12/18/2011 - 12/24/2011

A combination of the following has really put my fitness at its lowest point in some time:

• Knee issue

• Colder weather.
o While I LOVE swimming in it, I’m not particularly fond of cycling in it.
Looking at my rides for December 2010, I only had 2 more than this year,
but they totaled 132 more miles.

• Schedule
o Holiday stuff.
o Coaching flag football twice per week.

• Holidays
o Adult beverages
o Cookies
o Pies
o Cakes

• Birthdays
o See above

• Excuses

This week saw exactly TWO workouts (both of them in the pool) that netted a whopping 4000 yards of easy/moderate swimming.

My mythical, magical, all in one, cream arrived in the mail on Tuesday. Out of curiosity, I did a Google search for the mentioned ingredients and found the following:

• 10% Keta = Ketamine (To dull nerve pain)
• 6% Gaba = Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (Pain reliever)
• 5% Diclo = Diclofenac (Anti-inflammatory)
• 0.2% Clon = Clonidine (Pain reducer)

Since I haven’t been running or cycling, I haven’t really experienced any further knee pain. On occasion, however, there is a dull reminder that something is not quite right, but no real issues to speak of. That being said, I wanted to see what this stuff was all about. Would it feel like BENGAY, Icy Hot, or other sports Creams? Would it feel like that numbing sensation when the dentist puts a cotton swab of something ending in “caine” on your gums before injecting something? Well, the answer is none of those. I took a small dab, massaged it into the affected area, and waited. Nothing. Not a hint of anything going on. It was at this point that I figured that I’d wait on using the stuff until after my MRI and after I start running and/or cycling again. Right now, I’m in a holding pattern until January.

In the meantime, I’ve gone from feeling like this:


Or this:


To this:


And this:

12/11/2011 - 12/17/2011

After looking me over, his initial comment was, “Well, that’s a strange injury.” He pulled out a chart and attempted to tell me the different things that he thought it could be. Muscle, ligament, and nerve damage could all be possibilities. One more possibility was more alarming than those three combined….a stress fracture. Tom did say that he didn’t think it was the latter, but to make absolutely sure, he said he wanted me to get an X-ray. So, after some ultrasound therapy, some stretching, and ice and stim, I headed home dejected again. It wasn’t until, December 14th, that I officially realized that there is no way I can continue on my training plan. I’ve already missed two 7 mile runs, an 8 mile run, a 16 mile run, and a 20 mile run. My upcoming schedule is just as daunting too. At this point, if I don’t have a stress fracture, I will just have to “play it by ear.” I know now that the possibility of going sub 4 hours is also starting to fade rapidly. While I’m not out of this game yet, time is ticking away.

Ice & Stim at Tom's:



Since, my doctor’s appointment was scheduled for 12:00, I got to the imaging center around 11:40 for my X-rays. After some initial paperwork and a $40 co-pay, I was quickly taken back for my pictures. After four different angles, and about 10 minutes, I was sent upstairs to see the doc…..right on time! After getting upstairs and handing over MORE paperwork (about 10 pages worth that I had to fill out before getting there), I took a seat in the waiting room. Several minutes later, the gal from behind the glass comes out and says, “The doctor won’t be here until about 1:00, so you can go get lunch if you want.” Um, what? Taken back a bit, I told her that, “I’d figure it out.” As the time passed, I became more and more frustrated, especially when I remembered one of the clauses I agreed to when turning in my paperwork…”If you are more than 15 minutes late, you will have to reschedule, and pay a $50 rescheduling fee.” So, if I was 15 minutes late, the doc wouldn’t see me, I’d have to reschedule, and pay $50, but he can be an HOUR late with no ramifications. Whatever. Eventually, he came in and I was called to the back. I was taken back a bit when he came in wearing traditional blue scrubs, but donning a camouflage Harley Davidson ball cap. He poked, bent, and tapped various parts of my knee while asking a variety of questions. Ultimately, he took me out into the hall to show me the results of my X-rays. He said that, structurally, my knee was perfect. Nothing seemed out of place or wrong. That led him to believe that the pain was due to some kind of nerve irritation or damage. He prescribed some kind of cream that was supposed to be a pain killer, nerve desensitizer, and anti-inflammatory all wrapped into one. The next course of action, however, was to have an MRI done. He said that if that didn’t reveal any definitive answers, the final step would be to do some kind of nerve mapping test that involved small needles placed into my knee. This is where I started to question how badly I really wanted to be a runner. After some parting small talk about how I could continue to train lightly, I paid my $50 co-pay, and was gone. I stopped by Tom’s office to make another PT appointment so that he could do a gait analysis (he said he’d only do this if my injury wasn’t a fracture). Later in the day, the apothecary store, that was concocting my mythical knee cream, called and told me that the 8 week supply was gonna run me $60. Mo money, mo money, mo money! Today was also the day that reality REALLY set in. I’m probably not going to run the marathon at all, not even the half. At this point, I’ll probably just stop running for a period of time and slowly start over using that cream.

PT evaluation = $87
X-rays = $40
Doc = $50
Prescription = $60
Still not knowing what the hell is going on with my knee = Priceless

X-ray machine set exactly at knee height:

12/01/2011 - 12/10/2011

I wanted to go for an easy 1 hour ride to see how my knee would respond. I netted a whopping 13 miles in that 1 hour….Yes, you read that right…13 miles in 1 hour. The good news was that I didn’t feel any pain or residual effects after. With the good news in hand, I ventured out for a 3 mile run just 2 days later. Same recipe as before, walk one mile and then run while listening to my body. I was able to accomplish the task at hand, all be it extremely slowly, with no pain. No pain until I got home that is. Not 2 ½ hours later, I was experiencing the same “locking” sensation where I had to support my knee to move it in various positions. Having had enough of guessing at what the problem was (assuming IT band), having had enough of guessing on the proper recovery (rest with mild exercise), and knowing that my marathon training just went into “Code Red”, I made the decision to visit my old friend Tom at the Center for Athletic Performance & Physical Therapy.

November 2011

NOVEMBER

November started off in great fashion. Since I wasn’t overly enthused about my current Addidas shoes, I picked the brain of sub 10 hour Kona finisher, Erik Svans, about what shoes he uses and why. After some back and forth texts, I picked up a new pair of Nike Lunar Elite shoes. To break them in, I wore them around while doing errands or working outside. Their first true test was a 9 mile “fun run” on Monday. They felt great. Maybe it was the placebo effect, but they felt sooooo much lighter too. On Sunday, November 6th, I finished what was my absolute finest running performance EVER….an 18 miler with a 9:08 pace. The best part was that the run was mostly on trails too! I also accomplished a goal of mine, to cover 13.1 miles in under 2 hours. I was able to do it in 1:56. You can click on the link to look at my notes.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/127156229

After my awesome 18, I peeled off the following runs: 6, 6, 13, 9, 6 pace (8:13), and 10. My next run was scheduled to be my longest training run yet…20 miles. In fact, this was to be the second longest that I had ever run before with my IMAZ marathon being the longest. No need to rehash the details since I already laid it out in my notes. I appropriately called this run, “Shoulda Been 20, Almost 18 Mile Disaster”

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/130300166

As “luck” would have it, my training didn’t have me running for another 6 days and we were taking off to spend Thanksgiving at the family cabin too. This was the perfect time to just relax. No running, hiking, or stress on the knee for 6 full days. My Next run back was supposed to be 7 miles. I figured that I’d walk the first mile, jog the next, and take it mile by mile from there. I soon realized that my knee still wasn’t going to let me go at anything faster than about a 10:00 min/mile. As a result, I ended up “run walking” the entire distance. Towards the end, I was so completely bummed out and bored, I ended up walking the lines of the soccer fields to see what it looked like when I downloaded my data. I guess it was just some time for me to figure out what to do next and to have some fun at the same time. In retrospect, I should have called it quits after about 3 miles as I paid the price when I got home. I literally had to support my knee, from underneath, if I wanted to get up from a chair or bend it. I officially moved from “all systems go” to “code yellow” in terms of training and my attempt at a marathon in January.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/131952663

My new shoes:

October 2011

OCTOBER

While October had plenty of marathon training, there really wasn’t any one specific workout that really stood out in my mind. I only had 4 rides (one being a 21 mile mountain bike ride with Tyler) and two swims (2000 yards each). As for the running, there were 11 of those for a total of 98 miles. That would have been good enough for 2nd most during last year’s IM training.

September 2011

SEPTEMBER

With no more swimming events scheduled, I made the decision to back off swimming this month and concentrate on my marathon training. As a result, I netted exactly 0 yards of pool time or open water time. I had 9 rides ranging from 29 miles to 51 miles and 12 runs totaling 82.44 miles. When I look back at my 2010 Ironman training log, it’s interesting to see that my recent 82.44 miles would have just missed 2nd place for the most miles run in a month. Last year, my biggest month was October (104.9 miles) and my second biggest was July (82.7 miles). My marathon training (courtesy of Hal Higdon’s Novice 3 schedule) has me running 3 days per week. Monday’s are supposed to be “fun” days where I go moderate distances at a pace :60 to :90 slower than what I want to do in the marathon. Wednesday’s are either “race pace” or “tempo.” While “race pace” means just that, what I want to run the marathon in, I still try to do them as fast as I can. The longest pace run this month was 4 miles and I averaged 7:52 min/mile, and make no mistake about it, there is no way I’ll run the marathon at this pace. My goal, you heard it here first, is to finish in under 4 hours. I would be elated with a 3:59:59 (9:09 min/mile). My Friday runs are my long runs and aren’t supposed to be slow OR fast, rather they are to be “comfortable.” My longest run, this month, was a 13 miler at a 9:29 pace. Since I try to do all of my runs before work, this run started at 3:44 AM.

Back in May 2010, one of my workouts was a 10 mile run (round trip) from the family cabin to Luna Lake. Back then, I didn’t have my Garmin yet, so I really didn’t know what my pace was or what the elevation looked like. Well, over the Labor Day weekend, I was able to retrace my route and get it all recorded. Only problem is, the elevation results aren’t accurate. The cabin is on the side of a mountain and you can look down and see the lake in the distance. The results show a flat course with relatively no changes. Even at that altitude, I didn’t really experience any type of fatigue or shortness of breath.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/112371491

On July 3rd, 2010, I did a 50 mile ride from the cabin, to Eager, and back. Kristi had indicated that she was interested in trying the route as well, so we racked our road bikes and brought all of our cycling equipment. Since I wasn’t really training for anything, this was going to be more of an “enjoy the experience” type of ride (similar to Tempe to Tucson). During the ride, we took time to eat some refreshments at the halfway point, stop and look at a waterfall, take some pics by Nelson Reservoir, and to take in exactly how devastating the Wallow fire was to the forest. Ultimately, this ride offered us some much appreciated quality time together. Every time we return to the cabin, I retrace the previous rides in my mind and enjoy them over and over. Hopefully, K will now be able to do the same.

Again, the elevation graph is way off. It shows a number of drops to 0 feet and an overall flat elevation. This is definitely NOT a flat ride.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/112371519

Our trusty steeds:

August 2011

August was a HUGE month for pretty much all three disciplines (10 swims in the 1st 14 days, 8 rides (including a 103 miler), and 14 runs. The 10th swim was my relay leg at the Mountain Man triathlon. Me, James, and Ben were lucky enough to hitch a ride to Flagstaff with fellow ONE teammate, Chris Bergeron, the night before. Just after checking into our hotel, Ben had the brilliant idea to set a wake up call for James and Chris the next day. Actually, he set two, one for 3:30 AM and one for 3:45! Classic. Next on the agenda was the ONE Multisport party at an awesomely HUGE house right down the road. After loading up on some awesome food and hanging out, it was time to head back to the hotel for some shuteye. The next morning, while getting loaded up to head to the course, James mentioned that the hotel called their room twice that morning. He said that he suspected us, but figured that his own teammates wouldn't do something like that. I guess our ear to ear grins gave it away since the next words out of his mouth aren’t fit to print here. I won’t bore you to death with every minute detail of the race, so here is a summary of the hilly course at elevation:

SWIM – 29:55 (fastest of the entire event!)
BIKE – 2:38:21 (21.2 mph/ave AND a personal goal of a 50 mph top speed)
RUN – 1:26:04 (6:34 min/mile)

Our 4:35:52 overall time was good enough for 1st place in our division, but don’t tell anybody that we were the ONLY ones in our division (all male). The fastest overall relay went to, Kenny Steil (bike), Kevin Taddonio (run), and a female swimmer. If you don’t recognize those names, just Google them and you’ll see that they are both Kona finishers and super fast athletes. Here were their times:

SWIM – 31:48
BIKE – 2:11:51 (25.4 mph/ave)
RUN – 1:18:43 (6:00 min/mile)

One other event of note was a 103 miler that was George’s, Tyler’s and Ben’s first century! Three things I remember from that ride: 1) It was friggin HOT! 2) Kyle suffering from dehydration and heat exhaustion (and still finishing!), and 3) The in-ride ceremony of spraying the century virgins with water when we hit that magical mark.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/104935643

July 2011

For some reason, I completely stopped running in the month of July. I can’t remember why, but I think it had something to do with the 24 week program that was starting next month. I really stepped up my swimming to include 10 pool sessions and 5 open water swims. My cycling stayed about the same with 12 rides ranging between 24 miles and 81 miles. The most interesting of these rides was probably Mingus Mountain. There wasn’t too much to report about the ride, but since it’s not one I get to do that often, it’s worth mentioning.

Bartlett:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/102570805

Mingus:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/98446178

June 2011

Pretty much the only exciting news was that I signed up for my first ever stand alone marathon! The Rock and Roll Marathon wasn’t until January 15th, but the online training program that I was going to use was 24 weeks long. That meant that my training started in about a month. I also signed up to do another ½ Ironman relay too, the Mountain Man, in Flagstaff. Once again, I was the swimmer and Ben Gherardi was the runner, but James was going to be our cyclist this time. In terms of working out, I had 10 swims (7 pool sessions, and 3 open water), 9 rides, and 5 runs.

May 2011

Got back into the groove of running with about 8 runs varying between 3 miles and 6. Nothing to write home about on any of these other than I kept trying to reset my posture and concentrated on mid-sole striking. The big event was a ride from Tempe to Tucson with my buddy Tim Fleming. We started discussing this ride a few months in advance and did a fair amount of research on the web before deciding to tackle it. We both agreed that this was going to be a ride to “enjoy the experience” rather than a ride to see how fast we could do it. The day before we were to take off, I went over to Tim’s place to make some final preparations and to go over the route one more time. I returned around 3:30 the next morning so we could both drive down to Tempe together. Shortly after arriving (around 4:30 AM), a number of cabs were pulling up to the dorms and dropping off college kids that were partying the night before (or STILL partying for that matter). I turned to Tim and said, “Their day is going to be a tad different than ours.” With that, we started our Garmin’s and headed off into the pre-dawn morning. As we were making our way through the city, I couldn’t stop thinking about how this just felt like another Saturday ride. It wasn’t until we got onto Highway 87, en route to Sacaton, that the ride took on that aura of something special. We stopped to take pictures, look at our directions, and enjoy the surroundings. We rolled through Casa Grande fairly quickly before heading into Eloy. Once in Eloy, we decided to stop for water, ice, and to use the restroom. The first place that we could possible stop at was a small mom & pop shop (as opposed to a Cirlce K or 7-11) that seemed advertise everything that we were looking for. Once inside, however, we learned that the only way we could get water was to buy it bottled (since their soda machine wasn’t working, and there wasn’t a drinking fountain). When they told us that their ice machine was broken as well, all we could do was laugh. After we purchased our water and Gatorade, we kindly asked where the bathroom was. Their response? “We don’t have a public bathroom” Awesome. Needless to say, we figured something out and headed back out on the open road. Not two miles down the road, we passed a Circle K that had free cold water, plenty of ice, and probably a public bathroom. Again, all we could do was laugh. As the road started to head back west, it bridged over some train tracks and then the I-10 freeway. Just as we were rolling over the tracks, I noticed that a train was heading towards us. We both stopped to check it out. I snapped a couple of pics, but Tim took video for the ages. After the train, we rolled south into Picacho Peak where we stopped off at a Dairy Queen so Tim could throw back a banana milkshake (something he had been talking about for the last month!) As we were riding into Tucson, we heard a horn honking from the freeway. When we looked over, it was Tim’s wife driving into town to meet us (the wives were driving separately and were going to drive us back to Phoenix when we were done.) A bit closer, and it was Kristi’s turn, except she was able to get on the frontage road with us and take some pics. Ultimately, we rendezvoused with Tim’s family about a mile from my uncle’s house (my ultimate destination). Tim’s sister greeted us with frozen Eegee’s drinks that really hit the spot. After finishing my frozen treat, I was off to finish my quest. After being greeted by Kristi, the kids, and my uncle, it was time to meet back up with Tim and his family. This time, it was for a HUGE Mexican lunch that included many cervesas and maybe a margarita too.

Link to the epic Tempe to Tucson ride:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/86066508

Once on Highway 87, Tim led the way:

Entering Casa Grande:

Entering Eloy:

The Mom & Pop Shop:

We made it!

The Train:


One more fun adventure, in May, was our family hike to the top of Escudilla Mountain near Alpine, AZ. The 6 mile hike (3 miles each way) allows you to visit a fire lookout station at the top. The entire area, including the tower, is no longer around because of the Wallow fire (the state’s largest).

The top:



Link to the hike: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/89230907

Finally, I really don't have any reason to post this pic of David other than it's completely awesome and it had to be done. I received it sometime in may, hence the reason it's posted in the May entry:

April 2011

Still more swimming to prepare for the Marquee relay on the 10th with about 11 rides (70 miles max). On Saturday the 9th, things got real interesting. While I was helping my cycling team with the state championships crit that we were sponsoring, I got a text that said Tempe Town Lake was unsafe for swimming (something about a rain storm and run-off water/bacteria) and the triathlon was going to become a duathlon by dropping the swim. While Michael Nemeth (bike) and Ben Gherardi (run) weren’t effected at all, I was now staring down the barrel of a 5K run instead of a 1.2 mile swim. Remember, the last time I had shoes to the pavement was on January 3rd! Well, nothing we could do about it now except lace ‘em up and get after it. I remember race morning being fairly chilly and that there was a car accident out on the bike course (same course as IMAZ) that delayed the start for quite a while. Eventually, I took my place at the front of the line and took off when the gun blasted. Not much to say, since it’s only 3.1 miles, other than I felt surprisingly good! In fact, I came in at 22:43. This would equate to a 7:19 min/mile average, but according to my Garmin data, the run may have been a bit short and my average was more like 7:26. Still, unbelievable that I could have had a 3 month layoff and then come out and crush it like that! Needless to say, I was off the hook happy with that performance. Kristi was able to get a pic of me just before entering T1 to make the handoff. Michael held his own on the bike coming in with a time of 2:32:17 (22 mph average). We managed a 47 second T2 time and then it was Ben’s turn. It wasn’t until after he had taken off that we realized that he may have still had his iPod in (a violation of the rules). No way we wanted a DQ, so I had to plead with the referee to let me take Michael’s bike out of T1 to find Ben on the run course. Yes, you heard me right, I had to plead with the referee to let me go find my teammate who may (or may not) be in violation of the rules. Fortunately, he graciously let me go and after a few trips around parts of the course, I was able to locate Ben. Let’s just say that there wasn’t a disqualification, so there wasn’t really a problem to begin with. He crossed the finish line, with no iPod, in 1:19:49 (6:05 min/mile average). Our 4:16:23 performance was good enough to clinch 1st place with a bottle of wine as the prize.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/78599803

My 1st run after 3 months. How confident do I look?


1st place baby!



Now that I was back on the running wagon, I decided to attend a free running clinic at the Runner’s Den here in Phoenix. We were video tapped running with our shoes on and then without. We went through some tempo drills and some posture drills as well. No big secret was learned when the guy told me I was a heal striker, but when he had me run without my shoes on, I no longer hit the ground heal first. So, before every run, I was to practice without my shoes for 20 – 30 feet to get the proper feel.

Outside of the Marquee race, and the fact that I started running again (4x) April was just another average month in terms of riding and swimming.

March 2011

March was more of the same in terms of swimming, so no need to bore you there. Kristi’s cousins (David & Suzie) were training for Ironman Coeur d’Alene (their 3rd) and decided to take advantage of our weather. My brother from another mother and my sister from another mister were in for a real treat. We did some lap swimming, rode the West Side Loop, and rode to Bartlett. The best adventures, however, were the 55(ish) degree swim in Bartlett and the ride up Mt. Lemmon in Tucson. I remember that my knee was giving me some problems after the Bartlett ride and my ride up the mountain was in serious jeopardy. Long story short, I was able to accompany David and Suzie to the top where we encountered snow, gusting winds, and a short stay inside the Cookie Cabin. After throwing back a hot cup of joe and my fair share of chocolate chip cookie the size of your head, it was time to head back down. Before doing so, David grabbed about a hundred napkins and shoved them down the front of his jersey to act as a wind breaker…..simply awesome. We stopped for a bit at Windy Point (about half way down) to take some pictures and use the restroom. Only problem with this stop was that I forgot to restart my Garmin. By not restarting, I missed my maximum descent speed, cut off a good chunk of riding miles, and most importantly, made the elevation graph unsymmetrical. I hate when that happens.

Bartlett Swim:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/73659947

Mount Lemmon Ride:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/74319879

Snapped this pic at Windy Point:


Me at the top:

February 2011

With running out of the picture, I started swimming between 4 and 5 days a week and signed up to do the swim leg of a relay for the Marquee triathlon in Tempe (04/10/2011). For my pool time, I simply stuck to the schedule in that “Swim Workouts for Triathletes” I used last year and then added some speed work every Wednesday morning at the Village. I was on the bike about 8 times for rides between 40 and 50 miles as well.

January 2011

The New Year started with a hike up Lone Mountain with my son. It was a crisp morning that was perfect for a hike like this. The total round trip was about 1.5 miles, but we definitely took our time. Once at the top, we spent some time talking about the different things we could see. The most interesting was the University of Phoenix Stadium which we agreed looked like a giant marshmallow. Interestingly enough, the stadium is about 26.2 miles (as the crow flies) from where we were. Hmmm, I’m trying to improve my running and that beacon on the horizon was 26.2 miles away….foreshadowing? Was a marathon in my future? January only saw one other hike and that was a 4.7 miler with my daughter in a backpack. We spent quite a bit of time looking at the bunnies and quail along the trail. The day after that hike, James and I planned on a 5 mile trail run near our house. Not a couple of hundred yards into the run, my left knee sent piercing pains up my leg that almost stopped me in my tracks. I remember telling James that something wasn’t right, but continued to run through it. Sure enough, shortly after, all was good. Another 5 miles with about an 8:30 pace was in the bag. My next scheduled run was going to be another 5 miler the next day (01/04/2011). I set off from my work and didn’t even get across the street before that shooting pain in my knee was back. This time, however, I couldn’t go on. It took everything I had to walk back to my car. Ultimately, I had to back out of the relay and this was the last time I would run for approximately the next 3 months (when I was forced to run, but more on that later).

December 2010

A new adventure began on November 21st, 2011 when I signed up for the 2012 Ironman Arizona. Before I get into my thoughts and expectations on that, I think it’d be fun to reminisce at what’s transpired in the year since I finished IMAZ 2010.

DECEMBER 2010

Wanting to really improve on my running “skills”, I reluctantly agreed to sign up for the Ragnar Del Sol Ultra relay (February 25th, 2011) with James, Erik Svans, Buddy Huttanus, Ben Gherardi, and Bill Jones. This is basically a 200 mile, non-stop, relay race from Wickenburg, AZ to Phoenix, AZ. The “normal” relay teams consist of 12 people that run 3 different legs ranging between 10 miles and 3 miles. The “ultra” teams only have 6 people and run double the mileage. Looking back on it, what the heck was I thinking?!? At any rate, my Ragnar training started 9 days after Ironman (November 30th) with a 3 mile run at a 9:07 pace. Since James was doing the relay as well, we figured that it would be a good time to train together. Since James is a huge fan of trail running, I started to incorporate more of those into my plan. My trusted Power line trail, Squaw Peak, Pinnacle Peak, and McDowell Mountain Preserve were all fair game. I also included a few hikes as well. One was up Black Mountain and the other was a quickie with the kids in tow (about 1.5 miles total). Ultimately, I was surprised to see my average come way down after heading back to the black top. 5 miles @ 8:15, 7 @ 8:26, and 10 @ 8:34. My running really seemed to be coming together as I was advancing both physically and mentally. During these runs, I was never pushing the pace or running out of gas. These were comfortable paces which is a far cry from what “comfortable” was during my IM training. To me, this was the beginning of something beautiful. The first indication, however, that something may not be quite right was after that 10 mile / 8:34 pace run. I noticed that my left knee was having some mild discomfort just under the knee cap, but I quickly dismissed it. During the month of December, I was also swimming about 3 times per week and cycling about two.