Sculpin

Yesterday in Pilates I did something very dumb. I was kneeling on my left knee on the reformer, with the right leg straight and resting on the floor. And as I got out of that position, I put too much weight on the left knee while moving. There was a sickening creak as the patella seemed to slide toward the outside of the knee, in a way that patellas ought not to do. That leg is much stronger than it was last year, but it’s still pretty atrophied and probably has some minor nerve damage; so I’ve got this weak, sluggish VMO on that side, and… well, I should have been paying more attention, because I know better than to do that. (I will be calling my PT soon, because all this bicycling requires good knees.)

And then Part II of The Dumb: hey, it didn’t seem too bad, and maybe I was making a big deal out of nothing, and I sure had a lot I had to do that day. So I said to myself, “Quit being a whiner!” and walked around on it a lot. Then it seemed too bad. It puffed up a little and got very stiff and a bit hot, so I did the usual things one does for inflammation. “Do not,” I said to Josh, “let me ride a bicycle tomorrow.”

“Got it.”

Later, predictably: “You know, I’m feeling a lot better. I bet I could totally ride that bicycle.”

“Nope. I have my orders! No riding the bicycle!” And thus was The Dumb Part III averted.

Anyway, this seemed like a pretty good time to try out Josh’s ability to haul me to and from the U District on the Xtracycle — we’d never gone more than about 2.5 miles round trip before, and that was almost entirely on the flat. I grabbed my bus pass just in case, and we headed out to the Farmers Market. Our haul: three kinds of cheese, cider, apples, cardamom bread, potatoes, beef jerky, soup bones, kale, collard greens, onion rolls, garlic, and two tiny pies. And the trip home is gently but insistently uphill. But Josh hauled all that, plus me, and did just fine.

I try to get a massage once or twice a month from Mark Pearlscott in the U District. They’re effective as hell, these massages, but they leave me extraordinarily woozy, and I often crash hard within 30-60 minutes of receiving one. (And not because they’re soothing, friends. Myofascial work is not soothing.) Josh has been picking up a Flexcar to get me home on those days, but I think we’ll be able to use the Xtracycle instead. I reckon I can hang on to the back that long.

I’m proud and happy for Josh when I think of how much fitness he’s gained since he started riding his bike to work. It could be that crashing his car will turn out to be one of the best things he’s done for his health.

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