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First DNF

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, Real Life(tm) has a way of being a pest at times, I should be back to my regular schedule now though.

A few weeks ago I had to miss a 400k hosted by The Crescent City Randonneurs after crashing my bike a few days before.  This 400k would have been an indicator letting me know if I would be ready for the 600k in May.  Pat, the CCR RBA was nice enough to invite me to a 300k permanent followed by a 100k in order to get in the miles needed to prepare for the 600.

I woke up at 3:00am Saturday morning and was on the road by 3:30.  It’s funny how easy I can get up and ready to ride my bike an absurd distance while it takes incredible effort to get out of bed on a normal work morning, but I digress.  I arrived at Pat’s house right at 5:30 and we were on the road at 6.  From the very start you could tell it was going to be an amazing day to ride.  The route was more or less the same as the 300k brevet from March which caused me so much trouble.  Thankfully the winds were very mild on this day, smoke from a factory we passed was going straight up; a very good sign.

We arrived in Sorrento, about 60 miles in and stopped at our first control.  I was very optimistic at how good I felt.  I knew that barring anything drastic, I would hold up just fine and complete both rides.

Of course that something drastic did happen and an old knee injury flared up.  In 2002 I initially hurt it in martial arts.  The doctor I saw told me it was probably torn cartilage and there wasn’t much I could do about it.  Every now and again I will do something that makes it hurt again.  During my marathon training last year I (against some sage advice) used pain killers to mask it so I could continue to run.  This turned out to be the worst thing I could do and I was unable to run for a couple weeks while it healed.

With that in mind I decided to DNF rather than risk hurting it more.  Since I also depend on riding my bike to get to work, being completely unable to ride would be a very bad thing.  I told Pat who was nice enough to DNF and ride back to the start with me.  The pain gradually got worse although I was able to control it by not pressing down hard with my left leg.  An aleve I took along the way also did wonders.

I got home, iced it down, and took some ibuprofen.  The pain went away quickly and by the next day I felt fine, so I assume no harm was done.  I’m not certain why I hurt my knee just now, but I suspect it’s because I raise my saddle a little bit before this ride.  This would also explain why I was pretty sore in muscles that never really get sore.

I guess DNF’ing a ride is part of the randonneuring experience, but I don’t like it one bit, I hate quitting anything.  But I’m not letting it discourage me, I’m planning to do a century this weekend to see how I feel and hopefully I can catch the next 200k that comes along.