Ahhh, my parents house for the night.

Hey guys!

I am currently laying in my old bedroom at my parents house, it feels great! This weekend went pretty well for my teammates, and I had a blast being back at a ski race. I was able to walk all around, up and down the runs with some big snow boots and my ski poles for a little support. My knee is now to the point where I don't even notice it during everyday activities. That, of course, will all change on Friday morning when I am scheduled to go under the knife. I had lots of people this weekend, racers and coaches, who have torn their ACL in the past giving me their advice and well wishes, so thank you all! I am actually looking forward to the surgery so I can start with my rehab. I know it will be a tough road but I am prepared to give it all I got and I am of course anxious to start this long process of getting back on snow. I'd like to congratulate my teammates Anna Kocken and Julia Wong for some excellent skiing this weekend, each of them were on the podium all four days of racing! Anna's name will now be engraved on the same Atmore Cup trophy that my name is already on, which is awesome. It was great to see Nick and Thomas really focusing on learning to get faster each run on these flat and fast courses. I am sure our team has benefited from this experience and I'm sure it will show next week at the New Mexico Invitational in Taos. Tomorrow morning I am having breakfast with my grandpa then hopping on a flight back to Salt Lake to prep for my surgery. Talk to you soon.

-Ryan

FREEZING in Minnesota

Hey guys!

To the left is a picture of me getting ready for my flight on Wednesday morning in the training room, we did some game-ready and normatech then headed over to the airport. I am now in Lutsen, Minnesota and have watched some mid-am GS racing the last two days. The knee is feeling good, yesterday I walked all the way up the mountain despite the sub-zero temperatures to get closer to the action. The girls on my team did very well yesterday, Anna picked up bronze and Julia took home gold. There is definitely a little room for improvement on the guys side, but that is why we are here. The race hill is about the flattest I have ever seen so it is good for my team to be here to get the feeling for flats. Our training hill at home is very steep and challenging so you have to take advantage of every opportunity we are afforded that may help our gliding skills improve. After the race was finished yesterday I found a little workout area where I could spin and do some quad sets. Right now the second gs is underway and its very cold again! Hopefully the boys step it up a little today and take home some hardware! This afternoon when the race is finished my teammates and I are headed to Duluth for a weekend of slalom racing. I'll update some more when I get back down to civilization and have a better internet connection.

Take care,

Ryan

Heading Home!

Today I had an early morning again, not for rehab though... FOR CLASSES. UGHH, I had a lot of classes last semester that really interested me and so far this one has been on the boring side. I know it will come around, I have been pretty preoccupied with both racing and now with my injury. I have become almost obsessed with trying to do everything I can for my knee that it has been the only thing on my mind lately. The good news is once everything calms down I will have a lot of time to just focus on school this semester which I am sure will help me a great deal in the long run.

Tomorrow I am hopping on a flight back to Minnesota and will enjoy the company of a few old friends and family members until Monday afternoon. This will be a nice time to just relax and let the whole injury thing settle in with me. My teammates are racing at Lutsen and Spirit Mountain so I am going with to get a little midwest flavor back in my life and cheer them on. Its going to be a little strange watching a ski race in my shoes from the finish area but at this point i'll do anything to just be back near the action. I am going to do some more therapy in the morning with the company of my new rehab buddy,and coach, Jaka. He tore his ACL two days ago and will be going through the same surgery and recovery as I am. It is unfortunate that it happened but it will be good for both of us to be going through this process together.

Today I only hit the training room once, because of my class schedule on Tuesdays. I did 30 minutes of Normatech compression, 20 minutes of Game-ready and stem, then hit the workout program hard! Today we amped up the plan a bit from the previous days. I started with quad firing sets and straight leg raises followed by 20 minutes on a spin bike for a warm up. Then came the fun... I did wall sits with a physio ball behind my back, 10 sets of 1 minute. This under normal circumstances is something I could do easily, but with a leg that is ready to shut down and quit it is not easy. I followed those up with hamstring curls on a physio ball and some balancing drills. I went through the program twice and was really sweating today. It feels good to know that I can start to push it a little bit. Unfortunately there was a little reminder that my ACL is torn right after I finished my last set of wall sits... Up until this point I haven't had any real problems with my knee giving out or feeling unstable. But after the workout my quads and hamstrings, which are helping me to be stable, were pretty tired and as I went to take a normal walking step my knee totally gave out and I was quickly reminded, with my face on the ground, that my ACL is in fact torn. Pretty weird feeling, not one I ever want to feel again. My trainer Nick wanted to make sure everything was alright and I nodded and walked back into the workout area and we went through ANOTHER set of everything. My feeling is when something like this happens it feels like a step backward was just taken so in order for me to move on with a high head I have to prove to myself that everything is alright. Doing that last set proved to me that I was alright and I left training today feeling strong and ready, instead of scared and uneasy. Well, I have to go to my three hour meteorology night class now, wish me luck! I am gonna try not to fall asleep this time.

Until next time, take care

Ryan

My first blog

Hey Guys!

First and foremost, welcome to my blog. The reason I am starting this blog is to keep everyone who is close to me up to date on the progress I am making with my recent ACL injury. It wasn't my first thought to start a blog but decided it would be a good way for me to look back on pictures and entries to see the progress I am making.

Now to get you all up to date on what the hell happened to me! I had just come off a pretty good race series and had some damn good slalom races in the past 3 weeks. I was happy with how I was skiing and pretty confident heading into the slalom at the Montana State Invitational. (race was held at Big Sky, MT). I pushed out of the gate furiously, confidently snapping off clean turns as I flew down the course. I remember being surprised at how well I was skiing and then it happened... I came out of a hairpin, made a great left footed turn, made my transition to the right ski and before I knew what was going on I was flying upside down and backwards through the air. I had underestimated how grippy the conditions were and hooked up furiously, tearing my right ACL in the process.

So that was last Sunday, 8 days ago. Now let me fill you in on what has happened since then.

On Monday I headed into the athletic training room back at school with what I thought was a slightly sprained knee. I was walking around effortlessly with no pain, had no instability, and no real concern about this actually being a serious injury. My trainer, Katie, had me do some ice/stem, game-ready, and the dreaded Normatech machine(which squeezes your leg to the point you are positive you will never feel your toes again, and then it goes tighter!) and followed that up with some stretching. As I was leaving Katie was scheduling an appointment for me to go in and see Dr. Powell at the orthopedic center for the following day... I still was not concerned.

Tuesday I went to classes until noon then headed over for some more treatment in the training room, at this point I was concerned with getting my knee to feel normal so I could race on January 28th. The treatment came to an end and Katie and I headed to the orthopedic center. I arrived and quickly got an x-ray. The Doc came into the room with the x-ray said everything looked great and then moved on to pulling my knee around in ways, that before that moment. I had no idea my knee could move. She looked up at me and with a very apologetic tone prepared me for what she thought my MRI would tell us the following day.... that my ACL was torn. She referred me to head downstairs and get an MRI. As Katie and I headed down to the MRI I was talking about how there was no way in hell my knee was wrecked while I skipped and hopped to prove my claims. I sat through the MRI I thought about what an ACL injury would mean... Would I ever be able to ski the same again? How long is recovery? What is an ACL anyway, I don't seem to need it if it IS gone!?

Wednesday morning I headed in for some more treatment in the training room, early this time, I think around 6am. Eric (another one of my trainers) and I went through the same routine again. Every time I went through these stretches and exercises the knee felt better and better and by the time I left the smith center and headed to class I was feeling pretty optimistic. Skip ahead to about 10:30am, i'm sitting in psych class and get a text from Katie telling me to come to the training room after class and have a talk... I know what this means and I prepare myself for the worst. I get there and sit down with Katie and Eric and am told my ACL is torn. They both kind of seem scared as to what my reaction may be but I think I took it all pretty well. I already was scheming about my recovery the night before lying in bed, the doc had told me pretty straight up what she thought... I had researched ACL injuries until 3am on the internet and already had a plan to give this recovery all I have, and then some. I plan to come back from this STRONGER, FASTER, SMARTER, AND HUNGRIER for success than I have ever been. This is going to be a great turning point in my career, I am going to learn how hard I can fight. This is going to be one of the hardest journeys of my life to this point and I am ready, BRING IT ON!

Since we all found out that it is indeed the acl we have been doing hours and hours of rehab and exercising my quad and hamstring to prepare for the surgery. I have been in the training room twice a day for up to 3 hours a time working on my knee. I am very thankful I am here at the University of Utah, I have a great team of trainers, teammates, strength coaches, psychologists, and ski coaches that are all on my side and want me to come back better than ever. I'll leave you with my two new quotes for this recovery. BRING ON THE PAIN! and CHICKS DIG SCARS! I got a lot of pain commin' my way and a few nice new scars... Keep your head up, I AM.