Getting back into park

Yesterday was a totally exciting day.

I was riding with the Sierra Nevada College coach, Jon Cherry, and he instilled some confidence in me. With that I hit my first rails since riding again. I was finally able to take park laps and hit almost every feature. So stoked! I'm actually having a ton of fun again because I'm only holding back a little now. I also started spinning three ways in the pipe again. I didn't get to switch backside, but my back 3s felt so easy that I think I'm gonna go for back 5 again.

The team is leaving for Mammoth this evening. We have a boardercross and half pipe contest there this weekend. I have yet to do a five this season, but I think I'm going to try at the contest. I want to do front3-cab3-front5-back3 first run, and then turn the back 3 into a 5 for my second. I would be really really satisfied with that run. I'm nervous about spinning cab a little because when I did that yesterday it pulled my hamstring, but if I foam roll before the contest I'm hoping I'll be ok.

Whatever. I'm stoked. So happy to be getting almost back to where I was last season.

Being ok with losing.

Well Rev Tour was less than stellar. I knew going into it that I was going to take it easy, and treat it as practice instead of a competition. So I didn't watch anyone else's runs, didn't look at scores, and just straight aired every hit both runs. I got 18th out of 19. Rough.

It's really hard to lose. It's hard to know you didn't give it your all. It's hard to be asked "So how did you do?" and attempt to justify last place with "Well, it was my first day back in pipe after an injury so I didn't want to try anything." I'm going to work extra hard between now and the next Rev stop I'm doing (Sun Valley in March), so I can actually be proud of my results there. It'd be nice to have a huge five again, and even nicer to be able to put back to back fives in my run. Hopefully I'll be able to get there.

As hard as I try to be mellow and be ok with losing, I really can't be. I'm just not that person. Character flaw? Oh well.

First Competition is Tomorrow!

Well here goes nothing.

Surprisingly, I don't feel nervous for tomorrow morning at all. I think I'm just in a good mental state.

I know I don't have a serious chance of fighting for a top spot in the half pipe contest tomorrow- I still see myself as being in recovery mode. Until four days ago, I was still just making turns. Now I'm slowly building my confidence back up in pipe, but I don't feel like I'm ready to throw a five first hit or go for a seven. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm just doing straight air runs tomorrow.

I feel very relaxed though. I'm going into this thinking the only person I'm competing against is myself. As long as I ride better tomorrow than I did today, I've won. I think that's how I should go about this whole season- strive to progress every single day and treat each day that happens as a victory.

I'm not concerned with what any of the other girls do in their runs. I probably won't even watch them. I don't want to ride better than someone else, I just want to ride the best that I can for myself.

Louie Vito was recently asked in an interview something like "Does Shaun White being here today affect the run you're going to do?" He responded something like "No, because I don't want to beat Shaun White. If he comes in 19th, that means beating him could mean 18th place. I want to beat everyone. It doesn't matter if Shaun is here or not." This is kind of the same thing for me I guess- it doesn't matter who I'm competing against or what they do in their runs; I'm going to ride my best no matter what. My only concern is myself.

When you stop worrying about other people, your mind can find ease. (I'd like to attribute that to Buddha, but I made it up :/ )

The "training" has begun.

Last year I didn't have much progression and I'm kind of bummed about that. The big issue I think was me not having a coach. I don't have the fundamentals of snowboarding in my muscle memory like the kids I ride with who have been doing it for years have. Without a coach I just kind of send it and hope for the best. For me to get better I really need someone who knows what they're doing to tell me what to do.

This year I'm going to be working with this awesome coach, Chris Hargrave.  I worked with him a little bit two seasons when I was on the Northstar Snowboard Team and he was one of the coaches there. He really knows what he's doing and has coached some really talented riders. Chris focuses on fundamentals and perfecting every little piece of what goes into each trick, and that's what I want. He is also someone who actually cares about coaching. I think that's a very important quality for a coach to have- passion to help others get better.

I met with him last week for our first session together. I thought we were only going to take a couple runs but we ended up riding for like 2 hours. We spent that whole time basically just making turns. He broke turning down into a bunch of little parts and tried to fix the way I move on my snowboard. The objective was to make powerful turns that would translate into effective pumping/edging in the pipe. We also worked on switch ollies for a bit, and I've never felt so awkward trying to ollie before! haha

In this past week I've been making a conscious effort to use the things he taught me. I think I'm really starting to get it, and my switch riding almost feels as comfortable as my regular riding now.  Because of how my riding has changed, my knee no longer hurts when I'm making turns. Good Sign!

I have a great feeling about this year. I think my injury might have been a blessing because I now have the opportunity to basically relearn snowboarding, but correctly this time. I'm super excited for what's to come!

First Days Riding

I finally got cleared to snowboard! (kind of)

First run of the season!

I saw my physical therapist on the 21st of this month and she said snowboarding wasn't a good idea because I was still "at high risk" for reinjury. However, she also said I'm still gonna be at high risk until June, and I've done everything I can personally do to prepare myself to ride so if I want to ride it's my personal choice (but she and my surgeon would prefer it if I waited longer.) So I took that to mean I was cleared.

Couldn't be Happier

I rode by myself for my first two days. Honestly, I was terrified before going up the magic carpet for my first run. Since I wasn't exactly given the green light, I wasn't sure what to expect from my knee. What if my ACL ripped out the second I made my first turn? The one thing I really shouldn't do right now is fall, and I did that twice during my first run. Luckily I was moving slow enough that my falls were basically me just sitting down. I definitely looked like I was just learning to ride because I had beginner stance my first couple runs- you know, all weight on the back leg with knee super bent, and front leg completely straight out. It was bad. I kept in on the magic carpet and The Big Easy for those first two days, and only got like 5 runs in each day before my knee started feeling sore.

Me, my Mom, and my Dad at the top of Zephyr

Then my parents came up on Christmas eve. After spending two hours getting their rentals in the village, we got on the chair to mid-mountain. My first chair to an actual run! Taking real runs instead of just the bunny hill was kind of scary. I ventured up to the summit with them, and took it real slow the whole way down. I think I got seven chairs in on that day, but my knee was definitely sore right away. It only actually felt ok when I was riding switch, which really surprised me. I was also surprised to find out I don't know how to carve switch. Maybe I just couldn't turn because I was babying my knee. Who knows. Once my knee was really feeling done, I told my parents to ski some more without me and I went and chilled by a fire.

I took Christmas day off to rest my knee and my parents headed back home. Once they left Tahoe I realized I left my knee brace in my dad's car, so now I can't ride until that gets back up here in the mail. It should come in tomorrow and then I can go make some turns at Boreal while my Northstar pass is blacked out.

Making turns like a BOSS.

My surgeon had worried that I'd try sending it as soon as I got back on my board and get reinjured, but that won't happen. I'm so happy to just make turns that I don't feel the need to even go into the park yet. My main priority is still strengthening my knee and not pushing it too soon. I have my first competitions coming up in mid-January but I'm gonna wait it out on "training." If those contests come up and I still don't feel ready to get in the pipe or jump, I'll drop out. I have big plans for next season and I'm not going to throw away a huge opportunity for a Rev Tour stop or USCSA event.

For now, just strapping in is enough to be thankful for.

My mom and dad are rad, btw.

Almost there...

Last month when I went back to Redwood City to see my Physical Therapist, Brandy, I didn't get good news. I might have been slacking on working out a little bit and Brandy pretty much said "If you want me to clear you to ride this season, you need to get on it." Read that again. "This Season." Meaning, I wasn't just at risk of having an extra month without riding, but a whole season.

That woke me up and I starting hitting the gym every day and really putting energy into strengthening my knee and leg again. It got even more real for me when it started snowing and all my friends were out having fun. Over the course of the month I felt like my knee was improving by leaps and bounds.

This past week I went home to see Brandy. She agreed I was doing ridiculously better since the last time she saw me. I'm back on the road to riding in December now. The one thing she said she was concerned about is that if she clears me, it's only to make turns. No going into the park. No going fast. Just baby runs, going slow, and keeping my board on the snow. I swore to her that that's all I would do. I don't care if I can't go to the park yet. I don't want to reinjure my knee. All I want to do is be on my board and be happy again.

I'll find out December 7th if I get to ride again. Fingers crossed. Friday will mark 6 months since surgery. Busting my ass in the gym now to get cleared for December.

First day of dry land with the Sierra Nevada team

Tuesdays and Thursdays have been my favorite days this semester because I don't have class until 2:30 so I'm able to sleep in until 1 on those days.

Not anymore.

Dry land training with the school team started today and that meant the alarm was set for 7am and I had to be on campus by 8am. No more Womp Womp Wednesdays at the Grid for me.

My Physical Therapist has to get really
specific with my instructions

Anyways, I made it to school a little before 8 but because I'm not cleared for running yet and that's what the team was doing, I was sent off to the rec center to bike. So I pretty much woke up way too early for no reason because I could've gone to the gym on my own later. But whatever. I biked for like 15 minutes but my knee kept clicking almost every rotation so I stopped. I moved to the elliptical for another like 20 minutes. That's my favorite machine right now because I get to imagine I'm running even though I'm not. I seriously can't wait until I can run again. I always hated running but when not being allowed to do it has made me crave it so badly. Then I did some yoga/stretch stuff and some core. I guess it was a pretty good work out. I would have preferred training with the team though. :/

Hopefully I can start doing stuff with them soon. Until then I'm lone wolfing it in the gym.

Recovery week 5 & MRI #2

This morning I went to the hospital to get an X-ray on the screw in my knee and to meet with my surgeon. My surgeon said everything looked good and I was doing really good for only being five weeks out of surgery. Afterwards I met with my physical therapist who also said my knee was doing awesome. This means I'm definitely on track to be snowboarding again in December. All I can say is, hashtag-so-glad.

I also set up an appointment to get an MRI on my right knee. I've had this worry in my mind since April that I might have torn something in that knee too so I really want to know absolutely sure I know what's going on. My MRI is in a half hour so I should know in the next couple days what the situation is. Crossing my fingers that my right knee is a-ok.

Physical Therapy butt kicking.

Man. I just got my butt kicked. Well, not really. I just got back from physical therapy though. On the way to PT I'm always stoked like "This is gonna be awesome! I'm gonna move around and feel so good!" and then once I'm there it's like "Wait I still can't move. This hurts so bad. I want to cry. Why did I think this would be fun?" It happens every time. I know I need to commit to PT to get better, but it doesn't feel like I'm getting better, it just hurts. I can't wait until I finally have my range of motion back and I can actually work out and start looking forward to snowboarding again.
On a good note, my therapist measured my knee bending at 85°, which is up 20° from when I saw her 5 days ago. Hopefully this keeps going up until I reach full bending and I don't get stuck at any point.

Post Surgery

Well, it's been two weeks since surgery and I'm healing up. I was posted up on my living room couch for a week but I finally made the move back to my bedroom and life is getting almost back to normal. I started walking again today, but I'm slow moving.

Surgery was interesting. I freaked out a bit when they put the IV in my arm because I'm terrified of needles, but then once they fed the anesthesia into my blood stream I was chilling. Last thing I remember was rambling on about random things to my surgeons in the surgery room and then I woke up in the recovery room.

Here's some pictures and stuff.

Hospital Chilling. 6:30am. (Rocking Out)

Anesthesia coming my way. Goodbye

Right out of surgery. Mind is still absent.

My couch living set-up

Dressing change 5 days after surgery. I thought they only made one incision, but I ended up with 4