The Crud

 Last Sunday, since we hadn’t seen each other in a while, Typhoid Jean came out to the lake for the afternoon. I was weeding the beach and then watched the PGA golf tournament, neither of which excited Jean, so she left. But before she went she made sure I got infected with the same cold virus she had. We’ve both been a little “under the weather” ever since.

It’s not been bad enough to stay in bed and not do our Ironman training, but we haven’t felt good enough to “train to the max”. I know! It’s a shock but on yesterday’s long bike of 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours at heart rate 2 or 3, Jean stopped at 4 hours. I stopped at 3:22 and we both ran our 40 minute transition run and felt like crap afterward. Her cold has stayed in her sinuses and mine has gone to my chest. I got into a couple of coughing jags on the bike and a couple on today’s long run, but survived, although it was hard to catch my breath with the cold “remnants” and the high humidity. Better now than two weeks from now, eh!

As many of you know, a couple of weeks ago I volunteered to be a “guinea pig” at Pennock Hospital to test procedures surrounding the use of our new 64 slice CT scanner. It was an easy, non-invasive procedure and I was happy to help out. The practice sessions give the nurses and technicians information about how long things take, what works and what doesn’t, and how the patients are likely to react. Everyone there was very nice and thanked me for agreeing to help out. From my point of view it was a good way to get a “screening” of my heart without having chest pains to prompt the test.

This past week, Dr. Ward (radiologist) met with me to go over the tests and show me the pictures. We spent some time talking about my pictures specifically and spent more time talking about the procedures in general. Being on the hospital board, I wanted to know if the money we spent was worth it and I’m convinced first hand that it definitely was. Dr. Ward and the people in radiology were very courteous and I thanked them for taking time out of their busy schedules to talk with me. I did get a bit of bad new though. There is nothing wrong with my heart and there is no medical reason that I shouldn’t do Ironman Wisconsin. That was my last chance of a gracious way out, so I either do the race or wear the label of a quitter. I’m looking forward to the race.

We’re now in our taper for the race. As most of you know the taper period shortens the duration of training sessions but keeps up the intensity. It’s a way of keeping you sharp, but gives you more time to recover from the workouts. The only real week of doing very little both in duration and intensity is that last week before the race. It’s that week when you get a little “antsy” and want to get the show on the road.

I’m working on my race plan. No, not the one that starts out “When the gun goes off, swim as fast as you can. Then get on the bike and ride as fast as you can. Then get off the bike and run as fast as you can and it’s over”. If it only was that simple.

Just (Two Weeks Before A Long Day Of Fun) Jack

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