Hello, a new round!!!

Things have definitely gone at the crazy speed, and not on a straight tragectory. But then again, life never is. If we could line up the future, what good would come out of that boring shit?

First of, somehow I wiggled my way back into an Ultrarunning magazine. While I'm painted as a "mentor" to a new talent, there's a mention of me as a "used to be". That was sweet and definitely tickles my fancy.

Soon after this article, I told Annie that I wouldn't be able to support her next year for her Triple Crown of 200's. I've been anxious to let her know that, and it was eating at me. While our 2 years of up-close and personal collaboration (and 3 years of friendship and mentorship) has been stellar, and brought happiness and benefits to both of us, it was time to let go. As I gingerly mentioned in this article (which I was interviewed for in the middle of April!), and as I vaguely wrote in the previous post, it was time for Annie to spread her wings - and for me to wander into my final year or two of forays and dreams and goals. She was the sweetest thing in response, aknowledging the role I played in her life, as well as the need of the time and energy to tend to my own life. I'll still take interest, and possibly work on her race charts, but I won't be traveling. Those are very long events, and between no extra time off work (which I don't get even paid for while out of the office to begin with), overnights take me forever to recover from a this age, I miss on my own training during and after the events, and Larry misses on our normal life together. 

Back to my own crazy side turns developing. 2 weeks after that first 50k post-surgery (and a week after backpacking), I ran my second 50k (so, 3 50k in a row in 3 weeks, if you care to count). It was a local one by Revenant Running, in Woodland Park over the Pikes Peak pass, for which I, too, had a free entry. I can never pass on the opportunity to race for free! Running at 9,000 ft, with 4,200 ft of elevation gain, this race went as stellar as I can even imagine. I didn't fall, didn't take wrong turns, didn't cramp (until last 2 miles anyway), felt strong, moved through the field, and took 30 min off the prior race time, getting 6:08. I was also 4th female, and while the field was very local, 3 girls in front of me were half my age, and in general, I was the oldest female finisher, still placing in the top of 25% of the field overall. I had to dig through my long ago results, and proved to myself, that I came back stronger than before the injury, and on par with some races from my years past-past-past (well, those were maybe not the best results when I ran 6 hrs for a 50k, but they did exist).

As I was floating in my success and feeling almost invincible, 2 days later, on Monday, October 9th, the day I turned 54 (yes, on my birthday!), at the gym, I was doing a leg workout, and in the last 15 minuts of a full hour, during squats for a million's time, my left (surgical) knee locked up. As in, I couldn't make it straight. Oops. It hurt, too, but that's relative, I can handle that (in fact, I finished my workout). Uh-oh, I thought, that what it feels like when my doctor warned me about the floppy meniscus piece...I was able to put "things inside" back, felt better, and then had another episode. And a couple more. Well, I thought, I really don't want it to happen when I am in the middle of the mountains, alone, not able to get out easily and safely. I called my doctor and said - "It's a "go" on the surgery". We're doing arthroscopic meniscus debridement that we discussed on our last visit, and I was able to schedule it for November 1st, the earliest available.

OK, I said to myself, I'm going to keep in great shape, and run straight into my surgery date. The recovery is predicted much faster, about 4 weeks give or take, and I shouldn't lose much. A few days on crutches, a week or two walking and easy biking, then elliptical, and back to jogging in December. I am a pro in recovery, I got that! 

Larry and I did a drive to and a huke in a Paint Mines Interpretive park as part of my birthday, and that was a very unique, if very small (in terms of hiking) place.

And a week later, on Monday, October 16th, on a very stupid benign road run in the neighborhood, at 6 am (dark, but I wore a headlamp!) I tripped over a small crack on the road and landed hard on my right knee. I drew very little blood, and in fact, I was mostly pissed than hurt. I got up and finished my run for another 30 min...and this is where things got interesting. The knee started to hurt, a lot. When bending and back to straight, every step when landing. I managed a second run (a tempo on the road hills), and 2 more runs next day, all 3 in pain, wincing, and sometimes audibly gasping. By Wednesday, I could barely walk. But I did, of course. Interestingly, all functions were intact, so I knew it wasn't a patella fracture or any ligament tear. But, it could be stress fracture (not visible on the X-ray I got), bursitis, and/or cartilage fracture/contusion on impact. 

That Friday I forced myself into some kind of a shuffle for 10 miles, which put the knee over the edge. On Saturday I barely finished a hike in Cheyenne state park, crying on every downslope. On Sunday I did some kind of trash pick up on local trails with a group, moving gingerly.

On Monday, the 23rd (things were moving quickly) I saw my surgeon, again, where we discussed the upcoming surgery for the LEFT (previously operated for the ACL) knee and meniscus debridement, as well as my RIGHT knee (where he agreed with all 3 of my assessments and ordered MRI).

The lightspeed of things continued, and I scrambled to schedule that MRI after the appointment, as I was leaving on Tuesday for 3 days to Portland. It was, as usual, a trip that breaks my heart into pieces (and it takes weeks to glue it together, hoping it'll hold). I did have a couple of friends there to ease the pain, host and support me, and the weather was, well, Portland - on par with my crying.

The knee continued to hurt, a lot, and all I could put in in form of exercise, was 2 mile walks (limping). 

I got home on Thursday afternoon, and hopped on the stationary bike, to at least feel I can get my HR somewhere above flat line. On Friday I got the MRI done, and Larry drove to Lubbock, to see his son Harrison, for the weekend. I maniacally jumped on any exercise I could do: shuffling on the treadmill, stationary bike, lifting weights (yes, even legs, that was ok), and yoga. The weather changed, finally - we had a long and beautiful Fall, and it was time for North wind to start bringing all kinds of cold and ugly. And it happened, quite literally, overnight - the evening before I was raking leaves, and in the next morning, shoveling the snow. I squeezed a 10 mile new backpack test right before the snow storm (I got a new backpack Kakwa 40 from Durston, along with a new tent by Marmot, ultralight version of my old free-standing Tungsten 1P). Training for my main 2024 goal starts before surgery ⛰️💪😵‍💫

The MRI results came on Monday. Nothing life shattering, just a bunch of mild things (why in the world does it STILL hurt so much for so long?!?): bursitis, Baker cyst, old small meniscus tear (stable), tissue contusion. I put a couple of (very painful) runs in that day, and joined Aravaipa group for a Halloween party. That evening I filled in a registration for Sedona 125 M race in May. Because, that's what you do a day before surgery, right? Totally normal.

I worked on Monday and Tuesday, and on Wednesday, November 1st, after an hour and half on a stationary bike (gotta put some exercise in before lounging for 48 hrs), at 5:30 am, I checked into a hospital for my surgery. 

This was (so far) a much faster and easier turn-around (the whole meniscus debridement surgery took about 25 min). I absolutely love the team at UCHealth and my ortho Dr. Schumer. And with them knowing I have an MD background, I get full briefing on the details, with pictures and schemes. 25% of medial meniscus scraped out, and lateral meniscus intact, I was happy to learn I still have 3/4 of the cushion left in that knee. Big things can be done on that!

Normally, I'm you know what type of dog, but for about 36 hrs, I grudgingly get to be 

on the couch.

P.s. it didn't quite work, the couch life. I got out for a mile and half, surprise visiting Larry on the golf course. 2 crutches for only a couple of days seems like a huge imrpovement from the last surgery!

So, here we go, again. Fingers crossed, faster, more aggressive, and for good. Because, I have huge goals ahead, and I am not backing off. In life, I feel, one of the most important driving forces, is attitude. I got this in spades. It's one thing that is fully under my control - how I view events, and what outcomes I desire to work towards to. With that, I'm looking forward to more sunrises in the mountains than I can count in my head the number of.