What a Pain in the... Knee

This is my eighth season of triathlon. I've had to miss training for extended periods of time on only three occasions. On Fathers Day, 2004, I stepped on something in the water during the swim for the Baltimore Aquathlon. It's the only race I've ever DNFed. I think you can see why.

OUCH! Bottom of my left foot.

That injury caused me to miss 30 days of training in preparation for the Disney Triathlon 2004. That race is a story in and of itself.

Then, in 2008, while preparing for Ironman Florida, I suffered a detached retina in my right eye and a torn retina in my left eye. I again missed a ton of training time and that whole experience is documented here.

At home after surgery.

On July 4, 2010, I was hit by a motorist while cycling on River Road. I was about 3 months out from the Half Full Triathlon and I think it took a good three plus weeks before I could get back out on the bike again. Running took a little longer.

I hit the pavement pretty hard. But, it could have been a lot worse.

So, I've never had a typical, endurance sport, type-of-injury that has caused me to miss significant training time. I've been relatively fortunate with avoiding leg, knee, ankle or foot problems. Until December 21... when I was walking down the steps of my house and sensed discomfort in the patella of my left knee. I even commented on it at the time. On December 23, I had a 10 mile run on the training schedule and didn't get 2 minutes into the run before realizing that the discomfort was really pain. I have not run since. I continued to cycle and do rowing workouts... but the pain seemed to increase day by day. Last weekend, it hurt going up and down steps and also getting up and down out of a chair. So, for the past week, I've done nothing. Except eat.

Honestly, part of that is wallowing in "feeling sorry" for myself. I turned 45 on December 10. Many of you know that I'm going through a divorce. I have my daughter full time and she is 13 years old. It's been very challenging to be thrust into the role of the primary caregiver to a young woman.

But, I think I've bottomed out on this "woe is me" feeling. Time to take action. I went to the doctor on Friday. She sent me for X-rays and they'll likely find nothing and suggest an MRI. Because of the way health insurance works, I had to go through that process. I need to find out what is going on. But, I also have to get into a different spot mentally. There is a ton of time before IMLP and I'm *not* a broken down old man who has no one to take care of him. Tomorrow... I'll get in the pool and get back on my pre-marathon diet.

A big part of my involvement in endurance sports is how it makes me feel. I really enjoy the workouts, the journey... the friendships. Right now, I'm not getting that. And it sucks. I only make it worse by pretending that knee pain will just go away (as mysteriously as it came), or even worse... start feeling negative.

If you came to this blog to read a bunch of feel good rah rah stuff, you're in the wrong place.