After 3 or 4 visits to different doctors and an 2 MRIs, in the morning of March 24th, 2011, I was going in for surgery to repair the lateral side of the meniscus in my right knee. The surgery was a method I never heard before, “repair with fibrin clot”. They pulled some of my own blood, made a small clot, opened my knee, inserted the clot and stitched the thing back together. Of course I did some research before going for it, what I didn't know was that this is more effective if you're under 25yo, I was 41yo at that time...
Today I think I have figured out how I got hurt. I have been doing triathlons for about 21 years now. Teaching indoor cycling for about 14 years, the year before the injury I was teaching 10 classes a week, trying push a little in each class, most people like to see their instructors break a sweat with them, and why not, I had a few goals that year and the next. So, pushing a little extra while teaching each class was helping me get closer to those goals. Except that my right cycling shoe was getting stuck on every pedal of every class that I was teaching, every time that during a class I was getting off the bike to check out heart rates or to give close instructions, I was yanking off that shoe, “stupid shoe!” that's what I thought at the time...
Now that I think about it, if that had been happening to anyone else I knew, my first thought would have been to tell them to go get that cleat checked! Switch them, something, not yank it off the pedal, “you could hurt yourself...”
It's been 14months now. I'm back to running. The longest I've gone up to now has been 5.5miles on 4/27/12. One thing that will motivate me to get out and run is visiting a new city. I'll put on the running shoes and hit the road to explore. Knowing that there was a park close by I decided to go for it, I stopped a couple of times to take pictures and got really close to the top of “Parc du Mont-Royal”. I packed all the right clothes, being from Venezuela, I not only put on the running shoes, I layered up, the weather was 36F and there were snow flurries at noon. I'm serious, four layers on the top, two on the bottom, wool socks, beanie hat, and gloves. It was beautiful outside I have to say, it was one of the best days to go back out on the road.
I love trail running and was starting to love it more before getting hurt 2 years ago. I'm happy that I can get out again, slow but with that bug of more!
As of today, I'm thinking about my next goal. I surely want to go back to Venezuela and claim that podium finish that I was headed to that second weekend of June 2010...