Pushed too far, Softer spring, Both out

My four day weekend ended with me hardly being able to walk. I played pickleball for a little over two hours Friday morning since we were off. I came out of that session with some mild pain in the right hip and knee but nothing that seemed out of the scope of normal for me nowadays after playing. If I got up after sitting too long my first few steps were “limpy” but again, that isn’t all that abnormal for me any more. I felt good enough Saturday morning to suit up and play again, after taking two advil of course.

I played roughly another couple hours and didn’t have any particular incident that felt like I hurt myself. However by the time Saturday night rolled around I was in pretty bad pain and was limping consistently. I still didn’t think it was that serious. I theorized that going to the gym Sunday to stretch my lower body and do some cardio would help loosen up my knee and lessen my pain. At the end of the session I had the bright idea to do the rower for 10 minutes which I think was the icing on the pain cake.

Walking became increasingly more painful Sunday afternoon/evening. When I woke up Monday morning walking was almost impossible. As I looked down at my right knee I saw it was badly swollen. It’s been a long time since I had seen the knee like this. This type of swelling is normally caused by some sort of inflammation or irritation in the knee joint and I usually would see it like this after volleyball sessions over the last 25 years. I spent my day off mostly sitting or laying in bed while pumping advil and icing the knee several times. By the end of the night I was walking but very slowly and still unable to put much weight on the right leg.

This morning I am still walking with a bad limp but feel a bit more mobile. I am angry with myself for pushing it too far and likely damaging it more at the gym. The anger is amplified by the fact that I am signed up to play in my third pickleball tournament Saturday. I have to do whatever I can to get the swelling down. I would hate letting my partner down.

So outside of my knee issues I had a productive weekend. I replaced the shock on the Inmotion V14 on Saturday afternoon, bad knee and all.

I watched more World Cup soccer this weekend. Unfortunately the two teams I was pulling for, Mexico and the US both got eliminated in their games. The Mexico/England game was crazy. Mexico had a ton of scoring opportunities they just missed and the game was filled with action in the 3-2 loss.

The US/Belgium game never felt that close. The US seemed out classed very early on. Belgium players seemed to press more defensively and had better ball handling skills, stealing the ball from US players routinely. The US also made some bad mistakes, the biggest being their goalie coming way too far out and turning over the ball in the process which lead to an easy Belgium goal. The game made it clear the US is not in the elite tier of world soccer yet in the 4-1 loss.

The 4th of July was another misery fest for Elsa. Firework zombies were firing off damn close to midnight. Elsa spent all night hiding in various spots around the house but her favorite is the guest bathroom where we run a loud vent fan to block some of the noise. I clearly recall thinking fireworks were awesome when I was younger. I now can say confidently I could never see/hear another firework in my life and would be totally fine with it.