Hey everybody…well, it’s been 18 months since my last post and I figured I was due for an update. I’ve been checking in every few months on the site and looks like there are still new folks getting involved and taking advantage of this great forum for sharing our stories about AT injuries. I’ve said it before, but Kudos to Dennis for putting this whole thing together.
So to catch up…after I hit 6 months, things really plateaued for me for the next 6 months. I worked pretty minimally on the specific strength training, but I was reminded of my injury every day. I rode my mountain bike mostly for the first year of recovery. I would get frequent cramping while riding in the calf on the injured leg, but found later that if I spent more time stretching before the ride, the less likely I was to cramp.
This past spring/summer, I got into road biking and hit that pretty hard. It was a fun summer on the bike and month by month, I forgot about my AT. My calf is still only about 70% of the size it originally was, but I felt like my bike strength and endurance was not being affected by it’s size, so I gave up on my original goal of getting it back to the same size as pre AT injury.
Then just this last month, my Dad decided that he was 60 and ready for his first Ironman. I said without thinking, I’ll do it with you! So in 18 months, we’ll be doing Ironman Madison, Sept 2011. I’ve started running this past month (taking it super slow), and the tendon and calf feel great, it’s my knees that hurt!
So keep up the good healing everyone…I can remember my first 12 weeks of recovery and how slow that time went. In hindsight, I wish all my time went that slow…for now those 12 weeks just feel like a blip on the ol’ radar.
Happy Healin’
Brendan
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Best of luck with the Ironman training, and keep us in the loop. And post some pictures!