Getting Closer To Go-Time

Hi there, its been a while. I am back on the trike again. During the past few weeks I have not been riding. I have been resting the knee and trying to strengthen my IT Band. I have been attending a Yoga class which has been pretty intense. It is HOT Yoga; they keep the room at 105 degrees and it is a 90 minute workout. It’s a total cleansing while twisting into crazy positions and strengthening core muscles. I think it has helped with the flexibility and strength in my knees.

Last week I paid a visit to the UCDavis Sports Performance Lab. At the lab, we set up my trike on my new stationary trainer. They had me ride and we made some adjustments to the trike and to my cycling cleats. I rode some more and we made some more adjustments. Dr. Cosca made some observations and some helpful suggestions. He said that we want to try to fix the knee pain mechanically if possible, meaning by adjusting the trike and the way I pedal. However if the adjustments do not do the trick we can always do a shot of cortisone to get me to Memphis. The visit with Dr. Cosca has put me at ease because he assured me that we will take care of this knee thing. This appointment was set up by Kent Mulkey of Team Donate Life. I really appreciate the opportunity to talk with experienced Doctors and Engineers. Thank you to Kent, Dr. Cosca, and Judd.

So now it is Christmas break and I have plenty of time to make sure I can make it to Memphis with my stock set of legs and knees. This morning, Dad and I went on a nice and easy ride near my new home in East Sacramento. The ride was about 12 miles and it took us over an hour but there was no pain and we came back in one piece…victory! We survived to ride another day.

I was very concerned about my knee for a while but let me assure you that I am 100% committed to completing this ride!

Another exciting development is that my promotional DVD is almost finished. We filmed this piece about a month ago and it is finally coming together, should be completed this week (Ihave been saying that for the past two weeks but I really mean it this time). Hopefully the video will be available for viewing on my website, I’ll let you know.

One last thing…WE ARE APROACHING OUR FUNDRAISING GOAL! The goal is $30,000 and we are at about $25,000 thanks to generous donations by many people, many of whom I have never met before, very encouraging! One huge donation was made by Sierra Self Insurance Services. Their donation of $5,000 will keep the momentum going and will help us get over the hump. A huge THANK YOU to Mike Krill, Gail Blagg and Mike Bryant (Dad) of Sierra Self Insurance Services. We are very close, keep the donations coming!