It's been a slow couple of weeks as far as activity to prepare and raise funds. After coming back from Carlisle, I had to take a break from cycling due to my knee injury. The Monday following my fall on Whiskey Springs Road, the swelling still hadn't gone down enough and I was concerned that the injury was more serious than I'd previously thought. So on Monday June 30th, I went to a walk-in orthopedic clinic in town. The doctor took a look at my knee and said he didn't think any real damage had been done to the ligaments or tendons and suggested that I simply double the dose of ibuprofen and ice/heat the knee every couple of hours as I had opportunity. So that's exactly what I did. The injury isn't quite back to normal but there is barely any discomfort the last couple of days and the swelling has gone far down almost to the point where the knee looks normal.
Something that I'm constantly having to remember is that I have plenty of time to prepare and that I don't need to be busting my hump to get as far as possible as quickly as possible. I've got slightly less than 9 months until I leave, giving me a wide margin to get my distance up and build up endurance from this injury. I was planning to ride down to Baltimore at the end of this month but if I can't make it down there until even the end of August, that's perfectly fine!
Another cool development was the publication of my news story! You can check it out at http://www.ydr.com/local/ci_26085822/change-pace-penn-township-man-training-bike-cross! Since I hit the press, I've had a few people approach me expressing real interest in what I'm doing and asking questions about my plans. It's a thrilling experience but so surreal to see my picture in the newspaper.
New Year's in July is going well also! I've had a number of people tell me what they're giving up to help find a cure for Lou Gehrig's Disease and it's always exciting to hear how they're getting invested in this project. What I'm going to try to do is develop a new idea each month to keep the fundraising efforts fresh and interesting. We'll see what happens for next month!
