Side-lined with a sore hip...

Wednesday, August 15, 2012
I swung my legs from the bed and hopped to my feet like I do each morning, then grimaced in pain.  My left hip was throbbing with each step and the stupidity of yesterday’s workout was manifesting itself for its designer to experience…and maybe remember. 

The pain is right in the socket of the femur/hip joint. I’d had it x-rayed last year when it had given me so much trouble and Nilesh had assured me at that time that there was no arthritis. 

“You’re hip looks good…just an old man trying to do more than he’s ready to do,” he’d cautioned then.

Blah, blah, blah.   After that diagnosis and once it had healed, I’d headed for the Adirondacks and completed the single toughest day of hiking and climbing I’d ever done.  At the time, it was a test of a partially torn meniscus as well…and both had passed.  One year later though, I’d had knee surgery and now the pain in the hip had returned. 

I really believe the hip soreness is manageable.  I need to back off on my starting point for the weight I load in the backpack…and I will.  I know that I’ll only be hiking about 30 minutes with 45 pounds when I head there in two weeks, so why do I insist on loading 60 pounds in the pack and schlepping it for over an hour?  Primarily because my ego tells me that I need to work really, really hard every time I walk out the door, which simply isn’t necessary.  And now I’m paying the price with a forced day off.  There’s an old German saying, “zu fruh alt, und zu spat smart” which in English translates to “too soon, old…too late, smart.”  This German personifies it.

It didn’t keep me from dragging the two sea kayaks around from the back yard and loading them onto the jeep for a visit to my nephew Jonathon’s new place of business in Mentor, though.  He has a rigging and sail making business that is doing extremely well and is the perfect guy to replace worn and frayed cables on sea kayaks.  Steel cables run from the foot pedals to the rudder and there is a draw line for pulling the rudder from the water to the up position for when you don’t need it.  Both were shot on the 20-year old kayaks and with my plans for open water kayaking for the ‘Tour Ohio’ trip, I’d need them.  Like so many things, I’d managed to put off getting this done.  An injury time-out was the perfect opportunity…so I did it.  At least I’d get one thing right for the day.