Chip off the ol' Block

False start! I am back to limping around like a 90 year old man. After one day of kickass training, I woke up the next morning with a brick workout planned only to find myself three miles into a 'run' paralyzed from pain on the side of the road.... Alas, back to PT for me.

On Sunday night I drove down to Chattanooga to visit with Dr. Tommy Brown the following morning. After getting up at 4:30am to make a master's swim workout, I was very thankful for coffee (thanks to Zach for making a coffee addict). I know what you are thinking. Why are you swimming if you can't walk? Well, I can swim without pain which is alot more than I can say for most other daily activities. Therefore, I swim. On a positive note, I am impressed with how my swimming is progressing. Not being able to run or bike maybe a blessing in disguise as I am now able to focus interaly on my weakest discipline while I recuperate.

After my X-Ray photo shoot, Dr. Brown and I sat down to examine the pictures. As soon as we turned on the light, it was obvious what the problem was. There on my L4 transverse process (the little boney pointy thingy on your the edge of your vertebra for those none science types) was a clear fracture. From the looks of it, it appears that I fractured the vertebra a few months ago (probably from running 100-120miles for 8wks back in Nov./Dec) and due to the high level of stress that the Fl 70.3 provided on my body it seems the bone fragment finally chipped off the process completely.

So what does this mean? It means that I do not have a pulled muscle, separated muscle, pitched nerve, bulging disc, hunerated disc, or herpes. Which is all good news! I will not be able to race or run for a little while due to the compression and stress that running puts on my vertebra. The good news is like I eluded to earlier, I will be able to swim...A LOT! I'm going to be a merman! Watch out Michael Phelps...