Elizabeth Simi - Check in #2 - Triathletes Journey - Athletes in Motion Podcast Ep 047

Narrator: 0:10

Welcome to the athletes in motion podcast from race to recovery. With your hosts, Tom Regal, and Kenny Bailey.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:29

Hey, Tom, how are you?

Tom Regal: 0:30

I'm fantastic. Kenny, how are you?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:32

I am fantastic as you have Elizabeth on, Elizabeth. So for the folks that are tuning in, we are doing a triathletes journey. Elizabeth is one of our three athletes that have been getting ready for her triathlon. She is the Ironman portion of that. So Elizabeth, welcome back. Thanks.

Tom Regal: 0:55

To finish, yeah, right. Yeah, can number two.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:59

And you put it you snuck out on the Olympic out there.

Elizabeth Simi: 1:05

Hey, you got to do some work, right.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:10

Other than that, I mean, like, we need to talk about that definitely been. So since we last left our character, how it's training, what's going on what's happening. Oh,

Elizabeth Simi: 1:21

Ironman training is, hey, I have a pop up in front of me. Hold on.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:31

I told him not to do that. But sorry.

Elizabeth Simi: 1:39

Anyway, Ironman training is definitely a roller coaster, which you guys know. And last time I talked to you guys, I had the knee thing going on, ends up is a torn meniscus. Yeah. That's the good news. Bad news thing. The good news. It is a torn meniscus. It's not an overuse injury. So

Kenny Bailey<br>: 2:04

there's that podcast.

Elizabeth Simi: 2:07

I will say now. i It's exactly. According to the doctor. I can't hurt it anymore.

Tom Regal: 2:16

already torn.

Elizabeth Simi: 2:18

It's already done. So. Well, I get a lot.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 2:22

So what's the I'm sorry to hear that. And I know. Yeah. I mean, it's both good and bad. But so how is it a fairly? There's different degrees, I think of tears? Is it a? Is it a light tear? And what are you reduced to doing?

Elizabeth Simi: 2:36

Yeah, um, I would say it must be a light tear, because I can still do stuff. My physical therapist has done wonders for me. Thank goodness. I love her to death. Yeah. So basically, the doctor was like, well, we could do surgery, but we'd have to do it in July. And then recovery time. Yeah, you're not doing Iron Man, basically. And I said, Well, that's not going to work for me. So I'm going to muscle through the whole thing. So basically, Olympic was kind of, let's see how this goes type thing. I've been doing pretty, pretty much what we're gonna be doing, I think, at this point is walking the marathon. Because running isn't I'm not very efficient at running to begin with. So it's probably better to walk fast instead of trying to run

Kenny Bailey<br>: 3:39

the we know people that do that, by the way. So if you're out there and you're listening, like I can't run because my knees or something else you can absolutely finish an Iron Man walking.

Elizabeth Simi: 3:48

Yeah, so. Yeah. So So recently, I've been doing a lot of awkward jogging. Oh, good walking. I have tried to run a few times, usually about four and a half miles in I start to feel pain again. So it's probably not the smartest thing to do. Anybody? Yeah, I was like anybody who does this stuff. You know, you do the smartest thing He just tries.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 4:19

So are you are you definitely me? Are you just looking at power walking in as far as your training program?

Elizabeth Simi: 4:24

Yeah, yeah. The last I talked to Tim, he told me stop trying to run just stop it. So I'm going to stop it now.

Tom Regal: 4:35

You're going to try to run when you get closer to the event but the healing process, but take us back a little bit. So when you got the news, right, you would talk to the lead up going and then going to the doctor. And then how did you feel? What were your initial emotions that kind of came out of that?

Elizabeth Simi: 4:53

Um, well, since you know, nowadays, they show you everything online before you ever go to the Dr. I was convinced that wasn't a torn meniscus. So when I got there and he said that I was like, ah, crud. So I don't think I was that upset. I just kind of took it all in see what he had to say? He's not, I don't know. I'm not an athlete. I'm heavier and everything. So basically, you're an athlete. Yeah, okay. I don't have an athletic built. And so the doctor, he's not that supportive of the whole situation. So doctor, he actually did my other knee when I did my meniscus. And he did a great job. Kind of an arrogant jerk, but you know, whatever. So, surgeons, yeah, exactly. So as I'm taking it all in, I'm just just listening. And in my head, all I'm thinking is, can I just keep going? That's all like I care about. And so I don't think I was really upset. I was kind of irritated more than anything. But then when I figured out that, I basically said, hey, if I do this and keep going, am I going to make it worse? And he said, No, I said, but we're going

Tom Regal: 6:22

to make that decision. Easy.

Elizabeth Simi: 6:23

Yeah. Because, you know, to me, I don't want to damage myself for the rest of my life, right? So if I was gonna damage myself for the rest of my life, I'm not going to do it. It probably part of the not fun part of it, where I did have the meniscus surgery on my right leg, that's got a lot of arthritis in it. So he's saying, Oh, well, you're gonna have to replace that knee. And I'm like, Well, hey, then why would I do the other one?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 6:56

Yeah, and, you know, coming back from I mean, I tore my meniscus right before an Ironman and it was a pretty bad one where they had to do surgery. And, you know, he said, we'll be back in six weeks. And it took six months, and there was arthritis in there the whole nine yards. So it just takes time, right? I mean, my knee works just as fine now it's, it's just a matter of, to your point. I'm really glad. I just want to make sure everybody understands you're not just ignoring the doctor because you're you know, you're bullheaded, or whatever else, right? You talked to him about you, you considered options. He said, Look where you can't damage it any further. You're taking, I just want to make sure people understand you're not I don't want to give this error like, you know, screw it. Let's go anyway. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's like, look, you know, let's walk it let's be sensible about how we approach it rather than, you know, guns blazing, you're not going to be trying to bust a you know, an eight minute miles.

Elizabeth Simi: 7:45

Exactly. And, and once I've, you know, he said, You can't damage it anymore. The damage is done. That's basically opened it up. She has, you know, before it was like, Oh, crud, what did I do to it? How can I make it better? And pretty much what I do stuff when it gets inflamed, that's when it's going to hurt. And so with physical therapy, we're doing everything we can to help that not happen. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 8:12

And I think part of what they do for physical therapy, I'm no doctor, so please don't. But it's also helped to support the muscles around it, right is the idea is to strengthen the muscles around that knee. So the knee isn't, you know, doing that. So you can help sort of offload that if you will.

Elizabeth Simi: 8:25

Right. And it's actually kind of interesting, because I saw a different physical therapist last week than my normal because she couldn't get me in. And she did a bunch of testing. She wanted to know what my strength was. And because she goes, are you doing strength training? And I'm liking you guys know, I'm kinda like, yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And so she, you know, did this testing and she's all you know, what, if you had told me you're doing strength training, I would think you are. You're strong. So that was encouraging also, so that's good. So I'm a strong mess, basically.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 9:07

That's a great, I'm a strong mess. I like that. We'll

Tom Regal: 9:11

use that on a t shirt. They're

Kenny Bailey<br>: 9:15

strong, man. So let's get to some good news. Like how was the Olympic How did it tell us about it? I think it's a lake swim, is it not?

Elizabeth Simi: 9:24

It's a lake swim. in Rancho Seco Lake, which is a warm Lake, which is nice. TBF this time decided to switch the direction of the swim for the first time they've ever done this in the opposite direction. And we're, you should have seen the reaction to everybody who's been doing this. We're like, What do you mean they can't go the opposite direction. But

Kenny Bailey<br>: 9:50

we have been going clockwise.

Elizabeth Simi: 9:55

switch directions on us. So it was that was really On avian I was right with the everybody. I can't go that direction. But it ended up being just fine. And yeah, but the slim was really nice. I felt really good, which is good and then got out of the water felt great. And headed for the bike. We actually had a beautiful weather day too, which is good. I know. In previous podcasts I have said I've never doing Rancho Seco again. It's so hot and miserable out there. But we had the most beautiful day and bike ride went really well. And then they got off the bike was not feeling great start to hurt a little bit got into my Walk Run thing that I do. And it went okay, again, around four and a half miles and he started bugging me and the trails out there for anybody who's never been there. It's this red dirt. And it's up and down, up and down. And yeah, it's not the funnest place to be, but the whole time, because I know, you know, the different points out there. I kept thinking, wow, I'm doing really well. This is good, because it's going a lot quicker than it has felt in the past. So that part was nice. And I ended up I did done this race three times last year. This year. I was a little tiny bit quicker, then Yay. Okay. Yeah. So that's all good. Good. Yes. It was all good. And I got third place plaque in my division, which is

Kenny Bailey<br>: 11:42

Sarah got a second place in her sprint. So just stacking awards so how does how does the training look between what's the next block now? Is it basically ramp ramp ramp? Or how are you feeling? I know you're trying to figure out how to stop sort of life and work and everything else into this thing.

Elizabeth Simi: 12:09

Yeah, and fun, fun thing after doing the race, I get a major summer call. Thank you. That's why I'm talking roller coaster. This is a whole lot of fun. So, last week, I didn't train a whole lot. I was really disappointed because I was looking forward to my swims and everything. But when you can't breathe, you can't breathe. So I'm a little behind on my training. I did get an aqua jogging last week, I did a long run and well, it was supposed to be a five and a half hour bike ride. But it ended up being three and a half because I just I had nothing left him. Yeah. So

Kenny Bailey<br>: 12:53

still three and a half.

Tom Regal: 12:55

Most people it'd be like, why?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 13:00

I mean, I know you have a plan, you have to you know, you have to try to do that, right? Because the right is gonna be much longer but three and a half non trivial. So Right. And

Elizabeth Simi: 13:07

it is kind of funny where your mindset is when you're thinking Iron Man compared to something else, because you're like, Oh, I only did and yesterday to be like, I went out and rode, you know, 40 plus miles. Like, but at this point, I'm really comfortable with my swim. And I'm not even worried about it i and hopefully we have the swim if the river is going to be swimmable because we're still got tons of water coming down, and it's still very dangerous out there. And with being going to be walking as fast as I can, which I've really got to get walking faster. But my main focus at this point is I got to get my bike faster, because I've got to get through the bike bike. Yeah, well, I know. And the more time I can save there, the more time I have at the

Kenny Bailey<br>: 14:02

well, it's gonna you've recognized that too, right? You understand? Okay, this is the focus that needs to be right now, which is, you know, just miles under your seat, right at this point.

Elizabeth Simi: 14:12

Are on that seat. That's, yeah. So and I had a good talk with Tim on Sunday night. And we, you know, I said, I just need to get faster on my bike and how am I supposed to do that? And he's basically Well, if you're doing your training, right, you're gonna get faster, right? But um, so I really need to work on that speed work and that type of stuff to get faster. So you know, because I can go long. I know I can go long. I just can't go wrong very fast. So.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 14:47

Yeah. So So okay, so mix news, like you said, so. What we love about you and I think what people hear about you is you're you've either you've got a great facade and you're just trying to laugh off paying Were you like you recognize, like, look, I can only control what I can control. This is what's in front of me. Like you said, Look, I know it looks like running is not an option. It looks like I can't make it any worse. The swim is going well, you know, you did do a better time on your Olympic, which is fantastic. Right? So yeah, it's just a matter of now, you know, getting that, like you said, get that bike and just kind of increase, increase the miles. So, you know, miles per hour. So you can, you know, get a shot to be able to do that, or to do the walk. Right.

Elizabeth Simi: 15:29

Yeah, exactly. And so, it's, I mean, I try to keep a good, you know, positive attitude, but it doesn't mean that there are days that I'm just like, Ah, I can't believe that.

Tom Regal: 15:43

Like, what next?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 15:49

Well, well, and I think that's, you know, that's that's part of the both the beauty and the sort of the drama of of Iron Man, I think, folks think that, you know, you look up from the outside you see the day and all the crazy stuff that's going to happen during the day, right? Like you said, we could get crazy weather or you could get you know, like a weird like, your tire blew three times or, you know, some crazy story, right? Or, you know, those kinds of things on the day, but just leading up to there's never such thing as a straight line to get to this thing. There's always, you know, bumps in the road, there's always places where, like you said, you know, you're doing excited to move in, and then all of a sudden, you're trying to lean in and it's, you know, summer cold hits, and you're like, okay, all right, so you just sort of deal. You kind of deal and move on you deal and move on you deal and move on. Right? That's sort of emblematic of life, I guess. Right. So yeah,

Elizabeth Simi: 16:36

well, that is true. I mean, it's very much life, life, you know, life's going wonderful. And then something gets thrown your way and you get to deal with it and then go on to the next thing. Yeah, very cool.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 16:49

All right. Well, we're excited for you. We're happy you gotten an Olympic done. I mean, yeah, you've done one more than I have. So congratulations. I've saved it all for the half.

Tom Regal: 17:04

Crush it all at one go drink beer.

Elizabeth Simi: 17:07

Because you have what less about a month? Yeah. There he went to the see how he went. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 17:17

What's scary is my bikes getting dropped off and I think three weeks right. Two weeks so is it two weeks? I said that so I have to get a transporter from Tennessee to Oregon and driver transport picks it up like almost three weeks before the event so yeah, so we're that hit me like a sledgehammer yesterday. So

Elizabeth Simi: 17:36

So do you have a spare bite? Okay

Tom Regal: 17:43

that's cute. Oh, how adorable yes,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 17:49

no, that's funny. According my wife, she would not like to have that happen but yeah, I got it. I got a couple of lines around I don't mean to sound obnoxious but you know, it was like you know, I buy your rope by I need to try by travel by training by

Elizabeth Simi: 18:08

Okay, good. For weeks what does that mean you're at the gym

Tom Regal: 18:19

down the road, just put them out on the road bike. And Adam Hammerson miles out at that point. Nice. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 18:25

What's fun is and I think for people to do that is there's you know, because I do training rides as well on my stationary bike but the feel of a road the feel of having to dodge a you know, does a pothole you know, chip seal, the cement truck coming by, it's just there's, this is nothing beats that sort of, you know, even little teeny rollers that you don't get on a, you know, on a it doesn't get replicated. So it's always I know, it's dangerous out there at times, but nothing's gonna nothing's gonna replicate that kind of that preparedness, if you will. So right, right. No, no.

Elizabeth Simi: 19:00

I'm excited for you. And thank you. I'm bummed. I'm not gonna be an Oregon because I was like, Man, I could have met him in person. So

Kenny Bailey<br>: 19:08

that would have been fun. But, you know, we'll be there. So we'll, we'll talk about you behind your back. We will tip one for you. We will tip a beer and

Elizabeth Simi: 19:22

Yeah, sounds good. Cool. Well, thank

Tom Regal: 19:25

you so much for sharing your story and and coming on and being part of this, we're, we're enjoying the journey. I know our listeners are as well. So we want to thank everybody for listening all your comments, suggestions and things is great. Keep up with the comments. Keep up with five stars, thumbs up all that stuff. And subscribe. I don't know where I'm gonna put the subscribe button but there is a Subscribe button. Please subscribe to follow along. It's fantastic. So thank you again, Elizabeth. And until the next time, we'll catch you then.