Starting to think about a comeback

Maybe because I am feeling so much better than did all summer; maybe because the triathlon season is just about over for all my friends; or maybe its just the fall air getting to me...but whatever it is I am thinking about my comeback to triathlon next year. This weekend we drove out to my Grandma's house in central PA and went by a town called Jim Thorpe, which hosts the Black Bear half. Prior to all of our drama this spring, Black Bear was supposed to be a tune up race for IMCDA this year. It a beautiful area, and just driving by made me want to get out and bike some of the hills. I mentioned to Bec that I'd like to put that race on my schedule for next year. And just saying that got me thinking a lot more about next year. What will it be like? Will I be as fast as I was pre-cancer? Will it be much, much harder than it was before? Will triathlons be as fun even if I am not as fast as I used to be?

See, I have never been out of shape since I started all this endurance sport business in 2004. I never took a break from training, just simply oscillated between marathons in the fall and winter and tri's in the summer. But after about 10 weeks of absolutely no exercise this summer, plus feeling lousy in general, I think I was back to baseline. I have been biking to work for a few weeks now and fitness is slowly beginning to return, but its a long road, and I have no idea where it leads or how high goes anymore.

100% Back

Last spring, when I was getting geared up to to Ironman Coeur D;Alene with what I believed to be a goiter (later turned out to be thryoid cancer), Lance Armstrong was also gearing up for the Tour de France. Since I had been so sick all spring, and had been missing a lot of training worrying about what was growing in my neck, I just didn't feel like I was 100%. Only when I got the negative biopsy (which was ultimately false) in April, did I get psyhosomatically better, and felt back to my old self for a few weeks. To celebrate my negative biopsy and my return to feeling good, Becca and Elena got me a great Father's Day present: a Livestrong tee-shirt that says "100% BACK" on it. These shirts were printed as a celebration of Armstrong's return to cycling in great fitness at the age of 37, but for me it had a double meaning, as I myself was trying to get back to 100%.

I only wore that shirt once before the disaaster that was IMCDA. Then it sat neatly folded in my closet for the whirlwind of events to followed my return from Idaho. Since Father's Day, getting back to 100% has taken on new meaning. Well, this morning I finally put it on again. I can say that after 3 weeks of synthroid I feel 100% back to normal. This isn't to say that I am 100% as fit as I was in 2008, not even close. But as opposed to the months of July and August, I feel good again. My taste is all the way back, my radioactivity is wearing down (I still set a geiger counter wild though), and I have the energy to work out when the mood strikes me. Best part is, I can hug my wife and daughter now.