Bouncing Back

Things are begining to come together. After nearly three weeks of inconsistent training, antibiotics and painkillers, I think I am finally bouncing back.

The first big test was the Trail Mix 25K last weekend. I had planned to just show up and run and see what would happen. I wanted to keep my average pace under 9:30/mile, which seemed realistic being that I had not done a run over 45 minutes in three weeks. Well the gun went off and away we went. Iron Jenny, TriMama, and Taconite Boy were among the many racers out that day. I went out a little hard the first mile or so and backed off to a smooth pace. The course was great, lots of hills and all on soft trails. I cruised at a steady effort for the first 5 miles. The miles were not marked except for at the aid stations, so at mile five I was able to get my first split. 40mins... What? Was I really rolling at 8:00 pace? After that shock I decided to not look at my splits anymore, and just focus on staying smooth and keeping my HR under control. The rest of the race felt great, I never hit a wall, and I finished feeling like I could have held that pace for a long time. Finish time: 25K 2:03 7:58/mile. I really didn't think I had put in the time yet for that kind of pace. It was a great confidence boost!!!

I think that my run is on pace with where I want to be at Ironman Zurich. Not real sure about my bike though. I need to put in a lot more time in the saddle.

However, saddle time is coming this weekend. The Minnesota Ironman Bike Ride is this Sunday. That will be the first century for me this year and a real test off where my bike fitness is at. Are there any local Bloggers heading out for the ride? They have great hot dogs!!!

Planning a Return.

The tooth ordeal has begun. Phase 1 is complete, the tooth has been removed, all the bad bone cut out, and a bone graft placed. I am still deciding if I chould post the pictures or not, they are pretty graphic. So, today is my first day back at work, and my first day without good painkillers. I Love Vicodin!!! Not in a drug addict way, but without it, I'm pretty sure my wife and dogs would have left me this weekend. I was hard enough to deal with with the good drugs, when they would wear off, I could feel a lot of pain and any sense of patience that I did have went right out the window.

So, on to my training. I have been more or less shut down for about three weeks now. I got in some good swimming and two solid days of running, but other than that I have been shut down. What does that mean for Ironman Zurich? Well, I need to bust some serious ass for the next few weeks. I need a lot of miles on foot and on bike. The problem is I am supposed to take all this week off to let my mouth heal. I can't wait that long. I will try a nice easy ride today and see how I feel. I am planning on racing the Trail Mix 25k at Highland Park this weekend, so I need to do something before then. Also, I am just going insane from all of the sitting around. Going form 15 hours of training to zero is really hard.

Also, I would like to thank everyone for the positive comments and emails. It's pretty cool that people you don't even know and never have met are sending positive vibes. They really do help. Thanks!!!

Bad News!

So last week I got some rather bad news. I was having some mild tooth pain early in the week that turned into wicked pain by mid week. So, I broke down and went to the dentist. After a quick xray and and exam the dentist gives me the news. The tooth needs to come out. No big deal right. People have teeth pulled everyday. Well, not exactly. This tooth has a fracture above the gumline, so its not going to come out in one piece. Also the fractured root has caused major bone loss in the area around the tooth. So what this means for me is that I now have to go to an oral surgeon to have my face ripped apart.

It will start with extracting the tooth. Which will suck. Next, they will peel back my upper gums and drill, chisel and scrape away the bad bone in the area. Then, hopefully they will put my face back together for a while. Well, not really, I will have a gaping hole where the tooth and bone used to be, not to mention that the gum line will hike up after surgery and even with a temporary fake tooth I will look pretty funny. So, that's step one. I will have to walk around with this fake tooth and a massive hole in my face for any where from 3 to nine months depending on how it heals.

Next, after the three months or so, I go back to have a bone graft done to fill in the gaping hole in my face. This will really suck. They will harvest bone form the back part of my jaw and screw it in place the fill the opening where my tooth used to be. Now that will have to heal for about three months or so.

Now, about six months after the initial extraction they may be able to install the titanium screw that will be teh support for my soon to be new tooth. After this is in place it also needs to heal for up to three months. Then, nine to twelve months later, they can begin building my new tooth around the screw.

So, the bigger issue here is training. I am pretty scared that this is going to derail my Ironman tarining for Zurich. I won't know until after the surgery next week what my recovery time will be, and what the expected scheduel for the rest of the procedures will be. After talking to the dentist, he thinks that the recovery is going to suck, many days of not eating solid foods, with no activity, with lots of pain killers. So, I am in the process of coming up with an alternative plan for my training. It may be that I will only be trying to finish my first ironman rather than having a time to shoot for. I really don't like that at all. I wanted to go there feeling ready to race, not just wondering if I will have done enough to finish.