Injury

Funny that one day after I post something on physical conditioning for sailboat racing (and in particular offshore long distance racing), I injure myself. Very minor, I probably just strained a quad - and I am thinking that it was because I rode then sailed in a fairly dehydrated state for three days, thus asking my muscle to work a lot and not giving it enough energy to support the effort.

May also be because I didn't stretch a lot - both of these are easy to correct and will definitely be corrected ASAP...

Can't be because of too violent/unusual effort as I just rode for an hour on Sunday and none of the hills were as steep as the one I ride up every day on my way back from work. I also ride every day, so can't be the 'weekend warrior' syndrome. I was just reading up the other possible causes and could not find any other than the two that I listed.

In any case, I noticed that early stage sprain or pull may only necessitate 3 days off to heal fully. Letting it become worse can quickly increase the recovery period to weeks, and all the way up to 6 months. And not letting it heal completely may result in chronic injury which would put a damper on my favorite activities.

So...I am now doing the RICE treatment (Rest - Ice - Compression - Elevation) for my right quad. No biking to work today and most likely this week :( Let's hope that it will be enough as I have single-handed Farallones race coming up on Saturday!