The Poster Child for NOT Recovering! :)

Ok, now imagine that same commercial, except "This is not enough rest, too much stress, and trying to do too much at one time. This is YOU not rested, stressed, and beat down. Any questions?" :)

Because that would be me! ha ha

Ok, not really funny, but true nonetheless. You know how you read about, your training partners talk about, and your coach harps on you about that big word... RECOVERY. You know, the most important part of endurance sport. The phase in which you actually get stronger. The one in which ignored, you'll end up "Fried?" Well listen up my friends, because what they say is TRUE!

If you read my blog even as regularly as I've been keeping it up lately, well then you know that I've been a mess this year. I actually went through and added it all up....

In February, I was sick 5 days in which I didn't do ANY training. I bring up the training part because there were days I was sick, like getting there and worked out anyways, "to get it in." So I was really sick even more than that 5 days. Then, with the passing of my Dad, I missed 6 more days in Feb. of training.

March... 5 days no training due to illness. And I was sick the entire time I was out in Tucson, so that didn't help things. :)

April... 5 days no training due to being sick. In the bed as soon as I could get there sick!

May... Thought I had kicked it. Thought there was no way I could be sick ANY more. Thought, ok, allergy season is behind me, right?? Well, when you take a body that works too much, doesn't eat well ALL of the time, trys to keep up with everything and has been beaten down just a bit too much already... the smallest things send you right back to base 1. So, what started as an allergy attack, turned into full-blown asthma. I tried to be aggressive. Went to the Dr. and "showed them" by demanding my steroid shot to make this thing once and for all go away.

But then something really weird happened. I've had asthma for years, and even at it's worse, that steroid shot seems to make things all better. But this time, it didn't... this time it got WORSE! So, I kept working, finally took a day off to rest because I found I couldn't really breathe. An important necessity in life! :) Had to go back to work, because well... sometimes you just have to. And finally after not getting a return phone call back from the Dr.'s office on Friday, (probably bad karma for being "difficult" earlier in the week! :) I was at dinner with the family when I knew something just wasn't right. I could NOT stop coughing and was having a hard time breathing and decided to stop off over to the Urgent care center for a quick chest x-ray.

Which confirmed Pneumonia... Yep.... that dang infection that I knew I could tell was there by Friday. So... I automatically knew... no race on Saturday, which of course had already been blown off at this point. No 1/2 Ironman in Macon on May 30th. As a matter of fact, I've YET to race this year. No 10k, no 5k, NOTHING!! :)

Good thing I signed up for IM Wisconsin and then even IM Florida and not CDA! :)

I know it will get better. I know I've definitely learned a lot in the past 5 months. I have 4, yes FOUR more days of teaching to go before... I'M FREE!! To coach, and workout as needed. To enjoy my summer vacation yes, with my children, but also the liberties of camp if need be ;). My dear Coach Jen... oh, she's been so patient with me. I know that all my drama has been a HUGE pain in the rear. She has eased my paranoia and said that IF my puzzle will finally come together June 1st, the rest of my season should be fine.

My first few races may suck. I think it takes awhile for your lungs to fully recover back to full capacity from pneumonia. You know, all that VO2 max stuff us anal triathletes worry about! :) ha ha!! But, deep down I know it will all work out just as it is supposed to...

I just might could use a few extra prayers tossed my way if you have any extra left. :)

Thanks guys for all of your support and putting up with all of my doom and gloom this year. I PROMISE that my next post will be FULL of positive info. So let's hope it comes really soon! :)