On Mini-Sabbaticals and The Injured Athlete Club
Oh, hi. It’s been a while.
We’re fully into 2019 and yet, I still don’t feel like my feet are quite under me. Maybe it has to do with being away from home most of February and an endless cycle of the cold/flu making the rounds in our house. And, well, Mercury is in retrograde. I mean, isn’t that why everything goes a little haywire?
I took a mini-sabbatical in February. The prospect of taking an extended break away from New York City and from a packed work schedule was so appealing. It was an interesting time, but not for the reasons I expected.
One, I never seen and felt the effects of climate change so front and center. It rained non-stop in San Francisco. I’ve never seen the hills so green. Like glowing green. All the rain translated to a ton of snow in Lake Tahoe—more than I’ve seen in maybe a decade?—including one super fun powder day, which felt like skiing in a snow globe and on clouds.
I also planned two days for myself near Point Reyes to write, run, and hike. But my little retreat happened to coincide with an atmospheric river that drenched California with heavy rain and winds. On my street, there were downed trees on both ends of the road, essentially barricading me into my Airbnb. There were downed power lines and a water main break too. When the sun did come out, so did the woodpeckers, relentlessly pecking away around me. I thought I was going to lose my mind. Here are some scenes around the town where I was staying.
I mean, I’ve never seen such extreme weather. Yeah, climate change isn’t really happening.
Second, I’ve reluctantly joined the injured athletes club again. Before heading back to New York, I spent a few days in Park City, Utah to ski, snowshoe, and eat some delicious food. The first morning out, we skied at Deer Valley. As I was making my way around a section through the trees, my skis got crossed up and I fell over awkwardly. The frustrating thing? I was barely moving when I fell.
Some of you know that I’ve had my ACL repaired twice. I wear a brace while I ski. Sure, my knee feels a little sore afterwards, but this was different. It didn’t feel stable. It turns out, I re-tore my medial meniscus. Good times.
Now, it’s a game of wait and see. My doctor gave me a cortisone shot this week. Fingers crossed that will do the trick and I can avoid having my knee scoped again.
What I’ve Written
I looked into some of the new policies that support female athletes—benefits like equal prize money, salary minimums, and maternity leave—for Outside. But are these measures enough? I’ve been working on this one for a while so I’m happy to see it live.
Plus, it came out the same day that news broke about the U.S. women’s soccer team’s gender discrimination lawsuit. The suit claims that: “The discrimination, the athletes said, affects not only their paychecks but also where they play and how often, how they train, the medical treatment and coaching they receive, and even how they travel to matches.” So, yeah, we have a long way to go.
I also worked on couple of other stories like this one on weird ways you may increase your risk of heart disease, this one on interesting factors that may increase your life expectancy, and this one on the gym habits that you really need to break. Also check out the April 2019 issue of Eating Well for a breakdown of high vs. low-intensity workouts.
What I’ve Been Reading
I apologize in advance. I have a lot to share. I guess that’s what happens when you decide to take a little mini-break for work. You finally have time to read all the open tabs on your browser.
How Luke Perry's death is a wake-up call for Generation X (Today): Growing up, I watched a lot of Beverly Hills 90210. When the show started, my family had recently moved to the San Francisco Bay Area from Connecticut. California was so dreamy and shiny and unlike my preppy hometown. The show was also a way to keep a part of California with me when I moved back east for high school a couple of years later. Plus, Dylan McKay (sigh). So Luke Perry’s death was hard in a way I couldn’t quite put my finger on. But this piece explains a bit of it: “Generation X still clings to the notion that we're young and when you're young, you believe you'll live forever. Perry’s death is a warning that we are adults who are not immune to the health issues that we never imagined could affect us.”
The Fight for Gender Equality in One of the Most Dangerous Sports on Earth (NY Times): A look at how four women (and many others) have battled for the right to surf big waves and be paid as much as men and the complicated politics and gendered norms that pervade surfing, especially big wave surfing.
Be That Person: The Franklins 200 (Oiselle): My friend Erin competed in The Franklins 200 miler (200 miles!) and came in second female and eighth overall. I want to be as gritty and gracious as Erin.
We all want to be more resilient. What if we already are? (The Boston Globe): “There are times when I feel like this little girl, overwhelmed by something that I may already be doing (though perhaps in fledgling form)…The problem is that the way experiences of growth feel rarely syncs with how they look.”
This is What Cage Free Running Looks Like (Oiselle): Lauren Fleshman wrote about racing as a retired pro athlete, that even when your best days and “ideal” body are behind you, YOU still are valuable and worthy. And that takes a hell of a lot of self-acceptance and presence of mind.
What Remains: How can I write a history of myself without remembering? And why am I compelled to? (Guernica): Just a stunning piece of writing.
‘Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body’ and Other Lies I’ve Been Told: A Reading List on Mental Health and Sport (Longreads): More and more athletes are speaking up about their experiences with mental illness. This is a great list of essays on the topic.
Running Through Fear (Outside): An excerpt from Katie Arnold’s new memoir, Running Home. Can’t wait to read this.
Why a good night’s sleep is ‘the magic pill’ for athletic performance (The Washington Post): And maybe for everything?
Wild Ice (The Red Bulletin): OMG, skating on super thin ice? Nope.
Long overlooked by science, pregnancy is finally getting attention it deserves (The Washington Post): About damn time.
Finding What’s ‘Oddly Satisfying’ on the Internet (NY Times): Personally, I like the videos of machine making cookie cutters.
What I’ve Been Watching and Listening To
Apparently, I’ve also watched a lot of shows and movies this month.
The Injured Athletes Club podcast: Thanks goodness for this new podcast from journalist Cindy Kuzma and mental skills coach Carrie Jackson Cheadle. It alternates episodes with athletes and episodes that offer very practical coping skills while injured.
Three Identical Strangers: Whoa. Not what I expected at all. A wild story.
The Crown: I started watching season 1 a while ago and found it meh. I decided to try it again and am hooked. Just about finished with season 2.
Bohemian Rhapsody: Rami Malek’s performance was great. Worth it just to watch Live Aid scene at the end.
Beautiful Boy: How one family copes with addition, relapse, and recovery. Cue ugly crying on the airplane.
Sex Education: U.K.-based coming-of-age series that tackles all the awkwardness of sex with help from a socially-awkward, slightly repressed teenage boy. It’s not just funny, but you feel so much empathy for these characters.
Captain Marvel: My younger son is suddenly all into the Marvel Cinematic Universe so he had to see this movie. It was really good and presently, I'm trapped in a 90’s nostalgia spiral.
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