injury

I think we got to the bottom of what was going on in my last post. That was on Friday, Aug 7, about my left shoulder. Three weeks later, on Tuesday the 28th, I felt like I was having a stroke while driving home. My left arm felt weak, numb, and lacking control. I had Pattie take me to Queen’s ER. They quickly ruled out a stroke, did a CT scan and an MRI. Doc asked if I had any recent head trauma. I told her about my crash. She said the MRI revealed bilateral subdural hematomas, and that I qualified for  bed. Yay!

My last post was about a weakness I felt in my left wrist and arm on long bike rides. I had to stop and rest every thirty minutes or so. My legs were fine. My fitness was fine. I just could not control the bike. I also said that this is something I have felt for years. Even so, I was puzzled why it had gotten so much worse. My thinking was that when I crashed my TT bike in May I landed on my left shoulder and strained a bicep tendon.

Sunday was my last long ride before Ironman 70.3 Hawaii, known as Honu. I felt great. Lots of power. Comfortable on the bike. A moment's inattention and suddenly there was a parked car right in front of me. I thought I might hit it. I swerved, congratulating myself for missing it as I whizzed past, only to feel the bike go out from under me. TT bikes do not handle well in the aero position.

Last time I wrote about spending some workout time going fast. At least race pace, maybe faster. I used the term intensity a lot and this could be confused with going hard – running or biking uphill, for example. What I meant was getting comfortable moving the body faster. Running, in particular, because the running stride involved so many muscle contractions that must be coordinated perfectly in order to run efficiently. I ended that piece by mentioning the increased risk of injury.

In this blog post I describe my recent and on-going injury. More of a set-back, but still frustrating.

My turn to struggle with injury.