Eye Openers

This past week hasn't gone exactly as planned.  One thing about me that some of you may know is that I have a very high pain tolerance.  That's something that can scare me at times,  another one of my passions besides cycling is distance running.  I'm on my high school's cross country team and we practice every day after school.  Most of the time I have shin splints, so I just throw some RockTape on my shins, and ice after.  Recently I started to feel the pain intensify, not thinking anything of it I ran through the pain and didn't tell my coaches. It started getting to the point where I was having trouble putting any pressure on my right leg.  Reluctantly I told my mom and she made an appointment with the doctor for the next day.  As we walked into the doctors office I was beginning to get nervous,  I needed good news.  He sent me in for a X-ray right away.  When they came back the doctor told me I had a tibial stress fracture in my right leg… the first thing I asked was "Can I still ride?" after crying and begging for a few minutes the doctor said yes on one condition, NO intensity or climbing for a while.  I said okay knowing it could be worse.  With my first race being less then a month away, I knew I had to do everything it took to get my leg healed as fast as it could.  So that meant no pressure on my leg at all, icing at anytime possible ,and a lovely 20 pound boot for 6 weeks with crutches for a few.  I was heart broken, but extremely lucky to still be able to push a pedal.  I'm happy we caught the fracture early before it got any worse.  Stress fractures take about 6 weeks to heal, the first 4 is the forming of a soft bloody callus around the fracture, the next 2 the soft callus begins to harden, then the remodeling period begins.  Knowing exactly what was going on, the first 4 weeks are going to be very crucial in the healing process.  So no intensity or riding hills… base miles it is.  Luckily my first race, the Iris Stagner Memorial race in Mineral Wells Texas, its a good training race to get my intensity from.  A short few days after I leave for Valley of the Sun in Arizona, the first race on the NRC schedule.  If everything goes as planned ill be in perfect shape for VOS.  Even with my minor set back I'm still doing everything I can to accomplish my goals for this season.  If it takes icing my leg 5 times a day for 30 minutes each ill do it.  As much as it kills me to stay off hills I know I have too, I see a lot of trail rides in my future.