ProjectLifeFlight: Testing the new glove

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Testing the new glove

Today was a great day. Due to the fact that I can't find anyone that sells a good glove for someone with no grip I decided to create my own. Amy and I spent the better part of this morning making a glove with Velcro on the fingers, thumb, and palm. I put the other side of the Velcro on the pedal itself, thanks to a great idea by my friend Justin. After getting everything done I was able to join up with the Courage Centers handcycling program to test it out.

We went for a nice 17 mile ride in Brooklyn Park. The glove started out great but when I went up my first hill the force pulled the Velcro apart. I had brought some Velcro straps to put around my hand just in case this happened. From there my friends PJ, Justin, and I started to figure out how to strap the hand in a way that it will hold solid. It wasn’t until over half the ride was done that we thought we figured it out.

We got my hand locked in solid and the rest of the ride was a breeze. When my left hand is slipping it forces me to use more of my right arm. This makes me go slower and not get a good work out in my left arm. After we got it figured out my average speed went up about 2.5 miles an hour and it was a lot easier. I love a double bonus.

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My Story

My name is Joe Stone and my story starts on August 13th, 2010 when I was speed flying solo in the mountains of Montana. While having the time of my life about 200 to 300 feet above the earth, I unfortunately had complications in my canopy. This sent me spiraling down to the earth very fast until I crashed on my back onto the side of the mountain.

All the stars were aligned perfectly that day. There were only four people on the mountain and the man that was closest to me was the only one with a cell phone to call for a life flight, he was also a trained EMT. I owe my life to this man, if it wasn't for him I would have surely died that day on the mountain.

After waking up from a 3.5 weeklong induced coma, I quickly learned of the injuries I had suffered. Four broken ribs, a laceration to my liver, very badly bruised lungs, my heart had stopped twice, eight broken vertebrae throughout my neck and back, and spinal cord damage at the C7 level. Now I am diagnosed as an incomplete C7 quadriplegic.

I started my therapy at 128 pounds after losing about 35 pounds of pure muscle. You could imagine that I was so broken down that simply chewing my food was a very exhausting process, let alone feeding myself. I quickly made a decision in rehab that I was not going to let the diagnoses slow me down. The first step was for me to regain my independence. After accomplishing this in March, I decided it was time to set a new goal. A goal that would prove to be the most challenging endeavor of my life.

In May of 2011 I rented a hand cycle and set a goal to hand cycle the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park, Montana. This is no ordinary road, it climbs approximately 2,500 feet over 18 miles until you reach Logan Pass. From there you get a very rewarding 10 or 12 mile decent down the mountain pass followed by another exhausting 25 miles of cranking until we reached our destination. When I finished this ride I not only realized that this was the biggest moment in my life, but I realized my life truly felt limitless again. We filmed the entire process and we are now creating a documentary titled "Wings to Wheels".

Now that this ride is in the past, and summer is quickly approaching, I need a new goal for myself. The goal is to run(push) in Grandmas marathon in June and then attempt a small sprint triathlon in July. If all goes well it will be time to start training for something I never thought I could commit to as an able bodied person. I will start pushing towards an Ironman Triathlon. An Ironman consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run. All of this needs to be completed in 17 hours and will be done using nothing but pure arm power.

I have accomplished a lot of big goals in my life, but nothing will compare to the amount of work that I will have to put into making this goal a reality.

About Me

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Testing the new glove

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