Advice on future Triathlons

boy that's a tough one. coming back from a knee injury and it taking longer to recover than I thought really makes you think hard. I'm 36 too. I just had a minor chondroplasty and plica removed, but it took about 5 months for me to run because of quad function loss even though I was lifting my butt off! My friend is 40 and had a partial knee replacement and the only thing she is not suppose to do is run. She wasn't a runner to begin with, but she does stay active now. A friend of mine is in his 40's and was told to stop running a few years ago when he had the scope. He has no cartilage left and continues to race fast and a lot. He is still doing Ironmans.

I guess you should see what your doctor says down the road ( maybe give it 6 months to know how you feel as well). You will probably also need another doctor too. By that I mean an ortho that is willing to give you an early knee replacement ( in the next 10 years??) There are a lot of doctors that don't want to replace a knee on a younger person, but there are some that will. Also find a good PT that is not against you competing, but you will always and always have to stay up with strength training.

I guess this is more of a personable question than anything. Unfortunately you only get 2 knees and I think about mine daily after going thru a tough injury over a year. I also think about the new procedures that have come out as well. I'm interested in stem cell therapy. I hear it will be coming to the US soon and have heard good things about it. Any surgery is not good, but it's something we have to face

I guess worst case is you can always get involved with competing with the aquabike, but there is nothing that compares to running ( at least for me).

I think you are the only person who can answer this question. It's up to you how you want to live your life.

I also found this article, which is very interesting. A lady is still competing after having a replacement. Good luck!

http://www.fwortho.com/seedianawin/