Monday, October 02, 2006

You've GOT To Be Kidding

A quick review of my sidebar training stats shows a fairly busy year. Year to date, I've travelled more than 1400 miles under my own power. That includes three running races (10K, half marathon, full marathon) and three triathlons (short sprint, Olympic, longer sprint). It includes learning to swim, getting back onto the bike, speedwork to achieve my sub-4-hour marathon, and my inaugural triathlon season.

And it includes no injuries. There were occassional twinges that caused concern. Some heel pain even warranted a mention during my annual physical. But no physical malady resulted in lost or reduced training. It was a good year and race results improved as a result.

The race season over, I've been taking a couple weeks off from serious training, preparing for an off-season aimed at discipline specific improvement (can you say "swimming"). Saturday morning, I decided to go for a long, straight swim, something I haven't done for some time. In fact, I wanted to go at least 4000 yards.

That goal was totally destroyed by the YMCA, which decided that closing the pool (for 12 water aerobics students) right in the middle of morning lap swim was a good idea. Quite angry about the whole ordeal, I headed home and decided to put some of the energy to good use working in the nursery. B-Boy and Monster Girl have a lot of fun tearing the place apart, and I wanted to do some serious cleaning.

So, with the kids safely occupied in the living room, I got started. It was almost like a scene from Clean Sweep. Everything being moved out and reorganized, furniture being rearranged, and the room being thoroughly cleaned (including steam cleaning the carpets).

And somewhere in the process, my mother was proven wrong. Cleaning CAN kill you (well, at least hurt you). I'm not entirely sure how, but I walked into that room perfectly healthy. I limped out with a pulled hamstring. And my only thought was, "You've GOT to be kidding me." The irony of going an entire (and dare I say much more active) race season without injury only to get hurt doing housework is impossible to miss.

I will, however, accept it with grace. It couldn't have happened at a better time. I'm theoretically in a "no-training" period, with a two-week cross train period to follow. Serious off-season training won't start until October 24th, and that will have a heavy emphasis on swimming.

But watch out for those domestic tasks. Your mother's admonitions that a little housework never hurt anybody have just been proven wrong. Clean safe!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

You aren't kidding. I've been doing Extreme Landscaping in my backyard and have experienced more muscle soreness from that than anything I've done training for triathlon!

hak

Cliff said...

IronPol,

I know the feeling about the pool situation. I head over to my community pool yesterday to do some laps. Turn out, someone rent the whole pool. The lady at frontdesk did not help at all. She has no idea when they are done.....argh...

I hope you get better soon...injury during off season is better than injury during season.

Anonymous said...

You have to approach cleaning just like training. Did you make sure to stretch before-hand, hydrate adequately during the cleaning, and then ice afterwards?

;)

You gotta be doing something right though to go through an entire season without injury. Good job!

Nancy Toby said...

Yeah, you blew it.

Take a lesson from me: Never, never, never, never, never, never clean.

Deb said...

Injured while cleaning!?!?! That is killing me! Vacums and rubber gloves...they'll get you everytime! ;)

Fe-lady said...

HA! Funny how I have bruises from my washing machine, dryer, refrigerator, and from bumping into shin-high furniture, but nary a bruise from mountain biking!
Thanks for the excuse to not clean this weekend! (But I will probably have to anyway!)
Hey, good luck on purchasing a wetsuit! I LOVE my IM Instinct...so does my husband. All I could think of when I was swimming in the SF bay was "I love this wetsuit, I love this wetsuit!" Go try one on!
Oh yeah, water aerobic people need to get their hair wet...splash them as you flip turn!

Unknown said...

was it the flip turns with the steamer that got you?

i understand your confusion at this seemingly unwarranted injury. there have been days i've gone to bed perfectly healthy, only to wake up with a sprained toe, or eyelid. there have been times when i thought i blew my knee just walking down the hall. just yesterday, i jacked up my fingernail when i got a little to vigorous with the spounge in the kitchen and banged it against the toster. so, you're right. nothing good comes from cleaning.

Veeg said...

It could be worse. At least your injury didn't come at the hands (?) of dairy products with Live and Active cultures! ;)

Feel better!

jeanne said...

oh, now i remember why i think cleaning is bad for you! because IT IS!!! Feel better. I hope it clears up soon. And next time, stick with the tris and the races...leave the cleaning to the insanely FIT people...
:)

jeanne said...

love that VID! thanks!

Jonah Holland said...

You've got to build up slllllowwwly to THAT kind of intense workout.

Comm's said...

Oh the dreaded home injury. That'll happen. suckeroo big time. A few beers should help.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.