere 35 minute drive from Manchester), where I can get tickets to any home game they have (possibly away games as well). I hope to make this happen in the next month or so.
- Garmin 910XT - I did finally receive my new Garmin 910XT and have been using it for all of my runs and rides (indoor). I like it a lot, but haven't really gotten into all of the data I can extract from it. Also, since I am not swimming right now, I haven't really gotten to use it in the water yet.
- IMAZ 2014 - I know I mentioned this before but I am stil committed to participating in Ironman Arizona in 2014!!! When you have a family of three young children there aren't a lot of spontaneous signing up for races going on, especially when it is an Ironman. I have given myself two years to get ready and hopefully finish in under 10:13:00.
I think that is about it for now. Time to get some work done and find a way to make the "plans' list happen. Cheers to everyone out there.
