Tag: Cycling

April 2024 Update

On By LeraIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Just going to keep this short and sweet since not a lot has happened since last time.

I had another follow up for my knee injury. It’s been trying to get better, so I opted not to talk with a surgeon at that appointment. It’s still limiting me enough that I’m still considering surgery, but I figured if it seems like it’s trying to improve, it would be best to hold off for now. The lateral knee pain has gotten better in that it’s not every day anymore, but it does still bother me if I stand with too much weight through my left leg, or it I have my knee bent a while and then straighten it. I haven’t noticed major issues with the lateral pain after I workout. The posterior pain is an ongoing issue, as is the joint as a whole feeling swollen after I run, and sometimes if I bike more than an hour. I’m usually good to run for a mile to a mile and a half without having pain later, but more than that and it isn’t pretty. I’ve pushed my running to three miles a few times, and while I usually feel okay during the run itself, I have pain soon after stopping and I hurt for the whole rest of the day, sometimes into the next day.

My doctor still thinks a lot of my issue is my IT band, but I’m just not so sure. When I get the lateral pain, it’s different than when I’ve had IT band pain. The pain I get now is lower. Back near the beginning of everything, I did have that very classic IT pain, but now I just don’t know. He explained that the IT band can cause pain where it attaches lower down the leg from that “textbook” area, but I’m hesitant to cut it until I feel sure. Still no clear idea of the cause of the posterior pain. May be my torn meniscus, may not be, especially since the area of pain doesn’t overlap the tear most of the time. If I have surgery, they’d look at everything first and then the plan would be to release some tension on my IT band and fix/cut out the tear in my meniscus, along with fixing whatever else they find while looking inside. It just scares me to mess with my IT band because what if it isn’t the problem after all and then it’s too lax? I don’t want to set myself up for future injuries.

I follow up with the doctor again at the end of May, and honestly if there isn’t ongoing improvement, I’ll likely just go the surgery route. The surgeon he wants me to see is very busy, so I assume surgery would be pushed out a couple months anyway. If in the lead up to it I feel things have improved, I could just cancel. It sucks to be at this point where I don’t have conservative options left and I’m just playing a waiting game. I’m having a hard time knowing what the right decision is here for myself.

One Final Push

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, running, SurgeryLeave a comment

Had another follow up with the ortho clinic two days ago. I’ve had very minor improvement in my knee since the last injection, but I’m still getting pain with even walking still sometimes. I can walk farther most of the time before it starts bothering me, but I still have days where it just doesn’t like me to walk on it at all. After every activity that involves weight bearing, I have pain. I get pain after walking, after running, and even after standing twenty minutes to cook or greet people at the doors at church. Biking is almost normal, but I’ll still get pain after that if I ride longer than about 45 minutes, but shorter rides are okay 85% of the time.

All that said, I feel like I’m back to where I was before I injured myself further at the 5K race in November, but even before that I was still struggling with these same issues for 3 months. Now we’re at 7 months, and it’s not looking great that they will resolve without help. The doctor told me there’s still a chance that they can improve, but told me to look at it from the perspective of how much it’s limiting me from the activities I want to do. The truth is that it’s holding me back.

At my appointment, I had fully planned to discuss my surgical options, but I was so undecided about it. The doctor was really understanding about it and told me to take the next month and see if things improve, and during this next month, he told me (directly quoting him) to “beat the shit out of it as a field test”. He told me to increase my activities and see how it responds. Just based on how the weekend went, I think it was stupid of me to push surgery off another month, but I want to be sure I need it. I really don’t see things improving in the next month, but I’ll make suer I run consistently and keep doing my rehab exercises and see what happens.

September Setbacks

On By LeraIn Life, running, weight lossLeave a comment

I feel like the title is a misnomer, because August is actually the month where things started holding me back. I ended up hurting myself about halfway through August and I’m still not better. I went for a rainy day run and felt great during, to the point where I intentionally got a new PR, but later that night it all went downhill. The worst part is that I don’t even know what the issue is. My doctor thinks maybe my IT band because it hurts on the side of my knee when I run, but I can walk or bike without that same pain. I also get achy behind my knee, and when I bend it all the way, it feels like there’s a painful lump or something that’s preventing it from bending to its max. So basically, I am the master of injuries. My doctor told me to try to self treat a little longer, but I think it’s going to end up being something I need PT for. I thought it was doing better last weekend and I did 5 very short run intervals in the middle of a 3.5 mile walk, and those didn’t hurt at the time, but a couple hours later, the pain was awful and has been present in varying degrees since.

So, while I can’t run, I have been walking and biking. I still need to get some sort of movement to help with my weight loss. I’m up to 43 pounds lost this year, so at least that’s something going in the right direction.

My biggest source of sadness right now is being stuck walking my 5k on October 1st when it should have been a PR race for me by a solid five minutes. Honestly, I wouldn’t have minded walking it, but I just found out that I’ll be doing it by myself. None of my friends want to do this one this year. This is the first race I’ve run in 3 years where I won’t even know one person. I guess it was bound to happen, but I’m still feeling really down. If I was able to get a refund, I don’t think I’d bother going because it’s just going to feel like a shell of the experience I’m used to.

Anyway, that’s life right now. I’ll let you guys know how the race goes. Maybe I’ll get lucky and I can try to run a little. I know it looks like I’m probably not going to be doing the Thanksgiving Day 5k this year, which stinks, but if by some chance I heal quickly, I’ll sign up.

Autumn Tidings

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, runningLeave a comment

Forgive me for not updating this in four months! I can hardly believe how fast the time is flowing by these days. It’s been six months since changing jobs, and I don’t regret a single thing.

In terms of running, it’s been going okay. My knee is still an issue, and now my hip on the same side has been having some muscle stiffness on the outside. I took a few weeks off and restarted Couch to 5K this weekend. I had only been getting out once a week to run and focusing on cross training with speed walking and biking. Even biking still makes my knee hurt if I go too long. Despite everything, I’m grateful for at least being able to do some things. That said, I do want to do something with this knee of mine. It’s still far too much of a problem. The last run I did before taking a breaks was 2 miles, and I had major problems— all of them on my right leg. My knee was achy and swollen, my hip was mildly sore and quite stiff, my hamstrings, glutes, and calf felt strained, and even my ankle was trying to act up again, and that hasn’t been an issue in many months. I have no idea what to do. I’ve been really upset and angry about it. I’m sure if I see my doctor, he’ll want me to do PT for it again, but my copay will be much cheaper in the near year for that, so I’d rather wait a bit. I’m already doing PT for my shoulder right now (rotator cuff tendinitis), and that’s taking enough of my money.

Issues aside, I did run a 5k last month! It was the Halloween-themed run that I did last year, and it was even more enjoyable this year! I dressed as a female version of Mario and got some amazing compliments on my costume, and I got singled out by one of the photographers as I was walking by him because he wanted me to pose for a photo, so that was fun. I ran this race with two of my friends, and it was great. I actually didn’t do too badly, but I would love to finish faster one day. Again, I’m just grateful to be able to do it at all.

I also recently took a little bit of a bike trip about 30 miles south of me and rode on a trail that went through four different parks. It was ten miles out and ten miles back, and I stopped and chained my bike every so often and just wandered around. I packed a mini breakfast to eat halfway through; at the end of the path was a dam with a two story overlook. It sounds a little more grand than it was, but it was still really beautiful. It was on the chilly side that morning, so I didn’t run into a lot of people, which is the way I like it. I spent three hours just exploring all along that trail. I definitely want to make time to do something like that again at a new place.

All in all, things are going well. I can only hope it stays this wonderful through the end of the year!

May Flowers

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, runningLeave a comment

Okay, so this really has nothing to do with actual flowers (although I did enjoy my tree’s cherry blossoms this year!), but I get bored titling everything with the month and the word ‘update’. I’m going to touch on my injury progress later, but I want to start with work first.

I started my new job a week ago, and I think it’s going to be soooo good for me. I love having a set schedule. It’s nice knowing that unless it’s my turn for a late day (which is shared and usually only an extra hour and a half max), I’ll be gone at a certain time. I’ve made plans to do a workout at a wooded metro park once a week, a run Saturday morning at a different park, and there are weekly glow rolls Saturday nights all summer long I want to make it out to once in a while. I love having a schedule that lets me plan events and have evenings and weekends off to see people much more easily. I’m already feeling a lot less lonely.

Next, my knee. It’s not 100%, but it feels so much better now that I’m not on my feet all day long without a break. The pain is minimal, but I do still have trouble with running. I’ve only been doing three sets of 5 minute run/ 2 minute walk when I go out, but I do get some pain at the beginning of my runs. At this point, it’s more the patellar tendon that’s giving me trouble, and a little bit is coming from my hamstrings on the same side. The sports medicine doctor I was seeing said I didn’t need to come back unless the pain got bad enough to want an injection, or unless my knee is swollen for two or more days despite rest. He said to just work on continuing to strengthen it and to try to be less fat (not how he said it, but that’s what it comes down to). He said there isn’t anything I can do with my knock knees, so I have that working against me forever, but strengthening should at least help downplay it a little. I still lack so much strength in my right leg that it feels like a never-ending battle. I still can’t do a single leg calf raise or single leg squat, which means I still can’t jump rope. However, I haven’t had very much trouble with biking unless I overdo it, so if I keep it reasonable, I have little pain afterward. Honestly, my biggest issue is stiffness, and I think a lot of that has to do with sitting all day at work now, so I need to start stretching more. I did find out Friday that the desks all convert to standing desks, so I’ll be going back and forth standing and sitting throughout the day.

Lastly, I’ve been having some shoulder troubles. I think it’s leftover from my last job, so I’m hoping it will eventually go away, but it’s been lingering for a good 6-8 weeks now, so I’m going to ask my physical therapist if he’ll look at it for me and at least give me an idea of what it is so I can try to work on it on my own until I can get in to see my doctor. I don’t think it’s major because it’s just sore enough doing certain things to be annoying, but given that I’m not stressing it at work anymore, it should start to go away soon. Fingers crossed.

I’ll do another update in a few weeks in regards to work, but I might post something else in the meantime if something is worthwhile so these don’t always end up so long.

Noom, Church, and Never-ending PT

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, runningLeave a comment

Looks like I managed to squeeze a post in before April hit somehow! It’s been a pretty busy six weeks for me. Working unpredictable hours from week to week and never having the same days off just makes time seem unreal sometimes. I have been fortunate enough the past two months to have Sunday mornings free for church, which I’ve been enjoying. I mentioned it a little last time, but I’ve been attending regularly since August last year, after spending my whole life after the age of ten or eleven away from church. I started just watching online to check things out, and started going in person Christmas Eve. My church does adult and older child baptism (it’s a modern, nondenominational church). Basically, they want it to be a conscious decision, so even though I was baptized as a baby, I just felt called to publicly declare my faith. It was an amazing moment that I will cherish forever. Last month, I did a four week course that talked about figuring out your spiritual gifts, personality, and how to put them into practice. I started volunteering as a greeter a few weeks ago and have been enjoying it. Eventually I might branch out into a different area, but until I can make a 100% commitment without work potentially getting in the way, it makes it difficult. I know they really need help with the kids area because they’ve had to turn some families away to keep the child-adult ratio safe, so that may be a fun next step in the future.

Next in my crazy month, I ended up starting Noom, and have lost ten pounds on it so far! I lost sixty pounds a couple of years ago and kept it off, but have no real reason for not ever finishing what I started other than just not putting effort into it. I suppose I have my doctor to thank for getting me started again. He didn’t push, but he said he himself has been trying a different program called Wondr, and said the psychological aspect has been interesting. He told me he lost a lot of weight in the past, so he had some insights to share. I ended up emailing him after I signed up when I saw what my daily calorie goal was and asked if it was appropriate—1320 calories is not a lot to work with each day, but being active earns you extra. However, they only give you back half the calories you burn. It’s enough for an extra snack if I need it, so it’s been working okay. I made no progress last week since I had all the bad Costco food (love those almond danishes, and my family shares some with me when they go), so I need to get back on track. I’m working through week 5 right now, and looking to lose 70 pounds by the end of October. Honestly, I’ve found that if I plan properly, I really don’t get hungry on that low amount. I’ve been sneaking extra veggies into things I never thought I would, like putting frozen cauliflower into my fruit and yogurt smoothies. I can’t taste it at all, and it gives the smoothies a really nice texture while filling me up with almost no extra calories. I’ve also gotten back on track with my overnight oats. I was eating cereal a lot last month and just feel better starting my day with oatmeal instead. Lunches have been mostly salads with chicken added to them. I buy the premade salad kits, which are more expensive, but I think it’s worth it to just dump it into a bowl or lunchbox container and head out the door, plus you can constantly change the taste without trying to use everything up before it goes bad. My only prep work is defrosting an individually portioned amount of already cooked chicken from the freezer. For dinner, I let myself decide from day to day what I want. It’s not set in advance like lunch or breakfast, so I make sure to measure out proper portions. I managed not to eat all of the mac and cheese last week at once and saved some for the next day, so just making small changes like the above are good ways to start. I love snacking on fruit, especially raspberries, and have found it’s the perfect snack to keep me going between meals. After a workout if I’m extra hungry, I’ll have a protein shake with my fruit, but I don’t do it every time. If I spend on hour or more on a workout, then I’ll reach for one, but otherwise just some milk and a banana is my go-to after a bike ride. I’ll talk more in detail about Noom when I get a little farther along in the program.

Last, and I’ll keep it short because this is already long, but I’m STILL doing physical therapy for my runner’s knee. My doctor really wanted me to keep working at strengthening my knee to make sure this whole saga is less likely to happen in the future. He said even just one session a week would be beneficial so I could get some guidance and work on things I can’t do at home, so I’m thankful my PT isn’t sick of dealing with me yet. We started doing something called blood flow restriction training, and it’s so exhausting! It really is amazing how much more tiring it is to perform the same exercises with blood flow somewhat cut off. It’s supposed to help grow muscle by letting me do less weight and higher repetitions while keeping me from having so much pain. I am slowly getting stronger, but I still don’t have that single leg squat, and I still can’t jump rope. I also haven’t ran in about six weeks. The pain is so much better, so hopefully some strength will come a little faster now that I can do a little more. I’ve been biking twice a week for longer durations—45-90 minutes, and it’s been going pretty well. I do tend to overdo it some days out of sheer stubbornness, but I’m getting better at recognizing when I should stop.

As always, I will try to at least get you guys one update next month, but I think it’s clear I’m not great at doing this on a regular basis. Take it easy!

New Year, New Goals 2022!

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, runningLeave a comment

I can’t believe it’s a new year already! 2021 seemed to go by fast. Mostly it was a good year. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, but nothing overtly bad happened either. I do wish I wasn’t bringing my runner’s knee into the new year, though. I was hoping I could start this year out strong and ready to tackle things, but that will be a little delayed.

I followed up with my sports medicine doctor two days ago and he wants me to do some more physical therapy, which I pretty much knew he was going to recommend. He told me that he wanted my PT program to be really aggressive and that he wasn’t concerned about making anything worse. He said he was fine with me staying at the clinic I’ve been going to if they can push me hard enough, otherwise he recommended the clinic in his building because they work with a lot of athletes. So, honestly I don’t know what I want to do. I’m going to chat with my usual PT on the phone when he returns to the office Tuesday and see what he might think. I feel like I could have been pushed more in my first round, but I think he was afraid of doing more damage. I think I would be okay with either option. My usual clinic always gets me back running, but at the same time it might not hurt to try something new either. I love that my doctor takes my goals seriously. I got so lucky to have found someone who listens so well.

So what are my goals for this coming year? I have a lot in terms of running, but also some others.

1. Run a 5k race every month this year.

2. Get my 5k time under 40 minutes, and then to under 35.

3. Do one speed session each week to help my running pace.

4. Trail run at least twice a month.

5. Try a 30 day run streak.

6. Sign up for a training group with the local running shop.

7. Consider trying a race longer than 5k if my body is up for it.

8. Incorporate jump rope into my fitness routine.

9. Do several 100 mile bike weeks.

10. Get back to studying Japanese.

I will probably be adding some things on this list eventually, but this is a start. Most of the running ones should be easily attainable when I can resume normal training. I’m still on the 1-1.5 miles twice a week thing until I get more strength built up, so my race times won’t be great for a few months, but it’s better than nothing at all!

I already started this year with a 5k on New Year’s Eve. It started just before midnight, and when midnight hit, fireworks went off, so that was cool to see while running. It was a smaller race with around 200 people, but everyone was really nice! Even though I was fifth from last at finishing, there were still people around to cheer as I ran across the finish line, which usually doesn’t happen at the bigger races. I definitely wouldn’t mind doing that race again every New Year’s!

PT, Round 5

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, runningLeave a comment

It’s been a whirlwind of a month, but I feel like things are looking up. I saw my primary care doctor for my knee, and he wasn’t sure what exactly was going on. He said it could be a few different things based on my exam. When I called to make the appointment my knee was feeling worse than the day I actually had the appointment, so it wasn’t giving me its usual problems. My doctor told me I always make things difficult (jokingly, of course), but I can’t help it my body didn’t read the instruction manuals. It always shows problems in weird ways. Since he wasn’t sure, he told me he wanted someone else to look at my knee. I appreciated his honesty about it. He told me he’d contact someone he knew in sports medicine and see if I could be seen.

The next business day I got a call from a sports medicine office to schedule an appointment, and they got me in within a week and a half. I really like the doctor I saw there. He was great at explaining everything to me, very friendly, and he took my goals into consideration to come up with a plan for me. It turns out I have runner’s knee. The plan was to start physical therapy for 4-6 weeks and cut back on my workouts. So now I can only run two days a week for half my usually time and bike one day. I asked if I could still do the 5Ks I was signed up for and he said it was fine if I took a few days off afterward.

I started physical therapy a few days ago and will be going three times a week. I get to see the PT I’ve always seen, so he knows my weird problems already. My femur is twisted internally, my tibia is twisted externally, and my foot points out on my affected leg. He’s trying to correct that as much as possible while we work to build strength in key areas. Yesterday’s session has my muscles sore, but that means it was an effective workout for me. I’m hoping things calm down soon and I can enjoy some more time running pain free in the new year!

What Makes Someone an Athlete?

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, runningLeave a comment

What Makes Someone an Athlete?

I’ve been thinking about the answer to this question for the last couple of days, after someone told me I was an athlete. It really got me thinking about the term, because I’ve never thought about myself in that way before. So, like any time life throws me something I need or want to think over, I got my bike out and pondered it over the course of an hourlong ride, and then I went home and did some journaling regarding the topic. I’m curious to know what everyone else thinks, but this is my take.

I have always thought of athletes as people who are good at sports, and even most dictionary definitions will say the same thing. By that view, I certainly don’t feel like an athlete. I run and bike because they bring me joy. I’m nowhere near good enough to ever win an official event, and I probably never will be. I sign up for 5Ks because I enjoy them. I lack even the most basic traits of athleticism. I’m still striving to get “in shape”, and I’m not particularly coordinated (I trip over my own feet more than I should). You can see why I have a hard time thinking of myself as an athlete based on those views, but is it the right view?

When I first started running, I read a lot of articles about the sport, especially if it was targeted to a beginner. Some of the articles made it clear that even people who partake in running just a few days a week should think of themselves as an athlete and try to keep that mindset at the forefront of their minds during a workout. Thinking back to those articles, I asked myself a few other questions:

1. Is a team really necessary to be an athlete, or is competing against yourself sufficient?

2. Do you need to excel at your sport (team or otherwise), or is committing and showing up enough?

3. Can you be an athlete without being athletic?

I came up with some answers after talking it over a bit with my aunt and thinking about how much I’ve changed in the last two years. I think being an athlete has more to do with mindset than physical abilities in many ways. Undertaking and finishing a training program for whatever your goals may be takes dedication and sacrifice. If you’re someone who sets goals and strives to improve each day, that makes you an athlete. It often means changing your lifestyle to meet the demands of your chosen activity, reorganizing your priorities, and getting out of bed each morning without making excuses. The determination and drive to keep going when things get tough definitely define an athlete, so I don’t really think it matters what your activity is or if you choose to compete. Your sport becomes a part of you that you can’t do without. I can easily identify with the above characteristics, and I’m sure many of you can, too.

Maybe more of us should start thinking of ourselves as athletes. Maybe it’s time to do a mental overhaul instead of just a physical one. That old adage “fake it till you make it” has some truth to it. It can be hard to change your mindset, but maybe “faking it” is what’s needed until you start believing it.

Ghost Town Run

On By LeraIn Life, runningLeave a comment

I really had no interest in getting up early to run today, but I told myself I should do at least 20 minutes. I was tired and a little bit sore from a weekend of bike riding and I just wanted to rest before work in the afternoon. Like every time I feel like I don’t want to run, I was glad I went. I got one of my best paces and I was able to fall into that zen state of mind during those 20 minutes. I ran the whole way through, which had been a while since the summer heat and humidity was brutal here. I had been doing run/walk intervals the last few months, so it was nice to know that I didn’t lose as much conditioning as I thought. These cooler mornings are agreeing with me.

Today being a holiday, it was so quiet on my run that it felt like a ghost town. Usually the main road through downtown has quite a lot of traffic, but I didn’t see many cars at all. It was so quiet that I stepped into the street to snap a photo of the emptiness and the feeble sunrise.