ACL Reconstruction/Recovery

I had ACL/Meniscus surgery on my right knee in 1996.  I blew it out both knees in 1994 in a wrestling tournament.  Then I tore the ACL in a wrestling tournament in 1995.  My surgeon gave me 6-9 months as the timeline for return to play.  A girl my same age that I had multiple classes with at school had her ACL surgery by the same surgeon on the same day as me.  The first time that they put me on the stationary bike in Physical Therapy. The pain got to me and I quite without getting a full revolution on the bike. The girl in I knew then was put on the bike and she was doing full revolution.  I might be a little competitive because after that I never let the pain get to me.  I had a stationary bike at home and I got good use out of it.  I was on it every day and I was getting full revolutions before I went back to therapy a few days later.  I also had a weight machine at hope and hit that machine everyday day to.  We only did therapy two a week at the clinique and the rest was at home.  I did the home therapy twice a day. I was going into my Senior Cross Country and season and I wanted to be released in time to complete so I was driven and focuses.  At 5 months I was fully released.  I was shocked.  They had told me that it would be a minimum fo 6 months and could be 9 months or more before I was released.  the surgeon had done 350 knee surgeries and told me that my meniscus tear was the worst he had ever seen so I figured I was more likely to be on the 9-month time frame than the 6-month time frame. When I released I was not 100% though.  My tests show the strength of both legs to be within 5% of each other then they released be but as I worked my way back into cross country I developed a stress fracture on the think of my operated knee. So the legs were not equal and the miss-match caused the stress fracture injury as I returned to play.  In 1995 I broke the 17:00 minute flat in the 5K three times.  After I came back from my knee surgery I was running about 30Seconds slower on every course that I completed on than I had the previous year. So, just because I was released and was competing I was not able to complete at the same level.  I had miss track my Junior year due to knee surgery.  I was a mile specialist in track.  In 1995 I played for the high school soccer team. but we go to track meets behind the soccer coaches back (we had a school rule that you could only participate in one school sport per sports season) and I was the sophomore region mile champion with a time of 4:52.  My senior year I got down to a 4:35 mile time.  There is no way to know what I would have been able to do my sophomore year if I had a full track season or what I would have been able to do my Junior year if I wasn't at home on the stationary bike doing knew therapy, but I felt like I was running pretty well when I was turning out 4:35 mile times. 

Fast forward 20 years. My brother did two full Ironman races in 2002.  At the time I was still trying to get back to a Sub 17:00 5K (I never made it) but didn't think that I would ever be able to do a Triathlon because of my knee.  I didn't think it would hold up for long bike rides.  Never the less in 2014 I had the desire to do a triathlon.  I wanted to related to my bother better through the shared triathlon experience.  When I got on the bike the knee was weak and tender and I was limited.  The same was true when I got in the pool. Kicking was tender on the knew and I had to ease into things.  I had been running for years and so the run wasn't a problem.  Over the weeks the same became true for cycling and swimming.  The movements and stresses that I put on the knee from cycling and swimming strengthened it to where I my knee could run swim and cycle for no problems.   Cycling had done wonders on my knee.  I used to have to stretch me knee every 90 minutes or so of a car ride because not stretching the leg would make the knee tingle or go to sleep.  I don't have the worlds to describe it, but I will just say that I don't do long car rides without being able to stretch my legs because of my weak knee.  Now I can do 18-hour car rides and the knee doesn't have any trouble at all. 

So...Expect 6-9 months before you can do a full training load, and another 6-9 months after you start a full training load before you can race at the intensity you could pre-surgery, and expect to be slower post-surgery than you were pre-surgery.