"Don't try to rush progress. Remember-- a step forward, no matter how small, is a step in the right direction."
Coach sent this to me this week and it was perfect for how I was feeling after an extremely long recovery and no real progress in my opinion. My second metatarsal in my left foot was broken on May 17th, of course I didn't go the doctor about it until July so that was my bad but it is JANUARY! I watch the countdown clock click down closer and closer to IM Chattanooga (245 Days) and I'm trying not to freak out but it is hard not to look at what other people are doing training wise and get concerned.
Rule number 1: STOP LOOKING AT OTHER PEOPLE. Why do we waste so much of our time comparing ourselves to others? Sometimes we even say oh well we are using it as motivation when in reality we are using it to make ourselves feel badly about what we can't do. I need to stop looking at other people and comparing my workouts, looking at their stats and seeing that mine don't measure up and then stressing about it. I am coming back from an injury, I need to respect my body and the process of healing and recovery which leads to rule 2.
Rule number 2: Respect the Process. Stop expecting to be right back where I was when I got injured. It took months of training to get me where I was when I got hurt and I can't really expect to be right back there after months of no training. My brain seems confused as it thinks I should be putting up the same splits and same endurance. I have to start back small and gradually, another reason I got a coach to make sure I don't over do it and get hurt.
Rule number 3: Remember healing takes time. This one doesn't even just apply to training but to all aspects of life. The PRP injections were extremely painful and took between 6-10 weeks for the full effect to be felt. Patience is not my strong suit and I wanted immediate relief and results. Now I am 14 weeks out from the very first round and finally I can say that the foot is healed. At manual therapy on Thursday at Performance Health my therapist said those blissful words, it seems healed. Ahh I think I heard a choir of angels. Often times we find ourselves wanting to fast forward through the hard and trying times but in reality those are the times we learn the most about ourselves and those around us. I think walking around the city in that boot after the PRP injections was worse pain than any work out or race I have ever done. Trying to walk down the stairs from my third floor apartment with my trash actually reduced me to tears more than once, those walking boots are impossible on stairs!
Rule number 4: "Take it easy" to quote the new man in my life. Starting slowly to get back into a routine of working out 6 days a week, just single workouts for now but I forgot how tired it makes me. New training schedule coupled with some really intense hours at work and I am completely exhausted but very happy. My routine involves icing every single night and so far this week it feels we have turned a corner although I am taking it easy and still mostly wearing sneakers at work.
Rule number 5: Don't forget to enjoy the journey. Every single small step is part of the journey and if you aren't enjoying the journey then you aren't enjoying life. Here's to an amazing next 245 days of accomplishments leading up to Ironman Chattanooga.
Showing posts with label #boots4choo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #boots4choo. Show all posts
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Peace out 2014, a year of major accomplishments and major setbacks!
2014 started as most New Years do, with promise and lofty goals. The year ended with many of those goals accomplished and some important lessons and learning as most do.
This time last year, if I am truly honest with myself and go back to my blog I was recovering from foot surgery and I was ITCHING to do something, I hadn't really learned to swim yet, hadn't been on the new bike I had bought and frankly wasn't so confident about my running post surgery. I had a long way to go before my first half iron in June but I was feeling excited mixed with the anxious feeling of needing to get off the couch.
Swimming proved to be an arch nemesis and I switched exclusively to swimming a 50 meter pool that was much further from my house in order to push myself. That worked wonders until I had a complete and utter meltdown at my very first ever open water swim in May, ok well maybe not complete because I didn't cry but let's face it I contemplated giving up MANY times. People always say to me, "Oh I wish I could do what you do but...(insert reason here, I'm scared, I can't swim, I freak out, I want to quit, I don't have time)." Well I have news for you and if you read my blog you know this, but I want to quit many days, I have meltdowns where I cry on the floor over something stupid because I have been training for weeks and I'm sleepy and sore and I've reached my limit, I get overwhelmed with my dreams and goals, BUT I don't give up, I don't quit, I stay the course. That is the important lesson to learn and that I hope I have conveyed in the last year. I was never a natural athlete, this does not come easily for me and this journey has taxed me more mentally than physically.
Looking back on 2014 I'm disappointed in myself for getting hurt and therefore not meeting the very high goals I had set for myself at the start of the year. I'm frustrated and tired of the injections, the physical therapy, the constant doctors appointment, and most importantly the lack of a training schedule presenting me with solid base and improvements as I head into an even bigger 2015. The injury has taught me valuable lessons and I need to focus on those lessons in my periods of frustration and self doubt. I know that if push comes to shove mentally I can make my body work through pain, not of course broken bone pain again but in the instance of a grueling race I can have mental toughness. I will never forget the words said to me by someone who has known me from the awkward first days of college, "You are way stronger than anyone has ever given you credit for". Those words have stuck with me since they were uttered in June and they have powered me through.
When I think to all the physical pain I have endured I remember Packy and the fact he suffered far worse and he never gave up and he never complained. I'm sure he had internal complaints and some hidden meltdowns but to the outer world he portrayed his strength and that is important. As far as me, I am going to endeavor this year to be more honest via the blog as far as feelings of doubt, being scared, etc so that you can see that I'm not Teflon, this process is hard and anyone going through it or thinking about it should have a real picture not puppies and kittens. I want people to say, "I decided to try it because after reading you try it I think I can do it."
Triathlons are hard, learning new sports is hard and sometimes demoralizing, long course events require extreme commitment and sacrifice. The benefits to me far out way the sacrifices, amazing friends, inspiring and teaching others, the feeling of crossing the finish line and let's face it looking pretty good in skinny jeans is a plus :-)
So 2014, I must say you were pretty positive. I'm so lucky to have the best parents/cheering squad in the business who followed me even to another country to support an endeavor that I am not sure they always understand. I have not had one major race without them and that means the world to me. I set a new half marathon PR and I set a new 5K PR during a sprint tri relay that my team won. I accomplished my goal of a half ironman race, I didn't get the time I wanted but I learned so much about race nutrition and myself, especially when I learned I did it with a stress fracture. I had my first DNF, I struggled with my feelings of being pulled for not making the bike cut off but realizing that everything in life holds a lesson and that was an important lesson for me. The understanding that you can only push yourself so far before you need to listen to your body and understand that rest is necessary. The understanding that a DNF is not a failure, it is not a negative but a positive message of a new goal and what I needed to work on. I accomplished the goal of learning how to take care of myself, rest according to orders and heal.
2015 is the year of the Ironman...more on that tomorrow.
This time last year, if I am truly honest with myself and go back to my blog I was recovering from foot surgery and I was ITCHING to do something, I hadn't really learned to swim yet, hadn't been on the new bike I had bought and frankly wasn't so confident about my running post surgery. I had a long way to go before my first half iron in June but I was feeling excited mixed with the anxious feeling of needing to get off the couch.
Swimming proved to be an arch nemesis and I switched exclusively to swimming a 50 meter pool that was much further from my house in order to push myself. That worked wonders until I had a complete and utter meltdown at my very first ever open water swim in May, ok well maybe not complete because I didn't cry but let's face it I contemplated giving up MANY times. People always say to me, "Oh I wish I could do what you do but...(insert reason here, I'm scared, I can't swim, I freak out, I want to quit, I don't have time)." Well I have news for you and if you read my blog you know this, but I want to quit many days, I have meltdowns where I cry on the floor over something stupid because I have been training for weeks and I'm sleepy and sore and I've reached my limit, I get overwhelmed with my dreams and goals, BUT I don't give up, I don't quit, I stay the course. That is the important lesson to learn and that I hope I have conveyed in the last year. I was never a natural athlete, this does not come easily for me and this journey has taxed me more mentally than physically.
Looking back on 2014 I'm disappointed in myself for getting hurt and therefore not meeting the very high goals I had set for myself at the start of the year. I'm frustrated and tired of the injections, the physical therapy, the constant doctors appointment, and most importantly the lack of a training schedule presenting me with solid base and improvements as I head into an even bigger 2015. The injury has taught me valuable lessons and I need to focus on those lessons in my periods of frustration and self doubt. I know that if push comes to shove mentally I can make my body work through pain, not of course broken bone pain again but in the instance of a grueling race I can have mental toughness. I will never forget the words said to me by someone who has known me from the awkward first days of college, "You are way stronger than anyone has ever given you credit for". Those words have stuck with me since they were uttered in June and they have powered me through.
When I think to all the physical pain I have endured I remember Packy and the fact he suffered far worse and he never gave up and he never complained. I'm sure he had internal complaints and some hidden meltdowns but to the outer world he portrayed his strength and that is important. As far as me, I am going to endeavor this year to be more honest via the blog as far as feelings of doubt, being scared, etc so that you can see that I'm not Teflon, this process is hard and anyone going through it or thinking about it should have a real picture not puppies and kittens. I want people to say, "I decided to try it because after reading you try it I think I can do it."
Triathlons are hard, learning new sports is hard and sometimes demoralizing, long course events require extreme commitment and sacrifice. The benefits to me far out way the sacrifices, amazing friends, inspiring and teaching others, the feeling of crossing the finish line and let's face it looking pretty good in skinny jeans is a plus :-)
So 2014, I must say you were pretty positive. I'm so lucky to have the best parents/cheering squad in the business who followed me even to another country to support an endeavor that I am not sure they always understand. I have not had one major race without them and that means the world to me. I set a new half marathon PR and I set a new 5K PR during a sprint tri relay that my team won. I accomplished my goal of a half ironman race, I didn't get the time I wanted but I learned so much about race nutrition and myself, especially when I learned I did it with a stress fracture. I had my first DNF, I struggled with my feelings of being pulled for not making the bike cut off but realizing that everything in life holds a lesson and that was an important lesson for me. The understanding that you can only push yourself so far before you need to listen to your body and understand that rest is necessary. The understanding that a DNF is not a failure, it is not a negative but a positive message of a new goal and what I needed to work on. I accomplished the goal of learning how to take care of myself, rest according to orders and heal.
2015 is the year of the Ironman...more on that tomorrow.
Monday, November 24, 2014
No Pain No Gain
I think that people throw around the saying "No pain, no gain" pretty frequently without really understanding what it means. After going through rehab for my foot injury I feel pretty sure I know EXACTLY what the saying truly means to the nth degree. Several people have asked me about the PRP therapy that I did so I thought I would write a nice little blog post for you to describe it in detail and hopefully answer any and all questions.
First, bones and muscles have a lot of blood flow going to them and as you probably know blood carries your body's healing agents. This is why muscle injuries and bones can heal much more quickly than tendons or ligaments which have very little blood flow.
I did several rounds of biopuncture leading up to the September race in an effort to speed along the healing process while stubbornly staying committed to doing the race. Biopuncture is the injection of biologically active substances which are physiologically regulating. The injections generally also include some sort of pain management ingredient. These injections while fairly painful at first leave the area pretty numb after a few minutes, the worst injection was into the second metatarsal joint. I think biopuncture is a useful tool if you start treating an injury pretty soon after it occurs but the level of pain I was in coupled with the fact my tendons where essentially fused together meant that biopuncture was not effective in solving my issue.
After my race failure I threw up my hands and told the doctor I would do whatever he wanted me to so that I could get back to full training by January 1st. He immediately mentioned a boot and PRP. PRP stands for Platelet-Rich Plasma and is a process by which the doctor draws your own blood, spins it for 14 minutes to draw out the platelets and then injections the platelets into the affected areas. This process is the most painful procedure I have ever experienced. Drawing the blood is no problem at all but the needle used to inject them back in is rather large and these injections go much deeper than the Biopuncture.
Dr Scott at performance health suggested that we do three rounds, each spaced a week apart to really get ahead of things and attempt to aggressively get me back to training. The first round as scheduled at 10am and I went to work afterwards and that was a HORRIBLE idea. The pain was intense, white hot pain that made it almost impossible to walk even with the boot. I promptly changed the appointments for the next two rounds to be later in the day. I highly recommend doing the injections late and then going straight home and putting your foot up. You are not supposed to take any sort of anti-inflammatory because your body's natural healing involves swelling and let me tell you my foot looked like a Flintstones foot for the better part of those three weeks. The intense pain that limits walking and movement lasted about 24 hours the first time, however it increased with the second and third rounds. With Biopuncture it is important to get the area moving immediately post injections, however with PRP the goal is actually to keep the area pretty immobilized in order to allow the platelets to do their job and repair the area.
The first round of injections was done on October 13th and Dr Scott said that typically it is 6-8 weeks to notice the gains from the injections, this week is 6 weeks from that first round and I have definitely noticed drastic improvement. I no longer have constant pain in my foot, however I still am not allowed to do much as far as training. We have coupled the injections with pretty intense manual therapy, which is essentially a very focused, very deep massage. For me this has been an extremely painful but cathartic process to break up all the scar tissue and fascia that has formed binding the tendons together and keeping my toes from properly moving.
While this whole process has been extremely painful I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and I even got in the pool on Saturday and swam 1000 meters with the pull buoy, still can't kick but at least I was able to practice!
If you have any other questions that I didn't answer let me know!
First, bones and muscles have a lot of blood flow going to them and as you probably know blood carries your body's healing agents. This is why muscle injuries and bones can heal much more quickly than tendons or ligaments which have very little blood flow.
I did several rounds of biopuncture leading up to the September race in an effort to speed along the healing process while stubbornly staying committed to doing the race. Biopuncture is the injection of biologically active substances which are physiologically regulating. The injections generally also include some sort of pain management ingredient. These injections while fairly painful at first leave the area pretty numb after a few minutes, the worst injection was into the second metatarsal joint. I think biopuncture is a useful tool if you start treating an injury pretty soon after it occurs but the level of pain I was in coupled with the fact my tendons where essentially fused together meant that biopuncture was not effective in solving my issue.
After my race failure I threw up my hands and told the doctor I would do whatever he wanted me to so that I could get back to full training by January 1st. He immediately mentioned a boot and PRP. PRP stands for Platelet-Rich Plasma and is a process by which the doctor draws your own blood, spins it for 14 minutes to draw out the platelets and then injections the platelets into the affected areas. This process is the most painful procedure I have ever experienced. Drawing the blood is no problem at all but the needle used to inject them back in is rather large and these injections go much deeper than the Biopuncture.
Dr Scott at performance health suggested that we do three rounds, each spaced a week apart to really get ahead of things and attempt to aggressively get me back to training. The first round as scheduled at 10am and I went to work afterwards and that was a HORRIBLE idea. The pain was intense, white hot pain that made it almost impossible to walk even with the boot. I promptly changed the appointments for the next two rounds to be later in the day. I highly recommend doing the injections late and then going straight home and putting your foot up. You are not supposed to take any sort of anti-inflammatory because your body's natural healing involves swelling and let me tell you my foot looked like a Flintstones foot for the better part of those three weeks. The intense pain that limits walking and movement lasted about 24 hours the first time, however it increased with the second and third rounds. With Biopuncture it is important to get the area moving immediately post injections, however with PRP the goal is actually to keep the area pretty immobilized in order to allow the platelets to do their job and repair the area.
The first round of injections was done on October 13th and Dr Scott said that typically it is 6-8 weeks to notice the gains from the injections, this week is 6 weeks from that first round and I have definitely noticed drastic improvement. I no longer have constant pain in my foot, however I still am not allowed to do much as far as training. We have coupled the injections with pretty intense manual therapy, which is essentially a very focused, very deep massage. For me this has been an extremely painful but cathartic process to break up all the scar tissue and fascia that has formed binding the tendons together and keeping my toes from properly moving.
While this whole process has been extremely painful I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and I even got in the pool on Saturday and swam 1000 meters with the pull buoy, still can't kick but at least I was able to practice!
If you have any other questions that I didn't answer let me know!
Swim: 1000m
Bike:
Run:
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Tenacious D...I mean triathlete...Tenacious Triathlete.
The other day I was talking with a very good friend of mine who shares my passion and dedication for running and it gave me a brilliant idea for a blog.
I have long been called stubborn, strong willed and pigheaded (thanks mom). While sitting down to write this I looked up some synonyms for stubborn and I picked out a few I really like, tenacious, persistent and iron-willed. Sure there were plenty of synonyms that have much more negative connotations but for the purpose of our conversation we are going to stick with the positive. Just like in life, if you keep a positive spin on things you will be happier in my opinion.
Being stubborn to a degree is a require trait for any endurance event because your legs will want to quit, your body will be exhausted, your brain will question your motives and you need that small part of you that says, "sorry shut up legs, get over it body and who cares brain." I've been pigheaded since I was a small child and I am sure that made things slightly difficult for my parents but I think they did a fabulous job of fostering my fierce independence while reigning me in when it was necessary. My mom might just describe me as complete nuts now after watching my races, kidding, at least I hope.
Whenever I meet new people they are always amazed when I say my first ever running race was a half marathon and their eyes bug out of their heads when I say I signed up for a half iron having no idea how to swim. The first thing they always ask is "how did you know you would be ready." My answer is always, "there was no other option." It isn't in my DNA to not complete a challenge that I have created. Now to clarify I always make sure I have the proper lead time going into a race to ensure I have the correct training but I can't imagine signing up and then not doing the work to make it happen. It isn't to prove something to anyone else and I think that is the important fact, it is for me to show myself that I am capable of the greatest challenges I can find.
This tenacity is why I love my role in helping others achieve their goals and helping them to learn how to be stubborn. Mental toughness can be trained just like anything else but it is MUCH harder. Unfortunately being strong-willed isn't always a great personality trait in my current rehab senario and it likely is what caused me to have a harder recovery since I didn't head to the dr at the first sign of pain.
After a month in das boot I moved to real shoes this week and let me tell you that was a HUGE relief as I was so tired of wearing that stupid boot. The physical therapist and the doctor are pleased with my progress after the Platelet Replacement Therapy, which was the most painful experience of my life. I, however, am frustrated and impatient and trying very hard to not over do things as I wait for the tendons to figure out how to repair themselves and stop constantly hurting.
I'm feeling the pressure of my impending race season and it is making me feel extremely restless to get back to training but I know that pushing too hard right now could cost me months or even a race in the future. How does one stubbornly rest? Well they start getting back to strength training slowly while monitoring their foot, they learn to ice said foot three times a day and they read a bunch of books about training. I've also been doing some mentoring and I volunteered at the NYC marathon which was a fabulous chance to meet some wonderful ladies. It is a great feeling when people come up to you and say "Oh wow YOU are Katrina! I've heard so much about you!"
Here's to an injury free 2015 and a soon to be productive off season!
I have long been called stubborn, strong willed and pigheaded (thanks mom). While sitting down to write this I looked up some synonyms for stubborn and I picked out a few I really like, tenacious, persistent and iron-willed. Sure there were plenty of synonyms that have much more negative connotations but for the purpose of our conversation we are going to stick with the positive. Just like in life, if you keep a positive spin on things you will be happier in my opinion.
Being stubborn to a degree is a require trait for any endurance event because your legs will want to quit, your body will be exhausted, your brain will question your motives and you need that small part of you that says, "sorry shut up legs, get over it body and who cares brain." I've been pigheaded since I was a small child and I am sure that made things slightly difficult for my parents but I think they did a fabulous job of fostering my fierce independence while reigning me in when it was necessary. My mom might just describe me as complete nuts now after watching my races, kidding, at least I hope.
Whenever I meet new people they are always amazed when I say my first ever running race was a half marathon and their eyes bug out of their heads when I say I signed up for a half iron having no idea how to swim. The first thing they always ask is "how did you know you would be ready." My answer is always, "there was no other option." It isn't in my DNA to not complete a challenge that I have created. Now to clarify I always make sure I have the proper lead time going into a race to ensure I have the correct training but I can't imagine signing up and then not doing the work to make it happen. It isn't to prove something to anyone else and I think that is the important fact, it is for me to show myself that I am capable of the greatest challenges I can find.
This tenacity is why I love my role in helping others achieve their goals and helping them to learn how to be stubborn. Mental toughness can be trained just like anything else but it is MUCH harder. Unfortunately being strong-willed isn't always a great personality trait in my current rehab senario and it likely is what caused me to have a harder recovery since I didn't head to the dr at the first sign of pain.
After a month in das boot I moved to real shoes this week and let me tell you that was a HUGE relief as I was so tired of wearing that stupid boot. The physical therapist and the doctor are pleased with my progress after the Platelet Replacement Therapy, which was the most painful experience of my life. I, however, am frustrated and impatient and trying very hard to not over do things as I wait for the tendons to figure out how to repair themselves and stop constantly hurting.
I'm feeling the pressure of my impending race season and it is making me feel extremely restless to get back to training but I know that pushing too hard right now could cost me months or even a race in the future. How does one stubbornly rest? Well they start getting back to strength training slowly while monitoring their foot, they learn to ice said foot three times a day and they read a bunch of books about training. I've also been doing some mentoring and I volunteered at the NYC marathon which was a fabulous chance to meet some wonderful ladies. It is a great feeling when people come up to you and say "Oh wow YOU are Katrina! I've heard so much about you!"
Here's to an injury free 2015 and a soon to be productive off season!
Resetting the mile counters to 0 (until I'm cleared to really work out they will stay there)
Swim:
Bike:
Run:
Saturday, October 4, 2014
If your dreams don't scare you they aren't big enough
Dreams can mean so many different things for so many people but for me a dream is a goal that I set for myself that seems unattainable. You don't want your dreams to be easy because going down an easy path doesn't make you grow as a person. If you don't face your fears you will never feel the euphoric feeling of accomplishment that comes when you do something that your brain was convinced you could NOT do.
My next adventure will be long, grueling, exciting, and no doubt extremely life changing. On Monday, September 29th in a coordinated conference call effort, Jamie, Ladawn and I all signed up for the 2015 Little Debbie Chattanooga, Tennessee IRONMAN. Yes, we had a conference call, we are all very type A and had to ensure everyone got in since it sold out in minutes last year. Turned out it took a few more days to sell out this year but we were all pretty excited anyway. We whipped out our credit cards and over $800 later I was ready to embark on the toughest physical challenge I have ever faced. The business and cost of Ironman will come in a later post, but let's just say it is not for the faint of heart.
The past month dealing with my injury and the countless appointments made me very much doubt my ability and mental capacity to continue my journey to a 140.6 race. However, I had a brief come to jesus moment after I got back to NYC from Canada when I was walking down the street and having a particularly down day when I saw a Captain America shirt. As you might know my cousin Packy loved Captain America and I took this is as sign from him, which I generally always do, well that and when I see bud light another favorite of his :) Anyway, here I was feeling sorry for myself and complaining about my doctor's appointments to get my foot better when my foot clearly is not a life threatening injury.
Perspective is a beautiful thing my friends.
Perspective that the whole reason I wanted to do Chattanooga is the charity is Crohns and Colitis foundation, a foundation that is searching for a cure to the disease that Packy fought. A deeper meaning that going into this training is my testament that Packy truly did teach me to Never Give Up not to only do it if it was fun, or easy, or I wasn't hurt. I can handle a few doctor's appointments in order to get myself back in top shape for my upcoming 2015 race schedule if Packy could handle the countless appointments to try and stay with us.
Don't get me wrong I will still have days I feel completely overwhelmed but those days I will make sure to remember I have my angel with me. Every mile of that 140.6 is to celebrate a person that changed the lives of countless people and impacted the world in his short time here. Every mile of training is to reaffirm that I'm alive, that I have hopes and dreams and that I deserve to be at that level of race.
Before Barrelman in my lucky Captain America Shirt with the people who always support my wacky adventures and let's face it sometimes are the cause...I'm looking at you in the background JAMIE!
Dream big, dance in the rain, smile at a stranger and remember life is one big adventure.
Resetting the mile counters to 0 (until I'm cleared to really work out they will stay there)
Swim:
Bike:
Run:
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