Tara - Day 5

Swim: 3K, :50
Bike: 60K, 2:20
Run: 20K, 2:20 (and then about a 20min walk down after I fell)

(3K open water race, long Heaphy Trail run and Crash and ride around Collingwood)

Oh dear, sometimes I wish I could go back in time…and today is one of those times. Today started out with a pretty funny 3K open water swim race. We were swimming in about 2 feet of water and after I lost the lead love train, Heath the fish excluded, I soon realized that I could dolphin dive faster than they were swimming. I seriously dolphin dived for about 1000m and caught the lead pack. We all exited the water close to each other but Scott out sprinted me to the line!

The Heaphy Trail was beautiful and the plan was to run to John and turn back. Poor Lou and Big D (Douglas) went farther thinking it could be a tack on, only to find out in the evening it didn’t count! I had trouble on the trail. I was constantly rolling my ankles (especially the one that I had a couple fractures in October) but made it to the top without any major injuries. Running down was pretty tough with many little rocks that you couldn’t see very well. I was focusing the whole way down, but with about 5 more minutes to go, I tripped and took a major wipe out. I out stretched my left leg and I swear I heard a huge riiiiiiiip! Oh boy, this is not good I thought as I lay on the side of the path. Fortunately I stopped myself from going over the edge! Ken and Dave came down behind and then Mike and Douglas and Lou followed. They all offered for me to put my arms around them, but fortunately I could walk the rest of the way myself.
We stopped for a bag of frozen veggies on the way home (THANK YOU Mike!) and right onto the massage table I went for an ice massage. John seriously saved the day again. I kept thinking that it could be worse because at least I could walk but I did have a few tears of pain on the table as John massaged the area. I then lay down for a bit assessing the situation. Today was the day to do an easy 60K minimum bike and I wasn’t happy sitting in my room while everyone went out for a nice leisurely ride (well Jo did 150K) so I decided to further assess the situation and try to spin for 60K. It was a gorgeous day and it was the only easy ride day. It felt like we had mounds of time to get in the training for the day and off I went. The whole ride hurt, and my knee started to hurt too, but I was so happy to be out spinning. Russell joined me and we had a great chat, taking in the beautiful scenery that was hard to see in the rain the previous day. Russ tacked on to 90K so I left him to finish his ride.

I had another massage and Lou gave me an anti-inflammatory patch to put on the area. Dave Dwan gave me an oral anti-inflammatory. I tell you, I was well taken care of in the drug department!

Time to sleep and HEAL and hope I can run tomorrow in the 8K Aquathon. The 60K ride today was to keep the dream alive!