Personal

Woke up at 6:08 & dressed in my running clothes, went to get coffee at Tim Horton's but they were closed. :( Came back home & got gear together & sipped on some water & ate 1/2 a banana.
My mom ended up showing up 10 min too early & I ended up forgetting sun lotion. Oops.

Stopped at a TH to get a small coffee & bagel. Ate 1/2 the bagel & drank 1/2 the coffee. Got dropped off close to the start so didn't walk as far as I was expecting.

My department that I work in has a monthly meeting and one individual must show a photo (which they must be in or have taken) or discuss their favourite movie or book. I chose to show a very old photo of myself.

This was me in December 2002. I was about 175lbs in this photo and had lost about 5 lbs from my peak. The 2nd photo is from last years first triathlon. Amazing what exercise can do.

For the last 2 weeks I've been fighting a cold or a flu, I can't really tell the difference. It started with some body aches, headaches and a sore throat. Then I started to have a runny, stuffed up nose. This part has been carrying on for over a week. I even took Friday & Monday of last weekend off, to just sit around the house and relax. Slept a lot over the weekend and I think that helped greatly, but I still felt bad this week and even went home early from work on Tuesday so that I could rest because I've got a new project coming up and I needed to be 100% for it.

I have signed up again with PRS Fit in what will be a very challenging but rewarding year for me in 2013. I have signed up for the following races:

My first triathlon was the most amazing & scariest time in my life.

The day before I had a great talk with my coach. I was scared of the swim portion and he was able to calm me down about that and gave me some good tips. Then my mom picked me up and we went to Stratford. For the last few days I have been very careful with what I eat. No cheese (or limited) and less bad carbs. I wanted to keep at that for the day before except red wine. I was going to have my red wine.

Today I had my bone scan. Since it was in Stratford, ON, my hometown, I stayed at a hotel the night before since my appointment was at 8:15am. Good planning. A 2 hour drive around 6am would not have been good. I didn't get much sleep last night so the extra 1 or so I got was needed.

It has been awhile since my last post, so I will give you an update on my ankles since late February.

The last post was about the physiotherapist report. I saw my doctor after that report in mid-March and she scheduled me for an EMG. I had that done on April 13th and everything was normal. The physiatrist decided that he should schedule a bone scan, but felt that it wouldn't show anything. So this put ideas in my head.

I saw the physiotherapist yesterday. She had read my MRI results and did some more reflex testing on me. She noticed some differences between my right and left. She also said that since the MRI only showed a slight bulging disc, nothing that would affect my ankle she is going to recommend that I go back to the doctor for some neurology testing. There wasn't much more she could do. She was going to write a note to the doctor and let her know the progress I had made.

I finally got my results from the doctor today.  I have a bulged disc in my lower back. The nurse is sending the results to my physiotherapist and I hope to start treatment with her next week, since she's on holiday this week.

Interesting that my lower back has been bothering me for the last few days. Even had a pinched nerve in my upper back yesterday morning. That was not pleasant.

I have been resting my ankle now for over a month. The doctor had said no running for at least a month on January 13th, which meant by next week I thought I was going to be good to go. Well not so fast. On January 25th I went on an old crappy stationary bike at the YMCA. Tried to mimic a spin class where you go fast & slow and played with the tension. When I was going fast and then slowing down the peddles would get stuck and jolt my ankles. Since then I have had major ankle pain, not just pins & needles. I haven't done any cardio, nothing in almost 2 weeks now.