 Hey there! As I'm slowly recovering from a rough year of injury,  I am coming up with a race schedule for next year to hold myself accountable and  provide a way for myself to get back into sport slowly and safely.   The schedule is tentative and subject to change, nonetheless here it is!      Anza Borrego Desert Festival    Jan 14  15, 2023       Race Info   https    www.attackpoint.org  eventdetail.jsp  event_54477     Priority      Medium     I will be attending, but mostly for fun and to judge my shape as the injury progresses. Not intending to  race too hard.      Cal All Comers    Jan 29, 2023       Race Info   https    calbears.com  sports  track  and  field  schedule  2022     Priority      Low     I'll probably either attend this one or the next one depending on how I feel and how it fits into my schedule.  But it would be nice to get a track race in at some point, potentially a 3000m.      Cal All Comers 2    Feb 19, 2023       Race Info   https    calbears.com  sports  track  and  field  schedule  2022     Priority      Low     Either this one or the previous one   most likely this one   just judging based on fitness and schedule.      Dish Run    February 26, 2023       Race Info   https    web.stanford.edu  group  runningclub  dish.html     Priority      Low     Not sure whether I'll compete, but it's on my radar. Whether I'll be able to handle that much downhill on pavement is definitely  up in the air.      Stanford Treeathlon    March 5, 2023       Race Info   http    www.stanfordtreeathlon.com      Priority      Medium     I've been doing a decent amount of cross training as a result of my injury and I'm interested in trying out my skills in a triathlon.  Mostly just planning to do this for fun and try to get some of my friends to join me.      Flying Pig XXV    Mar 24  26, 2023       Race Info   https    www.attackpoint.org  eventdetail.jsp  event_49630     Priority      High     I will definitely be attending and if this ends up being the team trials then I want to compete at a decently high level.  Although I'll mainly be using this as a way to judge how I'm recovering.      NIRCA Track    Field Nationals    April, 2023       Race Info   https    clubrunning.org  races  race_info.php?race  957     Priority      Medium     Not really going to be focusing on Track and Field this season, but if I'm in decent shape I'd love to  attend Nationals since it's really fun to go with the team. I'm just going to have to make sure to run  at least 1 track race before this.      West Point NRE    Apr 15  16, 2023       Race Info   https    www.attackpoint.org  eventdetail.jsp  event_53718     Priority      Medium     Depends on whether this is team trials or not.      WOC Switzerland 2023    July 11  16 2023       Race Info   https    woc2023.ch      Priority      High     Not sure in what kind of shape I will be in. Probably not very good, but I would still enjoy running  some races either way. Depends on what sort of plans I'll have this summer.      North American Championships    July 17  24 2023       Race Info   https    woc2023.ch      Priority      High     This will be tough being back to back with WOC, but hopefully I'll be in good enough shape to perform well  at both. Most likely I'll just avoid doing the Long Distance at WOC and it will be fine.        More to come!  

My 2023 Race Schedule

 Patellar tendinopathy   often called patellar tendinitis   is a common overuse injury, caused by repeated stress on the patellar tendon located in front and below the kneecap.   What first seems like a mild discomfort in the knee can quickly turn into a destructive chronic condition.  30   of athletes with Patellar Tendinopathy take more than 6 months to return to sport and many professional athletes retire due to this condition.   In this post, I want to discuss my experience with Patellar Tendinopathy.  It's been quite a confusing time for me, as I've been struggling with this injury for almost a year now.  I've been to many doctors and tried many different treatments, but the injury is still not fully resolved.  I want to learn more about this injury and come up with strategies moving forward that can help me to resolve it for good.     Diagnosis   It took me a while to get a proper diagnosis for my knee pain.  The first doctor I visited thought that it might be shin splints, but having experienced shin splints before I had my doubts.  I visited another doctor who thought it may be a stress fracture, I performed an MRI and there was no bone damage.  Finally after 3 months of pain, a doctor landed on patellar tendinopathy as the diagnosis.   Why did it take so long to get a proper diagnosis? I think that one reason is something called the availability heuristic.  When doctors see a runner with an injury in the lower leg they immediately jump to the most common injuries   shin splints and stress fractures.   Patellar Tendinopathy is an uncommon injury, especially among runners, so it's not the first thing that comes to mind.   Even after being diagonosed with patellar tendinopathy, _I still had my doubts!_   I did months of unspecific rehab, but the pain was still there.  I thought that there is no way that this injury could last this long when I was doing so much rehab. It's impossible!   Periodically I was convinced that I had some sort of bone injury, that's the only way the injury could still be bothering me.   I did another MRI which found evidence of a bone lesion which looked harmless, but I was concerned that it was the cause of my problems.   It wasn't until I came home in September and saw 2 sports doctors that I was finally convinced that I had patellar tendinopathy.   At the end of the day    the most concerning thing throughout this whole process of diagnosis was that most doctors could not see anything wrong despite having access to detailed MRI images of my knee.    And this trend continues until today   I've had 5 radiologists and countless doctors tell me that everything looks healthy and normal, while I experience constant knee pain.     Treatments    ResponsiveImage    src  "  images  blog  patellartendinopathy  declinesquat.jpg"    alt  "Decline Squat"      When it comes to treating patellar tendinopathy, there are many different approaches.  I want to categorize treatments based on their effectiveness in the scientific literature  and add a little bit of my own commentary on what I've tried.       What Doesn't Work   A lot of responses to patellar tendinopathy come from the false pretense that the pain is being causes by  inflammation when in fact it is usually caused by degenerative tissue.   Many doctors prescribe    anti  inflammatories  or NSAIDs    which simply have no evidence supporting their effectiveness in treating patellar tendinopathy    1    https    link.springer.com  article  10.2165  00007256  200535010  00006  Sec15  .   Same goes for    corticosteroid injections    which are commonly prescribed to treat pain caused by patellar tendinopathy    1    https    link.springer.com  article  10.2165  00007256  200535010  00006  Sec15  .  There isn't much evidence for the effectiveness of cortico steroids and it is commonly shown that injecting steroids into the tendon  causes weakening and increased chance of rupture.   The typical injury advice      Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation   RICE     also doesn't fully apply to patellar tendinopathy since it is not  necessarily an inflammatory condition. Rest may be necessary for a short period of time, but it is not a long term solution.  Ice can be used to mask the pain if too severe. Compression and elevation could be useful to provide blood flow to the tendon, but  in reality the effectiveness is probably minimal.   Speaking of rest,    complete rest from activity seems counter productive       1    https    link.springer.com  article  10.2165  00007256  200535010  00006  Sec15  .  Instead of eliminating activity, it can continue being done at a lower intensity. There were many periods where I personally took time off  from running and those times were anecdotally the worst pain my knee has been in.       What Works   The modern consensus in scientific literature is that treatment for patellar tendinopathy should be focused on    tendon healing and strengthening       2    https    www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov  pmc  articles  PMC5095939   sec  5title  .  This is consistent with the characterization of patellar tendinpathy as a degenerative disease that requires  the tendon to remodel itself to heal.   Now what promotes tendon healing? Unfortunately not much.  Tendons take an extremely long time to heal because of the remodeling that occurs in the tendon is extremely slow and complex    3    https    www.annualreviews.org  doi  10.1146  annurev  bioeng  071811  150122?url_ver  Z39.88  2003  rfr_id  ori  3Arid  3Acrossref.org  rfr_dat  cr_pub   0pubmed  .   In fact, what promotes healing in the tendon seems to be the same thing that promotes strengthening   load.  Loading is necessary for tendon development and regrowth    4    https    www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov  pmc  articles  PMC4418182   S9title  .   The complicated thing is that excess loading is what causes tendinopathy in the first place, so how do you load  the tendon to promote healing without causing more damage?   First of all, a partial reduction in training is almost always necessary when pain symptoms worsen    1, 2    https    link.springer.com  article  10.2165  00007256  200535010  00006  Sec15  . With running,  this can be done by decreasing the total mileage and intensity of the runs while spacing them out.   When it comes to healing and strengthening,    eccentric quadricep exercises    are the staple exercise for treating patellar tendon pain    2    https    www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov  pmc  articles  PMC5095939   sec  5title  .   It is important to introduce these exercises gradually and without excessive pain. By gradually loading the tendon with slow, heavy, eccentric  exercises the tendon is able to remodel itself without causing additional tendon degeneration.   Popular exercises include   decline squat, step down, single leg squat, and knee extension.    ResponsiveImage    src  "  images  blog  patellartendinopathy  stepdown.jpg"    alt  "Step Down"          What Mistakes I've Made   Like with many injuries, it's easy to make mistakes during treatment. Here are some of the mistakes I've made         Not being consistent with rehabilitation       this is the biggest issue that I have with injuries in general,    but it is especially important to be consistent with patellar rehab. I wasn't aggresive enough with    eccentric heavy loading, doing it for a few weeks and then moving onto more traditional weightlifting.        Focusing too much on maintaining cardio       after my injury developed, I quickly shifted focus on doing cross training like cycling    swimming. I wanted to maintain my fitness and I thought that the low impact would help me heal faster. In reality, I think I overdid    the cross training and prioritized it over rehabilitation.        Neglecting running       while doing a lot of cross training, I took a lot of time completely off from running or with large    breaks. I don't fully regret taking breaks from running, but I think that keeping a small amount of running consistently    throughout my training would have been more appropriate and I would remember how to run better.     Moving Forwards   Now that I know how to handle patellar tendinopathy, here are the steps I'm taking to knock it out once and for all      Avoid speedwork and focus on easy runs with some fast paces strides at the end of every run to remember how to run fast.    Really focus on the rehabilitation. I'm going to use single leg eccentric press,    single leg step down and quad extension while also including classic lifts like hexbar deadlift and backsquats.    More consistent rehab sessions. Minimum every other day doing one or more of the eccentric loading exercises with heavy weight.    Focus on prevention with specific strength training for the knee and using advice from the book   "Running Rewired" by Jay Dicharry   https    amzn.to  3gVXiNz  .     References   No MLA format or anything but here are the links         1   Patellar Tendinopathy in Athletes   https    link.springer.com  article  10.2165  00007256  200535010  00006        2   CURRENT CONCEPTS IN THE TREATMENT OF PATELLAR TENDINOPATHY   https    www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov  pmc  articles  PMC5095939        3   Tendon Healing   Repair and Regeneration   https    www.annualreviews.org  doi  10.1146  annurev  bioeng  071811  150122?url_ver  Z39.88  2003  rfr_id  ori  3Arid  3Acrossref.org  rfr_dat  cr_pub   0pubmed        4   Mechanisms of tendon injury and repair   https    www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov  pmc  articles  PMC4418182   S9title   

Managing Chronic Patellar Tendinopathy

 Hi everyone! To celebrate the launch of my new website and blog I wanted to make a post about smoothies!     What?     That's right! Mostly because I just drank one and I wanted to share the recipe with the rest of the world.   Anyways, let's jump straight into the recipe.      Recipe   Just for your information, I don't really do exact amounts.     1 banana   the bigger and riper the better     a handful of frozen berries   I prefer blueberries and strawberries because they have less seeds     around 1 cup of whole milk    1 large egg    a tablespoon of honey   local is better     10  30 grams of protein powder   unflavored and minimally processed     ResponsiveImage    src  "  images  blog  smoothie  smoothie.jpg"    alt  "An image of the completed smoothie"         Health Benefits   First I would like to say that I'm not a huge proponent of drinking smoothies all the time. Eating real food is usually better since it's good for your jaw   chewing   and it helps you eat and digest slower which is healthy.   Despite that, ingredients like these have a number of health benefits and the convenience of making a smoothie from time to time cannot be overlooked.   Pretty much every ingredient in here is relatively dense in nutrients and are great performance boosters especially for athletes.       Bananas   Everyone knows and loves bananas. Why? They are a   great source of vitamins   https    www.hsph.harvard.edu  nutritionsource  food  features  bananas      text  One  20serving  2C  20or  20one  20medium,fiber  2C  20and  20450  20mg  20potassium.   that are essential to performance.     Vitamin B6    Manganese    Vitamin C    Fiber    Biotin    Copper    Potassium   Bananas are touted to be the cure  all for muscle cramps, although that seems to be somewhat of a myth. Either way, it is a great source of simple carbohydrates and vitamins, but most importantly it gives the smoothie a great texture!       Frozen Berries   I won't go into to much detail about this one as the benefits are very similar to that of bananas   a good source of simple carbs and fiber, plus they are dense in other vitamins and minerals. Plus if you get them frozen then they are cheaper and you don't have to add ice to the smoothie!       Whole Milk   The data on milk is always changing, but I personally believe that it is still a staple source of healthy fats, vitamins, minerals and protein. While the macros are great, the micronutrient content of milk is also quite impressive      Phosphorus    Calcium    Vitamin A    Vitamin D   in products fortified with vitamin D     Riboflavin    Vitamin B12    Potassium    Zinc    Choline    Magnesium    Selenium   Many of these nutrients aren't even available in plant based foods like Selenium and Choline.     Selenium is an essential component of various enzymes and proteins, called selenoproteins, that help to make DNA and protect against cell damage and infections   these proteins are also involved in reproduction and the metabolism of thyroid hormones.        cite         Harvard School of Public      Health   https    www.hsph.harvard.edu  nutritionsource  selenium      text  Selenium  20is  20an  20essential  20component,the  20metabolism  20of  20thyroid  20hormones.        cite        Eggs   Speaking of selenium, eggs have a larger amount of selenium than milk. In fact, in terms of nutrient density, eggs pretty much steal the show. They contain a small amount of all of these nutrients      Vitamin A    Vitamin D    Vitamin E    Thiamin    Riboflavin    Vitamin B6    Vitamin B12    Folate   As well as Pantothenic Acid, Choline, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sodium, Zinc, Copper, Manganese and Selenium.   Yup. Eggs, in my opinion, are probably the closest thing we have to a superfood. Plus, if you are worried about cholesterol, there is   no reason to be worried   https    www.cambridge.org  core  services  aop  cambridge  core  content  view  C3A48F8C4614E65E0724F31C2997E7AE  S0029665113003844a.pdf  div  class  title  dietary  cholesterol  heart  disease  risk  and  cognitive  dissonance  div.pdf     although please take health advice from your doctor  .       Honey   Yet another amazing source of simple carbohydrates that is great before or after a tough session. I definetly recommend splurging for local, raw honey. Typically the darker and more viscous, the less processed the honey is so I would be on the lookout for those.       Protein Powder   There are many kinds of protein powder that I would never put into my smoothie. Since they qualify as supplements they are not regulated by the FDA and thus studies have found   unusually high levels of heavy metals and other unwanted chemicals and ingredients   https    cleanlabelproject.org  the  best  worst  protein  powder  products    in many top label brands of protein powder.   If you're looking to get something cheap and high quality I recommend   bulksupplements.com   https    www.bulksupplements.com  collections  protein  powder     and no I'm not sponsored   or if you want to opt  in for something a little more expensive then I recommend   collagen peptides by Vital Protein   https    amzn.to  3bCb1G9  .   Honestly, which powder you use depends on your preferences and honestly you don't even need to use any at all   although protein content of the smoothie will be quite low  .  

The Ultimate Smoothie

 Hi, my name is Anthony. At the time of writing this I just finished my sophomore year at Stanford and I am currently interning at Apple.   I previously hosted a blog on WordPress but I decided to create my own website from scratch so I could customize it and add new cool features like the   Link href  "  dashboard"   Dashboard      Link   which is currently still under development.   You can find links to everything you need in the footer. If you are interested in how this website was built stick around, otherwise thanks for reading!      Behind the Scenes    ResponsiveImage src  "  images  blog  welcome  nextjs.png" alt  "Next JS Logo"      For this project I decided to go with   Next JS   https    nextjs.org    which is by far the most popular modern web framework. The only other framework I really have experience with is   Svelte and SvelteKit   https    svelte.dev    which is a great framework but I decided to prioritize the convenience of deploying on   Vercel   https    vercel.com      the company that created Next JS   as well as just the comfort writing code in React.   What does the website actually use behind the scenes? Like most people I decided to go with   Firebase   https    firebase.google.com    to do the backend work. Right now all that I'm doing is storing post views in a database but I intend to be using it more later as I expand the website.   The blog is   statically rendered by Next JS   https    nextjs.org  docs  basic  features  data  fetching  get  static  props   and uses   MDXRemote   https    github.com  hashicorp  next  mdx  remote   which is a package the parses markdown files, or in this case MDX files, and converts it into HTML. That's what you are reading right now.  

Welcome to the Blog!

 It's that time of year again where we get to experience the highest level of orienteering, this time in the first ever sprint  only world champs! I did not get to participate this year, but I still wanted to go over some of the maps and results that came out of this championship.   Despite being a forest orienteer, I found WOC this year to be quite entertaining. It seems that they increased the usage of artificial barriers which really made the courses quite challenging and we got to see some awesome unexpected results.    ResponsiveImage    src  "  images  blog  woc2022  relay.jpg"    alt  "Tori Borish in the Relay"        Sprint Relay   Relays are always a blast, and this year was no different. Right out of the gate there was a very interesting first control for the women. A forked leg with vastly different route choices depending on which control point they had.  For option B the clear option was to go south and for option A it seems that north or south were about the same if executed properly. Main takeaway here is that the southern option while similar distance seemed to be a bit speedier because there was so much straight running and not very many turns.  Marika Teini seemed to do quite well out the start, but then again some competitors had to take option B which was not as good in the beginning here.    ResponsiveImage    src  "  images  blog  woc2022  routechoice2.jpeg"    alt  "Route choices on a leg in the relay"      After that there weren't any super interesting legs until after the arena passage where there was still a small group together in the lead. There were two main routes to number 10 and what was quite suprising is that despite the fact that both options were so close together,  the best route choice for each option was still different! This is great course planning. North was slightly better for option A and south for option B.   There was also a middle route to option A although it seems that Basset lost a little bit of time, but no hard feeling because  if you take a look at the top route it is actually quite difficult to spot since the runners had to do a sharp U  turn and even then it's not clear that there is a good path to the control unless you look at it carefully while running the arena passage   which I'm sure many of them did  .    ResponsiveImage    src  "  images  blog  woc2022  routechoice1.jpeg"    alt  "Route choices on a leg in the relay"      At this point Lina Strand   Sweden  , Simona Aebersold   Switzerland   and Charlotte Ward   Great Britain   took a small lead which I assume just came from high speed on the way to the tenth control.  This continued all the way until the end of the first leg where Lina Strand ran away from Simona on the last few controls.   Max Petr Bejmer started for Sweden with a small lead and managed to keep it up pretty well. Hadorn had the worse forking on the first control and made some mistakes which didn't help and MPB was a full control ahead by number 4. They had the same leg after the arena passage  and MPB took another great route to the south and maintained his lead while the rest were trying to catch up. The rest of the runners gained some time from pure speed on 11 and 12    ResponsiveImage    src  "  images  blog  woc2022  routechoice3.jpeg"    alt  "Route choices on a leg in the relay"    square      Then came the most decisive part of the whole relay. The Swiss, Norwegian, Czech and Finnish team ran down a path that was out of bounds. Personally I think its a load of crap that the runners even had the option to run in the out of bounds there as I assume  that there was no fence or tape that should block off a path like that. Either way, the runner ended up getting really far behind and even though they came out the same direction   thus were not disqualified   it really gave Sweden and Great Britain a huge lead.   In the third leg we got to see Kristian Jones start right after Gustav Bergman, two very strong runners who didn't struggle to maintain the lead they gained on the rest of the field. Although shoutout to Kasper Fosser and Mattias Kyburz who had the fastest time on the third leg.    ResponsiveImage    src  "  images  blog  woc2022  gustav.jpg"    alt  "Gustav Bergman in the relay"      The last leg was a little more interesting. Tove Alexandersson was chasing right behind Megan Carter Davies, two of the best sprint runners in the scene right now. Although Tove didn't struggle to chase down and overtake Megan Carter Davies on  some of the early route choice legs, but Megan Carter Davies did a great job holding on and didn't allow the runners behind to gain much time. In the chasing pack, we saw an impressive performance by Andrine Benjaminsen of Norway who gained 3 places and was  the second fastest runner on her leg putting Norway into 3rd place behind Sweden and Great Britain. Elena Roos has a great run too, only 8 seconds slower than Benjaminsen.   Overall a great race that maybe would've been more interesting if some of the runners didn't make that ridiculous mistake in the out of bounds, but either way Sweden looked very dominant throughout the race and definitely deserved the victory.     Knockout Sprint   The first of its kind! This was probably my favorite one to watch   although I only watched the finals and semi finals  . Karolin Ohlsson had a poor race and didn't qualify to the semi finals which was a surprise.       Men's Semi  Finals    ResponsiveImage    src  "  images  blog  woc2022  jones.jpg"    alt  "Kris Jones in the knockout sprint semi  final"      The first semi  final was amazing to watch and I highly recommend checking out the TV footage. Kristian Jones led a majority of the race and looked calm and in control taking the win. Mattias Kyburz followed not far behind and towards the end of the race he  made a very interesting move where it looked like he intentionally baited some of the other runners to go into a passageway when in reality he quickly backed out.    ResponsiveImage    src  "  images  blog  woc2022  finish.jpg"    alt  "Finish of the second mens knockout sprint semi  final"      The second knockout sprint was also very exciting and probably had one of the closest sprint finishes. After reaching the 2nd to last control, the Norwegian runner Eidsmo quickly picked up the pace and forced everyone to remain hot on his heels.  Unfortunately, at the last control he made a TINY mistake that cost him a spot in the final! Definitely the best finish.    ResponsiveImage    src  "  images  blog  woc2022  tim.jpg"    alt  "Tim Robertson in the third knockout sprint semi  final"      The third knockout sprint was also interesting, although maybe the least impressive of the three semifinals.  Tim Robertson and Aston Key led the beginning of the race, however the young Australian fell behind and made a poor route choice to the last control while August Mollen pulled head of Robertson and the two of them came through to the next round.    ResponsiveImage    src  "  images  blog  woc2022  tove.jpg"    alt  "Tove Alexandersson in the knockout sprint semi  final"          Women's Semi  Finals   In the first women's semifinal, Tove swept the field with Simona Aebersold following not far behind. Tove had good control over the entire race and as usual she had higher speed than the rest of the field. Unfortunately, Tereza Janosikova didn't qualify.   The second womens final was much more interesting with many strong runners, Megan Carter Davies, Andrine Benjaminsen, Venla Harju and Eef van Dongen, just to name a few. Megan Carter Davies took control from the beginning all the way to the end where she took the lead. And on the route choice to the last control, Eef van Dongen took the better route and made it into the final with a 2nd place finish!   In the last final, we had the Ukrainian Kateryna Dzema start out strong to the second control, then the field split where she lost some time to the other runners.       Men's Finals   Wow! This was an amazing final. So many great runners and it was really great to see Tim Robertson and some other take many risky and interesting route choice. Spoiler alert   Mattias Kyburz won with an amazing last leg! His strategy seems dominant in this kind of race,  hanging back and reading ahead until the end where he pulls away with his great speed.       Women's Finals   Not as interesting as the Men's final since Tove swept once again, however Megan Carter Davies definitely gave her a run for her money. The most amazing result was from Eef van Dongen who took home a BRONZE MEDAL! After 4 years of orienteering, how amazing!     Sprint Final    ResponsiveImage src  "  images  blog  woc2022  kasper5.jpg" alt  "Kasper Fosser"      ResponsiveImage src  "  images  blog  woc2022  kasper1.jpg" alt  "Kasper Fosser"      ResponsiveImage src  "  images  blog  woc2022  kasper2.jpg" alt  "Kasper Fosser"      ResponsiveImage src  "  images  blog  woc2022  kasper3.jpg" alt  "Kasper Fosser"      ResponsiveImage src  "  images  blog  woc2022  kasper4.jpg" alt  "Kasper Fosser"      and Tove got beat by Megan Carter Davies. The end!  

My 2023 Race Schedule

Managing Chronic Patellar Tendinopathy

Recap of WOC 2022

The Ultimate Smoothie

Welcome to the Blog!