Coming Back From My Recent Injury (part 2)

Next up, I started going to the gym and riding the bike to help keep my cardio up, get the blood flowing and help bend/flex my injured leg. I know from previous physical therapy experiences, riding a bike is generally ok when dealing with a knee injury. I hit the bike on the days I would be running to help keep up my routine and really be focused on getting my knee better. After each bike ride, I would take some time and stretch. Another thing I learned from physical therapy, though one area may be injured you may need to target areas around the injury to help with recovery. I made sure to stretch my quad, IT band, hamstring, and Achilles. It was a bit tough because at this point I couldn't get my leg to fully straighten. It was discouraging to have this problem, but I knew I had to keep working at it in hopes to loosen things up and help my knee.

Since I couldn't run and was biking it, I did take advantage of this opportunity and participated in my first ever bike event. I was part of this year's Ability Tour in Lansing. I rode the 30 mile route. This would be the farthest I've rode before. I knew I could do it, if I was smart. I had the same mind set as taking on a new running distance - focus on finishing and not on the finish time. I did finish and it was a lot of fun. There were some challenging hills along the way, but I was able to make it up them without having to walk my bike up. My knee was doing really well during and after this event. I could tell it was starting to loosen up and play nice. It was just being really stubborn!