November 11, 2009 (Sun Valley, Idaho) – We’re excited to have one of the top US junior xc skiers, Adele Espy, join our Skier Blog section, to give readers her unique perspective in this exciting Olympic year. Espy from Freeport, Maine is with the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Olympic Development Team and is dealing with a tough start to the season with a recent operation for compartment syndrome and her first blog is titled Obstacles are Challenges not Setbacks…

Obstacles are Challenges not Setbacks
It would be a lot more fun to be writing my first blog entry about a success story, but in reality that isn’t the case at this point in my training. Two weeks ago I went under the knife. I had compartment syndrome releases of my lateral and anterior compartments (the muscle compartments outside of the front of my shins), and I had the superficial peroneal nerve in both shins freed.

This means that the surgeon slit the sheath that holds the muscles to release the increased levels of tension and allow the muscles to expand as a healthy muscle would. The surgery was a 45-minute quick and easy procedure done in Salt Lake City and now I am recovering in Sun Valley from both the compartment releases and from a stress fracture diagnosed in mid-October.

I’ve been dealing with “shin splints” for the last five years and never paid enough attention to the pain to figure out what was wrong. In late August the pain was too much for me to ignore. I started feeling sharp pinpoint pain on the inside bone of my shin. This turned out to be a stress fracture. Around the same time, I began noticing that the outside front of both shins were swelling and seizing up, while I was skiing, to the point where my legs became numb with pain and my feet were so weakened that I couldn’t lift them up to place one foot in front of the next.

Both of these sensations steadily increased through September and October. After the Climb to the Castle skate roller ski time trial up Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid, where I completely lost all control of my lower legs and feet, I realized that I needed to see an orthopedic doctor. I was diagnosed with chronic compartment syndrome and a stress fracture.

It has been two weeks since surgery and recovery is going very well. I got my stitches out a week ago and this morning was the first time I was allowed to take a shower. Although I didn’t have any pain from the surgery, just soreness, I took the first four days off after surgery.

I wasn’t too thrilled about sitting on the couch every day, all day, with my legs elevated, but Rick Kapala (coach of SVSEF) gave me some words of encouragement. He challenged me to “be the best ice-er and elevate-er I could be.” Instead of worrying about losing my fitness level I took up this challenge and began icing and elevating like a pro. On the fifth day my legs were feeling much better and I began double poling on a Concept 2 rowing machine mounted on the wall while I sat on a spin bike.

A few days later I switched over to a Concept 2 Ski Erg when that was mounted. Double poling while facing a wall is certainly not as fun as being outside, but I keep it exciting by watching quality chick flicks! I’m not able to ski right now but I am able to double pole. So, in the next few weeks I’m going to try to become the best double poler I can be. For any other skiers who are injured, or have some obstacle in the way (maybe work, school, etcS) I’d like to challenge you to figure out what it is that you CAN do to improve your skiing and then become the BEST you can at whatever it might be. Good luck!