In my last post about why I don’t like skiing at ski areas, the last reason I gave was getting cold on the lifts. I included my muscles getting cold and then expecting them to work when I get off the lift. That might be a big part of why I got injured when I went skiing with my brothers between Christmas and New Years. Getting really out of shape and gaining nearly 30 pounds since RAAM certainly could also have been a big factor.
We had taken a very late lunch and were going to do one last run together before my brother’s went over to Loveland Valley to check on their kids at ski school. When I got off the lift, I caught an edge. I was telemark skiing and most telemark bindings don’t release when you fall. It felt like my left was being twisted right below the knee to the point that something was going to snap. I couldn’t get up on my own and my brother and the ski patrol got to me about he same time. Once the ski patrol took my ski off, my leg felt so much better that I thought I might be alright. After discussing it with the ski patrol, I decided to wait a few minutes and see how my leg felt. Pretty quickly I figured out I shouldn’t try skiing down and the ski patrol called for a snowmobile to come pick me up.
The first few days just walking around was difficult. If I was on a flat, even surface it wasn’t too bad but it didn’t take much unevenness to put me in pain. My physical trainer/athletic trainer checked me. He said I had strained my hamstring tendon attachment just below and also stressed the tibial head.
I started stretching 2-3 times a day. My sports massage therapist friend had showed me after my injury during RAAM how to use a rope to stretch my hamstring and IT band. I got a 10 foot piece of 5/8 inch nylon rope from Home Depot. I lie on my back and wrap the rope twice around my foot. I then pull my leg up in the air. This allows me to pull my foot into different angles in order to stretch my hamstring and IT band in different ways. It also has a benefit that it allows gravity to help circulation. Stretching this way has worked much better for me than the standard stretch where you sit and hold your foot or put a towel around it to do the hamstring stretch.
I’ve also been using up to 4 servings of Hammer Nutrition’s Tissue Rejuvenator. It’s their product that has glucosamine and chondroitin in it but they also but some other natural things in to help reduce inflamation and help with healing. It really seems to have been helping.
I first spun easy on my trainer after a week. After 15 minutes my leg was getting too sore so I stopped. Now it’s been 3 1/2 weeks and I’m up to riding an hour at a moderate effort on the trainer. I haven’t tried riding outside yet but probably could. We’ve had so much cold and snow and I don’t want to take a chance on crashing.
Blog RSS Feed
Like on Facebook
Follow on Twitter
Flickr
Contact
Sorry to hear about the injury.
Yeah…my downhills skis mostly collect dust these days. Never got into the tele. I’m too afraid of injury now. x-c skiing has filled the void when there is too much snow, but for now I’d rather bike on snowy roads or ride the trainer if I have to.
[…] pill. Being on too little thyroid medication makes me gain weight faster. Then to top it off I got injured just after Christmas. I wasn’t getting much exercise before that but at least I was get a longer more than […]
[…] skiing at a ski area for the first time in over 10 years. The conditions weren’t good and I got injured. I think I should just stick to skiing in the backcountry. I really don’t enjoy skiing at ski […]
[…] not to try to get in since I haven’t figured out what I’m doing this year. Even before I got injured, I was really out of shape and had gained 25 pounds since RAAM. I hope to be in race shape before […]