Road to recovery...

I'm out. Not riding. Not running. Not doing anything. My MCL (medial collateral ligament) is toast.

I was playing soccer at the Sportsplex and it was the first game of the season. Within the first 5 minutes of the game my soccer season ended and more troubling, my biking would come to a complete halt.

I went for a hard shot at the goal. As my right leg was fully extended, a player from the other team decided to run perpendicularly across my leg as hard as possible. And next thing I knew, I was on the ground -- and I also missed the shot!! damn.

I tried to stand up again, but couldn't. This was bad news... really bad news. This was the first time my knees had been injured and I was praying it wasn't something super serious.

I rested a bit on the sidelines and trying getting on the field again. Ha!! What a mistake. I made a sprint for the goal after juking a defender, missed the shot (yeah.. it was an off day) and then collapsed. I could barely stand. Bad news bears has arrived!

After getting home and R.I.C.E.ing my leg, I had a hunch my MCL was torn. I went to the doctor a few days later and he confirmed that I had strained my MCL and it's likely a Grade 2 tear. I could walk with some pain, there wasn't much swelling, but I definitely had no stability in my right knee. CRAP!! At least no surgery and about a 6-8 week full recovery.

I've been resting since the beginning of August, but have been pretty upset about this injury -- actually very very upset.

1) I was hitting a peak in biking and performance, and now I feel like I'm going to take 10 steps backwards.
2) I will be off the bike for at least 4 weeks and can't do anything else either
3) I will miss so many CAF training rides. And I don't know how I'm going to make up those miles and time with the other riders.
4) I miss my bike.

Let's see how this goes. If I'm back on the bike in mid-sept, that leaves me basically 1 month to pack in almost 600 - 1000 miles for training. oh boy oh boy. This is going to be fun. Stupid Soccer!!