tpelle

We'll I took my first ride of the year today, and the first ride since last Memorial Day when I broke my kneecap. It was only 5.41 miles, with a few hills mixed in (one of which, I admit, I walked), but under doctor's orders I'm supposed to take it easy.

It made it up to 52F today, cloudy and dreary, but I figured it was an opportunity not to be missed. I met one other group of about seven riders, so I guess I wasn't the only one to feel that way.

The knee feels good. I bought a pair of those hard plastic kneepads that the skateboarders and mountain bikers wear, as pretty much one more big bang on that kneecap and the knives come out.

The last X-ray of the kneecap showed some new bone growth in the crack, but it also showed that the piece that broke off (outside of the left kneecap, and the crack runs straight in from front to rear) did not knit back on perfectly in alignment with the rest. There's a little bit of an edge that may cause trouble from being pushed against the end of the femur. At this point it's a waiting game to see if I have any pain or other symptoms. Actually I had more discomfort out of the OTHER set of quads.

Temperature-wise I was pretty comfortable. I wore bike shorts with polypro underwear over them, then a set of sweatpants and a pair of windpants over that. I wore the polypro underwear top, a long sleeve jersey, and a rain jacket. I put the rain cover on my helmet, and wore a headband with earflaps. On my hands I wore a pair of Pear Izumi knit gloves with a pair of wool "gripper" gloves from Walmart over that. Actually the gloves worked great, as this is just about the first time I bicycled in cool weather when my hands DIDN'T get cold.

My only complaint with so many layers, being 57 years old, is by the time I get 'em all all on I decide I hafta pee!