Well a few days after my last post about my knee pain I went skiing with my wife and after a long day on the hill and feeling confident in my skiing abilities I attempted the big hill.  Key word here is attempted!!!!!

After navigating the top part of the hill with out a problem I started down a large section when I realized I was hitting nothing but ice and the old wedge technique was pretty much useless. 

So before I careened off into the trees I tried to cut to one side and lay down, not realizing how steep of a grade I was on at the time.  This was easily realized mid air when I was catapulted down the hill head first, performing a perfect face plant into the ice and snow and continued tumbling with skis flying, and noises coming out of me as I hit the ice each time that sounded like someone was beating the stuffing out of a moose! 

When I came to a stop I pushed myself up only to find the snow around my head turning red from the lacerations on my face, and the stark realization that I was seriously injured. 

Well, since the end of February I have had quite the ordeal.  Two surgeries, physical therapy, which I am still doing, and several injuries that have put a damper on the quest for Iron.

My right knee and ankle were sprained, with some possible tearing of things.  But the kicker was a severely broken collar bone, which required two surgeries, one because my clavicle pin worked its way loose and actually punctured my skin. 

So needless to say the last few months have been a joy!  I have gained about 10 lbs, because all I did was sit around and eat and feel sorry for myself.  But what I have come to realize is how lucky I was and that my injuries could have been much worse.

So I am still not cleared to run, or swim yet, but I am improving each day and with any luck I can start training again soon.

Well I had recovered from all of my winter injuries and we had some warm weather so I decided to go for a run. I did some intervals and did OK with them and was very happy to be working out again.
Until I woke up the next morning and my knee was killing me again! This has become very frustrating. Here I am trying to get back into a sport that requires a great deal of endurance and I can’t even make it through a basic training run.
I know I can’t train like I am 18 anymore but I’d settle for 38. It’s going to be a long road ahead and I will have to adjust my training to cycling and swimming and maybe after I have reduced some weight the pain in my knees will subside.

Did you ever wonder if Eeyore had it right?  Well I have been wondering lately.  That doom and gloom character from Winnie the Pooh, has me nailed lately. 

Let’s see where do I start?  I have been completely slammed with work, the holidays, and kid’s activities I have written very little in the last few months.  All of which has kept me out o f the pool which has very limited times I can get in anyway. 

My body has just been a complete mess lately.  My knee has finally been feeling better so when my family wanted to go skiing over the holidays I was a bit reluctant.  But once we got up there I was bored watching everyone else ski so I decided to go at least one day.  Well I made it off the mountain with my knees in great shape, but my ribs didn’t fare so well.  Yep, cracked ribs!  So there goes my swimming for about six weeks.

So my ribs are feeling a bit better after a few weeks of very restless sleep do to the pain when I lay down at night, and a few days ago I get this horrible fever and sore throat.  This will be day three so I am off to the doctor this morning. 

I tell you sometimes it feels like I am cursed when it comes to my body.  But I know that is the wrong attitude. 

“I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself.  A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.” (D.H. Lawrence)

Sometimes I wonder if the bird was frozen to the bough, so he couldn’t come in from the cold! 

I think I’ll stay out of the cold and off the skis this year. 

I have not worked out since before Thanksgiving. I’m tired! My diet is still sort of on track but it has been tough with the holidays. Still focused but need to get off the stick and train.

Photo by Ninjapoodles, Flickr.com

 

 

Well I have been nursing a bad knee for a few months now and have turned my training runs into training walks.  I have done pretty good with my diet, not great but I am shooting for long term results and trying to get to gung ho to fast like I have done in the past and put the weight back on, but today I got some inspiring news.  I had to go to the doctor today and I have lost 20 lbs, slowly but surely it’s working. 

 

Changing my lifestyle is the main goal and with some very small but effective I have been sticking to it.  I will be celebrating one year with out drinking a soft drink, I started using Stevia (a sugar substitute) in tea and coffee, and about three months ago I read Morgan Spurlock’s, “Don’t Eat this Book” and I have sworn off fast food.  I always knew it was horrible for you but that was the push I needed to refocus towards “slow food”.

 

So, even though my training has been a bit interrupted, my eye is till on the prize, and that is what it will take to eventually realize my goal…….IRON.

What was that, a twinge of pain in your knee?  Thoughts of delayed training or long term injury race through your mind.  You have worked so hard to have an injury sideline you and your training now!  Injury is almost inevitable for endurance athletes.  How you deal with it will greatly affect your training goals, your attitude, and your ultimate success in the sport.

 

The mental aspect of an injury can be a huge hurtle.  While most elite athletes deal with minor injuries daily, for weekend warriors and people trying to regain their old form this can be devastating.  The most important thing to remember is that whatever set back you face it is temporary!  Look at the long term.  Look at it as an adjustment or redirection in your training.  If you injured your knee then do some extra weight training workouts.  Spend more time in the pool this week until your knee soreness goes away.  Find an alternative but keep training and stay positive.

 

A good way to help you stay positive and avoid injury is to set realistic goals.  If your training runs when you were 18 were five miles or even ten miles, but you haven’t run in 20 years you will not be able to get off the couch and run five miles your first week of training.  As much as us balding middle agers don’t like to hear it, we must follow an age appropriate, and fitness level appropriate regiment.

 

What do I mean when I say age appropriate?  Well just like your hair loss you loose cartilage in your joints which can lead to osteoarthritis a degeneration of the cartilage between your joints, once thought to be an effect of just getting old, new research shows that there may be risk factors beyond just age and whatever the cause this can lead to extremely painful training. 

 

Only you, and a doctor, can judge your fitness level, so be realistic.  All the work you are about to set out to do will be for not if you spend the next three months back on the couch because you tried to do too much too fast.

 

Know when to “say this is not normal training pain” and seek out help from a doctor.  Preventing further injury can sometimes be the difference between a week off and a month off. 

 

For more information on joint conditions see http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/arthritis/a/arthritis.htm

In the United States the average American consumes 61 pounds of sugar a year, according to a report in U.S. News and World Report.  That’s over one pound per week.  One level teaspoon equals 15 calories, and there are 108 teaspoons in one pound of table sugar.  So, you are eating 1,620 calories per week of just sugar.  Doesn’t sound like much?  If you weight 175 pounds you burn approximately 110 calories per mile while running, which means you would have to run almost 15 miles to burn off that 1,620 calories!

 

Do you want to run an extra 15 miles this week?  OK, maybe if you are on this site you are a Tri junky and you wouldn’t mind, but that is a lot of extra, useless calories you don’t need to worry about.  So, you know where I am going with this don’t you?  Stop eating the sugar, it’s not worth it. 

 

So, what if you are still hooked on your morning coffee as I am, and can’t stand the taste without some kind of sweetener?  No it’s not the chemical laden, lab created options that are out there.  It’s a simple product called “stevia”.  This is a natural plant derivative that has been used for years in Japan, and that originated in South America.  It is safe for diabetics, (LINK) it has about 10 calories per pound, so it is almost zero calories in the small amounts used, since its 10 times more potent than sugar, however, it is the one product that scares the hell out of the sweetener industry! 

 

The FDA has claimed there are no long term studies to prove Stevia is safe for you, even though its use dates back to 1899 when Dr. Moises Santiago, Director of the College of Agriculture in Asunsion, Paraguay was the first to extract the sweetener from its plant form, and its history can be traced back to the Guarani Indians who inhabited what is now Paraguay.  By the 1800’s Stevia was widely used in Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay as a sweetener.  Currently it is the most used non-sugar sweeter used in Japan and it is widely used through out Asia.  But in 1995 the FDA in the US would only allow Stevia to be market as a dietary supplement, and will not allow it to be labeled as a food “additive”.

 

So, where can you find it?  Most health food stores and vitamin stores have it. But I have found it at several of my local grocery stores.  It comes in packets, spoon able or even liquid forms.  What can you do with it?  My first use was to replace the two or three spoons of sugar I heaped into my coffee each morning.  But beware, I use about a quarter teaspoon in a cup of coffee.  But Stevia can be used for baking, and cooking just as sugar.

 

Want to run an extra 15 miles this week or do you want to try something new?  I leave it up to you.

 

Check out this video on sugar substitutes from nutritionaustin.com

 

 

Jessica Merz

Training Log 07.07.08:  I had a good weekend, resting, I know what you are thinking but I needed it. Plus I really stuck to my diet well.  Well, except for that bowl of ice cream.  But it was a treat! 

 

I have a vegan lunch today at cool all veg resturant and actually ate very healthy the whole weekend, except for that bowl of ice cream! 

 

But I am still on track.  My typical problem is that I rush into training and end up with an injury that puts me out of commission for a few months, and I have a very hard time getting back into it.  

So take it slow.  A little change is much better than no change at all. 

box of inspiration, Jason Rogers

 

Have you ever taken five minutes to wonder what you could accomplish if you set you mind to it?  Have you ever wanted more out of life?  Our more out of your career?  Our just simply reflected on what you dreamed of doing with you life when you were 20?  What happened? 

Yes I know the story all too well.  You are married right out of college.  Have kids by the time you are 25 and are in a career that, well, it pays the bills.  Before you know it you have put on a few extra pounds after polishing off those fries your daughter left in her Happy Meal.  Our not going for that run because you had to watch the baby. 

 

It’s a vicious cycle we live in sometimes but its one we can control.  We can get up an hour early and go for a run in the morning.  We can stop wolfing down a 1,500 calorie fast food meal at lunch and go for a walk instead.  Next time you go to the mall you can park way the hell out in the overflow parking, or park on the opposite end of the mall from the store you want to go to so you have to walk the whole mall.  Eat a vegetable for god sakes!  (And fries don’t count!)

 

Choices drive what each of us does daily.  So before you start thinking about how many miles you need to run today, get your mind right.  Sick back and think big.  Don’t say I want loose 20 pounds is why I am dusting off the running shoes.  Think BIG!  I have heard so many times “don’t set your goals to high, otherwise you will get frustrated and quit” I say bull!  I say set the highest goals you can possible set. 

 

Say your goal is to run a 5K.  The average couch potato should be able to run a 5K after about two months of the appropriate training.  So you stay on track for two months you do your run, you collect your free t-shirt and you feel like a runner but what the do you do now?  What’s you motivation to keep it up? 

 

So go ahead set the sites on doing a half marathon or even a marathon as a long term goal.  So when people ask you what you do for a hobby tell them “I am training for a marathon” not “I am a runner”.  It’s a form of verbal affirmation.  The more you say it the more you will believe it.

 

Find your goal.  Focus on it. Make a plan on how to get there, and every time you train think about it.   It will motivate you past the pain and past the refrigerator and as you get in better shape those grand goals will seem a little bit more within your grasp.

 

photo credit: Box of Inspiration, Jason Rogers

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Join me as I run, bike, swim, and workout towards my first IRONMAN® Triathlon.  I will share what works for me and what doesn’t in regards to training, nutrition, running, swimming, cycling, gear, motivation, and balancing training with work and family.  Please visit my “About” page to read a little more about me and why I want to TRI 4 IRON.