Backpacking and Bball: 7+ Month Update

I’m nine days past my 7 month surgery anniversary, and am still making slow, but steady progress.  I still can’t do a full one legged calf raise, but am getting closer, and can at least get up on two and slowly lower (but not quite hold) on one.  My calf seems to have not gained any girth, which is frustrating because it’s still tiny in comparison, but my pt says I shouldn’t focus on that, and that it will come, and that the important thing is that I’m getting stronger.  She has me doing one foot single hop forward, and triple hop forward to measure progress.  My initial test was 11" behind for one hop, and 27.5" behind on the triple.

I’ve had some fun active adventures over the last month, including a two year anniversary trip to New Mexico with my wife last weekend.  I did a lot of walking and standing, which did tire out my calf by the end of the day, similar to how I feel on long hikes, which kind of surprised me but also makes me realize that site-seeing can be pretty good exercise! We also did an amazing bike ride in the Albuquerque foothills, which was where I started mountain biking over a decade ago.

I have a few big adventures coming up that I’m looking forward to, which will all challenge my calf, but I believe I’ll be ready for:

• 3 day  backpacking trip with some friends in the Never Summer Wilderness two weekends from now.  We’ll be keeping the daily mileage to camp at 5-6 miles, which will likely be the end of my day, but we’ll also have the option for some peak bagging without packs if I feel up for it.
• Weekend bike tour of Denver with my wife in late October - we’ll likely ride 30-40 miles or so each day.
• 4 day surf trip to Oregon in early November.  I’m not a very good surfer to start with, so it will be interesting to see how my balance is affected by my lack of strength.  It will be nice to be out in the water in any case.

My major achievements since last month are:

• I can get my heel further off the ground unassisted and need less support to do a full raise.  I’d say 50% of the way unassisted, 75% with minimal assistance (more balance than anything), and 100% of the way there with some, but not intense assistance.  I can also now go up on two, and come down with one, as I mentioned above.  I still can’t quite hold it there, but I can control the descent.  So while I’m still lacking significant strength, I am moving forward.
• I have been jumping off one foot with full intensity as part of my agility and bball drills, and there is no pain or discomfort.  With a couple steps (taking a layup), I am definitely not jumping as well as pre-op, but when I take one step and jump straight up under the basket, I can get up about as high as off my right (touch the net, woo-hoo - couldn’t do that in 7th grade!).
• I’ve increased the intensity of my bball and agility drills, and now include full court ’suicide’ drills - at this point not full speed, but pretty good speed while dribbling, and also layup lines.  I don’t feel quite 100% doing it, but pretty close, and my PT has cleared me to play a little bit competitively, as long as I’m careful!  I plan on playing in the weekly pickup tomorrow afternoon - probably just one game for now, but I’m pretty excited about it!
• I did an overnight backpacking trip with my brother at high elevation and proved that I can carry a pack over challenging terrain.  It wasn’t super long (about 3 miles in, 3 miles out) and I did feel fatigue towards the end on my left calf on the way out, but that was also after an additional 3-4 miles of hiking without the pack that morning.
• Yesterday I climbed to the top of Searle pass on my mountain bike, which was an over 9 mile climb (18.5 total) and over 3000′ on fairly challenging terrain.  I will admit that I was struggling towards the top, but I made it, and after a good 30+ minute rest on the pass, was fresh enough to be able to enjoy the descent.  By the end I was definitely exhausted, but as has been the case throughout for mountain biking during recovery, there wasn’t noticeably more fatigue on my left vs. my right while riding.  I actually think at the end I felt a bit better than I did last year after a similar ride (Kenosha pass), so that is a a good sign, and this morning I’m surprisingly not that sore.  I was definitely more sore after my bball/agility drills last week.
• I’ve been doing yoga each week, and trying to stretch more - not sure my flexibility has improved much yet, but it does feel good, and I’m sure if I continue, it will have lasting benefits in flexibility and hopefully injury prevention.
• My pt indicates my scar and thickening on the tendon has improved.  It’s hard for me to tell, but I’ve been scraping it 3-4x per week to reduce the scarring.

My recovery program hasn’t changed much since last month, but I’ll post it here again for reference:

2-3x per week strength/balance (2x per day):

*items that I don’t worry too much about fitting in if time doesn’t allow

• 2-3 sets x20 two foot heel raises lowering one foot on last 10
• 2-3 sets x6-8 one foot heel raises assisted
• 20-25 1 legged heel raises to failure (about 50% height or so)
• 1 set each x20 two foot heel raise at angles (toes in, toes out)
• *4 sets x8 two foot seated heel raises (55lbs or so now)
• 3 sets x5 2 footed standing to bent knee 5 second hold
• *10-20x walking forward leaning lunges (use weights and/or crouch)
• 1 set ea. way x 5 ft balls of feet side walk on raised board
• 1 set x10 balance board one foot front to back
• 1 set x10 balance board two feet side to side
• balance board foot roll (for flexibility)
• 1-2 sets walk across stair sideways on balls of feel keeping heel level (3 back and forth per set)
• *4-6 various standing balance exercises with weight shifts

2-3x per week dynamic strength/agility:

• 1-2 sets x10 runners drill (stepping up on platform and then pushing up and forward)
• bball by myself for 30 mins
• cross stepping 1-2 laps ~20ft
• quick steps 1-2 laps ~20ft
• diagonal 1 foot hops (only on left foot) 4 laps ~20ft (80ft total)
• *hopscotch like steps 4 laps ~20ft (80ft total)
• 10x two foot high jumps with soft landing
• 5x one foot jump up with one step
• 1x one foot forward jump test
• 1x one foot triple forward jump test
• 1-2x full court suicide drill with ball (not full sprint, but close to full speed with ball)
• 1-2x full court defensive slide suicide drill (50-75% full speed)
• 1-2x 10 each side layup lines
• 2-3 x30 seconds quick side hops

I’m also making sure I get 1-3 days of full rest in there, and listening to my body.  Honestly, because I’ve also been riding and hiking a lot on the weekends, I usually only get 1 full day of the agility drills in each week, as it puts a pretty high stress load on my body at this stage.  I’ve also been doing yoga once a week as mentioned above.

Overall, still making progress, still working hard, and looking forward to some upcoming adventures and the ski season, which is shockingly just around the corner.  Better try on those ski boots to see what kind of adjustments might be needed in the achilles area!