Check In!!

Wow! It's been a whirlwind few months!! I've had ups and downs but more importantly everything has turned out for the better!!
Check in again soon for a full update of what's been going on, how I've progressed with my training, what my plans and goals for the season are, see the awesome new skis Dynastar have hooked me up with, and sooo much more!!

Christmas & New Year Break!

Christmas Day

With the summer (in my case) holidays in full swing I have had an absolute blast! Beginning with a fantastic Kiwi Christmas which started with a Champagne breakfast, we then spent the day soaking up the sun and panicking to get the turkey in the oven in time! But as always everything came together and I spent one of my favourite Christmases to date with family and friends. The day came to a close with us kids taking the boat out onto the lake for a ski and biscuit and I even had a few runs on the jet ski before the sun began to set.

Family picture, Christmas Day. L-R: Me, Jack, Ali, Greg and Olivia.

 Us girls out on the biscuit Christmas Day.

New Years

The day begun with a slight threat of clouds and possible rain but quickly dispersed in time for us to bring out the sun beds. Later we took off to Hokitika Beach to collect 4 trailer loads of driftwood for the annual New Year’s bonfire. After we fill the trailers up it’s off to the local pub for a beer and some pool then back to the lake to begin celebrating New Year’s Eve. I was lucky enough to be the one who officially lit the bonfire... although my dad was over-ambitious with the fuel because as I lit the fire a massive explosion of flames shot out and threatened to burn my eyebrows off! The night concluded of roasted marshmallows, dance parties at various batches, responsible drinking games... and a late/out of time countdown to the New Year.

Pictures above L-R: (Top) Bonfire by the lake; (Bottom left) Family & friends ready for an awesome night; (Bottom right) Hokitika Beach where we collected the driftwood.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have all had an awesome Christmas and New Year holiday! Here’s to an interesting 2011, and an awesome 2012 to come!!

Yours Sincerely,

Ginny Orange

Thank you to my supporters

I would like you say a HUGE thank you to Dynastar and Lange for their support!

You can check out their website at:
http://www.dynastar.com/
http://www.langeskiboots.com/NZ/NZ/team.html

Or just go to my links/sponsors page and follow the link there ;)

Thanks for reading!
Ginny Orange

Physio Update

So as I promised, here are some photos of my physio progress...

I've chosen just a few photos to show some of the exercises I do. Yesterday I had a strength session and it was great as I felt like I was really pushing myself and feel that I have taken quite a few steps forward.

1. Jogging on the mini tramp is the first step towards being able to run at full speed on ground. The mini tramp allows minimal stress and strain on my knee.

2. This would be almost one of the hardest exercises! Standing with my left (good) knee in front and my right (recon-structured) knee behind, I have to lift my lower leg slowly from toe touching the ground - to as close to a butt kick as possibly. The picture below is the highest I have been able to get my knee to date. This exercise is hard because it involves a lot of strength from the hamstring and also strength from my new ACL. I have to try really hard and push myself to raise my leg.

3. This exercise is great because my recon-structured knee is standing/balancing on the incline step - I then lower my left leg to toe touch the ground behind me (far back enough I get a slight bend in my right knee), then I bring my left knee back up to high knee drive.

4. I begin this exercise  with both legs straight and hands against the wall. Then with alternating legs I pull my leg all the way up to my chest (as high as I possibly can). The point of this exercise is to do it with precision, but also build up my speed and reaction.

5. The well-known hamstring curls! At this stage I am doing 12-15reps of hamstring curls 4x. I also had a go at doing one-legged hamstring curls... these were a lot harder but I managed to get 5 reasonable reps before I would collapse sweating!!

So there's a brief insight of my physio - although everyday is different and Ginny my physio is always coming up with new exercises to keep it exciting and targeting all areas!

Thanks for reading!
Ginny Orange

Ginny Orange's photostream

Ginny Orange's photostream on Flickr.

7 weeks on...

Yup that's right - 7 weeks since I had surgery and I couldn't be happier with my progress!!

I have physio with Wanaka Physiotherapy 3x a week and everyday I go the exercises are harder and harder and I am beginning to work up a serious sweat!!

When I first moved down to Wanaka I hadn't been able to get on a bike, I still had an awkward limp, bending my knee was the biggest mission, and the simplest exercises had me shaking in frustration!

But now...
I have progressed from using the stationary spin bike to finally getting on my road bike and going for a ride; I can walk like a normal person again; my knee can bend past 90 degrees, I have progressed from barely being able to squat to full squats with 10kgs on the bar... I could write an endless list of positives but I think you get the idea ;)

I've begun to draw up a fitness program which includes:
- Swim 3x week

- Bike 3x week

- Core 5x week

- Physio exercises 3x week

- Upper body strength 2x week

Also since my last update I had my NZ environments exam and I finished that feeling pretty confident that I passed... hopefully I haven't jinxed myself now ;)

Even though I finished my exams I am still studying - I made the decision to do a chemistry paper this summer to get ahead with my studies. I was pretty worried about how it would go, but I have done a few lectures now and am strangely enjoying it!! So here's hoping that I will continue to enjoy and understand the paper!

I guess that's all for now, I will upload some photos of my physio/progress soon. Best get back to the study and then it's off to the pool later!

Thanks for reading,

Ginny

1 door closes - 2 open!

Haven't updated the blog in awhile! Opps!

So a quick catch up on what's been going on...

NZ 2011 Season:
The NZ ski season started out brilliant! I was fit, strong, healthy and pumped to win some races! Training at the beginning of the season was awesome - I had been training in America for the summer (2010-11) and didn't realize how much my technique had improved! It wasn't until I was back with TCRA (Treble Cone Race Academy) that the coaches started commenting on how great my skiing was, especially compared to the past NZ season. This boosted my confidence and it wasn't long until I was invited to have my first training session with the 'elite' TCRA team. I had been busting my butt to have this opportunity and so was over the moon when it came round!! After a few warm-up runs we were all ready in the slalom start to begin our training. I was 2nd to run the course and a bit nervous as it had snowed that night so conditions were a little sketchy. But like they say - you need to train in all conditions, so I wasn't going to let soft snow get to me (even though I had perfectly sharped edges.. opps!). Sure enough it was tough and a challenge to make it down, but I wanted to prove to the coaches that they had made the right decision in allowing me to train with the elite team, so giving up was NOT an option. Unfortunately this attitude can get me into trouble sometimes... I had 3 gates to go and was horribly in the back seat, the intelligent thing to do would have been to let it go and ski out. But that's not how my mind works - I by some miracle managed to make it round the last few gates but as I did I was thrown back and felt an awful 'POP' in my right knee.
A spasm of pain surged through my body, but then I stood up and felt almost fine... although I knew something wasn't quite right.
I tried to ski for a few more weeks after this incident and things began to go downhill. I was consistently crashing in courses, and on quite a few occasions my knee popped out while I was skiing. So I started to accept that something wasn't right and I needed a specialist to have a look at my knee.
Sure enough my surgeon had a look and confirmed that I had re-ruptured my ACL. Deep down I had the feeling that it was torn all along, but I guess that my theory was if I can walk/ski I'm fine so why make a fuss?!

Surgery!
After my injury was confirmed I figured that I couldn't change it so I might as well move on and do my best to make a come-back!
Leading up to surgery I worked with my trainer to build my muscle strength up as much as possible. And boy it made a difference!! After I had my surgery (27th September) I was only on crutches for about 2 weeks and then it wasn't long after that that I was walking!
A BIG thank you to Ian Penny and his surgery for understanding how important it is for me to get back on snow and performing my surgery so quickly!

New Beginnings:
Since having my surgery I have moved down to Wanaka to do my rehab with Wanaka Physio. I figured that this would be the best place for me to get back up to full strength and fitness.
I have only been here a few days but loving every minute of it already!! Physio has begun and I'm confident with how I will progress, I am living with awesome flat mates who loves the outdoors and exercising so I'm excited to join in with them and embrace the Wanaka environment!
I have my uni exams in a week and a bit nervous about that but have been studying hard so hopefully my results show that.

I guess that's about everything for now. I will keep my blog updated and let you know how the progress is going with my knee as I am aiming to make it to America for some spring camps to get time on snow before the NZ season :D

Below is a photo of Wanaka - had some fresh snow on the mts yesterday.. in November!!