Fingers Crossed

Our destination today was Tombstone, with an optional climb over Mule Pass into Bisbee. I tentatively planned on skipping the pass, due the knee situation. I figured if I made it to the first stop at the base of the climb, with no knee pain, I would make the climb. Since next week's routes are essentially a repeat of this week, I hope to climb everything next week with a good knee.

Before leaving this morning, I swapped out my shoe cleats to get more float. For those in the know, I use LOOK Keo pedals. I switched from grey cleats to red. Basically, that means that my feet could now swivel a few extra degrees on the pedals. The existing cleats were almost worn out anyway, and I figured more float might relieve some pressure on my knee. The float thing can be tricky, however, since too much float can cause knee strain due to the extra work you have to do to stabilize your feet in the pedals.

As I left the parking lot, I noticed something interesting. With the new cleats, the natural position of my foot was toed out to the maximum float of the cleat. That meant that with the previous, more restrictive, cleat I was probably not toed out as much as I should have been. Perhaps this was contributing to my knee problem. Prior to last week, I had not put more than 100 miles on them in any given week. A strained foot position could easily go unnoticed with so few miles. A glimmer of hope.

During the first 16 miles to the base of Mule Pass, my knee hurt most of the time. I was getting pretty discouraged, but kept thinking that maybe the new cleat would help. Damage had already been done, and I could not expect the knee to suddenly stop hurting. At the first stop, I stayed a few minutes longer to ice the knee. I skipped the Mule Pass climb and turned west toward Tombstone.

For the first 20 minutes or so, my knee felt good. Ice works short-term wonders on tendinitis. Then the climbing started, and my knee starting complaining again. In the 16 miles from the stop to Tombstone, my knee probably hurt half of the time but not as sharply as in the morning. The vistas on the ride to Tombstone, by the way, were absolutely amazing. Literally hundreds of square miles of basin terrain were visible at once -- with towering mountains surrounding it all. I did not try and capture them with the camera, because it would not have been possible. Only full motion video on a large screen could begin to capture the feeling.

After lunch, during which I iced my knee again, I managed about 45 minutes of pain free riding before some hills brought on a dull ache. Irregardless, the final 20 miles back into Sierra Vista were some of the least painful miles since Friday. I am optimistic that things may improve some more tomorrow. There is, however, about 15 miles of difficult terrain on our way to, and through, Fort Huachuca.

Tomorrow, my roommate is riding an unsupported 200km brevet with two other riders. I had been looking forward to going along, but I know it would set my recovery back. First things first. I've got my fingers crossed that the cleat change will speed my recovery. I have to get this knee better so I can stop posting about all of my complaints...

Photos

Beach Shaque. Kind of odd, given that there is no water anywhere nearby. But, perhaps that is the point.

City Limits

OK Corral

I guess they had drag queens in the old west too.

San Pedro River

While riding down the main drag in Tombstone, I accidentally had my camera in movie mode. It's not a great clip, but shows a few seconds of the town before getting random.

Ride Summary

Distance: 50.5 miles
Speed (avg/max): 13.5 mph / 36 mph
Riding Time: 3 hours 45 minutes
Total Time: 5 hours 15 minutes
Power (avg/max) 112 watts / 614 watts
Calories Measured at Wheel: 1500
Heart Rate (min/max/avg): 89 bpm / 172 bpm / 134 bpm

Miles this Year: 1088