Squaw Peak

 I'm six months out from my ACL reconstruction surgery!  However, I'm STILL not fully recovered...crazy how long these darn ligaments take to fully heal.  I still lack full motion of my knee: deep bends such as squatting down or sitting cross legged I still can't do.  And I can still see the muscular difference from my good thigh and my gimpy one...it's amazing how much muscle loss happens with this type of injury!  Anyway, riding my bike has been great for my physical therapy.  I try to ride a couple of times a week (I know, not much).  Most of my rides consist of cruising on the bike path up the canyon...basically, pretty easy stuff.  But last Saturday I bumped it up a notch and decided to tackle Squaw Peak, pretty much the hardest climb in the area.  Why I didn't start with something less daunting, one will never know. 

I figured if it was proving to be to hard on my knee I would just turn around.

But really, who was I kidding?  Once I started, I was going to see it though!

My knee handled it just fine!  The rest of me...well, not so much...I'm a little out of shape in the cardio department to say the least!

But I made it!!

 For the record, Ryan set a goal for his 40th birthday to climb Squaw 40 times this summer.

He met his goal early that morning...and then, just for kicks did it one more time with me later that day making it 41.  Pretty cool!

I discovered I was only about a minute slower than my time from last year when I did Squaw.  I'm not sure how I feel about that.  Either my recovery is top notch and I'm on fire or I really sucked last year, because honestly I felt as slow as molasses going up that darn climb this time!

But in any case, it feels really good to be making progress with my recovery.  And honestly, I find that when I challenge myself I'm surprised how much I can actually do!  The healing process is pretty neat that way!

ACL Recovery

This week marks 10 weeks post op.

That seems like a long time to me.

 But the doctors say that full recovery will take about 7 months...so when I think about it that way...I'm not even half way yet.  Yeah...kinda daunting.

BUT, lets not think about it that way...and lets focus on my progress!

 I took this picture about 7 weeks post op.

Still swollen.  

I should take another picture sometime because it's actually looking like a normal knee now.

 I do my therapy exercises everyday...sometimes it's just working on my flex/extension, sometimes I do ALL of the exercises...but I try to get something in everyday.

Currently, my flex is between 150 and 154 degrees, depending on who measures me.

 Last week I ventured outdoors on my bike.  I wore my tennis shoes and I didn't leave my neighborhood.  We live on the bench in the valley so there's a little climb to my house...I've been pretty apprehensive about tackling it given I'm not supposed to get out of the saddle yet.  So, I did a little loop three times around my hood, and it felt great!

 Most days I ride indoors.  

Ryan set up a trainer in the living room...kinda weird when people come over to see a bike in the living room, but since I ride it just about everyday, no sense putting it away.

Yesterday I hit a little milestone!

I finally clipped in AND I ventured away from my hood!

I rode the up the canyon a bit with Ryan (and Piper on the back of the tandem).  It felt amazing!  And I got up the little hill back to my house without a problem, I could do it just fine seated.

It's easy to get down and out and dwell on how far I have to go in my recovery still.  But, days like these give me that push I need to keep plugging away.

Recovery will come...I just need to be patient with my body...it's healing as fast as it can.

Oh, and Happy May Day!!