Too much of a good thing

Sunday morning I wake up to a beautiful snowfall. Took a hike out the backyard with the whole household: wifey, kiddie, doggie, me-ie, and maybe the kitties, but I wasn't sure because one of them is all white and hard to see in the snow. There were ducks swimming among ice patches in the stream, deer tracks following the contours of snow-covered singletrack, and snow falling like giant flakes of dandruff sticking to my clothes. Had to stop and take pictures of course:



Afterwards I chat with my neighbor. He's a cyclist too, mostly of the competitive roadie variety but he can also rip it up on the trail. Says he was out yesterday for two and a half hours riding the Wakefield/Accotink/etc circuit. Grrr, I can't let him get away with that. I gear up to do the same. With all the snow I saw on my hike, I thought nothing would be really rideable, but I was wrong, gladly. Stayed out way past my curfew. After about two and a half hours of riding my left knee joint starts hurting. Unfortunately, I'm still pretty far from home, so I have no choice but to keep pedaling. By the time I get home the pain is bad enough that I can barely walk.

It's a couple of days before I can walk straight again. Meanwhile, I'm getting lots of good advice from people on the MORE forum about what to do with my trick knee. But upon close inspection, I find the source of the pain (I think). My left pedal cleat is on wrong causing my left foot to be toed in. I changed pedals recently (Eggbeaters to Times) and was too excited to try out the new peds that I was rush-rush with the setup. It's a quick adjustment to fix it but I'll have to wait for a longer ride to see if it works. Enough with the self pity, time to think about the weekend.