Today's Major Achievement - PEDALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!

Buzzin!!!!  Woooo hooooo!!!!!  Well, as you can see I am pretty darned stoked today.

I've been super frustrated with my apparent lack of progress in the knee bend department so have been working really hard, both at home and at hospital, through a HELL of a lot of pain I kid thee not. I'd been getting teeth marks in the beds at the hospital gym where I had to bite down to stop from screaming as the physio 'assisted' my knee bends and have all sorts of rubber bands, skipping ropes and tea trays dotted about my house where I've been working hard on getting my mobility going. But still, I was stuck at 90-100 degree bend (just) and only rocking in the pedals on the bikes.

Anyway, went to rehab today as per usual, got on the plinths- did a few warm up exercises then the 'lovely' physio came and did my assisted stretches- up to 110, good leg was at about 125 without force so not too bad I thought.  Anyway, without a second thought I got on a bike when one came free ready to rock through the bottom half of a pedal stroke for ten minutes again. I sat on the bike, got my feet in the pedals and went to do a peal stroke and stretch where I got stuck.... oh, hang on.... wait a minute... I haven't got stuck!!!!! OMG (sorry but it was that or swearing ;-) I couldn't believe it, I could do a full pedal revolution, and to top it off, it actually felt relatively easy and pain free. WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!!!!

I had to look at the physio and people next to me and exclaim "wow, I've done it, I've managed to pedal, yeay". Tell you what it made my day! I stayed for about 15 mins just steady pedalling, no real pain or bad stiffness, just very weak and unfit. Did the rest of my exercises chatting with the lovely Paulina (an innocent victim of trampoline knee crime) in a buzz then went for my usual brunch in Durham. Lovely view over the river today, kinda one up side of being injured getting to steal a few extra moments to appreciate things like this :-) Oh yeah, and I was feeling lucky so I put a few quid on the pools before getting the bus home hahaha. Mission for the weekend is to get the hardtail set up with the turbo trainer, then there'll be no stopping me :-)

Chillin' With A Coffee Post Physio Gym Sesh

Week two post op, knee is still pretty swollen, bruised and stiff. Range at rest is 5-90 degrees at best (oh and yes it hurts at either end of that spectrum) but got a few new exercises at the rehab gym sesh this morning so that's exciting :-D

Oo I even went on a static bike today at the hospital gym !!! Can do half a pedal stroke hahaa. Easier going backwards than forwards, handy for the bmx I suppose?!?!????? Bit frustrating and feels like I'm never going to be able to get a full revolution but just got to persevere and be patient Dando.... It is a start though :-)

Part way through my Random bus journey home now, thought I'd just get on the first bus that came since I have my pass now and just see where it went lol. Am now in a pretty decent little cafe drinking lush coffee and it's not far to the bus stop for the proper bus home. Result!!!




Oh yeah, had my stitches out yesterday so still one dressing but the rest are off. Looks a bit like I've had a decent smattering from a 20 bore shotgun with all the holes Mr Gregory has made doesn't it ;-) Saying that, I'm so glad I made sure I got him for the op though, such a nice man and simply the best knee surgeon in the world, pretty sure of that :-)

Word of the day = yipeeeeeee xxx


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Location:Front Street,Durham,United Kingdom

The Rehab Has Commenced!

Well peeps unlike poor Amy Winehouse, I actually went to my first NHS group rehab session at University Hospital Durham today! No but seriously I did, OK so it was for my knee and not my Rock & Roll lifestyle but I was really dreading it as my op site and knee have been so painful and I was panicking a bit because I was finding it hard to fully straighten my leg so thought I was in for a right old beasting; however it was all good- phew! Oh, here's a quick & simple pic I found to show kinda what happened when my knee twisted and dislocated it tore my ACL clean in two like it shows and had a go at the medial taking a bit of my thigh bone with it but luckily enought stayed in tact that I didn't need a new one just have to let it repair and strengthen up- but you get the gist.

Anyway, this group is based in the Rehab centre gym and runs three mornings a week so that's going to be my second home for, probably, at least the next 9 months from now on in. Got to see the physio and he was really great, explained everything to me and already saw through my naughty side and told me he'd be reigning me back at every opportunity so don't be too frustrated ;-) I asked him why my knee was relatively low in pain as compared to my shin (which i thought was strange) 'oh thats where they've driled through your bone to insert the graft'.... ahhhhhh, that explains a lot of sleepless nights the last week, the tramadol doesn't even touch it, but I've been having some AMAZING dreams hahaha..... but that's another story ;-)

So he tells me that they took a living graft from my hamstrings (I now only have two on the left whereas you normal folk have 3) and inserted it into my leg within the knee to form a new ACL. To start with its quite stable and uses the bloody supply that came with it but then this dies off and it has to fend for itself and form a new graft and bed in. This is between weeks 12 and 18 so apparently I will be blissfully unaware and think I'm fit enough to go crazy again however its quite the opposite and I'm going to have to behave myself. So looks like 4-5 months before I'm allowed back outside on the bike, however good news is I can ride indoors on a static bike way before then- perhaps even in as little as 3 weeks from now!!!  So I got a cheap turbo trainer courtesy of a friend that works at a bike store and I'm ready to rock the hardtail on that so when i can get outside hopefully I've managed to claw a little fitness back and get rid of this extra padding I've developed (protection for falls right????) lol.

Anyway I just thought I'd share this with you guys as a lot of you have been asking when and what and how etc so you all know about as much as me now. Luckily I have got a nice little looting of booty off the lovely Tom at Broken Riders to cheer me up, hoody and beanie on order - next time I'm at the physio gym I will try get an action shot of a true broken rider in rehab hahaha.
PS Tom - the rider in the pink logo is very apt, even in my colours ;-)

http://brokenriders.com/

Keeping me pecker up and still smiling, I promise!! Be back soon y'all :-)

Northern Downhill Recognised On Pinkbike

Here's a lovely little article about Carl & the boys' races up here in the little North East of England.
Right about them being fun and a good place to get started, a nice crew and well organised. If you are too scared to enter try marshalling a couple first, that's what I did before I took the plunge ;-)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/53215118350/permalink/10152106160003351/


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How To Be Awesome ;-)

Just stole this off a friends twitter feed, I think it completely, and rather brilliantly, replies to all those people (you know who you are and we all know a few of them) that say;

"...but I can't enter a race, I'm not good enough and I will look stupid- won't I?"



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3rd November - Hamsterley Uplifts, The Knee Smasher!

Buzzing off the fun I'd had in the last couple races I entered the Urban X remember the troops race, wharncliffe again, but decided I best get some practise in on the bike. i did a half day with the lovely Max at Endeavour Coaching (you can read my testimonial at http://endeavourcoaching.co.uk/testimonials/). He was great and had me doing some little drops and steep corners and jumps by the end of the day that I'd never have tried on my own beforehand.

Being greedy and wanting more DH bike experience i booked on uplifts at Descend Hamsterly, the day was going great but I'd ridden all the day previously and was absolutely  shattered. I did the easier tracks all day and at one point had to do a suicide dive out the way as Danny Hart flew past me - he apologised to me at the bottom bless him and we had a bit of a laugh and a joke about it; it must be amazing to be able to ride that well.... a girl can dream!

Was starting to feel really tired and was considering calling it a day but decided to squeeze in another run, don't know why but something happened coming down the rocks at dantes, think my front tyre slipped a bit... As i came off the bottom of them into the flat corner I went to brake but my horrid hope M4 back brake was dead so i think I panicked, pulled on the front, highsided it and next thing I knew I was sliding along the ground under my bike. Just as i thought I'd got away with it my foot hooked up in my frame, wrenched my foot backwards and I heard a loud snap and a pop and quite possibly the worst pain I've ever felt in my life so far :-( I knew I'd done my knee in, it was the same knee I'd broken earlier in January but this hurt way more so I knew it was naughty....

Some lovely lads were at the track side and they helped get me and my bike up to the cabin (so sorry for you boys that had to carry my lead weight ass up that hill) i felt so bad. Seeing how quiet I was Joe was really worried and him and Chris rang an ambulance for me. The rest is history but was in hospital for 10 days, had one operation and have a long rehab and more operations to come.  How ironic I'd just been talking to Tom at Broken Riders about working together on my 2014 race aspirations! Well, here I am now- I'm officially a broken rider, so I'm going to use this blog to summarise my rehab and with the help and support of my friends, sponsors and riding buddies I will be back racing in 2014. So watch this space and lets see what happens folks!

27th October 2013 'Urban X' - Mates Team Race, Wharncliffe Woods

All fired up from the buzz of my first race I managed to sneak my way into a team to ride my second one pretty soon after! Trev had organised a really cool little mates race down in Sheffield and had a rule that each team had to have at least one girl to be able to take part. Pretty sweet idea if you ask me as its often really intimidating for us girls to enter races and knowing there were going to be a few of us there made it all seem much more accessible.

I was standing in for an injured rider on team WFO, i did apologise in advance for my lack of skill and experience but the lads assured me just the fact they'd get to race was good enough for them so I decided to go ahead and do it. And am I soooo glad that I did! I went down the day before the race to the team WFO HQ - Daz's new shop in Eckington. Met some of the guys and got some new tyres  to try out plus the lads were ace and changed them for me, which was just as well as they were a bit of a struggle to say the least! After that I made my way over closer to the race location and found a spot to park up in the camper and kip overnight, man it was chilly!!!!

Had been a bit scared off the night before by messages saying the girls had been there practising and were finding it pretty tricky, but was too late to back out now so just had to go and give it a whirl so I headed over to Wharncliffe to meet the lads and we rode along to the bottom of the track and started the lung busting push up. I had time for a quick practise run and yep, I found it all pretty tough... a couple of sections I just didn't have time to get to grips with so just had to leave it to chance and do my best. Luckily the lads were really supportive and made light of it all, I'm sure they secretly wished I was amazing so they could win but they assured me it was all about the taking part so I did feel better about that bless 'em.

Was lovely up at the start with the girls, was actually really funny all of us jostling for who was the slowest and who should go last, makes a change from the lads jostling for pole position lol. Then it was time for my first run down, rolled down the start ramp in and bang, stuck on the first rocks- they were quite tricky and weaved in between slippery roots, a few had already come a cropper here and so i decided they were beyond my capabilities and did a special cyclocross manoeuvre deciding to push my bike through them at a jog hahah. Then i hopped back on to finish the rest of the course- most of which i could actually ride (OK couple of tricky bits I had to get off for but hey)- as you can see in the photo I was literally just back on the bike... well half and  half anyway hahah, but still smiling and laughing :-) Thanks to Dave Clarkson for the fab photo, well timed and captured my spirit for the day I think :-) Shame he didn't get a snap from behind to show where I'd split my shorts falling on a rock- much to Trev's amusement ;-)

Our team did great considering I was in it. The boys put in some amazing times, Chris and Andy were on fire and Mike and Nick too even after some sketchy moments! And when the split times came out i wasn't the slowest so I'd already improved from my last outing. To add to that I think I'd managed to bring a smile to Trev's stressed face and met some amazing new friends and riding buddies. The Sheffield crew are second to none and it was an absolute pleasure, especially meeting the lovely Lorna- my fellow 'Pink Bike Princess' who made that horrible push-up bearable as I had an ace natter buddy and the nicest lads in DH history on the WFO team, ee its making me feel quite teary just writing this now hahahaha.

Can't wait to be back down there and do some more riding with these guys :-)