Devastation

I woke up yesterday so excited to put my training for Ironman 70.3 to bed.  This week is an easy rest week leading up to race day on Sunday.  I had a long bike/run scheduled.  But when I looked out the window the weather was overcast (fine) and really windy (not fine!).  I hate riding in such strong winds.  I get frustrated because I just don't have the strength to power through strongly.  My pace slows and I work so hard to basically go nowhere.  Anyway, I headed out and pretty immediately got frustrated but went into the wind for a long time thinking how sweet it would be to head back with the tailwind.

Then my left knee started to hurt.  It felt better when I wasn't pedaling so hard into the wind.  But at a certain point it didn't matter.  It just hurt.  Bad.  I got off my bike and tried to stretch out.  That helped some, for about 5 minutes.  Then the pain got to where I couldn't even push down, I couldn't get into aero position, and I just wanted to cry.  I was far away from home and all I could think is that there is no way I can finish a 56 mile ride in this much pain next week.  I eventually did cry because man did it really hurt, and there really isn't any relief on the bike.

I'm hoping that I just strained something with the excessive force I was using trying to go into the wind.  I really hoping this is not a secondary injury to my hip injury that I've been fighting.  Those tendons are all connected, and so it makes sense that if one is injured it might eventually affect the others.  I just kept playing through the race.  My pace slowed to almost 8 miles an hour, down from the 16.5 or so that I can usually maintain.  That means it would take over 6 hours to finish the bike portion next Sunday, and I would not make the cut off time to continue on in the race.

I didn't go as long as I needed to ride.  I ran just a little bit, and it honestly felt totally fine running.  That is a good sign!  It felt totally fine walking around all day.  Just a little notice of something a couple of times sitting on the floor and one big twinge bending down to pick up a toddler.  I used lots of ibuprofen and ice, and that's my place to get to Sunday, along with lots of stretching.

Fingers crossed it was a fluke!