I found my limits.

It has been a difficult week.

You know that saying about only finding your limits by pushing past them? Well, I think I found mine.

It actually started with the end of last week. Sunday, I rode longer than I should have (jumped from 47 miles the previous week to 62 miles last week), and with more intensity at times. If I had done anything else stupid that day, it would've been the Dumb Ass Trifecta. (I'm sure there was something else, I'm just too tired to remember it.) That combo culminated in the worst knee pain yet. This, after the prior week being completely pain-free, really threw me for a loop.

Monday was a rest day. Had it not been, I would've taken the day off from workouts to let the knee rest. I was in a lot of pain, and I started to lose my confidence that I'll be able to complete the training (and thus, the race). All the "what-if" questions filled my head: What if I can't work out this week? What if it gets worse when I try to run or ride again? What if Dr Awesome can't fix this? What if it hurts that badly during the race?

Okay, for that last question, my answer is "HTFU." I don't want to cause injury to my body during training, but when the big day is here, I suppose I will suffer through anything to finish that race, unless it's a life-threatening problem.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'm only in Week 9, and I have a long way to go. Half of me is scared I may not even make it to the start line.

Tuesday, my knee began to feel somewhat better, but I began feeling sensations in the soles of my feet, particularly the left one. Sometimes it felt tight, sometimes I felt pins-and-needles, and the most disconcerting of all: sometimes it felt cold. My brilliant, supportive husband suggested that maybe my feet were just... cold. I gave that some consideration, then decided I had a compressed nerve, plantar fasciitis and some sort of weird foot affliction nobody has even heard of yet.

I may have freaked out a little. Yeah, a little. Okay, a lot. I would compare it to Taper Madness in intensity of fear. UGH!

I wasn't sure which of my workouts this week, IF ANY, I would be able to do. So, what do I do when faced with uncertainty? I make a plan. I would try swimming. If it hurt my knee to kick in the pool, I would swim with the pull buoy (a hard styrofoam floaty device you put between your legs to make your lower half float while you swim with just your arms). I'm pleased to report that I had NO pain swimming, so swim workouts were off the chopping block.

Next: Biking. I had an hour-long trainer ride planned for Tuesday evening. I told myself I'd start easy and just see how I felt. I'd increase speed/resistance very slowly, and at the first hint of pain, I would stop and stretch. If it still hurt when I started again, I would quit the workout. One trainer ride does not mean much in the grand scheme of things; I'm not going to risk injury for one ride.

Luckily, the bike ride went much better than I had anticipated. I had no pain, just some slight discomfort. I was aware of my knee, but it didn't hurt. I was able to complete the workout.

Finally: Running. Wednesday is my weekly long run. Despite not having any knee pain at all during the day, I was not optimistic that I'd be able to complete the run pain-free. I had 10.6 miles scheduled, and with bad weather blowing in, I did it on the treadmill. Again, I told myself that if I had any pain, I would stop. I STILL cannot believe that I had NOT ONE IOTA of pain or discomfort in that knee. Sure, other things ached, as you would expect on a two-hour slow run on a treadmill, but otherwise, I felt great. I stopped often to do my Dr Awesome stretches. Sometimes it's frustrating to have to take the time to stretch that often; it makes an hour and forty-five minute run last over two hours. But I'd rather take that time to stretch than be injured and not get to run at all.

Thursday's trainer ride was pain-free, discomfort-free, and downright unremarkable. I started to relax and believe the crazy was over. But then - DUHN DUHN DUHNNNNNN..... I had my Dr Awesome appointment Friday morning.

He worked on the usual gang of suspects (knee/ITB/adductors/hip flexors). Then he spent some time on my feet. Guess what? I got some MORE stretches to do! Yee-haaaw! He agrees that we are ahead of any "injury" right now, but I need to stay on top of it before it turns into plantar fasciitis.

So, that's where I am right now: physically on the edge, and mentally (sometimes) over the edge. I oscillate between relaxed/confident and scared shitless/crazy. I've made a slight amendment to my mantra:

I will stick to the plan but adjust when necessary.
I will do the work.
I will be patient.
The results will come.

One-Third Done and a Looooong Way to Go

I am officially one-third of the way through Ironman training. That's a little scary. These eight weeks have gone by pretty quickly. I feel I've made progress and am in better shape than I was when I started (despite the extra pounds I'm carrying around; they only make me stronger, right?). Most of the time, I am confident that my training will prepare me and I will survive complete enjoy successfully endure Ironman Texas. I no longer feel the need to vomit when I read an article about the race. Progress!

Today I rode 62 miles - it may have been my first metric century (I'm not sure but I think my previous longest was 60). I had planned to ride 50 or so, but I took extra fuel and water because you just never know. Yay for good decisions!

We ended up with a group of 19 people. That was the biggest group I've ever ridden with. We split up after a while, and I was able to stay with the lead group for the most part. I had a solid ride with a good dose of suffering. First, I ovulated. Right around mile 33 or so. On a scale of 1 to 10, that was pain of about a 6 for about half an hour. Nothing I haven't dealt with before, just not usually on a ride (and usually it lasts much longer, so I got off easy). But, it's just pain. Gotta deal with it. HTFU, Jen.

Then, right in the middle of that, I went to take a drink from my aero bottle, and pulled the straw into two pieces. It's easy enough to fix if you're stationary, but I tried to do it while riding, which brought me to Drop #1 of the day. It SUCKED. Some friends came and tried to pull me up to the group, but I didn't have it in me at that point to even keep up with them. I cannot stress enough how much that SUCKED.

Shortly after that, we stopped at a park for some food and bathrooms. I was back with the group, but then the next suffering opportunity presented itself: My damn knee/IT band. It has been doing SO WELL lately, then WHAM! it came back with a vengeance. The last hour of the ride was my most painful yet. I seriously considered stopping on the side of the road and calling JC to come pick me up. On top of that, I experienced Drop #2. MOTHERFUNKER!!!!!! (Read that closely.... I was good...)

So, it wasn't a perfect ride. But that's a good thing. It makes you tougher. And there were a lot of positives about today's ride:

• I took in a good number of calories. And by "a good number," I don't mean "a lot;" I mean "enough calories to sustain me without upsetting my stomach." (about 193/hour)
• My bike rode GREAT. The cleaning I gave her last weekend really made her happy.
• My paces are picking up.
• My saddle was pretty comfy today.
• After a talk with the person who is my mentor but doesn't know it yet, I'm pretty sure my heartrate zones for the bike are wrong.
• I got to pee in a bush.
• I did't get a headache afterward, thanks to good fueling and good hydration.
• I didn't quit.

I did enjoy getting to know some new folks today. There was a guy named Vince whom I've never met. He's short, squat, and older. I'm told he's one of the overlords of cycling in South Carolina. When I introducted myself, all he said was, "Vince." Then when we met up with the other half of our group and made introductions, we all gave our first and last names. Except him. "Vince." He wasn't rude or curt, he was just a man of few words.

While we were riding, Vince just cruised along with the pack. That is, until we came to a hill. The pack would slow down, but Vince would just sail up the hill like it was nothing. Every time. I rode behind him for a while and noticed his beautiful calf muscles. So I pulled up along side him and said, "Vince, you may not say a whole lot, but you have the best calves I have ever seen." Wouldn't you know, that got him talking. He turned out to be a very nice, quite interesting guy who loves riding up mountains. That explains it!

I've decided it's time to start working on this extra weight. First, I will stop gaining fat. Once I do that, I believe the increase in training hours and added muscle will help reduce the extra fat I'm carrying. Every pound lost is a pound I won't have to drag around on the bike or the run. I want to weigh 6 pounds less when the Ironman comes around - that's about a third of a pound each week. Surely I can do that.

Dr Awesome

I had an appointment with Dr Awesome this week (not his real name) to begin working on my knees. (To review, the right one never quite recovered from a fall I took while running in Augusta last August, and the left one has been a pissy little bitch off and on since the Augusta Half Ironman.) Dr Awesome does great A.R.T.

Dr Awesome watched me run so he could check my gait and immediately saw that my left knee was being pulled inward. This would account for the pain on the outside of my knee. (In retrospect, it makes perfect sense - I now remember my knees rubbing together when I ran last week.) He worked on that leg, un-gummed the right knee, and gave me a refresher on the stretches I need to do daily and during my runs. I left his office feeling very optimistic.

So optimistic, in fact, that I plunked down $200 for the 24-week David Glover training plan. The deed is done: I will officially begin training for Ironman Texas on December 2nd.

Let us pause to rejoice that The Plan Decision has been made.

Fast forward to that evening, when I hopped on the trainer for an easy 30 minute spin. I had more pain in my left knee than I've ever had during a ride. I was scared. Did I just waste my money on a training plan that I won't be able to do because my knee is screwed up for life?

Luckily, I have a level-headed husband and good friends who have experience with injury and recovery. They talked me down. They reminded me that my over-use injury didn't occur in one day, and it wouldn't be fixed in one day. That's why we go for a series of treatments, not just one-and-done.

The next day, I noticed a very strange feeling in my knees: upon rising from or sitting down in a chair, my knees didn't hurt. I hadn't even realized they were hurting so much until they weren't hurting any more. It's funny the things you get used to and accept as normal.

Today I ran about four and half miles and had no knee pain at all. My legs felt nice and loose. I stopped every 10 minutes during my run to stretch, as prescribed by Dr Awesome. Tomorrow I'll hop on the bike and see what happens.

And no matter what, I won't freak out.*

*I reserve the right to freak out.

Hey Lois: I did it.

I did it. I survived my annual two-week break. And I didn't slap anybody, have a nervous breakdown, or complain about it (much).

Every November, I take 10 to 14 days off from training. No running at all. This time, no biking either. I do it to let my body and mind rest and recover from the previous 11 months of training, and to prepare for the next training session.

After the Augusta Half Ironman, I had planned to take it easy for 10 days (done), kill it at the Ray Tanner Home Run 12k (done), then do a couple of long runs in preparation for the Governor's Cup Half Marathon on November 3rd. But after an 11 mile progression run, my knees, which had been talking to me for a month or two, started talking loudly and more often. I made the difficult decision to skip the half marathon and begin my November break early.

So, today was my first day back. I rode the trainer before work for 30 easy minutes. I knew my body would feel a bit rusty, but I wasn't expecting the left knee pain to come back so quickly and decisively. I am glad that I had already made an appointment with the best ART practitioner in the world for later this week. I plan to knock this crap out. I will also get re-fit on my bike to make sure my position isn't causing stress to the knee.

I've planned a very light week of easy workouts  - short run here, easy spin there - to start getting my body back into a routine and used to sweating again.

For those of you following along at home, NO I have NOT yet selected my training plan for Ironman Texas. I have, however, narrowed it down from 2 plans to 6 plans.

Yup.