My Cat's Got It In For Me

My Tormentor, giving the Evil Eye

On February 22, 2011, while simply traversing the doorway to my bedroom, Tycho got under foot and, in order to avoid stepping right on him, I ran my right knee directly into the corner bedpost. It hurt like any other blow to the knee. . . figured it'd hurt a couple of days, develop a bruise, and then it'd be all over. That was a Tuesday. On Thursday, while on the trainer, the knee hurt and I quickly figured, hmm, okay, that's from that blow to the knee.

I rode 65 miles Saturday without any discomfort. The next day, though, Linda and I rode to Davis from Folsom (with The Habit at the turnaround) and by about 1/4 of the way back on the return trip, my knee started to hurt a little bit. Then a little more, and more. It hurt while sitting, hurt worse while standing. It was tough to pinpoint the exact cause since it seemed to be sensitive to the touch only at the point the knee made impact with the bedpost, but the pain enveloped the whole front of the knee. If I'd stop for a few minutes and start riding again, the pain would disappear for a few miles and then start up again. It was quite debilitating, more so from the standpoint over concern whether I'd do more damage by continuing to ride.

Made it home. . . knee didn't hurt. No pain while walking, though still painful if the point of impact was touched. I didn't turn a pedal for five days. By Friday it felt pretty good. No pain to the touch. Figured I was good to ride Saturday. Rode with the Revolutions folks. El Dorado Hills out Salmon Falls to 49, over to Prospector, Georgetown, Cool, back to Pilot Hill where we parted ways. I headed to do the out-and-back on Rattlesnake Bar Rd while the rest of the crew headed back to EDH.

About 2 miles into the 9 towards Folsom Lake, there goes my knee again--just as savagely as the week before. This time, too, there were tendon issues behind my left knee--hopefully unrelated. I couldn't decide whether to continue, turn back or what. It wasn't like I could just stop and climb into the car, I had about 25 miles to go before I could get back to the car.

I made it out to the lake, rested it for a while and the 9 miles back to Pilot Hill were a little better, but the pain was still hampering my ability to climb, or apply any power up a hill. For whatever reason, after that, things went pretty well the rest of the way back on Salmon Falls.

Post-ride, the knee was hurting like it was before my 5 days off. Today, March 8th, it still hurts like it did two weeks ago. No pain to walk, just riding. And it seems the easier the pedal stroke the more it hurts. It's driving me mad. Stay off the bike completely for another week? Two?

I'm supposed to ride the Solvang Double in two weeks--when am I supposed to get some miles in? It's such a stupid injury, doubly so not knowing what it is I did. I'm falling behind in training. The first Folsom Canal time trials were today--wanted to do that series this year. I've got Devil Mountain next month, Central Coast in May, Terrible Two and Climb to Kaiser in June. I've got to be getting in some miles!!

I'm supposed to see a doctor Monday or Tuesday. It'll be three weeks since the injury by that time. Too bad I'm not on anybody's payroll, a doctor would have seen me by now!