Vegan Pancakes

It has been quite some time since I have sat down to write. And there is a reason. If fact, I can sum it up in one word: depression. Yes, I have been slightly depressed about an injury I sustained. Basically, I over did it which makes it even more depressing. It could have easily been avoided but I was feeling so great and not really paying attention to my training plan. In hindsight, I made a very big mistake.

On January 31st, we had a hard session on the bikes in the AM and then a particularly hard session on the track in the PM. The following day, I woke up early to do a tempo run. So I ended up doing 2 back to back hard running workouts with only about 10 hours rest in between. On my last repeat that Wednesday morning, my left knee started bothering me. Ack! What a bummer. I had been doing so well and feeling so great but now I would have to slow down and skip some workouts.

I continued cycling and swimming as my knee seemed to fare pretty well during these activities. And I started doing more stretching and strength training. In particular, I started doing some leg lifts that a previous PT had told me to do. These exercises immediately paid off and with some rest and lots of foam roller, I was able to travel to run the Virginia is for Lovers 14k with Melissa on February 11th. During the first part of the race, my knee was a little gimpy but as the race went on, the pain went away and I was pain free for most of the race. Granted, I was taking it easy during this race.

I am still gimpy and need to continue to take it easy on the running. Also, long sessions in the saddle tend to aggravate the knee a bit. At this point in my training, I don't think I will be able to beat my last years time in the upcoming Monument Avenue 10K. I am not giving up hope entirely but this race may just have to be a fun race for me. Since I am doing a triathlon two weeks later which will entail a 1500 meter lake swim, a 24 mile bike ride, and a 10K run, I am not too worried about the Monument Avenue race. However, I am still a little down about the whole knee thing.

I thought I was past it but alas, it appears I am not. Worst of all, I know what needs to be done to fix myself up and prevent future occurrences. But more stretching, more warmup, more cool down, more foam roller, more yoga - these are the less than glamorous parts of triathlon training and racing and it is hard to get excited about more injury prevention activities and less actual running. I just don't have the time to do all the necessary injury prevention exercises and put in the volume I would like to put in. That said, I can still compete. My run leg during races is just going to suffer slightly. I will have to walk more and my times will not be as good.

So there you have it. I am still here training but I am also dealing with an injury. So you might not see as many blog postings from me this month. It is just a little depressing. Of course, things could be so much worse and I want to make sure that readers understand where I am coming from. I am blessed by so many things in my life, I really can't complain too much about a gimpy knee. Yes, it brings me down but at the same time, life is good to me. I need not list all the reasons why but here are some: Melissa, Love, Family, Health, Friends, Good Job w/Good Pay, Freedom, Security and of course, Vegan Pancakes.