How warm can it get?

"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message
It seems to be a side effect of my kneecap tracking to the side, which is
partly congenital and partly because my inner quad isn't as strong as my
outer
quad. There are PT exercises I can do to help, but I'm really bad about
doing
them =/

I've got that. It's very common. The physio exercises are slightly effective
but the better control is to tape your kneecaps over into the correct
position. The muscle then seems to be activated and builds, I usually only
have to do it for the first half of the ski season. You need brown tape
though, the stuff that bonds to your skin. Hard to get here.

ant

"MattB" wrote in message
...

I don't consciously unweight on groomers either, but like you say the lead
change is still happening.

I was watching some people who were doing active lead changes today.
Interesting technique. Scissoring one's feet back and forth is usually
reserved for balance excercises these days.

ant

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:

["Followup-To:" header set to rec.skiing.alpine.moderated.] On 2005-02-05,
MattB penned:

Your Worst Nightmare wrote:

We are supposed to go skiing/snowboarding in Wisconsin tomorrow (4hr drive
each way), but it's supposed to be 54 degrees! How warm can it get before
the skiing is ruined? Will it be slush and terrible at 54; they have a
35-40in base.

It will be good if you don't mind slush. Better than when it gets cold again
anyway. I don't mind slush so much but some hate it. If you hate it stay
home.

Matt


I hate slush and I cannot lie!

Of course, slush is responsible for one of my many knee injuries. Okay, fine,
slush plus poor technique. Still, I find it's a lot easier to tweak my knee
in "heavy" snow, like slush.

I think we should recognize that there is a difference between corn snow
(some mistake this for slush) and slush (some mistake this for corn).
Both exist, occasionally side by side, but typically their basic
difference would be defined by the freeze-thaw cycle: corn is on a
frozen snowpack and slush isn't. Some would say you need an undisturbed
snowpack off piste to have true corn, but I say you can get good corn on
low traffic groomers sometimes, even though this is usually vastly
inferior to the off piste variety.

Usually you must wait to mid to late morning and follow the sun to get
the goods. But you may have to adjust that to earlier in the morning to
get good corn if it is barely freezing overnight. If it is not
freezing, try the shadows and north-facing aspects, in-bounds, for
possible corn. North-facing aspects are frequently dangerous in these
conditions, so be aware if hiking OB.

Personally, I enjoy corn snow nearly as much as powder. Part of the fun
is being a detective trying to find the right aspect at the right time
for nice, smooth, buttery, lucious CORN!!!! And the brews topside in
the mid afternoon sun after the corn slushes out don't hurt none either.

RAC

On 2005-02-09, ant penned:
"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message
It seems to be a side effect of my kneecap tracking to the side, which is
partly congenital and partly because my inner quad isn't as strong as my
outer quad. There are PT exercises I can do to help, but I'm really bad
about doing them =/

I've got that. It's very common. The physio exercises are slightly effective
but the better control is to tape your kneecaps over into the correct
position. The muscle then seems to be activated and builds, I usually only
have to do it for the first half of the ski season. You need brown tape
though, the stuff that bonds to your skin. Hard to get here.

It's not something that bothers me at all while active. It's only a problem
when I'm not able to move the knee, as when I'm trapped in an airplane or car
or movie theater. Then I get a gradual-build-up ache that eventually becomes
excrutiating, and I can't straighten my knee without great pain.

I talked to my doctor and PT about taping, but in the end I decided that I
hated the idea of having something around my knee while exercising. I
absolutely hate knee braces, and I can't imagine this being any better.
Because it doesn't bother me much while I'm actually using it (in fact, now
that I think about it, I originally reported the problem because it did bother
me while doing activities, but now it doesn't anymore), it seemed like it
would be better to do the PT stuff.

I've since discovered that another knee problem I have can be traced to a tiny
muscle called the popliteus. I have an appointment this week to try to figure
out if it's injured or just weak.

My knees are pathetic =/

--
monique
Longmont, CO

"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message

I talked to my doctor and PT about taping, but in the end I decided that I
hated the idea of having something around my knee while exercising.

Taping doesn't go around your knee. You use bits of brown tape about 4 or 5
inches long, grab the kneecap with it and tape it across into position. I
don't know if they use this technique in the US (where it's hard to get
brown tape). Having teh kneecap in the right spot cuts down on damage caused
as the patella slides over the wrong spot, so it slows down the development
of mess and stuff behind the patella.

ant

On 2005-02-15, ant penned:
"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message

I talked to my doctor and PT about taping, but in the end I decided that I
hated the idea of having something around my knee while exercising.

Taping doesn't go around your knee. You use bits of brown tape about 4 or 5
inches long, grab the kneecap with it and tape it across into position. I
don't know if they use this technique in the US (where it's hard to get
brown tape). Having teh kneecap in the right spot cuts down on damage caused
as the patella slides over the wrong spot, so it slows down the development
of mess and stuff behind the patella.

The part where you "grab the kneecap" indicates to me that the knee is
involved.

I think this is exactly the technique I discussed with my doctors, as they
described the same process (forcing the kneecap into position). We all
decided that my problem was minor enough, and the annoyance factor to me high
enough, that I didn't need to do it. Or, to put it another way, they
described the process and I said, no, I just can't see myself ever doing this
before a workout.

If the problem gets worse, I might change my mind. And yes, I saw where you
said that it would slow down damage. According to my doctors, I'm not causing
more damage to my knee with my activities.

--
monique
Longmont, CO

On 2005-02-15, ant penned:
"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message

I talked to my doctor and PT about taping, but in the end I decided that I
hated the idea of having something around my knee while exercising.

Taping doesn't go around your knee. You use bits of brown tape about 4 or 5
inches long, grab the kneecap with it and tape it across into position. I
don't know if they use this technique in the US (where it's hard to get
brown tape). Having teh kneecap in the right spot cuts down on damage caused
as the patella slides over the wrong spot, so it slows down the development
of mess and stuff behind the patella.

Oh, and I'm not saying I don't appreciate the advice and your input. I do. I
just have an absolute dread of having anything tight around my knee like that,
and I'll do just about anything to get out of it.

Honestly, I think returning to my taekwondo roots is going to do more for
balancing my quad strength than any amount of taping or PT. I'll just have to
see, though.

--
monique
Longmont, CO

"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message

If the problem gets worse, I might change my mind. And yes, I saw where
you
said that it would slow down damage. According to my doctors, I'm not
causing
more damage to my knee with my activities.

If it is hurting, and if the patella is sliding over the wrong stuff, and
it's inflamed, the back of your patella is roughening. At some point it gets
peeled off and they scrape off the mess before the whole lot gets stuck.

ant

On 2005-02-15, ant penned:
"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message

If the problem gets worse, I might change my mind. And yes, I saw where
you said that it would slow down damage. According to my doctors, I'm not
causing more damage to my knee with my activities.

If it is hurting, and if the patella is sliding over the wrong stuff, and
it's inflamed, the back of your patella is roughening. At some point it gets
peeled off and they scrape off the mess before the whole lot gets stuck.


It's only hurting when I have to keep my knee bent for more than an hour, like
in the car, airplane, or movie theater. My knee doesn't typically hurt when
skiing or biking, but it does start to hurt on the motorcycle because I'm
not moving it enough. I think it *did* hurt during activities when I
originally saw the doctor about it early last year. It doesn't anymore, but
if either knee has to stay bent for an extended period of time, it "locks" and
keeping it bent aches, while trying to straighten it causes me to yelp in
pain. My knees do still pop a lot.

Ah, he
http://health.allrefer.com/health/ch...es-images.html

Under Runner's Knee they say, "The knee pain is worst after sitting for a
prolonged period of time or when getting out of a chair."

I've also had the grating sensation they describe, although not recently.

I don't know if taping would help in this case. Maybe it would, because the
way you describe it, the taping actually helps the muscle behave, which might
help me even when sitting? I don't know. Maybe it's time for a followup with
my PT, but they won't see me unless I got to the orthopedist first *sigh*

Part of the problem with diagnosis is that I have a number of knee issues, and
it's hard for me to figure out what to describe when I'm talking to a doctor.
I have kneecap tracking issues according to an orthopedic surgeon, but I
haven't felt the "catching" or anything else in my kneecap area while doing
activities for a year or so now, probably thanks to the PT exercises and other
activities I've been doing that have strengthened my thighs. I also have
arthritis in my knees, so I get aches when the weather is changing or when
it's dark and cloudy. And finally, I have a problem in the back/side of my
knee that I now think is related to a muscle called the popliteus. I'm seeing
my massage therapist this week so that we can try to figure out if it's
injured or just underdeveloped.

--
monique
Longmont, CO

On 2005-02-15, TexasSkiNut penned:
Has your orthopedic surgeon mentioned doing a lateral release
arthroscopically to fix your patella alignment problem? I had one done on
one of my knees about 15 years ago after therapy had little effect on
relieveing my chondromalacia. As long as I'm at least moderately active
riding my bike, the knee is fine.

I don't recall exactly what he said, but either surgery wasn't an option or my
case really wasn't severe enough. I didnt' see the doctor again after he sent
me to the PT, but the doctor did warn me that it would take months, maybe even
a year, for the PT to prove effective. To be honest, I've been such a slacker
that I couldn't claim I gave the PT a real shot.

Honestly, if I have the choice between surgery and having my knee hurt on long
car trips, thus far I'll choose the knee pain. If it gets worse or prevents
me from doing the things I love to do, I might reconsider.

--
monique
Longmont, CO