Getting Back into the Swing of Things: Early in the Morning

What time does your alarm go off in the morning? I bet no matter the time, it always seems too early. Starting in January, I have been setting my alarm for 4:45AM twice a week and 5AM twice a week. Sometimes when my alarm goes off, I am so startled, I am not sure what is going on. But it does not take long for me to remember what day it is and why I am getting up. I just remind myself that I am training for Ironman and that getting up at 4:45 is somewhat mandatory. With a full time job and 14 hours a week of working out, one is forced to become a morning person which is something I never was until relatively recently. I blame this transformation from night owl to early morning exerciser on Mark England. He is the one who got me into my first road race back in 2006 which eventually grew from 10Ks to Ironman.

On Mondays and Wednesday, I get up super early to swim. I am in the pool by 5:30. On Mondays I do a coached swim that lasts 1 hour and is always a good, fun workout with teammates. Our coach is extremely knowledgeable about all things swimming as well as enthusiastic, funny, and creative. We do all kinds of drills to improve our swim stroke and swim fitness. People groan when she says "100 breathe away" or "50 nubby arm kicking" or the dreaded "breath away (dramatic pause) with fists." But although people grown, I am pretty sure they secretly really like these difficult drills. Why would they keep coming back if they did not like it? After all, it is hardly free. I think most of the "guppies" as we are called enjoy being challenged and know that the drills will make us all stronger swimmers. We put in the work because we know it will make us stronger. And many of my teammates are hardly guppies by the way.

My Wednesday swim is a very regimented workout that my coach gives to me. I print out my marching orders and bring it with me to the pool so I can keep on track. These workouts are usually longer than the Monday workouts and I have to stay on task in order to get the entire workout in before work. After swimming 1.5 miles or more in the pool, I always feel fantastic albeit starving. By the time I get to work, I am calm and ready to face the challenges of the day.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I am doing Craig's cycling class at Richmond Cycling Corporation's Richmond Bicycle Studio. I really love the class. It is quite challenging although anyone can to it because it is up to the individual to gauge one's perceived exertion.  You get out of it what you put into it. I feel like this class catapults my bike fitness skyward like a rocket ship. There is no way I could do these workouts on my own. I have tried to duplicate the workouts at home on my own and even though I am trying to go hard, it just seems that doing this workout in a group setting under the watchful eyes of Craig gives me the best possible workout. Plus the whole time I know I am also supporting RCC and the outreach they do. It is a win win situation. I feel good about the workout and I feel good about helping out the non-profit with my enrollment fee.

In addition to my early morning workouts detailed above, I have also been doing Physical Therapy every day. I do about 1 hour or more a day at home plus once or twice a week I go into the Physical Therapy office and do 2 hours which includes more exercises as well as ultrasound, body work by the PT, and I get to run on the Alter G treadmill treadmill. The Alter-G allows me to run at a certain percentage of my body weight. I started out at 75 percent and have worked my way up to 90 percent of my body weight. This gradual return to running helps ease my body back into it. So far, I have been very pleased with my PT at Advanced Orthopedics in the West End. I have been coming along nicely and today my PT said she wanted me to start running outside again under full body weight. I can't wait to get started although I will have to start out slow.

On the weekends, I have been doing PT, a third swim, and another bike ride. Sometimes I ride the trainer, sometimes I ride outside depending on the weather. Unfortunately, this weekend I will not be riding as I broke the shifter off my bike and it is in the shop getting repaired. In addition to all of the PT, swimming, biking, and running, I have also started back on my core work. Melissa has motivated me to do the P90X Ab Ripper with her. It is a killer workout and I expect to see results if I keep it up.

So is that enough? Not quite. I plan to add in a yoga class once a week to help me stay limber and to help strengthen my hips, glutes, thighs, etc. I seem to stay healthier when I follow a weekly yoga regimen and I just don't seem to be able to work it into the schedule without attending a structured class.

Finally, I wanted to mention that I have added two more races onto my calendar. I have decided to race the Monument Ave 10K, mostly because my work picked up the tab. Also I wanted to race again on my birthday so this year I will be doing the Kinetic Sprint Triathlon on May 12th at Lake Anna. This year my birthday falls on Mothers day (I was born on Mothers Day) so I thought it would be fun to have the whole family down to watch the race and then go out for a celebratory lunch. If there are any other triathletes out there who want to race with me, I would enjoy the company.

So that about wraps it up for now. January has been busy and February will likely fly by. Then there will just be one more month before race season starts for me. Comments welcomed and appreciated.

Self Inflicted Injury

It has been roughly two months since I completed the Beach to Battleship full iron distance triathlon. As you may recall, I struggled through the run with some pretty intense knee pain. Since the race I have been dealing with the repercussions of my knee issue.

A week after the race, I went on an easy bike ride with Melissa. We did about 30 miles. I was fine up until about mile 20 when my knee started bothering me again. I had to take it real easy for the rest of the ride and I did my best to draft off Melissa. I did too much too soon after the race. I spent the next several days icing and taking it easy.

After a few days of healing, I started doing some physical therapy (PT) exercises that I had learned from past injuries. Unfortunately, I was not seeing much progress. I ended up getting an evaluation from a PT friend who pretty much agreed with my diagnosis of IT Band syndrome and told me some good exercises to do.

I continued to do those exercises and started seeing mild improvement. Heading into Thanksgiving, I decided I would see how it felt on Thanksgiving day. For Thanksgiving, we have some traditions that include running a hilly 5K up in the Philadelphia area. On the morning of Thanksgiving, I suited up for the race and did some warmup laps on the track to see how the knee would behave. It was not great but it was not too bad either. I decided I would start the race and if my knee started to become a problem, I would bail out.

Of course, once the race gun went off, I took off with the rest of the pack and never looked back. I ended up running a 21:15 which was not too shabby for me on this course. I did pay the price later though. Not only did I have to ice my knees for the rest of the day but since I ran in my minimalist shoes that I don't usually run in, I put the hurtin on my calves. In fact the next day, I was hobbling around like an old man. I had pretty much wrecked my calves. The knee felt better after a day of icing but my calf pain remained for an entire week.

I probably should not have run the 5K. When I got back home, I decided I better take it easy and really focus on my PT exercises. I also went to see Sara at Hands-On Wellness MT.  I decided I should go to my doctor to get an examination and perhaps a prescription for PT. I was able to get an appointment right away and, as usual, when I got to my appointment I was seen right away and did not have to wait long at all. The doctor examined my knee thoroughly and agreed that I was most likely suffering from typical IT Band Syndrome. He said there could be some meniscus damage but wanted me to do PT for three weeks and see how things went.

When I went to my first PT appointment, the therapist became the third PT to tell me that my IT Band was the worst they have ever seen. I could play "Ballad of Jed Clampett" on that thing.  Ellen got me going with some heat and then an ultrasound. Then I did some stretches that they prescribed followed by some strength exercises. I am highly motivated once I have some direction and a concrete plan and was glad to have some structure.

I have done one full week of structured PT  and I am seeing big improvements. My IT band is not as tight and does not hurt constantly. Not only did I have knee pain associated with the rubbing of the IT band, but my IT band itself ached all the time, especially when sitting. That pain has dissipated. I still have some issues below my knee cap that may or may not respond to the PT. I will continue to do my exercises as religiously as possible. I have continued to swim but I am not running or biking. I figure that I have to be ready to start training again by the end of January at the latest. I would rather get started sooner than that but I will have to see how things go. Wish me luck.

Advanced Orthopedics

On Friday, December 11th, 2009 I went in to Advanced Orthopedics for my arthroscopic knee surgery on both knees. I was not allowed to eat anything after midnight the night before. But since I had an early appointment, I would not have to worry about a grumbling stomach too long. My appointment was for 10:00 AM. We arrived early, got all signed in and settled into the waiting room. I have to admit I was a little nervous. I tried my best to relax but things were running late that morning and I had to wait for about an hour and a half before they finally called my name. I spent the time on my work Blackberry, sending emails about an ongoing issue we were having. My boss emailed me and told me to turn it off and chill out. But I think it was nice to have something else to worry about.

Finally they called me back. They walked me down to one of the beds where I changed into a nice warm robe and got under a nice warm blanket. At Advanced Orthopedics, they really treat you well. They had a warmer that kept all the robes and blankets nice and warm. After I was all set, the nurse came back and started prepping me for surgery. I had to answer a lot of the same questions about when was the last time I ate, what medications was I on, etc. I had to sign some consent forms and I also had to sign me knees with a little felt tip pen. I also had the pleasure of having my legs shaved from a few inches below the knee to a few inches above. As a man who never had the pleasure, it was sort of fascinating to see my leg hair being shaved off. Not terribly exciting for women or the hardcore swimmers and bikers, but to me it was neat.

Next the anesthesiologist came in and asked me some questions and made me sign some consent forms. Then the surgeon came in to chat me up real quick and also sign both knees. The nurse who was working to prep me for surgery was really great. When she put the IV in, she did a great job. It did not really hurt but it was uncomfortable. She could tell it was bothering me a bit and asked if I wanted a warm blanket for my arm. I agreed and she wrapped the blanket around my arm. The nice warm blanket was soothing and helped me relax. Next, they went and got Melissa who came in to see me before they took me back to the surgery room. Melissa snapped a few pictures with her cell phone.

Then it was time. They wheeled me back to the surgery area and honestly, that is the last thing I remember before waking up in recovery. After I came to, the nurse called Melissa back into the recovery area and went over all my discharge instructions. Melissa then helped me get dressed and I was wheeled out to the car. We had some pillows for the back seat where I laid down for the ride home. They had given me some crutches that I would be using to move from the car to the couch and later from the couch to bathroom. I did not really have much pain. Typically the doctors will shoot the knee full of pain killers during this kind of procedure.

Melissa helped me into our house and to the couch. We have a reclining couch that was perfect for keeping my legs up. I was supposed to keep them above my hips. So we propped up my legs on some pillows, covered me up with a bunch of blankets and my hat and put all the things I would need next to me. I had the tv remote, my computer, my blackberry, some magazines, and a headlamp so I could see during the night. I was all set to stay camped out on the couch for the next several days.

And that is exactly what I did. I basically was on the couch Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I would get up and use the crutches to go to the bathroom when needed. When my ice needed changing, I would use my arms to lift myself up the stairs to the freezer and get new ice. Once I hauled myself up to the top of the stairs, I would do my leg lifts that I was told to do. I was managing to do the legs lifts at least once a day.

For the first day or two I pretty much ate a box of crackers and drank ginger ale and water. I was taking pain killers which allowed me to fade in and out but also made me less than hungry. While sitting in my cocoon I watched lots of soccer hammered out some of my new blog - this very blog. I had a very strange sloshing around in my knees that was a little freaky. I tried to not slosh as much as possible just because it sounded so weird.

On Tuesday, Melissa came home and insisted that I get up and get out of the house. Before getting into the details, I want to mention that these events happened in December of 2009 which was not long ago. I have been waiting to write about this next part of the story since it happened. But I wanted to stick to the timeline as much as possible. So much of what I have written in my last couple of posts have been setting this next part up. And you guessed it, that will have to wait until the next posting.