Blog

March Madness

Tonight I had my first fast, strong run in nearly a month. Since the fall on my bike, I’ve either been in pain or trying to be careful not to re-aggravate whatever was bothering me. Over the course of the last two weeks, the pain has slowly gone away. I can still feel the occasional “twinge” in my groin/hip/psoas region, but it’s pretty rare. Interestingly, the healing process seems to have really started accelerating around the time I got back into doing some step-ups in the gym and some light running. Granted, I didn’t start those activities until over two weeks after the accident, but I have to think that strengthening the legs helped the recovery. In speaking with Assaf, I’ve found out that there are two camps within sports medicine for treating relatively “minor” injuries like the one I had – one that advocates the “R.I.C.E.” method – rest, ice, compression, elevation – and one that recommends a more aggressive treatment, with stretching and strengthening in addition to icing. (Forgive me Assaf – and any other docs – I’m sure I’ve totally misstated the process, but hopefully I’m in the ballpark. Disclaimer: if anyone gets injured, follow your doctor’s advice, certainly not mine. Just keep this in mind if your doc recommends total rest.) After a couple weeks of R.I.C.E-like treatment, with swimming and cycling but no running, I switched to the other method and got great and quick results. One could argue that the rest helped set me up for the more strengthening process, but I think that using the muscles and strengthening them were the key steps to my recovery.

Anyway, tonight’s run was great. I met up with Assaf and we ran my normal route down to Battery Park. I felt fast and comfortable and cruised along with him. After a few days in the 60’s, tonight it got really cold and crappy out again, but it just felt good to be out there running and not worrying too much about my leg.

March Madness began today. In years past, for as many as I can really remember, today was a day that I spent in front of the TV or at least the computer, with my bracket(s) in hand, watching scores, hoping for the right upsets and highlighting or crossing out teams on that bracket. This year, I could have forgotten that it was even going on. All the free time I’ve used in years past to dedicate to college basketball is now being used up training for Lake Placid. During football season I noticed the same thing: sure I still followed the Chargers but in the past I could have told you nearly every score of every game each weekend. Not this year. I barely gave my fantasy football team enough attention to field a full squad. Spring training has started, but what can I tell you about 2007 baseball? Nothing that I catch in my morning thumb-through of the Post. Sometimes I feel like I’m missing out – tomorrow I won’t be part of the conversations at work about that amazing upset or how many of today’s 16 games I got right. And that camraderie is comforting. On the other hand, I know that I spent this evening bettering myself (or at least making myself feel that way) and preparing for the biggest athletic day of my 34 years. And that’s what I’ve been doing all these hours – whether it’s actually training or going to be a little earlier so I’m well-rested for training or reading an article on-line or clicking through the new posts on Slowtwitch, I’m doing something that is making me feel better. The NCAA tournament happens every year, I can take this one off.

Elizabeth’s in Los Angeles for work leaving me a bachelor for the rest of the week, including the weekend. What’s a good bachelor to do in this situation? Go out for a crazy night with the guys? Stay up all night partying? How about getting into bed even earlier than when the wife’s around and putting in some extra hours training and with the dog? And I think I’m happier for it. Yep, I’m that guy.

Run – March 15
Time: 55:37
Distance: 7.25 miles
Average heart rate: 148
Course: West Side Highway to Battery Park
Conditions: Cold (mid 40’s), windy, drizzling