Annade, California, 1st Anniversary Bike Ride

Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

1st Anniversary Ride
Annadel, California
June 1, 2008

A year ago today I was lying in a hospital bed with indescribable pain, and an IV of morphine and a couple other tubes in me, after having the ends of my tibia and femur sawed off and replaced by cobalt caps with polyethylene surfaces, and the underside of my patella resurfaced with polyethylene. Adding to my already considerable anguish and pain was the knowledge that somehow I had to recover from this in time to have it done again in just six weeks, on the other knee. The past year has been quite difficult and I seem to be among that small group that will require more than a year to fully recover. Although I still have sufficient pain to warrant taking oxycontin twice a day, I began biking again early this year. I take an additional narcotic pain killer, plus four Motrin before each ride and I have little to no pain while riding. But the knees get pretty sore afterward, and for the next few days. However, there is no comparison to the pain I used to suffer and I am certainly glad I had both knees replaced.

For nearly my entire mountain biking "career" I have only been able to ride once per week, so I've never been able to go very far from home, nor experience any real road trips. With a full summer off upcoming I decided to try riding two consecutive days a few weeks ago. I was amazed to discover that I could do a hard 30 miles one day and then 25 miles the next, without too much discomfort. Last Memorial Day weekend I did 25 miles at Annadel, CA, on Saturday, and then 30 miles at Auburn, CA, on Monday. With my one year anniversary upcoming I decided to see what the knees could really take. So I did two more 25 mile-ish rides in the next few days for a total of four rides and 100+ miles in one week! I generally discourage counting miles, since every trail is different, but these are my most common rides and they have been GPS'd to death by dozens of people. I'm not very fast and my technical skills, previously pretty meager anyway, are now even worse since I'm terrified of falling on my knees. But four long rides in one week, regardless of mileage, is certainly a major milestone for me.

Cohenfive missed my tough solo ride at Annadel last week so he wanted to try it today. I really needed to go back to make up for a really demoralizing ride, and being the first anniversary of my surgery, I agreed to join him. I'm sure glad I did. Great weather, about 70 degrees; great trails in perfect condition from recent rain; and great company made for the best ride I've had in years! We did the usual 25 mile "slowpoke" ride I instituted several years ago. So this ride gave me five rides totaling 125 miles, in just eight days! One year to the day after my first surgery, I seem to have regained my confidence on technical stuff and every trail, obstacle, and climb was almost easy. Even the technical stuff on Live Oak, which usually gets me because I'm dragging by then, as well as the few last climbs on Cobblestone were actually easy. And we both felt incredibly fresh and ready for much more at the end of the ride. Thanks Cohenfive for a great ride! Below are a few photos.

Knee implants