knee matters

The last two days of riding have not been fun at all. With every rotation, my right knee is screaming abuse at me. It is telling me that another 3750km is not going to happen, and I figure I shouldn't ignore it for too long, or it might give up on me completely. I had already decided that today would be a short 25km day from Basil and Anne's place into Wagga Wagga. My knee leap frogged my other priorities of putting my bike into a bike shop for a tune up, doing some washing, and stocking up on food, and my first stop in Wagga Wagga was the doctor. I haven't done any ligament damage, and my diagnosis is that I'm straining the tendon from my knee operation. The doc seemed to agree saying something like tendonitis, and she recommended two days rest, a compression bandage, and if the severe pain continues, she thinks I shouldn't continue. Not continuing isn't really at option at this stage, but I do want to take care of my knee, so I sourced another opinion from a pharmacist bike riding fanatic! He recommended ibuprofin over a compression bandage (at least to start), and seemed to understand me, as well as my knee. As I haven't done much training for this trip, my knee is most likely very shocked at the intense exercise regime I am putting it under.

With this in mind, I am going to have one day rest in Wagga Wagga (I will write it twice every time!), buy some ibuprofin, and continue my journey on Saturday. For those of you familiar with Wagga Wagga's events, this decision has nothing to do with the fact that the biggest horse race (half day public holiday!) is tomorrow, or the fact that I can sit comfortably and watch the ANZAC rugby league test match. I'm merely following the doctor's orders... kind of.