Back injury update, start of taper!

So after my redemption brick, my back injury got way worse and I ended up spending a week doing very minimal training and just trying to rest it off. The only workout I got in that week was a short trainer ride that back pain cut short. I got back on the train the week after though, despite continuing back pain, because I figured if it wasn't getting better or getting worse, I had nothing to lose by just trying to tough it out until the races. I also saw a doctor during that time period, who put me on some NSAIDs and referred me to PT, although my appointment isn't until next week so that's not looking to be helpful for a while.

The combination of getting back in the pool and NSAIDs seems to have helped and the back pain seems to be easing up day by day. What's important is that I can swim and bike and run on it fairly unencumbered for now and that's all I need to be able to race this weekend and next. I would give you the full rundown of workouts from the last week, but my med school life is mildly insane and I don't really have the time for all the details, so the vague outline sketch will have to do.

8/31 Monday: AM CSP practice, distance free day, 3200 LCM, I fell off during the middle of the main set mostly because of back pain, but I did what I could. 51/55 (92.7%)

9/1 Tuesday: AM CSP practice, mid-distance free day, 3500 LCM, back starting to get slightly better (really sore when I wake up, eases up as the day goes on). 52/56 (92.8%)

9/1 Tuesday: PM short easy run, 4.28 mi, 39:24, 9:12 pace, way better than I thought it was gonna go. Could definitely feel the loose back, but I focused on form and it was never really pain so things were good. 53/57 (92.9%)

9/2 Wednesday: PM tri team swim practice, 3600 SCY, sort of a hot mess because it was fairly disorganized but I got what I needed to do done. I was also planning on taking a ride but decided against it because I needed to put time towards school work, which is the priority. I counted that as a missed session. 54/59 (91.5%)

9/3 Thursday: PM easy ride, 3 laps of Forest Park w/ friends, 2 easy, 1 fast, 18.99 mi, 1:22:36, 13.8 mph. 55/60 (91.6%)

9/4 Friday: AM CSP practice, IM day, 3600 LCM, some back pain off during the short axis strokes but things were generally improving. 56/61 (91.8%)

9/4 Friday: PM base run, this was really bad and it turns out I had a bit of an illness that day (combination of dehydration, slight fever, heat, stomach pain). I ended up having to walk a significant portion of it and the pace was real slow. I did technically finish the intended distance, but I felt pretty low about it and it really knocked my confidence when it came to pushing through pain. 6.66 mi (on 7 mile route around Forest Park), 1:07:22/1:14:32, 10:07 pace. 57/62 (91.9%)

9/5 Saturday: AM tempo ride brick, Midland-Ashby route and 4.5 mile run, restored a little bit of my faith in myself after Friday's terrible run. 58/63 (92%)

9/6 Sunday: OFF - Had been a planned workout day, but I needed to focus on school so I opted out. Hilariously enough, Henry and I ended up doing that timed 100 push up challenge again (I did really poorly compared to last time, so we're not going to talk about it) and I did some core work afterwards (fueled by my discontent about the push ups). I'm not counting that as a real workout, although in hindsight, it was pretty real...58/64 (90.6%)

9/7 Monday: AM tempo ride brick, Midland-Ashby route and 6 mile run, taking advantage of Labor Day and making sure I can go the distance on the run. 59/65 (90.7%)

The next few days will be taper followed by a race this coming Saturday (Club Nationals - sprint distance), lots of recovery, and another race the next Sunday (Cyman Triathlon - Olympic distance). I'll try and be better about these updates, but honestly, med school is pretty real so we'll see. At the very least I'll do reflections on the race weekends. Forgive me! I'm doing my best. (:

Much love,

Jess