Despite some long breaks, my knee is still giving me a lot of trouble. I felt guilty about blogging without running so there has been a void in the webspace for this very busy week. All kinds of things have been going on in my life (and in this city) but somehow I didn’t feel like I had permission to blog without running. I think I am going to dismiss that notion in the future.

I went for a run yesterday to see how the healing was going but it seems my left knee remains rather gibbled from that fall I took playing ultimate a few weeks ago. Today I went for some physio as the race is this coming Sunday (June 26).

The photo is a bit blurry, but you can see the acupuncture needles embedded in my knee.

The past ten days have brought a whole variety of excitement filled with both ups and downs. Last weekend I finally got my motorbike on the road. I went for a cruise up the sunshine coast (as far as Smugglers Cove). It was a beautiful trip in great company. I returned home to find someone had mashed up the rear end of my bicycle in a failed attempt to steal it ($200 damage). A beautiful hike up to Garibladi Lake reminded me that material damage is nothing compared to the splendour of a day outside (in 2 m of snow).

Kaan, Alice, and Phil eating lunch at Garibaldi Lake

Spring run off near the trail (much lower altitude)

The hike only irritated my knee slightly and I gave it Monday to rest. Tuesday through Friday last week I was up at Whistler for a semiconductors/electronics conference. I brought running gear with me in case I felt up to it. I did indeed feel up to running but every time I went for an exploratory stroll I encountered at least one black bear. I saw four in total over those few days (as close as 15 m away). I did not stick around to take photos of them and decided a run was probably a poor choice. (I watched the riots unfold live on CBC and CTV. Enough people are blogging about that, I don’t think I need to. Here is some commentary and a great photo journal of the night.)

Saturday I took on repairs to my warped rear wheel. I cut all the spokes, salvaged the hub,  and then rebuilt the wheel with new spokes and a new rim. Next up was some repairs to the motorcycle. I dismantled the speedometer and replaced some of the bulbs. It now glows quite brightly at night!

Having given my knee an enormous break and having left my blog to whither, I finally went for a run Sunday morning (yesterday). My knee definitely started to hurt a bit somewhere near the 6 km mark but I was able to make good time with a super steady heart beat; I did a 4 km segment in 17 minutes with a heart rate of 178 +/- 2 bpm.

After two sauna sessions and a good night sleep my knee was still aching this morning so I went to a physiotherapist and ended up with the photo at the start of this blog post. I have been informed that there is no substantial damage and no risk of destructive wear if I end poverty on Sunday, but that is to be reassessed at my follow appointment up on Wednesday.