Beaver Creek, CO is Awesome
This week marks a major milestone in my recovery. I am now in Beaver Creek, Colorado on the last day of a four night, ski trip. I arrived in Beaver Creek on Thursday and was able to get in over two hours of skiing. I took it really slowly for obvious reasons, making a few runs on some easy green slopes.
The next day, there were nearly blizzard conditions all over the mountain making visibility nearly impossible. It snowed about five inches of powder during the day with constant wind gusts approaching 30 mph at the top of the Cinch lift. Needless to say, I stayed on green slopes.
On Saturday, however, the conditions were nearly perfect. The five inches of freshly groomed powder with brilliant sunshine were awesome. Before we left for the slopes, I had decided to stay on the green runs because I did not want to chance hurting the tendon. However, my friends tricked me into going down a blue run (Lockspur) unbeknownst to me. I made it down the run in one piece with no apparent damage to the Achilles. That began a full day of blue runs. Because I have been training for the ING Half Marathon and a sprint triathlon, I was not very tired at the end of the day. The weather was so beautiful, with the temperatures in the afternoon hovering around 45 degrees. Thank GOD for sunscreen.
Sunday was a carbon copy of Saturday. I continued my “assault” on the blue runs. My “friends” cajoled me into trying a single black diamond run (Ripsaw). I had a little trouble getting down the hill, as my right foot/Achilles is weaker than the left so carving with my right foot (turning left) was difficult, particularly at steeper grades/pitches. I made it down Ripsaw after making very wide turns. Luckily, it was not very crowded on the black diamond runs. Thankfully, I made it through the day. The moral of this part of the story is ‘don’t let your “friends” convince you to do things for which you are not ready.’ After the fact, however, I glad I am able to say I completed my first black diamond run post ATR surgery (almost ten months post surgery). The Achilles feels fine, with only some apparent “tightness.”
Today is Monday at 6:37 am MST and my flight to Atlanta, GA leaves at 4:25 pm MST. We have planned to ski a half day this morning before heading to Denver for the flight. I am trying to decide if I truly should ski this morning. I have made it through the trip in one piece and have had a great four days of skiing. If I decide to ski this morning, I pray I make it through unscathed.
I must say that folks on the blog must only do what they are capable of doing during their recovery. For some reason, I have been able to participate in some activities fairly early during my recovery. Listen to your body, and most importantly, listen to your doctor. I hope all is well with everyone out there, and happy recoveries to you all.
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:19 pm
WOW! Great progress I would say you are just about fully recovered.