Fixed

8 and a half months have passed since I busted up my knee and it has been 6 months since I had my ACL operation. It has been a long time coming but finally I can say my knee is fixed!

I have just come back from Auckland where I had my final MRI/Surgeon meeting and everything is perfect. My ACL graft is holding strong and my meniscus is looking great! While I was up there Les Mills http://www.lesmills.co.nz/ were kind enough to hook me up with access to their gym, which made it easy to keep on track with my program. 

The day after my sign off I went over to Snow Planet and had a good old fashion carve on some Head Rallys!
It was my first time on skis since I injured myself in March and it was almost like I had never left. I had this feeling it might not work, but it was great! A massive confidence boost for my return to snow in Jan. 

On top of that I am getting close to being back to normal in terms of overall strength and fitness. I am far stronger on a bike than I have ever been in my life and am probably stronger in the gym than I was at this time last year. The only thing that is lagging behind is my running, but even that is picking up by the week!

By the time I leave for Europe I expect to be stronger and fitter than ever before. 

Even though I am past the 6 month point, I am still not 100%. My right leg is still slightly smaller than my left, it's only a couple cm off but it will come soon enough with more work!

With the biggest milestone of my rehab to date achieved, I am setting my sights on getting back to skiing in Europe on the 16th of January. From that point on I will be working towards my first comp at Chandolin on the 7th of March.

In the last two weeks leading up to the six month point I have continued to make noticeable improvements.

I have finally pushed my road bike length to 70Kms, I did it in 2:40 which is pretty quick, at least for me.

I have also SUP paddled the Clutha from Albert Town to the Red Bridge at Luggate. That was about an hour and a half standing on the board with a few rapids with no troubles, and I am hoping to do a couple of hike in paddle out missions over the next few weeks.

I have also just taken up surfing at the river wave in Hawea!
I picked up this awesome Lime 5.6 foam surf board from SUP Centre http://supcentre.co.nz/ in Auckland and I have been throwing myself at the wave for the last couple of evenings. 
Because the days are so long now, we finished at 10pm both nights!!