The Pre Race " What's been going on?" IM CANADA

Hey all of you ( 4) readers. Its been quiet here hasnt it. Mostly because I have been busy, focused, working, in a relationship, training. Not reading blogs much and surely not writing. I left off at Liberty Tri. A rough one. One that Jared and I talked about ALOT leading into Canada in the "WHAT IF..." department.

I had some sore lower legs ( lets just call them Calf mm since you dont care exactly what they are do you) and 13 days not running put a bit of a " scare " in me. Turns out after consulting my friendly MD who I dearly depend on, this can happen when its this cold and wet and you run on legs that are frozen. Nothing was torn, nothing was even remotely long term damaged, they just were without blood for too long and well...There ya go. Sore. So I was able to ride ok but really took it easy with getting back to runs.

Louisville became and option, as did Maryland, as did paying alot of money to do Wisconsin. Because as much as i wanted to get away from Madison, part of me longed for the " I know that course " thing. In the long run and after maybe 1-2 nights tossing on this possible loss of much $$ and dreams of Canada I decided this. I can run pretty well. I maybe undertrained but whatever. I am going to Canada and unless I have some really bad issue where i cant even run, even if my longest run is 16 miles i am going. And it all worked out. Longest run turned out to be 20 and I built up to that nicely. All ok.

So in the mean time in additon to training I had a nice time at the cabin, was training ALOT up there over the 4th so family and BF were used to the " yes i can walk 1 mile but not 5 and not rough rocky terrain bc i have to run XXX tmmrw" sort of talk. So I am excited now for August to be able to walk anyplace and not worry about my training or twisting an ankle! As we get older ( WE, haha how old are you?) things dont always go as planned. Little things talk more and sometimes it takes a few morehands on you than " ya its been a month since my last massage." For me, knowing what works for me it means bodywork, rolf, massage, PT ( mostly this is strength and keeping things in balance), ART, and two different Chiro's. One adjusts, the other does soft tissue. Ya talk about high maintenance. But i know my body and i know the ART chiro wont adjust my first rib. So this is like a 2nd job. Its worth it, but its alot of energy. and time. and money.

And in the end its all up to your head and body to be ok with where you are and decide its go time. My taper lasted about 2 weeks. Perfect. I was nervous about this, the 1st week i was tired, didnt think it was enough. But it was. Enough that i had no niggles, I had not real taper issues at all. Loved it.

We flew out on WED night and home Tuesday after the race. The rains and cold we arrived in scared me but i trusted the forecast even though ( see Jared see Liberty) i had packed like i could be racing in 50 and rain. Trust me this would have been ugly for bike safety not to mention swimming in a hypothermic lake. And lets not think about those calves again. My sister Elizabeth came armed with plans to learn the trails on her bike and by foot. She was a godsend and I cant thank her enough for driving me around. Pretty much everywhere. And She does NOT LIKE TO DRIVE. What a gift she is to me.

So I will write more about the race but wanted to get the pre race jargon out there....