Walking back from yesterday’s expedition to Romeo and Caesar’s market down the block, where I sat outside and read and talked to strangers with time on their hands, I stopped to rest. Hanging over the crutches, I noticed the sidewalk was bustling with ants, and watched them for a few minutes. It has been a while since I have watched ants, and it’s probably good for me. My land conservation research has been very engaging, given me some ideas of what life could involve post-school, and there are definite benefits to an absence of distractions as far as productivity goes. Rather than considering this a vacation, I am considering it a chance to earn adventurous time later: late season racing with no tasks looming, cross season with a thesis largely finished, perhaps even a trip to Alaska… I do love Scrabble and without question am grateful to remember the pleasure of reading actual books, but most of what I enjoy tends to involve my leg. Keeping busy is also an obvious strategy to avoid getting bummed. I go back and forth, experiencing sea changes in how long I think it will be before I can bring some reasonable fitness to a race. I am well aware of the driven athlete's tendency to rush recovery with negative consequences, but this broken fibula is a pretty weird injury. The fibula is not a weight-bearing bone, but the attachment site of a lot of muscles going from the calf to the foot. It rotates with ankle flexing. So the treatment for a broken fibula is to immobilize the ankle, but pretty much anything else is fair game, including walking and pedaling on the trainer. Sounds crazy to me too, riding a bike with a broken leg, but with my orthopedist’s encouragement I gave it a try. Not going to win any time trials averaging 82 watts for half an hour, but my leg felt good! In other news: rooting for my team racing in Montreal’s Grand Tour (wishing I were there but not missing racing at night), eagerly awaiting Philly, and it is clearly time to ditch the crutches before I ran any more toes from my non-injured food into them. Until the new camera arrives, my leg!
Monday, June 2, 2008
Watching Ants
Walking back from yesterday’s expedition to Romeo and Caesar’s market down the block, where I sat outside and read and talked to strangers with time on their hands, I stopped to rest. Hanging over the crutches, I noticed the sidewalk was bustling with ants, and watched them for a few minutes. It has been a while since I have watched ants, and it’s probably good for me. My land conservation research has been very engaging, given me some ideas of what life could involve post-school, and there are definite benefits to an absence of distractions as far as productivity goes. Rather than considering this a vacation, I am considering it a chance to earn adventurous time later: late season racing with no tasks looming, cross season with a thesis largely finished, perhaps even a trip to Alaska… I do love Scrabble and without question am grateful to remember the pleasure of reading actual books, but most of what I enjoy tends to involve my leg. Keeping busy is also an obvious strategy to avoid getting bummed. I go back and forth, experiencing sea changes in how long I think it will be before I can bring some reasonable fitness to a race. I am well aware of the driven athlete's tendency to rush recovery with negative consequences, but this broken fibula is a pretty weird injury. The fibula is not a weight-bearing bone, but the attachment site of a lot of muscles going from the calf to the foot. It rotates with ankle flexing. So the treatment for a broken fibula is to immobilize the ankle, but pretty much anything else is fair game, including walking and pedaling on the trainer. Sounds crazy to me too, riding a bike with a broken leg, but with my orthopedist’s encouragement I gave it a try. Not going to win any time trials averaging 82 watts for half an hour, but my leg felt good! In other news: rooting for my team racing in Montreal’s Grand Tour (wishing I were there but not missing racing at night), eagerly awaiting Philly, and it is clearly time to ditch the crutches before I ran any more toes from my non-injured food into them. Until the new camera arrives, my leg!
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4 comments:
You should never underestimate what can be learned from watching ants! Wishing you a speedy recovery!
Sam
Not quite the picture you want to be adding to your photo album. Hope you heal quickly.
This photo is lovely -- like an otherworld ethereal prana caught still for a second.
Fine! I updated...reluctantly.
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