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October 12, 2006
AAAARG!!!!!!
It all started innocently enough. I raced on Saturday, played tennis later that afternoon, then spent the day Sunday climbing up and down a ladder working on a painting project. Monday was a rest day, with only a 2 mile walk at lunch.
Tuesday morning I somehow forgot to set my alarm, to get up and go to the gym. I woke up about 5:00, mad at myself for getting up late. I decided to try to still get a short workout in. With my work schedule, I knew I would only have about 45 minutes to cram in a workout – so I figured 25 or 30 minutes on some basic weights, then I would hit the spinning bikes for 10 or 15 minutes. The Weights all felt good, mainly core work, upper body and some leg strength building. I’m doing “squats� now for the first time in my life – trying to improve my running and biking speed.
I finished the weights, and shifted to the spinning room. Beyond Fitness has a fairly small room, with about 15 bikes or so – but the bikes are all brand new GIANT brand bikes.
The first one I tried had some strange noises going on with the crank, so I moved over to the next bike. This bike worked fine, and I got it all adjusted – and realized that I had less than 10 minutes before I had to hit the showers.
So, I did what any normal, red blooded type “A� person would do – I cranked up the bike, and hit it hard. After about 3 or 4 minutes of spinning, I cranked up the tension, got out of the seat, and figured I’d get at least a few minutes of hill climbing in.
Finished my workout, and hit the showers – and no problems…. Yet.
About noon, I all of a sudden realized that my left knee felt strange. Somewhat like someone had smacked it with a 2x4… I couldn’t really identify a particular area of the knee, just the whole thing hurt.
By 5:00 PM, I was walking with an almost noticeable limp. When I got home I iced it, and tried to take it easy.
Wednesday, again it was really sore, and hard to walk without a limp. I iced it in the morning, hoping that would help me make it through the day. Of course, at work I ended up spending most the day at the various jobsites, with lots of walking over uneven surfaces, which was quite a challenge.
Finally, by Thursday evening, my knee started to feel better. I’m still not 100% sure what caused the injury – but I suspect it was the combination of a pretty hard race, followed by pushing myself on a spinning bike way too hard. This was the first time I had been on a spinning bike in about 6 months (since our last “winter that would not quit�).. Even thought I have been doing lots of cycling, it’s all been on a real bike – with real clip-in’s. The spinning bikes I have never really liked, as they seen to be very hard on my knees for some reason.
Unfortunately, as we head into winter, the spin bikes are about the only game in town unless you want to ride in the rain and in the dark. Hopefully I did not do any permanent damage, and will be able to crank up my mileage a little bit between now and November 5th, for the Thirty Second annual ALMOND BOWL race in Chico.
Posted by Dennis at October 12, 2006 07:32 PM
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