Post op...

The surgery went fine, and I'm laid up at home for the day just trying to recover. Actually, all in all I feel quite fine except that the thumb is in quite a bit of pain, so I have relented and started taking the Tylenol-3's... That definitely knocks me out a bit. I may be out of training at least for today and maybe tomorrow. I do have the luxury of knowing that I have been training pretty hard lately so I am a little more patient at this moment... We'll see how long that lasts.
I did manage to get a trip to Penticton in this weekend, and I rode the entire Ironman Canada course, all 180km of it, in about 6 hours. Given a cast on my left hand and that I raced the week before I was quite satisfied. I figured out how to change gears with my right hand on both shifters, which requires some thinking ahead and balance, but I have gotten used to it now.
I rode with the Ironcops team and we had two support vehicles the whole way. It was actually quite luxurious! I have never done a fully supported ride before. We had ice, water, Gatorade and pretzels at many different checkpoints.

The cast is scheduled to come off on August 17th, if all goes well. I can't determine yet if I'll still have something on my thumb or not, but hopefully that will put me in the clear for the race.

In the meantime I have got the therabands and I'm spending 10-20 minutes a day simulating my swimming, and I am mounting my bike on the trainer for the week. I can stay focused more on the shorter rides if I stay on the stationary. The next long ride will be a little different, and I anticipate doing that on the trainer too. I can see doing 4x1 hour intervals or something along those lines. Again, more focused effort might lead to a stronger bike performance anyway. Sometimes there are blessings in disguise in all this.

Time to relax! I'm typing this with one hand so it is a little more challenging. On a side note, the cast is quite heavy so, in some respects, I am giving my shoulders a workout every time I lift it!