Frustration

After having rested the knee for over a week, I took it out for a test drive yesterday at lunchtime. I probably got about 1.5 miles at a very gentle and slow pace before I felt the knee start to flare up. Its a sort of radiating "heat" on the outside part of the knee...the side. I stopped before it really started to hurt. I walked back to the gym and got on the Precor for 15 minutes, but the irritation had already begun as a result of the jogging and I had to stop after 15 minutes. Sigh. I'm no doctor and I am reticent to self-diagnose, but after talking to a lot of people, this really sounds like an MCL strain. I'm told that if I had actually torn the ligament, I would know it, and the pain would be much more intense. In any event, I am still looking for a sports medicine guy if any of you runners or injury-prone readers know of somebody good.

Also, if anyone has a brace that I can use to knock out this 10k, I would appreciate that as well. If running it proves to be more damaging than positive, I will simply hope on the Precor and get it done that way. I know its not the same (the pain and impact involved in running was a big part of the challenge) but I'm not going to just give up and do nothing.

More bad news on the poker side of this little challenge. I lost another $220 since I last updated the total. It was at my home game on Wednesday. I was up and down all session and sailed off my stack a few times by making big hero calls truly based on my read of the situation. It proved to be correct (the read) on two occasions, unfortunately my hand was not strong enough to beat my opponent's bluff. In these situations if you are sure of yourself and want to continue, it's obviously better to raise. Unfortunately both times I was in a position where I didn't really have enough raising chips to push my opponent off just in case they had a tiny piece of the hand and felt committed to a thin call. So, what does that all equal? JUST FOLD DUMMY! You don't have to try to pick off every weak tell you pick up on! It's called "picking your spots" and its something I continually fail to do at the home game. There is a very interesting dynamic in that everyone is playing metagame...since we square off against the same opponents week in and week out.

Despite all that, I managed to get my stack back to around par but then lost with JJ vs. AQ AIPF. That makes me about 3-9435 in coinflip confrontations. And then later I flopped a set and got snapped off by a J high flush draw that had been betting the whole way and got there. Sigh.

Well, the last stand will be at the WSOP next weekend. Maybe I will cash right before the stroke of midnight on the 30th. :)