Travel, Turkey, and Transit.

These past few weeks have left me road weary and tired of planes, hotels, and bus rides. Too bad as I write this entry I have just finished checking out of a hotel, am currently sitting in an airport, and waiting for the eastern sierra transit to take me back to Mammoth. Out of the last two weeks I have spent more than 10 of those days on the road. The first trip was to L.A. to see Dr. Vincent, A chiropractic, ART specialist. After 5 months of being frustrated and having my training continually disrupted I had had enough, and decided to take my problems to L.A. Within one hour of my assessment with Dr. Vincent he had diagnosed my injury, something that no other doctor, chiropractor, or athletic trainer had been able to do. The injury? Nothing more than some tendonitis of my iliacus. Chronic inflammation of improper running mechanics is all that stands between myself and being truly pain free. I am already on the right track, now that I know the injury I can do the proper exercises and stretches. This was not only physically very important, but also mentally relieving.

My second trip was to Houston for Thanksgiving. What an amazing trip. There was plenty of great food, great people, and of course, the whole reason that I would go to Houston, Rachel. I loved every minute of my trip, except for the minute of saying goodbyes as everyone went their separate ways. Seeing Rachel for the first time in nearly 6 weeks was the greatest treat I could have wished for.

Now as my trip from Houston back to mammoth winds down, I am left to ask myself one question, how can life get any better than this? well, minus riding a bus for the next 4 hours, for me, it will, shortly. I will be seeing my family for Christmas, attending my niece Hazel's birthday party, and spending most of that time with Rachel. My bus is drawing near now so I suppose that is it for now. I will post again in the next few weeks.

Chlorine....my new scent.

As you are all aware, my hip has not been very cooperative over the past few months, and for a runner there is only one place to go when you can't pound the pavement....the pool. I have been in the pool twice a day using the kick board. I'm sure this sounds like a child's device, used to get kids comfortable in the water. I am also sure that if you are anything like me, you laughed at the thought of using the kick board for a workout. Trust me when I say that it is an evil device, used to torture ailing runners, making them wish they were any but the pool. Hopefully this will not last much longer, as I am heading to the greater L.A. area next week to pick the brain of one of the worlds foremost authorities on athletic injuries. Dr. Vincent is a A.R.T./chiropractor, located in Santa Monica, CA, and is considered by many a "genius" in the the profession. I will be in Santa Monica from Monday night through Friday, going through various tests and drills to narrow down the causes of my hip issue. Hopefully I will be able to once again begin jogging within the next few days. I am optimistic that this will be an extremely fruitful trip. This will mainly be a business trip to solve my mechanical problems, which I'm sure will be painful, but I will also be enjoying all that L.A. has to offer, beautiful weather, beautiful beaches, and a little mini vacation from the relentless snow here on the mountain. Why just this morning I was heading to purchase batteries for my camera after my pool workout, so that I could share some of the sights and sounds of Santa Monica with you all, when I noticed that my camera had been stolen at the gym! I suppose I have done something to deserve this, karma doesn't just kick people in the groin like that for nothing. Hopefully I don't run into any celebrities while being cameraless! I'll update the blog during or shortly after my trip. Peace out!

Mammoth update #1

I am very well aware that this update is long overdue, but trust me people, I have my reasons. I will start from the beginning and move forward from there. For those of you who don't know, flying to California is EXPENSIVE. Now, make that Mammoth Lakes, CA, and the ticket price only goes up. Only one flight a day is offered into the Yosemite/Mammoth regional airport. So to find the cheapest flight I decided to drive to Fort Smith, where I would then fly to Memphis, from Memphis I would fly to L.A. and from L.A. into Mammoth later that night. As if this day wasn't going to be long enough already my flight from L.A. to Mammoth was canceled due to weather concerns. This meant spending the night in L.A. and then waiting around until 6 pm the next day for my flight. By the time I had finally arrived in Mammoth there was no gas left in the tank for a run, so I opted to head straight to dinner to meet the other runners. The food was great, the beer equally great, and the company was warmly welcomed after spending nearly 24 hours by myself on planes and in hotels. Since this point there has been little to brag about. I ran for about a week before my hip once again got the best of me. I have been spending most of my time at the gym on the bike or eliptical. I am probably getting in more work than I would have had I been running this entire time. Since there is little or no pounding on the body involved in cross training I have been spending at least an hour every morning working my aerobic system, and in the evenings performing a bike workout or easy 45 minute ride.

Now, on a brighter note, the town is absolutely beautiful, and the weather was great for the first week and a half of my trip. Since the beginning of November the temperature has dropped considerably and we even had about a foot of snow recently. The best part of my trip so far was being told I could get out of town for a few days for Thanksgiving. Upon being informed of this, I went home and bought a plane ticket to Houston. There was no way I would have been able to go almost 9 weeks without seeing Rachel, so this was just the pick me up I needed.

Lastly, on my way home from grabbing a few drinks and playing some pool last night I experienced my first bear sighting! It was amazing. What a beautiful animal. I was stopped at a stop light when the black bear crossed the road about 50 yards in front of me. He ended up walking through the parking lot I had just left, so I drove immediately back to the lot and got out of the car to get a better look. Black bears are known to be pretty peaceful and even scared of humans, so I felt pretty safe standing about 10-20 feet from the beast. It probably wasn't my brightest moment but very much worth it. Well that is it for now. I will post again next week. Hopefully I will have some more bear sighting news!!