PBR ME

Having a little residual pain from hard training is pretty much business as usual. A pip of Advil and a coupla' beers and everything is back to normal. After last weekend’s double dip that went way deep into the forest and close to my physical capabilities, my right knee is – for the first time ever – sore below the kneecap. I have a serious aversion to joint injuries, torn ligaments, tendons, bone chips all that crap. You could show me a gunshot wound and I’d be interested, but if you show me my own X-Ray of a broken wrist, I’ll faint. I should know, I've woken up on gurneys twice after seeing x-rays. Real tough guy, huh. Sports slo-mo replays of knee and ankle injuries - I turn the other way, no exception.

WTF?

It all started many years ago when I ran the Whiskey 50 half marathon in Prescott off the couch. I’d been running occasionally and was riding occasionally and figured what the hell, 2 hours max – how hard can that be? I didn’t even look at the course profile. Tuned out to be 6.5 miles way up and 6.5 miles way down. It kicked my ass – the descent to the line was the worst part. The end result was 3 days of walking like a duck, followed by a slight tick in my knee from time to time that makes me wince – and has stayed with me ever since. Nice training dillweed, why don’t you write a book and preach your tried and true methods?

So if Gephyrophobia is the fear of knees, then I’d say I suffer more from something along the lines of messedupgephryophobia. The good thing is, I’m half smart, and I won’t resume riding until it goes away. Coincidentally, for many lame reasons, I still have half of a half barrel of PBR beer in my trunk - left over from last weekend. 7.75 gallons = 992 ounces = 82.67 cans of beer. Hmmm. Cross season doesn't start for a month and I don't even ride cross, so I could conceivably finish that keg. Hmmm.