Well after almost seven weeks off of the bike due to injuring my right knee I got back on the dirt. For this first ride back I decided to head out to San Pasqual Valley and do the section of the Coast-to-Crest Trail from Bandy Canyon Road up to Raptor Ridge and back.
I decided on this route at it starts out flat then has a very gradual bit of climbing before you have a more significant climb at you approach Raptor Ridge. I figured this would be a good opening test of the knee in making the pedals go around. If I had any knee issues I could simply turn around and have a mostly flat or downhill spin back to the trail head.
This whole COVID-19 virus mess has made it tough to get into see doctors and physical therapy places are pretty much shutdown. The doctor currently thinks I have inflamed tendons but I’m not so sure I buy that diagnosis. I have to do some physical therapy first before they will go done the MRI route but getting physical therapy is tough as they are only seeing “critical” cases right now.
It was so nice to be back on two wheels. I was purposely going to take it easy on this ride and not mash on the pedals. Spinning was the name of the game here. The knee felt descent for just spinning along but I was aware I had a knee. It was not in pain but it was not quite right either. The final climbing section up to Raptor Ridge was all done in the granny gear. I was not straining the knee but the knee was definitely feeling worked. While this was an improvement, it is still not right as I was also not really putting much force down on the pedals at all and when I did the knee would complain.
It was still a good day to be on bike.
