Recovery, Training, Pain and Education

The last two weeks have been a curious mix of recovery, training, pain and education.

Following my severe calf and ankle pain from my 16-mile run, I stopped by Jack Rabbit Sports to talk with the sales people who are also experience endurance athletes. They showed me a new way to lace my sneakers as well as two separate exercises to help relieve my calf pain. I took their advice and it seems to have worked.

I had a few short runs around Prospect Park and things seemed to be healing as I headed to New Hampshire for another family vacation.

Over the course of the week, I increased my short run mileage to 8 miles of significant hills which I did on three separate occasions during the week. My intention was to intersperse the running with biking on off days. During one outing, I did a 28.75 mile loop through parts of Tuftonboro and Wolfeboro.

Then, on Saturday, August 23, after traveling more than 1500 miles on my bike over the last 28 months, I finally had a serious accident. After riding 10 miles of a 20-mile trip from Tuftonboro, I smacked into a new Volvo station wagon in the middle of downtown Wolfeboro, just a few feet from where I was planning to take a break. The impact left me sprawled on the asphalt at 8:55am as weekend traffic was backed up in and out of town.

After police, EMT and the Fire Department showed up, I was taken to the hospital. My left knee was bleeding and I had a nasty abrasion on my left forearm. An x-ray of my knee found nothing broken so I was discharged with a bandage and instructions to take lots and lots of Ibuprofen.

The damage to my bike was not severe, but the wheel will need to be replaced. I made a few calls yesterday and at this point, it looks as though I’ll need a whole new wheel which could cost between $100-200. Unfortunately, I can’t do a whole lot of shopping around since the NYC Century is coming up on September 7.

I just hope my knee is back to 100% by then. I ran a loop in Prospect Park yesterday and felt a little stiffness but it seems to be improving every day.

It’s interesting to note that I now have damaged to my right calf and ankle from the 16-mile run and my left knee as a result of this biking accident. It’ll be interesting to see what additional damage I’ll need to sustain before November 2.