On Wednesday, I went on a short easy ride with one of my friends who’s getting into cycling. I just finished building up a bike for him and I wanted to go with him on his first ride to make sure everything was working properly. When I got on my bike and started pedaling, the first thing I noticed was how bad the injury on my left knee hurt. The pain was superficial from the road rash and it only hurt at the top of the pedal stroke, so I kept riding. It got better after a few minutes and it felt nice to be back on the bike.

On Thursday I went to the gym and did my regular Pilates class. I didn’t want these injuries to keep me away for too long as I know if I miss Pilates for more than a week, I will regret it when I start back up. I was able to do almost everything with the exception of a couple exercises that required putting pressure on my left elbow or the side of my left knee. After Pilates, I went out for another brief ride. I did a tempo ride with some sprints sprinkled in. My legs felt OK, but I could tell I was still a little worn out. After downloading my ride I was happy to see I came very close to my 5 and 12 second CP’s that I achieved last week, so that was good.

Heather and I are driving to Pocatello tomorrow for a couple of weekend races. I’m planning on doing Saturday’s road race but I’ll wait and see how I feel on Sunday for the crit. I don’t want to do too much, too soon. My road race is going to be 100 miles and it’s supposed to be hot, so I’d be content with the weekend if I just finish the road race in decent position. Because I was tapering for the Twilight, it’s been a while since I’ve done a ride over 3 hours. So I’m not sure how my body will react, especially while it’s still trying to heal.