Gummy bears and rainbows

Everything is all gummy bears and rainbows today. I went for my first bike ride since I broke my elbow. The ride was just to work 1.5 miles away and it was on my townie, but progress none the less. It's still going to be some time before I'm ready for a real road ride, but still it feels pretty good to cruise around on two wheels. I think I might even ride down to downtown later.

I hit another major milestone today too. My triceps is sore.... My triceps is sore! It doesn't sound like much to you, but I was able to work it enough in PT yesterday to actually make it sore today. That's never happened before because it was just too painful to contract the muscle. So I couldn't even really work it. It seems that soon I will be sculpting my guns again.

I'm pretty psyched about the progress. I haven't seen any progress in the last couple weeks. Actually, in the last couple weeks I've lost ROM and hurt it a couple times so it has been less than awesome.

Now I just hope I don't f... it up a again this week.

Two steps back

It's been a while since my last update. First, I've been real busy, and second, things have been pretty status quo on my arm, at least until last weekend.

Last week I went for my final appointment with my orthopedic surgeon. He took x-rays and said the arm is all good. He said I had no restrictions anymore. I think he should have given me restrictions because I overused it last weekend at camp and lost about 50% of my range of motion. It's about twice as better today as it was Sunday, but on Sunday I could only straighten it to about 90 degrees, as opposed to the 14 degrees my PT got me to the week before. Ooops. Guess I did too much.

This rehab is taking a lot longer than I thought. I'm not at full range of motion yet, and even though I'm cleared for strength work, I can't really do it yet until I get my range of motion back.

I also had another disappointment last week. I tried riding my bike outside for the first time. I just did a lap around the block, but I could tell right away that riding outside is still a long way away. I don't know how long, but every week I seem to realize that this was a more serious injury than I thought. Hell, Cadel broke his elbow and only lost 8 minutes today in the Tour. I must be some kind of wuss if I'm not even riding yet. I know that's not really true...

We had an athlete in town this weekend for camp and he's an orthopedic surgeon that specializes in hands and elbows. Super nice guy, but he gave me the real deal on my situation. He said matter of factly that this is a season ending injury. No one had told me that yet in such plain terms, not my ortho and not my PT. Hearing it said kind of makes me at peace. It's not that I'm a wimp for not working hard to trainer my ass off to come back and race at the end of the season, the fact is it's going to take too long for the arm to heal and the 2010 racing season is over.

I'm ok with that. I'd prefer to be riding my bike outside even if I'm not racing this year, but I'm hiking and trail running now. I hardly ride the trainer at all. It's just not fun in July. I'm also not putting a time line on riding outside. At this point it'll happen when my arm is ready.

week 6 update 2.0

Since the first week 6 update I have a few more progress notes to make about this week since now that it's a few days later.

- PT told me I didn't need Robo-Arm anymore and to make it a "relic of the past". Haven't worn it since.

- Did the Incline with my other crippled friend Abby. Well, half, but still impressive that we both were in slings or casts and were still passing A LOT of people.



- Gave a little stab at running, arm didn't hurt at all (2 weeks ago it was too much jostling about)

- Still not riding outside, but think it's about a week to 10 days away.

- PT gave me the clear to start sculpting my guns. I promptly started in on some serious triceps work. As it turns out, 2lb dumbells are still a bit much for my Grandma-Arm. I couldn't even lift the 2lbs (hahaha). I'll have to work up to that and up to the one arm push ups, but at least I can start strength work.

- Range of motion for flexion today = 150 degrees, same as the right arm. Woot!

- Range of motion for extension today - 14 degrees. Still have a little work to go.

- I am still not in to riding the trainer, but I've been hiking a bunch. With the Tour starting tomorrow I'll just live vicariously through my fantasy team until I can get on the road.

Happy Tour de France tomorrow and 4th of July on Sunday!