The Damages of Skiing

Let me start by saying I had an amazing winter in Steamboat Springs, CO. Here's a youtube video to prove it.                         

Epic Steamboat Video

      That being said the epic face shots in the Canyon and hucking myself took its tole and resulted in this. (You can see how it happened at 10:19 in the above video.) Now for an anatomy lesson for the less inclined. This is a MRI of my left knee from the lateral (outside) aspect. The top bone is the femur and the bottom bone is my tibia. The stringy band in the middle that is angled backwards is my ACL. This is good news as a blown ACL looks like an exploded pack of Ramen Noodles. Just below my ACL on my Tibial Plateau you will see a white area. In short the top part of my tibia is basically crushed slightly, and is the reason my knee has been hurting and why I haven't been able to run.

      In the second picture you are looking at the knee from the front. Note the dark area and how it seems slightly lower on that side. As the initial examination I was suspected of having a blown ACL or torn meniscus, this MRI was good news. However it's basically a fracture and needs time to heal. Thus I made the decision to withdraw from Ironman St. George and am taking it easy for a while. This decision was easy to make once "premature arthritis" was mentioned. So I'm out 600 bucks and have to try to take it easy for a while. I'm planning on more bike races this summer but really focusing on getting this healed before pushing any kind of training.