Goals, Goals, Goals !!

There's light at the end of the tunnel :-)
It's all good news. Since my last blog where I received the dim news on not being able to run for 18 months, it's just been a matter of wrapping my mind around it, finding alternatives and getting on with healing. My rehab is coming along really well. Although I'm still on crutches, I'm gradually putting a little more weight on my right leg getting it ready for walking which will hopefully happen within the next 2 weeks. My rehab is consisting of hydrotherapy x 3 mornings a week, swimming 3 times and weights/gym/stretching 3 times a week. This is all about to change as I've just hooked up with a new physio - more about that later.
Currently my Hydrotherapy is being done as an outpatient at Royal Melbourne, Parkville. The facilities there are pretty good but the program that has been done for myself has not been altered since I started Hydro 7 weeks ago. So what I have done to combat this is start doing the exercises on my program as interval training ! I do lengthy periods of 'cycling motion' in the water which started off as light at the program's beginning, but have now turned into solid 5 minute efforts with recovery time before another effort. I usually pyramid this and lift the intensity as the time decreases. The Physio's, let alone the patients were a little bemused by all this but most are tolerant and undestand what/why I'm doing it. Swimming has been going OK, but not great. Despite doing a combination of freestyle & backstroke for up to 1600m (gotta break the mile now!) and kickboarding as well for increased leg strength, my body still doesn't feel right. My reach in the water is not where it used to be as my back and shoulders have lost a great deal of flexibility. Weight training is going well, I'm using the St. Bernards gym and have devised a high rep/low weight program to get the upper body back to its usual shape. I can't do any weight bearing exercise on my right leg, so I stay away from any leg work as there is a massive amount of imbalance happening down there at the moment - this is an area best left to the experts.
Speaking of experts, I mentioned I have a new physio. John Quinn will be taking on the challenge to get me back and raring to go. Check him here: http://www.johnquinn.net.au/blog/
John is an amazing fella, having spoken to him a few times he has really got me looking a lot more positively at my sporting future. He has worked with a lot of Australia's elite - Cathy Freeman, Daniel Kowalski, Team coach for the Australian Sydney 2000 Olympic Track & Field squad, head conditioning coach for the Socceroo's, strength & conditioning coach with an ICL (Indian Cricket League) team and Essendon Footy club, where he was High Performance & Training services manager. He will devise a program that will include physio, massage, stretching, strengthening and even dabbling into pilates/yoga as well. His approach is very thorough as I've already had to record my long & short term goals and send off some training info (Polar HRM graphs) of where I was at the start of a training block (IMOz '09), progressing all the way through to taper and race day of that training block. He works on existing benchmarks so actual progress made is 100% relevant to me and my ability. My short & long term goals are listed below -

DATE/TIME FRAME
GOALS
13/07/2009
Appointment with Dr. Love at RMH. XRay of R. Hip to be taken on Friday 10/07.
Mid June - Mid August
Exercise & build up legs so that walking is effortless. Ride on stationary bike at low wattage, slowly increasing mileage over time.
Sep-09
Build up to 2 hr's road riding
Late Oct - early Nov
Bunch ride - 3hrs at back of pack (lower HR)
Late December
3 hrs. Solid paced ride - >32km/h in good conditions (nil wind etc)
January 24th 2010
Alpine Classic 140km ride - Bright/Tawonga Gap/Mt Beauty/Tawonga Gap/ Bright/Mt. Buffalo/Bright. Social pace.
Feb 2010
Build up 5-6 hrs riding
7/03/2010
Alpine Attack 230 kms. Competitive pace dependant on how body is.
June 2010
Northern Combine 3 day tour - hopefully racing A or B grade.
Oct 2010
Melbourne to Warrnambool.
Dec 2010
IronMan Western Australia - Busselton.

I'll keep you all posted as to how I'm progressing over time, hopefully all going well I'll be riding with you all out on the road soon !!

Until then, Train hard, Train safe!
Matty

Some good, some bad

The title best describes my visit to my Orthopaedic surgeon today. I had an AM appointment with Dr. Love and all is going well, but he muttered a few words that drove a knife into my heart - no running for 18 months, shit :-( I don't know how best to take this, I am gutted. It's a sport that I love and have excelled in since primary school. It has also been part of my de-frag time, I love going out and churning out a 1 to 1.5 hour run when things aren't going right, quite often I'll come back and things are so much clearer. The thing I really hate and I'm getting sick of is "It's only a short part of your life, stuff it up now (next 18 mths) and you'll stuff up the rest of your life". I just wish I never crashed, it wasn't even a fair dinkum training ride for fucks sake. But I have to look at the positives. I'll hopefully be able to walk unaided in 6 weeks. I'm no longer in the wheelchair, but will be on crutches until that time. I will hopefully be able to ride my bike on the windtrainer at the end of that period as well - fingers crossed.
Other positives to come out of the appointment were that my hip joint looks good. Everything is alive and well. I'm still not out of the danger period though. There is still a slight chance that my hip may, for no known reason, just reject what work has been done on it and die. There is a 10% chance of this happening, it was 20% 6 weeks ago. A total hip replacement is the last thing on this earth that I want.
All my other injuries are going great, my clavicle is painless although I have some tricep and deltoid damage which is a bit painful. My skull is still numb all over but the 'sore bone' feeling has gone but chewing is still a slight drama, my rib has healed and I could easily have forgotten about my blood clots if it weren't for my daily dose of Warfarin.

I'm not enjoying typing this much, I was going to put up a few of my sporting goals for the next 2 years but I'll hold off for a few days. Until then -

Train safe, train hard
Matty