Turkey Day – week 8 post op – new schedule

The family and I just got back from Arkansas for Thanksgiving. Lizard, Scooter, Heenaw and I. What is really significant about that, is it is about the 10th year that we have spent building freeride mountain bike stuff at my mom’s house. Dirt jumps, drop offs, skinnies, teeters etc… All of the nieces and nephews spend the week riding their mountain bikes on the whacky stuff that Uncle Joe and Uncle David build. The goal is to make them challenging enough to keep everyone interested, but not to put anyone in the hospital. That has gotten harder and harder every year. It used to be that a simple teeter was a challenge, and then a skinny, and then something elevated. Now it takes all of that combined for a challenging week.

We all love it. They all have become so much better riders over the years.

My knee status is great. Tomorrow I have my 8week follow up doctors appointment. I have great mobility, my quad has come back to probably 80% of the good leg etc… I am up to 35-40 minutes on the trainer at a real heart rate and real effort. I am swimming, riding the rowing machine, lifting weights etc… and of course doing my goofy bending flexing and icing of my knee.

8 weeks is the point that the doctor had originally told me we would start doing some real training. I suspect that means some mild torquing and lateral training. I am ready for that.

Scott has the new van all apart. We are putting in the floor material, the wall to the back, shelving, bike tie down system etc… We will also have to get the stereo upgraded and the cruise control fixed. I am springing for a GPS, because we will need it while driving around the country to find campgrounds and restaurants and Suzuki dealers etc…

I am selling a couple of small bikes on Craigslist. XR 100’s for sale. I will be getting the 2006 YZ that I rode this past season up for sale as well.

Winter is here. There is a bit of snow on the ground. The high temperature is only in the 30’s. But, there is only 103 days till the first GNCC.

Joe

New bikes and Week 6

New bikes. There really isn’t anything better, the smell, the feel, how clean they are, how tight they feel. I love that. I find myself just heading out to the garage to sit on it and turning the workshop lights on and the garage heater and daydreaming about riding… Since I have been an adult, I have not owned a Suzuki. I confess. I rode Suzuki MX bikes as a kid, but it has been a long time. The team is sponsored by Suzuki, and I am super stoked by that. But, I have to admit that I have been still a bit nervous. I have been a Yamaha guy for a bunch of bikes in a row. Not that I have anything against other brands, I am just most familiar with Yamaha’s.

One of my new bikes is in the garage.

I love the looks, for RC as a SX bike. It will look a lot different when it is built up as a GNCC bike for me. Plus, I think I would be a bit embarrassed to ride it all RC’ed up like that.

Although I am new to the world of Suzuki, I love this bike. It feels light, moving it around the garage. It feels nice and compact as well. It makes me feel like Rodney Smith sitting on it, or now I suppose it will be somewhat related to what Charlie Mullins will be riding next year. When the build up starts, I will quote things like weights etc… But, for now I have to say I am just really impressed with a lot of the details.

I am a committed 2 stroke guy though. I like mixing gas, I like how they start, I like the sound, I like how reliable they are, I like working on them, I like the power delivery… I know that someday I may be forced to ride a 4 stroke, but that will not be until a sponsorship situation forces me, or there just are not any 2 strokes available to me anymore. But, I digress.This first bike will actually be built into my backup/home bike. Of course it will be changed up to have all the appropriate stuff to make it into a woods bike from the SX machine that it is today.

There should be 2 more 2008 model RM250’s here by the end of the month, that will be built into Scott and my primary race bikes. At some point in December, we should have an assembly line of bike buildup in Scott’s shop. I cannot wait for that, as it will just be so cool to be working the bikes into real race bikes.

I am late in week 6 of the knee thing. I wish that every day it got better. Unfortunately, that is not the case. I was warned at the beginning of this that there would be some times where it did not feel like I was moving forward. This week was one of those times. I had a hard time keeping the swelling down this week. When it swells up, it gets painful and limits how much I can do with it. I stepped my exercise program back this week, and had to just spend time cycling my knee and doing range of motion exercises and icing. It is feeling better now, and I should be able to get back to a better program starting Monday.

I figure I am 2 weeks from being able to actually start to put in some time on the trainer at a more measurable effort, and I should be able to start doing some conditioning as well. I cannot wait.

We should be able to start on the van soon, but I will let Scott tell all about that.

Joe

week 5

Ok.  So here I am late in week 5.  Things are going pretty well.  But, it still is a long way to go.  Since the therapist will not let me do anything very aggressive until after 7 or 8 weeks, it feels a lot like the same old exercises. 

My exercise routine now is

– 1 hour of knee work at 5am= 10 minutes on the trainer, balancing on the fixed knee leg, theraband pulls on the knee, pushing the knee flexing, quad sets, leg lifts, stepping strides, knee cap manipulation etc…  icing.  takes and hour.

– rowing machine at lunch M, F, Sun.  or  Swimming at lunch T, Th or upper body weight lifting at lunch Wed.

– 1 hour of knee work at lunch time

– 1 hour of knee work after dinner

It is a grind.  I like it though, because I am doing something.  I can see improvement.  I can easily get my knee to full straight, although I cannot hyper-extend it.  I can bend it to 115 degrees, although my good knee bends to 145 degrees.  I can walk without a limp, when I am concentrating.  But, when I am tired I favor it a bit.  But, there is still a long way to go to training hard for next season. 

Mark at Vesrah Suzuki feels pretty good that our bikes should be here by Thanksgiving.  That is super news.  We should be able to get them built up by the end of December.  Scott should be able to do some indoor MX track testing in December.  And, we will be all set for some indoor MX track testing for me after January and hopefully a trip down south in late February for some outdoor work. 

Scott is picking up the new van now, so we will be able to build that all out before the end of November.  But, I will wait for him to post something about that. 

Today is Nov 4.  127 days till our first GNCC race. 

Joe