Fauna Extreme: Will I Get It Together in Time for IMTX?

I really need to put up a recent blog post. I've been neglecting you, my little Fauna Extreme!

Life in a new town--exploring new places and activities with my family, organizing and mending our fixer-upper house, the holidays, adding a puppy to our family (so 2 dogs & 2 cats now--crazy), and oh, yeah--training for the MS150 and Ironman Texas. That last one--IMTX--has been the nagging thorn in my side. I signed up for the damn thing months ago as a drastic, desperate, pathetic attempt to get over this loss of mojo with my running.

(some of this is old news. repeating myself a bit. sorry.)

In May of '09, I was at my best in terms of running. I had recently finished my most dedicated marathon training and run a PR time that January at the Houston marathon. Then I raced a half marathon for the first time at the inaugural Disney Princess in March, which I fell a couple of minutes short of what I wanted, but it was a super fun race, and I'm a major Disney dork. And after that!...a few of my friends and I shifted gears and completed a Bikram yoga 60-day challenge, which was such a great experience.

But...literally two days after we completed that rewarding commitment, my yoga mat was pulled out from under me. I was at a roller skating birthday party for my daughter Parker's friend. Parker and I were on the rink, holding hands, facing each other. Not moving, just standing there together, holding hands. Parker lost her balance and fell...and when she fell, my arms were ripped in a downward motion while I remained standing with my knees locked, up on the roller skates. It was the perfect equation for my L4/L5 disc to explode into my spinal canal.

I had been living with functional sciatica for over a year. Run marathons with it. PR'd with it. But this was sciatica x 100. Both sides of my butt and thighs numb. Insane back pain in the beginning (the muscles locked up around the herniation) that a week or so later whined down to a tolerable, odd-feeling pain (the muscles releasing somewhat and then the effects of the disc squishing my nerves). Three spine surgeons and one chiropractor said I had to have surgery. (Two opinions weren't enough for my state of denial.) 9 out of 10 times a disc herniation can be treated with physical therapy, anti-inflammatories, rest and time, but I was that 1 out of 10. Had to have the surgery. Think of a disc as a jelly doughnut. Half the jelly shot out of my L4/L5 doughnut, occupying 90% of my spinal canal.

The surgery was a total success; I'm really lucky. And I achieved a goal of running a marathon one year afterwards (San Diego, June '10). So my reduced-fat disc with only half the jelly has held up fine so far, and doctors have told me that I can keep on running to my heart's content.

But that's the problem now. Since the accident, my heart just hasn't been into it. I feel like I've fallen out of the running nest and am now lost. Lots of interior dialogue like, "What are we all doing out here?", "What's the point of all of this?", "This is stupid."

And so came the desperate idea of the ironman. Not a sprint or an olympic triathlon or even a half iron. That would be too sensible. My ridiculous, all-or-nothing personality goes straight to the IM. Idiot.

So far, I've been able to fake my way through 3 tri's:

1. Lonestar olympic distance last April in Galveston. The one I actually did a little swimming for and went on a total of 3 bike rides. Unfortunately, this race became a duathlon because of windy conditions for the buoys.
2. Austin Avia olympic this past September. Did zero swimming and riding.
3. IronStar half iron in November. Also zero swimming but did go on 3 long-ish bike rides and 1 spin class.

While setting up my bike and waiting around for each of these three tri's to begin, I felt like an imposter. I kept waiting for the triathlon police to shine a spotlight on me from their helicopter, calling out on their bullhorn, "Okay, Mrs. Broyles. We know you haven't trained. You can't be here. Please leave immediately."

One could say that the mojo-saving idea has not worked so far.

I can't fake it through an ironman, though; even idiot me knows that. Especially IMTX which will be hot and humid. Ugh. I must say, though, I love my mean side-stroke I've got going. I'm an angry pair of scissors, slashing through the water. So I know I've got to amp up that swim training, but I'm keeping my side-stroke. I'll try to throw in some freestyle, but that side-stroke is a lifesaver for me.

And for the bike, I needed a cycling group here in Austin, so I decided to join Tough Cookies. Really nice, great group of women. And I figure, why not add more to the insanity? So I signed up for the MS150 with Tough Cookies, which is 5 weeks before the IM. "Hey, why not?"

So there it is. I've updated the Fauna Extreme blog. How do I tie this post to the theme of animal athletes? I guess I'll just say that like the honey badger and the bar-tailed godwit, I haven't given up yet. Let's hope I embrace their perseverance.

Here are some shots of me NOT training for the ironman: