Sports Medicine Conference

Well, I went to Hilton Head, SC for the Advances on the Knee and Shoulder course. Since I wanted to fly from an airport near home, that left me flying into RDU in NC. That means a 5 hour drive to Hilton Head, SC. Flight and drive was uneventful.

Pretty interesting stuff. I sat through 3 days of seminar and breakout events. The first day covered the shoulder. I got to see some great stuff from top shoulder surgeons in the field (namely Dr. James Andrews) and what procedures they use and why. This is important to know because from a rehab standpoint, it makes a difference in how you treat a patient. The breakout sessions were of most interest to me. I got to see Kevin Wilk (amazing PT and author) and get some useful tips from him.

Day 2 was shoulder and elbow. Interesting surgery they covered was UCL reconstruction, AKA "Tommy John" surgery. The sad thing about this surgery is that kids are having it done and they are way to young to be in this position. It stems from playing baseball all year and throwing waaaaaaay too much. Dr. Andrews has done a lot with youth baseball and getting pitch count restrictions on young pitchers as to how often and how much they can throw. Though with the pressures parents put on their kids today, I doubt it will make much difference.

Day 3 was ACL/Meniscus repair. Good stuff. Many athletes tear their ACL's each year and it's a long rehab process. They reviewed the whole process from when the patient walks in the MD's door to when they are discharged from rehab. I have started to work with one patient at work (16yr old female with an ACL tear) but the problem is I am only there part time so she sees other therapists. There is no continuity in her care. She had started a plyometrics program called "SportsMetrics" but I am not sure where she is at since I am not there everyday.

Overall it was a good conference. I learned a lot and have some good ideas that I can implement with patients that I am treating. When I get home, I have to go through two 4" binders that I got at the course and put together my ideas for treatments.

This course helped me confirm that sports rehab is where I want to be. I enjoy athletes of all levels - kids to the weekend warriors. I have to sit down at home a come up with my 'roadmap' of how to achieve my goal.

Next weekend, I am off to Valyermo, CA for the F.I.S.T. tri bike fitting course..................

"Run, Rabbit, Run....

....dig that hole, forget the sun

And when at last the work is done

Don't sit down it's time to dig another one" (Waters/Gilmour)

Prepping for the last of my finals for my grad school pre-req's.   Seems like it never ends. As soon as I get one test done, time for another.  Motivation is waning for these courses.  I just want to get on with the courses I want to take, not have to take.  Glad a break is coming up.  I will actually have a good month with no homework, studying, classes so I can have somewhat of a life again.  

My serious tri training will begin next week.  I'm looking forward to some good structured training.  I am traveling a bit over the end of May/June so that will make for some creative scheduling, but I'll manage.

I am taking some fun courses soon.  End of May I am heading down to Hilton Head SC for "Advances in the Shoulder and Knee".  June is the F.I.S.T. triathlon cycling fitting course.   

1st race

Well, last week I ran my first race in quite a few months - the LI Marathon 'Festival of Races' 10k. I have been running sporadically for a few weeks after nursing a nagging lower leg injury for a while. My longest run to date was ~3.5 miles so this would be a challenge to get through it a live to tell about it ;-)

I woke up and my Wingman/Sherpa drove me to the race. I told him that I was going 'old school' for this race - no HRM or watch. I was going to run on perceived exertion. Since I hadn't really been running much, I had no time goals. So the gun goes off and so do I. I had my iPod shuffle on just to have something to listen to.

Oddly enough, I ran a nice even pace throughout the entire race. A woman even came up to to me afterwards to tell me she was running behind me and I paced her well. Phew, I was afraid that she was going to tell me I spit on her during the run or something.

When I crossed that finish line I actually had a great sense of accomplishment. It felt like the first time I had a really good run in a long time. I almost felt like the running I had done over the last few weeks was just junk miles. It was like I had finally run with a purpose.

Back where you started..........

These days I'm reminded of The Kinks song "Do it again"

"Standing in the middle of nowhere

Wondering how to begin

Lost between tomorrow and yesterday

Between now and then

And now we're back where we started

Here we go round again

Day after day I get up and I say

I better do it again"

It's been two years since I've updated people with a blog 

(allaboutme-06.blogspot.com).  My life has taken some crazy turns with decisions I've made, so I will be keeping everyone up to date with school and training via the new blog.