3 days to a IM.......knee tendonitis...help!

Triathlon Forum
1

Leaving tomorrow for the Vineman. Have a slight problem. Left knee, just above the patella, slight soreness, no swelling. When I dig my fingers in around the patella, the tender area is where the quad attaches to the knee cap. It is always better after a swim and does loosen up on the bike as long as I continuously change position. When I did my long bricks last weekend, the discomfort goes away on the run.

The bummer is that this will be my 8th IM and have done the most training to prepare for this one (did slowman’s 5 week Ironman countdown program).

Has anyone gone into an IM with tendonitis? I figure, do the swim as I trained, spin the bike, first run lap for the warm-up, then pick-up the pace the 2nd lap, and on the 3rd, try to hold it all together.

any ideas???

thanks

PS will have insurance with, ie. analgesic rub and an ace bandage…just in case.

2

Have you tried icing? I don’t think it could hurt, and I have had surprising results. Don’t go for more than 5-6 minutes though, or negative things start to happen–your cells think they are freezing to death and go into some sort of survival response.

3

Where can I get a copy of slowmans 5 week program?

4

rest, ice, stretch, massage, ibuprofen, rest, ice, stretch, massage, ibuprofen, rest, ice, stretch, massage, ibuprofen,…

5

will do… not the time to crack now…

have been icing, stretching and asperin.

will continue up to the race start.

Always have told myself, the training that I have done and the faith in God will always see me through!

thanks

6

Slowman’s 5 week program was in the September 2000 Triathlete magazine issue. Of course I altered it to my level, ie. week 5 is big run and swim week. His example is a 70 mile run week. I did a 40. Same for the next week. Instead of 350-450 miles riding in a 4 day period, I did 300. Same for week 3 (the bricks) and the two week taper.

7

This has helped me before- stretching the kneecap–

  1. sit on the floor, with your leg extended.
  2. now, place your fingertips around the kneecap
  3. pull the kneecap up(towards you) and hold a stretch 30 seconds.
  4. push the kneecap down(towards feet) and hold a stretch 30 seconds
  5. push the kneecap in(towards your midline) hold stretch for 30 seconds
  6. push the kneecap out and hold stretch for 30 seconds
  7. repeat 3 times… and do this drill 3 times a day.

this has always helped eliminate knee-pain(subtle tendinitis occuring) for me

good luck in your race

8

thanks for the input… just did a couple reps… seems better and I see the logic in what you recommend.

will continue as you said, plus ice, asperin, and other stretching.

like I mentioned earlier, this ain’t the time to crack (that was my mantra at the inaugural Ironman Utah, 2002, during the swim). Who knows, a great race can still happen.

thanks again,

Conrad

9

I have no idea what you’ve got. But I do know that A.R.T. (Active Release Techniques) is, in some cases, a fairly immediate cure for stuff like that. I had a similar situation with my hamstring, which was also diagnosed 10 different ways, and finally went to A.R.T. and it was cured in 2 30 min sessions.

The one thing that made sense with my injury, which sounds the same as yours, is that if it was a stretched tendon, it wouldn’t “loosen up” and go away with exercise, but always be bad…

10

I’ve iced for longer period and frozen the cells in my skin. Didn’t damage the muscle, just left a hard section of skin which was replaced after a week and a half.

11

Can you tell us more about ART? I’d reckon most athletes suffer from overly tight muscles in some part of their body.

ITB problems are common for runners and cyclists and can be corrected through lossening the ITB and strengthening the Vastus medialis.

I wouldn’t be racing on a sports injury you have learnt to manage if or if you could make it a permanent injury.