During the 2011 Christmas holiday, I came down with a fairly nasty sinus infection. It caused coughing that wouldn’t clear up and my last hard ride was on December 23. As we were heading into a recovery week after Christmas, I focused on getting healthy, but it just didn’t happen that week and I was only able to do minimal training. So I saw a doctor about it. The doctor checked for pneumonia and I was clear there and then put me on antibiotics to clear up the infection.
Thinking I was on the road to recovery, I was looking forward to getting back into training after New Years. Unfortunately, my father passed away on New Years’ Eve after a long battle with a terminal disease Multiple Systems Atrophy (MSA). I travelled back east to be with my family during this very difficult period. My father was a great man and I miss him dearly. I am sad he won’t be able to follow my progress during Ironman New Zealand. He is much of my inspiration for attempting such a difficult challenge.
While back east, my infection was clearing up so I did manage to get a few good runs in. No bike or swim, so I am a little behind on that.
