Tough love

Oh yeah. I've had some coaches who watched Remember The Titans a few too many times. Most of them were my tennis and swim coaches. One of my tennis coaches was a hokey obsessed Canuk, so we did "Stanley cup" suicides where we had to beat a certain time five out of seven times, or we had to do it all again. Those trainings are the ones where kids get mysteriously sick beforehand, but that is the effort that you need to put in in order to be the best.

Since getting hurt, I've started coaching one of the Juniors on the US team. We'll see in two weeks in Norway, whether my trainings are tough love enough.

The innauguration

I didn't break a bottle of wine, but since it was clear and sunny, I was able to put sticker on my pod! Finally, now it is really a ski pod!

welcome to the girl cave

The Lau's on team france may have their awesome guy cave (see In the world of ski bachelors), I think my girl cave has them matched!

Interview with free heel granola

Freeheelgranola is a great site to pick up telemark tips, the latest gear reviews, and more. They asked me some questions about tele, my injury and plans for getting back to being a granola. Click on the title to check out the article.

Dad's birthday hike(ish)

We usually go skiing for my dad's birthday, but since that was out of the question, we went for a walk along the river. I can only walk for thirty minutes or so right now before my knee poops out, but every day it gets better. Next week, I will be cleared to do the stairmaster for a whole ten minutes at a time! Yeehaw!

Le Chef

Trying a chili recipe for the cookbook I am writing, I splashed tomato on my shirt, so I did the logical thing. I threw the shirt in the laundry, and grabbed my apron - waxing apron that is! I think I will call it chili au flouro!

Swim

I wish I could say that was me today in the pool. If it was, my PT might eat me alive. That is a photo from one of my swim races during the summer in NJ. Because of my 'skier legs', my start is one of the best. Today, though, I was able to get in the water and do some easy laps. It felt so good to be doing something physical, that I continued until 60. I might regret the longevity of my first swim, but we will see tomorrow. It feels good to be back in the water.

I made a deal

When people say that they had swelling drained out of their knee, it infers a connotation of tapping a coconut and having the fluid just pour out. I can attest that the wording is completely misleading hoax. Today, when Doc Sterett said that my recovery would be a tad quicker if I drained my knee, I was all for it. After he pulled out what looked like a horse-needle, not so much. After having 40cc's of blood left over from the surgery sucked out, I was given a new pair of thigh high TED hose to wear for the next week. Below, you can see me sporting the new fashion before heading out for PT in front of our snow pile that is now as high as the balcony of our second story!

Fluffy, wonderful

SNOW!!

The snow on our banister continues to pile ever higher as it continues to dump here in Steamboat. The idiom, to dump, doesn't exist in Switzerland, so I'll do my best to describe it.

Yesterday, on my way to the chiropractor, the world outside of my windshield looked as if someone had taken a snow globe, shook it up, and put it right in front of my eyes so I couldn't see anything. When I got home, the snow hadn't let up bit and this afternoon when the storm finally let loose its last sputtering flakes, with white fluff on my banister piled three feet high, I can definitely say that it had dumped.

Tradition!

Not in the Parisian underworld of Les Miserables, but right here in Steamboat Springs, CO.


Every year since 1914, every second week in February locals join together to celebrate winter. Created as a relief from long winters, it now signifies the middle of the season and is almost a call for all locals to shred harder and enjoy the second half of the season more before it is all over. There are the street events on main street that include everything from adults being pulled behind horses on shovels to a ski band, ski joring and everything in between. Above, you can see the pinnacle of the event, the fireworks on Howelson. To the left, ski patrol are towing sleds down the run with fireworks exploding out of them, and to the right kids are jumping the 35 and 60m jumps through the firey hoop with lighted flares. Growing up as a part of the show, it was fun to watch it from the bottom of the slopes this year.

Baby its cold outside!

I woke up this morning to -50 F! The public school had its first 'snow' day in 30 years and I stuck inside icing my knee. I guess if I wanted, I could have just bundled up and sat outside in a pair of shorts. A new meaning for the song Baby Its Cold Outside.

Wildlife day

I woke up this morning to -50. Thankfully, it warmed up enough to start the car for PT. On the drive back, we saw the neighborhood elk before turning into the driveway. There, in front of my car was a moose! My dad hopped out and snapped a quick pic! Europeans might have cows, goats and sheep, but we get moose. Just another wild day!

Really relaxing

... Or not!

The day after surgery, my big bro Ben brought eight of his friends up from Golden for a ski weekend. It was good to have lots of company, but I think I'm ready for a little R&R! My brother is second from left and I bet you can't see which one is me!With all the Engineering School of mines boys, "Happy Birthday" was almost threatening to drown out my mom's notorious voice! Happy birthday mom!

The coxyx pain machine

That's just a fancy way to say that this thing is the biggest pain in the butt!
For the first week, I have to spend 6-8 hrs in the CPM machine, an evil contraption that passively moves your knee to prevent scar tissue buildup. Usually, the procedure is to do 4-6hrs, but I suspect that Doctor Sterrett doesn't want me to do anything else.... Makes sense, since it just dumped and I was thinking about how hard it would be to one-ski powder :) Above, I put the machine in the car on the way back from Vail so I could knock off a few hours. It may prevent scar tissue in my knee, but by next week, my back might be one big glob of scar tissue.

the results!

Met with Sterrett to go over the surgery pictures. Image six is the problem, that bubble part in the middle is apparently the degeneration. Image eight shows the result, with the stitch and a teeny piece removed. He estimated that he removed five percent, which is much better than the 35% he would have had to remove if he didn't do a repair. It is feeling better already, so now the trick is to reduce swelling.