Mystery Solved!!

It’s been 8 days since IM WI and I’m still annoyed with the race, although my mystery is solved. My dad’s good friend, Waseem, is a neurologist and my dad happened to mention to him about my poor run due to the numbness in my extremities. And it didn’t take but a moment for Waseem to have a diagnosis. I can’t recall the exact medical wording for this but in lame men’s terms it was compression of my spinal chord that caused the numbness/tingling. Being in the aero position for 6.5 hours and rarely changing positions can often cause compression on the spinal chord, which in turn causes some nerve damage…not serious in the least and it definitely sounds a lot worse than it is.

This again all comes back to me, it’s my fault. When we train around Denver we are often on trails/roads that have many people, turns, and stops, thus you can’t really get aero for too long before you are up on the handle bars pressing the brakes. Whereas in a race you don’t ever have to stop, after all that’s why we pay the big bucks to do these things, so we can have law enforcement and volunteers keep cars off the roads. Thus, my body was just not used to the position, even though I experienced no pain what-so-ever on the bike, it still took its toll. Oh well live and learn right? I’m just SO happy it wasn’t a heart issue, I believe I will live! Haha

And side note: I went running for the first time on Saturday in Pittsburgh, Bushy Run trails, short ones but a favorite of mine, and felt really really good! Pittsburgh is very hilly thus my legs were really tested on how much recovery I really need, and I think I need a little more. I felt great but on the downhills my quads kept giving out on me, not surprising though. So all n’ all I felt great and I’m thinkin’ I’m gonna head out on a short run tonight after work!

PS: Bushy Run's funding has been cut and they can't maintain the park without this money thus they are in need of support, please visit www.savebushyrun.org to help.