AGH!

I'm officially screwed. Went to see the doc on Friday and begged for a cortisone shot in which I was denied. I'm on mega doses of anti-inflammitories and have been so for the last 3 weeks. The doc doesn't think I'm inflammed, inflammation would have gone down by now. Instead he thinks I have over stretched or torn a ligament, the ligament or tendon that connects to my tibia. Cortisone will only "mask" the problem. I asked him how long he thought I would be out of run commission, oh just 6-8 weeks. REALLY?! You must be kidding me? The ONLY good thing is that my leg is healing, or so he says. I still have pain but my mobility is much better. The tests that I did on the bike and swim this week gave us something to work with. I can handle the bike at low wattage, which means workout by workout I can up my spin or bike rides in distance or time but I still have to limit my wattage to 70% or below. Which is fine, I just need to build my endurance base back up. Post swim on Thursday I suffered massive shin splints on my injured leg. I kicked hard during that set and when I got out of the pool I almost fell over from the striking pain and limped through the rest of the night. I had thought that I did some serious damage again as I woke up throughout the night to shooting pain up my calf/knee. The pain went back down to normal by morning. This was a good sign, for if I had done damage to it the pain would have lasted 24 hours or more, says the doc. During training I will piss my leg off, and that is when it will unleash the wrath on me. I just have to make sure I don't piss it off enough to stick around. You know, I was doing ok, I kept telling myself to think positive, things will come around. Then the doc said 6-8 weeks of no running and it broke me. 6-8 weeks of recovery and "safe" bike training. The only place I can push my limits is the swim. I feel completely and utterly hallow. On the occasion I have found myself screaming so loud my throat burns. Sudden strikes of pain
puts me in my weakest state and will bring me to tears. I am trying to fight it, I am trying to stay happy but it's not working. If I have one more person ask me how I am doing or just take it day by day I'm going to punch them. I'm so tired of having people tell me to keep positive and do other things. Really? How does one stay positive when they "lost that loving feeling...oh-oh-oh loving feeling". This is not only what I love but this is my life. So what, I'm black or white, I have one focus....so be it. It's who I am and it's what makes me happy. I don't go around passing judgement on what makes you happy.
I think I've become bi-polar.

Saturday
5am swim

Llol, some old guy at the gym said I must be a swimmer. I laughed and asked why would you think that? His reply was "Only a young swimmer would be at the pool at 5am on a Saturday morning." I replied back, "I'm a triathlete" smiled and started my workout.

500 warm up

Drills
2 x 250 paddles; 15

1 x 100 one arm glide catch up; 10
1 x 150 - 50 aok, 50 karate, 50 fist; 10
repeat 1 x

Mainset
5 x 200's on 3:30
1 - 3:10
2 - 3:12
3 - 3:15
4 - 3:15
5 - 3:20

I did it! Kind of sort of. My goal was to do 5 x 200s in 3:05-3:10 and recover to 3:30. I hit one 200 within the time goal but managed to pull out the other 4 without extra rest needed. When I attempted this on Wednesday I failed after the 3rd 200 and need an extra break, today I did all and in quicker times :) I kept focus on steady strong bi-lateral breathing. It was less difficult for me to keep the pace with 3 strokes instead of my normal comfortable 4.

500 cool down

Total yardage - 3,000

Went on to volunteer water aid station for a TNT run.