Update on what's up with me, it has been a very busy year and it has been filled with personal/professional growth and a few health challenges thrown in on top (nothing dire) just physically challenging.
I have spent a good chunk of the early part of 2018 studying and upgrading my motorcycle instructor skills, which included three teaching practicums, two in the classroom theory portion of our curriculum and one for motorcycle traffic class for a two day 16 hour guided riding session for our newly graduated novice (basic) motorcycle students. I passed my three practicums with flying colours and haven't really looked back too much since then, actually I've been too busy to look back or do much else since undertaking this in the spring.
It has been an extremely busy year teaching for me. Our season is drawing to a close and to date I have taught 4 novice classes & a theory class, which encompasses two weekends per course, 5 Theory A introductory sessions for would be students, and 6 two day traffic classes, as well as numerous extra training sessions for students who need a little more seat time to work on skills. This year alone I have taught or mentored about 100 students through the course of teaching in 2018, that's a lot of teaching! Add onto this my full time job, and I have to say I am feeling worn a little thin, so I am actually kind of happy that this weekend will be my final traffic class as the season comes to a close.
I didn't get in very much riding for pleasure at all, which saddens me quite a bit, and next year I will be needing to find a better balance to my work life. My hub and I didn't get in too many adventures together either due to my schedule and we need to remedy that, as he has a new to him BMW F800GT, which is pretty exciting for him and I'm still trying to figure out how to pry the keys from his hands and take it for a rip, he is a little protective of it. During the summer we did escape on two mini adventures, the first was in June when we rode up to Tofino for a weekend getaway and the second was in August where we escaped to ride the Sea to Sky Highway and Duffy Lake Rd t& Thompson Okanagan, we were planning at least a week on the road, but the forest fire situation in BC quickly curtailed that and we rode about 1,000km in two days and called it a day due to the heavy smoke/ash from the majority of our province being on fire, so that was that.
After we returned and hub went back to work, I took on another novice course and unfortunately hurt my right knee. At first we thought it was a meniscal or ligament tear, and after a week being laid up and not being able to ambulate well an MRI was ordered and visit to an orthopedic specialist. The findings are not what I was expecting acute osteoarthritis with the meniscus being displaced. The MCL and ACL were not torn and were intact, that is the good news. However, the structure of my knee is not very happy at the moment, I have narrowing in the joint canal, edema in the surrounding structures and a joint effusion. What this means is that there is nothing surgical to fix at this point and is going to keep on declining because of it being osteoarthritis. In retrospect if there had been torn ligaments or meniscal tear, it would have been easier to manage. The current treatment plan is to moderate activity with low impact exercise, wearing a brace for walking/hiking, I guess there goes my budding basketball career - just kidding. I am going to see the orthopod for some cortisone injections and synvisc (hyluronic acid) joint lubrication injection. All of this may have a large impact on teaching motorcycling due to the amount of walking and stop/go impact that I sustain through teaching and adding the physicality of pushing motorcycles around. So life might be getting a little slower for me in the near future with regards to teaching, and that has me feeling sad, but on a brighter note I can still ride and it has impacted my seat time.
So now I'm gearing up for winter and the quieter time of the year and actually looking forward to a little bit of down time and maybe I can get the knee to settle a bit more and get into a more comfortable state and start building up muscles with some pool therapy and low impact exercise.
All in all though despite the wee knee setback, I have had a really good year and am excited about adventures for next year.
9 comments:
You know, a sidecar rig would look good on your Honda. And you wouldn’t be stopped be a knee issue or snow...
1. I'm happy to see you blogging again. We all take time away from our blogs; that's normal. 2. I'm happy we're friends on FB so I can keep in touch with your activities. 3. I'm sorry about your knee. Hopefully a restful Winter will let it heal. 4. Love your smile in the photo!
Funny you say that Richard, I was looking at a triumph T100 with a sidecar.
Welcome to the club, Dar. Similar happened to me two years ago, and I learned to take it slower since, and set new priorities.
Your teaching service has made the roads safer. You've done good. Time to treat yourself and slow down a bit.
Thanks Sonja, I find I am not stopping enough to smell the roses, this year was far too busy and I want to enjoy a few more weekends next year instead of getting up at 5:30am and heading out the door to teach for the entire weekend. I'm starting to feel this in my aching bones and think a little balance is more than needed.
I echo RichardM's suggestion.....no sense letting that knee and snow stop ya.... :)
Seriously, hope things get better in spite of the prognosis!
Knees seem to poorly designed. Either that or they are mother nature’s brilliant aging early warning system. With patience, rest and careful exercise I hope things will return to something close to normal.
Well you have had a wonderful positive impact on the motorcycle Community but your body is telling you to slow down! There is so much to be said about smelling the roses! Hopefully the winter will bring much needed moisture and next year won't be so smoky!!!
Bummer about the knee issues....we're all aging and "acquiring" new debilitations aren't we....with me its plantar faciatis (sp?), the occasional twinge of the right lower back, pain in the left shoulder when donning the riding jacket...getting old...not for the weak.
As to RichardM's comment re a sidecar...once you've mastered it, it's another class you could teach!
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