Week in review April 23-29: Eh, it was a week

"Not great, not terrible" should be my training theme.

It wasn’t a great week training-wise last week, but it wasn’t terrible. I started off strong during the week but had plans on Friday night celebrating my mom’s birthday. I was sooooooooooooooo tired on Saturday (and we didn’t even party that hard! I think I am just cumulatively fatigued) I could barely do my PT. A good chunk of my day Sunday was taken up by first aid training, which was super important, but didn’t leave extra time for training after I did the week’s food prep.

Of the five days I did some kind of movement, I still managed 10 sessions (or at least mini-sessions) and more than 6 hours. So, not terrible, but I could have used a barre class or a swim Friday night, some real exercise on Saturday, and some yoga on Sunday. Oh well.

By the numbers it was:

PT/rehab: 5 sessions, 1 at the clinic and 4 homework sessions at home, for about 3:45 or so.

Bike: Two easy trainer rides for 10 fake miles in about 1:11. My knee was bothering me one day so it was all about being slow and smooth.

Other: Another day of boxing for about 45 minutes. This was probably the sweatiest I got all week.

Weights: Two sessions of bodyweight/heavy lifting, in about 35 minutes. (I’m still not doing leg work.)

Total: 10 sessions in 6:16.

I did OK with my Operation Be Less of a Fatass goals as well. I drank plenty of water all week, ate fish for dinner twice, did shorter bike and weights workouts during the week, and did my PT or homework 5 times. I did not make it to the pool or do any yoga, sadly.

However, I did have one HUGE success Saturday night. We met friends at the Lexus Velodrome again to watch the racing. The velodrome has a, shall we say, pretty lax policy on bringing in food and drink (we saw one suite with a slow cooker set up, which made us laugh) and my wonderful friends brought a big bag of my favorite super greasy, super salty potato chips. And opened it right in front of me and told me to help myself. It was so hard, because those chips are so damn delicious, but I was able to stay strong and resist! I think weighing in earlier that day a bit heavier than I had the week before served as extra motivation, haha.

My goals for this week are generally the same, as well as buy or order a few health or fitness items (like ankle weights that I can use for my at-home PT exercises). Now that the Great Romaine Scare is over, I am back to eating salads for lunch but swapping out a coconut milk yogurt and herb dressing instead of my usual olive oil. Today was the first day for that and it wasn’t bad!

Another week, another chance to be "not great, not terrible."

More good news at PT!

My weekly physical therapy appointment was tonight. I wasn't sure what to expect, because last week my therapist implied that I might be discharged soon. But, I didn't think I was ready, as I still have knee pain now and then.

After I did all my strengthening moves — during which I only had the slightest hint of discomfort once or twice, so victory for me — she had me hop on the table and pushed against my leg while I pushed back the other way. She commented that my leg was getting a lot stronger as far as my glutes, hips, IT band, etc. She also said she can tell I've been diligent with my PT homework, which made me feel a bit better about all the time I've been spending doing it.

Me doing step-ups at PT today.

So, instead of returning next week, I go back in two weeks. And then, she said, if I am continuing to progress and my pain is minimal, we can start thinking about a return to running plan.

Hooray!

I feel like I have a long way to go still, but I am more hopeful than I was a few weeks ago. I have less and less frequent pain, my therapist says my legs are getting stronger, and I may get to run again next month. I feel like I've finally turned a corner with getting my knee back into shape.

Operation Be Less of a Fatass, Take 2

My last run was November 3 but you wouldn’t know it by the way I’ve been eating. My chondral fissure prevents me from running, biking anything harder than super easy, and kicking while swimming, but I am still eating all the potatoes and sweets.

I took a serious look at my eating habits a couple weeks ago, inspired by how my work pants were getting tighter and tighter, and decided to make a few small changes. When I was at my highest weight about two and a half years ago I called my effort to lose a few pounds Operation Be Less of a Fatass, so this is Operation Be Less of a Fatass, Take 2.

Last week I cut out the potatoes I was eating every weekday for breakfast; I now have pork patties and sautéed spinach. I do get hungry for lunch earlier now, but not THAT much. Bonus: Not making a big batch of roasted potatoes saves me time food prepping on Sundays.

Last week I also forced myself to come out of denial about how even moderate training rides were still hurting my knee, and took it down a notch to easy rides of no longer than 5 fake trainer miles. This works out to about 35 minutes in the second-to-easiest gear. I’m still doing some easy activity and it doesn’t hurt my knee too much, and 5 is a nice, round number that makes it feel like it’s worth putting on my bike shorts.

And because my trainer rides are shorter, I tried splitting up my at-home weights workout during the week, instead of doing everything on Saturday. Last week I did upper body on Monday, abs on Tuesday, and a barre class on Friday. This week I’m on track to do the same. I don’t think one way is better than the other, but hopefully changing it up a bit will keep it exciting.

I also wanted physical therapy and my PT homework to be a priority last week and it definitely was; I did my homework FIVE days and had one appointment at the clinic. I let myself have Sunday off from PT.

I have been doing a LOT of this.

So, I am calling the first week of Operation Be Less of a Fatass, Take 2 a success! I did weigh myself on Sunday (not going to lie, I was a bit scared to do so beforehand) and while the number was a little high, it wasn’t TOO far off from my lowest in recent memory, when I was riding and running regularly last summer. My first goal will be to get it below last year’s low.

I have the same goals for Operation Be Less of a Fatass, Take 2 this week, plus I added a few more:

Drink your water: I drink a lot of coffee in the mornings. I’m pretty good with my water intake after I stop coffee around noon, but I need to be better at drinking water earlier.

Box once, swim once, yoga at least once: I had fun boxing as cross training last week and I want to do it again. I am nervous about swimming again since I had trouble breathing last time, but I will try to give it another go. And I need to carve out time for yoga.

Fish for dinner twice: I usually make meat and a veggie or two for dinner, and I want to get something lighter in the rotation. (I prep chicken for lunch almost every day, so we don’t usually eat it for dinner.) We already had pan-fried cod last night, so one down.

NO POTATO CHIPS: I never met a potato chip I didn’t like and I regularly demolish full-sized bags, by myself, in one sitting. As of today I am 17 days without a potato chip binge! I have walked by the potato chip aisle multiple times and I am very proud of myself. I can’t say the same for French fries, as I did order some in one night, but that was a contained amount so I was ok with that. Another bonus: Not eating potatoes for breakfast every day means I’ll feel less guilty if I make my own fries for dinner once in a while.

So that’s my battle plan for the next few weeks. I’m hoping these small changes will be less overwhelming so I won’t give up hope. Of course, I’d much rather wake up tomorrow with my knee magically healed, but I have to be realistic about the situation I’m in. Until then, I’ll continue to drink my water, do my PT, and avoid the potato chip aisle.

But they taste so delicious!

Week in review April 16-22: TONS of rehab, lots of other activity too

Lots of colors because I did lots of stuff.

I had another good week last week, considering. By “good” week I mean I did something every day, did some dedicated yoga for the first time in I don’t know how long, and did more than 8 hours of training total. Hey, I will definitely take an average of more than an hour per day at this point.

It wasn’t all sunshine and roses. I am still experiencing twinges of knee pain and am down to very easy, very boring trainer sessions of 5 miles at a time. After some breathing problems on my last visit to the pool, I have yet to make it back. And I’m really starting to wonder if I’ll ever be able to run again. I am trying to stay positive and focus on what I CAN do but man, it is hard sometimes.

By the numbers, last week was:

PT/rehab: SIX!!!!!!!!!!!!! times, one in-clinic therapy session and five homework sessions, for about 4 hours total if I take out all the slacking and walking around time.

Bike: Three times, all on the trainer, for 15 very easy miles in about 1:48.

Weights: Three times, two heavy/body sessions split up into upper body and abs and one barre class, for about 1:30 total. I’m trying to mix it up a bit by splitting weights into shorter sessions during the week.

Other: Since I’m limited to what I can do with my legs, I mixed it up a bit by dusting off my old boxing bag, which I don’t think I have used since my stress fracture years and years ago. I spent 45 minutes trying out almost-forgotten punching combinations. I definitely worked up a sweat and I was definitely sore the next day in a whole new set of muscles.

Yoga: YES, I actually did some dedicated yoga, not just the stretching exercises that are a part of my PT homework. This was just 15 minutes’ worth on Sunday night but man oh man were my hips tight. I needed this.

Total: 14 sessions!!! in about 8:17. Doing PT homework almost every day and splitting up weights moves helped bumped that daily average up. Still, I haven’t had many 8+ hour weeks this year and I will take it!

I’m hoping I can keep the momentum going for another good week.

Maybe, possibly, something that could have the potential of being a hint of good news for my knee

I had my weekly physical therapy appointment on Thursday. Accounting for the week I was in Costa Rica, I have now been in physical therapy for 15 weeks. I needed to have a tough conversation with my therapist about whether or not this is working.

I still have pain in my knee when I'm going downstairs and when I'm walking quickly. I feel better, and stronger, and my balance is definitely getting better. But I am disappointed things aren't moving more quickly. Are my expectations too high? Am I just impatient? Do I need to try something else?

When I brought this up to my therapist, right before she started massaging/annihilating my left IT band, she said she was actually pleased with my progress and was only going to schedule me for one more appointment. What what what! We are not jumping to any conclusions, but it seems that I can try running again soon and keep up with all my PT moves at home. Honestly, I'm a bit nervous to try to run again considering walking fast causes pain. I will give it at least until my next appointment next week.

Until then, I'm wearing snazzy kinesio tape on my knee to help my patella track correctly, and hoping for the best.

My spiffy accessory.

Week in review April 9-15: Happy Marathon Monday! (even if I can’t run)

Bike, PT, despair.

WOWEE, what a finish! Yay, Desi! She is local-ish and trains not far from me, but I’m not worthy to tie her running shoes. Ha! Luckily, my boss is also a runner, so I was able to sneak in 10 or so minutes of marathon watching during the day to see the victory.

Anyway. I don’t have a whole lot to report this week because I didn’t do a whole lot. It was a lot of the same ol’, same ol’: I had to work one night, my knee hurt, and the weekend was busy. Combine all that and you get a perfect storm of not doing a lot of training.

I have been frustrated, but lately I am getting more and more frustrated with the continued pain and inability to do much. I need to have a serious talk with my therapist soon about whether my expectations are too ambitious or if we need to try a different tactic.

Last week I did:

Rehab/PT: Three times, one therapy session and two homework sessions, for about 2 hours total. Not enough. Blech.

Bike: One super easy trainer ride of 8 fake miles in almost an hour. Boring and depressing because my knee still hurt the next day even with very light resistance.

Total: Four sessions in three hours.

This week I’m going to try to shake it up a bit with shorter bike sessions and maybe some weights afterward, instead of longer bike sessions (which hurt my knee anyway) every other day. It’s cold and miserable outside anyway, so what else am I going to do? Ugh! I just want to get back to a semblance of normal. Warm weather wouldn’t hurt, either.

Knee update, five months in

PT, ice, repeat

Both my and my physical therapist’s schedule were weird this week so I went for my weekly appointment on Tuesday. I explained to her that it has been a bit more painful off and on lately, that it hurt more after a not-out-of-the-ordinary trainer ride on Saturday, and that the pain seems to have moved from the front of the joint to back inside the joint. We have been laying off most of my quad exercises at home, so that could explain why my patellar inflammation has calmed down. But why did the pain move to inside the joint?

She suspected my IT band and possibly my hamstring is tight to the point of putting pressure on the knee, so she stretched my legs in all these weird stretches. She even had me lie on my stomach and stretched out my quad by bending my knee until my foot touched my butt, which is the deepest my knee has been bent since November without locking up. Not going to lie, I was nervous, but I came out on the other side unscathed and my knee felt good enough to do all my PT moves with only a bit of discomfort here and there.

So my homework for at least the next week is to continue with my quad-free PT homework and add in foam rolling of my IT bands, especially the left side. I’m not surprised that it’s causing problems, as my orthopedist remarked on how tight my hamstrings and IT bands were when I first saw him in November. He initially thought my extreme knee pain and locking was probably just an inflamed IT band, which ticked me off because I thought he wasn’t taking me seriously. He probably wasn’t WRONG, it just turned out I had a chondral fissure as well.

Long story short: Five months later I am doing a bit better but still not back to normal. I'm not sure yet what my next steps are. It could be more PT, it could be going back to the orthopedist, it could be chicken cartilage. Who knows?

Week in review April 2-8: Knee pain and general blah-ness

Meh.

It was another blah week last week. My schedule was screwed up because of Easter; I did all my grocery shopping and food prep Monday. My knee was bothering me and I was just DONE with everything by Friday so I ate chips and drank wine instead of working out. By Sunday I was in a decent amount of pain again.

On the plus side, I did get in more than 5 hours of training only doing activity three days of the week: Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I'm on a quad-free PT homework schedule for a while (quad exercises seem to irritate my patella) but I didn't do nearly enough overall. Biking at a low resistance seemed to be OK, until it suddenly started bothering me again.

Standing on my feet doing food prep irritates my knee. Walking hurts sometimes. I think it's time to have a hard talk with my therapist tomorrow and see if this is really worth my time and enormous amount of money I'm shelling out every week (thanks, insurance barely covering anything). I'm not crazy about chicken cartilage injections and I REALLY don't want surgery for an arthroscopic debridement. Maybe I'm just being impatient. I know I will be heartbroken if I'm told I can't run again.

By the numbers, it was:

Bike: Twice, both on the trainer, for 27 fake trainer miles in about 2.5 hours. This was all low resistance, which in theory shouldn't brother my knee, but on Sunday it was in a decent amount of pain.

PT/rehab: Three times, one in-person clinic visit and two homework sessions, for about 2 hours. Not nearly enough.

Weights: One body/heavy weight session of upper and abs for about 30 minutes. This was the bright spot of my training week, as I did a couple extra standing pull-ups and chin-ups and a couple extra shoulder presses.

Total: Six sessions for a bit longer than 5 hours.

My schedule is weird this week so I'm going to physical therapy tomorrow instead of later in the week. We'll see what my therapist has to say, but I'm not banking on good news.

March in review: Not bad for only training half the month

Considering I was on vacation for most of the first half of March, it actually wasn’t that bad of a month, training-wise. I spent almost exactly the same amount of (officially logged) time at PT and on the trainer, with a couple of other oddball workouts in there for good measure.

March training minutes.

Overall, I spent 9:30:13 on the trainer, which works out to 100.25 fake trainer miles in 8 sessions. I did that without even really keeping track. I’m kind of annoyed with myself because one more ride would have made it 112 miles, Ironman distance, but I still broke 100 so I can’t be too sad. It’s almost the same mileage as last month in fewer sessions, but this month I did two longer Saturday sessions and rounded up to the next even mile, which accounts for the difference.

I track PT and rehab more loosely, since there is a decent amount of time gathering equipment and resting between sets in there, but I logged 9:30 for the month of March for that, too. That works out to 3 PT sessions and 9 homework sessions. Real talk: I don’t know if it is doing me any good. It’s been three months and my knee still hurts. How long does it take to strengthen your glutes?

I also lifted weights twice in March and swam, or tried to, once. Overall, it was 23 sessions in about 20.5 hours, which I can’t be too upset about. I definitely would NOT trade my Costa Rican vacation for more training time. =)

Let's also take a look at my loose goals for 2018 over March:

Work through my health issues and re-start a training schedule that gets me back to racing. Still in progress. I’m not as optimistic as I was last month. I don't know what else to do except keep plugging away.

Run some cool places, maybe another marathon. Still in progress. Maybe I will just volunteer this year.

Work on whole-body health, incorporating things like yoga and pre-hab. Still in progress. I stretch during PT, but have to kick myself into gear when it comes to yoga.

Keep a healthy work-life-training-family-friends-other balance. Well, I went on vacation, like a REAL vacation, not staying in a family member’s guest room. Work was work. There wasn’t much “other.” I had a lot of weekend nights in. Oh, well.

Have fun. Yeah, there was some of that. After Costa Rica things were pretty low-key with food prep, errands, training, and not much other stuff. I did try a couple new recipes and made a corned beef for St. Patrick's Day. We had a fun parade in our neighborhood. And we had a heck of a time watching college basketball – Go Blue.

I'm really not sure what's April's going to bring, but it will probably include more easy biking, more physical therapy, more upper body weights, maybe a swim, and maybe some yoga. And, hopefully, some warmer weather so I can get outside. I am so freaking sick of this snow.

Week in review March 26-April 1: Most training hours in a LONG time

Lots of rehab and lots of riding.

I knew I'd had a pretty good week — I had done at least SOMETHING every day and did PT or my PT homework every day except Tuesday.

Still, I was pleasantly surprised to see almost 8.5 hours when I added everything up. Which isn't a lot, but the last time I did more than 8 hours was mid September!!! Wow!

I did a bit of everything last week and between that and the consistency, it paid off at the end. It worked out to be:

PT/rehab: 6 times, 1 therapy session at the clinic and 5 homework sessions, for about 3:45. (If I take out all the waiting around and resting time, this is my best guess.)

Bike: 3 times, all on the trainer, for 39 trainer miles in about 3:41. If I had added up my mileage ahead of time I would have done one more mile. Oh well.

Weights: 1 heavy/body session of upper body and abs for about 30 minutes.

Swim: One swim cut short when I started having breathing problems after 1000 pull buoy meters in about 27 minutes. I'm honestly not sure how to proceed here — probably stick to very easy swims for the time being until I can rule out a problem from the chlorine.

Overall: 11 sessions in about 8:24. I mean, it's not great, but it's more than I have been doing, so hooray!

This coming week probably won't be as great because I've already done nothing this evening except eat cupcakes and do the food prep I couldn't do yesterday since everything was closed. And, I don't have Friday off again, sadly. But I have the weekend wide open so far, so that's something.

Have a great week!

Another frustrating swim

I was actually looking forward to swimming last Tuesday. I got the pool with plenty of time, found a decent parking spot, and even had a lane to myself. Jackpot!

I planned to try to do a 400-300-200-100 and back up again, all with a pull buoy of course. And I was actually doing well! Not fast, but less slow than what I have been doing, and the speed was challenging.

And then, at the very end of the first 100, I started getting that panicky feeling and couldn't catch a full breath. I rested a bit and tried again but that was a no go. I pretended to stretch out a cramp, got out of the pool, and headed home early.

I thought that I was done with this panic when I went on a different thyroid medication and started to get my anxiety under control. I've even swam a bunch of times successfully since then! I've been tested before for asthma, so I don't think it's that, but there was a sign up saying the chlorine levels were high. Is there some kind of threshold where I breathe just hard enough and the chlorine is just high enough that it bothers me?

I mean, I'm not fast to begin with, so having breathing problems when I actually try to push myself is pretty depressing. I think if I do make to the pool again any time soon it'll be easy does it until I can get to a doctor and make sure there's nothing physically wrong with me.

Ugh!

Boo not being able to swim.