Pre-Season Is Here!

It's been too long since I've entered a new post, but that is not an indication that I've taken time off from training! In fact, I've stepped it up again and have a lot of good news to report. The fall is a notoriously busy time of year for me: Clinical Ladders proof and plans are due to maintain my Level IV Clinician Status at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, I traveled to Traverse City, MI to teach a 2-day Stroke Course, spent a weekend in SanDiego with my darling mom (hiking and swimming in the ocean!) and the 250+ guest black tie Gala I chair for Merit School of Music was on November 14th. Oh, and then there's training to keep up! Let's get to the fun stuff already :)

My last entry was about 8 weeks ago. Without looking at my Training Peaks log, I would guess I've been able to maintain 8-9 hours/week of training. During the majority of these 8 weeks, I have been training 5 days a week, with a 6-day training week every other week. Workouts have consisted of weekly swims with the Chicago Blue Dolphins on tuesday nights, long rides and runs on the weekends, and track/treadmill runs, computrainer rides and strength training for the first time as part of my weekday workouts. I have most enjoyed the fall long rides (miss them already), thursday computrainer rides with the team, and my new weight class at my my triathlon gym with coach Giulia Isetti. I am really looking forward to feeling the payoff of lifting, especially when it comes to my swim times.

Most importantly, my wrist and shoulder injuries have improved significantly in the last 8 weeks as well. As you may recall, the accident was on July 6th, nearly 5 months ago. No way did I expect my rehab to go on as long as it has. I was non-weightbearing on my wrist until August 24th but had started PT for my shoulder mid-July. Small gains had been made with my shoulder, as in tolerating scapular strengthening with up to 2-3 pounds rather than just against gravity. Unfortunately, I had a setback for at least one month during September. I was back at work, trying to resume training, trying to get to PT 3x/week still 40 minutes away, and my insane fall schedule was underway. Something had to give, and it was my consistency with PT. I figured that because I was back in the pool 1x/week, running several times/week and riding 40-56 miles on the weekend all of a sudden again, my shoudler would just come along. Wrong. It only got worse. The popping with flexion above 90 degrees and abduction above 70 degrees was exhausting. I tried everything- not sleeping on the right shoulder, not carrying my purse on the right shoulder, slowly re-incorporating PT and strengthening...progress was very slow. I was also still needing to wear my wrist splint in the pool at the end of September. Shouldn't these injuries be long gone by now? I decided to get a shoulder consult with Dr. Romeo at Midwest Orthopedics at Rush. He regularly works with athletes and would appreciate my desire to maintain training at all costs. He diagnosed my shoulder with biceps tenosynovitis. Basically, the junction of the tendons is inflamed and therefore smooth excursion of the tendons in their respective sheaths does not occur. His recommendation was to work through the popping and pain if I was up for that because it can't do any harm. Even though he recommended continued PT for 4-6 more week for strengthening and modalities (iontophoresis, ultrasound), I decided against it for two reasons. First, if he was saying I couldn't hurt it by resuming training through any pain, then I could push it on my own with training and not drive myself nuts going to PT to lift 2 pound weights. Swimming and strength training on my own could only be better. The other reason I declined further PT was because I don't believe the small benefits of iontophoreis and ultrasound exceed those of deep friction massage to the tendon in addition to strengthening. Finally, I'm listening to my own professional advice as a patient! Well, it worked. The first 2 weeks in October were still a little tough working through the 6-8/10 shoudler pain in the pool after the first 1000 yards of each practice, but it paid off quickly. By mid-October I started noticing less stiffness, more mobility, and much more strength. It was in mid-October that I also began the WellFit strengthening class on wednesday nights, which focuses more on the upper body and core so far. I also started pull-ups (assisted!) and full weight-bearing push-ups again for the first time on my wrist. The key was USING it and working through the pain. Up until mid-October, I still didn't have full wrist extension or the ability to fully weightbear when scooting into a booth or doing downward dog! Today, about 6 weeks after the advice to work through the pain, I finally feel like things are getting back to normal... 5 months and counting.

I am ready for this Madison challenge now more than ever. I successfully maintained and even improved my post-injury fitness level during this transition season from September through November. Today is December 1st and the 9-week Pre-Season training started yesterday. Madison training starts immediately after on February 2nd. My race season is almost finalized. Elizabeth Waterstraat, my primary coach for the next 10 months, is going to be a tremendous asset to my routine and I couldn't be more ready to bring it on.