Back in the Saddle ... sort of

Apparently Dr. Hwang had a field day in the playground that is my knee. As the PT guy (Dan) was explaining what all had been done, it struck me that there was not an interior surface of the knee that had not gotten some attention. No wonder Saturday and Sunday were lost days! (That and I really overdid Friday.)

Now comes the rehab and I have been told that because of the extent of the work and my knee' advanced age (do knee years equal dog years?) I am looking at 2-3 months for full recovery as opposed to the 4-6 weeks for "young-kneed" people. Nevertheless, my hope is to get all the way around on the bicycle pedals by the end of the weekend. To me, that will signal the start of getting back to full activity.

Yet I am faced with the looming question of what full activity means. In all likelihood, my running "career", as I have known it, is over. If I am able to continue to run, it will be much shorter distances and many fewer miles. For years I have known that this is inevitable, yet now that the time for assessment and decision-making is at hand, it makes me very sad.

As you might guess, running has been very important to me over the past few years. For fitness, as a place and time to think and process, as a rubric that pulls all of the various pieces of life and reflection together. But now things will change. What activity will take running's preeminent place? I cannot see becoming sedentary and inactive. Will it be biking? Hiking? Walking? Chasing a granddaughter? Time will tell, but I am definitely on the lookout.

One exciting near term goal--my good friend Frank is pulling together the old bike team from DePauw's Little 5 days for he alumni race this April. My goal is to be ready to ride with those guys. It sounds like all of the riders from both teams will be coming back, so it should be a great time to catch up with old friends--lots of shared memories and stories I am not necessarily sure that my kids need to hear :-)

In the meantime,

Pressing On!
-Ken