On recovering from knee surgery...

I know I posted a while ago that I would have an update on how my knee was doing post surgery and what was going on in my little piece of the world. So, for anyone who cares, here ya go.

Rule #1...DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT crash on your bicycle. That will totally mess up your ability to get back in the swing of things and swimbikerun like you want. (more on this at the end)

Rule #2...listen to your doctor, if s/he says wait to run, then wait to run (this I listened to, it wasn't easy, but I listened even when my doctor didn't think I would. He was afraid he would be divining up the street and see me running 3 days post-op, nope, I was a good little patient.
I walked out of surgery, well they wheeled me out in a wheel chair because protocol, but I could walk up the stairs when I got home and didn't even really need any of my pain meds, but I waited the 6.5 weeks post op to even think about "jogging" again. I did however, get up to an 8 mile walk and was pulling in the pool as soon as my incisions were healed!
Walking is no joke, if you ever can't run, try walking, you'l still get a great workout in and you don't have to worry about not being able to run. I wouldn't say I was power walking per-say, but I was walking at a pretty good pace. Aqua jogging is also a great recovery option! When I did get the all clear to start "running" again is was 20 minutes of run easy 1 minute, walk 2 minutes and I slowly and carefully progressed up from there.

Rule #3...do the PT...religiously, EVERY DAY. And make your friends join in, it'll make it much more fun. I was helping coach the Honolulu Marathon clinic at BOCA and once a week we were doing core/strength exercises before the group went out on their runs...what an opportunity for me to do my PT and for the group to get in some great strength/stability exercises. I think a few people found muscles they didn't know they had!

Rule #4...do what you can. This I struggled with, I have found something I truly love in triathlon and to be derailed from doing what I enjoy was and is difficult. I know that having surgery was the right thing and 12 weeks, in the grand scheme of things is not long at all. I started swimming more when I could and was able to go on a few hikes. I know at times, I was pretty grumpy from lack of wanted activity and I'm sure not the most fun person to be around...sorry! But being derailed for a short period of time is a great opportunity to work on strength, core, find something new to add into your routine. As I'm writing it, I realize I'm not very good at this rule and it's something I need to continue to work on.

Rule #5...it's not the end of the world, you will heal, you will get better. Embrace this downtime and see Rule #4.

ok....now back to Rule #1...DO NOT CRASH YOUR BICYCLE...so I crashed my bicycle...3.5 weeks ago. Just as I got the all clear to start swimbikerun again, I crashed. I guess it was the universe saying I wasn't ready to train again. I thought I was, but apparently not. 

I'm fine, I'm alive, nothing is broken, my bike is not damaged, but I'm back to square 1 in this recovery game. It was no one's fault but my own, the roads here are crap, I probably wasn't as attentive as I should have been, a car was very close to me, I went one way, then over-corrected and went down (my fault). I landed HARD on my hip. In good news, didn't hurt my surgery knee at all! I saw my doctor, PT and chiro, I had an x-ray and nothing is broken. Haven't had an MRI, not sure it's necessary, but not totally ruled out just yet. I'm a lot better than I was 3 weeks ago, but I'm still in some pain and can't run AGAIN. I can pull in the pool as long as I tie my feet together and don't push off the wall with my left leg, I started riding easy, but that might be put back on hold after this weekend. So recovery once again. 

It's the holidays and the end of the year so as much as I hate not being able to do what I love, it will get better, I just need to give things appropriate time to heal, what is the appropriate amount of time, you ask, that's the hard part, I wish someone could just tell me, give it X-amount of days, weeks and you'll be good to go, but that's not the case, the body does what the body needs to do to heal itself so only time will tell. Once again, I've likely become not the most fun person to be around, lack of activity does that to me...my bad, sorry again to everyone that has dealt with all my mood swings and irritability. 

Note to self: See Rule #4 and Rule #5. 

Happy Holidays everyone!!

PS. Side note...the ROKA women's Pro Race jersey and short can stand up to a crash! Score for them!