The Happy Puppy Dance...

Happy Puppy Dance!
I am so doing the HPD today...
Just returned from my post op followup from having my knee scoped. Stitches out. Meet and greet with the doctor.
Here's the jist:
He opened me up, got the scopes and tools in, took a look around and then snipped only a small piece of cartilage off the medial miniscus. It was torn and was catching every time I bent my knee especially under load like going up stairs and such...
Doc told me, shaking his head and laughing, that he had never seen a knee as in good a shape as mine, for someone my age. (56)  If another doc had showed him the inside and said "this is a twenty year olds knee" he would have said "Yes, thats a twenty year olds knee." The cartilage and tendons are perfect and there is no wear and tear on the knee surfaces. There are no signs of arthritis. Only the damage caused by a fall...the torn meniscus.
I told him "I always wanted to be one of those guys that's still running when I'm 70." He said "That's probably going to happen."
I asked him about the genetic component. He said I had good parents. They left me with a cartilage that doesn't wear quickly and is quite thick. He said it's a roll of the dice if you have knees that will stand up to being used a lot. Some folks just don't have it. Maintaining a proper weight and exercising daily he felt were also of high importance.
He checked my right knee today and said it's tracking as well as the left and is just as strong, so he expects it to be in the same shape as the left.
Thanks, Mom and Dad.
A personal observation...I have avoided ball sports like the plague since the year I started running in high school. I suck at anything that involves a ball so I gave it up. Everyone I know who has bad knees at my age played basketball or soccer or football when they were young. They tend to be over weight.  Now, they can barely do anything. Cycling isn't abusive to the knee, it's non load bearing and follows the line of the pivot. Running isn't abusing if done right and you listen to your body. Although I do know some runners with bad knees, I also know that when they should have been taking time off because of a problem, they didn't. They ran through it and now suffer for it. Know a few cyclists who did that too. Ball sports? Abuse with a capital "A". Torquing. Twisting. Tearing. Being hit from the side...not good.

On to some PT and can return to non load bearing exercise for the next few weeks.

I never realized it was that far....

When your down with an injury, you have time on your hands. You can watch movies, learn Argentine Spanish or try and figure out just how the hell far you've run and biked and swam in the last 40 years.
The subject came up over at the Trifuel web site with folks talking about how long they have been members and someone mentioned how far they had run and such in the last few years.

To the right are some of my training logs. These go back to 1996. On paper I have more records back to 1990. All the logs I had prior to that are lost as my ex-wife threw them out. I started using calendars then Sierra club date books and finally running and triathlon log books when you could buy those. These, coupled with the on-line training log I keep were what I used to try and figured out how far I've gone. I keep both on-line and paper logs now...they are pretty close to being the same. Sometimes I forget to post on-line and somedays I miss posting on paper. Bear in mind too that I'm not tightly wrapped about this sort of thing as some folks and that some workouts were just never recorded and that I usually round down for my workouts...

This fall it will be 41 years worth...
I know when I started Running in high school (1970) I ran pretty much every day. I was climbing then too so I kept record of that. I kept track of backpacking trips and ,well, pretty much everything I did physically. But those records are lost.
So are the ones from college...I was able to get out often then. I kept track of everything except biking which wasn't exercise, but a way to get around.
After college my running milage took off and when I moved to Colorado (1977) It really did...that was the time everyone was running 100 mile weeks...I climbed almost everyday and biked for transportation. It's all lost in time. Oh, I remember some specific runs, like my first Ultra, and races that were stellar and some horrible races and of course all the climbs I did then...but the day to day stuff...gone.

Kept records too during the time I was married and raising a daughter. I wasn't racing then but got out four or five times a week for a run or bike and lifted weights at home...gone.

I have paper records from 1990 to 95...not everyday things, but totals....like 297 days of workouts that year ( 90) and  4,000 miles on the bike and 2,000 running not to mention a bunch of hours in the weight room...

Starting in 1996, the year of my divorce, I have complete records which is really cool. I can go back and actually look at how I felt on a specific day or how I did in a race I completely forgot about...it's fun!

So that brings me to totals:
From 1990 to today....64,555.5 miles.  2.5 circumnavigations of the globe or there abouts. That doesn't include all the hours in the weight room or climbing which I did for 35 years.
Races? 486 at current count since the late 70's and including a few from high school and includes organized events that aren't races. (organized centuries, charity events)  I didn't race at all for 8 years and some years I raced almost every weekend.
Shame about all that lost data...that would have added another 20 years of miles!

I never realized it was that far!

Snip, snip here. Snip, snip there...

I always wondered what this was about. The knee scope thing. I can't tell you how many people I've run into over the years who have had to have their knees worked on..scoped.  Usually they have suffered some sort of trauma, usually connected with ball sports. Since I avoid ball sports like the plague I was hoping to avoid this. Last January I was running the Disney Marathon and was plowed into by a young women who knocked me to the ground. Bruised ribs, a banged up hand and my left knee. The knee hurt like hell for a few days and when I got back to running there was just too much poppin' and sappin' so in I went to see the doctor.
I was expecting all sorts of hell and problems and "You'll never run again " pronouncements. Some x-rays and and MRI later everything is fine, knee tracks well, just a small tear in the lateral meniscus...
In yesterday for the procedure In and out  in a couple hours. Happy they put me all the way out!  Woke later to my wife's happy face and the ride home but...better living through chemistry...I don't remember any of it! Don't remember much till last night when I got a craving for mac and cheese!
Doctor told me (well, told Mary Lou, that It was an easy fix and that everything else looks great all the ligaments and tendons are aces and the cartilage in my knee is nice and healthy and thick. He was surprised to see a knee in such good shape for someone who has run and biked for 40 years...What can I say...I avoid ball sports like the plague!
I've promised a bunch of folks I won't run any fifty milers next week. Or do any centuries...or kettlebell workouts...or 24 hour rides...or...
One day now post procedure and I'm feel some discomfort and the knee is a bit stiff. I haven't had to use my crutches as I was able to walk without limping almost immediately. Super.
Onward and upward!