I was recently hospitalized with viral meningitis and "almost" pneumonia (doctors couldn't agree if I did or did not have it). But to make sure I had viral meningitis and not a worse form, like bacterial, I had to get a spinal tap. Sadly, even though the procedure went well, I was a rare case of severe spinal leakage. In short, this put me in the hospital for over a week with debilitating pain and headaches. Finally, I got a blood patch and took almost another week to recover.
During this time I was able to reflect on my 2017 and 2018 fitness plans and goals. Historically, I have not handled injury or sickness well, and it has caused me to fall of the wagon and perform terrible health habits, such as excessive gorging of unhealthy foods I wouldn't usually eat. However, I have been pretty focused this year on not repeating past injuries and other bad habits. Granted I have struggled with lack of time for exercise from the things out of my control, but I at least have made sure I have been eating healthier and have made sure not to gain anymore weight.
So, I didn't let this hurdle trip me up. This did cause me to have to re-evaluate my goals and plans though for this year and next. For example, I want to do my first Ironman next year. I am removing this from my list for now, since selling my house and this recent illness have caused months of setbacks in my training plans. Disney Dopey is set in stone for 2018, as is a century ride for MS later this year. Aside from that though, I have pretty much removed all other races and plans from my schedule.
What is the new focus on? Quite simply, strength and flexibility. Although I had put a good amount of effort into rebuilding my strength, when I got back into running again, I noticed that I was not as fast as I had hoped I would be. From reviewing my runs, I was able to determine that I still was too weak to handle the speed and cadence I wanted. This same issue also bleeds into my cycling, and especially my swimming. Therefore, I need still need to build even more strength and flexibility.
This translates into about 12-14 weeks of building my strength. The general idea is to have 4 strength sessions a week; 2 x Full Body, 1 x Lower, 1 x Upper. In addition to this, I will not be stopping my running endurance progression, which means running 3 times per week as well. The real change here is that initially, swimming is off the list and cycling is going to be mostly optional.
My plan is to do this for hopefully no more than 4 weeks as my body gets re-acclimated to the stress and recovery from strength training. Once that happens, I will be moving towards building my schedule back to doubles in order to get swimming and cycling back into the mix.
For the most part, this puts me at doubles everyday except running intervals for Tuesdays. I won't jump immediately to this schedule, but each week I'll add another activity or two until I get to this schedule. The plan will be to do this until it's time for my Dopey training plan, which starts in September.
As I mentioned already, I won't be doing or planning any other races, except for the MS century ride, a half marathon so I can have a qualifier time for Dopey to prevent from being in the last corral, and then Dopey to start off 2018. Aside from this, I won't be planning on any other races or goals. I am confident this schedule will allow me to get back into racing and ensure I won't be getting injured and will be remain as healthy as possible. Good luck to everyone and their training and racing goals!
