Riding Has Other Perks

With training over the last year I've noticed many changes. My body for sure as I went from 184 lbs. around X-mas time(due to the time off since the old _____ hit me with his Nissan) to hovering in the high 150's. At one point probably the lowest I saw was 155. That's a tremendous change in one season and something I'm really going to try to maintain over the winter. I know I've gotten exponentially faster as a result of that and the training combined. I'm just curious as to how next season will go if I start it off at 160 or so and then really ramp up the training. I could see my weight dropping to around 150 but I wouldn't want to go any lower than that. A few pounds might shed, but below that I'd be losing muscle which is not the goal.

The other cool thing is that structurally I think I am becoming stronger. Here's a brief history lesson. In 1999, after a cool few days at the Woodstock festival, I went to my folks place in upstate NY to relax and chill - this was before my biking days. So the new toy was my cousin's wakeboard. We jumped out in the water and figured out how to get up on it and I figured I'd try to up the ante a little and pull off a 180 and get this party started. Well it just happens that I pulled a 90 - which was not good - and my one foot slipped out of the binding causing my other leg to take all the strain and dislocate my left knee. After screaming in pain for a few minutes I got hauled into the car and dragged to the ER. The diagnosis was a completely torn PCL and partially torn ACL. So for the last 10 years I've been able to do some fun party tricks an make people sick by the extra movement in my knee.

The moral of the story is that all the training and strengthening has helped the muscles compensate and now there doesn't feel like much extra play in my knee any more! This is awesome. I could always feel when I bent my knee and then tried to raise it laterally that the lower portion of my leg would feel like it was going to pop out again. Recently I've tried the same movements and it's all solid. Definitely a good sign. Especially after surviving getting run into by the old man. So I'm very hopeful for next season and, at the moment very sick as some bug has hit me hard. I'll have to guage how I feel and how plausable it will be to race R-wood. At this point in my season I don't have much vested and I don't even think I can crack the top 10 overall - but it would be sure fun to mix it up on a fast course that I know really well. I think I'll have to throw down some Hooter's wings and beer and see if that cures my ailments :-)