Chirstmas 2006; the photos

Barbara’s family, Olivia and I ate out this Christmas. Here you see everyone (almost) after the presents were opened.

My back is feeling ok, thanks to a couple of naproxyn.

Follow Instructions!

I just got some new Yoga suff; I bought a couple of books by Jessie Chapman (Extreme Yoga, Partner Yoga) and some Barron Baptiste DVD’s.

Today, after an easy 3 mile racewalk workout, I did Baptiste’s level 2 DVD
I loved the routine. But, I made one major mistake.

During my own practice, I move S L O W L Y. I set my watch to beep at 1 minute and then 15-20 second intervals. I hold a pose for 1 minute, and then take 15-20 seconds to move into the next pose.

Consequently, I do my poses Hatha style; for example, during my forward bend I keep straight knees and really get the stretch in the hamstrings.

But, I get into this pose oh-so-slowly. Baptiste warned folks to keep a soft knee when doing the foward bend in his sequence; you don’t move into any of the poses slowly in his routine. He calls it “happy back”.

Well, now I see why; I have a back strain because I didn’t follow instructions.

Still, I love this routine and will use it frequently…and I will follow instructions!

The routine contains a bit of everything; hand balances, leg lifts, back bends, standing and forward bends.

But I have to be careful; I am not used to moving relatively quickly in yoga.

Christmas, 2006

Olivia and I are in Peoria, and we had a real treat. When we got home, not only was Barbara waiting for us, but also Tracy Harris (my good running buddy).

So we went out to eat and chatted.

After reading what another racewalker wrote about piriformis injury recovery, I decided to go ahead and to abstain from racing, but also to try to get in some short, easy walks, runs and stationary bicycle sessions. I’ll save the hard, timed stuff for the pool. I’ll reproduce the advice that Jeanine Allsup (a strong masters racewalker) gave me:

I’m happy to hear you feel somewhat better, but not happy that you are
still not totally mended. I have to say it doesn’t surprise me. I stopped
racing in late April. I had gone to therapy for a year off and on prior to
that.

Since my stopping the racing I feel wonderful. I can’t remember feeling
this good. Nothing hurts for the first time in a long time. The therapist
told me the only way the problem would go totally away was to stop the
racing. At the time he told me that I was not ready to do so. He was right,
however.

Probably not what you wanted to hear. It took about 5-6 months of
totally not pushing myself with racewalking to get there.

I’ve been told that area is a very tough one to heal as there really
isn’t a really good stretch for that area. It’s really hard to get to. I
can’t say I miss the competition either or the training that was consuming me
non-stop. I’m in Arizona a lot so I’ve joined a hiking club here. We
go everywhere hiking and I’m starting to train for the Grand Canyon Hike
for late April. I continue to walk about 25-30 miles a week but at my
pace, varying the pace from day to day.

Football wise, Hawaii beat Arizona State 41-24, thereby covering the spread (8.5 points) and raising my bowl record to 4-2 against the spread. Hawaii scored 38 points in the second half. What left a sour taste in my mouth (a bit) is that one of the Hawaii receivers (Davone Bess) got a 15 yard penalty for basically giving some kids in the end zone some high fives after a touchdown.

That is idiotic! Come on, the kid wasn’t showboating or taunting anyone; I thought it was a cool thing to do.

Back to my stuff: I am hoping to get in a short racewalk, a few minutes on the stationary bike, and perhaps 30-45 minutes of yoga (Baptiste DVD?). I recently got some books on yoga (a couple by Jessie Chapman, Extreme Yoga and Partner Yoga) and thought “oh boy, I’ll be able to do these poses now.” Well, the difficult poses are still, well, difficult! Surprise, surprise.