Moments of Movement

Tuesday night, I went to bed with a feeling of physical satisfaction and mental contentment. In the previous week, I had had moments of flashing brilliance in my workouts. My mind and my body were giving me all of the right signs to indicate that it was time to look forward to the 2014 triathlon season. As I fell asleep that night, I dreamt of sugar plum fairies, Ironman trophies, and Kona slots. When I woke up, I swung my legs around to get out of bed. Huh. That doesn’t feel right. There was a niggle inside of my left hip. A little tender, I thought. …

The *other* 4 letter word: ITBS

Okay, okay: technically ITBS is not a word. But, I can use a four letter word to describe how completely frustrating this condition is. In the past several weeks, I’ve talked with quite a few people on Twitter, Facebook and in the flesh about their trials with ITBS – otherwise known as iliotibial band syndrome. The sad fact is that if you are a runner, you are very likely to get at least a minor bout of ITBS at some point in your running career. In fact, ITBS is one of the leading causes of lateral knee pain among runners. I had …

Balance your body to prevent (and recover from) injuries

Most of us have some type of muscular imbalance–even if we don’t know it yet. Unfortunately, these imbalances usually make themselves known in the form of an injury. But, we can assess and address muscular imbalance before we find ourselves on the DL. If you are already dealing with an injury from a tough season, well, this post can help you too. During the USAT Level 1 coaching clinic that John and I attended in October, we heard quite a bit about muscular imbalances that are typical for runners and triathletes. And, a year of battling with ITBS has taught …

Because I say so: A different perspective of injury

I’m a communication studies professor at Rowan University, and one of the key themes of all of the classes I teach is that communication shapes our understanding of reality. The way we talk about “things” is a meaning-making process. Before you start to think I’m a little crazy, let me clarify. I am not saying we are all plugged into the matrix, and nothing is “real”. (Although that could be true – how would we know ;)?) Objects, events, and people do exist. For example, when I crash on my bike, it will hurt, no matter how I choose to …

The ART of healing

Two weeks ago, I got off my bike after a five and one-half hour bike ride and started my brick run. It was supposed to be a 45 minute jaunt, nothing fast and furious, just your basic brick run. A mere twenty minutes into the run, my right leg became so irritable I had to stop and walk. It was time for me to accept the fact that this leg was not getting any better–and in fact–was getting worse. Tendonitis, ITBS — whatever the heck the problem was, it was signalling its presence and stopping my run. At that time, …

25 Minutes of Bliss & Lessons Learned from Injury

“Before you come back next time, go for a short run. We need to see where that leg is at,” said Dr. Terry Andrus, my physical therapist. Wait, did I hear that correctly? Did he just clear me to go for a run? *Big smile* I guess he was reading my mind because he added, “Don’t make it a half marathon or anything. Easy and short. 20-25 minutes.” “Okay,” I replied, laughing. “I know. I know.” I was excited, but also a little bit fearful. The last time I had tried to run was February 2nd. I ran only 10 …

I’m injured, but I’m not out

I have a case of what appears to be hamstring tendonitis in my right leg. At first, the injury led me to drop running from my training, and replace it with aqua jogging, while continuing my training with swimming and biking. However, at the end of last week, it became painfully (literally) clear to me that I would have to also drop the bike and aqua jogging. My coach took it a step further and said: no kicking while swimming. My first response: SERIOUSLY? I found it impossible to be optimistic and find the silver lining at first. This news …

Treating a sore ankle with angst and ice: 6 tips

I woke up one morning about 3 weeks before I was to run the Philadelphia Marathon with a sore ankle. Damn. I had just completed a 21 mile run a few days prior, and despite a few rough patches, the run went well. But, when I woke up two days later, the ankle was officially sore, and I was officially in a terrible mood. An injury or pain that keeps me from running–even for just a day–is enough to turn on the wicked witch switch. I had plans to do about 7 miles of speedwork on Sunday. But, my ankle hurt just …