Coming back from an injury (MAF Related)

I have lost a ton of fitness since IMKY. I knew this was going to happen as I was down and out of it quite a bit.

Prior to Ironman Kentucky, I was swimming, biking, and running on average 20 hours/week, with quite a few bigger weeks (big weekend training...fri, sat, sun). Last year, I did have an initial setback prior to Ironman Lake Placid, and had to cancel the race and take 10 days off. This was from my my Med Express incident (heart cath, asthma). During this injury period, I did loose quite a bit of fitness. Once I became healthy and able to train my initial MAF field tests showed a much slower pace/mile than before my injury. Fortunately with only 10 days off, it didn't take me long to get back to where I left off. I credit this to Chuckie and a few weeks of hitting it pretty good.

After Kentucky, I was down and out of it on a lot of levels. I didn't want to see a pool, bike, or even my Newtons. I hated Ironman, I hated working out, I wasn't eating and quickly dropped a bunch of weight. I had a few people tell me I looked like a cancer patient. I wasn't physically injured, just a combination of burn-out and other things. Well it has taken me a long time to get back into it, but I am happy to say, things are going quite well with training. Im doing the bare minumum, but compared to 3 weeks ago, I am at least able to ENJOY it again. This is KEY.

So fast-forward to my latest MAF test I did. WOW. I was running 10.5-11min miles at my MAF HR. This is an eye-opener. I am not concerned too much about it, as I will get back to it, but I was shocked at how quickly your engine can erode. On the flipside, it was a break that was needed for me.

Happy Turkey Day and Happy Training.

CK