Well, dc. Is busy with his class, and I don’t feel like talking to myself today. I’ll just read chapter eleven of d.c. scot’s manuscript for BEYOND THE THIRTEENTH MILE: THE IRON MAN CHRONICLES.
CHAPTER 11: PAIN AND INJURY
1600: Second transition area:
Man, my feet hurt! My cycling shoes did a number on them! I’ll never be able to run now. I think I must have massive blisters on both feet. I’ll take off my shoes and see.
Well, no blood on my socks. That’s amazing since my feet hurt so much. I’ll change socks and rest.
No! I cannot do this; it’s over. There’s Nicole. I’ll just tell her I’m pulling out of the race. She’ll be almost as disappointed as I am. She gave up a lot of her free time to help me train for this race. It just was not meant to happen today, I guess.
What? She has a point. I probably can walk 26.2 miles in seven hours. As Nicole said, then I will accomplish what less than 1% of the world population has accomplished, if I beat the time limit. I walk for six to seven hours every day at work. I just have brief breaks. If I rest at each aid station, maybe I can just finish the race and beat the time limit. It’s worth finding out. I’ll just start by walking, like that group is doing. Joining them will be a nice distraction from thinking about my aching feet. I don’t think they’re injured, just painful. That’s part of life, though. There is a big difference between the two.
I might as well put on my socks, running shoes, and knee brace (in case I do decide to run) and “tri” (hehe). I’m delirious…
***
(The views in this chapter are strictly my own and don’t reflect that of any of the coaches or training partners with whom I have been involved.)
There is a difference, as everyone who has ever laced up a pair of athletic shoes knows, from the infamous “weekend warrior" to the consummate professional, between pain and injury. Pain is something that an athlete must learn to deal with on an ongoing basis, while an injury is not. Although it’s sometimes extremely difficult to know the difference between the two, being well informed about this can save you both time and money, as well as avoid exacerbating an injury. Knowing your body well enough to know when it’s informing you that there’s something wrong beyond fatigue can help save you from unnecessarily damaging your muscle tissues or joints.
Most professional athletes have extremely high thresholds of pain, which serves professional football and hockey players well. A true "weekend warrior" with too much of a “good thing'' can do serious damage to his or her body, though.
Actually, a more accurate term would be “sweet discomfort.” This feeling takes you out of your comfort zone, but doesn’t mean you’re suffering pain beyond what’s tolerable for you. That would mean injury, and knowing the warning signals that you’re injured will, in the long run, keep you, as an amateur athlete, from becoming injury and accident-prone.
Since most injuries are largely due to overtraining, setting up a schedule that won’t overtax your body is very helpful if you’re beginning a new chapter in your athletic career. Starting out slowly will help you get your body acclimated to its new routine.
A "light week" (doing 50% of what your body is capable of doing) is a good way to start. This should be followed by a "moderate week" of exercise (about 75% of your maximum capabilities), followed by a "hard week" (90-100% of the physical activity for which you’re training should be attempted during this week.) Each of these weeks should include one or two rest days (even three is acceptable during your hardest week of training). These three weeks should be followed by a "rest week," which is exactly what it sounds like—a week during which you don’t exert yourself to physical exhaustion. (I personally believe that most people would benefit from a “rest week” every now and then when it comes to real life.) Don’t sit on your duff, though. A well-trained body will atrophy quickly if this happens.
An "active recovery week" can also be beneficial when you’re more mentally tired of training than physically. It’s also a preferable alternative to complete and total rest (the exception would be if you’re injured and are following a doctor’s orders). An active recovery week includes exercising with no time or distance goals involved. In other words, "stop and smell the roses." (It’s my own personal belief that many people would also greatly benefit from an "active recovery" week or even a day like this every now and then, as well as a rest week.)
Of course, you should taper your physical activities beginning two weeks before a major event, and always consult a physician when nagging pain lingers. In conclusion, as a novice, you shouldn’t up your physical activities by more than 10% per cycle.
***
Although it’s not always wise for an amateur to "play with pain," it is admirable when professional athletes are able to do so (if it isn’t done against medical advice.) Two examples come immediately to mind.
In the 1972 NBA playoff finals, Willis Reed twisted his knee in one of the earlier games, prompting the New York Knicks center to miss game six of the finals, which the Knicks lost. This tied the seven game series at three games apiece. Reed, cut in the mold of a modern-day Glenn Cunningham, was determined to play game seven, even if he did have only one good leg. The courageous Knicks captain hobbled out to center court when the starting lineups were announced. His mere presence on the court seemed to will his teammates to victory in the seventh game of the finals, earning the Knicks the 1972 NBA championship. Reed was also named the most valuable player of the finals, a well-deserved honor in most sports fans’ opinions. (Willis Reed - Wikipedia recalled 12/19/2022 https://en.wikipedia.org ›wiki › Willis_Reed)
In 1983, Kirk Gibson was a star outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers. His remarkable play both in the field and at the plate helped get the Dodgers to the World Series. Unfortunately, Gibson strained both hamstrings in the series before the championship games. The fact that he could barely walk left his manager, Tommy Lasorda, with little choice but to sit him on the bench for game one of the World Series. He was too hobbled to play the outfield or run the bases. Gibson reluctantly accepted his manager's decision. However, when informed by pitcher Orel Hershiser during the game that Lasorda didn't even intend to use him as a pinch hitter, Gibson was totally mystified and more than a little perturbed. His mentality was that pain is expected.
Gibson had been a star wide receiver for the University of Michigan during his college days. These athletes absorb a tremendous amount of pain in the course of a football season, especially those who don’t shy away from physical contact. While on the football field, Gibson never met a defensive back he didn’t think he could outrun, outmaneuver or run over. Gibson had one of the fastest times in history in the forty yard dash at the NFL combine, finishing it in an amazing 4.28 seconds. He is the all time leading receiver in his college’s football history. He only chose baseball to play professionally because it offered the promise of a longer career. He kept the gridiron mentality going even after finishing his All-American collegiate career. His feats on the football field earned him a place in the College Football Hall of Fame, although he has yet to be elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
After talking to his teammate, Gibson headed for the clubhouse to ice down his hamstrings, informing his manager of his intentions on the way. With two men on and two men out, the Dodgers were down by two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning. Lasorda then called on his star outfielder to pinch-hit. Gibson responded in a heroic fashion, sending a fastball over the right-center field fence. This won the first game of the 1988 World Series for the Dodgers. Although Gibson could barely even trot around the bases, he did so in a celebratory fashion. His heroics helped propel the Dodgers to the World Championship that year. (This day in Dodger History. Dodger Blue. Recalled 12/19/2022
https://dodgerblue.com › ; Kirk Gibson)
Another professional baseball player who overcame injury to lead his team to a World Series victory was Curt Schilling. In 2004, Schilling was a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. He pitched game one of the American League Championship Series, and lost to the Red Sox hated rival, the New York Yankees. Most observers believed this to be a result of an injury he suffered in the previous series against the California Angels. Schilling tore the sheath of his right Achilles tendon away from the tendon during that series, which made it difficult for him to walk, much less pitch. The Red Sox lost the next game as well, putting them in a 3-0 hole.
No Major League baseball team had ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in a championship series and overcome it to win the series. The Red Sox rallied and won both games four and five. In desperate need of a win to keep the series going, the Red Sox doctor sewed the sheath of Schilling’s right Achilles tendon to his skin. The results were positive, but the work was obvious. This was the famous “bloody sock game,” in which Schilling pitched seven innings and won the game, all the while having blood soak his right sock. This propelled the Red Sox to victory in the seventh game, earning them the right to represent the American League in the 2004 World Series, which they won. This gave them their first World Series victory in 86 years. This occurred because of the “Curse of the Bambino,” according to some. Red Sox fans believe that Babe Ruth cursed his former team when he was sold to the hated New York Yankees.
Encouraged by their ace pitcher’s performance, the Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals in four games, removing the “Curse of the Bambino,” and earning the Red Sox the distinction of winning the one-hundredth World Series. Many Red Sox fans believed that they hadn’t won a World Series since Babe Ruth had been sold to the hated Yankees because he cursed the organization upon his exit. For his part, Schilling used the attention he gained from his bloody red sock pitching for the Red Sox by stenciling K ALS. Those letters stood for strike out Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. It earned its nickname by taking the life of the healthy Hall-of-Fame first baseman for the Yankees in the prime of his career.
Because Gehrig was Schilling’s favorite athlete, he adopted the charity that is dedicated to trying to find a cure for this condition and wanted to give it publicity. (A foothold on History https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/short-stops/foothold-on-history recalled 2/8/2023).
A story from north (and now south, after his retirement and marriage) of the border of the United States is the story of Elvis Stojko. During the 1994-95 Figure Skating World Championships, Stojko suffered a serious ankle injury while training. This limited his ability and discouraged him from trying a quadruple axle jump. Stojko was the only skater, most experts believed, that was capable of this maneuver. He didn’t think he could perform such a difficult maneuver during competition due to his injury, so he didn’t attempt it. However, he was able to land a triple lutz-triple toe loop combination in the free program, earning him his second World Championship title.
However, injury struck again in the 1998 Olympics, after he was able to be the first skater to land a quadruple toe loop–triple toe loop during the 1996 World Championships in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.. That made him the favorite to be the first Canadian skater to bring home a gold medal. Stojko didn’t disclose that he had suffered a serious groin injury while training, limiting his ability. His performance was further limited by his suffering from a case of influenza during the Winter Olympic Games. Stojko still earned a silver medal at these Olympic games, an astonishing achievement considering the circumstances. (Elvis Stojko https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Stojko recalled 2/8/2023).
Closer to home, my training partner, Luke, once ran an entire marathon with severe pain in one of his feet. After the marathon, Luke went to the doctor to have the foot checked out. His doctor took x-rays of the foot and discovered that he had a stress fracture in that foot, which had probably occurred several weeks before he ran the marathon.
And one of my swimming companions who was a physical therapist and a ten time Iroman distance triathlon finisher completed the Houston Marathon within five and one-half hours nine months after having one of his hips replaced. He was the one who taught me how to swim without using my legs to conserve them for the bike and run legs of a triathlon. This just shows that, if one is willing to persevere, s/he can accomplish great things.
These are a few examples of professional and amateur athletes "playing with pain." There are many, many more, but to me, the keyword in this whole phrase is "playing."
C.: And, to all adoptees and their families, happy first day of National adoption month, and happy All Saints Day to everyone
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