Sat evening post ride my knee caught on fire. The PT that treats me in Sedona, Eric, sold me a hard rubber ball for me to press on to tight muscles, much like Elbow Dave here in Bend uses his elbow. Principle is a muscle is under tension and needs to be released by point contact. This ball creates high pressure on local spot.
I put the ball under leg parts then lowered myself onto its hard surface. Whew, painful. I worked many muscles in that leg ultimately extinguishing the burn. I figured that muscles were not playing well with the knee and the releasing of tension would allow the knee to track correctly and that maybe pain is from muscle and not meniscus. I went to bed dreaming about the next day’s ride.
Sat I set out on that ride with the knee smiling. That’s it, I’m recovered. I pedaled with joy. I bit off a big ride, my knee paid for it as the burn returned albeit not as hot as before. Ride climbed up to Helipad at the start of Storm King descent. Descent was a blast of carving turns. I previously switched to the shorter 40mm stem that made a big improvement in my control. As an aside I spoke with Revel about stem length as their web site bike build shows the 40 is the stock length, my stem was a bit longer. Steering quickness followed. Well, sometimes good things come to an end as my knee sent unhappy signals. Back at the van I iced it and worked on stretches then more ball then more ball later. I put the fire out but not the base pain.
Badgers dig holes to what purpose right at trail edge. This one is on Storm King, dug right at trail edge.
Fall sun light is here, lower angle changes effect. Temp still in 70s and no precip.
I am rereading Still Life with Woodpecker written by Tom Robbins, who is still alive at 90, published in 1980. Tom Robbins is enough said. So far my eyes still work albeit this headache affects processing his words. CT scan this Fri and ENT exam next week. I bought this book when first released at a book store in Gig Harbor, WA. At that time and still Robbins lived in WA. How to make love stay?
30 degrees this morn at dark thirty slip out of bed time. Now 84 at 2:45 here in town. Still wearing shorts and Bedrock sandals but changing out shirts to accommodate comfort. Going downtown for a chocolate malt, Using recovery time to bulk up.