I don’t know what happened, but November is practically gone. It’s been an amazing month.

I’m back to training supplemented with some strength/rehab knee exercises. My sisters and I ran the Turkey Trot yesterday, which felt great. Tonight, I plan to hit the gym for a treadmill workout. Tomorrow I’ll either swim and do a spin class or join Fred’s group for a ride, depending on the weather and what I’m in the mood for. Sunday, Caroline and I are doing a 10 miler together. It’ll be fun. I’m loving being active again, and I can see that my legs and body are starting to take shape again. Finally!

This month has been wonderful for another reason. I’m in major clean out mode. I’m cleaning out closets, drawers, pantries, my refrigerator, everything. I’m lightening my load and replacing old, outdated things with new and fresh ones. I’m pretty excited about how it’s all playing out.

I had an MRI this week. It turns out I sprained my ACL and may have a slight cartilage tear, but my doctor isn’t concerned about the tear because I’m not feeling pain from it and thinks the ACL is treatable through therapy rather than surgery. I’m thrilled about that. He said to avoid sports like tennis, basketball and soccer and to stick with continuous one-directional-motion sports like swimming, biking and running. Works for me! So I’ll be starting my one-on-one program with Jamie on December 1. Until then, I need to just get moving again.

This morning Michelle and I went to a spin class. It was my first since workout since my bike ride with Poppe this past weekend. It was tough. The instructor said something about consistency being the focus when building a base, which is what I expect I’ll be doing with Jamie earlier on in the program. I need to not have weeks like this one again. Consistency, consistency, consistency…

It’s 11:50, I’m wide awake, and I’m supposed to be up at 4:50 for a 5:30 spin class. I’d say it’s not gonna happen, except that Miss Michelle will be at my door at 5:10 and would be livid if I caused her to get out of bed but bailed on the class myself. I’m not sure what’s going on except that much has happened today and my brain may still be processing it all. Work, friends, family – it’s all good. And I’m excited about where my training will be headed soon. Jamie seems to think we can improve my bike time significantly by helping me develop bike handling skills so I don’t have to stop every time I need to remove arm warmers or open a wrapper or grab my second bottle. That excites me.

So last week I took it pretty easy because of my knee. I hurt it playing tennis and stayed off it for a few days. On Thursday, I did an easy treadmill run/walk, and it still felt weak. So Friday, I did a spin class in the morning rather than doing my usual run with Jenny. Then that night, I went to yoga, which I always love. I don’t know if any of that was good for the knee, but it didn’t feel terrible. Saturday I did the Wurst Ride, which was a relatively flat 62 miles followed by a brief stint at Wurst Fest. On Sunday, I did a very slow Run for the Water 10 Miler to support Gilbert and the Gazelle Foundation. And I do mean very slow. So slow that when I saw Gilbert at Runtex later that morning, he said, “Taline, why did you not run fast?” Ouch.

Last night, I met with Jamie about one-on-one tri training. He encouraged me to make an appointment to have the knee checked out, so I’m going to Dr. Breazeale on Friday. Until then, I plan to take things pretty easy. I took yesterday off and will do the same today. Tomorrow, I’ll do a spin class. Thursday, I will probably swim. On Friday, I hope to run with Jenny before going in to see Dr. Breazeale. The weekend will depend entirely on what Dr. Breazeale has to say. If I have my way, I’ll swim and do a spin class on Saturday and go for a bike ride on my new and cool bike on Sunday.

Finally, after months of bugging the folks at Jack and Adam’s, I purchased a bike. I went with the Kuota, though it was a super tough choice. I thought the QR was the most stable, the Felt was the most comfortable, and the Kuota was the fastest/lightest, so I went with the fastest/lightest option. It’ll take a little bit of getting used to, but I’m really excited about it! I think this means Robin and I have the same tri bike. Is that right, Robin?

The bad news from the weekend is that I hurt my knee playing tennis yesterday. I felt something as soon as I did it, but it wasn’t terrible, so I played a few more games and tried to shake out the twinge that I felt. Then I went home and realized it was getting more sore by the hour. By the time I woke up this morning, it was super stiff, and I couldn’t run. I ended up walking the Race for the Cure. When I rode afterwards, it felt fine. The cycling motion doesn’t seem to bother it, but running does. I’m hopeful that whatever I did was minor and that the inflammation will go down in a few days. Keep your fingers crossed and say a few prayers for me.

Next weekend, I’m supposed to bike Wurst Fest, which is 62 miles, on Saturday and then run a 10 mile race on Sunday. I really want to be able to do both, but it’ll entirely depend on the knee.

The plan for this week:

Monday: Spin (am)
Tuesday: Swim (am)
Wednesday: Spin (am), Run (am)
Thursday: Swim (am), Run (pm)
Friday: Spin (am)
Saturday: Ride (Wurst Fest)
Sunday: Run (10 miler)

Again, it’ll totally depend on the knee.