I had thought my run of bad luck was over, but breakfast on Sunday, July 7th corrected that notion. Alex came in after hearing my screech. While laughing they said it reminded them of when we were hiking and Fifa got her 30-foot leash wrapped around my legs and then sprinted off; I was upended and then lay on the ground watching my large Tim Hortons coffee drain into the mud.

Today is Tuesday, July 9th and I’m spending a little time writing while watching the last part of today’s Tour de France Stage 10. It was a boring stage as the peloton of 170 riders stayed together the whole time on flat country roads except for a sprint finish the last kilometer. I wished I could have watched the whole gravel stage a few days ago as it seemed super exciting based on the brief recap I watched that night.

My string of misfortunes began on July 4th when I spent 4 hours (and $2000) at the emergency vet hospital with Fifa. She had started having some upper respiratory symptoms almost a week earlier that at first, I thought were just her allergies, but then she developed some nasal discharge so an URI I assumed. I had told Alex that as long as she was eating and active it was not serious and made a vet appointment for after the holiday weekend. I had Alex video her coughing to show to the vet.

Of course, ON July 4th midday she started panting and drooling and REFUSED a snack (unheard of for a labrador). Her temperature was 103.7 (102.5 upper normal for dogs) and she had earlier in the day coughed up some phlegm.

Green Acres is “not” where I wanted to be !

It is a great facility but it was much busier than the last time when I was there at 2 am after Fifa’s incident last year of choking on a stick she puked up.

Everyone there was super friendly and professional (and there was “free” Keurig coffee and bottled water) but it just took so long for each step. My Kindle battery died after about an hour of reading and my phone battery was low and I only got one bar in the exam room anyway. The vet did a thorough exam and spent a lot of time discussing all the possibilities but I was fairly sure she had pneumonia. When the blood work was all done and the x-rays had been reviewed by the “off-site” radiologist, it was definitely pneumonia in at least 3 of her 6 lung lobes (very obvious on the x-rays). Fifa got antibiotics and also a cough medicine/steroid that she happily ate with some peanut butter. She seemed better even before getting the first meds as she did want dinner when we got home (I only gave her 1/2 just in case). Luckily, Fifa is NOT scared of fireworks so she had a peaceful night. The following morning her temperature and breathing were back to normal.

In case you are wondering… not just Fifa, I guess. She was just unfortunate that her URI progressed to pneumonia.

So, although my July 4th was not the most relaxing “do nothing” day I had planned, disaster was averted. As I had my first Triathlon of the season scheduled for Saturday, Friday was also going to be a “rest day” and I just planned to do a 30-minute bike ride and a 10-minute run in the basement and then go to a morning Yoga Class. I was excited for the race. It was the “Tri in the Buff” Olympic distance race (0.9 mi swim 25 mi bike, 6.2 mi run) that I have done several times before but not since Covid.

The rest of this blog post is about my Triathlon “bad luck” and subsequent training so feel free to stop here if you aren’t interested in the minutia of Triathletes. But, if you do care about me….. at least skim through as there are some non-training items mixed in there.

I was well (really over) trained as I had recently biked up to 80 miles, run 12 miles, and swam as far as 3 miles in Lake Erie. Also, after 2 months of a nagging Piriformis muscle strain, I was finally 99% recovered (after twice-daily stretching, foam rolling, massages, etc.). While the strain did not affect my running or biking it did cause pain when getting up after sitting and some referred sciatic pain on the inside of my left knee. Here is a long, boring article about Piriformis Syndrome.

https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/piriformis-syndrome-causes-symptoms-treatments

If it wasn’t for bad luck, you know I wouldn’t have no luck at all. – Albert King, 1967 (Born under a bad sign).

Halfway through my relaxing, flow Yoga class somehow I caused a strain in my left glute/piriformis and by the end of class (despite extra stretching and self-massage) it felt as bad as it had a month ago.

As soon as I got home I wanted to ice it so I set up a blue ice pad on my couch, settled with a cup of coffee, and turned on Le Tour. I immediately then knocked over my coffee as I tried to adjust my ice pad! Argh!

Saturday, July 6th I left my house at 5:20 am for the less than one-hour drive south to Evanglola State Park. The weather was perfect, it was going to get close to 80 but based on the awful heat lately, that was good. It was a little windy and there was some chop in Lake Erie but I am comfortable with much bigger waves and the water temperature was almost 75.

I knew that my Piriformis would not impact my running, swimming or biking but after getting out of the car it did bother me until I walked a little (sitting is the worst thing; so driving aggravates it).

I set up my transition area and had brought everything I needed so no stress, chatted with the many other Buffalo Triathlon Club athletes who were racing or volunteering and went for a pre-race warmup swim. I swam hard for a few minutes to make sure I was used to the wetsuit and that my goggles were good.

The race started at 8 am and I ran the 20 feet of sand and then ran in the water until it was deep enough to swim. After I had swam for a few minutes I realized I had not started my watch! I tried a few times to get it going but it didn’t want to let me do much with it under the water. I then noticed that my fussing with the watch had me off course a little and I corrected my direction with frequent sighting. There was a strong sideways current and I was figuring out to sight a little to the side of the buoys so as to compensate when I noticed I was breathing really fast and was out of breath. I slowed to an easier pace, filled my wetsuit with water and even tried just treading water for a minute but I was still hyperventilating. I KNEW that it was 99% likely to just be me reacting poorly to the tight wetsuit and this was only a 0.9 mile swim (less than a third of my 3 miler a few weeks ago) but….. my anxiety about “maybe it is an arrhythmia, maybe you have pneumonia like Fifa” overwhelmed any ability to think rationally. I swam over to a jetski and tread water there for a few minutes and talked to the lifeguards. I should have just waited a few minutes but I wasn’t in the right mindset and said I was “done” with swim. I held onto the jetski and they towed me the few hundred yards back to the shallow water. I thought that my day was done but an official said I could do the bike and run but wouldn’t get an official time. I walked back to the transition area (of course having to explain to 2 BTC supporters I passed about my “issue”). There were actually 2 other people in the transition area who had bailed on the swim as well. I waited 20 minutes until 5 or 6 racers had finished the swim and headed out on their bikes as I didn’t want to be the first bike on the course and have people mistakenly think I was the leader.

Of course since there are no headphones allowed in races I could not listen to an audiobook as usual and instead just had to be in my own head for the next 2.5 hours. I did recall having a little rapid breathing in the OnondagaMan race a month ago but had gotten over it and finished the 1.2 mile swim strong. Here is my blog from that race to see what I wrote….

While biking and obsessing the only explanation I could find was that the 2 swims prior to the race (one in pool and one in lake) I had NOT worn a wetsuit and on race day with a heart rate monitor strap, tight Triathon suit and the tight wetsuit my body had just not felt comfortable breathing compared to its last 2 unrestricted swims. I will be sure to WEAR a wetsuit for the swims immediately before my next race.

I biked really hard (my initial plan had been to swim fast, bike fast and take it easy on the run unless I felt really good, as I was planning to do a 90-mile bike ride on Sunday or Monday) and averaged 18.6 mph for the 25 miles, definitely a record for me.

But as the bad luck streak was continuing, my chain came off going up a hill and was wedged very tightly inside the front chainring. I got it loose but it took several minutes and me having to turn the bike upside down on the grass. I had NOT worn bike gloves to save transition time so of course my hands got very greasy but at least not cut by the chain.

I had a quick transition to my running gear and immediately noticed how HUMID and hot it had gotten. I did not push the run hard but on the second lap I did increase my speed. I thought it must just be my Garmin but everyone agreed that the race course was 6.6 miles instead of 6.2 (which made no sense as there was a turnaround on an out and back section that would have allowed for easy adjustment). About half the run course was on grass which slowed everyone down.

The finish line clock said exactly 3 hours as I crossed. 3 hours was my goal for the race but I would have been a little over that if I had swam as I would not have been one of the first 6 people out of the water and would have definitley biked a little slower after the swim effort. I had decided to NOT accept a finishers medal but conveniently they didn’t have any! I had forgotten that in recent years these smaller races only give medals to first time triathletes. I had to accept the “finisher” water bottle as I needed the water 🙂

I wished I could just slink back to my car and drive home but of course I had driven a friend so had to wait for him to finish the race and enjoy his time talking with other BTCers about their races. And then, as we got the bikes on the rack and were ready to go… “let’s get a photo of all of us”… check out my fake smile as I thought, “I don’t want to be in the finishers photo”…

While running this morning I started a new audiobook and it opened with an Oscar Wilde quote (from The importance of being Earnest”)

“What seem to us a bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.”

Only a few chapters in but seems like a great summer beach read!

Or, as I always tell my child, “suffering builds character”. I googled to see who the quote is from but it is not a direct quote but a paraphrasing.

It is also attributed to Kay Larson, I want to read her book about John Cage now!

“Suffering builds character and impels you to penetrate life’s secrets. It’s the path of great artists, great religious leaders, great social reformers. The problem is not suffering per se, but rather our identification with our own ego: our divided, dualistic, cramped view of things. ‘We are too ego-centered,’ Suzuki tells Cage.’ The ego-shell in which we live is the hardest thing to outgrow. We seem to carry it all the time from childhood up to the time we finally pass away.”

― Kay Larson, Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists

Despite my banana jumping into my coffee cup on Sunday morning I continued with my plan to do a 90-mile bike ride. I had discussed with my coach doing it on Sunday if I felt good or on Monday if I needed the extra recovery day. As I had NOT done my swim on Saturday in the race I felt I HAD to do the long ride on Sunday as penance. The plan was to do it at an easy pace and I just hoped that I would not get a flat tire or be hit by a truck as the universe did seem to be conspiring against me.

I took this shadow photo while walking Fifa with Alex that morning and on the ride decided to continue with the shadow theme.

The ride was super pleasant for the first 35 miles until I reached Old Fort Niagara State Park. As I entered the park I saw that for the holiday weekend there was a huge encampment of revolutionary war and war of 1812 “re-enacters” from all over the nation. As it was only 8:00 am they were making coffee in iron pots over fires and in their traditional garb. Distracted by them I did not notice a piece of twine strung across the path between trees (and a small, road closed sign) until the LAST second. I slammed on my very strong disc breaks and somehow smoothly unclipped my shoes as the twine pressed against my sunglasses! My bike computer starting alarming over an “incident detected” and said it would start contacting emergency contacts if I didn’t hit cancel! When would my marathon of bad luck and near misses end!

I usually stop at the State Park for a water refill and bathroom but as it was not too hot that early in the morning I still had some fluids in a bottle and planned to head east along Lake Ontario and stop at Porter town park where the triathlon club has it’s Sunday morning open water swims. I stopped by the beach there and saw about 5 club members getting set up and chatted with them about my swim failure.

The rest of the bike ride was uneventful, I even saw a chipmunk! Some good luck was that for once there was not a strong wind from the southwest as usually happens as the day warms up. It was VERY hot and humid by the time I got off the bike, walked the dog and headed out to run.

While biking I had really only planned to run a mile or two but then decided to do a full 6 hour brick (bike-run-ick), so a good confidence boost for my long term Ironman Training (still 16 weeks until Florida), especially doing it a day after a hard bike/run. On my bike and run I listened to and thankfully finished a very mediocre sci-fi/fantasy book.

Monday morning it was time to get back on the horse, seahorse I guess. I put on my exact same outfit from race day including heart rate strap and dove into Lake Erie and swam hard, swam underwater, tried doing only one breath every 6 strokes and yet had no rapid breathing. I had planned to swim 2.5 miles (an Ironman swim is 2.4) but I felt good and pushed myself a lot further. I did notice some grafitti on the seawall that said “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” when I started out. The water was very clear and I saw lots of minnows and small fish.

The water was so warm that every 10 minutes I pulled my collar open and let the wetsuit fill with cooler water. I will need to bring some fluids and nutrition for my next swim longer than this. I plan to do one 10 kilometer swim (6.2 miles) before fall (but just on my own, not a race like the last 2 years).

I called this my “Redemption Swim” in my Instagram post.

Today I had a long slow run scheduled. I set my watch for a 9:40 to 10:20 pace but it was so hot and humid that I had a lot of “too slow” alerts on the first half of the run. I imagine my legs were also a little more trashed than I realized after all the heavy training. I did pick up the pace at the end.