Bike Challenge

I've been experiencing some pain in my left knee for quite awhile now and I finally went to the Dr. two weeks ago. The Dr. was very laid back and couldn't really tell me what was wrong. He said he wanted to send me to physical therapy to have them really beat my knee up so we could pinpoint the problem. The problem with this approach was that my knee was already causing me pain and interrupting my sleep so the last thing I wanted to do was have someone cause me more pain. I had already scheduled an appointment with a different Dr., but they couldn't see me for a week so I had also made this appointment. After the first visit I decided to keep the second appointment and get another opinion. This orthopedic office was amazing. You can tell that there are quite a bit of sports injuries in this town with how big and busy the place was. I'm really glad I kept that appointment. Before I even saw the Dr. they took me in for X-Rays so that could instantly rule some things out. Basically I have runner's knee, the Dr. took out 15cc's of fluid and gave me a cortisone shot.

It took a few days for the cortisone to kick in, but now that it has I decided it was time to start the bike challenge. We went camping over the weekend and took a 6 mile ride to the lake for a picinic lunch. After driving home from camping on Sunday I have not gotten into a car. We decided to get Pizza for dinner on sunday and I rode my bike to the pizza shop a mile away to pick it up instead of having it delivered. On Monday my son and I took the bike over to Fred Meyer to pick up a few essentials. This was my first trip on the bike trail through town and it was quite nice. The ride ended up being just under 9 miles and even though I was pulling a close to 70 pound trailer behind me, it didn't seem that bad. Tuesday was Donut day. I had been promising my son to take him to Voodoo Donut's in downtown on the bike. I invited one of the neighbors and her daughter with us and we made it a morning of donuts and farmer's market. The trip was just over 14 miles and I was ready for a nap when we got home.

I picked up some plums at the farmer's market that were so good I have asked my husband to ride with me on Saturday morning to go get some more.

So far I am at 25 miles since Sunday. With the 14 mile ride on Saturday to the market and a possible 12 mile ride to the fair on Sunday I should top out at over 50 miles for the week which is pretty good considering I am pulling a 50 pound sled behind me without adding anything else that we may purchase.

I think that I will continue this challenge past the end of this week. I have found that it is not that difficult to get to downtown or anywhere else that we usually go. The downside is the weight and storage capacity of the trailer. I think that once a week I will use the car to get the heavy items at the store, but will save the light items for trips during the week. My son enjoys going on rides and they help us get out of the house for awhile to enjoy the beautiful days that we are having. I can feel fall in the air and now that it won't be long before the rains begin so we need to enjoy it while we can.