Hi everyone, I have some great news! Women’s Adventure Magazine has invited me to blog for them and my first post just went live. It’s called One More Mile and it’s about my ride to Jamestown. Hope you enjoy the read!
Women’s Adventure Magazine is the only sports, travel, fitness and lifestyle magazine published specifically for active women. It is published in Boulder, CO. Lindsay Brust
Holy Crap. How times does fly. I looked at the calendar yesterday morning to find that the Boulder 70.3 Half Ironman is exactly one month (31 days) from yesterday. Here’s where I currently stand:
A couple of months I got kicked in the back of the knee during a soccer game. It was extremely painful, but we didn’t have any subs so after limping around for a few minutes I told myself to pull myself together and keep playing.
Over the weekend I went for a couple of runs but ended up cutting them both short and walking as the back of my knee was aching. A black bruise the size of a softball had formed. Time passed and the bruise faded by in it’s place a large puffy bump grew. I had the bump drained once and, to my dismay, a harder bump that remained in it’s spot. It must be swelling, I hoped.
I gave it another three weeks before conceded that the swelling was not going down. “Is there a bump still here?” I asked most anyone who I thought that it wouldn’t gross out. “Yeah, that’s gross,” they would reply consistently.
I went back to see Dr. Dolbeare at Boulder Orthopedics, hoping he would drain it again and I would be on my way. As I sat on the examining table, he said, “I don’t think draining it is going to help. I can try draining it, I can leave it alone, or we can operate.”
I decided I didn’t want to get stabbed again in the knee for no reason, and I didn’t want to leave scar tissue in my knee so surgery was the only option. I made an appointment.
Today, I kept that appointment. I took the bus to the Boulder Surgery Center this morning after picking up some pain medication for later. I checked in, put my bag in a locker and met a lovely woman who’s name I can’t remember who cleaned my knee and put in my IV. She had done the Boulder Half Ironman twice and had also completed three Ironman Triathlons. We had plenty to chat about. I was sorry to see her head out to lunch and leave me to read my book while I waited for someone to come in and knock me out.
The anesthesiologist came in to walk me through what was going to happen. Then, I had a pre-med student visit to as permission to watch my procedure. Finally, Dr. Dolbeare came in to initial my knee. They all seemed concerned they were going to operate on the wrong knee.
Finally, my nurse came in to go over everything one last time. She also slipped some valium into my IV to help me to relax before the rolled me down to the ER. They laid me back and wheeled me into the elevator to take me down to the ER where everyone else was already waiting. They had me scoot from one table to another and I hear myself asking, “This is the ER? Do we have to move again?”
I woke up in the recovery room where I dozed in and out while a recovery nurse took my blood pressure repeatedly. I asked for two apple juices and 3 glasses of water. Jason came to pick me up and take me home. I hobbled out of the hospital holding the hand of the nurse and Jason. I got home and laid down on the couch where I turned on the Food Network and dozed most of the afternoon.
Dr. Dolbeare called tonight, told me that the scare tissue they removed as 4 centimeters by 2 centimeters. He said it was huge. He made me promise, again, that I wouldn’t work out for 48 hours and that I could take off the bandages after three days.
Currently, I’m in very little pain. My leg is still mostly numb. I’m not looking forward to numbing agent wearing off, but as for right now, it’s Netflix and dozing. I can post a picture, would that be gross? Lindsay Brust
I haven’t blogged for a while. The reason for this is my sense of humor took a temporary hiatus from triathlon training. I’ve reached the highest volume of hours / distance in the training program and I’m extremely frustrated that I haven’t been meeting my goals I set for myself each week. The rest of my life has this pesky way of distracting me from getting in the necessary time in the pool, on my bike and out running I think I need to stay on track.
I’ve also started getting lonely and kind of restless. Most of my training has been by myself partly because I need to fit in workouts at odd hours of the day and partly because I hesitate to ask my friends if they would like to join me in my 5:30am spinning class (I don’t care for getting laughed at). When I’m doing brick workouts over the weekend it’s difficult to time the transitions so that people can join me for just one leg. I’ve also had to miss happy hours, gigs my friend’s band played, and weekend camping trips due to long hours training on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
In addition to all this, I just found out yesterday that I need knee surgery. My gross little lump in my knee has turned into scar tissue and will need to be removed surgically. Simply draining my knee again won’t work as it’s not liquid anymore. Fortunately, my doctor said that the procedure is minimally invasive, he can put the stitches under my skin (really?!), and dress the incision so I should be able to start training 48 hours later. This is amazing, but I don’t feel like I have 48 hours to lay on a couch recovering from knee surgery.
My body composition quest is progressing acceptably. I’m currently at 23% (down from 24%). I usually get stuck at 23% so I’m going to have to be good for a little while to see if I can break through this plateau.
All that said, I am starting to feel better, the weather is finally getting (and staying) pretty nice outside and I’ve broken through some stuff going on in my personal life to a place where I am ready to redirect my efforts back to training. Hopefully that means blogging too. Hope you are all doing well in your training, you life, or wherever your focus might be. Lindsay Brust
One of the tricks I use to meet goals is to commit to them publicly. I meet with a friend on a quarterly basis to chat about has been working during the past three months, what didn’t work for us and what we want to accomplish in the coming quarter. Admitting these goals to someone keeps me on track with the parts of my life I want to be moving forward with. I started a blog and raised money for the American Heart Association to motivate me while I was training for my first marathon and I started this blog to publicly proclaim my attempt at completing a half Ironman.
So here I am, using this blog as a forum with which to publicly commit to decreasing my body fat percentage from 24% to 18% by the half Ironman on August 7. Here’s why:
Success in triathlon is all about generating the most power in the most efficient and economic way possible (I’m also looking into sneaking a motor onto my bike somehow). In other words, a triathlete wants to increase their power-to-weight ratio. Your power-to-weight ratio is simply the amount of power you can create divided by your body weight. In the most general of terms, the stronger and lighter you are, the better.
This is also an important ratio because it will keep you focused on the right numbers on the scale. Instead of just trying to lose weight, an athlete needs to focus on body composition – losing fat while maintaining your lean muscle mass.
Here’s some interesting facts:
I’ll keep you up to date on my efforts on changing my body composition and if you happen to see me eating a Snickers bar, please grab it and run. At least I will get some exercise chasing you. Lindsay Brust
I received my second massage with Brad at the Cafe of Life. In addition to trading a lot of damage to his arms to repair the damage I’ve been doing to my tired, overworked hamstrings, he also did some energy work. Lindsay Brust
Now, I’ve lived in Boulder, Colorado (one of the crunchier places on Earth) since August of 2006 and I still don’t completely understand the concept of energy work. I have noticed that the phrase “energy work” is commonly used in the same sentences as words like “chakras” and “meridians.” I have only a loose grasp on what those mean as well. I do like the idea of it though.
What I can tell you is that energy work with Brad will get you free soy milk and $3 bottles of wine. Hear me out.
I wandered across the parking lot to Whole Foods after my massage because we are out of almond milk and I absolutely can’t live without smoothies. The almond milk I usually get for smoothies was $4 for a half gallon at Whole Paycheck (er, Whole Foods) so I tried to find something a little more affordable.
While I was gazing at the milk case in my massage induced haze, one of my favorite Whole Foods employees approached and asked if he could help me. Assuming he couldn’t get me out of my triathlon or suddenly make me an effortlessly awesome endurance swimmer I asked for a suggestion on milk for smoothies. He handed me a carton of Earth Balance Soy Milk and told me it was so awesome and he was so sure I would love it that he put a sticker over the bar code and gave it to me for free as a sample. Score.
Then I wandered next door to the liquor store to grab a bottle of wine to enjoy this evening with (or for) dinner and I noticed a sign for Three Wishes for $2.99 a bottle. This is almost certainly Whole Food’s answer to the popular “3 buck chuck” made famous by Trader Joe’s. I asked an associate working there how it was and they said that the cabernet is “pretty good.” So I got two of those and one Chardonnay just to balance it out. For $9. Double Score.
Next time I go get a massage from Brad, I’m going to have to tip him more.
Outside of swimming, there are a lot of aspects of the triathlon that are new for me. I’ve learned a ton. Here are a few of the most interesting facts:
It’s not fair that there are so many things I want to do and there is only one of me to do them. Recently, I feel like I’ve been spread a little thin. I’ve been prioritizing my work and my exercise as much as I can and because of that, I don’t feel like I have enough time for other things that are important to me. I haven’t been able to unpack those last few boxes after my move to my new townhouse. My Kindle is full of books I want to read but haven’t gotten to. I don’t get to see my friends near as much as I would like and I have a cute boyfriend I occasionally like to spend time with. A couple of weeks ago, I was just asked to teach at course at CU-Boulder and I agreed. Lindsay Brust
I believe very deeply in the importance of the material being taught and respect the people designing the course. I was also looking forward to making a little extra cash to restock my emergency savings account after cleaning it out on the downpayment for the townhouse. I started second guessing my decision last week when I started getting busy at work. I also put myself on a training schedule and realized how much more I really needed to do to, you know, not die during the half Ironman.
After my backwards triathlon on Saturday, I had lunch and was so happy to take a short nap before spending the afternoon shopping for furnishing for the new townhouse. I realized how, come this fall, I will need to spend my Saturday afternoons grading and prepping for classes. I started getting this panicky trapped feeling and, after an entire weekend of analyzing, mulling, thinking, weighing, writing pro con lists, knew I didn’t want to teach this fall.
It was difficult for me to bow out of this commitment but I think that I’ve reached a point in my life where I need to find more of a work life balance. I also find that if I have no time to relax then I am not near as happy or creative as when I can follow some of my own passions.
How do you know when you’ve taken on too much and what do you do to find some space for yourself?
A couple of days ago, I mentioned the fact that I have an ugly bump the size of a golf ball on the inside of my left knee. (Don’t look! That’s not polite.) My orthopedic surgeon had some guesses as to what it was but thought it might be a good idea to double check his thoughts with a MRI. The results confirmed what he had been thinking (a trauma induced hematoma). Lindsay Brust
Yesterday, I had an appointment to get it drained. I don’t remember the fancy word for the process, but it sounded more sophisticated then “draining.” I think it probably takes a bit more skill to do this procedure than it takes to “draining something.” I have no idea. I didn’t watch.
Here’s what happened. First, I was stabbed (slight dramatization) in the thigh with a local numbing agent that is not the novocaine they give you at the dentist but it was similar. Call me a wimp, but that was pretty unpleasant. It burned when it when the agent went into whatever tissue is surrounding the cyst and continued to burn for about a minute (gasp!) before the area went numb.
Then, my doctor drew the fluid out with an additional needle. I felt a little pressure during this, but it wasn’t painful. The whole procedure probably took about 10 minutes. He wrapped me up and sent me on my way with some extra gauze and an extra wrap.
I took the opportunity to not feel guilty about not working out last night. I had a glass of wine (or two), watched an obscene amount of TV and read a book. I’m not suppose to do anything strenuous for 48 hours. Funny how once I’m told I shouldn’t train, suddenly I want to. (Note: Talk to therapist about this the next time I run into her)
I started considering swimming and just working on my pull. If I don’t kick, it will be fine, right? I probably won’t actually do it, because I strategically planned a night out with entities some people who aren’t working full time and training 15 hours a week call “friends” later tonight. If you are at Ignite Boulder and the after party at the Bitter Bar, I’ll see you there! Order me a Pisco Sour.
I heard back from my orthopedic surgeon / physical therapist and he said that the results of the MRI confirmed what we’ve been thinking. For those of you super squeamish, I would recommend skipping this post and checking back some other time.
The bump on my knee is a trama induced hematoma that has turned into a cyst, probably blood filled. It’s trying to form a capsule around it. It’s really gross. He said that he can drain the bump using a local anesthetic and needle and there is an 80% chance that will take care of it once and for all. I will need to give myself about 48 hours without working out. Naturally, I planned the procedure during swimming week. So, think about me Wednesday afternoon when I go under the… needle. Uck.
The good news is that it’s completely separate from my knee joint and my knee looks “very healthy.” Lindsay Brust
Reaching for Ironman 70.3 Boulder 