3 Months post op - Sharing my Joy

[Huckwheat]

So, Saturday was a great day. Exactly 12 weeks and 1 day after ACL surgery (allograft), and I finally had a big exercise day. Today I can barely walk.....but it is only because of leg muscles, the knee feels perfect!!

The last 5 weeks have been a steady ramp up, but definately never felt very strong or athletic.
Training to date.
PT every Sat for first 7 weeks (then travel, weddings, etc caused me to
quit).

About 110 base miles of road biking (only highway 89 from Truckee to Squaw and back, which is flat), which isnt very much, but hadnt really been around on weekends to get it in, so mostly just week nights.

Then, kinda surprisingly, a lot of hiking/walking trails. Britney and I have been doing decent sized hikes for about a month now, with lots of weeknight trail walks thrown in (stuff like Squaw to the top of KT). So, really hiking has been my biggest exercise.

My buddy has his first 24 hr adventure race next weekend and was going out yesterday for a 10 hr day. He needed some shuttle support, and my sea kayak, so I agreed to join on for part of his day. He was running from Truckee to Tahoe City(14.4 miles), and I agreed to meet him with the boat at Tahoe for a paddle. Then he was going to Mtn Bike after. All morning I was debating: bring my bike, or dont bring my bike. So, of course, brought the bike (with the plan of wearing my brace also). After a 2.5 hour paddle, we set off to bike, with a plan that would let me turn around if necessary. Anyhow, it ended up feeling GREAT! I was able to keep up (with a guy who had just run 15 miles ), but just kept going and did a 20 mile loop with lots of climbing (to top of Painted Rock, and down Western States). IT ROCKED!!!

Just crazy stoked right now.....like going out on your first groomer day in Nov. SO FUN.

I am sure many of you know the feeling of finally getting back into it from a surgery.....and some of you are waiting for that day. It comes pretty quickly, and you quickly forget what it was like to have to sit around for a couple months recovering. Summer is finally here.

[duboix]

Congrats, man!!! I'm anticipating my getting back to normal and very stoked to hear about such good result after 3 months... hell yeah!!! I'm glad for ya!

[Mtn Man]

Sounds great!!! I can't wait to get to that point, at 7 weeks right now, it's tough going right now.

Good luck with the training, opening day isn't far away!!!

B)

[LegoSkier]

Sweet! I'm jealous of the hiking. I want to get back onto the trails bad.

4 weeks out here and I started riding my bike on the road last week. Were talking really flat rides of <3mi around our house in oly heights and old greenwood. I should be getting back to fishing soon also, but only if the access is really easy.
This weekend divegirl and I went to a wedding in the bay area. I did a shit ton of walking around town. The knee got sore toward the end of the day but never really increased in swelling and was fine the next day. Last night at the reception I had a few too many and did quite a bit of get down dancing. Probably stupid risky but it seemed to have not done any harm. I scored an ice bag (and a grey goose martini) from the bar about half way through so I could take rests and ice on the lesser songs. You should have seen me do the one legged hop when they played House of Pains Jump Around. Pure gimp style baby .

[Kellie]

GREAT NEWS! I was just thinking of that ride today and how much fun it was last summer . . . and here you were basquing (?sp) in the glory of finishing it! Congrats!!!!!!

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I am sure many of you know the feeling of finally getting back into it from a surgery.....and some of you are waiting for that day. It comes pretty quickly, and you quickly forget what it was like to have to sit around for a couple months recovering.

So true. I'm also finding I'm appreciating being out there doing whatever much more than previously.

Great to see you getting back out there Huck. You're killing it.

[FollowMe]

Good to hear man. Slipping on the PT sounds reminiscent as most of mine has been done behind the computer. Gotta say though that everytime I think I've hit a wall in terms of recovery, my leg surprises me. Suffered from some serious doubts about my ability to return to skiing w/ the same passion I had before and now that my leg is really starting to come around, I can feel that little ski bug growing inside of my stomach. Last night I had one of those moments where I was thinking about a big line and my heart rate kicked up a few notches - - it had been awhile since that had happened - - KICK ASS! Can't wait to smoke everyone at the Wood this season

Edit to change from the finger to fire devil - - I think that's more appropriate.