Cast-igation
Casts sure have changed since I was in grade school. Back then, they were plaster, and easy to write on. Kids complained about how itchy they were.
Now it's space-age Fiberglas: It's got a mesh to it, so it's breath-able, which cuts down on the itch.
Cardio-vascular exercise is my religion. My principal forms of athletic mediation are rowing and mountain biking. It was a biking accident that destroyed my wrist and, with that, my spring rowing season and my ability to put both hands on the handlebars.
So I've taken up running, which as luck would have it, was something I had been building back up to before my accident. From the rowing and biking, my leg muscles and cardio-vascular system have always been up to running, but the knees haven't liked the impact. So I'd been building up to running longer and longer distances, allowing the joints to adjust. Since the wrist break, I'm up to 45 min. runs. And the cast stabilizes my wrist so the running doesn't hurt it. So I get to keep my fitness, and build my fantasies about triathalons in my future.
The problem: I sweat.
And sweating isn't usually a problem. One showers, one becomes clean, one goes on with life. Except the cast can't go in the shower. It can, I just stuff my right arm in a bread bag and seal it off with the blue rubber bands from a bunch of asparagus. So the cast never gets clean. It just gets dry.
Two weeks worth of dried running sweat is now in my cast. And while you wouldn't notice the aroma when you walked in the room, since the cast is attached to me, I've begun to perceive its subtle funk.
I fear the oflactory consequences, as I won't be out of the cast till May at the earliest, but I aim to keep running.
Now it's space-age Fiberglas: It's got a mesh to it, so it's breath-able, which cuts down on the itch.
Cardio-vascular exercise is my religion. My principal forms of athletic mediation are rowing and mountain biking. It was a biking accident that destroyed my wrist and, with that, my spring rowing season and my ability to put both hands on the handlebars.
So I've taken up running, which as luck would have it, was something I had been building back up to before my accident. From the rowing and biking, my leg muscles and cardio-vascular system have always been up to running, but the knees haven't liked the impact. So I'd been building up to running longer and longer distances, allowing the joints to adjust. Since the wrist break, I'm up to 45 min. runs. And the cast stabilizes my wrist so the running doesn't hurt it. So I get to keep my fitness, and build my fantasies about triathalons in my future.
The problem: I sweat.
And sweating isn't usually a problem. One showers, one becomes clean, one goes on with life. Except the cast can't go in the shower. It can, I just stuff my right arm in a bread bag and seal it off with the blue rubber bands from a bunch of asparagus. So the cast never gets clean. It just gets dry.
Two weeks worth of dried running sweat is now in my cast. And while you wouldn't notice the aroma when you walked in the room, since the cast is attached to me, I've begun to perceive its subtle funk.
I fear the oflactory consequences, as I won't be out of the cast till May at the earliest, but I aim to keep running.
posted by Kenneth at 9:52 PM
<< Home