Boulder!

I got off to a rocky start (as you probably saw by my twitter updates! :) But the trip ended up being a huge success! Ok, in case you didn't catch the twitter updates I'll give th whole story.
So my first little 20min flight to Vancouver got canceled and all the next ones were booked so they rerouted me through Calgary. No problem except for a lightening storm that started just as we were about to taxi down the runway. We had to wait until the storm was over and the crew on the tarmac were allowed back outside. A little over an hour later we took off. Just before landing they said something about waiting our turn for the runway....we were number 8 in line! So we circled above the airport for about another 45mins until finally landing. I waited for my one and ONLY piece of luggage,my bike to arrive at oversize...nope not there..i go to the regular carousel, not there either, they tell me that oversized can take a while, I go get dinner and come back, not there. Turns out it came on a flight that was supposed to arrive in one hour, I offered to wait but they said "oh don't worry about that ma'am we'll send'er out tonight, you'll have it by 10:30pm" So i got on my shuttle and headed for Boulder.

I was the last to be dropped off the shuttle and by this point, 10pm, I just couldn't wait to get into my hotel room and relax. I hurried out of the shuttle and checked in. I stayed at the Hotel Boulderado which is the oldest hotel in Boulder and sooo cool! Had a restless nights sleep as my bike still hadn't arrived and my appointment with guru Dr. Andy Pruitt was 10am the next morning! I woke up early and called United who said my bike would be there by 9am perfect. Then I realized I left my purse on the shuttle the night before! It had my everything in it except my wallet for some reason, including my passport! Ahhh! Luckily they found it and dropped it off at the hotel. After that I went down to whole foods for a little shop and brekky. Came back no bike...I call United again who say I will have it by 3pm...great. I called Dr. Pruitt's and let them know my situation and changed my flight to stay another day. They still had me come in for a functional assessment where Dr. Pruitt says a number of lovely things an athlete wants to hear such as "I can't believe you made it this far with a body like this" and "you must have quite an engine to make this thing move fast, it's like you have a ferrari's engine in a VW Bug's body, it's cute but it just ain't gonna hold up, all that power's just gonna rip it shreds" Not exactly the things you want to hear but hey, room for improvement!

So Dr. Pruitt and his colleague Sean Madsen were kind enough to slot me in at the end of the day. This is where things start to turn around. Since my luggage didn't arrive,my Avion Visa entitles me to $500 for clothing etc....and now I have time to shop and free money to burn! I wandered Pearl St. Mall and picked up a few things then my bike came so I rode down to the rec center for a little swim..I actually forgot it was altitude until I climbed the stair with my bike and thought, "God I'm out of shape" haha Then it was time for the bike fit...

apologies for this monster post...

As soon as i got on the bike they noticed my seat was tilted down causing my pelvis to roll and my back to get this curve that makes it go numb when i ride. Then they noticed that my left foot was way behind the axel and my right was way infront. So I was sitting crooked. Now Dr. Pruitt says I'm a bent up VW bug! haha At this point he decided to send me in for an X-ray. I've been told many times that i have a significant leg length discrepancy but always just assumed it was my pelvic alignment. Well..I was wrong. My standing x-ray showed a 1.2cm difference! They consider 6mm to be barely acceptable for a 6ft male...hmm...certain injuries are starting to make sense. So after that they fiddle with my cleat position and spacer thingies and before you know it...the twist of my pelvis is cut in half and my back is sitting flat and shoulders are relaxed! Sweet! They used that technology, I forget what it's called with the little reflective balls on key points like ankles knees, heels and hips and then you show up on the computer as like a cartoon...haha it's really cool, you can see where my knee does little circles instead of lines and how my hips rock a bit...very cool. (i just totally dumbed down that technology by the way! haha) So lots of changes including inserts in my shoes, new saddle, new bars and stem.

They next morning I headed out for a 90min spin on the bike paths. Wow Boulder is a gorgeous city! I took some pictures along the way...






After a lovely ride I again, went to whole foods for their breakfast buffet and then headed to my next appointment at the sports med center...my running gait analysis! After being functionally assessed by running gait guru Tim Hilden, he told me he was worried to see what i looked like when i ran ran. This is where Tim and Andy figured most of my problems would be. WRONG! haha after watching my video, he was pleasantly surprised. Most angles were dead on. The only things that stood out was some pretty significant pronation which we fixed really easily with a regular insert, no orthotics! Although i will be getting a heel lift for my stump leg :) The other thing was to concentrate on rolling my pelvis under a bit so i didn't get that sitting kind of thing upon foot strike. Tim spent over 2hrs with me analyzing every detail. It was really great. He says when you are trying to change something do the changed pattern for 30 sec on then normal 30 sec for all your running for 2 weeks, then 1:30 new, 30 old for another 2 weeks and then all new for another 2 and then it should be second nature!

I am so glad I made this trip. I really think this is going to change a lot for my future which will hopefully be less injury plagued! I've got to thank everyone at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine for being so good to me!

Now I'm back to hittin the weights! I missed 3 days!!!