Renewal

so Issue 4 arrived two days ago, and again - AWESOME job! Alas, it is time to renew my subscription. Gotta stay engaged with the knee figures out whatever it needs to figure out. Trained yesterday, and it felt like someone stabbed at my knee for a little bit afterwards. Not sure what the eff that is about - probably gonna call up a local shop and see how my fit is. Follow that up with an Orthoped visit on Tuesday and I hope to be back in the game soon. Until then...just turning the pages.

More off than on...















Lately, my knee has felt "off" - in that my ACL was replaced with a patellar tendon graft back in 95, this surgery stemming from a rugby injury. So, what is "off" in regards to my knee lately? Well, when I walk on uneven surfaces it feels like it is going to buckle. There is a sensation that bone is contacing bone in a bad way. That dull pain that shoots up in intensity when the joint is moved in the slightest. I was changing after my morning ride and it fell like there was nothing between my femur and tibia. Sometimes it feels like my lower leg takes a second to catch up to my upper leg - and a subtle odd click when it does. I hate it. Back of knee. Side of knee. Yesterday I tried riding in with a knit/elastic support on my knee and it felt like my knee cap was being pulled off. I slowed my pace about 15 mins into the ride to slide it off. Felt better after that.

Luckily, a few of the guys here at work have had good experiences with some local docs for knee issues. Time to rebuild? Dunno...hope not. Just needed a couple 5 or 6 six weeks to last out the rest of the season, but I have a feeling it is time to face the music.

"Mud, Drugs, Betrayal, and Beauty in Belgium" - quoted from the cover of A Dog in a Hat

Picked this up yesterday as Maria perused various wedding journals. So far, I cannot put it down. I woke up at 530AM today to drink coffee and read before riding in to work. I normally leave the house around 7AM. When I got up to grab a second cup of coffee, it was 7AM. So I will be riding home from work today. This is truly a really great read, and the foreword by Bob Roll immediately immerses you in the following pages.

A worthy purchase indeed!

and it gives me some ideas for a honeymoon location too!

WAY off the back...

Wow, I just realized the other day taht I have not posted in a long time. Too long, actually, as I enjoy writing. So, without further hesitation:

I raced the Jonathan Page Super Cup on Saturday - and finished mid-pack. Nothing big, but much better than last year's showing. Still showed me that I have a lot of work to do as far as performance (I am not worried about finishing first right now, but I would like to put more pressure on those guys). My race started poorly, as I ended up hesitating at the gun and the pack enveloped me. I caught up with one or two folks, and then just sat in and picked off 2-3 more through out the race. I feel I am getting closer to the endurance levels I want, and my recovery is smoother than last year - but I need to just gun the shit out of it at the start. Lesson learned. On the upside, having Maria there was an awesome experience! never had such race support before, and I am looking forward to even more of it!
Watching the rest of the races was great the team had great showings in 4s, 3s, and 3s women! Lots of skills coming into view for Pegasus, and it is just as exciting to watch the team improve race by race. Also caught up with Tim and Jason from Grumpy's - good to see those guys.
The Pro races were awesome to watch. Page, Cameron, the LaLondes (Jesse and Marko, and James in the 3s), Popper, Wells, Coach Brian - all impressive riders, as were the rest of them!
Didn't stay around for much of Day 2 as the neck was pretty effed up. Rolled in to watch 4s for a bit, lost my voice again, and then headed back to IL.

I haven't raced since then as I filled the days past with nervously asking Maria to marry me (she said yes!), spending a bit more time with her family, and just relaxing. Work has been a bear lately, and I don't have the mental capacity to hop on a trainer for 1hour + after a 12 hour day. I am working on that part though...slowly. I picked up a light system and it is awesome. I just hope I don't get a ticket for riding the trail later than the law allows. Lions, tigers, bears...bears.

I should have little to no problems hitting up the remaining WI races after Oct 19th (sorry, Madison - 2 hours is farther than I had expected, and with a 915am start time, it just ain't gonna happen as much as I had wished). Looking forward to frosty mornings with the team in MKE to finish up the WCA series.

Until then, love the bike. Love the weather.