Journey to Kona Day 41: Stupid Is, As Stupid Does

Yesterday, I ran for the 47th straight day.  I've been on a mission to run every day until Kona.  My coach already told me that there was no fitness value to doing this, and he is absolutely correct.  Having completed my first 100 mile event over New Years, running one mile wouldn't really amount to a hills of beans in regard to my fitness. However, that wasn't the reason for my daily running streak.  The reason was mental.  Having a prolonged streak of daily running was about psychology. Pure and simple.  When I get off my bike at Ironman Boulder, and then at Kona, I want running to be second nature, especially the first mile.  I want the synapses in my brain to have zero doubt and no questions whatsoever when it comes to moving forward, when it comes to running as I begin the final phase of an ironman.  Hence, the idea for my running streak.

Unfortunately, I strained a rib yesterday. It was so bad that I could hardly breath, much less walk, and certainly much less run.  I saw the chiropractor and initially I had planned to do a 5K today, as part of 19 miles of total running volume.  I woke up feeling 90% better, although there still was some discomfort.  I thought back to a few years ago, when I'd tripped and popped a rib out of place and then ran the first four miles of a half marathon before walking an additional four miles home.  That "stupidity" kept me from running for over a month.  I had stubbornly run despite the fact that I was causing more damage to my rib and the surrounding area.  Fortunately, yesterday I'd limited the damage to moving a couple more boxes after the initial injury (still, "stupid"). However, I'd gotten my rib back in place at my chiropractor.  The damage was hopefully limited, but the surrounding area still had some inflammation.

The "stupid" decision would have been to keep my streak alive.  The "smart" decision was to visit my chiropractor again to assure that everything was back in place, and to determine a rational basis for when I'd restart my run streak.  Upon experiencing pretty extreme discomfort lying down on the chiropractor's table, we came upon the answer to the question.  I was essentially unable to lower my body to the ground in a push-up position without significant discomfort today.  That will be my test.  If I can do one push-up without discomfort, I can run my daily mile.  The irony is that I had been doing push-ups about 6 weeks ago prior to starting my full on training for Kona.

I also realized that I'd probably set myself up for this injury with my near one hour swim with my 2 beat kick on Thursday.  I wasn't sore from that swim, which was encouraging, but I most certainly had made my back muscles tired.  Combining that muscle fatigue with stress, and then adding  twisting most likely led to my 9th rib slipping out of place.  Lessons continued to be learned.

So, stupidity and stubbornness will not inform my decisions for training this weekend.  My quads are still somewhat sore from 6 straight weeks of solid training, so a few days of rest will not only not hurt, but will most likely be quite helpful.  Moreover, I'm about to enter the last 12 weeks of my preparation for Ironman Boulder, and 12 weeks is the most critical time period.  I want to enter that time period well rested and prepared.  A valuable lesson on my journey to Kona.