After JFK 50 miler last November I was excited for the 2019 year. My training went great over last winter,   and I was planning for a late season 100 miler. But it all went to hell in July. I displaced my knee cap in mid-July from a random accident. My older kid accidentally tumbled into my leg while sitting on her bike while we were at Good Neighbors Meeting House. My foot was pinned by the bottom of the wheel and the upper part of the wheel hit right at my knee joint. Take 70 lbs times the height of the bike seat and my knee just buckled under all that force.

--- Gross injury description (skip this section if you're eating)---

At first the injury was not painful but my knee cap was jammed to the outside of my leg. The angle didn't look right and I didn't know if I should move with the injury so my friend called the paramedics. The paramedics put me on some strong drugs and forced my kneecap back into place. That hurt a lot and I probably scared a lot of people at the coffee shop with my screaming. Sorry neighbors! 

Side note to say, thank you all to all the people that helped with my kids and offer of a ride to the hospital. Good Neighbors indeed!

The x-rays showed a fracture on the back of my patella, that’s the knee cap. So the doctors put me in a straight lock out brace for six weeks to allow the bone to heal on it's own.

---Safe again!---

All that to say, I lost all my running fitness in July. After 6 weeks my quadricep and calf were puny and useless. I'm doing physical therapy to slowly get it back to normal. There is still pain when I do step ups, step downs and squats. If I push my knee too much I get dull aches for a day or two. However it's progressing weekly.

I use Jack Daniels training book for most plans so I am following his beginner plan, the white plan. The workouts start with 1 minute intervals and progress to straight running. On the current schedule it will take until the end of 2019 to get back to 5k fitness. My first goal is to run a 5k in 2020, maybe the Rescue Run. Past that I hope to work back up to long distance runs again, just have to see how the knee improves.