Anthony Smallwood Macro Thread

AnthonyS

Well of all the great things, the doctor says I have a torn medial meniscus in my left knee.  If you read my micro thread this happened around 8 weeks ago (right when I joined EN, go figure; not related though).  I hurt it getting out of the car (common according to doc). 

So I haven't been able to follow the plan well at all and I spent 2 weeks out of town for work traveling.  This past week I was hiking outside in Utah daily looking at rock outcrops for work learning about geology.  The knee didn't like it.  I have my MRI tomorrow.  After that the doc makes a plan and we schedule surgery to repair.  I'm going to get it done ASAP (this week or next if possible).  Doc predicts I will be back on a bike or elliptical right away but getting back to running will take a while. 

I'm going to skip the 6/1 Olympic I was going to do.  I might Aquabike the sprint and walk if I feel up to it.  I was looking forward to starting the get faster program on 6/2, but I'm thinking I might need to delay it.  I know this will impact training for the Austin 70.3 somewhat. 

Can I delay the get faster plan 1, 2 or possibly even 4 weeks to give my knee more time to get right?  Any aquabike and walking plans to get me through the gap before starting Get Faster?  I am also going to sign up for individual swim lessons in the meantime too.  Swimming will only be impossible for a few days after surgery while the punctures heal. 

While Austin 70.3 is my A race for the year, my real long term goal and AAA race is IM TX in 2015 next year.  So how do I change my plan to accomodate this new wrinkle? 

Thanks,

Anthony

Coach Rich

Hey Anthony,

Sorry about your knee! Let's wait and see what the doc says / his prescription for you after your surgery and go from there. Once he tells us that, we can talk about what/how to approach the next ~8wks, and from there talk about Austin. That's verrryyy far away and just not worth even thinking about. Basically, your job is to rehab your knee like...it's your job 

AnthonyS

Okay Coach. I met with the doc today. He said the MRI was fine too. XRays are also fine. He theorizes that I damaged the cartilage on the knee and that is causing the swelling and excess fluid buildup as well as pain. He says normally the bad cartilage will slough off in thin layers and that the pain is the body trying to repair this issue which is not possible. He prescribed a super anti-inflammatory and said go "use your knee like you intend to use it and report back in 3 weeks." That means training. I posted the entire saga to the micro forum and coach Patrick said, " I'd rather you go on some flavor of Basic Week to build up fitness with minimal risk. Can you plse head over to the Macro Forum with Coach Rich and ask him to draft some kind of week you can repeat as we begin this journey?"

So let's figure out what I can do this week and the next two weeks to test this thing out and get back into training from essentially two months of nothing but intermittent tinkering and pain. The pain isn't awful, but I didn't want to do permanent damage to my knee.

I'm ditching this weekends Olympic Tri. My next sprint is mid July. I have another in September and an Olympic in September too. My A race is IM Austin this October. My real AAAA goal is IM TX in 2015.

I have a 100k bike ride at the end of June, another 100k at the end of July and a 100 mile ride at the end of August.

I know I can ride on my knee. Jogging is what causes the real pain and swelling to kick in. I'm supposed to self medicate with the super NSAID daily in a full or partial dose to control the pain. It's 15 mg of Meloxicam if you have any knowledge of it.

Coach Rich

Posted By Anthony Smallwood on 27 May 2014 09:33 PM


Okay Coach. I met with the doc today. He said the MRI was fine too. XRays are also fine. He theorizes that I damaged the cartilage on the knee and that is causing the swelling and excess fluid buildup as well as pain. He says normally the bad cartilage will slough off in thin layers and that the pain is the body trying to repair this issue which is not possible. He prescribed a super anti-inflammatory and said go "use your knee like you intend to use it and report back in 3 weeks." That means training. I posted the entire saga to the micro forum and coach Patrick said, " I'd rather you go on some flavor of Basic Week to build up fitness with minimal risk. Can you plse head over to the Macro Forum with Coach Rich and ask him to draft some kind of week you can repeat as we begin this journey?"



So let's figure out what I can do this week and the next two weeks to test this thing out and get back into training from essentially two months of nothing but intermittent tinkering and pain. The pain isn't awful, but I didn't want to do permanent damage to my knee.



I'm ditching this weekends Olympic Tri. My next sprint is mid July. I have another in September and an Olympic in September too. My A race is IM Austin this October. My real AAAA goal is IM TX in 2015.



I have a 100k bike ride at the end of June, another 100k at the end of July and a 100 mile ride at the end of August.



I know I can ride on my knee. Jogging is what causes the real pain and swelling to kick in. I'm supposed to self medicate with the super NSAID daily in a full or partial dose to control the pain. It's 15 mg of Meloxicam if you have any knowledge of it.

So riding is fine, it hurts to run, your only event that requires you to run is a sprint in July (5k), and a sprint and Oly in September, correct? So you only "need" to build yourself up to a 10k run by September, correct?

If you were to build a basic week for yourself, given what workouts work for you on what days, given your personal, family, and work schedule, what would that look like? Please post that below.

Regarding the big picture, if it were me:

• I'd understand that I have a very, very long time to fix this and I'd be very patient.
• The sprint in July would be a totally arbitrary goal. That is, it's on the calendar but I'm not using it as anything that would accellerate the pace at which I work to get my run back. Race, don't race, it's 100% a function of whether my knee says that's a good idea at the time and I'd be prepared to not race, without question.
• Very good that you can ride a bike. Again, if it were me, my target/goal for getting my run back to 100% would the start of the November OS, the end of October, and I'd use those cycling events as goals to get very, very strong on the bike. 

But please give me your draft template basic week. I've found it's best to start with the week that works for you, rather than me guessing, and we work together to modify that.  

AnthonyS

I still want to execute IM Austin 70.3 well at the end of October. So yes, I only have to reach 10K by 9/28. 5k by 9/13. I'm prepared to walk/jog/run the 5k on 7/19.

My bike tours are 6/21, 100k; 7/27, 100k; 8/23 100 mi.

I'd like to do a bike intensive plan with some pool time and a few short walk/jog sessions per week. I can train 1 hr per day M-F and any amount of time Sat and Sunday. I'm thinking Sat and Sunday should be spent on the bike outside logging some speed and miles. I'd like to swim twice to 3 times per week. I can easily do 45 min in the pool and a 15 min jog on the same day.

I am signing up for swim lessons with my master's coach once a week (to fit his schedule and mine) to work on my form. This will probably be on Wednesday's and a half hour session, with me swimming a half hour after on my own to reinforce adjustments.

I also prefer to rest on Monday, every other Monday to recover. So M recover or swim / jog or bike. T run / bike. W - swim. Th run / bike. F - swim / jog. S - bike, S - bike or brick with super short run.

That would be my ideal template for the foreseeable future. / meaning either, or, or both but not to exceed 1 hour work time on weekdays. The entire philosophy of training hard and getting the MS done and not working more than 1 hour during the week was one of the primary appeals of joining EN for me. I've done two hour slow rides during the week in the past, and honestly it was pretty worthless in the big scheme of things other than racking up mileage. Long runs during the week the same way.... too much time invested, little to no gain and lots of wear. Now with my latest development I need to keep wear to a minimum. I'm going to go stroller jogging with the wife today (slow) and maybe do some strides just to see what this is going to feel like.

Thanks coach.

Coach Rich

Posted By Anthony Smallwood on 28 May 2014 10:25 AM


I still want to execute IM Austin 70.3 well at the end of October. So yes, I only have to reach 10K by 9/28. 5k by 9/13. I'm prepared to walk/jog/run the 5k on 7/19.



My bike tours are 6/21, 100k; 7/27, 100k; 8/23 100 mi.



I'd like to do a bike intensive plan with some pool time and a few short walk/jog sessions per week. I can train 1 hr per day M-F and any amount of time Sat and Sunday. I'm thinking Sat and Sunday should be spent on the bike outside logging some speed and miles. I'd like to swim twice to 3 times per week. I can easily do 45 min in the pool and a 15 min jog on the same day.



I am signing up for swim lessons with my master's coach once a week (to fit his schedule and mine) to work on my form. This will probably be on Wednesday's and a half hour session, with me swimming a half hour after on my own to reinforce adjustments.



I also prefer to rest on Monday, every other Monday to recover. So M recover or swim / jog or bike. T run / bike. W - swim. Th run / bike. F - swim / jog. S - bike, S - bike or brick with super short run.



That would be my ideal template for the foreseeable future. / meaning either, or, or both but not to exceed 1 hour work time on weekdays. The entire philosophy of training hard and getting the MS done and not working more than 1 hour during the week was one of the primary appeals of joining EN for me. I've done two hour slow rides during the week in the past, and honestly it was pretty worthless in the big scheme of things other than racking up mileage. Long runs during the week the same way.... too much time invested, little to no gain and lots of wear. Now with my latest development I need to keep wear to a minimum. I'm going to go stroller jogging with the wife today (slow) and maybe do some strides just to see what this is going to feel like.



Thanks coach.

Ok, I recommend you:

• Load up the Beginner or Intermediate HIM plan, whichever one you feel is a better fit for your bike fitness, intensity-wise. Set the plan to end on Austin (I think that's far enough out for the plan to "fit" on the calendar? It's 20wks long)
• ^This^ plan will have the swimming and the long bike volume that you're looking for. 
• Replace the interval run that's scheduled in your week with the interval bike (so you're getting in 2x interval bikes), though you may find you'll need to turn down that second interval bike a tick. ^This^ will have you doing 4x challenging rides per week, which is enough. 
• Ignore the runs scheduled in the plan and just do what you think is smart for you that day, given your very, very long term goal which is to build up your long run a safe HIM volume by Austin.

Let me know if you have any questions. 

AnthonyS

Okay Coach, I'm back to ground zero. I had knee surgery on 9/10. The meniscus on my left knee was torn in two places in the inside rear portion, so it could not be seen on the MRI. Doc has cleared me to start swimming and biking this weekend. He said treadmill running in 2 to 3 weeks and no pounding pavement for at least a month. I have a 6 week checkup scheduled.

He said I can do triathlons, but recommended against full distance because he sees a lot of stress fractures in people doing too much endurance training. I still want to do at least one. I know I can if I prepare.

I wanted to IMTX, but feel it is too soon given this year. I would like to win a spot into IMFL, but may not. If not I will probably try IM L'ville since I have 20 first cousins in or close by. That would be a lot of moral support.

My first race next year will be local St Pat's sprint, but the first important one will be Galveston 70.3. What do I need to be doing now to get ready for Galveston training early next year?

P.S. I will go back to my weekly swim lesson with my master's coach. I will probably also swim two more times a week for 3 total. I will stop the lessons once I get my swim consistent, fast and effortless enough to maintain it on my own.

Thanks,
Anthony

Coach Rich

Posted By Anthony Smallwood on 24 Sep 2014 05:12 PM


Okay Coach, I'm back to ground zero. I had knee surgery on 9/10. The meniscus on my left knee was torn in two places in the inside rear portion, so it could not be seen on the MRI. Doc has cleared me to start swimming and biking this weekend. He said treadmill running in 2 to 3 weeks and no pounding pavement for at least a month. I have a 6 week checkup scheduled.



He said I can do triathlons, but recommended against full distance because he sees a lot of stress fractures in people doing too much endurance training. I still want to do at least one. I know I can if I prepare.



I wanted to IMTX, but feel it is too soon given this year. I would like to win a spot into IMFL, but may not. If not I will probably try IM L'ville since I have 20 first cousins in or close by. That would be a lot of moral support.



My first race next year will be local St Pat's sprint, but the first important one will be Galveston 70.3. What do I need to be doing now to get ready for Galveston training early next year?



P.S. I will go back to my weekly swim lesson with my master's coach. I will probably also swim two more times a week for 3 total. I will stop the lessons once I get my swim consistent, fast and effortless enough to maintain it on my own.



Thanks,

Anthony

Anthony,

Sorry for the delay getting back to you. I recommend you do whatever training/rehab, etc that your doc recommends so that you are as close to 100% by October 27th, the start of the NovOS, as possible. In other words, your knee and your local smart guys / healthcare folks are your coaches right now, not EN and our plans. But if you could get back to close to 100% by the end of the month, we can go from there. 

I recommend you circle back to me ~Oct 21 and let me know how things are going. 

AnthonyS

Will do. I'm cleared for triathlon training already. I rode tonight on an indoor bike at low rpm and power for a half hour and then walked a half mile on a 3% incline. Everything felt great and feels better now actually. The cycling and post walk stretching really loosened up my leg. The wife wants to do the turkey trot in November so I will be doing a little jogging to get back to running too. Now that things are fixed, I can start watching what I eat again too instead of depressed I can't exercise binge eating.

It's been a terrible 6 months.

AnthonyS

Looks like I'm going to Florida next year! So race plan is Galveston 4/26/2015 and Florida 11/7/2015. Small local sprints here and there too and one Olympic in June. I can't wait to start outseason training. Until then I will bike swim and jog with the wife and kiddos.

Coach Rich

Posted By Anthony Smallwood on 02 Oct 2014 02:51 PM


Looks like I'm going to Florida next year! So race plan is Galveston 4/26/2015 and Florida 11/7/2015. Small local sprints here and there too and one Olympic in June. I can't wait to start outseason training. Until then I will bike swim and jog with the wife and kiddos.

Great! Please submit a TSR request so I can plan this out for you.

AnthonyS

TSR has IMFL listed as 10/31/2015.... and another online source I found said 11/7/2015. I wonder which one it really is? Not that one week either way will make much difference. I have lots of time to get ready and my knee is feeling way better each day. My wife even commented it's looking better meaning the swelling and bruising are way down.

Coach Rich

Posted By Anthony Smallwood on 06 Oct 2014 02:58 PM


TSR has IMFL listed as 10/31/2015.... and another online source I found said 11/7/2015. I wonder which one it really is? Not that one week either way will make much difference. I have lots of time to get ready and my knee is feeling way better each day. My wife even commented it's looking better meaning the swelling and bruising are way down.

No, it won't make a difference. I guess we'll know in a couple weeks