Non Scientific Newtons test

As you may or may not know, I've been running in Newton's for about 5 years now. I've tried almost every yer to get out of them but can never find a shoe that made my legs feel as well as after long runs over 14 miles as the Newtons did. Since I've been running on the AlterG treadmill in PT I've had to monitor my pain threshold. If I reach a certain point of body weight, the pain breaks that threshold and I have to decrease my body weight. Currently I am running at 67% of my body weight. Ironically, that's not in Newtons, it's in Brooks Pureflow.

My PT and his assistant both run for the Hanson Brooks team. They are old school and very talented runners. Well they made fun of me and called me a trigeek for the Newtons. While I defended my shoes, I also wanted to test something out since now I have this pain threshold from the MFX surgery. So Monday after to PT I went to the local Hanson's Running shop and picked up a pair of the Brooks Pureflow. I had been wanton to try the Pure line for sometime. I a forefoot runner, not to be confused with a snob minimalist runner. I believe in shoes and in technology. I tried on the Cadence and the Flow. The Cadence had a little posting that ran on thee dial side of the show and more towards the back and the forefoot was very flat feeling. The Pureflow had no posting in the back but the lateral side of the Forefoot seems a little beefed up. This is good for me because if you look at the wear pattern of my shoes that's where I wear them down the most. Almost like I am running on my pinky toe. So I went with the Flows.

Last night was the first night I got a chance to try them out. They felt great on the treadmill. I was even able to go 2% higher than the last time I ran in Newtons. Now some of that might just be me getting stronger but it still was only 2 days apart so it can be that much. Overall I am very pleased with the shoes and glad to not be made fun of. Keep in mind this is only 4 miles on a treadmill do there are a lot of factors that differ outside but I still found it interesting.

Now the Newtons have also always been faster than normal shoes too. That test will have to wait a few months to complete but for now I am running happy in the Flows.

4 week Surgery Update

So here we are, 4 weeks from my Microfracture knee surgery.  Things are moving along quite well.   Much better than anyone anticipated.  I was trying to not get my hopes up, but having had 3 knee surgeries prior, I knew my body would heel faster than most.  This will take longer than usual but I think I'll beat expectations.  When I had my ACL done in 2005, I shocked my PT at how fast the swelling was gone and how strong my leg was the first week after surgery.  I can remember people walking in to PT after me that had surgery 6-8 weeks prior for the same thing and still could barely walk and their knee was swelled up like a balloon.  I follow a pretty rigorous protocol even though you may not expect that. I've learned a lot about how to reduce swelling and get my ROM back.  After the MFX I started scouring the internet for as much information as I could.  I already had a great doctor and knew who I was hiring to be my PT.  The big bonus with my PT, was that he had just gone through the same surgery 2 years ago and came back to run the Olympic Marathon trials in Houston.  I also talked with other athletes, like Marc Rubin and discussed the recovery process.  Anytime I am about to attempt something knew, I scour for information and try to assemble the best team of support I can find.  This is no different.


At this point I am finally off crutches!  On Friday my PT said just use them through the weekend.  I seem to be walking just fine and my knee is always feeling better.  If you follow me on Twitter or we're friends on Facebook then you probably saw this video.  That's me RUNNING on an Alter-G treadmill.  This was the first time I actually ran.  It felt amazing.  Friday I ran again.  This time at 6mph and 55% of my body weight.  Just need to lose that other 45% and I can run now!  I am very pleased with my progress and so is my OS and PT.  My PT gave me a very doom and gloom speech at our first visit.  He says now he is slowly retracting that statement and that I am making a great recovery.  The doc on the other hand felt more confident and told me I'd be running by June. That's looking pretty possible at this point. My focus is still endurance mountain biking this summer.  I need a break from Triathlon and Ironman especially.  The long boring training hours were really starting to get to me and for a while I was sort of seeing this an out.  But honestly, at this point, I do miss it.  I've been watching people gear up for their IM's this year and I am really wishing I could do one.  I still don't like the training, especially the long slow runs, but there is nothing like racing an Ironman.  I don't think I'll make the starting line for Louisville but who knows, I am also signed up for Rev3 Cedar Point because I transferred it from last year (are you listening Ironman?) due to my knee bothering me.  That probably won't happen either but things have been going well so who knows.  If I do get to do triathlons this year, I am looking at the Xterra race series.  There's an Xterra in Indian that I put on my schedule for July 21st.  That is looking very possible and I am pretty much planning on that one.  That will get me qualified to race in Ogden, UT which would be great.

Powerbar Team Elite

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you might have already heard. I am going to be on the Powerbar Team Elite for 2012 and 2013. I am very excited about this opportunity. 2012 is turning out to be a great year despite the injury. The future is looking up and keeping a positive focus is going to make this year even better! Stay tuned.

Revised 2012 Race Schedule and other stuff

My original plan for 2012 was to seriously go after the Xterra series and get to Maui for the World Championships.  Due to the surgery, I won't be ready to compete on June 5th at the East regional championships for a qualifying spot.  I also won't be able to compete at the 2 local races at the end of May or middle of June either.  That said, I may be ready to compete at a race in Indian at the end of July.  The run portion is only 4 miles.  If I do well there I can get to Ogden, UT for the US Championships.  If do well there, I can qualify for Maui, but I don't think I would take the slot simply because I would be spending close to 700 dollars to fly my bike to 2 places and that is just ridiculous.  So I'm hoping to get to Ogden at least, and target Maui for 2013.

For 2012 I am really focusing on mountain bike racing.  I may throw in some road time trials or crits but my focus is turning to more offroad racing.  Don't get me wrong, I love endurance racing so many of my races are going to be long distance mountain bike races.  I have 2 6 hour races and 2 100 mile races scheduled, as well as a marathon which is about 60 miles.  In an Ironman I can get through the bike split in under 5 hours (as long as I don't have mechanical and it's Lake Placid :) ).  On a mountain bike it's going to be a bit different.  I'll be shooting for closer to 7.5-8 hours for the 100 mile race.  That's going to be grueling and I am looking forward to it.  I like the idea of the long distance biking but honestly, long distance running doesn't excite me.  I don't have the drive to do it anymore.  It was cool to do before because it was such a wow factor, but now I don't feel like I have anything to prove and I risk additional injuries and maybe even a 5th knee surgery which I am getting pretty sick of doing.  My last was just at the end of 2007.  Is this really worth it?  So I think Ironman and I are pretty much through.  I still love triathlon and despite what's said on Slowtwitch, you can be a triathlete without doing Ironman and that's my intention.   But this year is focused on recovery and long endurance mountain bike races.  I would love to race the Leadville 100 some day.  I've watched the video Race Across the Sky and think the whole experience looks really cool.

Here is my 2012 race schedule.  Some of the races could change based on where I am in my recovery.  The Xterra in July may very well end up being the first time I get to run again but we'll see.

Race Schedule 2012
March 24th - Barry Roubaix Gravel Road Race
April 22nd - Yankee Springs Mountain bike TT
May 6th – Fort Custer Augusta Michigan – Mountain bike race
May 12th - 6 hours of Stoney Creek
May 26th – Hanson Hills 100
June 16th – Lumberjack100
July 7th – Stony Creek MTB marathon
July 21 - Xterra Versailles Indiana (Hopefully I can run by then)
August 5th - Ruby Campground XC
August 19th – Island Lake Olympic
September 9th – Addison oaks Mtb
September 22nd - Xterra National Championships Ogden, UT
October 6th - 6 hours of Addison Oaks
November - Iceman ???

First Follow Up After Surgery (Jellybeans?)

Today I had my first follow up with my doctor, Dr Prince. My progress is coming along quite well. We spoke more about what he had found in the knee since last time we spoke I was coming out of anesthesia. The loose bodies he found floating in my knee were roughly the size of a jellybean and I had multiples of them floating around. These pieces were particles from destroyed ACL and articular cartilage. No wonder my knee was hurting in multiple places, I had about 5 or 6 of these jellybeans floating around. Crazy to think I did a full Ironman with that crap floating in there. The worst part is that's not even what kept me from doing most of the run.

As for the progress, he said that is being more cautious on the front side thinking the back end of the recovery process will be shorter. His recovery process is not usually to have patients non weight bearing for a full 4 weeks but he is treating me different due to my athletic endeavors. He feels I recover very quickly and that my muscles have barely atrophied and by having me NWB for another couple weeks will help ensure a quicker recovery. So I'm not ruling out those Xterra's this year. No Louisville though, that's for sure. So now if I am getting dressed or putting shoes on I don't have to sit down to do it. I can stand on the leg fine and walk short distances with just leaning on one crutch but if I'm going longer distances walking I need both for at least another week.

As for training, I'm green lighted to go hard in the pool just nothing but freestyle. On the bike I can ride all I want just keep the power in recovery zone for now and next weekend I can start to bump it up. Then in 2 weeks or so I free to do anything I want. For running, he's leaving that up to my PT Clint. Clint is already planning on me running in the AlterG in a few weeks and we'll just go from there and see how it goes.

Physical Therapy day one - Setting Expectations

Today was my first day with my physical therapist Clint.  He like my doctor was very impressed with the amount of strength in my quad.  He feels that its about 80% although he never saw it before the surgery so it's hard to tell.  He hooked me up to an electro stimulator and had me fire my quads when I felt the electro.  I was able to do it so hard that I pushed fluid to a suture and almost popped my leg open and sprayed blood and puss all over his wall.  It was actually sort of comical.  He told me about a friend that actually had that happen to him at his house.  Sprayed all over his living room.  Also, I have been riding on the trainer and he said for now this is good, just keep it really easy but in 2 weeks or so I should be back pushing pretty good.  This is good because the news as far as running is not good. 

The legions on my cartilage were about 3-4x the size of the one's he had.  We compared pictured and there is a noticeable difference.  His was about the size of a dime, mine the size of a matchbox.  At this point I will be able to run again.  Probably not really big mileage but I will be able to run again.  The big question is when.  His words to me were "I would just write off running for all of 2012".  Not exactly what I wanted to hear.  The problem is not that I will have pain but more like I will do damage and the benefits I would get from this procedure would be minimized.  He said that I could prove him wrong and that maybe doing some Xterra races or races with shorter runs would be fine but not to expect to train well or much at all for them.  So at this point I am not going to worry about much until June and see where I'm at.  He has an Alter-G treadmill at his office and he said he'll have me running on that in 6 weeks but probably at about 60% of my body weight.  Also, losing some pounds would help too.  But I only weigh 168 now and most of that is in my quads.  I don't want to lose the strength in my quads so I'm caught in a catch 22. 

Cycling and swimming will be large factors to my recovery and how well I recover from this.  So pretty much any mountain bike race that has 100 miles, 6 or 12 hours in the title I am going to be signing up for it.  I may even get out the road bike and do some crit races who knows.  Maybe this is God's way of telling me I really need to work on my bike split.  I guess a 4:42 IM bike split isn't good enough.

Don't worry, I'm not gonig to be doing a blog post after every PT session, but we covered so much today and set expections so I wanted to get them out there.  I'll keep everyone up to date on the key things.

Surgery Update

As most of you know I was having work done on my right knee after injuring it last June. Today was the surgery and what I was hoping to be just a normal cleanup, has turned into much more. Basically the ACL that I had done in 2005 is torn. It's completely gone. Thank you to the donor of the Achilles tendon that served as an ACL for all this time unfortunately I ruined it. I also had some loose bodies floating around and some bone rubbing issues.

So in addition to the clean up, I also underwent micro fracture surgery of the lateral femoral condyle.  Basically my cartilage was very damaged and the lesions had to be removed.   Once removed, the doctor then drills smalls holes in the thigh bone.  The blood and bone then harden to become a cartilage like substance.  Luckily, mine was lateral (outside) and my recovery chances are higher that if I had medial.  Medial is weight bearing and is much more delicate.  Lateral is delicate to a point but the chances are greater for success. 

As for the ACL loss, the doc told me that my legs are incredibly strong. Usually they do manipulation movements in the office to check for your ACL and verify how strong it is. In my case I didn't show any issues with my ACL being there when he was doing these manipulation movements in the office. Generally once they have you under anesthetic they can manipulate your leg more. In my case even under anesthetic my leg still seemed very solid. This is good and may delay an ACL recon for a few years. At this point I am being starte on PT and were going to take it from there. He's not ruling out being able to do Ironman but likes the idea of off road and less running miles.

So I guess it's a good thing I bought that mountain bike and want to do Xterra races this year.

I'll keep everyone updates on the progress and see everyone out there soon!