Hi folks, Leah here. It’s been a while. In April, it was because I was doing things like:
However, lately, it’s been because I have been laid up like this:
(…and I wish I still had that sort of scenery in which to relax – it’s a lot less fun being injured when you can’t sit on the lido deck reading and swimming all day…)
I’m not accustomed to injuries. Sure, occasionally I’ll need to take a few days off because something that shouldn’t hurt is hurting, but I’m pretty good at managing my body so that I don’t do anything major-bad to myself. If I’m limping, I’m usually not limping for very long.
This was a whole different story. Day 1, I figured I had broken my knee or tore cartilage or something as serious, and until I saw my doctor on Day 9, I was convinced it was probably a serious, season-ending injury. Not so. Just an angry tendon. This was great news, but still – how could something that was “not serious” hurt so badly for so long? I’m not used to not getting better quickly.
You’ll notice that I did not have a race report for Rookie – that was on two different doctors’ advice. Initially I really wanted to try and limp through it because I’ve never not started a race, but it was for the best. I would have not had a good experience and probably would have hurt myself in the process.
It’s been a bit of a challenge to focus on what I can do, and not what I can’t, but here’s how the last month has played out:
Week 1 – I was on vacation. After I hurt myself I limited activity and iced like the dickens and used ibuprofen and valerian root and stretched a lot. I did walk 3 miles one day and did snorkel for 2 hours another, which may have exacerbated things a little bit, but I’ll maintain it was worth it. You don’t get to go on vacation every day. I didn’t spend much time in the gym, but I did one weights session, some work on the handcycle (this is tough, campers – mad props to handcycle athletes!!!) and a quick jaunt on the stationary bike that I probably shouldn’t have. I was limping the whole week.
Week 2 – The doctor deemed me not seriously hurt and the chiro got to work healing me up. I did 2 sessions of ultrasound therapy to reduce swelling. I was allowed to swim (so I swam a lot) and do upper body weights. I was also prescribed contrast therapy (ice/heat/ice/heat/ice) to do at night, plus icing during the day, so I spent most of the week with an ice pack in tow. The doctor asked me to take a bunch of muscle relaxers and ibuprofen. The chiro agreed with the ibu since I was swollen but sort of rolled her eyes at the muscle relaxers (though she said the natural stuff wouldn’t hurt), so I took ibu at least once a day and valerian root about 1-2 times a day. I’m not good at pills. 😛 At no time during this week did I have full range of motion. Still limping.
Week 3 – Two more sessions of ultrasound, continued with contrast therapy. Still taking valerian about once a day, but ibu only every other day or so. I was allowed to continue swimming (so I swam a lot again), do upper body weights, and she added a trainer exercise – I was to set my bike seat up way high until I had to extend really far to pedal, and do about 15 mins of that. It felt WONDERFUL on my knee – my best mobility moments were after this. She gave me clearance to do 30 mins of it per day later in the week. She also started adjusting my leg that day and aggressively massaging it and found lots of knots both above and behind my knee. I was able to straighten my leg laying down, but not with weight on it.
Week 4 – Ditto on the ultrasound and contrast therapy. Swelling mostly gone, so I stopped medicating. I got clearance to swim HARD (so I swam a lot and did lots of speedwork), do whatever I wanted on the bike as long as I promised to keep the seat up as high as possible while still being able to operate (it’s now 1.5 inches higher than it used to be o_0) and doing a 6 mile test ride rather than a metric century to make sure all was good. I trainered about 40 miles and rode only the 6 outside because I ran out of daylight most days but all felt well. Continued with the upper body weights (and strained my lower abs, lol). Knee is now what I’d call stiff, and with some thought, I can get it fully extended with weight on it. Speaking of swimming, I swam my fastest 1500m ever this week (30 mins – and it wasn’t even all out).
Well, week 5 is this week and I am now done with ultrasound therapy, and have the clearance to finally run again (I’m a whole triathlete again, wheeeee!). I’m working up from the 1.5 miles I ran today for the first time (and believe me, that was enough – my left quad is really weak and needs small doses) to normal Leah distances this week. If all goes well, I’ll run 2 tomorrow, 2.5 on Thursday, and 3 off the bike on Saturday. I’m to heat before workouts, ice after, stretch, and do quad strengthening exercises with ankle weights. Good thing I bought them forever ago, they finally have a use!
I wish that I had a little more time in between today and our next triathlon (it’s in 12 days… and it’s an Olympic distance – 1500m swim, 25 mile bike, 6 mile run), so it will be a challenge to be ready, but I’m ready for that challenge. I banked a lot of awesome training earlier in the year, I just need to show up with a healthy knee and I’m hoping muscle memory and adrenaline will take care of the rest! Wish me luck, quad strength, and happy tendons!
(…and we owe y’all an April recap. Workin’ on it…)
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