For someone who's "ramping back" I'm still working pretty hard.

**Alan H** · 24th June 15, 12:06 PM

The Duke was a blast, though there was a ridiculous number of no-shows. 25% of those who signed up, did not show up. This is ridiculous.

My knee was INCREDIBLY sore afterwards and the inflammation is squeezing nerves so that I have aches and numbness in two toes. I've been here before, I'm not worried about permanent damage but I do need to be very good to it and rest it and ice it and stick it every day before Vista on Sunday.

**Alan H** · 25th June 15, 11:46 AM

Hips are WAY better. Knee is better, too, but still only about 66% healed and strengthened....moar rest and sticking.

**Alan H** · 30th June 15, 11:29 AM

Well,k Martin Roy and I had a great road trip. He has a nice PR to report, so I'll leave that to him. I did nothing special, and threw OK considering that I've got 2/3rds of a left leg!~ I had a good heavy hammer sequence. Strangely, I hardly every practice heavy hammer, and yet if there's ever anything that brightens up an otherwise glum day of throwing, it will invariably be heavy hammer, go figure.

Braemar Stone: 24 and a bit. Meh. Should be 25+ at the worst and 26+, but I had a compromised left leg to post onto so that's not so bad. Also, I think that was a 23 pound Braemar, it was a tich on the heavy side, as all the guys in my class had shorter throws than usual..
Open Stone: didn't get over 30 for the 2nd time this season, and that is frustrating me. It was a good rock, too. Thinking about it this morning, it was a rock that I gave to the SAAA, and I know for a fact that it's 16.2 pounds.
Heavy Weight: 29' 10" but not 30. Poop. I fouled out the back 3x of the 6 weight throws, must remember to move my left foot forward. The changed angle of approach is irrelevant, but fouling sucks. These were decent tthrows, all of them were over 29 and my 29' 10 was the best of the lot so at least I got my best throw to count. I really want 30, and 32 would be awfully nice to see again. Knee didn't bother me at all in the weight throws.
Light Weight: I was ridiculously consistent with all throws between 44' 8" and 45' 6". Two of these were good, solid throws where I waited for the weight to come around at the back, I stayed down and pulled up and out just fine. The weight just will not fly past 45 any more. Frustrating.

WOB: got 13 on the second try and hit the bar 3x at 14. Now I want 14 every time, but that's not bad, especially with a gimpy knee. 7 guys were still in at 14. whooohooo tough crowd.

Sheaf: I forgot my fork and had an attack of listlessness. I just cleared 18 but just missed at 20, which is my worst sheaf showing in a couple of seasons. Blecch. However, I took the opportunity to go over and visit with sydnie7 and Bob at the Clan Donnaichadh tent, which was nice.

Caber: That was one of the toughest sticks I've tackled in a while. 18 feet long, only about 80 pounds but heavier at the bottom than the top. It had NO taper at all, a complete dead pencil. It was a peeler pole. The judge said I got 65 degrees. I think it was closer to 80 but I need to get a stick like that and practice with it to make myself pull earlier.

We threw on a hardpan, packed dirt softball field and it was very dangerous. It also destroys cabers...the beautiful "Francis Brebner".. 17' 4" 125 pound caber that I gave to the SAAA just ONE GAME AGO got broken. I was not happy when I heard that. I will not be prepping more cabers for the SAAA after the two more that I owe them.

Anyway, I need to take an extended break now and get my left knee healthy for all sorts of reasons. This is no fun, so I'll be schlepping gear and playing coach for a while, with minimal throwing, myself.

**Alan H** · 30th June 15, 03:09 PM

I'm not sure how, after my sort of ho-hum performance so far this year, I'm still in the top 20 Masters age-group 50-59 in North America...but I am. I'm #19. Bizarre.

**Alan H** · 8th July 15, 01:23 PM

I finally got sick of doing nothing and went to the gym yesterday. It was a less than stellar visit, but necessary. The goal was to work my upper body some, and just move my knees.

5 minutes on the rowing machine
5 minutes on the stationary bicycle
8 rep complex, 60 pounds, upright row to curls to triceps extension
stretch cage, hamstrings and gracilis
foam roll gracilis

and then the winner of the lot.... knee extension machine. This thing has helped my knee problems in the past and it certainly seemed to help yesterday.

so there's hope.

It seems that I have a transient demyelinating neuropathy in my right hand, that is affecting my middle finger. Oh, joy.

Forge ahead.

**Martin Roy** · 8th July 15, 03:34 PM

It seems that I have a transient demyelinating neuropathy in my right hand, that is affecting my middle finger.

That blows.
I hope it goes away soon.

**Alan H** · 13th July 15, 02:14 PM

The hand/finger numbness is getting better, which is great. It'll probably be slow, but if I had to, I could live with it the way it is, now. It would be nice to see more improvement, though.

At the never-ending insistance of the Luminous Joan, I've made an appointment with my PCP to start the process of evaluation of what's going on with my knee. It's been 5 weeks, time to do something about it.

**Alan H** · 14th July 15, 01:01 PM

OK my doctor says it's inflammation of the muscle insertion...the tendon on the inside of the knee. My patella is tracking fine and none of the big ligaments are torn. There's no strength loss. When I flex the knee, there's no "catch" and no grinding, the joint movement feels smooth. That means it's very unlikely that there's a meniscus problem. That was my real worry.

I just have to keep icing it every day and be good to it; lots of rest. She says if it's not better in six weeks, get back to her. So I won't be throwing much if at all, and won't be at Monterey in three weeks. Poop.

But it's NOT the meniscus! YAY! No surgery for moi.

The hand neuropathy is very slowly getting incrementally better.

so I'm playing "coach" these days, and not throwing at all. Kinda sucks, but at least it's not a torn meniscus.

**Alan H** · 15th July 15, 03:04 PM

Iced the knee for 45 minutes this morning.

Upper body work at the gym, after 8 minutes rowing, 8 minutes on the stationary bicycle. Finished up with 3 x 6 knee extensions with light weight.

**Alan H** · 17th July 15, 11:42 AM

Still no throwing. I have a week and a couple of days before we make the final decision on whether we're going backpacking at the arranged time. No change in my knee. This sucks. I might have to get a brace.

Gym, today....maybe I'll incline bench with a bar instead of dumbells today. I tried back extensions on Wednesday but they pulled on my hamstrings and the first one just about sent me through the roof. I might try situps, today.