Recovery Rides

My knee seems to be healing pretty good. However, it has taken longer than the two week healing time that I was hoping for. I have lost a lot of my endurance and what little speed I had. My 600 attempt is in grave danger.

I started Physical Therapy with Mark Ware the Tuesday after Memorial Day. He did some ultrasound treatment and got me started on some stretches. I have been going twice a week ever since.

June 2nd - did not ride at all. My knee still hurt pretty badly. It really was stoving up at night. Drove up to Mom & Dads for the day. Sucked not being on the bike. I really wanted to be back on it.

Mark added some exercises to my stretches during PT. They also message the heck out of it.

June 9th - Dianne and I rode 12 miles from my house down the South Trace to the bridge before 49. Basically 5 miles out and back on the Trace and mile back to the house. I was trying out David's Fizik Alliante instead of my Selle an-atomica. I really lost confidence in it on the 400 k. Hated the Alliante. I felt like I was sitting on my girly bits. We stopped a couple times for me to adjust the saddle. All in all it was a good ride and my knee did not hurt.

After the ride, Dianne and I cleaned up and rode to Jeff Busby Park on the Natchez Trace to develop a 300 k route. We found a 600 ft climb over .8 miles inside the park. I can't wait to do this ride. We listened to the State Game on the radio the whole time. We stopped in French Camp for lunch and it was great. French Camp is an older looking town that has a few old buildings to look at along with a cute craft shop and cafe. We had the best BLT I have ever eaten.

June 16th - Drove to Magnolia for Fathers Day to see Pal. I got up early and rode out to Logoly State Park (nothing there) and then out to Waldo and Stamps. The North/South portion of the route was hillier than the East/West portion. The total route was 57 miles. The weather was overcast and humid. The temps were probably in the 60s to start and 80s by noon. I saw three deer on the route. The dogs behaved themselves - most acted like they have never seen anyone on a bike before. There probably aren't many cyclists in Southern Arkansas. I really can tell my cardiovascular system has been compromised during this layoff with my knee. I changed my saddle back to the new Selle An-atomica. It was slick and I probably need to adjust the nose down slightly. It wasn't perfectly comfortable, but I guess it needs to be broken in now.

The roads were pretty decent for the most part - various degrees of chip seal with some smooth or old pavement mixed in. Normally the road surface changed at the county lines. I was on 79 and 82 some. The shoulders were pretty wide in most places. Just past Waldo however, the shoulder on 82 was very rough chip seal and the road was pristine black top. I fixed my mirror to see the traffic behind me and rode directly on 82 only getting on the shoulder when cars were approaching from behind. When I entered the next county, the shoulder changed to smooth pavement and made the trip much easier and safer.

I started back to spin class on Tuesday and on Wednesday I tried out the spin bikes at Northeast. I liked them, but the women's locker room is still disgusting. I will stick with the crappy bikes at Lakeland instead. I also rode the South Trace on Wednesday night. I switched saddles to the Lady Gel Flow from Selle Italia. It is the newer version of my old saddle that had worn out before I got the Selle An-atomica. I hated it to. It felt like I was sitting on a brick.

My knee and quads felt very fatigued. I probably over did it doing 2 spin classes and riding the trace within 2 days. Mark looked at the knee and pronounced it okay. He said as it starts showing up on rides to get off the bike and stretch.

Went in to see Josh on Friday to get re-fit on the bike. Sammy helped me instead. He was really good. I told him how uncomfortable the Selle Italia was and that I thought my sit bones were coming off of the seat. He suggested the ugliest bike seat I have ever laid my eyes on. It is much wider that the others I have tried and has more cushion. Within 2 seconds, the seat felt comfortable.