I had my doctor's appointment for my knee this morning. I saw a nurse practitioner as the physician's assistant who I normally see wasn't in today. It definitely did not go as well as I thought. I told her about the swelling, pain and crunching. She looked at my knee for about one minute and determined that my ligaments and menisci were fine (which I pretty much knew already anyways). She also stated that I had obvious swelling in the joint which is probably where the knee pain was coming from. She said that joints just naturally crunch, and that its nothing to worry about and that everything should be back to normal in a week and that she would refer me to orthopedics if it wasn't. The problem I have with it all is that she couldn't explain where the swelling was coming from, especially considering it was in the joint. Also, my pain is coming from the crunching. I think she maybe thought that it was just your normal cracking like when you crack your knuckles. She is also convinced that there is no way this is an overuse injury and that it has to be an acute injury and that I'm just not remembering it. The good news in all of this, if there is any, is that she said that I could continue to participate in triathlons as much as I could tolerate, but then again, she thinks this is just going to go away in a week. I really wanted to say to her, "Ok, will be talking to you next week then for that referral," but I refrained. I think instead I will send a message to my regular PA via their online "Ask Your Physician" system letting her know about my appointment and asking her for a quicker referral. She knows I'm an athletic trainer and I know what I'm talking about.

A completely unrelated side note that I am super excited about. I have been entering daily the Home Sweet Dorm sweepstakes through Bed Bath and Beyond. The grand prize is a $5000 gift card to BB&B, and every hour a $25 gift card is given away. Today, I won one of the $25 gift cards! I am super excited. I have a long laundry list of things I still want to add to our kitchen, so I can't wait to get it. Thanks BB&B and HGTV!

Now, about Timberman...

I found out a couple of days ago my bib number (545) and my swim wave time (7:20AM which is a whole hour before the last wave). Please, follow me and cheer for me at the Ironman Athlete Tracker.

So without further to do, here are my time goals for Timberman (keeping in mind that finishing is my #1 goal and that meeting some, if not all of the time goals are just a nice added benefit):

Swim - 55min (This is probably a fairly accurate time considering that of the numerous times that I've swam the race distance, pool and open water, I've been between 55min and 56min each time)

Transition 1 - 5min, I normally take less than three minutes in T1, but I really want to make sure I'm ready for the bike. I'm actually going to force my self to slow down, take a quick break, eat a bar, and get a good amount of fluids in before continuing.

Bike - 4hr, The distance in this time means my pace will be 14mph. Not knowing what to expect from my knee or how fast my body will tire, I'm expecting a longer time than normal. However, with each triathlon I do, even though the bike course got longer with each one, my bike average speed has been getting faster (if you take out the time I stood around for the flat, my pace at the last race was 16.2mph). I joked around with Ben about this, wouldn't it be funny if this ends up being both my longest bike in a race as well as my fastest? 

Transition 2 - 5min, Again, normally this only takes me about 2 minutes, but I really want to take time to rest and recharge. I also want time to take pain meds and rest my knee if need be.

Run - 2hr 30min, This is the hardest for me to predict with the recent problems with my knee. This is the only event that really gives it issues, so its hard to say how its going to react. With my training runs so far, it hurts for the first half mile, but then gets better, probably due to adrenaline and endorphins, so maybe by the time I get to the run in the race, I'll be fine. The slowest half marathon I have run so far is 2hr 22min, and that was in a hilly course, in 90 degree heat, with the worst IT band pain I have ever had, only a week after doing another half marathon. So I figured this can't be much worse. I would love to finish closer to 2hr 15min, but I'm not getting my hopes up just yet.

And just a warning to the competition, I'm coming prepared. I have rocks.