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Knee Ache — Followup
In Knee Pain — The Psychology, I discussed the challenges of a nagging low-level borderline injury.
With a shoulder problem needing an MRI, I had the left knee MRI'd also. The good news is that the left knee has some low-level inflammation going on but is structurally sound with good cartilage and meniscus.
The less good news is that my shoulder has been painful for ~8 months and the MRI shows a calcified lump on top of tendon in the rotator cuff. But the good news is that the lump appears to not intrude into the tendon itself, or at least not very far, so removal and recovery should be relatively fast.
The doc advises not waiting more than six months to get the lump out, does not expect it to improve (and probably get worse) over time— and hell, I can’t even get a GU out of my jersey pocket without difficulty while riding with this bum shoulder, so under the knife I go in a few days. Which means downtime in training, though I can probably get on a stationary trainer within 3-4 days after the surgery, so as to at least not lose any fitness. On the road... maybe a bit longer. At least I hope to not lose fitness.
Between the knee and the shoulder, the Death Valley Double looks increasingly dubious. It’s a problem losing the better part of a month for LSD (long slow distance) training, but I remain cautiously optimistic that being podium-competitive in this year’s Everest Challenge might still be possible.
But sometimes there is a confluence that works out in some ways— my SRM power meter crankset is flaking (low battery I presume) and so I’ll pull it the day before surgery and get it off to SRM for service, and by the time it’s back perhaps I can get out on the road again.
