I’m not really going away.  I’m just going away from training for a little while.

Last week I finally submitted to an MRI, and I got the results yesterday.  As it turns out, the cartilage on the back of my knee caps is wearing down and causing the mysterious pain I’ve been experiencing for the past 11 weeks.  I also have an agitated plica hovering around, providing further annoyance.  (If, like me, you have never before heard of a plica, check out the Wikipedia article here.)  The only cure is to rest my knees, so no running, no real cycling, and no real swimming.  I can spin easy with very little resistance and I can swim with a pull buoy.  With any luck, by the end of May the cartilage will have improved and I can introduce more activity.

The cause of all this is my increase in training over the winter.  I never felt like I was doing a lot, but I suppose I was, or at least a lot more than I was doing before.  In just a couple years to jump from running for 45 minutes to an hour each day to training for 3 hours a day might be considered a leap.  However, in all the time I have been running this is the first time I’ve had knee trouble, so that in itself is promising.  In  the future, I have to be mindful of my overall volume.  In the spring I started to take 1 day off every 10 or so days, and in the future I’ll probably drop that down to 1 day off every week and be really diligent about that, as I tend to get carried away and forget.

All in all, it’s a relief to finally know what is going on.  11 weeks is a long time to be in the dark, training half-heartedly hoping it disappears on its own.   I’m thankful that Matt Schneider at Boulder Center for Sports Medicine, the same PA that worked with Jordan on his knee last summer, took the time to get to the root of the problem and provide a reasonable healing plan.  He gave me the “OK” to race Escape from Alcatraz this weekend, saying that it’s my “going away party” and the rest period begins as soon as I’m across the finish line.

My plan for Alcatraz is to go all in on the swim and bike, and not save an ounce for the run.  If I’m having a good race I’ll be giddy enough to get through it fine, and if not I’ll be enjoying the view of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay.  It’s going to be fun and it’ll be an awesome experience, no matter what.  By way of this injury my swimming and cycling have improved a lot since Mazatlan, and even my worst days in the pool and on the bike aren’t flat-out awful anymore.  For the run, I’ll keep my race in Austin in the front of my mind and give it whatever I have because those are the last strides I’ll take for at least a month and I don’t want to save anything up.

Who knows when the “welcome back party” will be, hopefully in July sometime!  This definitely changes my plans for the season, but fortunately I haven’t registered for any races or arranged any travel beyond this weekend and I’m perfectly content to just roll with it and see what happens.

Now the real question…best pizza in San Francisco??

Sunday afternoon Gulliver and I went for a hike up on Lookout Mountain….to clear my head, forget about bad races, uncooperative knees, and to try and regroup for escaping from Alcatraz next weekend (if you aren’t familiar with triathlon it sounds like I will be attempting some sort of David Blaine stunt).  It was nice to amble around, no pace or heartrate to think about…just enjoy the scenery and realize how awesome it is that this is just minutes from my doorstep.  Here are some pics.  Jordan gave Gulliver a furcut last weekend, so he’s looking quite dapper…

Lots of fun training this weekend (and eating)…

Saturday

Jordan and I went up to Boulder to meet our friend Taylor and a few of his training partners for a group ride.  I signed on for a 2.5 hour jaunt through the plains just north of town.

I should have known better.  Every time I ride with Taylor it ends in a sufferfest.  He’s tortured me all over the place: Park City, Aspen, Hawaii, Moab (actually his wife was responsible for that one…), up the canyons outside of Golden, and today he lead to my demise in Longmont.

As usual, I went overboard in preparing for the 2.5 hour ride.  I filled not 1, but 2 bottles of water and packed no food.  The first hour 20 went by without incident, we rode out to Carter Lake.  I was 1/2 way through my 180 turn when “no no no let’s go around the lake and down the backside.”

“Won’t that be longer than the way we came?”

“Oh no no no it’ll be the same.”

Hmmmm

We went in a northerly direction for another 20 minutes before finally heading south.  At this point, I’m starving.  Ryan gave me a gel (thanks Ryan!).  Jordan took off on his hour tempo.  The gel holds me for awhile and I’m able to make it to the 3 hour mark before I hit the wall.  40 minutes later I’m in Taylor’s kitchen housing tortilla chips and anything that gets put in front of me.  Luckily after I polished off the bag of chips we enjoyed a massive, nutritious, and delicious lunch at Protos that included one of the best cannolis I’ve ever had (shown above).

Sunday

The big goal for April is to improve my cycling, and what better way to do that than to enter into all sorts of cycling races.  This weekend I rode in the Boulder Roubaix, 37.4 miles of racing on paved and dirt roads.  It was a ton of fun, and though very hairy at times, I made it out safely crash-free and unscathed.  I definitely lack the patience required for road racing…I go out of my skull sitting in a pack for 30 miles waiting for a break!  With about 10 miles left in the race, I made a go for it at the top of a hill and tried to time trial away on a paved bit.  One girl came with me, not enough to make it work, and we got swallowed up again by the pack.  I tried a few more times, but just couldn’t get a paceline going.  When the break that would determine the race was made I was stuck inside and my legs were kicked at that point.  I tried to get it going again, but it was too late and I finished out of the points.  Such is bike racing!  Still a fun time no matter what.  When I took off my helmet out came all sorts of small rocks and dirt.  My legs look like I got into a cat fight from the small scratches from the flying rocks and dirt throughout the race.  This is what I do for fun.  No pictures from the race, but if you want to get an idea, check out: sportifimages.com

Of course immediately after the race I had to pull the obnoxious triathlete move of going out for a run.  I don’t run off the bike much in training, so it was the perfect chance for a little brick workout and to see how my knees were holding up.  6 miles — All good!

…though I was in pain walking around for the rest of the day, but that is ok.

After another massive meal at Noodles & Co. I headed home and Jordan and I caught up on the Sydney WCS race.  ITU had really impressive coverage of the event and it got us pumped for our next ITU race in Ixtapa next month (still finalizing that one).

A super leisurely swim followed by…yet another…massive meal at the Yard House with Jordan’s mom and stepdad ended the perfect weekend.

So lucky that this is how I can spend my days =)

In mid-February I was starting to feel a little smug about the injury-free streak I had going.  In college I spent a lot of time injured with silly ailments that would come and go.  Since I’ve switched to triathlon I haven’t had a single overuse injury, it was almost a two-year streak!

Then at the end of a 10 mile run about 8 weeks ago my right knee shot with pain and the streak ended.  Womp womp.  I took a couple weeks completely off of running and then tested it out with a few of 10-20 minute test runs:  One bad, two decent.  It held up for the race in Mazatlan (and though it would be convenient, I cannot blame my pedestrian run split on my knee).   I ran a couple more times, and hopped on the treadmill for a tempo last week.  It was my best tempo ever!  Lower heart rate, slightly slower pace for the first 4 miles to be conservative, and my knee felt fine!

And while I haven’t been able to run pain-free since that tempo, it made me so thankful that I am a triathlete.  If I were still training for just running the last 7.5 weeks would have been torture.  I would’ve done something painfully stupid like pool run and I would have lost a ton of fitness.  Instead, I got it together in the pool with some solid swim weeks and picked things up on the bike.  I miss running, but by getting that one tempo in I’m not too worried about losing all of the fitness I built up over the winter….it’s there and it’s staying there thanks to swimming and cycling.

Group run at Vista.

I saw one doctor a few days before Mazatlan who didn’t help at all, and I’m planning on seeing a different one soon so I can figure out what the deal is.  …I’ve been putting it off in hopes that it will disappear suddenly, but that doesn’t seem to be happening, so I guess it’s time!

Anyway, the real point of this post was to share some of my tips for training through an injury, knowing when to stop and when to push through…just from my personal experience!

Stop:

- when you can feel it with every step/stride/stroke

- it’s a super sharp pain that radiates to another part of your body

- you notice other parts of your body getting sore/tight/achy because they are compensating for the weakness of the injured area

- it hurts a lot when you’re not training and slows down your day-to-day life (never worth messing up)

- it’s been bugging you steadily for a few weeks and isn’t getting better

Go:

- occasional pain

- it starts hurting mid-workout, but goes away after a minute

…in general I play it pretty cautious, since I want to give Sister Madonna Buder’s records a run someday

In my experience, it also helps to be realistic about what I should be doing.  If I’m hurt or feel a tweak that could turn into something gnarly, the last thing I do is drastically change my routine or start doing really intense workouts to compensate for lack of volume.  For example, with my knees I know I can’t do a kick set in the pool, so I avoid it and sub-in something else (such a pity…).  The runs I am able to do are easy and usually on soft surfaces.  The only hard run I did was a tempo (:45-1:15/mile slower than sea level 1/2 marathon race pace). It seems all too often triathletes get suckered into doing intense track workouts over short distances, which are a catalyst for breakdown and totally unnecessary unless you’re ready to bust out a sub-32 10k.  (sorry…I get fired up over track workouts…)

So there you have it, my take on training through injuries and a re-cap of the last few weeks that I have been putting off for some time…kind of like that doctor’s visit, and for similar reasons.

Post ride/run on Wednesday...it's always a job to get the boys to pose!

Our bikes are packed and we’re ready to out-run the snowstorm that’s heading toward the Front Range first thing tomorrow morning.  The whole team is excited and we’re all feeding off of each other’s excitement…it’s like a pack of little kids on their way to Disney World for the first time.

The Mazatlan ITU Pan American Cup is Saturday morning at 10:30.  More information can be found here.

Women’s Start List

Men’s Start List

Also, a real quick el GRANDE MUCHOS GRACIAS to Nick at Optic Nerve for hooking me up with some awesome new shades (which you of course noticed in the above photo) after I came home to this last week:

The handy-work of Gulliver, 19.5 pounds of plastic driven fury.

The new ones are awesome and come with interchangeable lenses, so I’m ready to race in the rain, bright sun, overcast conditions, or anything in between…very cool.  By far the best sunglasses for racing.
Annnd anyone who knows about the curious case of my knee troubles: the doctor just said I’m getting old.  Everything looks fine.  aka.  I’m racing and we’ll deal with it when I get back =)

The past 7 days have comprised one of my biggest swim weeks ever.  All of the guys are tapering for their meet on Sunday, so that left me going about 20,000 of my 35,000 yards solo.  Swim training has its ups and downs, and I’m currently riding high on an upswing which feels exceptionally good after the big rut I was in for most of the winter.  It serves as proof that even when you think you are doing negative work (as in getting slower and slower) it all adds up in the end to make you faster.  About two weeks ago I was struggling through a set of 5 300s, doing the first 2 on the 4:00 before falling back to the 4:10 for the last 3.  I was more than frustrated, I really couldn’t go any faster.  Last night for the last set of my week I went 10×300 on the 4:00, getting about 15 seconds rest for each and feeling really smooth and relaxed.  Swimming that pace for almost double the distance of an ITU swim has me excited…I know I still need to take a lot more time off, but it’s a leap in the right direction and I know I can crank it up a few notches come race time.

This whole week was made easier by knowing that on Saturday I’d get an entire day off of training to rest up and get ready for another solid week before coasting into Mazatlan.  Thursday I hit my only tough patch, Jordan and I were up in the mountains spending the night and I had to get my second swim in at the rec center (the only day I broke it into two swims, which I was regretting!).  I was hungry and the night before I had cooked up some of Mollie’s Mac n’ Cheese and the leftovers were beaconing.  Luckily, Jordan was driving and pulled up to the rec center and booted me out of the car.  4,500 yards later I was devouring the best mac n’ cheese of my life.  Thanks Mollie!

[BTW: Mollie was another teammate of mine at BU and now has a great blog devoted to 3 wonderful things: eating, running, and reading.  Check it out at eatrunread.blogspot.com...but not before a workout.]

Swimming totally redeems itself!

Last night we got back into the Thursday night Riptide tradition of Team Goals: a bunch of all-out 100s, with an in-water start.  Swimming still hasn’t been going too well, 1:20s are usually a struggle, even with decent rest and I haven’t swam all-out since August, so I didn’t have incredibly high hopes for the workout.  The one “good” thing about Team Goals is that it’s a short practice, rarely over 3000y.  Last year I started off around doing these around 1:12s, then by Christmas I was hitting all of them under 1:10, and eventually got to a 1:05, but mostly hovered around 1:06/1:07.

Last night they were on the 4:00 (for non-swimmers, this means if you come in at 1:30, you get 2:30 rest).  Of course I got put in the lane with my fiancé/business partner/roommate/co-Gully owner/aquatic nemesis.

First one.  All out.

1:14.  There is no way I can do that again.  I am totally spent.  How can I possibly feel so awful and out of shape?

Second one.  I’m still sucking wind from the first one.

1:16.5.  I quit.

Third one.  Obviously I didn’t quit.

1:17.  Ok I’m done.

Fourth one.  I can tell that Jordan thinks I’m starting to feel sorry for myself and I want to prove him wrong.

1:11.  Yay.

Fifth one.

1:07.5.

Sixth one.

1:08.

Finished!

I needed that swim!  Maybe I didn’t reach my triathlon peak at the age of 24 after all.  And as for my aquatic nemesis?  He had a good workout and is now off to Texas this morning to race the Austin 70.3 on Sunday.  I think his Tweet says it best:

jordanj191 After a race season with a broken chain, broken tibia/torn meniscus, giardia, flat tire/crash I’m due for a good race Sunday!

October First was the day!  My glorious month of cinnamon bun eating and sleeping in has come to an end.  Now it’s time to get to work in the pool!

One of the best things about training with Riptide is that Sean gives us total control of our off-seasons.  When I told him I was feeling run-down after Tuscaloosa, he didn’t try to talk me into racing one more race.  He knows that all of us have been training hard long enough to know when we’ve had enough.  He let me disappear for two weeks before I had to be back in the pool, swimming just 2-3 times per week so I wouldn’t be starting from scratch later on.  I came up with the October 1st start-date for the real training to begin and when I started outlining my winter plan he pulled in the reigns.  I was getting froggy.  One step at a time…

So this morning I dragged myself out of bed at 6 and made my way to the rec center in the dark.  It wasn’t easy…I’ve gotten really used to sleeping-in and not doing much of anything.  I can totally see how people who don’t workout regularly have a hard time forming a routine.  The first few days are so brutal.  For me, it helps to think about how much I’ll enjoy it once I’m actually in the pool, and even more so how much more I’ll enjoy racing with all of the yards under me.

For now, it’s only singles in the pool, doubles will come later this month.  My big plan for the winter is to step it up a few notches and tag along with the guys on all of their rides and runs.  I will be the annoying little sister of the team, it’s a role I fill naturally.

In prep for the XC race next week I decided that yesterday would be a good day to do a little workout.  It was cold, raining, and by the time I got home it was getting dark.  It was perfect.  As luck would have it, I was able to recover my training log from my junior year of college.  I had it on Blogger and now have conveniently imported it into this blog, so if you’re ever so inclined you can read all about my deep, dark, past (like..my summer 2005 swim training - honestly didn’t remember swimming even this much, accounts from my second trip to CO to visit Jordan,  my first multisport race, and much much more!  sadly I wasn’t too into providing any details or anecdotes, so it’s pretty much just my training with little fluff.  the log ends abruptly, because I quite obviously get injured…this happens several times.)

I knew I wanted to do the boil, simmer, boil workout, but I couldn’t remember how it went.  Thankfully, I found it here.  You can’t have a bad day running when you’re boil, simmer, boiling.  It’s impossible.  There’s no distance to worry about.  Just boil for X amount of minutes, simmer for X amount, and boil again.  Boils are at race pace, and simmers are around tempo - not hard, not easy.

Last night I headed to my favorite trail and boiled for 5, simmered for 4, and boiled for 5 again.  After running easy for 4 minutes I did it again.  It’s a little different than the original BSB workout, but variations are definitely allowed.  The workout went very well and I’m surprised with how good running feels.  Next week the “race” is totally just for fun but it’s exciting to be preparing for something different…even if preparing consists all of 8-10 runs haha

As you can probably tell, I’ve been very nostalgic for XC lately, which is funny b/c I was never too fond of it.  I really liked the concept of it, but never ran well during the fall.  It was firmly implanted in my head that I couldn’t run any distance beyond the 800.  Now that I’ve run 2 decent marathons I know that isn’t true, but still fall into that mindset all the time…like every time I have to run a 10k after biking and swimming.  Someday I’ll get back into the whole running thing, but that’s a ways off.  I’m enjoying the little bit I’m able to do now, because come October 1st I’ll be drenched in the most chlorinated water you can imagine for many hours a day.  I’ve got some big plans.  …but for now, I’m going to keep on simmering.

Next time you’re racking your brain for a running workout to change up the routine, try out the boil simmer boil, and the best part: you don’t have to adjust your times for altitude!  Cooking joke! AaaYO!!!!

Last week I was summoned back to the pool by Sean.  The first day of swimming wasn’t so bad, but each day thereafter got worse and worse.  I’m not ready to be submerged for 2 hours everyday, and really haven’t been too into the whole exercising thing for the past few weeks, let alone training several hours a day for a race season that is months and months away.  So yesterday I skipped swim practice, worked later, and then drove up Lookout Mountain for a run that turned into more of a hike….

I’m not sure if it’s the time of year, getting out in the fresh air, or reading my former teammate, Mollie’s running blog, but for the first time in awhile I feel like running again.  When I’m training for triathlon, running is my least favorite of the 3: it can’t take me far away like cycling can, and I don’t see the improvement I see with swimming.  Running always gets the backburner while I develop in the other two, and hopefully someday I’ll be able to come back and focus more on running.  I thought I might be able to do that this winter, focus on running for a month or 6 weeks, and go run some indoor races at BU (I admittedly have ulterior motives…).  After I got crushed on the swim in Tuscaloosa, it’s obvious that plan was not a sound one: I have to spend my winter in the pool.

…but it’s not winter yet, it’s cross-country season!*  I’m taking the next month or so to find as many XC races as I can.  It’s a little hard to do as an adult.  I could probably pass as a home-schooled high schooler, but I stumbled across this little gem and now I don’t have to: a Euro-style cross-country race in Addenbrooke Park!  Water jumps!  Mud!  Grassy field!

It’s less than 2 weeks away, but I’ve run twice in the past 3.5 weeks (both this week), so I’m ready to go.  I did actually get off my lazy rump and start training today though: 62 minutes from the new office, up into White Ranch — awesome!!!  Not sure if I mentioned how great our new office is?

*Clearly this does not mean I don’t have to swim…I just am not subjecting myself to 4-5000 yards/day right now, just a few shorter workouts per week so I’m not starting from scratch later on.