On the road to recovery...

From the Metzeler Corporate Blog.

“It’s been a pretty quite time for me recently, which I guess is to be expected considering the situation with my hips. I’ve had the second one operated on now and all seems to be going well. I can walk with out sticks now, which is a major step forward, and I can see light at the end of the tunnel. In fact, I’m getting ready to send my first entry form off!

“The op on the second hip went well and wasn’t as big a deal as the first. It’s been about a month now since I went under the knife again and having recently been across to Manchester to see a physio at the Sale Sharks rugby team, all looks well. It seems hip injuries are pretty common in rugby.

“All being well I’ll be able to start doing some gentle trail riding in the about two or three weeks, around mid August. I know it’s going to take a while to get my strength and bike fitness back but I’ve got my eye on competing in the Dyfi Enduro at the end of August. I’m well aware that doing too much too soon won’t be a good thing but by the end of August I want to be working towards my come back. The penultimate round of the world championship is in Andorra the weekend after, which I know I won’t be ready for. But I want to race the final round in France. I feel it’s important for me to get at least one EWC race under my belt before heading into the off season. It’ll give me a good idea of how much more strengthening work, if any, I need to do to not only my hips but the rest of my body, too.

“After the last world championship race in France, well, I’m not quite sure what will come next. I don’t want to over do it this coming winter and over compensate for having been off a bike for four months this year, neither do I want to waste the opportunity to get myself in the best shape I can and enjoy being able to ride a bike again. I’ll probably race the beach race, a good few indoor and extreme events, and generally keep busy on two wheels. I’ve been invited to compete in a few different events around the world, like Argentina and Australia, so I quite fancy doing a few of the events I don’t normally get the chance to do. I guess I’ll pick and chose a little closer to the time.

“My biggest achievement recently is going for a six odd mile walk. It doesn’t sound like much, certainly wouldn’t normally be anything to shout about, but having been cooped up at home for much of the past few months it was great to finally be able to take off and hit the hills. I took things pretty steady but the fact that I’m now able to do what a few months ago seemed almost unthinkable means the worst is definitely behind me…”

David Knight.

To read more about David’s recovery and plans for the future, read his monthly column in TBM Magazine, out now.