The Aftermath

I was happy and thought I felt good at the start.


The knee is feeling better, but I know my troubles are far from over. I’ve had knee problems off an on most of my adult life. I guess it stems from years of playing soccer and riding skateboards in my youth. When I went in the Army back in 1990, things progressively got worse. In 1991, I ended up having surgery on my right knee to repair damage that had accumulated over the years. It was probably a sketchy procedure (because it was done by Army doctors), but I ended up “back to normal” in a few weeks. I say back to normal because in the Army they pretty much make you go back to full speed once you get “medical clearance.” I don’t even know if I ever fully healed.


Years later, I would have issues off and on (including a little bit of arthritis.) I could usually tell if it was gonna rain, be cold, etc., but I learned to deal with it. If I spent too much time aggravating my knee, it would swell and I would have to stay off of it for a few days. About two years ago it started getting worse again, so I finally broke down and went to the doctor. I ended up getting a cortisone shot, and things were okay for a while. I guess I’m back to needing some kind of medical attention.


I will be better, and I’m not sure if I’ll end up visiting any kind of medical professional again unless I can’t walk and/or ride my bike at all. It’s way too early in the season to have this kind of trouble, and I don’t want to end up screwing it all up by having to stay off the bike. I stopped running quite a while ago to be able to keep biking, but maybe that’s not enough. I’ll figure something out I guess.


I other news, I guess my race wasn’t as bad as I thought. Sure, I went down a few places from last week, but I didn’t finish anywhere near DFL. I was able to keep riding, but I wasn’t able to stand up and power through the climbs. That’s what made it so hard to chase down the leaders and keep Big Tater off my wheel. I somehow survived, but there was no way in hell I could’ve raced in the single speed class. If I feel up to it, I’ll try to do both races this weekend. If not, then I guess I’ll just sit around on my ass and spectate. It kinda sucks to watch everyone else race and explain to them why I’m not.


I did find a few more photos of my “race” though:



It hurt like hell every time I pushed down the pedal, but I somehow kept going.


I was in the smallest gear possible, which meant that I was going really slow.

The above photos were found on the Winter Short Track Series Facebook page.


You might wonder what the hell I was wearing, since last week I was all decked out in my Bike29 kit. Well, since it was muddy out there on the Short Track, I didn’t want to ruin my kit (I did that once before a few years ago when I rode for someone else.) Instead, I opted for a plain black jersey and something that George sent me a while back.



It’s gonna be a long season, and I don’t want to race all year with a mud-spotted team kit. I’m not very good at laundry stuff, so I took the easy way out. I guess there are worse problems out there though.

See y’all tomorrow with more crap and nonsense.