Day 25

 Merry Christmas!

Day 25 of my Total Knee Replacement recovery. Progress is not particularly quick and there is a fair amount of tedious work that I process through each day, but progress is happening.

On day 13, I had my staples removed which led to being able to add baths and swimming back to the menu. I did my first post surgery swim….just 1,000 yards but it was my first aerobic activity in 2+ weeks.

On Day 22 and yesterday, Day 24, I was able to do very easy spins on my Wahoo Kickr bike. The first ride was just 1-mile and that took 6:35 to complete with a whopping avg power of 41 watts. Yesterday, I spun for 10 minutes and managed to cover 2.6 miles (15.6 mph) with an average power of 84 watts.

The key thing each day is to keep upping the stress on my knee and pushing my range of motion, without causing excessive swelling. In addition to the above, I’m going on 5-8 walks a day and while I haven’t gone as far as a mile yet, most walks now are 10+ minutes and near or over a half-mile. I also have 3 sets of range of motion exercises that I’ve been able to do 3-5 X/day. Lots of elevation and icing as well….

The biggest struggle is sleep. I can generally get 3-4 hours in but then my knee has enough discomfort in it that it wakes me up. This is usually around 2-3am. I usually struggle to get back to sleep and most days (like today), I just get up and start the day (it’s 7:45am as I write this and I’ve already been out for 3 walks in the single digit outside). I take a nap or two later, but the sleep challenge is probably the hardest part of the recovery so far.

Onward and upward!

New Knee Day 20: In the grind now!

 It's been 10 days since the last update on life with my new knee.  

Brian came over to watch Argentina take down Croatia and during halftime on Day 13 he removed my 27 staples.  This turned out to be mostly a non-event (with the exception of one spot where there was a matt of clotted blood and superglue).  Since then, the incision has continued to look better and better--I'll update with a new pic at some point.

With the staples out I was cleared to submerge my knee beginning on Day 14, which meant that baths and swimming were back on the menu.  I've been taking a warm bath each night, which helps with sleeping and I even went swimming on Day 16--just a 1,000 yds, which took almost 19 minutes, but it was good to actually do something quasi-aerobic again!  I'll probably swim a few more times before the end of the year but plan to get into a regular swim routine in January.

I've also been cleared to begin riding my bike trainers at no or very low resistance.  I tried yesterday, Day 19 for the first time on my recumbent and it's still a no go--too much swelling and resistance as my knee gets close too my body on each rotation.  I plan to check my Wahoo Kickr tomorrow but expect that I would be regularly on the bike before the New Year.

I still elevate for lengthy periods of time each day and spend about 2 hours on my Game Ready ice machine each day.  I've found it difficult to do 6-8 cycles of all 3 PT exercises and 5-10 minute walks each day without my knee swelling and suffering a set-back the next day.  I have to take it easier than is my nature but I'm really trying to listen to what my knee has to say about what I put it through each day and right now it's telling me to slow down a bit.

I still wake up from the pain around 2 or so in the morning (after a 10pm bed time) but have recently been able to get back to sleep for another 2-3 hours before dawn--still not enough sleep but a definite improvement.  

As my swelling has subsided my knee has started to "click" a lot which is annoying and a bit disconcerting.  But it appears to be fairly common and the hope would be as I continue to improve my range of motion the clicking will diminish and hopefully go away.

The other issue I have is first thing in the morning (especially at 2am) after a fuller day of PT the day before, when I get up, my knee is very tender and not super functional so I have to baby it a bit until it wakes up.  This also tells me I have to go slow on the day's activities.

I'd say my knee is at about 20-25% of the functionality of my good knee so still a long ways to go.  for reference, I'd say my left was at about 50% before the surgery so I'm hopeful I start moving ahead of where I was over the next month or so....

Trying to be a patient Patient!  Onward and Upward!

Day 10: Life with the new knee...

 The last three days since my Day 6 post have been all about settling into a routine of sorts.  My knee continues to progress, albeit at a slower rate and with steps backwards mixed in with the advances.

Dr. Galinat came by late on Day 6 (Wednesday 12/6) and changed out my dressing for me.  The wound looks good--healing well with no signs of infection:

As you can see, my knee still has quite a bit of swelling (although well down from its cartoonish-peak!)  My range of motion is within the target range but hasn't materially changed over the last 5-6 days.  I can bend to 90 degrees (as you can see above) but its not easy and a bit uncomfortable.  I can't quite get all the way to 180 when I straighten it unless I push it down.  90/180 are my targets for these two exercises until the staples come out.

With the swelling comes a modest bit of pain that unfortunately manifests itself at night and is leading to low quality sleep.  I seem to sleep pretty solid for 2-3 hours and then as the Tylenol begins to wear off, the pain is enough to make me uncomfortable enough to only get little bits of sleep here and there.  My docs both warned me that this second week would probably be the hardest with respect to sleep.  I'll try to muddle through.

I took a PATIENT PATIENT day yesterday as I felt like my knee swelled a bit form a full day of rehab (with my longest walks) on day 8.  Today, I'm going to be a bit cautious again and will walk 4-6 times vs. 7-9, which is a full day.  I've also gone back to limiting the duration to 5 minutes.

My staples will come out early next week and a day or two after that I'll be cleared to swim/take baths again.  I may wait until January before starting a regular swim program but I'll be all over the baths in hopes of helping sleep better.

I've started driving again which is good for my spirits and takes some of the burden off of Judy.  I'm not certain when I'll get cleared for low-resistance cycling but maybe not too long after I get the staples out if I can keep the selling down.

All good!  Onward and upward!

TKR Recovery Day 6

 A couple of quick updates.  I received these Cat Scans of my new knee:

In the first picture, a frontal view, my new knee is obviously on my left (right side above as it is a frontal view).  My left leg is a bit lower in this pic as I must not be lying on the table perfectly straight in the picture.  A couple of things to note: 1. you can see how much smaller my lower left leg is than my right by looking at the outlines of the skin.  It's especially evident the higher up the calf you go.  This is due to many years of my right leg doing more of the work as my knee deteriorated.  This is the longer term rehab I need to undertake--probably a couple year project and realistically, I'll probably never get back to a 50/50 balance.  But I'm sure I can do better than the 62/38 power balance I had on my bike this summer. Second, you can see the extra wide channel (above my knee cap) for the new more athletic implant.

The second picture is a side view.  Notice the nice big space between the two implants--yea!  You can also see the 27 staples on the frontal surface of my skin. (yikes)

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I had a really active day yesterday PT-wise.  I had 5 cycles in by noon but found that I was getting some selling and I started to feel a bit fatigued so I backed off in the afternoon.  I also decided to forgo my 2nd dose of Tylenol last night (and had some red wine with dinner--yea).  This might have been too soon as I didn't feel a lot of pain last night but it was enough to lead to more sporadic sleep.  I've decided to go back on it today and for the next couple of days.  My meds now are 2 Aleve/4 Tylenol/2 aspirin a day.

Lastly, I'm now walking outside as part of my PT and up and down stairs with no assistance!  It's slow but its feels quite easy.  I hope to start driving tomorrow.

Onward and Upward!

TKR surgery recovery: Day 5

 Right of the flight path with my recovery.  On Friday, poor Judy had to drive use at dusk in a fair amount of rain from Lodi to SFO all the while enduring my directions.  We made it.  We got to the airport 5 hours early (am I becoming my parents?) to manage all the transitional stuff with my knee but it was a real breeze and it turns out the Harvey Milk terminal there is fantastic.  Was able to spread out and find a place to elevate my knee and read and chill prior to the flight.

We left an hour late because the inbound from the East coast was an hour late due to exceptionally strong headwinds.  This in fact turned out to be great news as the same wind actually got us to PHL early despite the late start.  In total our flight time was just over 4 hours, which must be close to a record of some kind.  I wasn't able to elevate my leg, even though we were up in First Class but it didn't matter as the leg felt fine.  I got up to go to the restroom at one point and just used my $11 Walmart cane.

We arrived in Philly and had an easy transit home to our house in DE where I set up shop for the day on my couch watching yet more soccer and the EAGLES!  I did 7 cycles of PT (walking/exercises) and did the last walk without the walker, which has now been retired.  I have a Game Ready Ice Machine and I spent 100 minutes on that--its amazing!

I ended up only taking 1 Percocet during the day (I'm prescribed 6) and after talking to my surgeon decided to take one last night and that chapter is not thankfully closed.  I ended up taking 14 of them out of the 42 they had given me for use over 7 days.  So day 5 is Oxy free! 

I'm settling in for a routine recovery week where I expect to basically do the same stuff every day. 7-8 cycles of PT with gradually lengthening walks--line maybe up to 10 minutes a few times a day by the end of the week--most will stay at 5.  I want to be on the Game Ready for at least 2 hours a day.My range of motion is slowly getting better and when I'm sitting around it occurs to me that I have the least amount of pain I've had in 5-10 years!

Onward and Upward!

Post Knee Replacement Day 3 and details on what they actually do when they replace your knee

Pretty good night last night.  I’ve learned a few tricks on how to sleep on my back with my leg elevated.  That plus, my body reaching a bit more of a equilibrium on fluid retention/swelling means I actually first slept for 5 straight hours! This is an important aspect of my recovery process as I’m sure my body is busy trying to adjust to the radical changes that I’ve inflicted on it and needs the sleep to do its thing.  I also was able to get an additional couple of hours after that so really positive on that front.

My pain level has greatly diminished at this point.  I went 8 hours between meds last night and without doubt the pain is still there (and increasing as morning rolled in) and I need to stay on the pain killers for a bit longer, although at a lower level.  Even with the 8 hour gap I’d say the pain only got to about a 4 or so, which frankly has been a pretty common level of pain for me over quite a few years and is not that big of a deal.

I’m settling into my PT routine which is quite basic at this point, just entailing 2 exercises designed to get my range of motion to 90-180 degrees at this point.  90 is easy, 180 a bit more difficult…I probably top out at about 170 degrees so far…still too much swelling.  These exercises combined with the walking takes about 20 minutes and since I repeat hourly, it’s a bit of a time sink.  It’s surprisingly challenging but since I can’t work out I’m fine with it.

We're getting ready to head back home and I'm looking forward to getting into a routine there and really rebuilding my leg!

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A final quick note on what they actually do when they replace your knee--here are the general steps:

1. They cut open your knee from above your knee cap to below it down on the upper shin--about 8 inches or so.

2.  They move your kneecap to the side taking care to not strain the tendons attached to the knee cap.

3.  They remove your ACL so they can get at the back of the femur and tibia.  The basic design of the artificial knee mitigates the need for the stabilization normally provided by the ACL.  They leave the PCL in place.

4.  They remove about an inch or so from the bottom of your femur.  I'm not sure how they do it because frankly when it happened I wasn't paining attention!

5.  They drill a couple of holes in the bottom of the femur and then cement the cobalt (basically steel) implant in place.

6.  They cut a similar amount of bone off the top of your tibia and put a couple of holes in it and cement that implant in place.

7.  They insert a plastic type part on top of the tibia implant and this basically serves as my meniscus.  The femur implant glides back and forth across this plastic.

8.  They cut part of the back of the knee cap off and cement a plastic insert there, which also glides against the femur implant.

9. They move the knee cap back into place and make sure it all moves well.

10. They then staple your skin together with about 20-25 staples and wheel you out to recovery.

Pretty amazing really!

My new knee!

Here’s the update on my total knee replacement.

First off, I had what’s called a Kinematically Aligned Total Knee Replacement (KA) by Dr. Stephen Howell out in Lodi, California.  This procedure was invented by Dr. Howell back in 2005.  This differs from the more common surgical technique which is called Mechanical Alignment (MA).  I think about 85% of procedures are Mechanical and most of the remainder being Kinematic.  There are a number of differences between the two philosophies and both have strong proponents with very good efficacy track records.

I could ramble about how they are different (Kinematic takes into account 3 dimensional alignment vs. 2 for Mechanical for example) but the basic difference is that the more common MA design intent is to give the patient a straight leg from the hip, through the knee to the foot, while the approach I went with is designed to replicate the geometry that the patient was born with.  

Lots of people are born with quite straight legs but some are either bow-legged or knock kneed.  I’m not talking about disease caused crookedness but rather normal and relatively slight variation.  I was born a bit bow legged.  For people like me, if I were to have a MA procedure I’d essentially end up with one leg straight (my new knee) and one leg bowed (my natural shape).  This tends to lead to unnatural feelings and results in less patient satisfaction, especially among more active people, which given the age of most knee replacement people, I’m at the far end of the activeness bell curve.

In general, straighter legged, generally older, generally heavier people are better suited for MA, while bow-legged/knock-kneed people who are more athletic tend to be better candidates for KA.

As it turns out, Dr. Howell is a colleague of my ortho, Dr. Galinat in Wilmington and as we reviewed my case we all quickly agreed I would be a great candidate for a KA knee from Dr. Howell, hence my journey to Lodi for my knee replacement.

Wednesday 11/30

Judy and I drove to the hospital and checked in at 5:45am as I was first on the docket, scheduled for 8am.  I went through all the pre surgery prep (and btw, I had been cleaning my nose, mouth, and skin for 5 days prior and attended a 2.5-hr class on Tuesday).  I won’t bore you with all the details but at one point my blood pressure came in at 155/120, which is very high relative to my typical 120/90…I guess my calm exterior belied an underlying nervousness about what the day would bring.

Anyways, about 7:45 I said goodbye to Judy and was wheeled into the OR.  I looked around and marveled at the high tech lights, the various beeping, clicking machines and the 7-8 people there including a couple in full hazmat like surgical gear.  I didn’t see Dr. Howell and then….

The nurse was waking me up and asking me how I felt.  Apparently, I didn’t even know I was going under or maybe it was erased from my short-term memory but the procedure was done and I had a new knee.  Judy soon walked in and there were 4-6 people buzzing about talking in cheery tones and doing various things like adding fluids to my IV drip.  I wasn’t that engaged because frankly I was a little loopy at that point.

Here is a pic in my surgery attire pre-game:

This is the somewhat anxious moment when I said goodbye to my bride and was wheeled into the OR:

Back in recovery feeling pretty good but definitely a bit loopy:

My femur implant was of a relatively new type that has a wider channel for my patella which in theory will giver me greater athletic performance potential down the road.  Due to this I am taking part in a study that will track its effectiveness and as a result when I got my wits about me I was wheeled off to get a Cat Scan of my knee:

Hopefully this new device will lead to a better outcome for me and others down the road!

After a while, they came in and had me walk for about 100 feet or so on my new knee with the assistance of a walker.  Apparently, the implants are cemented in and one can walk on them in as little as 10 minutes after implantation.  The PT also demonstrated some exercises for me and showed me how to climb up and down stairs properly during the early stages with the new knee:

Dr. Howell came in and chatted for a while and told me 25 times to take it easy in the early days and after I was able to demonstrate that I could still pee I was allowed to exit via wheel chair and Judy drove me back to the hotel.  I went for 6-7 5-minute walks and frankly felt like I didn't even need the walker.  Later, I elevated and iced my knee and watched Argentina crush Poland on my iPad:

Late Wednesday/Thursday

I knew the pain would come at some point over the first 36-48 hours but mine arrived early.  About 9 or 10 pm my knee and quad (from the tourniquet) began to swell to an amazing size and with it some pretty, disheartening pain.  It was a rough night that led to zero sleep.  Not fun.  In retrospect, we were too slow to dip into our pain killer arsenal and I paid the price the night.

By morning, we flipped the switch and began throwing Aleve, Extra Strength Tylenol and Percocet at it.  I also walked much more timidly and tried the various PT moves to try to get the swelling and pain under control.  The meds kicked in and I begin to get my pain level down to about 5 on the 10 point scale.

By nightfall things improved greatly and I was able to actually sleep for 30 minute stretches.  These were interrupted by trips to the bathroom for amazing amounts of pee as my body began to dump the accumulated fluid.  By morning my knee had deflated considerably (really crazy to experience) and with it the pain subsided to quite manageable levels.  We removed my ace bandage to reveal the incision and it looked very good indeed (or at least as good as they things can).

Friday

48 hours after surgery my knee was down to a much more manageable size and the scar, while quite big looks pretty good:

As we roll into Friday night things are progressing nicely.  I had a consult with Dr. Howell and he is pleased.  My pain is manageable and I'm able to walk a bit further, which I do with my walker every hour or so.  I've also stepped up my modest PT exercises but am taking things very easy at this point.

My GI track is back on line and I have no blood clot symptoms so we are good to go for a return to DE tomorrow night.  My prognosis appears excellent and I am motivated and optimistic!

As a result of the surgery my left foot has shifted inward by about an inch and half and now my feet are nearly together when I stand (like normal people).  Look back at my pics from Kona and you can see that was certainly not the case before surgery.  I'm excited to see what its like when I get to put the new knee through its paces but first I have a bit of road to travel before I can ditch the walker and see what it's like to walk like a normal man and to hopefully be relatively pain-free after 20+ years of chronic pain.

Onward and Upward!

Ok, the new journey is about to commence!

 Sorry for the long radio silence.  Lots going on over the last 6 weeks post Kona.  We delayed leaving until we were past the CDC recommended  wait period.  With the paxlovid my symptoms were pretty mild.  But also, I did a get a CoVid rebound and so I was dealing with an active infection for about 15-17 days or so.

Since then, a lot of traveling including supporting Anders at IMAZ where he did a 9:36.

I’m now within the final 36 hours of getting a “Kinematic Total Knee Replacement” of my woeful and painful left knee.  I’d be a liar if I said I’m looking forward to it.  I’m certainly not!  The post surgery pain, loss of mobility and the longish recovery period are not something I am excited about!

That said, I am hopeful to eventually get to a higher functioning knee joint, that is significantly less painful.  This will make the next weeks and months worth it.  And I still have some ambitious adventures goals I’d like to pursue over the next 5+ years, so here we go….

I’ll try to chronicle the experience if I can see through my “Oxy-fog!”

Kona 10/13: Staying a bit longer than expected!

We said goodbye to Anders on Monday evening after getting to hang out for almost two weeks--what a treat!  While it's always sad to say good bye, I'm sure he was happy to leave the heat and humidity here.  It's difficult for us Christoffersons to race in the conditions here.  That's been evident to both of us for quite a while.  I for one am glad I won't do another Ironman here (or anywhere for the matter).  I suspect Anders wouldn't be heart-broken if he didn't race here again, but he has a long road in front of him so who knows?

After Anders left, we began to turn our attention to returning back East.  I was taking it mostly easy but I did notice that my throat was a bit sore (Saturday night/Sunday morning), which I attributed to post-race physical stress and the long, hot day out watching Anders on Saturday.

I still felt pretty good and in fact met up with Midge Kerr and we swam out to the King's buoy and back and then I hiked for 90+ minutes on Tuesday afternoon.

We had dinner at the Kerr's beautiful home up on the side of the volcano overlooking Kailua on Tuesday night and I noticed I felt pretty sore in my shoulders, which was surprising given that we only swam about 2,300 yards.  That night I had a lot of trouble sleeping and finally took some Advil as my body was achey.

Early Wednesday (about 4 or 5am) Judy and I decided we should test for Covid given my symptoms and  we were scheduled to fly out Thursday night.  She tested negative but sure enough, I tested positive.  I wasn't really that surprised given how I felt.  I texted Midge and she tested and found out she was positive as well (later we would find out that lots of folks who raced or volunteered have now tested positive).  It appears that Kona 2022 was something of a "super-spreader" event.

I donned my mask and drove over to Urgent Care.  I tested positive with one of those tests where they scrape your brain (or so it seems!).  They checked me out and everything seemed fine (99% blood sat, no fever, clear lungs, etc.)  They prescribed Paxlovid and Judy picked it up at Target as well as a bunch of vitamins (Judy should be granted sainthood as she had to do all of this on her birthday and basically has been taking care of Anders and I for 2+ weeks!).

The doc told us that the current versions of CoVid on the Island were relatively mild and given my mild symptoms and my vaccinations, she thought I would be fine.  She cleared us to fly on Friday (Day 5 or 6 for me), but we decided to fly out this coming Saturday to be on the safe side.  I feel pretty much back to normal today--no fever nor body aches, and very limited nasal itchiness.  I don't know if its the 9 Paxlovid pills I've swallowed, my 5 vaccinations, a mild CoVid strain, or just good fortune, but it seems like my first brush with CoVid will be relatively easy.

I wonder where and when I "got it".  It's impossible to know of course.  I may even had the early stages of it prior or during my race.  I do remember being surprised at how profusely I was sweating at the beginning of the run leg.  I'm not citing this as an excuse and probably the more logical reason for my DNF was my relative inability to deal well with heat/humidity but there is a chance I was impacted by the virus last Thursday....

Anyways, I'm taking it really easy and I might even go out for a short and easy stroll this afternoon.  I already packed up my bike so as to not be tempted to hop on that!

Onwards and Upwards!

Kona 10/10: Anders is now a Kona Ironman! And the Joe Skipper Beer Mile!

Quick update on Anders and then a report on the Joe Skipper Beer Mile. 

First off, we are so, so proud of Anders!

He had a very good swim at 63 and change.  Then he followed that up with a 5:07 (on his Garmin) bike that he said was very conservative.  He felt great leaving T2.  He had been very aggressive at hydrating and taking care of himself on the bike.  He left T2 with a realistic shot at sub 10.

His early run miles were nice and conservative and when we saw him at Palani he was running well but we could see the physical stress etched on his face.  He made good progress until the Energy Lab and then a 26 minute/mile split.  Turned out he was throwing up (a lot) in a bit of a repeat of my experience on Thursday.  The Christofferson inability to handle heat was coming to the fore once again.

Long story short, he was forced to walk a lot and had several more episodes of throwing up.  Somehow he kept it together and persevered to finish his first Kona in just over 11:30.

Since, imo he's in sub 9 shape (not at Kona but at a cooler race) this is not what he was looking for but it was a tremendous display of grit!  

He was whisked off to the medical tent (like father, like son) and was down 12 pounds.  After an IV (and then some pizza and fries from Target) he started the road to recovery and is feeling a lot better today (and no doubt glad he toughed it out!)

This morning, we bumped into Colin and Mikal (Judy took a selfie) at the Ironman merch tent and then went to Lava Java for lunch:

And then we saw that Joe Skipper sent out an open invite for the Kona Beer Mile at the old airport, which is about a half mile from here.  We rode over two watch and I served as the official timer.  About 20 guys participated and Joe finished 3rd.  The winner did 7:09 and Joe was a few seconds behind (in fairness, the course was probably a 100 meters long):

Off to Huggos tonight.  A more detailed set of race reports in a day or two!

Onwards and Upwards....

Kona--post race: DNF

Quick update, I'll post a longer version over the next couple of days.  I pretty much had the swim/bike I had planned on (at least time wise).  85 and change on the swim and 6:50ish on the bike.  A bit longer on my transitions but I was focused on trying to hydrate so pretty much on plan.

It was very difficult on the bike after the first 7 miles coming down from Kawaihae to Hawi.  I was later in the day (7:25am start) and it was very hot (Garmin read 103 degrees at one point) and there was a very strong headwind.  I had a long period (15+ miles) of what I estimated to be a 25+MPH headwind and I slowed to below15mph for nearly an hour and that and the longish distance between aid stations meant long periods between refueling.  To be clear, I'm not blaming that as the reason for my DNF (although it didn't help) as I knew about it and had planned for it.  I was really focused on hydrating and I was drinking close to 1.5L an hour but apparently it wasn't enough.

When I got out of T2 and started running my HR jacked to 170bpm and my respiratory rate was probably close 30 bpm.  I began to cramp and could feel the early onset of dizziness.  I tried slowing down (I only had to do about 20 min/mile to finish) but it seemed to get worse.  It was a long time to the first run aid station (it took nearly 2 hours for me to go from the last bike aid station to the first run aid station) and by then I was cooked.  

I made it out to the three mile mark and things were getting worse so I decided to sit down and see if I could calm things down.  In short order I threw-up 5-6 times and felt very woozy.  My right leg was cramping and twitching like a banshee and I knew that things didn't look good.  Some nice folks came over and looked after me and I tried to rehydrate as much as I could...maybe got 25-30 ozs down as I rested about 25 minutes.  When I got up and still felt quite wobbly and I ran the math on what I needed to do to finish in under 17 hours I knew that it wasn't going to happen (especially with my knee).

Off to the medical tent and I was down just under 10 pounds (on a pre-race weight of 172 pounds).  After an IV I felt a lot better and soon was able to leave with Anders and Judy.  I drank, in total about 150 oz last night and just peed once or twice so the rehydrating is well under way.

It was disappointing for sure but I am completely fine with it.  I knew before the race that this was at the edge of my ability, especially if conditions were challenging (which for the most part they always are here) and I was very fit coming in, I did all the work (nearly 400,000 yards swimming and over 10,000 miles biking), and I gave it everything I had yesterday.  But it wasn't enough.

We are now turning our attention to supporting Anders tomorrow and enjoying the privilege of having another week in paradise!  Looking ahead, I can't wait to get my knee replaced and getting on with future adventures (riding solo across the country is on the top of the list).

Thanks for sharing my adventure with me--I take comfort in that!  And as I said, I'll post a proper race report in the next few days...

Onwards and Upwards!

Kona 10/6: Go Time!

 All checked in.  90 minutes until my start…I’ve already cried 3 times…..

Kona 10/5: T-Minus 13 Hours: Locked and Loaded

Ok, pretty much every checklist has all the boxes checked off at this point and now its time to Zen out and embrace the mellowness!

I did one last easy ride of about 15 miles out to the Energy Lab turn-off and back.  I felt great on the bike.  I'd feel like I was riding easy and look down and see 200+ watts--kept having to ease-off.  Averaged close to 19mph on about 145 watts...oh, to do that tomorrow! (lol).

Later I went over to swim and encountered the Bike/Transition Bag madness.  It took me a while to figure out that I needed to go over in front of the Honu restaurant (where we exited the Sunday 2.4-mile swim race) to get out into the bay.  It was choppy from the mid-day wind and I noticed a bit more swell then we've had most of the last week.  I didn't swim particularly fast but felt quite comfy in the water--did a bit over 700 yards.

Spent the afternoon chilling for the most part and did a couple of Facetimes with my family back east.

When it was time to go check in (I was in the 4-5pm slot) we couldn't find the car keys.  Anders and Judy looked all over while I tried to just sit back and relax.  We finally decided that I should just ride over to check in and Anders followed me over on the e-bike we've rented.  Long-story short, I had the keys in my back-pack that I was using to carry by Transition bags over....tail between the legs time!  In another post at another time I'll tell you about my biological grandparents on my father's side who were committed to an insane asylum in their 30s and diagnosed as "feeble-minded".  Apparently their blood line runs strong in me....

Anyways, here are a bunch of pics Anders took as I headed over to get checked in:

In transition I ran into Midge Kerr who is the big boss there!  When I broke the strings on my bike transition bag she jumped in and helped me out!

Anyways, back home now and chilling.  Judy is making us some pasta with marinara sauce and chicken.  We're going to watch Lionel's latest Youtube and then try to get some sleep and have at it tomorrow!

I'm number 2655 if you want to follow my (slow) progress around the course...

Onwards and Upwards!

Kona 10/4: T Minus 40 Hours

OK, starting to get that little bit on anxious feeling as this so very long awaited race is drawing close!

After a late night post Manta Ray dive, Bill, Judy, Anders and I got up early, downed some Java, and headed down to join the Underpants Run.  It was the usual madness down there and the three boys had a great time being part of the festivities!

We grabbed our private parts and took the Underpants Run Oath which is: “I (state your name) solemnly swear that I will resist the temptation to wear the evil garment known commonly as:“…togs, scungies, bun huggers, plum smugglers, banana hammocks, crack splitters, butt floss, Speedos, etc., etc., etc." outside of swimming or racing.

“I further promise to uphold the sanctity of the local’s home of which I am a guest by frequenting public places in proper attire, obeying traffic laws, and being courteous at all times. This I pledge as an Ironman veteran, 1st timer, or wannabe.”

After that and some calisthenics, we were soon on our way....

We jogged (and walked) the mile or so and then Anders and I jumped up on the wall by Dig Me Beach and did the pose that Tim Kerr and I did 10 years ago:

Lots of fun for sure and great to get away from the more serious parts of this endeavor.

Judy drove Bill to the airport, after a short but wonderful visit, and Anders went for a run out near the old airport runway.  He did some 3 minute repeats at 6:00/mile and then 5 or 10 minutes at IM pace and his HR was quite low--a very good sign.

I hopped on my bike and rode out to the airport (about 17 miles roundtrip) and my bike worked like a charm.  I'll post some pics later when I get all my gear for the race organized.

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As promised, here is my race plan (and yes I know I am very slow!) along with my prior 3 Kona races for comparison:

As you can see, I'm planning on swimming quite a bit slower than I have previously, even with the 1:25 I swam at the practice swim on Sunday.  My goal in the IM swim is to have as little drama as possible and if I happened to replicate that 85 minute swim that would be "Great" (from my perspective), but I'll be fine even if its slower.  I'd like to swim 90 or so, given all the work I've put into swimming this year.

I'm planning on changing out of my swim skin and into a bike kit for the ride so I'm not planning on a super fast T1--7 minutes is my target but no biggie if I'm slower.  I plan on drinking 20 oz of Gatorade in T1 as I'm really focused on trying to stay as hydrated as possible.

I biked near 6:20 in 2010/2012 but with the winds of 2014 I rode closer to 7:15.  If I'm going to push it a bit in this race, it will be on the bike.  6:45 would be great with the typical conditions here and if we get lucky I might be a couple of minutes faster.  If I go much over 7 hours then things may start to get a little dicey for me (as far as 17 hours goes).  I've been comfortably riding at 160 watts AP/165-170 watts NP on my 100+ mile rides this year but will probably err on slightly less than that on Thursday (hopefully, not too much less).  Normally this would be very easy for me to do but, with the heat and humidity, I'm really focused on staying as hydrated and fueled as I can.

My T2s have historically been slower here at Kona (unlike most triathlons I've done) and I'm planning on doing the same this year.  I'll down another 20 oz in T2 and switch over to running shorts and a tri top.  This year I have the extra complication of strapping on my big, cumbersome Offloader Brace, so I might be a bit slower than planned here.

Lastly, the Run, which will mostly be a walk.  I'm hopeful of being able to hit 16-18 minute miles for most of the race and if all goes well before then, I should be able to comfortably get in under the 17 hour cut-off.  It will not be easy for me even at that very slow pace and I've steeled myself for the 7+ hours of pain in my left knee.  I mostly plan to really be present and try not to dissociate too much and enjoy this, my last IM!

Onwards and Upwards!