ROAD TO RECOVERY AFTER MAJOR ABDOMINAL SURGERY

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!

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.

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.

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.

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