It’s been quite hot up here in the Great White North as of late. Too hot for my liking.
Yesterday I biked to work and, at 7:00 AM, it was already hot. Then, I had a 45 minute lunch hour run and biked home after work.
The heat was so draining – I’m still tired.
This is a dumb post. Can I just say that? I’m not happy with this post. Unfortunately, I have no desire to fix it.
Perhaps the next one will be better. 
I’ve got two things to share today and I need your help (please look for my question at the end of this post)…
First, I’m happy to report that my piriformis pain (i.e the pain in my a$$) is 99% gone and I’m fascinated by what accelerated the healing – being on the bike. Both Aaron and my massage therapist had suggested rolling on a tennis ball to do some self-inflicted deep-tissue massage but I wasn’t having a great deal of luck with it – and that was over a span of a couple of months.
But then I started riding my bike to work and, within only a few rides, began to notice improvement. Seems that the repetitive moving of my butt on the bike seat provided massage precisely in the area I needed. Neat huh?
That’s quite enough about my butt – let’s move on to my whiplash shall we?
The whiplash was very difficult to get though – one month’s worth of pretty terrible pain and there was no miracle cure there. However, I did learn something very valuable during the healing.
Some of you may remember this post – a very bleak piece of writing that eventually (very eventually) ended up with a positive message.
It looks like I’m closing another loop around that time of my life.
While healing from my whiplash, I was reminded of a similar experience I had in April 2004. What I wrote here was that I had “woken up” with pain in my neck, arm and shoulders. Woken up is not quite accurate (I’m not sure why I didn’t write the details). What actually happened was that I had woken up with a very violent jolt and essentially given myself whiplash.
Subsequent posts remind me that I had referred pain down my arms just like I had with this latest bout of whiplash.
But, more importantly, the pattern I’ve now noticed is that the neck and shoulder pain I had that lasted two + years began with that first instance of whiplash. The injury – lingered.
So, now I have a clear understanding but the bonus stuff is that it seems as though the way my whiplash is healing this time is actually helping the lingering effects of the first bout of whiplash – I have less tension in my neck and shoulders than I did prior to this last instance of whiplash.
It’s clear I need to take steps toward avoiding future episodes of whiplash. Perhaps strengthening the muscles in my neck and shoulders will help. Do you have any thoughts on that?
It was then that Tristan came into the quiet heart of his life. The bear inside him was sleeping.
Lines from Legends of the Fall – a movie I’m quite fond of. The scene involves main character Tristan (Brad Pitt) moving away from a reckless, turbulent time in his life, toward a time of peace, family and tranquility.
I’m not racing right now. The bear inside me is sleeping.
Among us runners I think there is a typical progression that goes something like this:
1-You are new to running. You started out of a desire to get in shape – maybe lose some weight. You can’t imagine running x-distance or x-pace. You are wide-eyed and in awe of pretty much everyone around you.
2-You’ve built yourself up to a 5k and are full of joy and glee…with not a care in the world.
3-You’ve lost some weight and start noticing others doing super cool stuff. 5 milers, 10k races, triathlons, 1/2 marathons, marathons and…beyond. You starting thinking, “I wonder…”.
4-You’re getting serious now. The “what ifs” are beginning to turn into “I think I cans”. Goal setting is now part of your running experience. You are like a sponge and will read everything and anything you can find on the subject of running.
5-You’ve knocked down a couple of races, and your confidence is growing. Now there’s a nagging thought bouncing around in your brain of one day trying a marathon. You are confident but sometimes still live in the land of “I think I can”.
6-With encouragement and inspiration from others, you take a leap of faith, proclaim, “I’m gonna do it!” and set out to train for your first marathon. That’s right, you don’t just run now – you train.
7-The marathon comes. You finish. And finishing is a life changing moment that makes “I think I can” a thought of the past.
8-But there is more to prove. Finishing is no longer enough. You are full of “I know I can. I know I can do it faster. I know can I do it longer”. You are one buff bear.
9-Time passes. You seek challenges and are rewarded with victories, life lessons, setbacks and maybe even a few injuries. You realize these have all been placed in front of you as a test – to see if you can continue – to challenge you to keep on running through good times and…not so good times. So you keep running and are forever changed. You now have the confidence to try and do anything – in or out of your shoes. Roar!
10-You step back and smell the roses. There is calm. There is peace. Racing has a place but it’s not everything. You find new joy in reaching out to help new runners. Running to run is the thing. The bear in you is asleep.
But don’t worry, he (or she) will soon wake up wide-eyed and in awe of everyone around him (or her!).
I realize this has absolutely nothing to do with running but it’s just so darn funny!
Kevin Pollak doing his impression of Christopher Walken
I’ve begun my 3rd week of bike commuting. Wanna know what I’ve learned so far?
1) The wind is never at my back.
2) I seem to adapt quickly to being on the bike. Week one was hard. Week two I introduced a run on a bike day and it wasn’t bad. And this week I already feel like I could bike every day and run on a few of those days as well. Of course, runs on those days would likely not be fast or particularly long but…we’ll see.
3) I’m not fond of road bikes that pass me and my mountain bike like we’re standing still. Not fond of them at all.
4) I have a “natural” cadence of 90 revolutions per minute. I hope I am stating that with fairly correct cycling lingo. At any rate, my legs seem most comfortable peddling 90 times each per minute. This is fascinating to me since 90 is also the minimum cadence I aim for when running – something I learned under the Pose Method. Are my legs good at 90 because of what I have engrained while running, or is 90 just…natural?
5) A 45 minute bike ride to work more than replaces morning coffee.
Everyone is Edmonton is focussed on one thing and one thing only tonight! Go Oilers go!!!
This past while has been frustrating. Lately, it’s seemed as though every time I’ve turned around I’ve gotten injured doing non-running stuff. I mean, come on – getting piriformis moving a box of wood? Or, getting whiplash racking wine? (you shush, Nella!) Oy.
Frankly, this state of affairs has become a source of trepidation that has, at times, bordered on fear. And “yes”, I’ve said/thought “It sucks getting old” more than I like to admit this past few months.
But today was, I think, some kind of turning point.
-I biked 10 miles too work
-Ran 4 miles at lunch
-And biked back home
Today was my fifth day bike commuting. The first couple days really sucked. The third and fourth were ok. Today felt great. And the kicker is it was the first time I added a run in there and even with that, the ride home felt really loose.
And here I sit feeling…well oiled – for lack of a better phrase. Sort of like the body needed those 2.75 hours of exercise to get past…something. Even my piriformis feels damn near gone.
Curious.
Lots of people are talking about, and doing triathlons lately. Aaron recently did one, Jeff just did one and I know that’s just scratching the surface.
So, today, I rode my bike to work (10 miles) and then ran at lunch (4 miles). I thought that counted as a brick but nooooo, according to this link that defines a triathlon brick, what I did today was not a brick – I have to do them one after another without a break in between.
Well lah. dee. dah.
I guess I will have to come up with my own term. Little help?
Have I mentioned I still have to ride back home? Doesn’t that count for something? 
Have you seen this? It’s the story of Roger Bannister and his breaking the four-minute mile. I haven’t seen it but the reviews on amazon for it are excellent. I think I’ll order it unless someone tells me that’s a bad idea.
