I owe you guys an update on my Ironman training and today it’s time to come clean. I’m currently taking performance-enhancing drugs to help my training.
Don’t worry, the only drugs I’m taking are in the form of a doctor-prescribed inhaler!
Let me back up and explain how I got there.
You may remember that a few weeks ago I was sick. I assumed it was a cold, but it hung around for over a week and completely knocked me out of training Monday through Friday of that week. I struggled through a bike and half marathon race that weekend.
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The next week I struggled through a few workouts before a work event that lasted through the weekend. I did manage a long bike ride the morning before the trip, but it wasn’t my best effort.
Last week I tried again to get back to to normal and pushed through what I could, but even short runs were still rough. My long run was planned for Thursday night before a weekend in the mountains, but even 3 miles reduced me to walking…several times. I tried to write it off to getting over sickness, put on a happy face, and push on.
In the mountains, I realized that I was breathing hard with just short hikes on the slopes. Something was definitely wrong.
I made an appointment at a doctor early this week to see if they could figure out what was going on. I expected the doc to hear something in my lungs, prescribe some meds, and move on with life. Instead, I was sent to radiology for a CT scan with a suspected blood clot in my lungs. After that came back negative, I got an EKG to clear any potential heart problems.
Finally, the answer was: “we don’t know”.
I hate that answer. Instead of a real solution, I was prescribed an inhaler to take before workouts for the next few weeks. The guess is that the extra dry air, combined with after effects of being sick, are irritating my airways. I know I don’t have asthma as I had a definitive test before I was certified for scuba diving years ago.
What now?
So for now, I’ll hope and pray that this helps enough to get me through this enough to train. Kirk has readjusted my schedule for the next month to try getting my training back on track. We’re at almost a month of sketchy training, which is obviously NOT good during Ironman training.
I’m at the point that I accept this Ironman might not happen, but not ready to accept defeat quite yet. Any prayers you can offer are much appreciated. And I’ll try to keep my optimistic outlook, because I know that being negative at this point is not helpful either.
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Questions for you:
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How do you deal with unknowns that pop up on the way to BIG goals?