Friday, February 29, 2008

No ACL tear - I think

After the rough fall on Wednesday, I spent Thursday taking pills and icing my knee. I couldn’t straighten the leg but could put pressure on it, jump on it and walk on it. In the afternoon I went to the Telluride Medical Center. The Physician’s Assistant did all the tests and determined that I either have a sprained MCL and/or ACL, but that tears are unlikely. This Monday I am going to see a Sports Ortho Doctor in SF for a second opinion.

Since today - Friday - is my last day I figured that I should at least test out the leg and see if I can ride. I took it cautiously the first 2 hours but after that the leg felt real good and I was riding the best I’ve done all week. The mountain here is huge and I’ve done all the green and blue runs, electing to avoid the blacks. After lunch I started pushing it harder until I felt ready for the black run. The problem though is that in the back of my mind I kept thinking about my last run at Jackson Hole last year. I was feeling confident and then had a terrible fall - fatigue and overconfidence are a bad combination!

Anyway, I hit the black and had my best run of the day on my last run of the trip. Now I’m stoked! Next year I am going to stay here for two weeks...and if anyone wants to join me (Joey and Chad bailed this year) let’s talk.

-GK

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Day 4 and 5 - two completely different days

Tuesday, aka Day 4, was another perfect day. I kept my instructor’s information in my head - bend the knees, look ahead. I challenged myself going down some of the hard double blues that were filled with bumps and moguls. While I am not as fast as when I go down on the smooth runs, I still maintained my balance and kept making turns. I even took a ride down a double black - my first. I fell a few times but made it down with a few turns.

One thing I really improved on was my speed - I was flying down the mountain on the blues and the greens, really carving it up and hitting some jumps. I was so pumped after the day that I went to the gym, or should I say, a glorified hotel gym. This place was full of machines, had low ceilings, basically the opposite of Balance. Whenever I am in these type of gyms I love to do some Olympic lifts, plyos, and other explosive moves. After an hour of doing Turkish getups, single arm snatches, dumbbell pushup walks, Macgyver pullups, and overhead squats some of the guys doing preacher curls and smith machine incline presses started asking me about what I was doing. I got them doing some pullups and pushups on the rings (yes, the gym did have rings). All in all, Tuesday was a great day!

Wednesday, however was quite the opposite. Luckily for me I bought a helmet on Tuesday - a small $70 investment to save my bucket. The day started off just fine, hitting the double blues, riding fast the straightaways. But about 11:00 I took the nastiest fall I have ever taken. I was flying down the mountain and there were these 2 skiers in the middle of the trail, so I had to maneuver around them. In doing so, I took my eye off the trail and lost concentration for a split second. That was long enough for me to catch an edge and fall backwards at a high rate of speed. My head hit so hard that I thought that I cracked my helmet. And thank goodness for the helmet - I wouldn’t be writing this now if it weren’t for the helmet. My left shoulder and right knee are hurting pretty bad. After a few more runs, I called it a day. My right leg is in a ball of pain - can’t quite straighten it without pain. Wondering if it’s a ligament tear. We’ll find out Thursday.

-Graham

Monday, February 25, 2008

Day 3 of the Round da World trip

Just in case you are reading this for the first time, my trip goes like this: 7 days in Telluride, Colorado, then 4 days in San Francisco, then 12 days in Philippines, then 8 days in Thailand, and finally 5 days in London. 38 days in total (there’s a travel day in the calculations).
So today I am officially sore and need the foam roller desperately. I took a group lesson today - something I typically do when I take these long snowboarding trips. There were 5 people in the group - 3 chicks and 2 dudes (including me). One girl, Kath from PA, was a trooper - while everyone else dropped out throughout the day because they were tired, Kath kept going - carving it up and increasing her speed. Last night we got another foot of snow, so the tough runs were a little softer meaning that you could push the envelope and not feel the same pain of you fell. The instructor, Glider Bob, kept reminding me to bend my knees and stay low. Consequently, my legs are tired...it’s like a 5 hour boot camp...which is something that I might consider doing once a month when I get back...any takers?

In other news, my basketball team won this weekend, defeating the defending champs, Night Cap. Last year we got one win and that was a forfeit. So defeating the defending champs is a good start to the league. My fear is that we (they?) will win all the games when I am away and then I will be cut and have to play on the Sunday league to get playing time.

Ok, that’s enough for now...the maker’s mark is kicking in.

-graham

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Day 2 of the Round da World trip

Day 1 was a travel day, so nothing exciting happened.

But Day 2 was AWESOME! I am in Telluride, Colorado. If you are ever looking for a great place for skiing/boarding, this is great. I’ve only been here one day but I already like it better than Snowbird (Utah) and Jackson Hole (Montana). I think it’s better because the gondola is right in heart of Telluride, so you can stay in town, hit up the coffee shops, go out at night, and still be 5 minute hike to the lift. Both Jackson Hole and Snowbird are kind of secluded from the nearest towns.

So the boarding today was perfect - they’ve had the best snow here in 20 years, and it’s snowing now. It’s been a year since my last trip boarding (Jackson Hole), so I didn’t want to go too hard in the beginning. The first few runs I just wanted to work on my mechanics, adjusting my balance, getting my turns right. Everything before lunch was me getting re-acclimated to boarding and also discovering the mountain. But then lunch consisted of Maker’s Mark on the rocks and a PBR (the working man’s beer) - plus some food - to help calm the nerves. That’s when I started carving it up and increasing my speed. I was flying down the mountain! Hit a couple of jumps, did some 360s (not in the air)...tomorrow is a group lesson to see how I compare with others. By the end of the week I hope to hit the snow park and the back country runs - all something that I’ve avoided in the past.

Smells like it’s time for dinner!

-Graham