Knee Problem. What Problem? Make A New Plan Stan

Last Tuesday morning I woke up at 4:45 am and ran 5 miles no problem, it felt great. I went to bed that evening, gym bag packed, ready to start my day early with a 2700 meter swim. I never made it to the pool. Instead I woke up around 4:00 am, my nails digging into my mattress, my body tense and sweating. It was a sensation I'd felt before but more acute, my left knee was locked at a 90 degree angle. I pushed through the pain like trying to push through a wall as I tried to straighten my leg to get the knee to fall back into place. There was a familiar "popping sound" I was waiting for like times in your life when you're waiting for what you think is bad news, it's great to relieve the tension but still, it is bad news. For me the bad news was I never got the bad news which meant I struggled for the next few hours, sweating and then cold, face contorted like a weight lifter, practicing lamaze techniques I'd seen in movies.

By 9:00 I hopped into the waiting room for an orthopaedic physician. After a couple attempts at getting my knee to pop back into place he ordered an MRI. The magic of my atoms allowed the MRI to reveal a significant Bucket Handle Tear of my Lateral Meniscus.

By noon on Friday I was in surgery.

If you've been following Emma's triathlon-blogathon you may know, I have been training with Emma for the the same olympic distance tri in Amelia Island.

The moment my knee slipped out of place in the middle of the night all the preparation, gear buying, training 5-6 days a week, and scheduling my life around training and nutrition went so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu, there was no way I'd be able to compete in this triathlon in a month.

When I realized all the work I'd put into the race was now irrelevant it was a little disheartening. It was as if I'd spent all this time building a giant lego world for some big lego culminating event when suddenly a wild pack of dogs (my meniscus) came traipsing through my lego world destroying everything I'd created.

And yet I couldn't have gotten to where I was without Emma and her planning. She's a master at putting little lego pieces on top of others and finding a way to create something from it. If it wasn't for all the training I wouldn't be in the best shape of my life. If it wasn't for her I might have not found this new and wonderful sport. Additionally, if you don't like training, triathlons are not for you. But I love training so ultimately this means I get to do more of what I love, training.

I couldn't help but think about my good friend, silly putty. I thought WWSPD (What would silly putty do?) in a situation like this. Would silly putty pout? Hell no! Silly Putty doesn't know how to pout, silly putty doesn't feel sorry for itself, it doesn't even have feelings. Silly Putty adapts, it sees opportunity and potential where others see obstacles. It helped me realize that I could plan for another triathlon (this wasn't the world's only, believe it or not). Additionally, I'll have to do some rehabbing on my knee which will allow me to focus on my two weaker areas of triathlon: swimming and cycling. This injury is actually going to force me to swim more since I won't be able to run right away.

Plans never go according to plans, markets change, hurricanes strike and meniscus' tear. It's the fun part of life called life. The key is getting a silly putty attitude and being willing to put a new plan back in place and being prepared to shrug it off the next time a laborador runs through and wrecks it all to hell.

Now for the fun of putting my next lego world together. If you have any suggestion on great races to consider or any other challenges that might be fun to look into as I'm reassembling my physical self please send your suggestions to jeff@catchyourlimit.com

><(("> JEFFIE