Riding or Hiding?

Okay, so I have been hiding... My coach always says, you are either riding or hiding... and I have been hiding! I have had a major setback and have been dealing with some major frustration and confusion around an injury.

Back in February, I took a bad spill on my mountain bike. The result was a badly injured wrist. After a battery of x-rays and MRI's, the orthopedic surgeon came back to me with the diagnosis of an extremely rare degenerative bone disease of the hand called Kienbock's Disease. I was really floored by this finding. The ortho wanted to operate with major surgery right away. I opted for a second option! The second doctor is an old school guy that is really well known and respected. He said that he has only seen one case like this in all his practice (since 1968) and wasn't sure what to do. He definitely wanted to take a conservative approach... this was evident by his prescription of treatment, which was a cast for 9 to 12 months. NO THANK YOU! So I went to another doctor... the third doctor concluded that is was bone trauma and torn cartilage that could be remedied by a cortisone shot. That sounded good, so I went with it. That was a month ago and as I write this, I cringe when I have to reach for the "Y" key with my right hand. It is still pretty painful. I am not sure what to believe. The third and second doctors claim that orthopedic surgeons just want to cut at every chance they get to make more money. If that is true, then I am really worried about all of the unnecessary surgeries that must take place every day. I mean, I was hours away from having 3MM of my radius removed! I think my wrist has gotten better, so I will just proceed with caution. Needless to say, this put me way back in my training. The psychological hit was huge. It is something that I really wrestled with. I did learn one thing though, casts are not as easy to remove as you would think! It took mean hour with a crow-bar, hack saw and tin snips... no lie!

As for Ironman, I am not sure what I am going to do at this point. I could probably finish it and it will probably be really hard, or I can sit out a year and it will be the same. Bottom line is that I need to make a decision soon. I lost over a month of training and motivation... it has been tough. Luckily, I have a very good coach and a strong support base that will continue to support me no matter what I decide to do.

I have been back on track now for about a month and training hard. For now, I will keep training and racing. In fact I am racing in Grapevine this weekend if anyone wants to come watch. I will be racing age group so it should be interesting. Based on last year's times I should have a shot at an age group win if I can sub 1:10:00 the 300 yard swim, 20k bike and 6k run. I am shooting for a 4:40 swim, 35 Min bike and a 30 min 6K... that equals 1:10. It will all depend on who shows up! Wish me luck!