The Knead to Rest the Knee

No, I didn’t take a complete day off for the sake of the knee. I substantially reduced my biking to errands — biking back home after returning a rental car (3.28 miles), riding home after picking up my bicycle after the tubeless tire conversion (7.39 miles). I also took a short recreational ride to stay in form on Saturday morning (8.55 miles), and I biked Sunday from Worcester to Framingham, MA to complete the Worcester to Boston ride I was going to take Wednesday when I came home to ostensibly take a few days off before heading out to finish the bike tour and ride up to Lubec, ME.

Those are not high mileages, nor did those rides involve substantial elevation gains. But my  right knee seems to insist on complete rest or it will continue to painfully swell after every ride, no matter how short. So it seems a complete off-day (or two?) is required. Not a light stationary bike ride, or a quick 5 mile jaunt, no! Completely off my feet, icing, and anti-inflammatory treatment.

But first, about the ride from Worcester: short, breezy, and inspiring — except the cantaloupe-sized knee I got in return.

It occurred to me while riding through towns like Westborough, Southborough, Grafton, Ashland, et al., that there are some very cool towns and villages that I’ve never been to in the 28 years we’ve lived in Massachusetts — and I’d like to see more neat town greens, quaint village centers, and homes built in 1719 or 1732.

So if I’m lucky enough to finish this tour with two healthy knees, my next long ride will be through the state of Massachusetts — east, west, north and south. 

After leaving Worcester center I traversed some of the hilly neighborhoods of the Worcester and Grafton Hills.

I was surprised to find that Tufts University had a Veterinary Campus and Hospital in Grafton, MA — set among the of farmlands of central Mass.

And replete with public art and historic structures like Locust Barn above. Grafton, MA.

The town circle in Westborough, MA.

Skirting the Ashland Town Forest. A town forest! How cool is that? Ashland, MA.

As I’ve ridden various routes from Framingham to Boston in the past, I decided — or rather, my right knee decided — to call the Framingham Commuter Rail station the terminal point of today’s ride at 24.2 miles instead of 47.5 miles to Jamaica Plain (Boston).

Now no gaps exist between Worcester and Boston for me on a bicycle. I was experiencing new knee discomfort and reduced flexion, which is alarming, so prudence was necessary for the sake of the longer ride.

 I waited for Pattie to drive over from Natick, MA at the station. I’m trying to sort out how to move ahead and finish this 2,800+ mile ride. If I can’t bend my leg fully and pain free, I can’t pedal. I must stay off my knee for a couple of days.

Day 31:
Start: Worcester, MA
Finish: Framingham, MA
Miles: 24.2

After what is considered very light bicycling mileage the past few days: 3.28 miles, 8.55 miles, 7.54 miles, and 24.24 miles — fractions of what I’d be doing bike touring — my knee is not responding to the usual treatment of icing and anti-inflammatories.

The variable has been that I’ve continued to bike — albeit low mileage — and so I have to adjust the variable and take a complete day (or two) off my knee if I’m to continue to bike to Lubec, ME.

I’m taking (at the least) Monday off in hopes of seeing a substantial reduction in swelling. If the condition of my right knee does not improve it will require medical attention. So here’s to a day of rest, icing, and ibuprofen — and hopes to an improved knee Tuesday morning.

What I’m Reading:

If the past decade of post-truth politics have siloed us in our political subsets by removing the floorboards of a shared reality, then the post-meaning age risks isolating us in silos of one, unable to commune with even those we might see as allies. (Another question is how do we protest effectively and act collectively if we are starved of a collective language?) Isolation and a dependence on AI for any task in which writing (or thought) is required fosters the conditions for further dependence; ultimately it leads to atrophy, to an inability to think for ourselves.

— Matt Greene / “On the Rise of ChatGPT and the Industrialization of the Post-Meaning World” / Lithub