Sometimes I Act Like A Nut, Sometimes I Don't

Now it is official. No matter what I tried I couldn't do IM St. George, athlete check-in is closed and I am in Albuquerque. Just Sunday morning I was looking forward to the race but that afternoon I went for a run and it wasn't in the cards. I started having knee pain at mile 2.99 and had to walk home barely averaging a 25 minute mile pace. Then and there I decided that there was no way I was going to do St. George regardless of whether or not I thought I could just eek out a finish.

Since I fell while running down a steep, rocky trail two weeks ago I have been trying to nurse my knee and it has gotten better in some ways but I am really not able to run well down hills without pain. I went to see my family doc yesterday and he said there seemed to be a little more movement in my injured knee than in my non-injured knee. He said it is possible that I have that I have a tear somewhere in there. He also said it could be a torn meniscus or nothing at all; it will take and MRI to see exactly what is going on. I have an appointment for the MRI tomorrow morning and then we'll see what is wrong. I am hopeful that it will not be a season ending injury.

In the mean time since I am not training I am pouring all that extra time and energy into my garden and it is really starting to come together. However, the last owners neglected it something fierce so there is plenty more work to do before it looks as good as I'd like.

St. George Draws Nigh

Over the past year I have gone from feeling kind of burnt out on triathlon to simply not caring one way or the other about the sport. I know, blasphemer! Well, what can I say, in the past 4 years I've done about 100 multisport events, the overwhelming majority of which have been triathlons and seven of those have been Ironman distance races. In life I am more of a dabbler than an obsessive type. True, when I lock onto something I tend to take it about as far as it goes mostly because I like to see where things lead. I guess you could say I like to have the full experience.

Anyway, St. George will be my eighth Ironman and despite the fact that it is coming up May 1st I am still sort of waiting for that old sense of motivation to arrive. Well, actually at this point I am more waiting to see how I do on my “training” because I think it will be a hoot to report on.

I have not swum 2.4 miles since Ironman Arizona 2008 and I have not ridden a bike 112 miles since Ironman Arizona 2008. However, I have gotten a few good long runs ranging in distance from 50K to 100 miles since then so there is that.

Thus far during the 2010 calender year I have logged a grand total of 4,555.65 meters of swimming and 237.68 miles on the bike. Whoo-hoo! That is less swimming than I would normally do in one week of Ironman training and less biking than I would do in maybe a week and a quarter of Ironman training. On the other hand, I have logged 629.82 miles of running, which pretty much puts me on track for my Leadville goal.

I am looking forward to being around the Ironman scene, I am looking forward to meeting fellow bloggers and hanging out with my Outlaw peeps, I am looking forward to seeing St. George Utah...I just don't care all that much about the race. Don't get me wrong, I want to finish. The GeekGrl and I briefly had a conversation about bagging the race altogether but I said hell no, I am committed to doing that race and really I am...I am just not committed to having a good race. I am actually more interested in being the class clown of Ironman St. George squeaking by with a finish all the while playing grab-ass while everyone else has been training.

Oh well, it is a goal of sorts.

I will probably also stipp be sporting a recent knee injury. Oh yes, I was running like a mad man down the side of a mountain out behind my house and when I looked back to see if my peeps were still within sight I slid on some loose gravely soil and 1) landed hard on one knee on the rocks, 2) heard a sickening squelching-crunching sound 3) fell forward with my head pointing in the downhill direction with my arms still at my side and 4) ended up wedged between two boulders unable to move.

Fortunately I had someone not too far behind me who was able to extract me otherwise I suppose I would have had to remain wedged between those boulders until I became emaciated enough to slide out with the assistance of gravity. I don't think I have done any permanent damage but then again I haven't consulted my sports medicine guy yet. However, I haven't stopped running either so that must mean something positive, right? I know, I know, I plan to get it checked out in a more professional manner than me just running around while loaded up on Advil and Tylenol.

My number for St. George will be 1645. Look me up, see what happens...I may just surprise you.