Long story short: It wasn’t a meniscal tear like everyone thought. Turns out, it was a very large ruptured cyst in the back of my knee that caused all of the stiffness, swelling, and pain.

The good news: Once it got drained, it quickly felt much better and I was able to ease back into training.

The bad news: It took about 4 weeks for the docs to figure this out during which I didn’t run at all, barely biked, and swam with a buoy and no walls. Not the ideal way to spend all of September.

It all started after my last long trail run for Utah’s Toughest.  The back of my knee felt stiff and I had a couple of people work on it since we figured it was tight muscles. There was no improvement during race week but it also wasn’t something any of us were concerned about. I raced according to plan and, while I felt it on the bike when I would straighten my leg, I didn’t feel it at all on the run. It was about the same in the few days after the bike: stiff and a tad swollen in the back but nothing too concerning. I was planning on taking that week completely off running anyway. Swimming and easy spinning on the bike felt fine until – it didn’t. A week after the race, my entire knee suddenly became VERY swollen and painful. I was able to see Dr. Davis right away and he was afraid it was a torn meniscus based on my description and what he saw. So I laid off of it completely for a few days but – despite my best attempts – the swelling never went down. So that had us worried. Eventually, I got in with an orthopedic sports doc who suggested an MRI. I saw another one: same opinion. I went back for an ultrasound: nothing. I went to Vegas for an MRI that showed a while bunch of stuff that could either be a huge deal or not. Plus the “very large ruptured cyst”. Two options according to Dr. Christian Millward at IHC (whom I highly recommend): either the cyst formed because of all of the other issues or the ruptured cyst makes the other issues appear. He drained the cyst and we hoped that would solve the issue. Which it did!

I was able to slowly ease back into biking and running and it seemed like Ironman Arizona wasn’t completely out of the question. Fitness came back rather quickly, thanks to a TON of swimming in September and October, and we started to ramp up the training. Possibly a bit too much too quickly because, after 3 weeks, the cyst had filled up again and needed to be drained once more. It took a couple of days to resume training and things have been going well so far. Ironman training certainly is a major stress on the body and there is a chance that the cyst will need to be drained yet again before the race but so far so good! There doesn’t seem to be anything else wrong with my knee, which is a huge RELIEF! It’s actually not looking too shabby in there after a 25 years of endurance sports at a pretty high level!

It goes without saying that he above was a HUGE PAIN in the ass to deal with and I was on the phone with docs, insurance, nurses, hospitals, etc. for what seemed like two weeks straight but if I hadn’t put that much effort into figuring out this thing, I might still not have an answer. You know you have done your research when the hospital nurse on the phone goes: How do know KNOW SO MUCH?

I would like to say that I handled it all pretty well. No tears! No tantrums! One day at a time. Doing the best with what I have. Controlling what I can. Making recovery my job. Patience. It wasn’t easy but made much better by my kids who are not only a great distraction but also put things into perspective. I was hoping to still be able to spend some of my favorite season doing the things that I love outside and I have been treasuring every moment!

The hay is in the barn and I am excited to be toeing the line at Ironman Arizona again this year! I’ll be celebrating a healthy body and a strong mind!

A big thank you to two of my favorite docs: Dr. Troy Davis and Dr. Christian Millward, who know and understand athletes!