So, I don’t really know what to think about how things are going with my knee.  There is no doubt that the MRI showed an damaged area of the meniscus cartilage, but right now, it is hurting a lot less.  I still get clicking and I am treating it very carefully, but I am worrying about whether getting it scoped is the right thing to do.

The thing is that I would not be able to row well the way it is now.  I would be constantly worried that I would over compress and lock it up in the boat.  This would be painful at least and could be potentially dangerous, if it was as bad as when it happened in Vermont (or numerous times the following couple of weeks).

Anyway, this morning, the plan was for a 60 minute endurance session.  I was originally planning to just do another boring ride on the stationary bike.  I started there, and did 30 minutes that way, and I got really bored.  My knee also felt perfectly fine.

Hmmm.  Maybe I could do a little erging.   Either it would go OK, or at least I’d be more certain about the procedure.

So, I toddled over to the erg.  I put down a bandaid on the rail to give myself a reminder to not compress too far.  I dialed up 10km on the PM5 and started rowing.

At first I was very tentative about stroke length, and the time off the erg was definitely having an effect.  But over the first 10 minutes I got more comfortable and confident and lengthened my stroke a bit.  I’m still not squeezing hard into full compression at the catch, but I was going an inch or so past the bandaid.  As this happened I was able to bring the rate down a bit too.

The HR response was pretty poor for such a slow piece, but it was great to get back on the erg and my knee is showing no ill effects afterward.

Workout Summary - media/20161209-181650-sled_2016-12-09T07-29-45ZEST.strokes.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10000|41:28.0|02:04.4|181.4|19.0|151.2|160.0|12.7
W-|10000|41:28.0|02:04.4|181.2|19.0|151.5|160.0|12.7
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|160.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
01|01000|04:05.0|02:02.5|185.0|20.0|137.1|146.0|12.2
02|01000|04:05.5|02:02.8|189.1|19.9|148.8|152.0|12.3
03|01000|04:07.3|02:03.6|185.2|19.5|150.5|152.0|12.4
04|01000|04:07.3|02:03.6|185.5|19.2|151.4|153.0|12.6
05|01000|04:10.1|02:05.1|178.8|18.9|152.6|154.0|12.7
06|01000|04:11.0|02:05.5|176.9|18.7|152.7|154.0|12.8
07|01000|04:10.4|02:05.2|178.3|18.9|153.3|155.0|12.7
08|01000|04:10.1|02:05.0|179.1|19.1|154.7|157.0|12.6
09|01000|04:10.5|02:05.3|178.0|18.2|155.5|157.0|13.2
10|01000|04:11.2|02:05.6|176.6|17.2|157.6|160.0|13.9

Here’s a quick plot showing how I extended my stroke length over the first 10 minutes or so.

Here are HR stats for the whole workout from Wahoo fitness.

Gotta say, I feel a lot better for having done it, but the worries about doing the wrong thing with the surgery are unabated.

Tomorrow:  Probably another easy erg session and some strength work.  Maybe I’ll try some kettlebell stuff for fun, plus push ups and chin ups.