feeling deflated

Eight days ago I did something that doesn’t happen all too often: I injured myself while skiing.

The morning leading up to the injury was lovely: skiing with friends at Berkshire East ski area, on a bluebird day where the snow was nice and firm at first, and had just hit a bit of a “spring corn” consistency by 11:15am.

And that’s when I went down. I was on a flat traverse back to the base lodge, skiing with my pal, Liam. I turned a bit to the left to see where he was, and my right ski turned sharply and caught the outside edge. It acted like the fulcrum of a lever, and when the edge caught in the softening snow, I went down quickly and hard.

THUD!

I kept twisting through the fall, rolling out the landing on my butt, back and head (thank goodness I wear a helmet every time I ski). My right leg released from the ski binding, but my left leg went up with my momentum in a bit of a cartwheel motion, ski still firmly attached. That momentum was enough to damage the adductor muscles and tendons in my right leg (yup – it’s a groin injury, like you read about with basketball and hockey players).

It didn’t feel like much at first, so I went up for another run. But partway down that run, pain set in, and I couldn’t bear substantial weight on my right leg. It hurt “like a sumbitch,” as they say out west. So I called it a day. Steve, my friend who instructs at Berkshire East, had lunch with me, then helped me get my gear into the car.

The drive back to sprite’s folks’ place in Connecticut wasn’t bad – linear motions of the leg didn’t hurt at all – but the next few days were spent with a lot of ice, handfuls of ibuprofen, and a lot of rest. The drive back to DC was OK, even if getting into and out of the car was tough.

Now it’s been a little over a week, and I’m stir crazy. You see, the healing process for an adductor injury is slow. Rushing back into action often makes the injury chronic, so it’s best to wait out the pain and gradually get back up to speed.

And as much as I try to be patient with these things, I’m really not that kind of guy. It’s very tough. It makes me bitter, restless, and a bit of a grump. Sure, I can channel my anger into rebuilding my one bike, upgrading the other, or doing other things that need to be done.

But I really want to ride my bikes – after all, I have a big ride that requires training. I would love to ski, even if all the good powder is falling hundreds of miles from DC. I’d like to be able to walk more than a mile without having to ice my adductors afterward.

So bear with me while I vent. This, too, shall pass.