Knees

As many cyclists do, I tend to have overly tight hamstrings, quads, and IT bands. Things go pretty well when I stretch thoroughly every day, and especially after rides.

I've been pretty lax in my stretching routine earlier this year and my right knee was letting me know. When the muscles get really tight, my kneecaps don't track very well and the back of my kneecap gets sore and swollen, and bending the knee gets "crunchy".

I'd applied myself a bit more to stretching and was going pretty well. During Saturday's mountain bike ride, I fell off and nailed the end of my right vastus medialis just above my kneecap, possibly with my elbow or handlebar or stem, I'm not sure which. The swelling that resulted tightened the structures around the knee, and low and behold, during the 130 miles that I've put in on the road bike since then, my kneecap is back to being sore and a little crunchy.

Most of my riding has been in the tempo range, with a few intervals of higher wattage, but I've always tried to keep the gears easy and the torque low. The club ride on Wednesday was to include Moon Hill, a local .7-mile climb with grades of 19%. Usually, I find climbing Moon Hill "fun", but I avoided it this time around and stayed on the gentler climbs to keep the knee from yelling at me.

The swelling from the mountain bike fall is almost gone now, a yellowish bruise in its place, and the knee is feeling pretty good. I'll take a relatively easy spin tonight to warm up, concentrate on stretching well while watching the US vs Ghana match on tape (shhhh, don't tell me what happened) and then take tomorrow evening off. There's an annual block party on our street Friday evening, and as the newest residents, we're pretty much obligated to go meet the locals. I can't wait to talk about other people's kids.

The weekend will bring some big-time intensity, if not duration, with the Rochester Twilight Criterium on Saturday where I'll be racing in the 3-4 field, and the Owasco Flier on Sunday. The crit has a bunch of turns and a swooping hairpin, so I'm looking forward to racing it for the first time. I've found with experience comes an enjoyment of technical crit courses. The Flier is only 36 miles long and it's a non-USCF race with one massive open category. There is prize money though, so the field is always peppered with local cat 2s. The pace is usually pretty hot from the beginning as all the veteran riders fight to stay ahead of the danger of the rest of the 150+ rider peloton filled with riders with less experience racing in a big pack. The climbs begin about halfway through the course, and then it's pretty much a hilly, balls-to-the-wall time trial from then on as the pack strings out, breaks apart, and everyone chases the usual small group of strong guys that rolls off the front. With a technical crit on Saturday and a huge citizen race on Sunday, my biggest goal for the weekend is not losing any skin or expensive bike parts. It'll be a fun one!

See you on the road.