Aging black leather and hospital bills
And tattoo removal and dozens of pills
Your liver pays dearly now for youthful magic moments
But rock on completely with some brand-new components

Cake, Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifestyle” Motorcade of Generosity, 1994, Stamen Music (emphasis added).

Saturday will be my first race of the year, the Colorado Triathlon. I’ve been dealing with a minor injury that I think I’ve got under control at the moment, but it’s been a process. A several decade process to be honest. I first noticed pain in my right calf in my early 30s, when I started running longer distances. It felt like a tear or strain in my muscle, but it would usually go away after a few days of rest. In my early 40s, it would flare up for a few weeks every couple years, sometimes making running difficult, but it was always a pain I was able to tolerate.

That all changed in my late 40s. About five years ago I was out running, and the pain came back, worse than even. I had to stop running and limped a couple miles home, making the pain worse. At that point, I had enough and decided to visit Laramie’s Premier Bone and Joint and get medical advice. 

At Premier, they hooked me up with Dr. Mark McKenna. If you’ve attended a University of Wyoming football game over the last five years or so, you are very familiar with this commercial:

That’s right: I got the same doc that operated on Josh Allen’s shoulder when he injured it back in 2015 during a game here in Laramie. I explained where the pain was, and how it was triggered. They initially took X-rays of my leg. That revealed nothing. Then Dr. McKenna ordered an MRI, and he put a small node on my calf to mark the spot where the pain was. The MRI appeared to find the cause: a small bump on my lower leg bone (I forget which – tibia or fibula), which was clear to see on the MRI. At the time, I was hoping to train for my second Ironman, but I was somewhat overweight. My weight can fluctuate anywhere from about 155 lbs, my ideal racing weight, up to 190 lbs, my post-holidays, “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” weight. When I spoke with Dr. McKenna, I was somewhere in the 180 lbs range.

I explained my Ironman aspirations and the fact I was about 25 pounds above my ideal race weight. Dr. McKenna gave me two options: have surgery or try and get down to the mid-160s before running again, losing weight by continuing to swim and bike, neither of which cause my calf pain. Then I could try running again, once I trimmed down.    

Weight control

Like most people, I’d rather avoid surgery. Dr. McKenna explained that the surgery would require him to shave down the bump on my bone somehow, inserting some kind of surgical implement into my leg. The alternative of temporarily stopping my run workouts and focusing on the swim and bike until my weight dropped sounded much better. So I followed Dr. McKenna’s advice, and it wasn’t long before I dropped about 20 pounds and was able to start running again. 

Not only was I able to run again, but I finished the 2022 Arizona Ironman with a marathon time of roughly 4 hours. I had a couple twitches of pain in my calf during the Ironman run but nothing that was ever painful. But the pain has never gone away completely. It has flared up a few times since my visit with Dr. McKenna, including this spring. 

In late March of this year, I was out running when the pain came back. I couldn’t notice until I had run for about 20 minutes, but it would start to hurt, and the pain wouldn’t go away. I was still able to finish my runs, but the soreness was there for a few weeks. And of course, I would still go for runs, hoping the pain would be gone only to find that it had lingered. Then on April 11, I was running on campus, and 18 minutes into my run, the pain came suddenly and sharply. It was like getting shot with a BB gun, the sting of it was excruciating, and I had to hop on one leg for a few steps. Luckily, I only live six blocks from campus, so I was planning on hobbling home until I ran into my buddy Zack Orenczak, an accomplished climber and author. Check out his website here:

Zack lives right across the street from campus, and he saw me limping along and offered to drive me home, which I gladly accepted. On the drive, I explained what was up with my leg and he replied, “Dude, you’ve got a bone spur!” Zack went on to explain that he had one in his shoulder, and the surgery was relatively routine and successful. Dr. McKenna hadn’t used the term “bone spur” that I could recall, but I went home and googled what a bone spur was. I thought it was something that rich people had used as an excuse to avoid the draft in the Vietnam War-era, but lo and behold, they are real. Suddenly, I was thinking of the surgery option. At that point, my calf hurt badly enough that it was painful to walk. But then after a week of not running, the pain in my calf had nearly vanished and I decided to give one more option a try: a treadmill.   

Saved By the Treadmill

When I first started running longer distances, I also experimented with treadmills and found that I didn’t hate them. In fact, I like running on them quite a bit. I like that you can control the cadence, incline, and other variables like wind, weather, and cars or dogs. And it’s also less impactful on your legs. On the flip side, treadmills are easier and you are doing less work. Rather than propelling yourself forward like a person does running in the outdoor world, you’re just basically bouncing on a treadmill. However, you can still get a killer workout. 

So I tried running on the treadmill a week after the “injury,” and I completed a fairly easy 40-minute run, keeping my speed under 7 mph. I experienced some pain, but not much. Certainly not enough to make me quit running. Over the last month, I have increased the intensity and duration of my treadmill runs and the pain is gone. My weight is hovering around 160 and I’ve been sprinkling in some shorter outdoor runs and I feel good on those. 

Other Training 

The swim is my weakest discipline, and I had only been swimming twice a week or so until recently. During finals week and graduation, I was busy enough that I went 12 days without swimming. But then this last week, I hit the pool 8 days in a row before skipping Wednesday. I usually swim 1000 to 1200 yards, alternating between three workouts. I haven’t put my wetsuit on yet this year or been in the open water. That will cause some butterflies Saturday morning, just putting on the suit. With the swim, I want to start slow and get in a rhythm and not expend too much energy. Just finish somewhere in the middle of the pack to set myself up for a strong bike ride. 

As for my bike training, I have one bike in the basement on a trainer, pictured here:

I do an hour-long spin session in the basement where I go fairly hard and constant and that keeps me at a baseline level of fitness. This past weekend, I took my race bike out of the garage (featured at the top) and went for a ride out 9^th Street/Rogers Canyon. It felt great and while I could be in better bike shape, I’m ready for the sprint distance of 17 miles. 

Ergogenics

The last part of my training has been temporarily quitting caffeine. In the Beastie Boys tune Super Disco Breakin’, Ad-Rock starts off rapping, “Well it’s 50 cups of coffee and you know it’s on…”. I love that song but always thought that was a lyrical joke. Who could drink 50 cups of coffee? Well, me maybe. I’ll write more about this later, but I had been consuming an insane amount of caffeine as I came down the home stretch of the spring semester. Once the Memorial Day weekend hit, I quit cold turkey and it’s been two weeks. 

Will I ever drink coffee again? Yes, starting Saturday morning before the race. Caffeine is an ergogenic, or a substance that is designed to enhance athletic performance. I needed to detox off caffeine anyway, and this was the perfect time. The first few days were rough, I won’t lie. But now my caffeine tolerance is gone, and after I drink a few cups of coffee tomorrow morning, it’s on.  

I’ll explore all of that later, maybe as part of my race report. As far as possibly having surgery, I’ll see how this season goes. This is about where I should stop, but until next time, peace and Powder River!