the good and the bad

I finally got that MRI for my right knee and the results are in...

The good news:
No meniscus tear; joints and cartilage are normal

The bad:
Intense bone marrow edema over a 15mm region

Basically, I have a huge bone bruise from blunt trauma force on the patella which I am fairly sure this occurred when I tripped and fell down a flight of stairs at Bart two days after my Tahoe Half in October. And to add to the injury, I fell down another flight of stairs right before I ran the Cal International in December. Double the fall on the knee and double the pain.

Bone marrow edema may lead to the progression of knee osteoarthritis but as long as I lay off my knees and avoid any joint pounding which sadly, includes cycling, I should be fine in four to six weeks.

So, swimming and walking are the only form of exercise I will be doing for a while.

And I bought a road bike!

After much perusing on CL for a road bike and swinging between a Trek and a Giant, I purchased a used 04' Trek 1500T WSD from an avid cyclist in Pac Heights last night. The bike is in decent shape but can use a finer tune up to fit my body/position but otherwise, it works as a starter road bike. I just need to buy pedals, shoes, helmet and bike shorts. Otherwise, I'm set and ready to go!

How exciting! I'm well on my way with training for a tri. Finally! I jogged two miles this past Sunday with a little knee soreness which went away after the first mile. Legs felt good overall and I have never been happier to be running again. A truly great feeling.

Yesterday, I had my first swim lesson at the Y and that went fairly well. A couple things I need to work on; my breathing and my arm stroke. My legs were a bit stiff in the water and I had trouble bending my knees. It might have been because of my short jog the other day and the half hour of test riding the bike before my swim class.

I planned to go for another jog today but I think I should probably sit this day out and recoup. Dodgeball starts tomorrow..

I can bike!

My doc gave me the go-ahead to "ease into" cycling, specifically on a stationary bike at the gym. Okay. I'll take anything at the moment and cycling will build up my cardio. I visited the gym for the first time in months last Thurs and rode for a half hour. I felt energized! It was an amazing feeling. Then I decided to try the elliptical and I realized how weak I am. My legs were like butter and I could not get the elliptical rotating accordingly. It was pathetic.

My right knee doesn't hurt when I step down stairwells so that's a good sign. I can do lunges, but the knee is not quite stable enough to do a squat. In any case, I'm on the right track.

I just hope I'll be well enough to run a half in three weeks after I resigned myself to back out of the Reno-Tahoe relay tomorrow. I'm bummed about that but what can I do? Running now isn't worth a life time of knee problems.