Gotta hear that body language

Every since the Tour of Herman last April, I've been cumbered by some knee pain in my left knee. After lots of PT, serious alterations to my riding/training, a few cortisone shots, and even a few weeks of complete rest it seemed like nothing was really helping. So after getting a solid diagnosis to the problem I decided to get a piece of fibrosed (scar) tissue cut out of my knee. I had the procedure on Wednesday August 11th and did great post-op...even walking out of the hospital. The next few days seemed to go very well. I even managed to go mountain biking 11 days afterwords.

Then day 13, something I had a major setback. I wasn't doing much at all when it happened, but all of a sudden my knee swelled up like a balloon, I couldn't bend it, and I was in 8/10 pain. A few hours later, back in the hospital getting 20-30cc of blood drained out. My first response was that I pushed it too hard sunday and that I basically shot myself in the foot. But after talking to a bunch of different people, it actually seems like some of the medicines I was taking are more at fault than anything else. The surgeon had rx'd aspirin for pain and on top of that, I was taking 5-6g of EPA/DHA (omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil) per day. Unfortunately, both of those medicines worked together to produce serious anti-platelet effects and pre-dispose me to a bleed...and of course it happens in the joint that I just exercised nearly 2 weeks after an operation. Dumb luck or dumb behavior? I think a little more of the latter than the former.

The first 5 days after the bleed, I basically sat at home on my butt taking frozen peas on and off my knees. It was pretty depressing. Today is day 7 and I'm feeling a bunch better. I'm able to start my physical therapy again and hopefully will be moving very soon.

What is the lesson in this for me? Honestly, I used to be pretty good at listening to my body but due to a general lack of trust with regards to certain cell growths, it is really hard for me to have real trust for my body. Much less, patience.

For me, I know that I won't race for almost 3/4 of the year next year. It just isn't healthy for me. I love riding a bike but after cyclocross season, I plan on focusing more on health/longevity than racing bikes. The first thing involved in that is health with my family, after that, health in work, then nutrition, and finally exercise.
I'll still ride, but it will be much more frolicking than training. Cyclocross season will of course still be full-on, but everything else will be a lot more chill and probably slow. But who knows?

As for the next few weeks, I'm pulling the plug on any racing labor day weekend and the following. Mas tempo con la familia. Bummer about not racing Herman, but oh well.

After that, I'd like to race my mountain bike 1 or 2 last times this year. Then, cross.

Sep 26: DE STAD CROSS 1
Oct 9: Pedal the cause!
Oct 10: Cross out cancer
Oct 16-Nov 28: Bubba!
Then MO state champs and possibly a trip to Oregon in December for CX nats!