Major Adjustments and the Race that Wasn't Meant to Be

Figured I'd draw some readers in with that title, but it is somewhat misleading...

First, the adjustments were to my body, not my training plan, and the race that wasn't meant to be was the Cowtown 10K, not the EDR!  But it's been a wild week and it bears some explaining.

Tuesday was a regular morning - I was halfway through Masters swim at 8:30 when I felt a little twinge in my neck.  I adjusted my stroke a big, but the twinge just got twinge-ier.  Unfortunately, they do that sometime.  So I cut the swim short, and scheduled an appointment at Reagan ChiroSport (amazing, one of our best partners over at Playtri and one of the best chiropractors to triathletes in the country).

I went in to see Dr. Mitch, who ended up giving me one of the most intense adjustments of my life, and noted that it had been a year and a half since I had last been in. Ok. Not one of my prouder moments. Apparently I had forgotten the value of routine chiro visits, but I was reminded as he adjusted nearly every part of my body.  I scheduled a follow up for Thursday, took the next couple of days easy, and started to feel some improvement.

On Friday, I had my heart rate zone test on the bike. Possibly not the most glorious test of my life, but not too painful.  Iced my neck, took a shower, and sat down at my desk to get some work done.  Within 15-20 minutes I had what was literally the worst headache I have ever had in my life.

I'm really not exaggerating.

After another 10 minutes, as things got progressively worse, I called the chiro, got in my car, and drove over as quick as I could, actually vomiting once on the way over the pain was so bad. (At that point, I realized I probably should have asked someone else to drive, but it was a little too late for that). When I arrived, we went to the "back" room, probably because they were concerned about what might come out of my mouth while they worked on me.  All the issues I had had literally moved to the opposite side of my back and neck, and were possibly even worse.  After 10 minutes with Dr. Mitch I felt about a million times better, but still pretty shaky.

Oh, by the way, Read and I were scheduled to do the Cowtown 10K the NEXT DAY.  Yeah, like that was going to happen.

Even so, I got through the rest of the day, and Read and I headed to Ft. Worth to stay the night with Sarah and Jerry, since Read was still registered to race.  We had a great time hanging out with the Shaws and having their son, Kenny, destroy us at Mario Kart. The Kona coffee they provided the next morning more than made up for it.

So, at 6:00 AM the next morning we arrive at the Cowtown parking. Read mentions that his stomach feels a little off.  Heads for the porta-potty.  I don't see him again for 10 minutes.

For those of you who race, you know this isn't a great sign.

Next thing I know, we are driving back to Dallas.  Like I said, that race just wasn't meant to be.

We're both feeling much better today, and ready to tackle next week, well-adjusted, with no GI issues.  Thank you, triathlon powers-that-be.