A quick week in review for Jan. 22-28

Meh.

It wasn’t a great week, training-wise, mostly because my knee hurt and my physical therapist wanted me to rest between my Tuesday and Friday appointments. It’s been bothering me a bit more lately and I don’t know if it’s the changing weather, or if I overdid it earlier, or both.

As a result the week was not a lot of stuff, and all of it easy. But since my ultimate goal is to get back to my previous level of activity, that’s OK. For now.

By the numbers, it was:

PT/pre-hab/rehab: 5 times, 2 PT sessions and 3 solo homework sessions, for almost 3 hours.

Bike: One easy, 30-minute spin to warm up before a weights and homework session.

Weights: One 30-minute session of pull-ups, biceps, abs, etc.

Total: 7 sessions in almost 4 hours.

Nothing special, just PT, more PT, and the occasional other stuff. Which is probably what it's going to be for a while yet.

A shocking development in my physical therapy

My knee wasn't feeling great late last week and early this week. I don't know if swimming last Thursday aggravated it, since I'm not used to the kicking motion, or if I just plain overdid it. It started hurting last Friday and after PT that day I was given strict instructions to rest.

It was still a little painful on Tuesday so we didn't do quite as many rehab moves. And at the end of our session, we zapped electricity into my knee.

Bzzzzzt.

I forget the actual acronym my therapist called the treatment but it's electrical muscle stimulation (Wikipedia page here) and it was interesting. She put four electrodes on my leg -- above, below, on either side of my kneecap -- and turned on the electricity very low at first. She asked if I had ever licked a nine-volt battery, because that's what it felt like, and NO, I have never licked a nine-volt battery.

I only increased the electricity to the feeling of a tingle, and I felt a lot better later that day. We did it again after my session on Friday, and I was able to increase the voltage a little bit, until my muscles started twitching a little. It didn't hurt, it just felt weird.

Like anything else, it'll take some getting used to, I guess. I'm encouraged that my knee hasn't really hurt except for some dull pinching Friday. At this point, maybe I will even lick a battery if it means I can run again sometime soon.

My injury date Twilight Zone

Since my therapist wants me to rest and stop aggravating my knee, I went back into my training logs to refresh my memory about what kind of upper-body workouts I did a few years ago when I had a tibial stress fracture.

I figured out that my last run before the fracture reached the point of "Ow, this really hurts, I think I better stop running" was 7/3/11.

My last run with my chondral fissure, the one that ended in hobbling pain, was 11/3/17.

(Twilight Zone music) Do de do do, do de do do.....

Week in review Jan 15-21: I did more pre-hab/rehab this week than I did all of 2017

PT for me.

… which no doubt contributed to this mess I’m in.

The week started off OK with a couple of trainer rides, PT, and even a swim, the first one of the year. I did all of my PT homework on those three non-PT days, too.

By Friday my knee was starting to hurt again. Strange, since I had swum and not ridden the trainer the day before. A warm weather front was moving in, so maybe that was it. But at PT that night a lot of the lateral moves hurt. I took it easy on Saturday, not wanting to make anything worse, and on Sunday just did the stretching advised by my therapist.

Boo.

My suspicion is that I need to dial it back a bit – maybe stop doing actual Trainer Road workouts and make any rides very easy spins before my PT homework. The pool was busy enough that I had a bit of anxiety and did a lot of kickboard work, so that might have aggravated my knee, too. I am seeing pull buoy swims, upper body workout, and more PT in my future.

Anyway, by the numbers, it was:

PT/Rehab: 6 times, 2 physical therapy sessions and 4 “homework” sessions of various stretching and strengthening moves, for 3.5 hours. Yes, this is more than I did the entire calendar year of 2017. I had to go back to March of 2017 to find the last time I did pre-hab before I started physical therapy at the beginning of this year. Pathetic. In this case, correlation most likely DOES equal causation. =)

Bike: Twice on the trainer for 2 hours total.

Swim: Once in the pool (yes, I made it to the pool!) for a mile in about an hour – I just did drills, which always take me forever. The pool was pretty busy and I didn’t want to let my anxiety get the best of me.

Total: 9 sessions in about 6.5 hours. It’s not a terrible week, but I wish it were more actual training and less rehab. Sigh.

I’m going to take today off (except for my stretching "homework") and go in fresh for my next PT appointment tomorrow, hopefully without any pain so I can complete all the movements. I am ready to talk about what is working and what is not so I can get moving in the right direction.

My knee is hurting again.

My knee hasn't been cooperating this week. Friday it was achy in the joint, and PT felt hard. Any lateral movements hurt, especially the side steps up onto a stair.

Icing: One of the few things that doesn't hurt.

Yesterday it hurt to walk. Today it is painful standing in the kitchen while I food prep for the week. It hasn't locked up again, yet. I was food prepping when it locked up the first time and I have been living in fear of it locking up again.

I got sucked into the rabbit hole of looking at my old Instagram pictures and it makes me so sad to see that a few years ago I was running, swimming, biking, doing tris, and all sorts of other fun stuff. Now I can barely stand.

I'm angry, depressed and frustrated this is happening to me. And part of me is afraid the PT isn't going to do anything and that fissure in my cartilage will prevent me from running ever again.

Maybe I just need to be patient. It's hard to be optimistic when I feel like I'm playing the one step forward, two steps back game. Ugh.

Week in review Jan 8-14: Just PT for me

I've been doing a lot of this lately.

Here’s a quick and delayed week in review for last week since I didn’t do much, anyway. I was out of town part of the week for a family funeral, and even after I was back at home I was still spending time with family in from out of state. Although circumstances weren’t the best, we also had good times catching up, telling stories, and passing around embarrassing pics – of which there were many.

As a result of all the running around I only made it to physical therapy once and did my glute-strengthening moves three times on my own. After my session Tuesday my therapist gave me three more exercises to do at home, adding to the one I was already doing. This made me remember the reason why I have a hard time sticking with a pre-hab routine in the first place: It takes a lot of time to keep your glutes, core, hamstrings, hip flexors, etc. in shape. Or, at least, for me to get MINE in shape.

I am up to about a half-hour now and although I am committed, it is going to take some finagling and perhaps some redistribution of available time to get the job done. In the future, it may be necessary to cut workouts short so I can do my strengthening moves afterward. We’ll see.

Anyway. By the numbers, it was:

PT/re-hab: Four sessions, one with the physical therapist and three times on my own, for about 2 hours, 10 minutes.

Nothing special, but at least I have something on the board. Hopefully this week will be much less exciting and I can get in a few solid workouts and rehab sessions.

A quick week in review for Jan. 1-7

I've definitely had worse weeks.

2018 got off to a decent start. I went to a New Year's Day barre class, and did one more class and a couple of bike sessions as the week went on.

I also started physical therapy for my knee last week. I'll do a whole post about it, because there's a lot going on. But I am definitely feeling the good kind of soreness that means I have a lot of improvement ahead of me. Hopefully.

The week worked out to be:

Bike: Twice, both on the trainer, for about 26 trainer "miles" in 2 hours, 15 minutes. I added 15 minutes to my Saturday ride to make it a "long ride."

Weights: Two barre classes for about an hour each.

Pre-hab/re-hab/physical therapy: What to call it? Whatever it was, it was two actual PT sessions and two "homework" sessions with lots of glute-strengthening moves, hip flexor work, some balance work, etc. for about an hour and 20 total.

Total: 8 sessions in about 5 hours, 35 minutes.

So, not terrible? Some cardio, some weights, some pre-hab. That's about all I can do right now.

I'll be out of pocket for much of the rest of the week. I'll be back eventually, just like my fitness, haha.

A few loose goals for 2018

I didn’t put much thought into setting goals for the year. I tend to make big lists of stuff I want to accomplish and then get down on myself when I can’t do it all. When your list is 75 items long of course you can’t do it all, but I still beat myself up.

Year after year, and even week after week, I’ve had the same goals: Run 100 miles per month, swim twice per week, etc. Then something comes up and I feel bad about not meeting my goal. So I need to think of a way to reframe my goals. I have enjoyed reading other blogs for goal ideas, which has given me something to think about.

Here’s what I wrote as my goals in my application for my TBD Racing team:

Work through my health issues and re-start a training schedule that gets me back to racing. Run some cool places, maybe another marathon. Work on whole-body health, incorporating things like yoga and pre-hab. Keep a healthy work-life-training-family-friends-other balance. Have fun.

Maybe I just need to break that down:

Work through my health issues and re-start a training schedule that gets me back to racing. This includes things like maintaining my thyroid health, being diligent about eliminating foods that cause me issues, rehabilitating my knee, easing gently back into running, and working through the anxiety that has made me uncomfortable in the pool.

Run some cool places, maybe another marathon. After I work though my knee issue and ease gently back into running, this could be anything. I have one vacation scheduled and another one on my mind. I have family all over the place; maybe I could make a few visits and run while I’m there. Or maybe it’s just finding a running path or park I haven’t explored yet. I’m not sure about another marathon this year, but maybe a half? I’ve never actually RACED a half. Maybe this is the year.

Work on whole-body health, incorporating things like yoga and pre-hab. My orthopedist commented on how tight my hamstrings and IT band were, and I sit at a desk all day. Stretching, yoga, and pre-hab will keep me running and moving longer and I need to treat them as such, not as a boring (and neglected) chore.

Keep a healthy work-life-training-family-friends-other balance. I tend to work, train, cook dinner, spend a few minutes with my pack, go to bed, and repeat. I really don’t have any real-life training partners or running buddies. Maybe 2018 is the year I find some.

Have fun. Oh, man. This one is tough. Define fun? For me, training and racing is fun, but it might be torture for others. I know I miss racing and I want to do at least one multisport race this year. My friend is bugging me to do an indoor triathlon next month, and I’ve never done a duathlon. It could be fun!

I also want to do things like take off work on a beautiful spring day to run or ride. I was good about using up almost all my vacation time this year and I want to do it again this year. That also sounds like fun.

Some other oddball training goals I can think of:

Continue to mix up weight training and do more than one actual, hanging pullup.

Actually use my Y membership, even if I don’t go to the pool.

Increase my FTP on Trainer Road.

Learn how to flip turn! (Another one that has eluded me for years! But I’m making an exception and including it again. True story, I got an A- in my high school swim class because I never caught on to flip turns. Lol!)

And some other oddball non-training goals:

Celebrate others’ journeys instead of comparing them to my own. It’s absolutely true that comparison is the thief of joy and I need to be careful, in this digital oversharing age, not to resent others’ experiences. I have my own experiences, goals, life, challenges, etc. It’s OK to be in a different place.

I have pretty good eating habits, but they could use a bit of refinement. Drink water all day. Hard stop at noon for coffee drinking. Keep eating a salad for lunch most days. Only allow one serving of potatoes per day; I usually have them for breakfast but damn if potato chips aren’t so delicious and tempting. Try some new recipes. Use my crock pot.

I also want to work on making my house more homey. We’ve accumulated a lot of crap that we need to go through, we have a lot of space that isn’t being used efficiently, and we have a long list of home repairs and updates. I think it will be good for my mental health, which will tangentially help with my training, so I’m including it here.

Wow, that’s a lot. Maybe I do have goals for 2018, after all. Haha. I'll try to remember to visit this post at the end of each month or so just to check in.

I hope all of you are off to a good start with your goals!

Week in review Dec. 25-31: Tidings of cycling and barre

Not great, but I'm getting there.

It wasn’t a bad week, training-wise. I took off Christmas Day and Saturday due to family celebrations, but I still logged six workouts. It helped that I had the week off work and could take my time making coffee, digesting breakfast, and eventually getting on the bike or whatever.

I added up all my workouts for the year Sunday evening and came out at 299, so I did some yoga. It was a good way to end the year, month and week anyway.

By the numbers, it worked out to be:

Bike: Three times, all on the trainer, for 3 hours total. Two of those were actual Trainer Road workouts and my knee felt not great, but OK. The second Trainer Road workout felt better so I went with it.

Weights: One barre class for about an hour. I’m able to modify as necessary so I don’t have knee pain.

SWIM: Yes, I made it to the pool! I psyched myself up all week about how great I would feel once I went and it was true, I actually did. I did 2,000 meters in about an hour, but that included a lot of drills to warm up and get a feel for the water again.

Yoga: One 15-minute session to cap off the year a bit looser.

Total: Six sessions in about 5 hours, 17 minutes.

Sadly, I'm back to real life today and will have to get back into the routine of fitting in a workout before or after work. Oh, well. The life of leisure was fun while it lasted.