Knee surgery

Monday was knee surgery for my IT band repair. I have been injured for about 15 months which has left me unable to run over 5-10 minutes without pain. After 4 months off from running last winter the longest run I was able to do was 20 minutes. Pretty much my only run training was during the XTERRA races which would leave me very sore for and unable to walk stairs without knife-like pains in the side of my right knee. Eventually it started hurting to bike after 30 minutes. I had debated surgery mid-season, but since I was finishing on the podium in all of the races, I decided to finish what I had started and opted for a November surgery.

I am one day out from the surgery and things seemed to have gone well. When Dr. Hackett cut throught he IT band there was a massive amount of fluid and the bursa sac was very enlarged and abnormal. He removed the bursa and also cut an ellipse from the back side of the IT band. The recovery will start slow, but should progress faster after the first 4 weeks. I should be able to try running after 8-10 weeks. Since I haven't run without pain in so long, it seems like a short time.

The photo is the bursa that was removed. Normaly it is just a membrane that is one cell thick and almost invisible to the naked eye.

Race Report: XTERRA World Championship

My season wrapped up on October 25th at the XTERRA World Championships in Maui. After a very consistent season I had high expectations for the race and a specific plan. My goal was to get out of the water in a better position and ride to the front of the race on the bike. Even though I have been unable to run for over a year, I thought I could still hold on with most of the top runners for a top 3 finish.

I exited the water further behind than expected. I was 2:45 off the lead at that point which meant I would have to bike all out from start to finish just to get back into the race. I followed Nico's green kit up most of the climb and worked into the top 5 by Ned's climb. I got word that I was 1:45 behind at that point and I could see a group of 4 riders in the distance. Conrad, Olivier, and Franky, but who was the fourth? I put my head down and went to work on the climb. I reeled in nearly all of the 1:45 gap in that one climb and I hit the plunge about 2 bike legnths behind Conrad. Of course he wailed the downhill like no one else can, but I kept it close enough. Past the Oil Tank I was in 3rd position after passing Olivier and Franky on their 16lb hard tails.

The final 3 miles of the bike were strewn with lava rock and I kept with my strategy to just stay seated and pedal. Riding on Conrad's wheel was Eneko Llanos from Spain. I hadn't counted him in the top 5 since he raced Ironman 2 weeks before, but you can never count out a past champion. I rode past the duo and Conrad latched on. As we entered T2 it was Conrad, myself, and Eneko within just a few seconds of each other.

My run would be a big question mark with lack of run training but I thought I still knew how to run. I was wrong. I just couldn't get it going on the run and I watched the race roll by. Eneko, Conrad, Nico, Franky, Olivier, Weiss, Schumann, and Wealing all ran by. I finished a dissapointing 9th, but I felt I had made it exciting and at least put myself in position. My next battle will be knee surgery for my IT band on November 2nd. It will be great to be able to run again.

The XTERRA USA National Championship took place Saturday in Ogden, Utah. Coincidentally it was also my son Porter's fourth birthday. It was a long drive for some ice cream and cake. The race was the final stop on the XTERRA Cup circuit. For the point series it was a mandatory race and the rankings took the best 5 of 9 races (8 cup races + nationals). Heading into the Saturday I was ranked 3rd behind Conrad Stoltz from South Africa and Nicholas Lebrun of France. Conrad held a pretty secure lead in the series and Nico was just 10 points in front of me, even though I had beat him in 5 out of 6 meetings. The reason for this was the fact that Nico has raced all 8 cup races and I had only raced in 6. Also on the line for me was the US title.When all was said and done, Nico won the race, Conrad second and I was third. Nico had a great race from start to finish especially on the bike and run. He challenged Conrad at the top of the climb after 15 miles of uphill and Conrad responded with a blistering descent and hit the run with a small cushion. Nico ate up Conrad's run and passed him late in the run to take the win. To Conrad's credit, he raced very strong on a course that did not favor his strengths and was build for Nico. From my point of view the race was much less exciting. I exited the water with Nico and about 90 seconds down to the lead. I biked strong for the first quarter of the climb and found myself in second place still in the early stages of the bike. At around mile 4 or 5 Nico came around me to share with the pace setting, but I had trouble sticking to him on the short steeps. From my own doing I found myself alone for most of the rest of the bike. I tried to run hard which was tough to do since I had only ran once in the past 10 weeks. With about 2 miles to go I looked back and saw a hard charging Mike Vine just 10 seconds behind me. Somehow I had a little left in the tank to hold him off, but not enough of a cushion for Porter to cross the finish line with me...maybe next time. He wasn't too disappointed since he got to wear a homemade crown all day (thanks Mom!).

The final final race of the season will be the XTERRA World Championship in Maui on October 25th. Coach Durner at CTS has already cooked up some specific training for next week (I think the term he used was "sufferfest"). We are also looking into some unique acclimating strategies for Maui, just as the weather report is calling for 4 to 6 inches of snow tonight.