Bowenwork and The Three Ws

The past few days have been sort of a blur. Getting back into my workouts, I'm doing pretty well, I lucked out with that cold as it never became anything more than a head cold, and it's all but gone except for an occasional drip...

So far I put in 20 miles and expect to do another 20 miles this weekend, which will give me 40 for the week. I avoided the pool again this week, waiting until I am completely clear of snot. I did jump on the bike and spin for a while, and I've been doing weights again. I really didn't miss much as a result of the cold. My legs were very tired, though, probably from the combination of the weight workouts along with running.

Yesterday I tried something new...Bowenwork. It's a form of body work that originated in Australia and involves gentle manipulation of the fascia around the muscles. It's done on a massage table but is very different from massage.

I have this chronic neck and trapezius area tightness, that gets aggravated by stress and if I overdo it on the weights. Sometimes it can get so bad that I can't turn my neck to look over my shoulder. I find that regular massage makes it worse.

My friend Helen is from Australia and she is an accredited Bowenwork practitioner. She's a registered nurse, too. I met Helen when I was a new nurse and we both worked in ICU. Eventually we both transferred to other units in the hospital, but we stayed in touch. She's a warm-hearted person with a great sense of humor and as down to earth and genuine as anyone can be. She is one of the good ones...

I have been curious about what she does and yesterday I went over to her studio and she worked on me. My neck has been acting up lately with the weight workouts, and my hamstring is in the process of being worked hard- I've been doing a lot of strengthening and started running hills again.

I went into her studio and she had me fill out an intake form with my health history, we discussed my problem areas, and she had me get onto the table, fully clothed except for anything that might get in the way: extra layers of clothing, jeans, or anything preventing full range of motion for my hamstrings. She covered me with a blanket so I'd be warm, and she began.

It's not like a massage at all. She focuses on a specific area and you know she's in there, but it's not painful, just some pressure on the spot. She works both sides of the same trouble spot, has you do a mild stretch, and then she covers you up again and leaves the room for several minutes. She doesn't say much, she's just focused on finding the right spot. She worked my upper back, lower back, and legs.

After she leaves, you're lying there on the table. I was paying attention to what was going on in my body. I could feel the spot where she worked and a sensation of heat spreading out from the exact spot, but the heat fanned out several inches from it. Then it faded, and by then she came back in the room, and started working on another trouble spot. She was in and out of the room at east a dozen times during the session. First I was face-down on the table, then I was face up.

The interesting thing was, it was at least as relaxing, probably more so, than a massage. In the time when she was out of the room, I focused on the sensation in the area where she worked, and found myself falling asleep because of the warmth and relaxation effect. After she was done, she allowed me to lie there, I was half asleep and only barely aware of her coming into the room the last few times.

Afterwards I asked her what was going on, and how it works physiologically, because I am a nerd and need to know these things. There is no exact, defined explanation of how it works, but there is definitely activation of the neuromuscular junction, the fascia, the stretch receptors and proprioceptors, such as the spindle cells and the Golgi tendon organs. The brief pressure on the area being worked followed by the several minute break allows your brain to process what's going on with your body and begin to make the adjustments at the soft tissue level.

As she worked on me, the injured hamstring didn't bother me, but the other side- the non-injured side- was extremely tight, probably from compensating.

When I was done, Helen told me about the three Ws: water, walk, and wait. Sounds like something I say to the Buffaloes!

It's important to drink lots of water, which is always a good idea anyway, to go for a gentle walk afterward, which makes sense to me, since it would get the circulation going and get the muscle fibers to start responding the way they would normally, after making the adjustments in your posture and soft tissues. The third W, wait, means that it will take time. She said I might be sore the second day, but by the third day things should feel much better and I would feel a difference.

She also told me not to run my shoulder or any of the area she worked on, I was already doing that because of the soreness in my traps. So I stopped. I followed her advice.

On the walk with the dogs I could feel my hamstring, the one that was injured but didn't bother me during the session. But I could already turn my neck much better than I could at the beginning of our session. The rest of the day I felt tired, similar to the way I feel after a long massage. Relaxed, and fuzzy in the brain.

This morning I can feel all the places where she worked on me. They aren't painful, but they are sore when I pay attention to them. My neck is still moving better and I have more pain-free range of motion on both sides. I can still feel the pain at a certain point when I turn my head to the left, but it goes almost to my shoulder pain-free on that side, which is much better than it was yesterday.

I'm curious to see what happens over the next few days, and I'll follow up in another post. Tomorrow would be day 3, so I'll see how things feel then and report back.

And The Winner Is....

When I wrote the book review of The Summit Seeker, Vanessa offered a copy of her book for a giveaway on my blog. Well I said I would announce the winner on December 10th, and it's December 10th.

I pulled out my favorite Badwater hat...

And picked a name out of the 11 entrants...

So...the winner of the copy of The Summit Seeker is...

CHUCK ABBE!!!!

I'll be contacting Chuck by e-mail and he will receive a copy in a few weeks sent from Vanessa's publisher.

Congratulations, Chuck!

Thanks to everyone for participating. I'm considering having more giveaways in the future!

Escape From Siberia...In My Dreams!

It's the middle of the day and it's only 9 degrees! Torture! It's supposed to get into the high teens in preparation for tomorrow's above-freezing forecast. But the way things look I'm not sure if we'll hit that tomorrow.

My cold is getting better, I sound terrible but I feel pretty good. Not great, though. Thanks to the new humidifier Dennis brought home yesterday, this morning I could make noises that were distinguishable from one of the girls' dog toys. I'd go out and run, except it's still so cold outside, I think I'll wait another day or two. I'll get on the bike inside today and see how that feels.

I'm getting work done on the business end of things, which is good. I'm closer to launching my business website, and I'm reading and studying a lot.

It occurred to me again that I haven't been to any destination races or adventure runs in a while. I'll have to change that next year. My 50th birthday run will be one, but I haven't been able to come up with an acceptable plan yet. Ever since Ed and I ran the Mickelson the summer before last, I haven't done any more outdoor adventures that don't include airports or cities.

I need to get out and move. Time to put on some layers again, wrap a big heavy something around my neck and ears, stretch the Yak Trax over my shoes, and take the girls for a walk, even if it's only for short one.

We're all going stir crazy.

Blowing Away...

This is my life this weekend. I didn't feel bad for the past couple of days but now it's settled in my head and I feel like the inside of my skull is stuffed. I constantly feel like I have to sneeze. I'm living on turkey broth and ginger tea.

I'm getting my work done, despite feeling like my head weighs 50 pounds. The temperature hit 7 for a high so far today. Looking forward to much nicer days next week and hopefully my head will clear up, too. I would much rather be outside playing in the snow, if I had more energy. Looks like we should get above freezing by Tuesday. And our neighborhood is now covered with the annual ice sheet, that should last until March when they bring out the heavy equipment to break up the ice dams.

To get into our neighborhood you have to literally, physically walk or drive up and over a small berm of ice where the city stopped plowing. From there on, it might as well be Antarctica. Yak Trax are the best investment ever.

The Big Freeze

Winter has arrived.

Here was Warren Lake on Saturday, at 60 degrees, in a t-shirt and shorts.

and then Wednesday, ten degrees, with ice forming on the lake.

Yak Trax and all.

Today is bright and sunny but the temperature hasn't made it above 5 degrees yet.

I woke up with a sore throat and sniffles. That really sucks, I don't feel too bad but I didn't sleep well last night and my throat hurt then, too. I need some down time. I rarely get sick. I don't know where I picked this up except maybe in the pool the other day, there were a gazillion high school kids at their swim practice right before I got in the pool. One of the downsides of swimming in a public pool, I guess. I did swim 1800 meters on Tuesday though, which is my longest swim in about twenty-five years.

The fact that I've been sick twice in 3 weeks tells me that the work stress hangover is the gift that keeps on giving. I do feel better in general but I am sure my immune system was not happy for a while. I should be bouncing back soon.

Also I've been hitting it pretty hard with the workouts lately, after slacking off for 7 months, so that could be a shock to my body. The timing was good, for getting sick at least, this was going to be a short easy week of running anyway. Maybe I'll get more work done.

Santa is being very kind to us this year, and he is sending his elves early, too. The elves are bringing us a hot tub next week, to replace the old decrepit model that came with the house and recently died. The elves will install the new hot tub and cart the old one off.

This one is smaller than our old monster hot tub, and the model of the new hot tub happens to be called "Iris". Iris was happy about that, plus the fact that this new tub is lower to the ground, so she'll be able to keep a closer eye on us without having to climb the stairs and jump up on the edge. For now she's content to fall asleep in her dad's arms...

Isabelle loves sitting outside in the snow. It can be 5 below zero and she'll sit out there and enjoy the cold air.

I've been making tons of soup, batch number three is cooking right now. First it was turkey green chile, then I made turkey tortilla soup, the latest one is turkey kale-leek-mushroom soup, with leftover mashed potatoes thrown in. We had a ton of mashed potatoes left over from Thanksgiving. Turkey parts are inexpensive at Sprouts right now, they must have cut up all their extra holiday turkeys and are trying to get rid of them.

Not much else to report. I'm hoping I can shake this crud quickly by staying home, getting plenty of sleep and hydrating myself with soup. Somehow it's not so bad being sick when the temperatures are in the single digits outside. When the sun is shining like this, it doesn't feel bad outside at all, if you're covered. I wish I felt better because it's nice running weather out there.

But I have plenty to do to keep me busy at home. And if I feel like I need to get warm, I can always go in the fridge.

Just a Thought for Cyber Monday

Not just for Christmas anymore. Let's make this last all year, and into eternity. Start by not buying anything online today, but that's the least you can do.

All of our biggest problems are caused by feeding into the greed of people who amass too much money and power. And by our silence and complacency, we allow it!

We all suffer from it here in the U.S. with our corrupt government, the system of corporate and private interest money going into lobbyists and sources of influence to tweak the system in their favor and not the people's.

It's one thing to make money or turn a profit, but when it's at the expense of millions of people's lives and well-being, that's greed. Our healthcare system is a good example of that, the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies are perfect examples.

Even not-for-profit entities turn profits and instigate violent knee-jerk reactions to anything that might interfere with their money-making ability. Case in point: Health Care Systems. Anyone who strays outside a narrow set of lines is removed as quickly as possible by whatever means necessary, by a culture of corporate bullying that the law allows, because the law favors those with money and power.

Nurses are a readily available, exploitable source of labor easily manipulated by threats to their livelihood and licenses. Amanda Trujillo's case is one notable example, but there are many others, too numerous to track. The collusion of management, corporate culture, state-run licensing boards, and legal impediments to organized labor all contribute to an impossible situation for anyone who questions their motives or points out their hypocrisy, or worst of all, identifies a hazard to the public and tries to do the right thing to fix it.

In a conversation with a number of nurses recently, someone pointed out the analogy of a jumbo jet. If we treated airline pilots the way we run health care and nurse labor practices, any jet that took off would stand no chance of landing without crashing because there would be so many unresolved safety issues.

Make your new year's resolution something that will help all people. Resolve to make a statement, put your energy into changing the balance of power. It takes a lot of people, not just a few vocal ones. Instead of using the Internet for shopping, use it for social change. Write a letter, spread the word, don't just make people aware, motivate them to take action.

That's my $.02 for the day. Back to work...

Welcome December!

December is here, finally! I know I will enjoy this month more than any other month all year.

We had fun with the girls over a long, relaxing holiday weekend. I cooked a small turkey, along with mashed potatoes and gravy, a spinach casserole that turned out sooooo good, and apple tarts.

The apple tart is my signature dish, it's the one that everyone always asks for if I'm coming over for Thanksgiving dinner.

With the leftovers, I made turkey green chile. So simple and delicious. I'll put the recipe up at Bitchen Swill when I get around to it.

I got quite a few miles in this week again, ended up with 50 running miles for the week, which was a bit of a stretch because I ran 16 miles on Friday and then I was tired.

Saturday I only ran 6 miles but it felt like the last 6 miles of a 24 hour run. My legs were fried. The weather was amazing this weekend though. Temperatures in the 50s and sunshine with no wind. I ran in shorts on Saturday.

It's too nice NOT to go outside.

But Sunday I wanted to get up to Horsetooth Reservoir and do my 10 mile out & back that I've been missing so much but was afraid to do until my hamstring got better. The sunrise in the morning was outrageous.

I drove toward Dixon Dam and the light kept getting more intense on Horsetooth Rock, it was glowing bright red.

It was a lot warmer than I thought it might be, so I ended up not having to bundle up quite as much as I usually do. I left a pile of clothes in the car and hoped the wind wouldn't pick up. It never did.

I stopped a bunch of times to take pictures, I couldn't help it, I felt like a tourist in my own backyard, it's been so long since I ran up there! Probably only 6 months but it feels like forever!

The ten miles felt okay despite how tired my legs were on Saturday. I went super slow but had no problem climbing the hills. I feel strong, just slow. I'm looking forward to putting a few weeks of these runs behind me and then I will start hitting the Rock Repeats to build more strength climbing hills. Maybe I'll be able to do a few more trails this year if I can get my ankles to cooperate.

December has never been so welcome. I usually view December as a month I just have to get through, because once winter solstice arrives, I'm gearing up for spring, because as far as I'm concerned, January 1 is the first day of spring. So I guess this month will just be a warmup for spring, right?

This was a long, difficult, stressful year, and I am glad to be on the other side of the stress.

I found out about a few other nurses who are just going into a stressful period which I know will resolve once they make their decisions to leave, but until they take that step it will be painful, and I feel for them. It's not healthy to be bullied by people who have power over you. Better to leave the toxicity behind, because once you leave, they will have to find someone else to pick on.

Every once in a while I still get hit with a wave of hurtful memories or anger that resurfaces, usually when someone else comes to me and tells me their story. My own wounds are still fresh, but healing. It leaves me with a reminder of how bad I feel, physically, when I get back into that vortex. But now I can smooth it out for myself and go back to my own peaceful existence that I am enjoying so much.

Going up to Horsetooth today brought me a sense of calm and being on the right path.

I heard from a magazine editor across the pond yesterday, she was interested in publishing my review of The Summit Seeker, so it should be appearing in Barefoot Running, a UK-based online running magazine. It's always nice to hear from someone who likes your writing, or artwork, or creative works.

The weather is supposed to hold for a couple more days and then we're supposed to get a COLD front next week that will drop the temperatures into the below zero Fahrenheit range. Time to get tough again. No excuses. Next time I go up to the reservoir, there could be a sheet of ice over the water. Fortunately, our winters here are short.

One month until spring!