6 (and 7!) months & Durango Double race recap

6 and now 7 months have rolled by since my surgery, and looking back now on it.... that was crazy! 😄  It seems as if the first three months rolled by fast, but these last 3-4 here have taken their sweet time. But after reading up, this seems to be the case with most ACL recovery stories. The knee is still healing in the later months, just not as obviously. Either way, I made the most of them by mountain biking (including 3 IMBA EPIC's, Phils World, Keystone and Winter Park..!), hiking and rock climbing, all while working on building up and strengthening my left quad from the atrophy. 

Mountain Biking 401 trail in Crested Butte

Good ole Kelso Ridge

Climbing in Moab

The area right above my knee where my surgeon took the snip of tendon for my new ACL will occasionally get sore after a a big day, but of course that's understandable..! I take rest days afterwards as to not stress it much anymore until it is feeling well again. I can feel the screw in my tibia whenever I run, and the area surrounding the screw will also get sore after 5+ or so mile runs, so I see why I had (and still have) the option to remove it. However, I think this is something I can get used to, so will just leave it in.

I wanted a goal race to work up to in the half marathon range, and figured I had been mountain biking just as much as I had been trail running over the summer, so decided to sign up for the Durango Double on October 7th. It's a 13 mile trail run followed by a 16 mile mountain bike. I have never raced anything besides trail running so it was a new, fun experience to try..!

The trail run went well- I felt good and confident that I could make it the whole 13, even though I hadn't ran that long in quite some time. My knee and quad felt amazing... it's so neat to see your hard work and effort in recovery paying off! The mountain bike portion was a little challenging for me, having never raced on a bike before, many thoughts were going through my head such as 'you did the trail run part, that's what you do. You don't need to finish the mountain bike part' and 'Don't get hurt before ski season, it's not worth it just to finish the bike' for a few examples. But I just kept going... pedaling away and ignoring those thoughts until I crossed the finish line..! I forgot how exciting the almost-at-the-end feeling of a race is. It's good to be back :)

Afterwards, my graft site was sore, but overall, I felt amazing and still had energy. This is a good sign, I thought. Because before the race, and throughout my whole recovery, I have been wondering if I would have a shot at running 100 miles again and/or if I even should with my knee now. But after this race, and how little and short the 13 miles seemed both mentally and physically, I know100 miles of trial running is certainly still attainable 😊  I do feel further away from this goal than I ever have before... but am not letting that get the most of me.

Ski season is now here and I've been out on the slopes already a few times. I was cleared by my surgeon for back to sport, which in my case, means one thing, skiing and ski mountaineering! He did instruct me that the only sport that wearing a brace really helps out with is skiing, and to wear it whenever I do for two seasons. I haven't been skiing without it yet and probably won't for a while, which is a-ok with me.

I haven't skied anything challenging yet, but overall seem just fine mentally. Will be interesting further into the season and more challenging lines open up. I have a few ski mountaineering goals for this upcoming winter but of course will all be dependent on if I am feeling up for it both mentally and physically.... In the meantime, I'll just keep strengthening and training!