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| Volunteering at the WS 100 last June - Rocky Chucky Crossing |
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| Rocky Chucky Crossing at dusk |
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| and Rocky Chucky Crossing at night. |
It didn't too long after the race was completed for the pain to start settling in. I was amazed and envied to see some of the other finishers walking around rather normally while I was reduced to a stiff legged hobbling invalid wincing with each step. Returning to the finish area to retrieve by drop bags was the worst. Amy had to help me across the street as I placed my hand on her shoulder to steady myself. Those tendons in the back of my left knee that blew up with ten miles to go were seriously inflamed right now and I was dreaming of the relief I would get as soon as we could get some ice on them. I could have used a pair of hiking poles right now to help me get around. In fact, it sue would have been nice to have had some hiking poles in my last drop bag to help me down the hill and over those last 9 miles of the race. Oh well, live and learn. I will always have some hiking poles on me or staged at an aid station in the latter parts of any ultra from now on.
On the drive home we stopped at the first store to get some ice and that did help a lot. I think we stopped and got a big fat burger form Carl Jr. or something but I don't really remember for sure if this happened or not. I was really out of it at this point due to the combination of exhaustion, lack of sleep and the euphoria of having just completing my first 100 miler. I don't think any amount of pain could have wiped the silly grin that I must have had on my face. Amy drove and I slept most of the 3 hour drive to Vegas.
I recovered rather quickly over the next couple of days and was amazed at how quickly I was moving around again. Within 2 days I was bounding up and down the stairs and I started workouts the next week. I was forced to keep the mileage low for the next 2 months, less than 20 miles/ week, while I let my left leg recover from the injury. The tendons in the back of the knee were just the symptoms of where the real injury was. I had strained my left groin and hip flexor badly and I was using rest, ice and massage to heal them.
I found a terrific Physical therapist in Las Vegas that I highly recommend.
Scott Pensivy has worked on numerous professional athletes, is a consultant for several pro teams and definitely the person you want to see you are having trouble recovering from a sports injury. Scott has a competant staff and he will also give you a personal evaluation and continued attention. Ask for PRRT, "The Primal Reflex Release Technique™ (PRRT) is a manual-therapy approach
for evaluating and relieving musculoskeletal pain. PRRT is often able
to accomplish in just seconds what joint mobilization and manipulation,
trigger point therapy, and soft tissue and myofascial release can do
over time."
Finally, by the end of June I was able to start building up my weekly mileage until eventually I got up to a hundred mile week in the middle of October in preparation for the
Javalina Junderd 100 in Fountain Hills, AZ on Nov. 1. I really enjoy the training and buildup phase as I work towards the next event. Since the end of Zion, 6 months ago, I have run a total of approximately 1,200 miles in 228 hours. That would be an average of 200 miles per month at an average speed of a very modest 11:30 minutes per mile. If you want to run a lot of miles, you're not going to or is it necessary to run them very fast. Anyways, my new motto as I get older is, "I'm not going to run any faster, but maybe, just maybe I can still run a little further."
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| Arizona Country - down by Phoenix |
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| Arizona trail running - how its done in the wild wild west |
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