Prep time & the Mice and Men factor

[Bob S.]

The message below was one that I sent out to my trip list group yesterday. Today I decided that I might as well go ahead and inflict it on the members of the C2 forums as well. The Santiagobis group refers to one of several Yahoo groups dedicated to the Saint James pilgrimage. The erg workouts mentioned are an AT and a UT1 from my IP schedule. Last Wednesday, I was scheduled to do the first TR of the program, but that was not to be under the circumstances. Bum deal. I was looking forward to it, but decided to quit the program for these last few days so that I don’t aggravate the back problem. When I get back from the trip, I will probably just start from scratch with a new IP (or other program) schedule.

Quoted message:

Just a little over a week before departure time. I have been assembling my gear a few items at a time – mostly sticking to last year’s list. This will certainly be lighter. If for no other reason than that I will need only three weeks of medication instead of the nine or so that I prepared for last time. That bag of prescriptions and supplements was one of the heaviest items in the pack. I know - everyone says that you are not traveling in the wilderness – you should be able to get anything you need there. Well, after having been burned more than just once, I don’t take that chance anymore. This time it is not that big a deal anyway.

My subject heading is a result of a recent message from the Santiagobis group, which had the famous quote from the Robert Burns poem about the plough and the mouse. All this planning and preparing is fine, but you never know when something unexpected is going to shove it all aside. This almost happened in that last couple of weeks and I am still not sure if I am in the clear. Most of you know that a knee problem last fall cut my trip short last year, just 70 miles short of the goal after 44 days of averaging 10 miles a day on foot. Well the knee problem is sort of under control now, so I feel ready to give it a go – with a cortisone injection just before I leave to help improve the odds. What is giving me trouble this time is a backache that showed up on about ten days ago. It wasn’t really bad, but I went to a chiropractor after a day or so just to get it cleared up. That was on the morning of Friday, the 17th. It was a bit better and that afternoon I did some yard work and a fairly intensive workout on the rowing machine. Neither of these appeared to cause any problem, but there was still pain there Saturday and Sunday. Sunday was probably my big mistake. I did a fair amount of yard work, but tried to keep from anything that would put too much strain on the back. Monday was more of the same and another rowing workout, not as intense as Friday. To give these some numbers, the Friday workout was supposed to get my heart rate up to 87-91% of what I judge to be my maximum heart rate and on Monday it was only 81-87%. Well, by Tuesday morning, the pain was back and much worse than it had been before. The chiropractic office was closed that day, but I did have an appointment with a massage therapist and the deep massage that I got helped quite a bit. There was still a lot of pain, but my back muscles were no longer all knotted up. The chiropractor wasn’t available Wednesday, but I was able to get an appointment on Thursday. That seems to have done the trick. For a while there, I was wondering if I was going to have to fight the insurance company to try to collect on a flight cancellation, but, after the spine crunching session, I felt that I was able to continue with my plans. The chiropractor said that the rowing was probably not too bad, but that I should definitely layoff of the shoveling that I had been doing. Just as a precaution, I have postponed the rowing workout schedule that I was on until I get back from the trip. That called for about 40 minutes a day, three days a week. I skipped the Wednesday and Friday sessions and don’t plan to do any next week. I am still doing my regular 10 minute “wake up” row each day but at a very light pace, but I skipped it on Wednesday and Thursday. I would have had trouble just sitting down on the seat of the machine and again trying to get up again.

It is still iffy. As the chiropractor said, the hardest part of the trip will be all the sitting that I will have to do - driving to Lancaster, riding the express bus to LAX, waiting on the benches at LAX, the long flight to the east coast, and then the longer flight to Madrid. Once I get on the walk - if I am able to walk by then – it should be easier than all the sitting.

I am just keeping my fingers crossed that my plans don’t suffer the fate of those of Burns’ mouse.

Regards to all,

Bob

[Yankeerunner]

Best wishes Bob. Enjoy the trip. The erging and yard work will still be waiting when you get back.

[grams]

I have been working the 'bad back' thing for a while now. My biomechanical therapist gave me many tips on moving, sitting, walking. standing etc. What you want to avoid is favoring your 'bad knee' leg in your movements. I have many bad habits from doing that for 25 years. And a twisted back.

This is the hard suggestion to implement. Don't keep pushing on through the pain. If you can lie down for a few minutes when your back feels tired (or before) and let the muscles rest you will be able to go on longer than othrwise. Sitting is the worst thing, as you know. So when walking try to stop for 5 minutes every hour and lie down on the ground.

Good luck,

grams

[Bob S.]

Best wishes Bob. Enjoy the trip. The erging and yard work will still be waiting when you get back. B)

Thanks, Rick. I will be looking forward to getting back on the erg, but I can't say the same for the yard work.

By the way, well done on that series on the erg marathon. Nice pictures and interesting descriptions of the participants.

Your picture caught something that I had noticed in an earlier video that was posted. You are doing your little handle tilt just before the catch. Karen, on the 2005 USIRT, was doing that just at the finish. I believe that she was taking up OTW rowing about that time. A little of that should correct any handle-tilting habit. With a sweep oar, it would be impossible, and, with sculls, a similar movement would give the sculler a lot of exercise swimming. OTE, I suppose that it is just a bit of a flourish.

Bob B.

[Bob S.]

So when walking try to stop for 5 minutes every hour and lie down on the ground.

Good luck,

grams

Thanks, grams. It sounds like a good suggestion. I won't be able to do it very often, because I have to stay vertical for three hours after ingesting anything other than plain water. Dealing with GERD is a dominant feature in my life nowadays.

Bob S.