So here I am at ground zero. Well, almost ground zero. Ground zero was the second half of July 2007. My chronic pains in my left knee reached an all time high, and for some reason my right knee entered the same state of pain as my left knee. I could barely walk down the stairs in my house. Sitting with my knees bent hurt. Biking was out of the question. Even hiking was out of the question. I could not walk down hill.

How did this happen? The chronic pain in my left knee has been consistently present since 1999. It is just a matter of how bad. I have always enjoyed riding my mountain bike, particularly on long ride. Sometimes I will do some races. This year, however, I had racing "goals". I had several races picked out for the summer of 2007. In addition to the goals of finishing the races, I wanted to place in the top 10 of the races. That required me to work on both my power and endurance. Unfortunately I was unable to get out on a bike much in the spring. The spring is usually when I get out and do long aerobic rides. So this year I started in June and went hard. Too hard.

By early July my left knee hurt. I did the Crested Butte 100 in July, but had to take it easy. I still finished in 10 hours, but I know I could have probably broken 9 hours if my knee was ok. After the CB race my right knee entered a state of pain that it had never been in.

A visit to the orthopedic doctor resulted in yet another dead end with western medicine. Everything is structurally there in both legs. Man, you'd figure these doctors would love to cut you open and see what is wrong but none have that desire with my legs. 1.5 grams of gloucosomine for healing and some Aleve for pain management was the doctor's advice.

It is now the end of August and I am nearing the end of the first month of my assault on getting my knees back. Working with an acupuncturist has revealed low circulation in my knees. Lots of heat packs. I have been able to ride a few times but cannot apply pressure (i.e. can't crank it). I have actually (gasp!) gone road biking a few times as it is more stable than mountain biking, but the stoopid road bike hurts my neck.

The frustration I feel is hard to describe. Mountain biking has been a part of my life for nearly 17 years. That is over half of my life! I start graduate school in a few weeks, and in June I left my job to take a few months off to bike and hike before school started. Instead I have been sitting around having to say "no" to friends who ask if I want to ride. I have to live vicariously through their stories. The worst part is that I can't hike very well either.

It is getting better though, but I think this is a long term process. I feel it is at least an 8 to 12 month effort to get back to where I was. Being in school will help add to the resting.

Future blogs will be less depressing. They will hopefully be recording the improvement.