Curiosity

 Curiosity is a very important part of our lives.   I would not be an engineer if I did not have sufficient curiosity to go into buildings with production machinery operating and try to figure out what they are doing.... Without the curiosity to look into the next chest of pulp to try and figure out what is happening to that material.....To challenge your body to find its limits and short comings ....   I am curios by nature and I like it that way.  

My chiro work is proceeding and next week we will cut back to one visit per week from the current two visits.  He works on decompression and also lower body flexing near the bad vertebra to get pressure off the joint and relieve the nerve pinching pressure.   We are getting some progress in his opinion and he is my major care giver at this point.   We have discussed what I can and cannot do in terms of exercise.   High Jumping is a definite No No at this point.  I jump with the flop method and landings are on your shoulder and head and this is just way too risky at this point.   He did allow some running to commence if I could manage.   That was all I needed, the curiosity just was killing me, so off to the track for some experimentation.  

I did register for the PanAm games in Cleveland that will be held early in the same week as the USATF Masters Nationals Track Meet in Sacramento.  I have not registered for the USATF Nationals and will not at this point.   But since I was already registered, before my injury, for the Pan AM Games, why not look into competing??  I have some college friends in the area and they have gladly welcomed me as their house guest and I can drive to this meet.  I will at least go for a vacation and play cards, drink some beer and tell a lot of lies.  If I am already registered--which was over $200-- why not give it a shot??? A racing buddy of mine, Graham Broyd is also registered and he has expressed interest in racing me this summer, not really a challenge, but in many ways it is !   We can pound out a 200 meter in the summer heat together.

I went to the my local track this week prepared to find out IF I had anything to offer for the racing this summer.    I started very tentatively  in getting warmed up and used my weight lifting belt cinched up around my middle to eliminate any risk to my disk.   I was running on a synthetic football field with the 10 MPH wind to my back and wearing running shoes.  I ran a couple of 100's to get warmed up and get the blood moving and got out my stop watch--or the lie detector as it is referred. 

My first pass with 21.06 seconds per 100 M, which is slow but I had no problems.   Next pass I took off the belt, put on a quad sleeve and knee compression on the right leg and that actually felt pretty darn good.  My right Quad is still visibly smaller that the left leg due to the nerve situation.    The left leg has always been my dominant in terms of strength and power .   

Second pass  was 18.25 seconds and I was bit wobbly at points of the pass.  It was obvious that I needed to concentrate on knee lift and form, swing the arms, look like you remember how to do this.    

Third pass was a lot better at 16.77 seconds.  I did notice that as I was reaching for the maximum velocity I started to lose control of my right leg and it would tend to flop a bit, and if I slowed just a little it would go back into form.  It appears that I have a governor that I cannot get past!  There is a top speed in my body that must be obeyed !!  

After that I ran a 60 m at 9.97 seconds.  That would be it for the testing, now the paperwork.  

I run the 200 at the same speed I as I run two 100 meter races.  So 29.41sec/16.77 x 2= 29.41/33.54 = 87.7% of last years best outdoor 200 time.  The 60 M is 9.0/9.77 = 90.3% of last years 60 meters time.  

That puts me at 88 %.  I need to get a little more improvement, but this good enough to race Pan Am.  I will race the 200 prelims and finals if I make it through and that may be my 2024 outdoor season.  

I did some more track work two days later and my back is just killing me for the two days since.  I need to temper my enthusiasm and stay in the weight room and get stronger and hopefully the speed will be there.  But the curiosity was too much to bear and here we are, getting ready to race!!!  

See you in Cleveland!!