The off-season

Today was to be my final race of the season, the California International Marathon relay. Unfortunately, I was diagnosed with a hernia on Tuesday and have been advised not to run. It started as a strained groin muscle several weeks ago and two weeks ago manifested into a small lump on my right side.

I will have to go in for surgery at some point. Although I could theoretically hold off on it, I want to get it done as soon as possible. I've become too accustomed to my new, active lifestyle to sit around waiting for an operation. I want to run, I want to dance, I want to live life with a full, unbridled joie de vivre. Next season is just around the corner and some place, somewhere lies a finish line with my name on it.

This will be my final blog entry for 2006. Thanks for all your support – I look forward to 2007!

Stress and strain

My knee felt like plastic yesterday – pretty flexible but still a little stiff, especially in the lower hamstrings. I don't know if it was all that dancing, the drive down or a little of both. I iced it here and there during the day, did some yoga stretches and took some Motrin. Today it feels a bit looser. Hopefully I can get a run in tomorrow before running another six miles on Saturday.

I had another joint bother me this week – my left arm has a mild case of tennis elbow. Pile this on top of the discomfort in my right shoulder. It probably all started two weeks ago when I forgot my hydration belt at home and had to run 10K with my Hydraform bottle, which I happened to have in the car. The extra strain on my arms over six miles may have taken its toll. All the dancing since then has of course augmented the joint stress.

All sauced out

After two and a half days of almost non-stop dancing, I'm ready to crash into bed. That drive to Riverside tomorrow (actually later today) is not going to be fun!

Six miles and salsa style

I got to the hotel at the San Francisco Salsa Congress yesterday afternoon, took some dance workshops and checked in. Last night was a blast with the New Swing Sextet playing lots of great rhythms including their famous cover version of "My Favorite Things" (The Sound of Music).

I went to sleep at around 2:45 in the morning. Despite this, I woke up bright and early at 6:30, ate a bagel and cream cheese with a glass of O.J. for breakfast, then hit the treadmill and ran 10K. At 9 AM I went to a yoga/pilates workshop. The pilates were a series of seemingly endless ab exercises that thoroughly kicked my ass. The yoga portion was mainly a set of balancing exercise augmented with variously leg stretches, although as a generalized set of stretches it didn't focus as much on the IT band and hamstrings as I would've liked.

My knee is holding up pretty well so far, although I did have to put some Therapain on it last night. The most trouble I had was today at one workshop in the conference hall that didn't have a portable dance floor, so we had to dance on glazed concrete. It was pretty rough on all my lower joints.

Dogs on the loose

Last night was the most intense session of Stiff Guys Yoga we went to since we started. It was me, Linda, Shel and Jeni. Nathan and Deanna had to bail out last minute. Good thing for her – she was whimpering last week and I know she'd've been crying for mercy last night.


The class focused on hips and core. Exercises included balancing on all fours while lifting opposing arms and legs, and lifting each knee laterally and straightening the leg outward from all fours in the infamous "peeing dog" stance. This was by far the most intense hip stretch we've had so far; all my hip muscles felt rubbery afterwards. Amazingly, I still had the energy to go salsa dancing later on.

(So now we've learned the downward-facing dog and peeing dog. It's good they don't follow the same analogy in naming the squat.)

My knee feels loose and resilient today even with all that physical exertion. I was afraid I wouldn't be healed enough to dance at the S.F. Salsa Congress but my knee feels good to go (even though I won't be dancing as hardcore as I've done in previous years). A good thing too, as I'll need some mental release from the let-down of not being able to run my marathon this year.