Fear, Real and Imaginary 245 days to Go

It's a beatiful spring day and I'm jogging. I had been running 5 miles once a week for a month and that is where I want to be with my running.
The first mile went well. During the second mile the patella tendonitis flared up.
Ok, it's done that before. By the third mile it has gone away.
Then it came back and it stayed with me for the duration of the five miles.

It starts as tightness and then begins to ache.
While I was running I tried to limit it's affect on me by ignoring the pain as much as I could.
the pain rose to a certain level and leveled off. It ached, but it didn't get worese. I mean it was bad, but I could keep running. In orthopedics they ask you on a scale of 1-10. This was a 4. If it had raised to 6 I would have stopped.
How bad is this?
Is this the end of the road?
Are we done for the season?

How bad? It's an annoyance.
The end of the road? No, but a break is warrented.
Are we done? No I did the Half Iron man with this problem. I know that the answer is rest. Two weeks of not running and I'll be fine again.
Where does the fear come in? I start obsessing that I might be done for the year. That I need surgery and the sesson would be over for me. That becomes a panic attack. I've had them on and off since I was 5. Medication has helped and so has knowledge. This is an inflammation. It is annoying, painful, but not a tear. It is not damage.
The next day, the knee was fine. If I had a surgical need it would hurt all the time. This only hurts when I run (Great! Running is part of the race)

SO WHAT NOW?

Now I take 10 days off and stretch. This should help. In July of 2009, I had this issue. I stopped running for a few weeks and returned to run 3 more triathlons without pain. Sometimes when you train, less is more.

Carry that weight -260 Days to Go

When I started training, three years ago, I was swimming 850 meters (1/2 mile) five days a week.

That was good enough for a race of 1,500 meters.

But not for a race of 4,000 meters.

(2.4 miles of swimming)

When I did the Half Ironman, I felt great, but days afterwards my arms were sore. I was taxing my latts, traps, delts and tricepts.

(I actually thought I re-tore my rotator cuff until my PT tried to push down on it and I had the strength to hold the arm up)

First thing I did was sign up for physical therapy.

(Again?)

Yes, again.

It was a good thing I did. I did not have enough strength in my arms to lift a 3 pound barbell.

(You couldn't curl 3 pounds?)

No, we are not talking curls. We are talking about the connective tissue that holds the big muscles in place. For that I had to start from scratch and build up.

So it was back to the THEREBANDS (Orthopedic bands).

From there it was barbells. The more I lifted, the better I felt...until I did too much.

Swim, lift, swim, lift...sore!

Things needed to change. I could stop lifting, but I wasn't going to risk injury with the race at stake.

RESULT: Swim on Monday, Rest Tuesday, Lift Wednesday, Rest Thursday, Swim Friday.

I thought that I would need to swim every day. Nope, this is endurance training.