Sunday, August 2, 2009

post-relay

What a fantastic day, today!

I woke without a sore knee, thanks to the awesome and talented Betsy Mitchell, DC, despite my record time going 1372 feet in six miles downhill yesterday. I have been going to her for years; but she has been especially supportive and helpful as I increase my physical activity and through things like aching knees, twisted back muscles during dragon boats, strained tendons during whitewater rafting, DOMS (now that was a "great" one: Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, tending to show up in people as they age.... great), and she has been phenomenal as I've been training for this relay. She put kinesio tape on my tend-to-ache-knee the day before I went to Bend and gave me a new set to apply before my feat yesterday. And, voila, I awoke with not only a non-aching knee, but a knee that felt great.

My training for the event, with specific focus two to three days a week on the big downhill part, really paid off and the preparation and prevention steps helped, too. A year ago I went on a round trip 6.5 or 7 mile hike with a friend and I halfway back I thought there was a chance I would not be able to make it down to the car, my knees both hurt and the more sensitive one was throbbing and aching. (You know, once you're up there on a hike in the forest, you have to get back down - you can't park your behind and tell your buddy to just swing the car around.)

My back was sore this morning; couldn't quite stand up straight when I got out of bed. Excuse me, couldn't quite stand up straight when I rolled out of my sleeping bag on a 1" self-inflating camping pad this morning. Oh, that might of been part of the problem - I was too tired to inflate my air mattress last night, which would have given my pushed-to-its-max body a little more cush to sleep on. A shower helped and I straightened right up and the back pain eventually went away.

But my hips- or my hip sockets? Something in that area needs attention. Which is why I am grateful I have an appointment with the chiropractor tomorrow morning. Yay for me.

In another side of things - we are going to do the Cascade Lakes Relay again next year. On the ride home in the RV, we did a little strategizing and planning - which I will continue with. I will be the team captain, again, next year (like the sound of that? me!?! team captain!) and I'm getting feedback from the participants on their "kudos" and "oops." Next year will be even better.

And I have already heard back from one of this year's participants that she wants to be on our team, again. Yay!

Then tonight I had a peer editing & potluck dinner with the editor, publisher, and a few of the other authors for Alltopia, the zine which is publishing one of my creative non-fiction pieces in their fall issue. That was really nice and helpful.

The zine release and reading will be on August 23rd at 6:00 pm, at Hipbone Studio. More details to come after I get the full information from the editor.

Now I'm really tired and need to go to bed. And I have a story due today. Sleep? Write? Sleepzzzzz.

And did I tell you that my team did great! As in Tony the Tiger, grrrreaaaaaat!