MOOTS!!

My bike is here!

It came in last night after dinner. To top it all off, Matt got me the Moots seat post and handlebar for my birthday. How awesome is that?!? He took it into Fat Tire today, got me a silver head set, and is already working on putting the parts we have together. This is one sweet bike!! I've decided to go with the gray fork,
rather than the white fork.

Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to get on the Intense, and the single speed looks like its gonna be lots of fun, but the Moots...it's just a work of art!

So, Matt decided to join me at Defined tonight. It's always entertaining to go to the health club because people there think they are in shape. Unfortunately, they have no idea just how OUT of shape they are. Guys with huge, muscular arms have huge, jiggly bellies that they seem to forget about. Girls are there just to show off their tattoos, generally located on the lower back. Geesh, that's original...it really can't get more pathetic. BUT, the gym is where I have to be until I can get back on the bike like I used to, so I'm not going to complain too much. It's helping me keep my cardio in semi-good condition, and I am strengthening my hip muscles.

2/27/2006 Results

• Stationary bike 40 minutes (2 breaks, one at 15 and one at 25)
• Leg pulley exercises (3x20, 15, 10)--ouch, that hurt afterwards!

2/28/2006 Results

• PT Stretches and exercises, minus the pulley stuff
• (Yes, it's a rest day, but because the Moots came in, I didn't do these yesterday like I should have)

If Sally were reading this, she'd tell me I'd overdone it again. She's right, as my right hip has been killing me today.

Saw Dr. Schwend today and he's very impressed with my progress. He said the pain in my hip joint isn't inflammation. It's a scar tissue ache from me moving the muscles. The bruised feeling I have along the side of my leg where the arthroscopy and drain holes were are another scar tissue kind of thing. As the scar tissue forms and I move the muscles around where it's trying to form, it's going to cause mild pain. Take a pain reliever and be done with it, is what he said. I don't need to start on the anti-inflammatories again, which is good. I got another round of x-rays that show the bone healing, and no inflammation.

One crazy thing...right near the crest of my ileum, I've been getting a lot of itching. Turns out it's my screws!!! Yowza! Those 3 annoying little buggers are protruding from my bone. I just assumed they'd be recessed into the bone, but they are actually sticking out. The x-rays show it. Dr. Santore did this intentionally since he plans to remove them in a year. If he recesses them, bone often grows over the tops of the screws making the removal much more difficult. As usual, Dr. Santore knows what he's doing. I'll just need to be careful not to rub that area too hard or crash on that side of my body. Lucky for me, I'm a lefty when it comes to crash sides of the body. Better yet, I think I'm going to try not to crash at all.

Oh, here's a picture of Dr. Muldoon too. He's the one who ripped out a lot of my ligaments in the right hip joint--the arthroscopy. His work hurt the most in some ways. The little hole where his scope went in hurts and is quite noticeable on my leg. Eck. He was surprised how much damage I had done to my joint, according to Matt. I don't recall much of a conversation with him. I was still pretty heavily sedated.

Allergies...Uggghhhh!!!

It's time to see the allergist again. My hive-ridden eyes have been swollen and itchy for the past 3 days. The hives set in during a phone call I had with Matt at work. I'm sure that's a coincidence though. ;o)

I stopped getting my allergy shots when I went in for surgery, which means it's been over 3 months since I had a shot. I guess the stuff has finally worn off and worked its way out of my system. I'll make an appointment with the allergist tomorrow!

So, Matt went out with Jim and FooMTB crew to do some more trail work at the White Mesa. That place is going to be one beautiful trail system when the club is finished with it. It already is a wonderful place to ride!!

Anyway, I stayed home and did my exercise routine, laundry, grocery shopping, and other house type work that needed to get done. Fun, fun, fun...

Results 2/25/06

• UBE 45 minutes
• Stationary bike 25 minutes, no breaks!
• All PT stretches/exercises
• Upper Body (areas with asterisks only)

Results 2/26/06

• UBE 47 minutes (300 calories!)
• All PT stretches/exercises
• Upper Body (everything in my training log and then some!)

Progress

Had another PT appointment today. It's been almost a month since my first visit on 1/26/06 (thanks to this blog, I have it all recorded). When I first went in, I could only put 40 pounds of weight on my right leg when standing. I'm up to almost 100 pounds! That's a huge accomplishment, according to Sallie, my PT. She contorted me again and measured my ability to move in certain directions...all of my angles have improved, some more than others. The new goal is focusing on strength while continuing with the range of motion.

2/23/2006 Routine 6

Exercises:

• Hip Flexors-Lie along the right edge of a bench, hanging right leg off to the side, knee bent. Left leg should be straight on the bench. Slowly lift leg up on bench, knee still bent. Foot should be rest near the left knee. Make sure I don't slowly bring my foot up and start resting it lower than at my left knee. (3x6-10)
• Hip Lift--This is an advancement on Routine 3. Hip Lift--lie face up at edge of right side of bench. Place chair (about 2 inches lower than bench) beside it and put both feet on the chair, knees bent. Back should rest entirely on bench. Push with left leg first, bringing hips and right leg up. Switch and do the same with the right leg. (3x6-10)
• Quads 2--This is an advancement on Routine 5. Lie on back, prop right leg up on bolster. Add increasing weight on foot (5, 7, 10 pounds) and then back down again, (3x15). Lift leg up at the knee. Concentrate movement on the quad. Make sure knee cap is straight up and not pointing inward.
• Hamstrings--Lie on bench, face down. Place folded towel underneath quad, above knee. Place weights on foot (2, 4, 6 pounds) increasingly and then back down again. Lift leg up as high as comfortable. (3x15)
• Marching (kind of)--Standing straight, align my head with a central point in a mirror. Begin to slowly raise right leg up and place immediately back down on the ground. Do the same with the left leg. This should resemble marching, but should not be as fast as marching. Make sure my body stays as still as possible and that my head stays in contact with that "central point" in the mirror at all times.
  

As for my gait, I can start using a cane around the house. I should experiment walking without it, but only for VERY short distances. The key is to ensure I don't start over correcting and walking with a limp or sideways.

I tried to get on the Hardrock bike in the driveway at home yesterday. It hurt: 1) hard to swing my leg over saddle, 2) hard to pedal (I was able to get about 10 pedal rotations in).

I see Dr. Schwend next Tuesday and will get another referral to continue seeing Sallie. We may slow our visits down to every other week. We'll see. I'm really happy with my progress and am glad I decided to see a PT.

Bikes

Matt just showed me my very cool, new Intense Spyder XVP. It's almost complete. Once I get it done, I'll put up a pic. Very sweet with the tricked out Skareb 80/100 mm fork.



The Moots YBB SL isn't in yet...need to follow up with Moots to see how its going.






The Single Speed (my custom built Kind Cycle by Brandi Fabian) will need some work, but will be beautiful when done. It will look a bit odd with a 26" front wheel and 24" back, but I like the front end up higher anyway.



Oh, and then there's the old Hardrock bar bike and the Giant TCR Composite 1 road bike too...I'm very spoiled!!

I can't wait to get on the bikes!


On to the workout...
Results for 2/21/2006
UBE 45 minutes
Upper body workout (dips, chin ups, triceps, pull, shoulders, push)

Work Sucks!!

I'll tell you what, work is really starting to infringe upon my PT time and my screw around time. I'm not too happy about it. I wish I were independently wealthy. Maybe I should go buy a lottery ticket...the jackpot is up to $365 million.

So, I'm already NOT following my workout schedule. Oh well...

Results 2/20/06
UBE 45 minutes before I went to work
PT lower body exercises and stretches in the evening

Wednesday night is the FooMTB meeting, so I'll use that as my REST DAY rather than tomorrow.

Anaheim

We're in "sunny" Southern CA...Except the sun decided to take a vacation or something. Actually, it's been peeking out every now and then, but for the most part, it's been cloudy.

I sent Matt off for his Butterfield Double Century this morning at 6:15. Didn't look like 198 riders started, but some could have taken off at the earlier 4:45 start time (Matt, no need to tell me my photo skills suck, I realize that, as evidenced by the pics included here). I think the rain and cold weather scared some away. Apparently, they had a really crappy day last year. So far, the day has been on and off showers that don't last too long. I'm thinking Matt shouldn't be too bad, although it would have been nice to have rain pants, I'm sure.

So, yesterday, I decided to try out 24 Hour Fitness (sucks) in Anaheim. They had this offer for a 10-day free membership, so I thought that would be a great idea! Unfortunately, I had to prove residency!! I ended up paying a $15 one-day fee for a gym that wasn't nearly as nice as Defined. Plus, their pool was outdoors! With the storm rolling in, it was too chilly for me to do the swim exercises, so I did the following below instead.

Oh, took Wed and Thurs off. I've been having a lot of joint inflammation lately. I need to see if I should still be taking my prescription anti-inflammatory meds.

Part of the issue could be that I've started to consistently use 1 crutch rather than 2. This will work out the muscles more and could cause the pain.

Results 2/17/06

• UBE 45 minutes
• Stationary bike 20 minutes (2 breaks at 10 and 15)
• Upper body workout (the entire one)

Results 2/18/06

• Decided to use the gym at the hotel instead. Not bad, but not that great either...
• Stationary bike 20 minutes (2 breaks at 10 and 15)
• All Lower body except the pool stuff and exercise ball. I used a Theraband (red) instead of pulleys for the leg weights.

UPDATE
Matt did awesome!! Here are the results of the Butterfield Double Century.

Nothing New

No significant news to report on the recovery process. Monday I worked out LB and today I did UB. Tuesday is supposed to be my rest day, but we'll be heading to CA for Matt's Butterfield Double Century on Thursday, so I decided to work out; I don't want to end up with 2 rest days for the week.

I'll have to find somewhere to work out in CA.
24 Hour Fitness, 300 South Festival Drive, Anaheim, CA 92808, (714) 637-4262
LA Fitness, 5757 Santa Ana Canyon Rd, Anaheim, CA 92807, (714) 282-3931

Training Schedule

Well, here's my attempt at getting my workouts into a reasonable time frame. I'm hoping I don't have to be at the gym longer than 2 hours any day (except weekends). The 2 hours includes the time I need to shower and get dressed as well.

I'm going to alternate upper and lower body exercises and see how it goes. Using this schedule allows me to cut the gym time down to about 1.5 hours, including the shower. Below are the descriptions for the Upper Body (UB) and

Lower Body (LB) workouts.

The Upper Body Hypertrophy exercises don't all have to be done. Those with the asterisk are required. I'll plan on doing all of them on the weekend, but only some during the work week.

Results: Saturday and Sunday I followed the schedule. My arms are killing me from the UB workout. A good sore though...it's been a while since I've done some good weight lifting.

I've been trying the cane around the house. I'm still shaky when using it, but can manage from the dining room to the kitchen.

Small World

I saw Mike M and Nat at the gym tonight. Got to talk to both of them! Mike's getting ready for the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo and is hoping the weather is good this year. He's going to be racing solo with his Dad crewing for him and the 2 dogs there for moral support.

Nat was working out at the gym since the weather is a bit cool out in the evenings...can't play golf in that! He came by and reminded me that I still need to donate money to Big Brother Big Sisters for him. He's doing the annual bowling event, which is actually a pretty big deal for the organization. Lots of people turn out from different companies.

Well, I've been slacking on the workouts, but will be doing the full thing Saturday and Sunday. Then I'm going to start breaking things down and alternating upper body and lower body every other day. Sallie told me that I'm working my muscles too hard and need to give them a rest in order to maximize my benefits. She sounds just like Dr. Ross in the Maximum Performance for Cyclists book. I'm going to try out his training program once I can get back on the bike.

Results for Thursday:

• UBE for 45 minutes
• Stationary bike for 15 minutes, 2 30-sec breaks, one at 5 and another at 10
• Pulley hip exercises--I had to do 5 pounds since that was the lightest weight. I used around 3 pounds in Sallie's office. I was able to do 3x6 with this weight, although I didn't have very good form on the last set. I may drop down to zero weight on the last set next time.

Results for Friday:
I was really tired today. Not sure why. I still squeezed out a small workout though.

• UBE for 40 minutes
• Stationary bike for 10, no breaks

Mr. Tokyo for dinner on Friday--salmon was great! Il Vicino for our normal Thursday ritual. I tried the Insalata Fresca--they have a new menu. Salad wasn't bad, but not my favorite.

10% Increase Max per Week!

Went in for visit 3 to Sallie. She said that usually, 6 visits is the point at which patients no longer need support, but it is sometimes different with those who have had surgery. The cool thing is that my sessions with Sallie don't count against my insurance, which probably has a definite limit on the number of visits.

I told Sallie that my 3 hour workouts are getting a little tough to manage. She's having me cut out the exercises that are too easy, and we added some tougher ones today. Also, I don't need to be doing redundant exercises in the pool and on the land, so I can cut out all of routine 1, except that I'll continue walking in the pool.

General rule of thumb from Sallie...don't increase ANYTHING more than 10% a week; otherwise, I'll be waking up in the middle of the night with lots of pain...just like last time. On that note, she also said I'm working out too hard and not giving my body time to rest and rebuild. I need to start alternating upper and lower body exercises, especially now that I'm going to be adding the upper body weight lifting. I need to give my muscles at least 1 day break for the exercises I've been doing in Routines 3-5. I'll start working on a routine for myself tomorrow.

2/8/06 Routine 5
Continue stretches and strength exercises from Routines 3 & 4, but feel free to cut out that which is too easy. The only one I can't cut out is the weight shifting exercise.

Here's a great link to remind me of what I'm working on.

Exercises:

• Quads 1--Lie on back, legs straight, lift right leg up, move out toward right as far as I can. Return leg to start position, (3x6-10). Make sure knee cap is straight up and not pointing inward. My foot will lean outward slightly.
• Quads 2--Lie on back, prop right leg up on bolster. Add increasing weight on foot (0, 2, 4 pounds) and then back down again, (3x6). Lift leg up at the knee. Concentrate movement on the quad. Make sure knee cap is straight up and not pointing inward.
• Gluteus Medius--Lie on stomach, left leg straight, right leg bent at knee; lift leg up, move out toward right as far as I can. Return leg to start position, (3x6-10).
• Abduction, flexion, extension--Using a pulley weight system with approx. 3 lbs and ankle strap, extend leg for full range of motion, (3x6). Sallie said that using a pulley is better than using Therabands because the weight is more consistent. This can replace the pool exercises I've been doing on these muscles.
  
• Upper Body--I can begin lifting lighter weights with my arms as long as I don't use the hip to lift weight. Basically, lift light enough that I'm not putting stress on the hip.

Pool:
I can use a buoy belt to do different leg exercises.

Scar:
This is healing very well. Continue as I have been using Karen's scar cream and the Neosporin Silicone Strips.

Don't Forget--I still need to address tip number 1 in the previous blog.