CW-X compression socks: a review and an attempt to explain compression clothing.

I recently purchased some CW-X compression socks. I like them. You should buy them. they work well, they feel nice, they have not ripped yet.

After that terrible review (seriously, great socks, work as told), I'm going to dive into compression clothing as a training modality.
Looking at a study by Kemmler, compression stockings (think socks), actually affect running anaerobic, aerobic, lactate threshold, BUT not VO2 max. Essentially, the let you suffer for a little bit longer on the run. They don't really help you raise your horse power, but they give you a little more gas. With a sprinting test on moderately in shape runners, athletes were able to pump for an extra 1.41 seconds. Doesn't sound like a lot, but that really adds up in the long term.

quick perspective on barefoot fury

A lot of people have a very diverse outlook on barefoot running. I'm not providing my own opinion at this point, but rather one random musing. Really, there have been very, very few legitimate scientific, peer reviewed studies on this particular topic, so it'd be very, very unprofessional to give expert opinion at this point. I'll probably end up giving it any at some point.

The calcaneus (heel bone) has a special are called the neutral triangle. It's were the trabeculae (bone scaffold) meet at a particular angle such that they transfer forces beautifully. From the heel forward. Further more, equinus, or the condition of walking on your tip toes all the time, leads to a whole cohort of problems later in life. It's something to consider, by no means definitive.

I do, however, fully agree with the ideas of Cody Lundin. He advocates a barefoot approach to survival and hiking in general. I understand where he's coming from, by going barefoot he's forced to go slow. I like the idea. I personally wouldn't like to walk through the jungle, leishmaniasis and all, but I understand it.
Check him out here

Operation Elderly 20's

It's been 3 days since surgery. All I can think about is running. And skiing... climbing too... oh mountain biking... even weightlifting. Basically, I really, really want to get back to working out, and working out at the upper echelon that I've been used to. I've been working out of 9 straight years, with very little time off, and I can say that the last 2 weeks of forced no working out has been amazingly aggravating/satisfying.

My groin hasn't hurt in months. My knees are lively. My abs have not hurt for 4 days straight (which is amazing when they've been actively contracting for several months to hold your back in position as not to further damage the disc). Heck, I don't even have any big calluses or blisters on my feet!

It's killing me. My body feels great, my mind feels terrible. I just want to get out on the trails, feel lactic acid rip through my muscles, and then I want to chug victory chocolate milk like there's no tomorrow. Not going to happen though. Another 12 days until I may be able to get in the pool... feels long but I know it's not that bad really.

So I'm starting Operation Elderly 20's. My goal is to get my body back into big mountain shape by this coming March 22. That's the goal. We'll see what happens though!

I'll be putting every single major workout under this headline. I'm not gonna put stuff like "today I ran 4 miles". It's going to be big days, like bricks, huge runs, and... God willing... a big first descent skiing with my little brother. The plan has been laid, now we'll see how fast we can get back to xterra and ultra shape.

Malachi 3:10. Shut up, brain.

Many of you have read and commented to Mrs. J and I on God's faithfulness through my back surgery and the obvious miracles that God did for us. I'm absolutely ashamed to tell you that the next day, feeling absolutely amazing, my first thought and emotion when confronted with what could be an absolute medical insurance fiasco, was fear and extreme stress.

Why so embarrassing? Well, God did just save my physical body from what could have ultimately amounted to paralysis and/or death, but when it came to money, I freaked out. It's not that I didn't worry quite a bit about the back, but after just having lived through a literal miracle, I didn't just instantly trust that God would take care of our current situation. That's embarrassing.

To sum it up, it looks as if our insurance may have some incredibly awkward clause and stance on spinal injuries, and we're desperately hoping that this doesn't apply to what was a medical emergency surgery. Then we got a call from our ob gyn's office that our med insurance has some ridiculously low maternity coverage (put it this way, the ideal delivery would still leave us 18,000 uncovered). I'm finding the maternity rider hilarious, because we've actually paid more cash for the rider than the insurance company will be paying out for coverage. I won't pretend to love Obama-care, but I got a quick slap in the face on how twisted we've allowed medical insurance to become. This hits straight at home, you know, since I'm a year out from being a doctor myself. This definitely makes me much more sympathetic to my future patients.

So where does Malachi 3:10 come in? God blatantly says test me! I'm not going to go out and tell the reader our tithe and giving, I don't think that's appropriate, yet let it be known that we now know that God will be faithful. He's a gracious God. I can't wait to share with you how God works in the future months.

I can't wait to put up pics of my almost born son, too. God will be faithful. He's going to take care. The storehouses of heaven will be opened up.

After all, saving my life is much more impressive than paying some medical bills. And we've already seen God save my life just this past Tuesday.

Here we go!

wow. bad injury. surgery. God's MIRACLES!

I've never taken this blog to my faith side of life. I didn't plan on ever doing that, as this thing is supposed to focus on work outs, gear reviews, and outdoor sport tips and tricks. I can't comfortably ignore the miracles of healing that God has been doing the past several weeks, specifically during surgery yesterday.

Let's get up to speed. For 6 months I've had back problems. I ignored them (ski season), I put ice on it (running season), and lied to myself (climbing season) that the pain wasn't that bad. Things finally went crashing down (wakeboarding) and I knew that the injury went from ignorable to horrible. Running became miserable, sitting sucked, and all I could do was swim.

Over Labor Day weekend, Mrs. J and I went to visit my parents. Sunday evening I woke up to pee and knew instantly that the insane pain down my left leg was sciatica (I'll write up a post about the symptoms later). I woke up Monday morning to the most pain perhaps in my life... not a small feet (haha, podiatry joke), as I've broken something like 25 bones. Mrs. J took me to the ER that night, we got the shots in the butt, and then got an apt with Dr. Brad Hillard of University Hospitals (amazing doc!). Mrs J boss, Dr. Noel Aboud of Solon Spine and Wellness, sent us out to get an MRI, just to expedite things. Dr. Aboud called us Wednesday morning, telling us that'd I'd be needing back surgery. This was echoed to us by Dr. Hillard, who made sure we would be seen by one of North East Ohio's best spinal surgeons.

I went to see Dr. Hart of University Hospitals, one of the Cleve's best neurosurgeons, who was able to squeeze us in super early. At this point I knew I had a large fragment of my disc material that had squeezed out of the disc space to sit on my nerve. I'll explain all the science later. I heard that this was a pretty big fragment, which was reaffirmed by Dr. Hart when he said, "yah, so I hear that the Grand Canyon is a large hole in the ground".

To put things bluntly, I did this back injury big! The fragment measured 12mm on the MRI and was one of the biggest Dr. Hart has seen in 15 years. AWESOME! Bad news though. Dr. Hart was fairly certain that the fragment had popped into the thecal sack, part of the dura, and if it had, I was looking at about a week in the hospital with other surgeries to come. Oh yah, and if I got a bacterial or viral infection in the thecal sack, most likely it would go to my brain. That kills people.

I'm no stranger to almost dieing. I've looked down chutes while skiing that terrified me to no end. I've taken falls climbing where I probably should have died (also, didn't get injured... sooo... cool). This is the first time I've legitimately been scared while looking at the valley of the shadow of death. I have a wife. I have a little boy growing in the belly oven. That's responsibility! That's dependence! That's need! That's terrifying!

We set surgery for Tuesday, Sept 21st. Friends, family, pastors began to pray for us. We began to pray so intensively that sometimes I would wind up laying on the floor in tears, with pain and yearning. I can't quite share all the ways that God showed his face, but I will share my most obvious pre-surgery confirmation that all will be ok.

In my special prayer spot, the same one where God told me that all would be fine for med school boards, I took my shoes off out of reference for what had become a special place to me. After prayer, reading, and just talking to the Lord, I was clearly told to not turn around, to only focus forward. I was also told to expect something special. Pomegranate. That seems so trivial, but they're out of season, they're my favorite food, they're symbols of health, and God often demonstrates His glory by food. The most obvious example that comes to mind is manna delivered to the Isrealites during the exodus. I left and went to the grocery store to grab eggs and onions for my wife, and went to another grocery store than normal (the normal one was crazy busy). As I walked in and headed towards the onions... there they were. First of the year, not even fully ripe. Sitting off to the side, not in front, and only about 10 of them or so... were pomegranates. I knew right away that God was in control, that all was fine, and that'd I'd be holding my newborn son this December! I started to tear up in the middle of the grocery store, holding a pair of pomegranates. I bet that was hilarious to someone.

The next day was surgery day. Actually, that was yesterday, so you can probably guess right now that things went so well. They did. They went miraculously!
I was told that I'd be in surgery for at least 2 hours, probably more to prepare the thecal sack and keep me from you know... kicking the bucket. I was wheeled into surgery at 10:04.

At 11:05 Dr. Hart came out to the waiting room to talk to Mrs. J and my mom. You can imagine how terrified Mrs. J was. This was far too fast... something wrong had to happen... what horrible medical problem would we be facing.

Dr. Hart simply smiled. He said that the fragment was even bigger than they thought. He cut a little bit of it out and removed a very small bit of it. He went back in to continue removing piece by piece, but the 2 inch fragment decided to just come out in one piece, which is amazing. Dr. Hart spent a good bit of time searching for a thecal tear, tried several techniques to force cerebral spinal fluid to leak and show where the tear was... but none could be found.

A surgery that should have taken hours to finish took about 30 minutes of actual surgery, without prep and closure. That is a miracle. God is so good. I can't tell you how lucky I am. I should be at the hospital laying horizontal for several days but I'm at home, in minimal pain, able to walk, and I ate pizza last night! PIZZA!!!

I can't tell you how good God has been in the last several weeks without sitting down and really explaining the gravity of the situation. All I can say is that God gave me a miracle. I can't contain my joy and am more than wiling to talk to anyone about Jesus, about how He worked in my life, and how he can work in yours.

I'll be writing my journey back to ultra-marathon shape, back to xterra shape, and back to climbing Rainier (planned for next year, God wiling). I can't wait to share with you my journey as a father, also.

I'm just happy to be at home, happy to be alive, and happy that I serve a God who does answer prayer.

To plantarflex? To dorsiflex?

Ankle sprains are a prevalent among anyone spending time on not-asphalt. Not-asphalt is a very special surface, not seen a whole lot these days. It primarily consists of dirt, sticks, rocks, and (unfortunately) beer bottles. Not-asphalt presents a very special problem to the average joe... it's not flat. This lack of flatness present the not-asphalt user with a special challenge, namely how to not "explode" their ankles.

Plantarflexion and Dorsiflexion are two special motions that the ankle joint it capable of. Basically, plantarflexion is ankle towards the ground, dorsiflexion is ankle towards the ski. Up vs down. Terra firma vs the realm of stinging insects. Just what position should your ankle be when it makes contact with not-asphalt?

To make this simple as possible, we'll present a simple scenario. While trail running, our extremely talented runner is presented with a particular technical section of trail, littered with rocks the size of lunch boxes. Our runner is forced into a situation where he or she knows that their next step must be actually onto a rock. The rock is sloped on the near and front side, allowing our runner the option to meet the rock in either a dorsiflexed or plantarflexed position. What to do?

Most go for the plantarflexed position. It presents an easier way to push off, doesn't mess up stride that much, and puts them into an incredibly dangerous scenario, and let's be honest... that's more fun.

Plantarflexion at the ankle actually puts the talus and tibial plafond/fibular distal process (really fancy words for "ankle") into a position of less stability. The talus is tapered in the back, so when it's plantarflexed the ankle has a few millimeters more to roll in. That's not good. This causes ankle injuries.

I believe that it is best to hit the rock with the foot in a dorsiflexed, up, position. This gives the ankle more stability, which greatly decreases the chance of rolling the ankle. It's not practical in all situations, but it really does help the runner who is plagued with ankle injuries. The running stride feels a little out of place, and you have to make sure you make contact with the knee partially flexed (should be anyways), but the safety factor makes it completely worth it.

Go run.

Things I forgot to work out. Trail Running edition 1.

This is going to be a fairly common post topic, as a lot of people manage to forget a lot of different muscles that are very specific to trail running, hiking, skiing, whatever, but are often completely overlooked.

I'll be focusing in on a couple of overlooked muscles or muscle groups that are fairly specific to trail running. Runners are notorious for having awesome quadriceps (thigh muscles), sculpted calves, and that's about all. In other words, most runners aren't well balanced. This is often not the case with trail runners, who typically have a more diverse hobby set. This typically means that they're upper body and core muscles are better off, yet I fully believe that most runners, even trail runners don't really do any work for the following muscles.

1. The neck. Tell me, when's the last time you did any neck exercises against resistance? I haven't for 6 years, since college football. Exercises can be found HERE. I personally am a big fan of applied resistance, but rather using a towel (grab it with both hands, one in either corner) to apply resistance. Runners, I'm looking toward the back of the neck muscles. We spend a lot of time looking down, not up. That means our neck muscles up in the front are great... but the ones in back... nottttt so good. Try the exercises, you should start to notice less cramping in the neck after a month or so.

2. Do you even know what the hamstrings are? Sure you use them a lot when you go downhill, but when's the last time you got intimate with them? When's the last time you made them scream with workout burn? Also, can you even touch your toes?

The hamstrings are the muscles in the back of the thigh, just below the butt. If you want the names, insertions, origins, innervations, arterial supply, action, and contribution to gait, I can tell you more than you wanted to know. You don't want to know these things. You want to know how to not get hurt when running.

Try this. Lay down on the ground, with a bench or chair 2 or 3 feet in front of you. Put your legs up on the chair. Raise your butt off the ground, hold for a few seconds, slowly lower the butt back down to the ground. Now try it with one leg. Cry moderately. Repeat.

Another great way to save the hams? Dribble a soccer ball around. A lot of weird positions, a lot of strange kicking. It works.

The hamstrings are going to keep you safe as you go downhill. The neck keeps your head attached to the body. These are both good things. Don't forget to work on them.

guard those suckers.

It is well known that cotton is not a suitable material for activities that make you sweat like crazy. It stops breathing when saturated, and in cold weather, lacks insulating properties when wet. As socks, cotton will cause horrific blisters when it gets wet. Yet, I propose another consequence that is significantly more traumatic to the runner or athlete... chafing.

Chafing is caused by extensive irritation to the skin, causing moderate damage to surface epithelium. In other words... it hurts. Cotton chafes when wet. So do open weave synthetics... so play the game as you wish.

Chafed nipples though, that's a whole new ball game. What to do? You can do the same thing that Andy of the Office does and slap some bandaids on them... or you could go high class, high tech and pop on some nip guards!

I admit to using them. I admit to loving them. So deal with it.

Raccoons aren't your cute, cuddly friends

As with pretty much everything in life, there's always something that seems cute but really just wants to bite you, and spending times in nature is pretty much the prime example. Nothing is your friend when you're truly immersed in nature; maybe your dog, but your dog is not going to get a good face-licking by the skunk that wandered into your tent.

Something to be acutely aware of when dealing with animals is the rare, yet extremely deadly rhabdovirus. Rhabdovirus is the causative agent of Rabies, which ranks very high in the worst ways to die. . .ever.

Rabies is transmissible by animal bites (pretty much the only way), and the typical culprits are raccoons, skunks, and bats. It's rare, but aerosolized virus can be a problem in bat caves. Basically, any time you get bit by an animal, rabies should be considered and treatment should be sought after!

Rabies works as such:
1. gets into your body through a wound; the larger the wound, the worse the infection
2. gets into your nerves, the closer to the head, the worse off you are
3. travels up the nerve to your brain
4. fever, nausea, vomiting, inability to swallow water, coma
4. kills you.

Here's the deal, you have anywhere from 1-120 days for rabies to start to work, so any bite should be considered a serious threat. IF AND ONLY IF medical treatment is sought early, can a victim be saved. Through a series of vaccinations, rabies can be stopped in the early stages. Once it makes it into your brain and the symptoms start, you're hosed.

Take home lesson? Don't trust any animals, especially ones behaving oddly. If a raccoon is out during the day, staggers around, and approaches you, it's highly likely that the lil bugger is the spawn of satan and wants to give you rabies. The whole foaming at the mouth thing? Not so much.

Just be careful, and anytime you've been bit, seek medical attention as soon as possible.

Set your body free

Nothing is more frightening than suddenly having a medical incident that scares you to death. As an avid skier and general dumb as they come action sport participant, I have managed to rack up many an injury. One of my most trivial, yet most scary, is the curious case of the re-appearing broken ribs.

After skiing for a day, I decided to hot dog off a jump and do a quick grab. I'm not a park and piper. Yah, I'll drop 20 feet off a cliff and giggle, but the actual act of launching up in to the air on skiis terrifies me. Which is hilarious because I love that feeling while BMXing or wakeboarding... eh. I came down a little fast, caught my ski behind me and landed squarely on my left lower rib cage. Pop... Pop... Pop... Three broken ribs.

Flash forward 5 years or so...

After a hard workout... WHOOOAAA... Why does my chest hurt so badly??? HOLY CRAP! Am I having a heart attack??? To make a long story short, I went to a few docs and was diagnosed with being an idiot (as far as my chosen hobbies) who ripped up the muscles in his rib cage pretty badly. The stress from med school didn't help (do you know how bad boards are???) and things spiraled. Thank God that it was just muscle and bone, not heart.

So what if it was heart? Do you know what to do? It's something EVERY athlete should be aware of. You never know where or who an MI (the medical short-hand for heart attack) can happen to. Plenty have happened in middle of nowhere, just as a ton have happened in the home.

1. Crushing chest pain (mine was sharp and didn't feel like an elephant). In fact, having an elephant on your chest is a common complaint

2. Pain in LEFT shoulder, or LEFT jaw. Also pain radiating in your back

3. generally feeling like crap, even a feeling of doom.

4. general super awareness of your heart, be it fast or slow (depends on the exact cardiac event). Palpitations (thumping more or less, out of rhythm) can be felt

IF these symptoms show up, CALL 911 or push the freaking button on your spot!
Best of luck to you out there! Oh yah, get yourself a CPR lesson. Save someones life. You'll feel so bad-a.