I apologize for the radio silence for a few weeks.  In the classic sprint at nationals I tweaked my knee in the quarterfinal and have spent the last few weeks layed up and gathering information about my injury.  My knee was swollen and painful for about a week and the preliminary diagnosis was that I had some cartilage floating around in there.  I got an MRI done as soon as I could and late last week I was able to get some opinions on what was going on in my knee.  The short of it is that it turns out my meniscus is fine, a few frays around the edges, but nothing that requires surgery to keep me going.  I had a lot of inflamation around my joint capsule, the likely cause being a strained IT band and a healthy bone bruise.  After the first week, the swelling went way down and soon after I was able to move around without a limp.  I have had cartilage problems before, and even though this past week I was able to shuffle around on my skis before I had any report on the MRI I was still worried that I might have a problem that required surgery.  A while back I had a small tear in my right medial meniscus that caused a bakers cyst to form.  I would be fine for a few weeks, and then the cyst would flare up like a golf ball in the back of my knee.  It was a frustrating experience, but luckily I was able to get by without surgery.  This time around I was happy to hear that my problems  were not meniscus related. 

 I feel like I have dodged a bullet on this one and am feeling pretty good about myself.  I took good care of my knee for the first week, lots of icing and vitamin I, I think that made the difference in the long run.  Right now three weeks out, I am skiing with no problems.  The word from my PT is that I can train like normal this week as long as I pay careful attention to the swelling in my knee.  The first sign of swelling and it is back to the drawing board.   I have been given the green light to try a race this weekend too.  For a few days a couple weeks ago I was starting to think like a retired ski racer.  I got some good use out of my birthday gift, the Sopranos box set, but I must say that I don’t think retirement suits me that well.   Right now BethAnn and I are at her folks house in Minnesota, I will stage my comeback at one of the races in Telemark this weekend.  We are headed over there on friday morning.  Cheers!

My knee!

It has been an eventful couple of weeks since my last post.  Currently I am up in Anchorage getting ready for US Nationals, starting Saturday with a skate sprint.  Things are shaping up for a good week, the weather looks like it will cooperate with us this year, today was the coldest day yet out at the venue at a balmy 9 degrees F.  Warm compared to last years temps. 

I had a great holiday season back in Minnesota, the highlight being my wife BethAnn qualifying for the IBU Cup team  with an amazing performance on the last race of her trials.  She really killed it in a high pressure situation, shooting clean and skiing fast to take the win.  She left for Germany early this week and will be competing over there for an Olympic spot. 

I have to give a big thanks to the Stone family for putting me up my first few days here in Anchorage!   I have been spending my days up here skiing around at Kincaid, getting to know the courses again.  The rest of the Maine crew showed up the day before yesterday and we are all staying at the Homewood Suites.  The venue looks good, Kincaid could probably use a little more snow but the volunteers have done a great job covering the thin spots with snow.  They were out all last weekend pushing snow around to make sure things will go smoothly this week.  On the agenda are a skate and classic sprint, 15k skate and a 30k classic mass start. 

Happy New Year!

BethAnn relaxing after a long week of racing.

Alaska this time of year is a little dark, but still spectacular.