What I know

Here are the things I know 9 days into my injury;

1. I'm a dumb ass
 - People told me not to do too much intense running and I didn't listen
 - My knees told me they needed ice and rest and I didn't listen
2. This is frustrating
 - and causes stress in other areas of my life
3. My injury was caused by one or a combination of the following
 - Too much volume
 - Too much intensity
 - Too many jump squats or burpees at fitness class
 - Pushing too hard on the bike
 - Pushing too hard on the run
 - Pushing too hard for my fitness level
 - Bike fit
 - Cleats worn out or needing adjusting
 - Weak hips

My knees have improved to a point.  I no longer have any sharp pain and I can walk without limping, but I do have a dull pain when I walk and when I push even a little on the bike.  I'll be out of town next week without access to my bike, so I'll add some light running and see if the situation changes.

What is my plan?
1. I started doing these hip exercises to strengthen my hips and glutes.  I've known they are weak because they get very fatigued just doing 50 yard kick drills.
2. I had been saving for an IPad, but never pulled the trigger.  I decided to spend the money on triathlon stuff instead.  I made an appointment for a two hour bike fit and will buy new pedals and shoes at the same time.  
3. I'm going to call the doc and schedule an appointment with an orthopedic doctor to make sure I'm not doing an irreparable damage.  Do they give discounts for getting a double MRI?
4. I'm going to keep things in perspective.  This is just a hobby and four years ago I would go months without running.  It hasn't even been two weeks.
5. When I get back at it, I'm not going to worry about run speed until after my half iron race in July.

And the next injury is..............

Knees :-(.  My knees have been aching more and more the last few weeks and while the intentions to ice every night have been there, the follow through certainly hasn't been.  Saturday I had a great hour and forty minute run in the woods and felt great.  In fact, I was thinking of the words of a song "somethings gotta go wrong cuz I'm feelin' way too damn good".  So true....

Saturday I had an awesome 40 mile ride and my knees did ache quite a bit during the ride.  I was stupid and just kept pushing and held 20+ mph for a significant portion of the ride and even raced a guy (I won, I don't think he knew it was a race :-)).  Afterwards, no ice.  Monday night was another 15 mile ride during which I tried to hold 20+ mph as much as possible (and did).  Afterward? Yep, no ice.  Tuesday morning was a hard 12x400 at the track.  Yep, no ice afterward.  Wednesday morning at work I was walking down the hall and started having sharp pain in my right knee.  The pain was severe enough I was hobbling around and wincing the rest of the day.  Guess what?  I bought zip lock bags at lunch and started icing.  The sharp pain now comes and goes while walking seemingly at random times though the frequency is reducing.

The pain is just below my knee cap on both legs with the right being worse than the left (outside leg on the track) but they both ache all the time kind of like my shoulder's ache when I swim too much.  After some self diagnosis I have patellar tendinitis (jumper's knees).  So, I'm going to back off for a couple days then see what happens.

Set backs are bummers but when you are in your mid forties trying to be an endurance athlete, things happen.  I've been really happy with my training volume so far this year too.  Except for when I was traveling, my weekly time and mileage has been decent.

The dip the first week in March I was in China

Oh well.  This wasn't the first injury getting into triathlon's and probably won't be the last.  Kind of puts some  doubt in thoughts of trying to do a late season full IM.  We'll see.

Oh, anyone use straps below their knees? If so, is it for this symptom?