:: JULY NEWS ::
Tips for Recovery

It has been five weeks and two days since I broke my foot on some Podunk road in Pennsylvania and I can finally say that I’m feeling much better. I started riding about one week ago and it felt great. You see I am the kind of person who doesn’t like to sit still for any length of time. I always need to be doing something. So when my doctor told me to keep my foot elevated ALL day EVERY day for about two weeks I’m sure he could see the panic in my eyes. I told him I would then went home and did just that. O.K, not exactly. All I could manage was about three maybe four hours of keeping my foot “toes above nose” and then it was either hobbling over to the computer, on the phone, or crutching my way up and down the stairs to do laundry. Sitting still proved to be a very difficult thing for me.

It had been two weeks since the accident and when I went back in for a reevaluation things didn’t look so good. My foot looked just as bad as the day it happened and I thought something was really wrong. He must have overlooked another break or something. It takes a lot for any kind of injury of mine to swell, so when it wasn’t coming down I was worried. My doctor then asked me if I had been doing what he told me and of course I said yes. He looked right in my eyes and asked again. It was then that I thought….ummm maybe I could’ve have elevated it a little more.

My Mom along with some of my family were heading to the river in Arizona for the following week and invited me to go. I felt guilty for wanting to go since it was in the middle of my race season. I wouldn’t be able to do much, but I felt like shouldn’t I be home training…even though I couldn’t yet. I badly wanted to go to the gym and at least do upper body, but that would mean my foot was not elevated and it would make it worse since the blood would be pumping and could possibly swell up more. So after some coaxing from my Mom, I decided to go. I ended up having a great time visiting with family and having nothing to do but relax out by the water with my foot elevated the ENTIRE time. When I got back a week later my doctor was totally impressed. He couldn’t believe it. He wanted me to start physical therapy right away and within the next five days I had made an unbelievable recovery.

My physical therapist Jim is awesome. He works my ass off. Even in the first day I was totally shocked. I walked in with my Air Boot and crutches. After two hours of therapy I walked out with two shoes, although one fitting really tight and only one crutch. All I could think was Holy S!@#! This guy is like Benny Hin the Christian guru that heals with one touch of the forehead. From then on it just got better and better and within a couple days I ditched the crutches. I look forward to therapy every day I go and believe me I work hard. He’s got me sweating in an air-conditioned room doing medicine ball drills, picking up marbles while balancing on one foot, and my favorite exercise that leave both my quads and butt muscles quivering. He ties a rubber band thing around my calves and I have to side step from one end of the room to the other ten times. It doesn’t sound that tough, but when I’m in a squat position and holding a medicine ball out front it ain’t easy. He knew I wanted and needed to get back to competition as soon as possible and I had no problems working hard.

As of now I have only four days of physical therapy behind me and am now on a plane to Idaho for the fourth round of the Norba NCS series. I don’t know how it will go, but I do know that thanks to my reprimanding doctor and my relentless physical therapist I am feeling a hundred times better. Although sitting on my couch or laying in my bed for about three weeks will have some effect on my fitness I am not too worried. I seem to have an uncanny way of getting back what was lost in a fairly short amount of time. I think that any athlete that has been in a sport long enough can get back into decent shape quickly. I started off slow by just going on a 45 min. flat road ride. The thing that hurt the worst was putting on a cycling shoe and then trying to unclip. Once I got warmed up though it was feeling pretty good and it only got better from there. A few days later I went to the BMX track and did surprisingly well. Honestly the thing that hurt the worst were my legs since I had gone to therapy earlier in the day and my legs were shaking after about five gate starts.

One thing is for sure it felt good to get back on my bike. I realize that a shot at the title at this point is non-existent. I don’t even know what the points look like, but I’ll see what I can do. I am looking forward to the World Championships since that is the ultimate goal. I know this journal entry wasn’t filled with wise cracks and all, but I just thought for all those people out there that have had injuries and can get to a point where they feel like it’s not going to get any better, hang in there, listen to your doctor, and believe me IT WILL GET BETTER.

I really want to thank everyone at Giant for being so understanding and calling or e-mailing to see how I was doing. Steve, Frank, Matt, Elke, Andy, Rando, Dustin, Adam, and even though I didn’t hear from Carl, I still luv ya. To my Mom just for letting me know if I needed anything that they would be there.
C-ya in Idaho.

Monday July 7th
It’s been 3 weeks to the day since the accident and I’ve had quite a lot of down time. I haven’t even been able to go to the gym and do upper body because I needed to keep my foot elevated ALL day every day. The swelling hadn’t come down by the end of the second week and that’s when I got a call from my Mom. She said she was going to the river for about a week over 4th of July and thought I should come and just relax and keep my foot up.

You see, when I’m at home I have a tendency to not relax and am always up doing things. Most of the time stupid things, but if I’m not doing something I go nuts. So after some coaxing I decided to go. I packed up my bikinis and sunscreen and headed out. I ended up having a great time with my family and doing some much needed recouping. We would go out on the boat and then jump out and float down the river. Of course I wasn’t jumping, but I was doing a bit of swimming and it felt so good to be doing something active. It was 115 degrees and the water was awesome.

So we got back yesterday and I went to see my doctor today. He was impressed with how good it looked and wanted to start me doing physical therapy right away. I was stoked. I went straight to Dr. G’s after so he could flush out my foot again. It’s a pretty painful process, but helps the healing a ton.
I know I won’t make it to Grouse, but I’m hoping for the second Jeep KOM series race and for sure Idaho. Anyway, I’m crossing my fingers to be back soon.

I need to just send a quick “GET BETTER SOON!!” to my teammate Dustin Adams. I just found out today that he was out on a road ride yesterday when he was hit by a car. He ended up with a broken wrist and luckily that’s all. I don’t know when he’ll be back, but I’m sure it’ll be soon. Take care Dust-Pan.