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I used my Groupon for the cryotherapy session at CryoNC and it was what I was expecting based on what I read on their website. The setup was inside of a Chiropractor’s office not too far away from where my PT session was right before. The technician, Garrett, met me immediately with a welcoming smile and handshake and processed me in very quickly. After completing the “if-you-die-don’t-sue-us” waiver, I was then directed to a little room to change into shorts/boxers, put on thick socks and little slipper shoes. I provided the shorts, they provided the footwear. Then I was guided over to the cryo chamber and it was adjusted for my height using different thickness of foam pads to stand on. Then I was given two oven mitt looking gloves and the door was closed.

There were two large tanks of liquid nitrogen behind the device that fed gas into and around my body. At first it felt like walking into a commercial walk in freezer, then it got colder, and colder, and at a minute and a half, it was REALLY COLD. The session is usually 3 minutes and once I knew that I was at the halfway point, I settled in and owned it.

So, I didn’t die and there was no frostbite. Garrett said that 3 minutes is the max time allowed, however there was 3 levels to choose from. This was level 1…..I can’t wait to see what level 3 is like! Using an infrared thermometer pointed at my leg, I reported at 65 degree skin temperature.

While getting dressed, I noticed my skin was red, mostly around the top of my waistline where I have a little extra body fat. Nothing serious and no discomfort.

Garrett said they offer a “Freeze and Squeeze” option which combines the Cryo session with some time in the leg compression therapy Normatec device. I figured I had a few minutes and my legs could use some extra love after the increased miles lately. Definitely will put this in my toolbox for when training miles ramp up.

While in the squeeze, Groupon alerted me to the option of buying the Cryro session deal again. I talked to Garrett about purchasing directly from him instead. Groupon gets a pretty hefty cut, I rather him get the most from my purchase. 3 more sessions bought!

I was warmed up before the 15 minutes were up and as the day progressed I felt really, really good. It was a nice warm feeling that usually comes after hot yoga. Seems counter intuitive, but I guess getting really cold, makes you warm. There is some interesting information in the book that I started about brown fat and how it it used to generate heat. Brown fat also uses white fat more directly as a fuel source. This is good to know and I will schedule my 3 other sessions to try and maximize that burn.

Today was my last regularly scheduled PT appointment that my insurance has approved. Lots of things to discuss with John in that session.

How Running has been going – We talked about my treadmill runs and how they have been going. SPOILER ALERT!!! If you haven’t read the previous posts, start reading here and then read here and then come back.

As my run walk intervals have gotten more run less walk, I’ve noticed fatigue and discomfort during the run sections. Lowering the incline from 2% to 1.5% has helped, but it just doesn’t feel good. ever heard the saying “Running never gets easy, you just get faster”? I’m worried that I may have lost my love for running. This will make me very sad if it’s true. It’s still too early and I know that I should give it more time. Lesson – Continue to have patience!

What is going on with my stride? I have a “gallop” when running now. I’ve have always had a little bounce in my stride, but this is uneven. I’ve noticed that if I run with softer knees (think like ducking down under a low roof) then the gallop goes away. I also notice that it goes away the fast I run and the longer I run. I presented this information to John and he put me on the treadmill and did a video assessment of my stride and BINGO! I am not softening into my right knee as it comes underneath my body. The left knee softens with about an inch or so of flex as it passes underneath my hips and my right doesn’t and this produces a gallop. Additionally, my recovering leg has a slight outward rotation of my foot as it lands. This is not good either and I will have to work on it also. So there is more work getting my form back to shape.

Dry needling on my gluteus medius – I had a massage a couple of weeks ago from Kristina Pugh who my PT recommended. She’s a couple of blocks from my house and is AWESOME. She determined that my GM could benefit from dry needling and I should talk to John about that. Yes, needles stuck deep into my butt. And electrical current applied. This is totally getting it’s own article so look for that!

Can I run outside on a 100 mile relay team in March? My Tuna 200 relay teammates contacted me and waned to know if I was interested in doing the Blackbeard’s Revenge 100 mile relay in March. Basically, I will need to be able to do 10 or 15 miles (in 5 mile chunks) in about a 24 hour period. I’ll write about the event separately, but not only has John cleared me for running outdoors, he wants me running outside at least once per week! This was a unexpected surprise and really made my day.
All in all, it was a great session and I left feeling good about my progress, I have some things to work on, and feel that there is a light at the end and it’s getting here. Until later, happy healing!

Recently, several separate points in my life crossed. One is that several podcasts that I listen to all referenced the same Pseudo Science – mediatation – wackadoodle Guru named Wim Hof. He has a method of controlling one’s normally autonomous functions like heartrate, body temp, immune system, breathing, and resistance to cold that seem to leverage ancient eastern yogic techniques to defy western science’s understanding of how the human body works. If you have ever heard of Buddhist monks or Yoga masters doing seemingly incredible “mind over matter” tasks, then you know what I’m taking about. There was a television show on in my childhood called “That’s Incredible!” that would showcase every so often a shaved head bald guy in a brown monk’s robe doing something wondrous.

I was still young enough that I believed magic was real and these tricks seemed more like something that a magician would do and that made it entertaining at least.

Wim Hof’s name appeared in my media stream during topics on both the Rick Roll and Effortless Swimming podcasts. One was describing using his breathing technique to help with better swimming efforts (which you will come to learn as training ramps up, is my weakest area in Triathlon) and the other was a book “What Doesn’t kill you” by Scott Carney (I need to insert an Affiliate link here!! Until then, go buy it on Amazon).

The other crossing point was a Groupon for CryoNC Cryotherapy (http://www.cryonc.com/). One of Wim Hof’s tennants to mind over body is heavily leveraging our evolutionary adaptation to cold. Our ancestors were cold adapted to live during winter with far fewer clothing options than we have. I’ll ink some articles discussing additional details on why that is a good thing.

So I bought the Groupon for CryoNC and will be using it tomorrow after my next PT appointment. I’ll write that experience in my next post.

Today, I started out with a 25 minute spin bike session down in the lower floor at the Y. I’m getting my cycling certification next month and will be picking up some extra classes. One of the other cycling instructors gave me a crash course in using the technology and working the displays to show speed/watts/etc for the class participants. My hope is to gamify it in some fun way and combine it with some bootcamp type exercises that will give a solid workout. My daughter was such a good sport and let me practice on her. She’s a mood measure on how much fun something will be. Stay tuned for details around this party.

Since my physical therapist wanted me to “warm up” my knee prior to running, this was perfect.

The treadmill was hard.

It was hard not from a cardio perspective, I’ve retained my fitness levels for the most part, but from a concentration perspective. Every step was a struggle between my brain and body working together. Walking is NOT running. Just like my brain had to sort out the new geometry for my walking stride, it is now having to work that out for my running stride.

30 second intervals at a 4.5 MPH pace followed with 90 seconds walking at 3.5, and then repeated until 1 mile was done. 1 mile done in 16:27. During that 1 mile, there were about 3 times that I had to grab the handrails and step to the side. My brain and leg lost sync with each other and I just felt like I was about to fall.

I’m going to try again in 3 days and I’m pretty sure it will be better. Stay tuned…

Today is the day. Ortho cleared me for running “mid-December” and I had a PT appointment last week which cleared me also.  I know I will have a mental hurdle when taking those first steps. My brain is definitely fighting me on this one. I have a Orange Theory Fitness class planned this morning so I’m hoping that will help warm things up. Here’s the plan..

• Bike for 5 minutes to warm up to trick my brain into relaxing
  
• Treadmill, 30 second runs, 1:30 walk intervals. Repeat until time runs out.

Short post today, I’ll update afterwards…

This week I had my final ortho meeting to determine when I could start running again. I was expecting a mid-November date. Dr. Jone’s nurse greeted me by saying “I heard you have a 5k next month”. That made my heart and head race, I KNOW I don’t have anything on the calendar so maybe that is one of those sneaky ways to let me know that I can start base building now!!!! I didn’t have anything on the calendar, but believe me, I can find something! There has got to be a Turkey Trot or something I can make work.

Maybe my PT relayed some of my wishful thinking , but the Doc wasn’t exactly onboard. I’m sure If I was dead set on a November 5k, he may have conceded to let me run/walk it. His concern wasn’t the ACL. That part looks and feels great he said after giving it a tug test. His concern is the microfracturing site and wanted a little longer for things to solidify into scar tissue as much as possible.

And with that, I was told mid-December. Yes, I was a little disappointed. I think the worst part of the news is that I should start back on the treadmill for a while…uggg!!!!!! That’s the worst. I can count the number of times that I have ran on a treadmill on both hands. It’s going to be an exercise in personal growth for sure. The Y has plenty of treadmills, so I’m sure it will be fine.

We also scheduled another PRP injection for Feb. 2019.  I’m going to plan on getting one of those every 6 months or so as long as I feel there is benefit. And to bury the headline, he cleared me to do a 70.3 in May!!!!!! Yes. It is on! Basically starting from no running in Dec to a 70.3 in May. I would say couch to half ironman, but everyone knows I haven’t actually sat still this entire process.

Seasonal affective disorder is probably one of the most appropriate acronyms in existence. If you have Seasonal Affective Disorder, you have a case of SAD.  I have always struggled with the change of seasons, specifically the shift from longer warm summer days to cold, shorter days of fall. Well, most of the time. The last 5 years, I have had the fall running ace season ahead of me to capitalize on my hard work running over the summer. Falling temps equal free speed. When the spring turns into summer, I try to hold my running pace consistent despite the rising temps and then during the fall it’s like a weight gets taken off. It’s like training with a weighted vest on and then taking it off and exploding into your run…..I don’t have that this year and I’m hoping that the cooler temps will help with the return to running. It’s been almost 5 months…I wonder if (more like how much) running is going to suck at first. Of course, I may just grin the entire time and never notice.

I had my last PT appointment this week before I’m going to see my Ortho to discuss return to running timelines. That’s on Tuesday…3 days away. My expectations aren’t that I will get the all clear next week, but sometime in November. I’ve been working hard everyday. I’ve been doing 15-20 single leg squats at my desk every hour while at work. It’s helping to build strength and stability and I think my last PT appointment went really well.

We added several new exercises which include jumping and hopping. My brain is still being cautious and I’m struggling against my brain trying to compensate. I’m hoping that Jon gave me a good report and projects that I’ll be ready for a run/walk program soon.

What else is new?

I took advantage of the waning summer and got out on the Neuse River greenway for a longer bike ride. 31 miles from Anderson point park to the south end at Sam’s Branch and back. Weather was perfect and it was quite busy. I felt like I could have done another 20 miles but I only had a couple of hours. At some spots, the greenway was kinda trashy with debris from Hurricane Michael and falling pinecones and sticks, but still managed to average 15mph. There was one incident skidding on some leaves coming around a corner that almost caused me to wipe out, I am definitely going shopping for some tires that may give me a little more traction.  Sure, I’ll lose a little in rolling resistance and will be somewhat slower, but hopefully can be a little safer.  And I need some warmer gear to hopefully squeeze in a few more longer rides..

 

 

 

Getting settled into the new home and building solid new routines has helped me get back on track. Over the past 8 days, I have done yoga 7 of them. I’ve been going mostly in the mornings at 6am and I can tell a huge difference in how the rest of my day shapes up.  Out of 7 classes, there a total of 5 different teachers and my body loved the variety. I even got a few remarks about how well my recovery is going. I’ll take that as a win.

Every day that started out with a class, There was a  genuine sense of calm that lingered throughout the day. My focus has been better and my productivity is definitely improved. Getting up at 5:30am and then having to somewhat scramble afterwards to make it to the office on time is a small blip and is getting easier each time. A few more tweaks to my routine and it will be perfect.

I shifted into a biweekly PT schedule. I felt like I wasn’t seeing enough progress between sessions and wanted to stretch out my pre-approved number of sessions. Also, time is at a premium and committing 3 hours every Wednesday afternoon didn’t seem like the best use of my time. Now I can put that time back to the gym and gaining a full body workout without cutting into work hours.

How’s the knee? Much better! Yoga has definitely helped the strength and mobility of the joint. starting the day with a class, I tend to walk more balanced throughout the day. Makes sense to me. If the goal is to return to walking/running with correct form, do the class in the morning and let the brain have all day to fire muscles correctly instead of a few hours after work.  My brain keeps trying to tell me that I can’t do single leg supported balancing postures such as half moon, standing bow, or warrior 3, but I’m pushing through and teaching my brain that yes, I can do those. Also got into Malasana for the first time since surgery this week. Deep knee bends will be hard for a while I can tell. Same with side plank with right hand down. Supporting my body weight on the side of the knee seems too risky right now.

Feeling positive about things.  Life is good….

 

 

It’s been a couple of week since my last post. Been crazy around my world. Moving to a new place, getting my kiddo in a new school, still adjusting to the new job, and trying to get my old house ready for renting out.

This is labor day weekend and I am spending it doing house work, yard work, and hot yoga every day. Today is Sunday and I decided to take a little time for myself and take a bike ride across downtown to a little bakery and get some coffee and pastry. I rode my first road bike and want to investigate ways on how I can make it more durable for the city. Focus not so much on speed, but more on just surving potholes, cracks, bumps and gravel better. I’ll definitely post that process.  Functional riding will be a core part of my training plan when I am returning to Triathlons.

I also should enable some form to allow feed back to these posts. Not even sure how many visitors are reading these posts or are they just words in the void.

 

So how’s the knee doing?

Well…It’s okay. I’m working really hard on not walking with a limp. Getting full extension on my right leg is the key to having a smooth walking stride. Also I think I have built a habit of walking with a limp that I have to consciously work on for a while.

Mornings are tough to get out of bed. The first 10 minutes or so I am achy and it is sore. reminds me of when I was fighting Plantar Fascitis. Once I get moving, it’s not too bad though.

PT is going well, but I had to talk with Jon last time. I’ve moving to an every other week schedule with PT and wanted homework to do. I want to get stronger and I feel I can be making more progress than I am. Not phoning this process in.