possible injury

Friday September 28, 2007

It seems I may have pulled a sartorius muscle (right leg).  It has been a bit weak for a while and aggravated mostly by weight-training with fairly heavy weights.  It had been hanging in for quite a long time without injury and as a mild strain, so it seemed I could just keep pushing it.  However, during yesterday's 20k approx, and less than a km from home, it yanked a bit when I was forcing the pace to the end of my run. 

I think I really pushed it with the workouts the last week - Tuesday a few treadmill intervals plus weights; Sunday 20k, mostly easy; Saturday 20k hard fartlek intervals; last Thursday; 16km hard tempo intervals.  I have been careful not to train more than two days in order to ensure the mono is not going to return, but my workouts have been good quality, and I've done mostly tempo runs since I began running again a month ago, and have been feeling as strong as ever.

It may be that with a few easy days the sartorius muscle will be fine, but I can tell it is weaker now and and probably vulnerable to further injury.  So, I will have to see whether the Victoria Half is even in the cards at all.  If not, then I may shoot for Shawnigan lake.  I can tell my form and strength are very good right now, so I am looking forward to testing it out in some race or another.  It doesn't have to be the Victoria Half, but that is a popular race and would still be fun to do.  But we will see.

A fleeting meeting

September 24, 2007

Lovely was the breakfast and the dinner the gypsy cyclist shared with the tall blond man and his daughter, and healthful was the sleep he had and the bed they provided him.  And while the man was tall and muscular, how gentle were his slender hands, inherited also by his daughter, as they clasped the mugs and plates in which he and his daughter brought him water, oatmeal and eggs in the morning, and beef, beens and potatos in the evening.

And after two days of rest, the gypsy cyclist - after the welcome and the care they gave to him, and his bicycle retrieved and repaired and his body on the mend - was on his way once again.  How fortunate he considered himself that his bicycle was retrieved and all his paniers too, and that nothing was lost in the rapids of the river.  He could not thank them enough before he departed, and they asked nothing in return except that he should have a safe journey and for a wind at his back and always for blue skies, or, if there should be rain, that it always be soothing.  

But the gypsy cyclist was uncertain of the direction ahead.  Is it time to return home, he asked himself.   There is a fresh start, he thought, and I am replenished, but after such a fall I now am not so clear whether I have begun to weary of the journey.  I have looked at the map the girl provided me and this is the road I am taking, and that road is the one upon which I will take a right hand turn, and I know, for now, where I am going.   Indeed, they offered me a ride to Brussels, which I did not take, all for the sake of my bicycle and a few more pedal strokes. But there is no certainty now that this is the medium I should be traveling by.

The gypsy cyclist, hollowed by his doubts, stopped by the roadside and dismounted his bicycle.  There were no vehicles on this silent country road, and the sky was dimpled with greys of many shades that obscured all but a few fingers of sunlight that seemed to reach through and gently rake through the mists ten thousand feet up, revealing a few lines of brazen blue sky. 

As he stood to survey the flatness of browning oatfields to the north and breathe deeply the cool air, a woman on a horse appeared from a side road that parted the yellow leafy collage that upward rose from the thicket of straight and slender trees to the south.  She stopped when she saw the gypsy cyclist.

"Do you know where you are going?" She asked, her long brown hair billowing slightly in the first inklings of a morning breeze.  "I can see by the look on your face that you are lost."

"Oh," he replied.  "Is it that obvious?  I think I know the road ahead, but at this very moment, there is not one pedal stroke more that I want to take toward it.  Only for this moment, mind you.  The feeling will pass, I know.  But that is why I have stopped. 

"Four days ago." he continued, "I fell off my bicycle and it vanished in a river, until some wonderful people retrieved it for me.  They fed and cared for me and offered to drive me to Brussels.  But I chose to ride instead, and now, suddenly, at the moment that you have found me, I wish that my bicycle had never been found."

"I am sorry to hear this," said the woman.  In the sky, sillouetting her face, the clouds seemed to part a little more, and blueness enveloped her.  "If you did not have your bicycle with you, I would offer you a ride on my horse, and I would take you to Usterckx, a town not far from Brussels.  Of course after that, the roads become too heavy with traffic, and from there I could not ride my horse." She paused, while the sun flicked a line of light from the edge of a cloud, obscuring her face.  The gypsy cyclist adjusted his line of vision to see her more clearly, but he could not. "Feel free to abandon your bicycle," she continued. "Feel free to abandon your bicycle if it wearies you too much, and I will give you a ride."

The gypsy cyclist looked up at her, astonished at the words he had just heard. For a moment he imagined it: removing the paniers from his bicycle, and leaving it by the roadside; mounting the woman's horse and resting his head upon her shoulders and clasping his arms around her waist.   He looked into her eyes as the image came upon him, but still he could not clearly see her face, sillouetted by the sun.  She did not look away. 

"Thank you," he replied. "That is a thoughtful offer.  I cannot have imagined I would ever hear such words from anyone.  But I must mount my bicycle and proceed upon my way.  You know that your words will haunt me for the rest of my journey."

"You are welcome," she said.  The horse was becoming impatient, lifting first one front hoof and then another and swinging its tail.  "I can sense the weariness in your face.  I see it in you.  But I have given you strength to move on, and for that I am glad.  I hope that the rest of your journey is as pleasant as this meeting I have just had with you.  Take care."  She pulled at the reigns slightly; the horse proceeded, and the two soon disappeared.

The gypsy cyclist looked off in the distance where he lost sight of the horse.   Why do I doubt what I have seen? He thought.  In a moment that strange woman was here, and now she is gone, and the moment so fleeting that I can barely believe the meeting was real.  The gypsy cyclist mounted his bicycle.  "Come to me in a dream," he whispered, pushing down on the pedals. "Come to me in a dream for that fleeting moment you were with me that I cannot believe was real.  Come to me in a dream and prove to me that you are just a dream; maybe there, in that dream, then I will believe our meeting was real.  Dear woman on the horse, if you come to me in a dream and tell me those words once again, then I promise to abandon my bicycle and ride with you."

Goodnight Benny Vansteelant

Monday, September 17, 2007

Three days ago Benny Vansteelant, multiple duathlon world champion (both short course and long course), passed away after being hit by a car during training.  While there exists a core number of passionate duathletes, their numbers are small in comparison to other endurance sports like triathlon, cycling, or running.  That is why to lose even one of the passionate few represents a massive blow to the sport. 

There are some who occasionally compete in duathlon but whose primary discipline is triathlon or running or cycling, but not duathlon.  This may be understandable when duathlon is not an Olympic sport and is not supported by the same critical participation mass and wide distribution seen in  triathlon or the other more established sports like cycling or running.   But Vansteelant seemed to love the sport for the inherent nature of the combination of the two disciplines, and called duathlon "the most beautiful of sports". 

But Vansteelant was from Belgium, a landlocked country where cycling is King and gods like Eddy Merckx, still regarded as the most successful cyclist of all time for his combination of victories in the Classics and grand tours and his domination of them (1), are pre-eminent in the national psyche.  In the 60's and 70's a host of Belgian runners won gold medals at the Olympics in everything from 800 meters, the steeplechase, 5 and 10,000 meters, to the marathon (2).   There have been a handful of Olympic level swimmers from Belgium, most of them from the turn of the twentieth century (3), but their numbers are small compared to the grande magnitude of Belgian successes in cycling and running.  Since I have not spent more than a week in Belgium, I cannot vouch for the prevalence of swimming in the national consciousness, but I suspect swimming takes, by far, a backseat to cycling and running in Belgium. 

This is the athletic environment in which Vansteelant was raised, and to combine running and cycling in one sport could only represent the merger of the highest pursuits in Belgian athleticism.  Vansteelant epitomized the greatest of the Belgian athletic talent in two sports combined in one, and while he was competitive as a pure cyclist and as a pure runner, he obviously loved duathlon the best, and to the exclusion of all other sports. 

For me, having devoted substantial energies to duathlon, the loss of Vansteelant is something of a personal shock.  I cannot profess to love duathlon as much as Vansteelant did, and obviously I did not know him well: I shook his hand on the start line of the duathlon World Championships in Corner Brook, Newfoundland in 2006 and found myself dancing beside him at the after-race party (during which he took an obvious shine to one of our female Canadian team members); shared a brief light-hearted moment with him and Kyle Marcotte in Switzerland, 2003 - and that is all I personally know of him except to have been in the same race as him three times. 

But his passion and love of the sport can have been nothing less than monumental and inspiring, and anyone who has seriously been involved in duathlon will very much notice the absence of the name "Benny Vansteelant" in a host of races in the future. 


(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_Merckx
(2) Bosch, Ed.  Mons Magic Continues in Leuven? Alan Webb's 3:46.91 mile http://www.runnersgazette.com/features/monsmagic.htm
(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Belgian_swimmers

 

The Trouble with Men

Sunday, September 16, 2007

The latest edition of Scientific American contains an article (which I've so far only seen the abstract of online) called the "The Trouble with Men", noting that sons reduce a mother's life span by an average of 34 weeks.  Yikes!  Doing the math, Mom, with five such sons, therefore has had a reduction from her lifespan otherwise of nearly three years and four months!  Given my general temperamental nature as a child (and grown man to be sure!), coupled with being asthmatic, I have no doubt I took off more than the average! 

The first part of the abstract is as follows:

"Insights: The Trouble with Men; October 2007; Scientific American Magazine; by David Biello; 3 Page(s)

Sons are tough on their mothers. Whether it is heavier birth weights, amplified testosterone levels or simple, hair-raising high jinks, boys seem to take an extra toll on the women who gave birth to them. And by poring over Finnish church records from two centuries ago, Virpi Lummaa of the University of Sheffield in England can prove it: sons reduce a mother's life span by an average of 34 weeks."

Well that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy about being a man. 

But changing the subject abruptly to avoid further reasons to begin self-flagellation, I put together a couple of runs this weekend, including a 15k run yesterday with about 6km of hard tempo in the middle, and a 20k easy run this morning, twice around the lakes.   This follows a very hard tempo run on Thursday - also 15km, but with about 10km at tempo.  Tuesday I did only an easy run to the gym and some weights, where I was happy to discover I have not lost any strength.  I sense the overall strength is paying off in increased stride length and power, but obviously I won't know whether I've benefitted until I race again. 

People are warning me of the dangers of starting hard workouts so soon after having mono.  I feel I am being careful, but perhaps am beginning to up the ante a tad sooner than is good for me.  This week, though, will similar to last - no running tomorrow, and only an easy run Tuesday with weights.  So not until Thursday again will I do a hard workout.

It was not so tough today to watch the Bastion Sq from the sidelines when I was registered to race the elite men's race.  It was raining lightly, just enough to slicken the course and make it highly dangerous.  There were several crashes in all the races, and with that degree of carnage I was quite happy not to have been racing it.  So, not a whole lot of disappointment there.  Still, with the fitness I had accumulated, it would have been nice to cap off the season with a relatively big local race.  But, I think I'm over it!

EBV and a couple more runs

Monday, September 10, 2007

While the Epstein-Barr virus (mono) continues to harbour itself within the confines of my body, the collosal struggle between it and my white blood cells seems to be abating as the headaches and body aches have diminished, and the eyelid edema (swelling) is the least it has been in a week.  Lymph nodes are still inflamed, as is the throat still tender and there remains a general weakness in my body and tightness in the lungs, but I have awoken this morning feeling as close to normal as I have in a few weeks.  I have gotten off lucky, I think - I have heard how severe the virus can be for some people, and how long it can linger.  

On the plus side of the ledger, I have learned that there are actually some positive benefits to acquiring the EBV.  A recent article in Discover Magazine summarizes a study done by a viral immunologist from the Washington University School of Medicine that shows the EBV creates some  immunity to certain types of bacterial infections. The study showed immunity to a common kind of food poisoning and to the bubonic plague.  As those were the only two types of bacteria studied, it seems likely it creates immunity to other types to.  So, next time I'm way down south, I won't be as worried about food poisoning!

Mono is a variant of the herpes virus, I've learned, but apparently the simplex herpes types (cold sores and genital), neither of which I have, fortunately, do not establish the immunity that the EBV creates.  So my advice is: if you're going to get a variant of the herpes virus, go for mono!

After last weekend's heroic attempt at three rides in three days ending with 150km Jordan River ride - at the height of my infection I'm sure, but before I'd had a positive test - and awaking to devastation in my body the next day,  I have learned to be more careful and to not do more than two training sessions in a row at the moment.  And with the up coming Bastion Sq cycling race weekend nixxed off my schedule, I've decided to run more.  So, this weekend I put two runs back-to-back.   Saturday I did one loop of the lakes, beginning very easily and gradually increasing to finish the last couple of km at a quick pace and a time of just over 40mins.  Yesterday, although the legs were a wee bit sore, I ran to Beacon Hill for 4 loops there, each one also gradually increasing in speed with the last one pretty much flat out with a slight relaxation for a few seconds at about 800 metres.  My left quad was very tight by the end of it (not injured just tight), and I walked home from Beacon Hill. 

I can tell I will regain running fitness very rapidly, so long as I don't get recurring bouts of EBV - knock on wood.

Blog networks and mono+

  
Wednesday, September 5, 2007

This is interesting.  It is from a fairly new application called TouchGraph, available on Google and accessible through www.touchgraph.com .  I typed in the words "trainharder blogs" and the following blog network was returned:

blogs

(use Acrobat to open)

Interesting to see all the different blogs that have linked to our blogs on Pano's Trainharder site.  Most interesting for me was to discover that a site called "Physics of Happening" has a link to my site, as does one called "After Hours Blogs - Arts & Events (washingtonian.com)".  Jarhead has a number of Gobi related links to his site, among others, and Running Diva has several pool running sites linking to hers, among others.  Great little application.

On that note, I've learned that I'm positive for mononecleosis.  At least it explains what's up.  The doctor suggested I would likely feel too fatigued to train much and that I could use my own fatigue levels to guide me.  He noted that many patients with mono feel the need to sleep 20 hours a day.  Evidently he has not dealt much with well-trained athletes with mono, since I went for a 150km ride on Monday with it, and did reasonably hard rides the two days previous.  Granted I was not 100%, but was still able turn the screws on the others heading up the Shirley climb toward Jordan River on Monday.  Of course the next morning I awoke to the effects with eyelids the size of Manhattan and more aches and related symptoms. 

What this means is that the Bastion Square weekend is out. There is no way I'll be in race shape by then.  I may be able to train at some low level, and probably will not need to sleep much more than I do normally if at all, but there's no point in trying to prepare properly for the race - better off just letting it go and taking the rest as needed.

A viral event

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

The other day, whilst in the throes of studying for a stats final, I ran into Sean C who said he had heard that I had retired from running.  Hmm, I thought, where did you hear that from?  Then it crossed my mind that at the relatively midling level at which I run, is it even possible to "retire" from it?   I suppose I could "cease and desist" or "quit the habit" or "move on to other things", but it had never occurred to me that I could "retire" from something that was neither a profession nor something to which I've aspired to make a full-time endeavor.

But that would be to take a narrow interpretation of the term.  Upon a review of the definition from www.dictionary.com:

re·tire      /rɪˈtaɪ^ər/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ri-tahy^uhr] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation verb, -tired, -tir·ing, noun –verb (used without object)

1.	to withdraw, or go away or apart, to a place of privacy, shelter, or seclusion: He retired to his study.

2.	to go to bed: He retired at midnight.

3.	to withdraw from office, business, or active life, usually because of age: to retire at the age of sixty.

4.	to fall back or retreat in an orderly fashion and according to plan, as from battle, an untenable position, danger, etc.

5.	to withdraw or remove oneself: After announcing the guests, the butler retired.

–verb (used with object)

6.	to withdraw from circulation by taking up and paying, as bonds, bills, etc.; redeem.

7.	to withdraw or lead back (troops, ships, etc.), as from battle or danger; retreat.

8.	to remove from active service or the usual field of activity, as an army officer or business executive.

9.	to withdraw (a machine, ship, etc.) permanently from its normal service, usually for scrapping; take out of use.

10.	Sports. to put out (a batter, side, etc.).

–noun Literary.

11.	a place of withdrawal; retreat: a cool retire from summer's heat.

12.	retirement or withdrawal, as from worldly matters or the company of others.

A few of these definitions do fit quite nicely, so Sean's choice of words was actually more than apt.  In any event, I mentioned to him that while I've been focussing on some bike racing for a couple of months, I haven't quit running forever, and chances are I would do one or other of the run events on the October long weekend if I can whip myself into shape quickly enough after the Bastion Square weekend two weeks from now.   I have run about four times in the last month, and do actually feel like I could get into half decent shape in three weeks - not peaking or near my best by any means, but the kind of shape which could allow about a 1:17 half, or a 28min 8k.

However, while I've signed up for all three races on the Sept 14-16 weekend (hill climb and two criteriums), the state of my health is sufficiently tenuous so as to leave me questioning whether I will do any of the three races.  I'm still fighting an odd virus of some sort that has not yet been diagnosed.  It is flu-like, but  is absent any obvious respiratory tract symptoms (it seems), which for me is unusual.  One doctor thought perhaps it was mono, while another thought I would be exhibiting far more extreme fatigue if that's what it was and described it simply as a "viral event".     Although not 100 %, I was able to ride three times in a row this weekend, including a Jordan River ride with four other amigos, so extreme fatigue probably does not accurately describe my state.  Regardless, I'm still awaiting results of a couple of tests.

And while I thought I was well on the mend, this morning I awoke again to the balloon-eyed appearance that was starting to subside before the weekend, and it felt rather like the whole process was starting all over again.  Not to mention the scare when I thought I had bloody stool, only to realize later that the offending discoloration was probably due to the beet/barley salad (fantastic) I had had the night before.

But whatever, I think it is dissipating, albeit perhaps more slowly than preferable.  I just go about my business.