Since I have a chance for a little more training time, I've decided to join a beginner adult hockey league. I can't play hoops anymore, but the non-impact of ice skating feels great on my knee. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to continue keeping score in something. This is going to be fun.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Plans, Adjustments, and Hockey?
The running was going fine up until I started hitting 6-7 miles. I started getting lateral side joint-line pain. Not sure what caused it, but I took a week off from running and it's gone. I've been doing shorter runs, and it doesn't seem to be happening again. I don't think it has anything to do with my MT since that was medial, but I told myself that if I started getting knee pain, an adjustment had to be made to the plan for the Half Ironman. So, after some deliberation, the HIM is off and the Olympic distance is on (1 mile swim, 40 mile bike, 6.2 mile run). The knee was a big issue for me, but my schedule was going to be nuts anyway. Life just got more simple. The swimming is going great, and I think this will be something I do for the rest of my life. I love that it's no impact, and there is an aspect of inner-thought that accompanies an hour of white noise.
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Hi Rich,
ReplyDeleteI had an MT myself 6 months ago, so I'm still on the long road back. Have found your blog and posts on kneegeeks a bit of an inspiration, with your Death Rides, Iron Mans, Basketball and Skiing. However I'm older than you (55) so I have to manage my expectations a little. One thing we share is a love of cycling. I was off my bike for 5 months after the op last October, and only started riding it again about a month ago. But I've not gotten out the saddle yet on hills, was worried about harming the graft. So I tend to keep it in a low gear going up hills and stay seated. But I notice on your earlier posts that you seemed to be doing lots of hill work on your bike at 4 and 5 months post op. I'm assuming you were out the saddle on those hills, is that right, and was your OS okay with that, so early in rehab?
Best
Archie
Archie...I'm much more of a seated climber, so it wasn't an issue for me. I did climb a lot, but I rarely climb standing and then only for short bursts. I'm big, so I don't "dance on the pedals."
ReplyDeleteAt one year I was definitely climbing out of the saddle, and at about 16 months I competed in a time-trial climb that was just viciously hard and most of it out of the saddle. I focused on maintaining strong leg muscles and that gave me a tremendous amount of confidence on the climbs.
Hang in there...at one year my knee felt entirely different/better than 6 months.
Hey Rich,
ReplyDeleteI was going to ask you the same thing, How do you know when your ready to start climbing? I'm almost six months post op and plan on doing a grand fondo with lots of climbing in June. Thoughts?
Cheers,
Ed
Ed,
ReplyDeleteSorry to say this, but I just knew. Again, I'm not a big out of the seat climber and we have climbs on all of our rides around here. I like to chug and grind up hills. I'm much more a big gear grinder than a spinner. I bet I only stood for 1 mile of the entire 129 mile DeathRide.
At 8 months I didn't have any fear of being out of the saddle. My PT had given me the go ahead by then so I was ready to rock.
Thanks Rich, that's reassuring to hear, as I'm not quite at 7 months and knee still feels quite ropey some days, hot and puffy and a bit unstable, esp if I push it too hard. But have noticed definite improvement from 2 or 3 months ago. I'll hang on in there like you say, and hopefully at 12 months it will be much better. Cheers.
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