For 51 weeks out of the year, the only
reason I go to a swimming pool is to swim laps. I also always go to an
indoor pool. Those pools don't even have waterslides. On RAGBRAI, I
will stop at every swimming pool and slip-and-slide that I find.
Slip-and-slides were a bit hard to find this year. I didn't see an adult version until Wednesday. I saw a kiddie version in one of the pass through towns on Tuesday. A slip-and-slide on flat ground that only goes for ten feet is not something meant for adults. I need the thrill of getting a running start and then launching myself with a head and hands first dive onto a super thick, two hundred foot long sheet of plastic set on top of sides made of hay bales and drooped down in the middle to accommodate a large amount of recycled and pumped water that comes from the pool at the bottom of a semi-steep hill.
I didn't have a good second run on Wednesday's slip-and-slide. In fact, I injured myself. The set up at the place was perfect. The first attempt went very well and was very satisfying. I started my run-up for the second attempt well. I was running at a good clip and it was about time to jump. I did exactly as I was supposed to do and started to jump forward and not up. Unfortunately, during that jump I felt something in my right hamstring. I landed just fine and had a great slide down, but when I got up, I had my right thigh parallel to the ground and my right shin perpendicular in an attempt to get up to standing. That caused a great deal of temporary pain, so I switched to using the left leg to get up. After that, I climbed back up the hill with a slight limp in my stride. I didn't think too much about it at the time, I just assumed it was a cramp and that it would pass after a while. I used the shoulder of one of two fellow charter group members there also to brace myself as I stretched it out. That helped some. Still, as I was riding the last mile into the end town with them, even small uphills were a bit painful.
When I got back in to camp, I used every hamstring stretch I knew. Those helped greatly, but it was still a little bit tender. I also downed a bunch of Gatorades throughout the rest of the night, thinking that I was short on electrolytes, despite taking good care of that earlier in the day before the slip-and-slide. That was a mistake since I woke up three times that night to pee. It also didn't help that the nearest kybos [RAGBRAI term for porta-potties] were a half-block away.
Many people saw my slight limp and asked me about it. I downplayed it because it really wasn't that bad. It hurt for the first ten uphills on Thursday morning. Then it didn't bother me again while I was riding for the rest of the week. I assumed that the after-effects of the cramp were done with and I thought nothing of it. Later in Pella, I got off the bike for the first time that day. Once I started walking, I noticed a slight twinge in the same area, but it wasn't causing me any pain at all.
That twinge still has not gone away completely, more than a week later, so it is a good assumption that I actually pulled something and it wasn't a cramp. I tried to go running this Tuesday and only got a few steps in before giving up. I have a duathlon [run-bike-run] this weekend that I might have to skip if I can't get a successful run in either today or tomorrow. I have confidence that I'll still be able to compete in the Half Ironman I have scheduled for the following weekend. I just may not be as fast as I would like on the run portion since I am losing training time.
If I am uninjured, I have two different walking styles. The first is with a slightly pigeon-toed right foot and it is my normal gait. The second is a normal right foot if I am feeling self-conscious about people watching me when I walk. This past week I have had neither. My right foot is actually turned out slightly and it looks weird when I look down at it now.
I did find another slip-and-slide on Friday. I didn't run at the beginning of them, I just lightly jogged. That one was more fun than the first one because of the huge crowd watching. I went on that one five times with no injuries. That one dumped you out into a muddy pond, but nobody really cared about that since there was a spot you could rinse off near the top of the slide.
On Monday during the ride and Thursday after the ride, there were good swimming pools with waterslides. I went down both waterslides at both locations 5 times each before just hanging out in the pool afterwards. There is just something about RAGBRAI that makes me act differently with lowered inhibitions.
******
Speaking of injuries, there are always a few nasty biking injuries you see out on the roads. An unfortunate one occurred about two miles before the first slip-and-slide on Wednesday. I didn't see the crash, but I did see the after-effects. A mid-40's gentleman and his bike were sprawled across the road. He was face-down, but moving very slowly. A couple people were attending to him. I was slowing down and had almost reached him when I heard two riders behind me declare that they were a doctor and an EMT. That absolved me of any sense of responsibility to do anything medically, so I went up ahead. The crash occurred on an uphill for bikers and covered both sides of the road. Cars coming the other way [even though motorists are encouraged not to travel the opposite direction on RAGBRAI days, they aren't restricted, it is an open road] would not have been able to see over the crest of the hill in time in order to see the man lying on the ground in time. So three other bikers and I spaced ourselves out along the hill and up to the crest to warn oncoming drivers. We were in the oncoming lane and simply stood with our bike perpendicular to the line of travel. It was a good thing we were there because the first car to come by was traveling at a ridiculous amount of speed for being on a RAGBRAI road with thousands of cyclists on it.
Slip-and-slides were a bit hard to find this year. I didn't see an adult version until Wednesday. I saw a kiddie version in one of the pass through towns on Tuesday. A slip-and-slide on flat ground that only goes for ten feet is not something meant for adults. I need the thrill of getting a running start and then launching myself with a head and hands first dive onto a super thick, two hundred foot long sheet of plastic set on top of sides made of hay bales and drooped down in the middle to accommodate a large amount of recycled and pumped water that comes from the pool at the bottom of a semi-steep hill.
I didn't have a good second run on Wednesday's slip-and-slide. In fact, I injured myself. The set up at the place was perfect. The first attempt went very well and was very satisfying. I started my run-up for the second attempt well. I was running at a good clip and it was about time to jump. I did exactly as I was supposed to do and started to jump forward and not up. Unfortunately, during that jump I felt something in my right hamstring. I landed just fine and had a great slide down, but when I got up, I had my right thigh parallel to the ground and my right shin perpendicular in an attempt to get up to standing. That caused a great deal of temporary pain, so I switched to using the left leg to get up. After that, I climbed back up the hill with a slight limp in my stride. I didn't think too much about it at the time, I just assumed it was a cramp and that it would pass after a while. I used the shoulder of one of two fellow charter group members there also to brace myself as I stretched it out. That helped some. Still, as I was riding the last mile into the end town with them, even small uphills were a bit painful.
When I got back in to camp, I used every hamstring stretch I knew. Those helped greatly, but it was still a little bit tender. I also downed a bunch of Gatorades throughout the rest of the night, thinking that I was short on electrolytes, despite taking good care of that earlier in the day before the slip-and-slide. That was a mistake since I woke up three times that night to pee. It also didn't help that the nearest kybos [RAGBRAI term for porta-potties] were a half-block away.
Many people saw my slight limp and asked me about it. I downplayed it because it really wasn't that bad. It hurt for the first ten uphills on Thursday morning. Then it didn't bother me again while I was riding for the rest of the week. I assumed that the after-effects of the cramp were done with and I thought nothing of it. Later in Pella, I got off the bike for the first time that day. Once I started walking, I noticed a slight twinge in the same area, but it wasn't causing me any pain at all.
That twinge still has not gone away completely, more than a week later, so it is a good assumption that I actually pulled something and it wasn't a cramp. I tried to go running this Tuesday and only got a few steps in before giving up. I have a duathlon [run-bike-run] this weekend that I might have to skip if I can't get a successful run in either today or tomorrow. I have confidence that I'll still be able to compete in the Half Ironman I have scheduled for the following weekend. I just may not be as fast as I would like on the run portion since I am losing training time.
If I am uninjured, I have two different walking styles. The first is with a slightly pigeon-toed right foot and it is my normal gait. The second is a normal right foot if I am feeling self-conscious about people watching me when I walk. This past week I have had neither. My right foot is actually turned out slightly and it looks weird when I look down at it now.
I did find another slip-and-slide on Friday. I didn't run at the beginning of them, I just lightly jogged. That one was more fun than the first one because of the huge crowd watching. I went on that one five times with no injuries. That one dumped you out into a muddy pond, but nobody really cared about that since there was a spot you could rinse off near the top of the slide.
On Monday during the ride and Thursday after the ride, there were good swimming pools with waterslides. I went down both waterslides at both locations 5 times each before just hanging out in the pool afterwards. There is just something about RAGBRAI that makes me act differently with lowered inhibitions.
******
Speaking of injuries, there are always a few nasty biking injuries you see out on the roads. An unfortunate one occurred about two miles before the first slip-and-slide on Wednesday. I didn't see the crash, but I did see the after-effects. A mid-40's gentleman and his bike were sprawled across the road. He was face-down, but moving very slowly. A couple people were attending to him. I was slowing down and had almost reached him when I heard two riders behind me declare that they were a doctor and an EMT. That absolved me of any sense of responsibility to do anything medically, so I went up ahead. The crash occurred on an uphill for bikers and covered both sides of the road. Cars coming the other way [even though motorists are encouraged not to travel the opposite direction on RAGBRAI days, they aren't restricted, it is an open road] would not have been able to see over the crest of the hill in time in order to see the man lying on the ground in time. So three other bikers and I spaced ourselves out along the hill and up to the crest to warn oncoming drivers. We were in the oncoming lane and simply stood with our bike perpendicular to the line of travel. It was a good thing we were there because the first car to come by was traveling at a ridiculous amount of speed for being on a RAGBRAI road with thousands of cyclists on it.
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