Things I Forgot to Workout 4: Sitting

For those of you following along, I managed to start my back injury by my crappy posture while studying for hours upon hours a day. Here's what I should have done...

1. stop slouching. while I wrote that I had to correct myself
2. Don't sit without your lumbar region planted to the back of the chair... SI joints don't like the extra pressure from you sitting your butt on the front edge and leaning back
3. Try doing a few superman moves per day. Lay on your belly, lift up both your legs and feet. Yell "To infinity and beyond!". Change the name of the exercise to "The Buzz Lightyear".

Not much else right now. I'm just biding my time until the back doesn't hurt. Still haven't hit the trails for a good run, and it's been almost to weeks. That breaks my heart a bit.

On the positive note, XTERRA Triathlons are a go for next year. I'm incredibly excited.

Injury makes me reconsider

This low back/SI thing is getting fairly old. It's easily been a full month since the initial hard injury (wakeboarding) and then little over a week after the set back injury (road run). As such, I'm reconsidering some race commitments.

I had originally planned to return to the Bobcat Trail Marathon, my wife and my own first trail marathon, and actually had a fairly good plan on how to perform much, much better than my quad cramping crap run. I've now lost at least 2 months worth of time to injuries that have absolutely nothing to do with skiing (ribs = skiing, back = wakeboarding). I'm noticing a trend. Either my crashes have become that much more spectacular, I'm just taxing my body too much, or I'm just getting old and weak. I would like to think it's mostly spectacular crashes, but I'm inclined to agree with the last two. It's been... about 9 years since I've taken a month off from working hard toward goal X, Y, or Z. I think I've been digging and have finally found water, which is unfortunate because I'm not that amazing at swimming.

It looks like the Bobcat may not happen. My last long run was 17 miles. My plan was to end up doing at least a 30 before the race. Not going to happen, when there's only 11 weeks until the race. Furthermore, it's about 2-3 months out until skiing. I would drop running in a heart beat if you told me I had to choose b/w running and skiing.

So... thoughts?
Should I push through and try to do the Bobcat?
What about the 50k this January?
How about XTERRA Tri's next year?

Injury stupid face stupid.

I've become increasingly aggrevated by non-running induced injuries. As a medical student, I do a lot of sitting. This sitting has lead to Sacro-Illiac Joint Dysfunction. Fancy way to say that my butt and lower back hurt preeeetty badly. I managed to handle the problem through chiropractic care (HUUUUGE shout out to Solon Spine and Wellness) I then went wakeboarding and trashed the back all over again. Turns out a lot of twisting, jumping, and crashing head over heels is not conducive to a healing joint. Suprise.

The SI joint has been rearing it's ugly head something terrible recently. Dr. Hagar was able to work quite a bit of it out, but still, it's not super fun to sit. It's also slightly miserable when I start running. Generally the back wears into it, and the pain starts to dissipate. That's not helping me get up at 5am to run. Not a bit. In fact not at all.

So I'm looking for motivation. Spending more time in the pool, good time on the bike, and faster runs. Anyone have any thoughts? Anyone have any advice?

How do you stay motivated? I try to read running articles (check out Nick Billocks blog for a great source of pump up). It typically works, but that's not what I love to do at 5am.

I'm learning a lot about how to push through the downer feeling of injury. I think this is just as important to the athlete as any hard workout. The mental aspect of sport is HUGE! I use visual techniques to push myself through hard running sections, bad bouldering problems, dangerous climbs, and insane skiing. Try it out!

Spend 2 minutes, calming down, prepping yourself for the mental stress of a very difficult activity. Envision yourself pushing through the crux segments of whatever activity. For instance, I spent a long time studying and walking through the crux of a 10 foot huck onto ice. That time was critically important to avoiding injury. It really helped to have mentally accepted my success, and all I had to do was open the throttle.

I'm trying the mental game through this SI injury. I'll let you know how it goes...

Things I forgot to workout 3: Climbing

Climbing involves a lot of precise foot placements, awkward gripping positions, and a myriad of other things that the body doesn't like (for instance taking a 30 foot whipper). Often times, especially when climbing an overhanging roof, a climber has to use their toes to dig into climbing holds to keep the body from taking said whipper. The core muscle play a really important part of keeping the hips near the wall, but everyone knows they need to be doing more situps and less sitting. How about the muscles inside the foot? They're pretty important for sticking to that hold, so why do we ignore them?

The "intrinsic" muscles of the foot are responsible for modifying how your big calf muscles pull and how your toes flex and extend. They're pretty easy to work on, and here's how:
1. throw a dish towel on the floor.
2. with just your toes, pull the towel towards you. Don't move your heel one spot on the ground, we're just trying to pull the towel and ball it up.
3. you can even throw some weight on top of the towel.

That's it. Simple, easy, and it'll help the climber more adequately meet the wall with their feet.

Run to THIS SITE if you really need a good visual. Or if you have plantar fasc.

How _____ saved my running "career".

How ______ saved my running "career" is going to be another one of those somewhat frequent posts that shows up on two feet. Basically you're going to get some "super awesome" tips about how you can learn from my experiences to be a better runner.

Crampons are perhaps the best way to truly learn how to run downhill. Not at the same time, but with the same technique. When walking downhill on glacier ice, you plantarflex (or push your foot down) to meet the degree of decline of the ice. You're trying to fully meet the ground, with your full foot, rather than just slapping your heel on ice. The same thing applies super awesomely to trail running on the downhill. You naturally put maximum tread on ground, giving maximum friction. At the same time, by biomechanics, you're forced to flex at the knee. This removes a ton of vertical force, as the body is able to more flexibly meet the shock of slamming your fat butt (mine at least) down some ridiculous hill in the middle of nowhere.

So Crampons. Super Awesome.

Today was brought to you by the phrase "super awesome". If I ever use this in a blog post again, all of my loyal fans will be getting all of Oprah's favorite things (I learned that she does that while watching 30 rock).

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 workout 2: Skiing

Fibular muscle dislocation is the awkwardly specific injury to skiers. Basically your fibularis brevis and longus explode out of their place, behind your outside ankle. It typically happens to skiers when the land with a lot of force, which causes them to contract to protect the ankle. It doesn't work. They explode out of their place. It's pretty sad really.

So how can you help avoid this? You know I'm going to give you ways to workout the fibular muscles, so let's get to it.

1. Get up on your toes! Walk around like this for a little while. It'll burn, that's good.
2. Jump up with your right leg and then land on your left foot. Alternate legs, try it on the same leg, try it with your head. Enjoy.
3. Put a weight or other heavy object on the outside of your foot. With just your foot, try to push the weight along the floor. The point is to only use your fibular muscles. Try not to use your legs.

So... don't explode your fibular muscles. Good luck!