Road to Recovery

So it's about one week out of the hospital from colon surgery and I am trying to fit the pieces of my life back together.... funny how you don’t realize how sick you are until you aren't .... but see.. I totally believe that endurance athletes cannot distinguish pain.

Marathon training had been going exceptionally well for me this summer... I put in place one of the hardest training schedules to date, with a long run of around 17-20 miles every Sunday... but I was not feeling well... and I really couldn't differentiate was it from training or not?

Thinking back...I suppose I should have gone to the doctors but then again... he would probably tell me not to run...

I had been suffering quite horribly with a chronic lower back and hip pain since the beginning of the year but concluded it was a combination of stress, crappy bed, and increased training... and then it happened... a 4 day spell that I thought was food poisoning..and then a re-occurrence of that “food poisoning” and in the hospital I go... less than 24 hours later my ascending colon, appendix and some other stuff are taken out and I am now recovering.  I am told I cannot run for 4-8 weeks..

So this brings me to where I am today.  Twelve days post surgery... with at least 4 weeks of no running to go..and I am going to lose my mind....So how does an endurance athlete differentiate pain?  Not sure I can ever really tell you... but I do know NOW what it's like to NOT be in pain.. The road to recovery....