A sad tale of Closed Head Injury

Noted actress Natasha Richardson, is being listed as brain dead after suffering a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) while taking private ski lessons in Canada. The TBI occurred after a simple fall at the bottom of a beginning ski slope, where the actress hit no person or object. She was not wearing a helmet.

She is the wife of Liam Neeson and daughter of Vanessa Redgrave.

The instructor witnessed the fall and arrived at her side in seconds. She remarked she felt fine, but the instructor and two ski patrolman followed strict guidelines and escorted the actress to the lodge and stressed medical attention. After staying with her for an hour, the actress complained of headaches and was rushed to a nearby hospital.

While the accident is different, the next few hours played out almost exactly as my Closed Head Injury (CHI). Far too often these start out so similar. I was fine after my accident and several hours later after complete normalacy I began having headaches, then seizures, then woke up and lost a whole life of memory's to amnesia.

Now two decades and a dozen more Traumatic Brain Injurys (TBI) later, all concussions, I read these stories and just know that God has a plan for my life. With all that I have been through, dare I say survived, between multiple head injury's, multiple heat strokes, kidney failure, liver failure; and not to forget my adventurous activities, I am one damn lucky dude.

So yes, I may get some odd looks because I use a super cool, kick ass helmet for odd activities, in my case any activity I could fall, but its a life insurance policy for me. Fashion be damned. Hell I own more spandex tights than running shorts. It can't be worse than that.

But my heart does go out to the family of this actress and I truly hope that the reports are wrong and she makes a miraculous recovery.

UPDATE 3/18/09 @ 1900 HRS.: Natasha Richardson has passed away due to a Traumatic Brain Injury suffered during what appeared to have been an unspectacular fall on a beginner ski slope. A tragic ending and accident. The affects of even the most mundane hit to the head cannot be dismissed or excused. Always error on the side of caution and after a hit to the head, PREPARE for medical attention before it becomes an emergency.

A lapse in time

Man, I don't even stay in the hospital for a week without posting. Where did that time go. Oh, yes, we have a new baby in the house.

I did have my longest run since my injury at Ironman last year. 10k. Felt really good. I did a 9:1 run/walk. Everything actually felt right. Running has always been a comfort for me and this felt like getting to know an old friend again. I recall so well wondering, "What am I going to train today?" Then just hop out of bed and run 15-18 miles. I don't know if my body will ever let me get back to that kind of endurance conditioning without some sort of fatal error, but I am optimistic for more, much more progress.

Other than a long run, everything else was short, intense interval training at a higher HR than I probably should have gone. Overall, not much more, maybe ten beats on average but I will confess on activity put my HR at 207 for a few minutes.

My one regret was not cycling. I tried. Just did not happen. This week for sure. I hope tonight. Baby's always have a way of getting in the way of good spin on the trainer.

There's treasure everywhere.

Its a shakedown for a reason

I had little expectations in my workout Saturday. Meet the team for a swim at Canyon Lake and make sure my watch and wetsuit work. The watch got a new battery last week, the wetsuit had a long rip that I patched myself over the winter.

I wore the newly rebatteried Polar watches for a quick shower and drove out to the lake. Why was the watch face foggy on the way up? Why when I toggle through the functions is the screen is readable but all messed up? Damn. The seals and screws must not be tight enough. I decided on the one hour drive out to the lake that I would wear the watch swimming anyway, it's going to work or not. Why an hour, you ask and not the usually much shorter drive. Out of state folks who are on their slow ass nature treks. It sucks. Its like driving through a 10 mile single lane school zone at 15 mph and its not a school day and you can't pass them.

I got to the beach on time and the rest of the team showed up a bit late, same issue. As I slipped into my full wetsuit, the first time since Ironman last year, the zipper was stuck. After a pal tugged on it, it broke. Damn.

Watch busted. Wetsuit busted. An hour drive, a twenty minute wait for everyone to show and no swim. Oh well. It's why its called a shakedown. Based on the condition I was in the last day I wore that wetsuit, I'll take those two flaws to being dead.

There's treasure everywhere.

Reading confessions.

Shh, don't tell anyone but after a decade of reading Triathlete magazine, a periodical that I have been a published writer within, I stopped reading in 2007. This month is the first month in almost a decade that I will not be receiving a Runners World magazine in my mailbox. I am quite sad about this but I have been resigned to this fact for over a year and just waited for the subscription to expire. I realized that my money truly only went to reading Scott Tinley's last page in the former and John Binghams 'Waddle On' column in the later.

What do these two columns have in common that left the remainder of the magazines lacking? They were truly about the struggles of the common man.

I became incredibly bored reading about what the pro's wear, what the pro's eat, what they ride, what they run in and where they train. Sigh. Each magazine wrote less and less about race days and became a masturbatory opus to their advertisers.

Let me invite you in on a secret. The pro's ride what their sponsors give them. They run in what their sponsors give them. And the big surprise, even after completing dozens of Ironmans from Kona on down, not a single one of them will tell you they are ever confident in their nutrition on race day.

The fact is, they got boring. They became more about the pro's and less about the age groupers. Oh sure, the Gear of the Year annuals are great and I may thumb through them this year but it won't be to drool over new Shiny Things.

I love my running shoes, I have worn others but on race day I have relied on the same make for 7 years.

I have the bike of my dreams and the wheel set of my dreams and they weren't found in a magazine. If, God forbid, my Valdora is broken or stolen, I will consult my tri store but most likely will get newer model of my current bike. Why mess with a great thing?

Goggles, wet suits, gloves, socks, flasks, water bottles you ask? All expendable items and once you get above a certain level of manufacturing are completely arbitrary. And trust me I own $15 running socks ergonomically designed for the left foot and right foot and they're no better than $9 DeFeets. I could care less if one water bottle is better than another. I just don't want the lid to leak when I squeeze the bottle upside down. And come to think of it, why can't all bottles have the same size lid? I have 20 bottles and 15 lids and none of them match.

But back to the two magazines that stoked a fire in me for over a decade. They inspired me and I loved them for that. Did I change after my upteenth race or did they change after caving in to marketing?

I think actually it was the readers of this blog and the (fractured but still thriving?) Triathlete Blogesphere we created. You are the common wo/man that I needed to hear from and meet and build relationships with, not the pros. What did you eat, how did you train, what did you learn? Thanks to you I am richer in thought and deed than the money I spent each month on those magazines that at one time changed my life. You all changed my life much more profoundly. And that's a true confession.

New map service

I remember the day when I if I wanted to know how far I ran, and it wasn't on a track, I would reset the odometer in my car and drive it out. Occasionally as I got older I would use a hiking GPS and my mtn. bike. I wasn't until I got sponsored by Polar Heart rate monitors in 2006 that I truly fell in love with what technology had done with distance measuring with their accelarameter footpods. Garmin came along and while I am only familiar with the product, its at a whole 'nother level with GPS mapping.

As a side benefit to all this technology I became a big fan of Gmaps Pedometer online. I can zoom into wherever on Earth I am starting my run and using a series of waypoints map out with decent accuracy the distance of the route I would like to go. Using the Hybrid or Satellite views I could see side roads, trails and street signs.

I haven't had need of that program for a long time, almost a year. When I came back to it recently I found that it had been changed. The Gmap program now only travels down the middle of main roads. I can't click on a trail or side path and measure distance. THAT SUCKS.

Clicking around alternate sites, I lucked upon the USA Track & Field website and their mapping program is what Gmap used to be. LINK HERE

If you are at all interested in pre-mapping a run or ride, heck even a point to point swim, give this program a chance.

Is it really square 1 when you start over?

Well I am at about 90% recovered from the month long lung and sinus crap that has plagued my part of the world. At least I did not have to go through this alone. I have a whole company of people who got it along with bloggy buddy Bigun.

A few more nights of extra sleep and I think I can start my morning routines again. I will confess I did not have a totally workout free weekend. I tried out a bike trainer on loan from my friend Andy and rode it for 30 minutes. It worked just fine and so did I, thank you very much. However I really need to get the Valdora into the shop for a drive cleaning and cable check. Had some problems there.

Living in the Valley of the the Sun has its perks and today is certainly one of those days. While the east coast, from Maine to Georgia, is being struck by a blizzard, the Valley is going to see 90 degrees. Gadzuks that early. I am hoping a short mid day run goes as planned.

How many times have I been to square one? A few to be sure. However each time it gets a little easier to get back on track. I am not the endurance athlete I was five years ago. I understand the habits, the causes, the effects, the personal costs, the motivation, the heart. Its not a new path for me. I hope this time being behind a bad cold and the birth of Baby Mae that things goes a bit more smoothly for a few months. Maybe get to Square 2.

There's treasure everywhere

Mighty Mo football

Mo, had his first flag football game of the spring season this weekend with his new team, the Steelers. It was a pre-season game so the coaches could fine tune and not cost them a win or loss in regular season. I thought I would share the results.

The team shirts had not arrived by game day so Mo played in his technical tee. Also there was some confusion on game fields and game times so lots of teams and parents were just sitting around watching other games on a hill overlooking the fields. As his game continued, more and more people who recognized Mo started shouting his name, "Get a flag, Mo!", "C'mon, Mo!" Perhaps a group of a dozen to start but his name is easy to remember and the crowd was having fun so more and more joined in.

As with last season and probably why he generates such comments is he is completely focused on the game. During the plays he pursues every kid with the ball. As you would expect he doesn't catch many but he runs everything out full speed. And instead of lollygagging or getting into the defensive huddle he runs right back to his position on the defense line and gets into a focused ready position.

After three or four sets on defense, one of the parents on our team mentioned that the other teams offense was staying away from Mo's side of the line, even though he had not pulled a single flag. As more time went by it was obvious to everyone that Mo was dictating the offensive movement (away from him) on the field. When Mo did get his flag it happened so fast that no one realized it, let alone the runner. Mo stuffed his arm into the air and the crowd erupted.

Now, in age 5-6 flag football, after a team scores a touchdown, the other offense starts on their own twenty yard line and moves towards the end zone on the opposite side of field. In this situation, there was only ten seconds left to play and Mo was the only player on the team to not have played offense during the game. The coach decided to put Mo in as a running back.

The ball was handed off to him at the goal line and in what was called by all spectators the "Greatest Play of the Game", Mo got the ball and ran the entire length of the field for a touchdown on the last play of the game.

Right into the throng of people who had been cheering him on during the game. What a great celebration.

The pursuers thoughts, "He got away from me?"

Notice the hand on Mo's flag.

Howard Cosell: "He could go..all the way"