Good News..........

After waiting for an hour and a half I was able to get in to see Dr. Stark. Took some photos of both knees and and no damage to my knees, in fact in pretty good condition for the miles that I have on them. I was thinking that my problem was either my LCL or IT band. It took the doc all of about 15 seconds to place his thumb in the exact location of the pain point and then said "does that hurt..?" yep, it sure did....which was the insertion point of the IT band at the knee. This was good news, in the scheme of things......I caught it early enough on that with a little PT I'll be back in running action in a couple of weeks. Till then...I will swim, ride and strengthen my hips, gluts, calfs and quads.

Yesterday I managed to get in a nice 38 mile ride in the afternoon. The temps were in the high 50's, but sunny and overall a great day for a ride. I did hill repeats at the half way point, seated, to begin preparing myself to tackle the hills (and the Beast) in St Croix. The island course has some nice climbs and switch backs that are a ton of fun, at least descending them is. My young bull buddy is thinking that he is going to take me on this course, however, I don't think that he stands a chance. I've ridden the course twice and ran it once so I've got the advantage of knowing the track. The most challenging part isn't the climbing but the 10 mile ride up the windy coast line, where we'll most likely be riding into 15-20MPH headwinds. Grinding thru headwinds seems like a walk in the park anymore, compared to being at mile 60 or 70 in an ultra run....perspective is important.

Got up at 4AM today to take the in laws to the airport...headed to Miami on a cruise. Love this time of day when nobody else is up...drinking coffee and sitting in front of the big stone fire place with cedar wood crackling and popping....ahhhh. There is no rest for the wicked or weary .....plan on getting in another 35-40 mile ride today with at least 30 minutes of hill respeats ....I'm gong young bull hunting in 60 days and must prepare...Cheers!!