Back After A Not So Brief Break.

So I'm back into training hard for the first time in a while. 

It took about a month of getting acclimated to the work schedule and getting my workouts in around my 10 hour work day, but I finally figured it out and am making it work.

To keep it brief, I'm swimming 5 times a week, 3,000 - 4,000 yards a session, cycling on my trainer, long rides on the weekends and at the gym when I can (they have have a race simulator... it's awesome,) and yesterday I ran for the first time since early December.  My knee felt great but like with my ankle injury, I'm a bit hesitant and my calf started hurting towards the end.

It made me realize that my fitness level dropped a lot in the time i took off... and it's tough not being able to do what i used to.  It's like starting over.  I HATE starting over.

Anyways... now that I'm back in the swing of things, i'll be updating more often!

The Good News Is...

... the MRI results came back negative showing i don't have a torn meniscus.  Although this is a relief in some respects, i kind of wish it would have come back positive so that at least we would have been able to tell what the hell is causing this pain!

Now... for the bad news.

Monday during my swim workout i tweaked my back somehow, and as a result, not only is my back very sore, but i also have a pinched nerve which is causing an immense pain from my right lower back all throughout my quad and down to just above my knee.  The only thing i can really liken it to is a sunburn.  That kind of ache / pain to the touch.  Went to the hospital this morning to get an xray on my lower back to make sure nothing is fractured or seriously out of place.  Hopefully i can get into the chiropractor tomorrow and she will straighten everything out and that will relieve the pain in my back AND right leg.

Now the REALLY bad news.

I have a left and right inguinal hernia... which is not only painful, but more likely than not requires surgery to fix.  Essentially for those who don't know, its when the layer of muscle gets torn or separates and the fatty tissue / digestive tract organs come through the gap.  Tomorrow, in addition to hopefully seeing the chiropractor, i have an appointment with the surgeon to weigh my options.  

If i do have the procedure, it is a quick 45 minute thing, walk out the same day after they fix the tear, and i can return to "normal" daily activities almost immediately.  Unfortunately, the definition of "normal" for me includes cycling, swimming, lifting, and running (when my body will let me.)  This is NOT the definition for a doctor.  Essentially, i'll be out of serious training commission for up to 6 weeks... which in the grand scheme of things isn't too bad since i was planning on taking off from running until the mid - end of march anyways.

So this is the biggest setback thus far.  I could deal with not being able to run for a bit, but to not be able to train AT ALL... it's going to be nothing short of torture.  If i can't work out for a couple days as it is, i go into a funk and feel like garbage.  I can't even imagine what this is going to be like.

Ah, Life.

When there are interesting things going on and my training ramps up I promise that my posts will come more often... but until then, once in a while will have to suffice.

So I'm still relatively laid up from the Philadelphia Marathon, although my knee feels exponentially better than it did prior to the cortisone shot.  This could be from taking nearly two months off from running... but I like to attribute it to the drugs.  Mmmm, drugs.

I went to my orthopedic surgeon on Tuesday to get my knee checked out again.  It just aches and my "calf pull" hasn't gotten better.  After 2 months, usually tissue and muscular damage begins to heal, so he has an inkling that its something more serious.  His guess at the moment is that I have a torn or partially torn meniscus, but pending an MRI (which will hopefully be done tomorrow) lets not jump to any conclusions.

However, if that is the case, I would have to go in for out patient surgery.  3 small incisions, get the knee scoped and cleaned out, crutches for 3-4 days, then PT for up to 6 weeks.  Seeing as I was planning on taking it easy and not running until March again anyways... this is absolutely perfect as far as timing is concerned.

So other than that, I've started taking spinning classes which I have yet to get the hang of.  The workouts we do and the duration is too easy for me.  I'm not sure that I appropriately put the right "weight" on the wheel seeing as I'm not that knackered after an hour... whereas the majority of the group is on the verge of passing out.  On off days (or when all the bikes are taken up at the gym, as they were on Monday) I cycle here at home with a movie in front of me.  Not too bad of a deal.

Masters swimming continues to be the highlight of my training at the moment.  Every day I look forward to hanging out with the team for that hour or two.  It's always a great work out, but to actually have people to train with means a lot more to me.  Which leads me into my next bit of news...

I'm going to be sad to leave them next weekend.  I finally move down to Pittsburgh where I got a job as an assistant buyer and American Eagle Corporate.  The job starts February 9th, but I can move into my flat on the 1st.  Good thing is, the masters program down there is top notch, they have great coaches, the Pitt cycling team go on rides on nearly a daily basis when the weather breaks, and there's never a shortage of people who run.  Not to mention, if I get injured (which unfortunately more likely than not,) UPMC has great facilities that can help me out.

On top of it all, I committed to a few new races:

1.  February 15, 2009 - Canandaigua Masters Swim Meet

- not unlike the past meets.  swimming the 50 free, 100 free, 50 breast, and most likely the 200 free and medley relays.

2.  July 11, 2009 - USMS 2 Mile Open Water National Championship

- here in Canandaigua Lake, I figured I've cycled 100 miles at a clip, I've run marathons, now it's time to swim 2 miles non-stop to get ready for Ironman (which is 2 weeks after.)

3.  July 18, 2009 - Mini Musselman Triathlon

- in Geneva, New York, this event and the half Iron that takes place the following day draws a huge amateur and professional crowd.  i decided that i would go in and not push myself too much and use it as a tune up for the Ironman which is the following weekend.

4.  September 12, 2009 - 100k Dances with Dirt in Hell Relay

- in Hell, Michigan, it's a relay with 3-4 other people.  i'm not sure the numbers yet, but it should be the most interesting race i will have participated in.  no roads.  through rivers, up hills... crazy.

5.  September 20, 2009 - Finger Lakes Triathlon

- love this race.  this year i'm in it to win my age group if not overall.

So thats all for now.  We'll see what materializes from the MRI.

Milestone.

Finally went over 1,000 miles cycling.

Trainer and Race Results.

Hopped on the trainer for a while again tonight while watching the 1992 Ironman World Championships.  I gotta say... my knee is feeling a lot better after being loosened up by cycling.

Now don't worry, I'm still going to stick to the "no running until March" plan just to make sure I don't do any serious damage... but this is a turn for the better, finally!

Also, I finally updated my results page with my Philadelphia Marathon time and my times for the past two swim meets.

On the first day of Christmas...

... my doctor gave to me, some Cortisone in my right knee.

Well, I hope everyone had a merry Christmas!!

This year I was fortunate enough to not only get a new wetsuit from my family, but also a great new CycleOps Trek bike trainer which is pretty great considering the weather is crap and I can use it anytime during the day while watching movies!  Brilliant!

So since the Philadelphia marathon i've been battling serious knee problems.  It finally got to the point where i scheduled an appointment with the Rochester Rhinos knee surgeon.  Went in last Wednesday and temporarily settled for getting my right knee shot up with a lidocaine / cortisone shot.  

I'll tell you what... at first when the lidocaine was working, my knee felt like gold.  But after that wore off, the pain was incredible for the next two days.  Only now, about a week later, my knee is starting to really feel better, although i'm still icing and taking my anti inflammatories.  I've also resigned myself to the fact that i won't be doing any serious run training until probably March.  A questo punto, its probably the only way to make sure this problem won't continue for months and months and make racing Ironman impossible.  Not to mention ruin any chance i have at being successful this next season.

More likely than not, I will probably not do any more marathons previous to the Ironman due to the fact I'm apparently at risk for physically falling apart.  If i couldn't finish or even compete in Ironman, there would be no words as to the devastation i'd be feeling.

So here i am, cycling on my trainer and swimming.  The team i swim with here in Canandaigua did some stroke evaluation video taping on Tuesday which we reviewed afterwards, and I'm happy to say that i've improved a lot since the start... in every respect.  There's a "community meet" on Monday that we're going to swim in just to get some times, so it should be interesting.

Due to the fact that i'm RARELY cycling outside right now, and because i'm far to lazy to switch my computer from the front wheel to the back of my bike, I will be calculating different things when I ride my trainer now.  

1.  Mainly i'll be keeping track of the minutes / hours I've been on it.

2.  I have a heart rate monitor that i'll use to make sure i'm in my ideal workout zones.

3.  I took a look at all my old logs, and found that my average speed for a ride was usually around 18-19 mph depending on the route.  So for the sake of getting "mileage" out of my trainer rides, I decided that i'd assign 17 mph as my average distance per hour of riding.  I realize this might be a little low, but i'd rather claim a lower training distance over time than say i've been riding further than what is actually true.

17 miles / 60 minutes = .283 miles per minute

I guess thats all for now really.  Now that i'm not a complete cripple i will hopefully have more interesting things to update from here on out... although, like i said, running will have to wait until March rolls around.

Philadelphia Marathon!

Ok ok ... so the race was what, almost 4 weeks ago?  Yes, i've been slacking when it comes to updating... so here we go.  I'll give the update in this and the subsequent post or two!

So we made the half hour trek to the starting area before the sun even came up over Philadelphia.  To say it was cold would be an understatement.  At race start the temperature was around 25 degrees which means it was substantially colder an hour + previous to that.

Finally made it to the staging area with the tens of thousands of others, i checked my bag into one of the many school buses lined up in front of the "rocky steps" and immediately went to stand in line at one of the port-a-potties.  Standing in line, at least 50 runners deep, i anxiously looked at my watch, counting the seconds until i'd have to say "screw it" and run to the start corral.   Fortunately, at about 7:00 am i was able to hop in and do my business (mind you, start time was scheduled for 7:02.)

Ran to the corral, hurdled 2 barriers, squeezed through a fence and finally found the group i needed to be with: the 3:20 pacers.

The race started off around 7:10 and the pace seems VERY pedestrian.  Painfully so.  

For the first ten miles, the race went without incident.  It was very easy, actually, considering i hadn't run the 4 weeks leading up to the race due to a stress fracture and tendon damage in my right foot.  

Between mile 10 and 11 is when i essentially fell off the physical health cliff.

First my right foot started flaring up.  Initially it was a small ache which grew into shooting pain from the tendon and 5th metatarsal point.  If that were all, i may have been fine for the remaining 16 miles, but unfortunately, my luck isn't THAT good.

At the halfway mark i saw Eric and Adam, tossed my hat, and let them in on the fact that the remainder of the race would be a struggle due to pain.

About mile 14 is when my little friend, who i lovingly named "marathon buddy," came to join me. 

This blister made me completely forget about the pain coming from the rest of my foot.  With every step... shooting pain.

As if that wasn't bad enough, an old soccer injury flared up and my right knee became the source of almost crippling pain at about mile 16.  It turns out i had somehow irritated my IT Band and the combination of the injuries nearly caused my right leg to crumble beneath me on more than a few occasions.

I gladly let the 3:20 pacer group drop me around the halfway mark just because i knew if i kept that pace my injuries may force me to not finish at all.  I wasn't winded, cramped, or anything like that.  I was purely worried that my foot would fail me... of course, i wasn't experiencing the other ailments at the time. 

At the 20 mile marker i checked my watch and realized that i had to keep a 10 minute mile pace to keep my overall time under 4 hours.  That became my new goal.  Even after not having run for years i could run 6.2 miles in well under an hour... but this would be a challenge.

I walked hills and aide stations, and hobbled the rest of the way.

When all was said and done, i finished the race 3:58:30.

Now... some race highlights!!

-  I must have heard the Rocky theme AT LEAST a dozen times throughout the race.  It was great!

-  The aide stations were organized far better than those at Baltimore (however, it was so cold that i nearly fell a few times because of ice that had formed from spilled water.)

-  The runners were very supportive when they saw i was in obvious pain.  Many actually stopped to see if i needed help for my knee.  This probably would have ever happened in Baltimore.

-  Nearly EVERY street was lined with people.  From downtown to Manayunk and back... it was great to have all the support.

-  I learned from my past mistakes at Baltimore and fueled my body far better.  I didn't cramp, i upped my sodium intake and carb / calorie intake (thank you Hammer Nutrition.)   I wore a fuel belt where i had 4 hammer gels mixed with water, 4 endurolite tablets for my sodium intake, and then a healthy mix of water and gatorade helped a lot.

If i hadn't been injured and if i had actually been able to train for the race, i think that i would have easily qualified for Boston on this course.  It was very flat, fast, and easy...  maybe next year...

I ended up driving back to New York later that day, and for the next few days felt like absolute garbage.  I didn't get a chance to take an ice bath so that was a big factor in my post race soreness.

To this day, my knee is still hurting, so until further notice, only swimming and lifting for this guy.