Week #22 - Bootcamp Rehab

This week there was back to back days of training with the South Bay Team. Leading up to our second and final bootcamp, I was in physical therapy sessions and working on rehabbing my knee. The patella tendon is still very sore to the touch, the my knee's function is increasing. My range of motion is pretty much back to where it was - finally! All week, I'm been sitting in my office, tucking my rehabbing leg under my chair to stretch the tendon. This work clearly is showing the benefits now. The tendon is back to it's original length and that was the goal. Now, the goal is to get the remaining fluid around the knee out of the area and allow blood to flood into the impacted area and bring nutrients. How is the done? Light and tender massage. It was painful at first, but it is time to move stuff around in there.
Saturday we were at Shadow Cliffs in Pleasanton. The plan was to complete 3X swim/bike/run/core at your own pace in 5 hours. Well, I'm not %100 yet so I made created my own bootcamp course. I completed the swim of about 1000 yards. Then saw my back bike tire was flat. Damn how did I get a flat already? Turns out the coaches flattened all back tires so we would have to work on changing the back tire. After all that, I put my bike back on the bike trainer for a very light spin. This was actually the first time I had been back on my bike since the fall. I completed 25 minutes. Then, my swim coached convinced me to get into the 58 degree water without a wetsuit for deep water running. She said it would be better for my knee without the wetsuit. Well, she was right, but it took some time to get use to the water temp. I completed 40 minutes of deep water running. Then I completed some rehab exercises on land as part of my core and rehab plan.
It was time to complete the cycle again. So, I attempt to put back on my wet wetsuit. LOL I couldn't feel my fingers and was having a difficult time pinching the wetsuit to pull it up. My coached asked if I wanted help and I said, "Yes please". He helped me put on the wetsuit and it was a great fit. I had the best swim of the day after that. I went back in the water and completed another 1000 yard swim. I exit the water and have 30 minutes until the open water tester was coming to certify me to swim outside the lane lines at Shadow Cliffs. Well, after all that to get my wet wetsuit back on, I was not about to take it off for 30 minutes just to put it back on. So, I left on the wetsuit. I thought about doing a light spin with it on, but didn't want to rip it. So, I connected with teammates who I hadn't seen in a while and attempted to say warm.
The open water tester arrived and I went back into the water to be tested. Of course, I passed and am now certified to swim outside the lane lines. Apparently, there is a route that is exactly 2.4 miles outside the lanes. After completing all the paperwork for that, the 5 hours was up. We ended our day on the foam rollers. Now, I have not used my legs in the same capacity as my teammates, but that foam roller really hurt! My butt was still alittle sore on Sunday.
I woke up Sunday morning, planning to attend the day 2 of bootcamp in San Jose. The night prior I watched the weather forecast and learned of a bad storm that was headed on way on Sunday. I told myself I would play it by ear in the morning. The workout was going to consist of swim drills (which I can do), then a 30 mile bike ride (which I can not do), a track workout (which I can not do), a bike trainer workout (which I can not do) , possibly another run workout (which I can not do) and end with an endurance swim (which I can do). I woke up, looked outside and just saw dark clouds hovering over in the sky. Needless to say, I decided to stay close to home and swim at the gym. It poured something else that day and my teammates were out there completing the workouts. Now, that's IRON!
The next week ahead is a bike focus week and it ends with us completing one loop of the Vineman bike course. We'll see how my physical therapy and rehab goes this week.
Have a great week.
Cheers,
Dana