After my open abdominal surgery to
repair a hole in my stomach, I really didn’t know what to expect as far as the
recovery process. Now that I have put myself to the test by racing a half
ironman six months after surgery, I can really gauge how the recovery went.
My doctor and the nurses repeatedly
commented about what great shape I was in so I was hoping my recovery would be
faster than the average Jo(sephine.) My surgeon also repeatedly warned me not
to strain or lift anything heavier than 15 pounds for six weeks after surgery
or I would be right back in for a hernia repair. That idea scared me into
compliance. She said she wanted me to walk and she encouraged swimming once the
incision healed. She didn’t give me any guidance on biking or running other
than don’t rush it. I was hoping I was in such great shape that the six weeks
wouldn’t apply to me. HAH!
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| Hiking in Tahoe after my three week check-up. |
In the first three weeks I really
felt best flat on my back, but I spent a good part of the day sitting up and doing
little things around the house. I also watched a whole lot of Netflix. I took
what felt like a significant walk/hike at least once a week in the first five
weeks, ranging from 1.6 miles to 3 miles. It took five weeks for my incision to
heal enough to get into the pool. On one hand it felt great to be swimming
again but on the other hand I was concerned because the pressure it took to
pull through the stroke caused a lot of pain along my incision line. Anxious to
get back at it after five weeks off, encouraged by the swim and not feeling
good enough to run, I thought I would enjoy working out on the elliptical machine.
It felt great to get my heart rate up and really sweat, so I did a 55-minute
workout. That was a mistake since it isn’t a motion that I normally do and I overdid
it time wise. I could barely walk for the next five days as my calves were
killing me. Not to be deterred by sore calves, the following day I did an
indoor cycling class at Shift using very low resistance for 90 minutes. The
cycling did help get some of the lactate acid out of my legs. It helped some
but I had to take the next four days off! That was a little reality check for me.
Mid way through the sixth week I
started back on a regular daily training schedule, albeit much shorter hours
and distances than prior to the surgery. I started back to running with run
walks: 10 mins walking 5 mins jogging x’s 2 and increased the jog intervals
each run. Every evening after a training day I had quite a bit of pain around
my incision line as my stomach stretched out when I went from sitting to
standing or laying down. I also had pain along the incision for the first 15
minutes or so of swimming with each pull of the swim stroke but it would
subside after I got warmed up. I did my first straight jog seven weeks after
surgery for 45 minutes and it felt OK. I also did a two-hour easy outdoor bike
ride which lifted my spirits and made me finally feel like I was going to get
over this and eventually get back to normal.
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| Matt, David and me on our last day riding the CA coast. |
My first big challenge was a bike
ride from San Francisco to Santa Monica in January, 17 weeks after my surgery,
about 3 months after I started training again. I rode 440 miles in four days
and did much better on the ride than I did in 2014. I only had pain around my
incision on the third night after riding 117 miles with 9,700 feet of climbing
that day. My legs were achy most nights. My surgeon told me I could take
non-steroidal anti-inflammatories up to twice a month but I vowed not to take
them. I did cave in on two nights of the coast ride and took Advil with food.
To date those are the only times I’ve taken any since my surgery.
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| Hot Chocolate Run - January in SF |
Just for fun, I ran a 15K race a
couple of weeks after the coast ride. My pace was a full minute per mile slower
than the previous year on the same course which was a little discouraging, but
at least I could run the distance without further injury.
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| At the finish of the Surf City half. |
My next test of fitness was a really
fun event where I joined a high school friend of mine (class of 1976) for her
first half marathon. The race was in Huntington Beach where we used to spend
our summer days, back in high school. I thought that I should be able to run 10
minute miles, but my training wasn’t indicating that I would be capable of that
pace over 13.1 miles. I ended up running 10:06 minutes per mile average, which was not a
personal record but a good sign that I was getting my fitness back.
I had signed up for the Napa Valley
Marathon which would be a month after the half marathon, but my coach nixed it
and I readily went along with that decision because I agreed with him that I
wasn’t ready to run 26.2 miles. Besides, odd as it sounds, I would much rather
save my marathon running for Ironman races.
It was a long six and a half months
after major abdominal surgery when I stepped up to the water’s edge for a half
ironman. I had trained for five months and other than a weaker core I felt very
much back to normal. My primary goal for 2016 was to qualify to race at the
Ironman 70.3 World Championships and this Ironman 70.3 California at Oceanside
was going to be my first shot at qualification.
This was the first time I have raced
at Oceanside. My race plan (briefly) was to go for it on the 1.2 mile swim,
hold back the first third of the 56 mile bike ride, ride harder than I thought
I should for the second third of the bike and then strong high cadence effort
on the last third. I was supposed to break the 13.1 mile run into fourths and
run each one harder than the previous. I executed the swim with a time of 40 minutes,
which was about normal for me. I followed the plan on the bike and had a bike
split PR at 2 hours and 56 minutes. I started out too fast on the run and it
didn’t go according to plan but it was still my second fastest half ironman run
at 2 hours and 24 minutes.
I’m happy that my recovery plan has
gone better than I expected. I’m ecstatic that my performance at my first half
ironman of the year was good enough to earn a slot for the 70.3 World
Championship race in Mooloolaba Australia. There is still a lot of work to do
to strengthen my core and I’ve finally started to concentrate a little more on
that objective. I don’t know if I’ll ever get all the scar tissue broken up or
if my core strength will return to normal.
However, I’m looking forward to a busy race schedule, which in part was
spurred by getting skunked on Ironman Lake Tahoe last year.
My schedule for the rest of 2016 is:
Ironman 70.3 Hawaii – June 4th
Ironman Boulder – August 7th
Ironman 70.3 World Championships –
September 4th
Ironman Florida – November 5th
