Four.

Today is four years since my PE.

On the first anniversary of my clot as I anxiously awaited the one year mark, I wrote “… I suppose what is most likely, is that there isn’t going to be any particular date or event, and one day I’m just not going to think about it so much anymore.”

Well, I can finally say that day has arrived – without me even realizing it.

On Tuesday a friend asked me how many years it had been and I was confused. I actually didn’t know what she was talking about at first. It was kind of an awesome feeling. That day finally came – the one where I “just don’t think about it so much anymore.”

Sure, I’m still hopped up on anticoagulants, but that is just part of life. It is my “normal” now. My INR remains mostly constant and I’m easily able to manage my diet and lifestyle, and because of that, I don’t have much worry. Life is good.

So, on that note, how about 4 random things to mark 4 years.

1) The Monday post-marathon my ankle blew up like a balloon. It hurt and was approaching cankle status for a day or two before it started to feel normal again.

On the Wednesday post-marathon, I had a massage and the wonderful Lysanne decided we’d test out a new little tape job. This wasn’t a tape job that was for support. Instead, the technique she applied was supposed to stimulate my lymphatic system (I think) to help reduce the swelling. She told me she understood the theory of it, but hadn’t really ever tried it, so didn’t know how well it would actually work. It was kind of a “can’t hurt to try” scenario I think.

Well… by Wednesday night the swelling in my ankle had started to come down and on Thursday morning, it looked like normal. For the first time in ages, my right ankle was actually the same size as my left ankle ~ shocking! (but cool).

So while I suppose it could just be timing and the fact that I wasn’t really running, I like to believe there might actually be a little something to the theory behind the tape.

2) Shane and I are going to be doing a ‘Learn to Ride’ and ‘Learn to Race’ clinic at the Velodrome this summer, which I am super excited about. There is just something about ripping around in circles on the track that is really really fun.

Anyway, we were supposed to do our ‘Learn to Ride’ clinic last night, but it got rained out. It was a bit of a bummer to cap off an already bummer day. So instead, (being the top notch athletes that we are), we ate frozen pizza (and salad!) for dinner. Shockingly, it was exactly what I needed and helped perk me back up.

3) Do you ever have one of those moments where you are talking to someone and you say something without really thinking it through, and then a few seconds/minutes later think “that was a complete lie” but you don’t really know how to back pedal, because of the time that has passed, so you just go with it and hope you never get called on it?

Yeah, I totally had one of those moments at the pool the other day.

I was talking to a guy I see there regularly, that also does triathlon. He knows I’m doing TRR this summer and asked how training was is going, etc. etc. (you know, the usual back and forth you tend to have with strangers who happen to have common interests).

He then asked how many miles I was running a week, to which I honestly replied that I didn't really know, as my training in largely based on time. So he asked how many hours I was running and I said "oh, about 12hours a week" thinking of my total training time over the week (including swims and bikes and yoga). He, of course, was like "wow, that's crazy, yadda, yadda, 12hours running, yadda… how’s your body handling all that, yadda, yadda, 12hours running is a lot...."

I then realized I had completely exaggerated (although, I wouldn’t doubt it if I got up to 12-13hours of running per week as the summer wears on), but didn’t want to be like “you know what, I totally just lied – I don’t actually run that much.” So I just kinda went with it.

So, to the guy in the IM Florida swim cap at the pool, if you ever read this, I totally lied. I don’t run that much… yet.

4) I’m currently reading the book “Drop Dead Healthy” by A.J. Jacobs and so far, am really enjoying it. It has made me want a treadmill desk. I really have nothing else to add at this point, but if you’ve never read any of his books, they are pretty fun and definitely an easy read. Worth (in my opinion at least) checking out.

That is all. Happy FOUR!