Training Log Archive: iansmith

I am starting to consider the broader ramifications of my tibia fracture since the immediate shock has worn off. I have lost the opportunity to compete at the ARDF World Champs. I will be probably be on crutches for another eight weeks - perhaps including the US Champs meet and the CSU/NEOC A-meet. It has been 58 days since my last meaningful running workout, and it will probably be longer than that until I can resume training. I will be unable to compete at any of the Fall meets, and it would be extraordinary if I can train as much this winter as I did last. An injury in August may cost me the chance to be competitive in the Spring A-meets. I will know more next week after my orthopedist appointment. This is all discouraging, but I am strong enough to face this challenge and overcome it. However long it takes, I will regain my orienteering momentum, unless I do something crazy like get married.

On a more serious note, it has been 20 days since my last burrito. I marvel at my body's resilience and adaptability to have gone for so long without burrito sustenance. I may have to call upon trusted comrades to undertake quests for burritos.

C • Yes 6

International News: Ski orienteering bids for inclusion in the 2018 Olympic Winter Games

My arms were getting rather tired after essentially continuous exertion; I trooped over to the Berman's house for an A-meet planning meeting. I met Giacomo, a Harvard freshman from Italy.

During the dinner, I ate an ear of corn in 30.4 seconds, as timed by Ed. I think that sub 20 seconds is attainable with training. It's also not clear what the criterion for eaten is - perhaps biting into every kernel?

Early this morning, a few minutes after eating a peach, I seemed to have difficulty breathing. I inspected my throat and noticed mild swelling of the tongue, lips, and uvula and inflammation on my palette and the back of my throat. My throat was also very itchy. As my circumstance did not seem life threatening, I decided to try to analyze my condition on my own. I have never exhibited an allergic reaction to peaches or any fruits.

After a quick and motivated search, I concluded my response seems to be oral allergy syndrome. I brushed my teeth to remove any lingering peach from my mouth, though that can't mitigate ingestion. I have considered inducing vomiting, but the description of OAS suggests the symptoms may be confined to my mouth and throat, and vomiting might worsen the reaction.

At peach +30 minutes, the irritation seems to be confined to my mouth and upper digestive tract, though my breathing is somewhat labored. My condition is not worsening. I will drink water and fluids to try to decrease the concentration of allergen.

Peach +1:30, the irritation is gradually subsiding. I have eaten a tortilla and drunk about 1.5 L of water.

I have another peach, so if my condition stabilizes, I may try to reproduce the reaction during the day with a small amount of peach when there are people around should I react more strongly. The novelty of this situation did not overcome my significant discomfort.

C • Allergy 17

Perhaps Presto will like me more because my couch is so fantastic for drying his fur.

Up and down the stairs, with some minor trooping about. I dual booted Ubuntu 10.04 (with Windows 7) on my home laptop. I'm excited; I have only used Red Hat in the past. I thought about experimenting with Gentoo, but I prefer something more practical, and proficiency with Ubuntu is very useful.

I trooped out of my apartment for tea in Harvard Square, followed by tech support on a friend's Macbook and dinner at Cambridge Common. A pleasant day, though I did smack my left foot rather hard when I stumbled on the stairs ascending at the end of the day. The compressive force was directed along the tibia (from the heel to the knee), which is probably less destructive than shear force.

A great victory today: I took out my trash, did a load of laundry, and went to the grocery store. I probably wouldn't have done this if my garbage hadn't smelled as bad as it did. The garbage motivated the trip, and while I was on the ground floor, I decided to get errands done.

I learned that a descent to the ground floor in my building requires 41 steps (by the back way), with laundry in the basement an additional thirteen. In total, today I took 246 steps.

I had some excitement; I had paused on a landing to set down my backpack before descending into the basement. My crutches, which were propped up against a wall, fell down a flight of stairs. I had to descend about ten stairs without crutches, but the rails were strong enough for me to hoist my weight while I moved my right foot between stairs.

My leg is feeling much better than it has been, but it still swells considerably when I lower it from an elevated position. I'm operating under the assumption that tiny jolts can break open the fracture. Until my next appointment with x-rays on 7 September - two days before I would have been flying to Munich (alas).

Once my leg has improved, I'm tempted to do a casual mile time trial on a track on crutches, just for kicks. By early October, I think 12:00 is attainable.

Update from Gimpyland, Day 6

I draw comfort from knowing that my friends and colleagues know and understand my plight and my struggle. This doesn't entirely make sense to me, though I don't think I am unique. For instance, while Sam's races at WOC don't directly affect my life, learning of their details and understanding her great success allowed me to share in her triumph and appreciate what she had accomplished. This is a very different situation, and I could carry on without sharing these details (apart from with my family and close friends, which I am already doing). However, both because of this inexplicable benefit of specific empathy and for my own records, I will document some of my experiences. Please excuse my failure to justify precisely why I feel the way I do.

After my initial experiences at the ER on Wednesday 11 August, I had a followup appointment with my orthopedist on Monday 16 August. He observed growth in my tibia that he described as "spongy" which warranted further investigation. He was concerned that the growth could be a tumor, which might have weakened the bone and contributed to the fracture. He ordered an MRI for the afternoon of Monday 16 August, which would offer more clarity than the x-ray about the nature of the tissue. He also took me out of the knee immobilizer the ER gave to me, and put me in an ankle air brace that immobilizes my calf up to my knee. This restricts the torque that can be applied to the leg through my foot, but my knee can still apply painful stress to my injury.

The MRI revealed no abnormal growth or problems; the spongy tissue appeared to be growth from my bone's efforts to heal the stress fracture while I was happily walking on it. My orthopedist, in whom I now have more confidence than I did on Monday, said that the fracture is completely through the tibia. This surprises me, because my leg hasn't deformed, and the fracture was simple. It seems to me that there is some residual strength in the bone, though the structural support could be coming from the muscles and fibula. In any case, I need to avoid moving the leg as much as possible for the next three weeks. If I cannot immobilize myself sufficiently and avoid displacing the bone, the possibilities include a long leg cast and surgery to insert a rod into my tibia. I am doing my very best to keep the fracture immobilized.

The doctor estimated I will be on crutches for 9-12 weeks, though he was just speculating based on typical injuries. When I get a new set of x-rays in three weeks, he will have a more informed prognosis.

After an MRI and work at my office, I decided to crutch home from the Porter T stop rather than wait for a bus. It was hard work - conditions were difficult with a temperature of 28 C and high humidity. Later, Brendan and I cooked dinner with his ingredients and recipe; it was excellent.

C • Keep moving on! 13

Event: Canadian Orienteering Championships
 

C • poster 2

So it turns out purchasing roller blades was a terrible idea. As a result of purchasing, using, and falling on them, I am no longer going to Europe, I am not competing at the 2010 WARDFC, I will lose an absurd amount of time just moving around, I am in a measure of pain, and I will lose some amount of money from treatment and the non-refundable components of my Europe trip.

Curiously, though, compared to other decisions I have made, I do not regret acquiring roller blades. There was no way I could realistically have known what the consequences would be. While circumstances are more difficult for me, I relish the challenge. Because of sleep deprivation, my mind is not functioning optimally, but I can still use this time constructively. I will read more, work on my computer more, and correspond with the people I care about. In a few months, I will be training again, primarily for the 2011 Team Trials. This is frustrating, but I am not as troubled as I expected to be - and I haven't even started using pain killers yet.

There are other choices with farther reaching consequences that I regret far more than this inconvenience. If you will, I have been emotionally conditioned to absorb this new problem with ease.

C • There are 2011 Team Trials ... 2

I decided to go to the grocery store to get out of my apartment at least once today. Since my arms are occupied, I have to fit everything into my backpack when I'm migrating. By far the most difficult part of my trip was the ~50 stairs in my apartment. Climbing is easier than descending; to descend, I face backwards, bend my good leg, plant the crutches behind me on the lower step, then grip the railing as I put my weight on the crutches. It was tiring, but effective. I should wear my garmin and heart rate monitor to collect more meaningful data.

My left leg felt great this morning - the swimming seemed to have had a theraputic effect on my leg. Unfortunately, my roller blades arrived in the mail, and I decided to give them a try for my commute. The pavement was very rough, and my injured balance is unremarkable. After I crossed Oxford Street, while moving at walking pace, I took a bad spill and slammed the front medial edge of my left calf into the ground. This episode was met with five minutes of agony; it was all I could do to crawl to the curb of the (fenced-off) street and remove my roller blades. As far as I can tell, there is no fracture - pushing on the tibia from a variety of directions causes no pain. However, the muscles on both sides of my calf are in bad shape. I hobbled to Massachusetts Ave before deciding that I was in no condition to walk some miles, then took a cab to work. If my condition doesn't improve, I may go to the hospital today or tomorrow.

Roller blades were a terrible idea, particularly given my infirm condition.

C • Geez! 15

Update - I have fractured my left tibia. Also, from the x-ray, it turns out that my injury from July was a stress fracture in my left tibia that was healing fairly nicely until I broke completely through it.

The bone is aligned well, and the ER doctor expects that it will heal if I avoid putting weight on it for the next six weeks. I am on crutches with a velcro knee immobilizer until then. At this point, it looks highly unlikely that I will be able to go to Europe, to say nothing of actually competing. Needless to say, I am crushed. Because I was unable to train in all of July, my competitive goals were basically shot as of my injury on 4 July.

I am going to see an orthopedist in a few days, and I will have more data then. As disappointing as it is to miss the 2010 WARDFC is, no longer represent the United States on the international stage, and hobble around on crutches for six weeks, the novelty of breaking a bone (this is my first) is a small comfort. I imagine people will be very nice to me over the next few weeks. I'll try to bear that in mind when I'm sitting in my apartment instead of facing off with the best ARDFers from Ukraine, the Czech Republic, and Russia.

http://www.iamsinht.com/is/albums/20100811_TibiaFr...

C • The novelty 8

C • Oh no! 1

In an effort to get some low intensity muscle training for my leg and to do something for my fitness, I went to the Cambridge War Memorial Pool. The $5.50 entry fee is well worth the price since I get so little opportunity to swim. I have poor and inefficient swimming technique, which was exacerbated by my injury and how long it has been since I last went swimming in a pool (about three years), i.e. I swim very slowly. I did the following:

400m freestyle
100m kickboarding
100m swimming on my back, no arms, scissorkicking
200m freestyle
100m kickboarding
700m freestyle with some backstroke thrown in for good measure

My leg was fairly sore by the end, but the intensity was sufficiently low that I wasn't too worried about it. My right calf was cramping because most of the power was coming from the right foot. In an amusing continuation of the adventures of Captain Gimpy, I seem to have lightly strained my right shoulder climbing out of the pool.

I forgot my ID and had to double back.

I went on another ARDF training stroll with Joseph and Ruth at Bear Hill in the Middlesex Fells. I set controls 1 and 2, then found 3, 4, and 5. The topography of the Fells made the search very interesting, but partly because of my slow speed, I got practice pinpointing signals at all ranges.

The 2m signal does not vary as much with angle as the 80m, though I had no idea why. At any range - even a full kilometer, the asymmetry of the intensity of the signal in the direction of the transmitter is often very small - on the order of one or two times that of the isotropic noise. I often get false signals in the exact opposite direction of the transmitter, though I think that's due to reflections from vegetation and terrain features.

Despite my difficulty and slow speed, it was a productive session. Unfortunately, while we did our best, we were unable to correctly configure Ruth's 2m receiver. For reasons unclear, the strength of the signal on her receiver did not vary with the direction her antenna was pointed.

I added a few hard spurts.

I am still limping.

I successfully resisted the temptation to get a second burrito for the day.

Two things I thought about yesterday, on which I welcome commentary:

1. There are many clubs in the US in need of professional mapping resources. Given a mapper, these clubs might spend $10k - $20k annually on maps. Mapping is typically done as contract work, which doesn't provide benefits like health care and job security and does not meet the requirements for an H-2B Visa. (Though I'm not sure why mapping is not a valid reason for an H-2B Visa.)

A solution, which Clem and I independently considered, is for USOF to hire a professional mapper (e.g. Vladimir Zherdev) as a permanent employee. Clubs would need to commit to doing some volume of mapping, and could reimburse USOF as the projects were completed.

There are a number of challenges with this approach. The mapper would have to be proficient enough to map the varied terrain in the country to the satisfaction of the member clubs. There would have to exist a clear contract between USOF and the individual clubs about the services provided. The mapper could be salaried or paid an hourly rate (perhaps $30-$35 per hour?). It would be good to build in some cushion room in the annual schedule so the commitments could be maintained even if some ran late; perhaps ten months of the mapper's year would be booked. However, it overcomes so many existing obstacles that it warrants attention.

2. While my success has not matched my ambition, orienteering is my primary sport. I have applied my competitive drive to orienteering, and I hope it will motivate promising results. However, there are other sports that interest me in a more casual way, like running, biking, and kayaking. I have goals - like a sub 5:00 mile, but these goals are personal and independent of the group.

In that sense, biking has great appeal. There are many fascinating races, like the Cadillac Challenge Century I read about in PG's log. I have no delusions of grandeur, especially given that being competitive in these sports requires tremendous investment of time and money. The idea of drafting in a group scares me, but I would very much like to ride the race for its own sake.

My ride is a hybrid bike - excellent for commuting and cross training, but not really optimized for long events. After some consultation with my peeps, it seems the prudent course is to try a "race" or two on my current bike and see what the experience is like. I may purchase a road bike to more aggressively pursue this activity.

Clem joined me for some good, clean CSU strength circuit fun. We started with the usual drills, then did two circuits of the following:

Tuckups, telejumps, pushup rotation, hip thrusts, kayakers, metzler devils, cherry pickers, lunges, boat rocks, superman.

We did one legged hops in lieu of boat rocks on the first circuit and in lieu of cherry pickers on the second. While logging this, I made the typo cherry -> cheery, which is clearly an inaccurate description of the experience. Clem followed the two circuits with a good number of pullups, demonstrating his unyielding stamina and mental fortitude.

C • Pull-ups 1

TED talks I have watched over the past week:
Tan Le: A headset that reads your brainwaves
Sean Carroll on the arrow of time
Michael Specter: The danger of science denial
Clay Shirky: How cognitive surplus will change the world
Brian Cox: Why we need the explorers
David Keith's unusual climate change idea
Helen Fisher tells us why we love and cheat
Jonathan Drori on what we think we know
Michael Shermer on Believing Strange Things
Sheena Iyengar on the art of choosing

I particularly enjoyed Cox, Shermer, Fisher, and Specter. I highly recommend Cox; the content of his presentation is meaningful, and he is a very effective speaker.

ARDF training on the 2m band at Breakheart Reservation in the company of Becky, Brendan, Stephen, Presto, and Lori. I walked the entire time, but I chose to log it because I spent the time getting more acquainted with the properties of my receiver and its behavior. It was very frustrating to plod along when I knew the transmitters were within the distance I could typically run in 60 seconds.

To and from Park Street to see Othello with Eric, Stephen, Lori, and Presto. Never lose your handkerchief; if you do, you will be brutally murdered by your lover. Also, never trust people whose epithet is "honest."