Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Saturday, May 27, 2006

The last couple of days have been hard. I think that for the first time in a long time, I feel my age. It's my own fault really but it still isn't much fun. You, of course, know about the rib. This week the pain has returned with a greater intensity. I'm not exactly sure why but it's definitely more uncomfortable. In addition, I wrenched my lower back a little bit a few days back carrying too much weight in my messenger bag. Normally, it wouldn't have been a problem but I'm pretty sure I've been overcompensating with my left side and the imbalance has finally shown up. In addition, I just came off what I call a "Superset" of workouts where I try to do 500 miles in ten days. I was successful (yay!) but I'm now pretty worn down as a result. This hasn't been helped by the heat that's settled in the last several days. I took a day off but yesterday I put in another 55 miles and by the end of the ride I was basically beat. I crashed and took a two hour nap and still felt groggy.

I managed to get awake enough to go see the world premier of a wonderful play at the Horizon Theatre in Atlanta titled, "A Perfect Prayer." Our good friend Master Jeff was the lighting designer on the show and scored us some comp tickets to opening night. The play is a coming of age story for a young Muslim woman growing up in Mississippi. The play was wonderfully written and the acting was suberb; especially the actor who played the lead character's father. It was one of those cases where I truly believed they had gone out and found an Islamic scholar from Egypt to play the part. I had to keep reminding myself that the guy who played the charater, Tom Thon, was an actor. I hope this play "makes it" to a bigger venue so that it can show a lot of people not only what Islam is about but also how hard growing up is in any culture, in any situation and at any time.

By the time I got home though I was completely worn out. I was stiff and had a hard time moving around with both my rib and my back giving me trouble. I remember when my dad was this age and I remember him moving like this sometimes. It's a strange place to be and serves to remind me that I don't have endless energy nor will my body stand up to relentless pounding without some downtime. I usually don't envy those with wealth but right now I truly wish I had the disposable income to see a message therapist twice a week and a sports chiropractor about once a week to work the kinks out of my body and help me clear the lactic acid I've built up.

I'm going to go pretty easy for the next week I think but I would like to put in one long ride this weekend as a testament to the end of my vacation. Maybe I'll get up really early Monday morning and spin a good, long century ride as a way of remembering and honoring the sacrifices so many made so that I could have the freedom to do that.

Thanks for Reading.

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