I finally know what's wrong with my knee

After about 5 weeks, including 3 trips to the orthopedic, 1 MRI, and 12 sessions of physical therapy, I finally know what is wrong with my knee.

Just to bring everyone up to speed, I started having pain in my knee about 5-6 weeks ago. I didn't think much of it at first, but it gradually got to the point where it was difficult to walk, so I decided to go to the doctor. I got an MRI which showed a few minor things, but nothing that was causing the pain I was feeling, so he sent me off to physical therapy. PT seemed to help, but I was still having some pain. I went pack to the doctor today, and now know that my pain is caused from some roughness on the back of my patella. The doctor told me I should keep doing my physical therapy exercises on my own and that I could return to all of my normal activities. I asked him if that included running, and he said, "if that's what you really want to do." He said that if I did start running, he'd most likely see me back in his office with knee pain again in a couple of months. The next step if the knee pain gets too bad is to have the rough part scraped off the back of my patella, which unfortunately involves surgery. Bottom line . . . I have to keep my knee happy, otherwise I'll have to have surgery, which will mean no Ironman this year.

Yesterday's workout was about 50 minutues on the bike (20 minute warm-up, 10X1 minute power intervals, and 10 minute cool-down).

Today's workout was 2100 yards in the pool. Mostly 25s, which I think is rather strange for someone training for the Ironman distance, but I'm sticking to the plan for the most part.