Not my knees!!

The dreaded knee pain... ewww... Last week I decided it would be a good idea to start putting some more time and focus into my yoga practice (or lack thereof - seriously, I'm embarrassed by how little attention I've given it). I've not been feeling so hot recently, and I had a recovery week, so it seemed like the perfect time. I forgot how much I love yoga. After the first session, I was so excited, I went two more times that week. I was having a blast. Then I went the last two nights (Monday and Tuesday). I had a great time during each class, and felt like, if I could keep up that frequency, I could really start to see some improvement in my practice. But then it came... knee pain. Oh yuck. I've had IT Band issues in the past, and I think some of the problem is due to that. It definitely feels that way, anyways. However, there is also just some very mild achiness in other parts of the knees... and THAT freaks me out. As we all know, knee problems can be a death sentence to triathletes.

Obviously the first step was damage control. No more yoga this week. Heat, stretch, ice, repeat. Fortunately I have a second recovery week (since I've been sick and the month and half before these weeks was pretty intense training-wise... and just life-wise, which can definitely have a tiring effect), so my training is minimal. I did a half hour run this morning, and felt fine all through the run - no pain, but I ache a little now. So, anyways, taking it easy this week. Second step - Monday morning I have an appointment with The Laney (my sports chiropractor/ART guy who I swear by and who I think secretly knows magic because there is no other way he could possibly fix everything he has), and hopefully it will be be an ITB problem and we can get it straightened out and I can just go to an easier once-a-week yoga routine. I think I might also need to have my hips adjusted... ugh... fun!

So the third step was online research (I'm a sucker for learning exactly what's going on in my body... though have learned that the internet can, at times *gasp* be unreliable). This visual aid was helpful.

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If only I'd known that ahead of time!!!

But I actually did learn that yoga can be completely fantastic for your knees... or completely awful. Depending on whether or not you're doing it right and listening to your body. My guess is that, with the amount of training I do, and the lack of yoga I've done in the past years, the quick increase in amount of sessions the past couple of weeks was a recipe for disaster. I guess I got a little over-excited. And I was probably lucky, since it really does seem that the problem is fairl mild, and mostly refined to my IT Bands. I also know that I didn't have any problems last week, so this is really pretty recent. I've actually wondered if Aaron's insanely hard weights routine on Saturday didn't aggravate things just a little bit. I think it's definitely a possibility. OR it could have been riding the stationary bike on Sunday... why did I do that? I don't even LIKE stationary bikes, it just seemed like it would be easier... WRONG. It was actually quite difficult.

Anyways. What have we learned today?

1. Everything in moderation.
2. You better be hardcore if you want to be one of Aaron's athletes (well, kind of kidding - he is a very good and responsible coach and would never hurt his athletes... but you do have to be hardcore).
3. Online visual aids are useful for learning purposes.
4. Stationary bikes really ARE evil. I knew it.
5. I did too many new things this week. Maybe I should just stick with what works. And meditate or something if I need to get more chi...

Ok now stop reading my blog and go out and enjoy this beautiful Texas weather!