The Week of Sickness (and what I did about it).

As I mentioned in my last blog – my fun weekend in Palm Springs came with a price last week. I ended up with a chest infection. I seem to get hit harder with sickness as I age. In college even if I had bronchitis I would still run twice a day, go to class and work all night! Now when I get what seems like a normal cold, it’s accompanied with fever-y aches/pains, low energy and I’m down for the count. This sickness was no different. It got to the point where I actually started getting worried like I had pneumonia – something that would make sense after what I did to my body that last weekend.

“Luckily” the doctor said it was a chest infection. He’s an avid runner so he kind of knew the question was coming, “When can I start working out again?” He said 7-10 days off completely and that the cold will probably linger for 3-6 weeks. If I cheat, it’s just going to prolong me getting healthy – something I’ve been guilty of in the past. So I got off the phone, called my wife and then called my coach to let him know what’s up. Flanny takes a “no bullshit” approach to things.  As much as I tried to get an early jump on working out again, he stuck to his guns and slowly got me back into it. So what did I do during these 7 days off!? My fellow Wattie Ink team mate and Lava Magazine contributor Ryan Schneider inspired me to write about my week off. There’s no doubt that I’m serious about triathlon (Lava plug) and even though I was pissed about my mistakes, I still choose to take a positive spin on this learning experience.

First, I had to do was kick the chest infection. So I took the same disciplined and aggressive approach that I do for training to get rid of the sickness. Number one, I refused to take any medicine or antibiotics. I may get a lot of hate mail or disagreement on this, but I believe this was key in getting me better. Instead of hiding the cough and letting the mucus (sorry, getting real) linger – I lived by a sink/trash can and had Kleenex by my side at all times to cough up and blow out all of that junk as much as I could! I let my body do the healing, not some chemical laced pill or over the counter syrup. *Note, I believe in medicine, just not in every circumstance. I confess - I did use some aids to get me better. I had years of podcast notes, word of mouth help, a hippy mother in law and an awesome wife that helped me come up with a game plan:

1. Juicing. Definitely a lot of conflicting views on this but I believe it helped a lot. There’s no way I was going to eat as much vegetables as I consumed through juicing. We Amy juices regularly for the whole family – but these had a disgusting spin on them. The one that makes me gag still thinking about it – termed “Diarrhea Drink” by fellow Wattie team mate and pro Erin Green. Amy found a recipe that had a lot of great reviews in kicking sickness. It had onion, garlic, broccoli, celery, carrots, and raw honey. The worst was that you had to have it with hot water – so it was really hard to get down. A lot of dry heaving – again, a lot like training…


2. Sleep. Without having to get up at 4:30 to get a workout in, sleep became really easy to do. It’s like my body signed up for the same game plan to get well and rewarded me with a lot of non-disruptive sleep.  A lot of this also had to do with my diet which contained easily digestible foods which free your body to do the healing instead of digesting (hence why you always hear soup is good for you when you’re sick). I was regularly getting10-12 hours a night and a nap if I could fit it in.


3. Hydrating. A ton of water, coconut water, calm now and a lot of lemon, ginger, green tea with raw honey.


4. Supplements. Extra Sport Multi’s and doubling up on Vitamin C.


5. Weird things. Oil of oregano with water, apple cider vinegar, coco butter on the chest with eucalyptus oil rubbed on it (don’t ask..freaking weird). For some reason just writing or saying eucalyptus oil makes me laugh.

You know what? The game plan worked. I kicked what should have been a 4-6 week sickness away in 6 days.

What about the mental toll it played on me? After all, a week off should certainly ruin a season right? I definitely took a positive spin on it.

1. It’s only February.


2. The Olympics are on all week – inspiration overload!


3. Mental recharge/Stronger immune system going into the season.


4. Got to spend more time with the family.


5. Got to spend more time with the family…

So that’s what I have been up to. What do you do to kick a cold or handle the mental let down of not being able to train?

On the training front, this weekend is the Wattie Ink Elite Training Camp down in Carlsbad, CA. I am live tweeting the daily activities with some pictures. Follow me HERE. Next week I’ll share a lot of pictures and my notes throughout the camp. Thanks for reading!

For more pictures and past stories, be sure to visit my blog at www.konajourney.com
Feedback and Questions are appreciated!

 

The Accident...

So those of you that follow me on FG/IG or Twitter saw my post about cutting off my fingertip on Christmas Eve last week. What a way to celebrate the holidays right!? Amy and I were late as usual getting out of the house. I decided to help out by cutting the veggies with our new Mandolin Slicer! The cucumber didn't fit the guard so I decided to just use my hands...literally! That thing cuts so fast. You can't even feel if it's cutting or not because its so sharp. Before I knew it I hit my right ring finger slightly and then hit my middle finger really bad. [This is about to get descriptive so go to next paragraph if things gross you out!] As soon as I cut myself I didn't think it was that bad until I moved over to the sink and saw my fingertip fly off into the sink and down the hole. Blood started really coming out. I stopped the blood immediately by pinching down on below the cut and that's when I saw how bad it really was. My bone was peeping out of my nail. The cut was a diagonal cut so the bottom of my finger is fine. Imagine a clean cut through the nail down to the bone and out.

In the heat of the moment I did not get pictures. Only my lucky wife, kids and neighbor who brought over his medic kit and saved me from bleeding all over the place and saving me a trip to the ER. Why didn't I go to the ER? Well there's not much you can do with a fingertip. There's nothing to stitch, It's too deep of a cut. I decided to kill the pain with Ibuprofen and beer for the rest of the day and keep an eye on it to make sure it stopped bleeding which thankfully it did. The last thing I wanted to do on Christmas Eve was to go wait in line at the ER for them to just do exactly what my neighbor did - stop the bleeding. During those few minutes of staring at my finger while I waited for some help the first thing that came to my mind was no swimming (like the sick triathlete I am). I've been making some big gains in the water recently. 5 days/week I've been in the water putting in 3-5k each time. Flanny has incorporated a lot of specific drills which has really help me be more efficient in the water. And then...I cut my fingertip off...1 month - maybe more away from the pool while I watch my swim fitness float away :(

[caption id="attachment_2530" align="aligncenter" width="224"] The damaged goods..[/caption]

However, I'm not going to let it get me down. I'll take this time to really focus on biking and running and get better that way. I'll start the season a little behind in swim fitness but hopefully ahead in B/R fitness so it doesn't hurt me as bad. In the meantime I'm practicing my pain tolerance for the season. Flashing back to it, after loosing a good amount of blood, my neighbor was patching me and my exposed bone up and my wife instantly felt me get warm and sweaty. I was starting to pass out haha. Unreal. I laid down, took in some water - toughened up and went back for more. Before we knew it we were down seeing family in San Diego, enjoying Christmas while my finger throbbed with my heart while all the good beer made me numb.

This was all a good reminder to be thankful when you are swimming, biking and running because any day a freak accident like this can happen or you can get injured and it can be taken away from you. One of my goals next year is to really appreciate the fact that I get to do this - not HAVE to do this. Sure training seriously can take a lot of the fun away from the sport but I will use this accident as a good reminder that I am lucky I get to do what I do.

Well next week officially kicks of my "Kona Journey" with LAVA magazine. I built this site and have blogged months ago to help build some interest leading up to January. Hopefully it will provide great exposure to my sponsors and inspire those that want to be fast even if you are juggling a full time job and family with kids. I'm a little nervous to show the world all of my workouts - 1. It will be boring 2. I may be too slow and have no business qualifying for Kona haha. Either way, I'm excited to get some feedback and really embrace the training and hard work that lies ahead!

Hope all of you have a great and safe New Years!

[caption id="attachment_2532" align="aligncenter" width="224"] Thanks Adam for patching me up![/caption]