'Cause Harmless Medications Abound And Your Not Sick

AM: 3:05 Bike Ride, Hard At The End

Today is the Irish National Championships, actually was the Champs. I have not seen results. The whole thing is very frustrating. I had big dreams of running the Euro Cross in Santry, Dublin. And I had aspirations of doing very well. When I won the Inter-Club Champs back in March my first thought crossing the line was that I will be back here in 8 months. Much fitter, stronger, and hungrier than anyone else. But now I am in a coffee shop preparing for knee surgery and I am about as far from European XC champs as I can be. I have finally got a scheduled Knee Operation happening on DEC 8th. The pain I have been complaining about in my right knee has turned out to be a pretty severe tear of the remaining meniscus. Ironically, I will now have a surgery to fix a problem that stemmed from favoring too much. I wonder what the folks at Blue Cross Blue Shield think of this? Its the only explanation. My right leg is very strong and the reason for my first surgery came after a fall on the trails of Boulder. Actually climbing a fence and some really clumsy action, not so much running on a trail. At least I made the 10 guys I was running with laugh hard. This knee surgery came out of nowhere. I had ZERO pain in my right leg, all the pain is in my left knee and a few months back my right knee just started to hurt. I complained but didn't really think there was significant damage until after NYC Marathon expo. The pain that resulted from standing in the Javits all day was unnatural and seriously drove me to drink. Now I know I'm not a moaner! So I go under the knife which is as natural as anti-biotics these days. Maybe more natural in fact. Plans to go home and watch Euro XC are now shelved for sure and I will head off the week after for some holidays.

Another wonderful Fall day here in Providence. I met up with Ben for a ride over a course I hadn't done before. It was terrific. Ben was putting in about 2 hours so I did some miles before we met up. We rode easy at first but got into a nice groove over the hills in South East Mass and when I dropped Ben off I hammered the last 30 minutes. I had some pent up energy/frustration that needed to be released. So I did my best Sean Kelly impersonation and thumped a big gear until my legs felt like jelly. I like to think I'm a decent bike rider but I put the A in Amateur when it comes down to it! I find myself at the bar of Blue State, a home away from home these days, listening to tunes and watching youtube footage of Julian Plenti shows over the past few nights. I cannot wait to get front and center at the Paradise tomorrow night. It will be another beautiful night of music to kick off a laid back week.

Peace and Love,

Kel