I’ve always been prone to injury. I’ve never been very graceful. at all. Many, many people can attest to this. If there is uneven pavement, I’ll find it and trip. I’ve had a bad hip since my high school basketball days. It sort of slides out of place from time to time and it’s just as painful as it sounds. Last time it happened was after the BAA 10K. It’s quite possible and likely that it was during the 10K and I’m blocking it out.

When I’m training, I tend to overdo it. I’ve been working with my trainer Liz on a good balance of training so that I can be injury free for two big races coming up: the Escape to Miami Sprint Triathlon 9/28 and the BAA Half Marathon (gulp) on 10/12. Both races present challenges. Escape is a Sprint with a shortish swim but the bike is over a couple of steep bridges and the run is over a long bridge that almost felled close friends when they did it during Ironman 70.3 Miami. The half marathon is not at all flat. When you add the fact that my run skills are terrible and I live on a flat island, well, excuse me while I go vomit in sheer terror. But hey, F it. Life is about living, right? Or hurling myself off bridges.

Back to my training plan. Liz has put together a great plan that has really improved my swimming, has built up mileage on my bike and still has me walking. BUT I am running for longer(isn) periods of time. And we’re also training on the one little hill we have here. I’ve been seeing a chiropractor twice a week for him to do his voodoo to keep my hip in place. Everything has been going really well. Until a week ago Sunday at work. I was taking a kayak down from the rack. There was some water in it and the weight shifted and I ended up hyper extending my knee. I immediately knew it wasn’t good. I tried to run the next day (I’m not very bright) and, of course, it hurt a lot. It was also swollen. I haven’t done much but swim since then and be really impatient and bitchy. Which, come to think of it, people probably can’t tell the difference between pre and post injury personality traits.

I had a few days of complete rest from training. Work requires me to be on my feet quite a bit but I’ve definitely held back from lugging kayaks and paddle boards around. When I’m home working on the computer, I’ve been icing and elevating. I’ve done a couple of laser treatment thingees at the chiropractor that seem to help. I’ve gotten a therapeutic massage that wasn’t super fun (it was of the “this spot hurts, press as hard as you can” variety) but it was helpful. Basically, I’ve tried everything short of dancing naked under a full moon while waving burning sage around my knee. And it has all helped!!! I’m feeling pretty good. Swelling is down and I went for a walk today without any pain. I’m going to try to run tomorrow and see how it goes!!! I’ve only got about 9 weeks left til the Half. ARRRRGHHHHH!!!!

Hopefully I’m back to my full training schedule this weekend. If not, well, there is a full moon this Sunday……