Blah blah blog. . .

We Pay Money To Keep Our Cars Running

But how much do we spend keeping ourselves running?  I’m not talking about fuel, I’m talking about maintenance.  I’ve not had a physical since high school.  Over the last ten years I once thought I may have fractured my foot, so I got an x-ray.  I was fine.  I’ve not spent money on a gym, or yoga, or anything of the sort.  So when I took up cycling recently, I pushed it a bit hard and managed to hurt my knees.  I paid to get a basic fitting at my favorite local bike shop, Velotech, but that brought about an even worse pain.  So now I think I’m doing something wrong.

Sometime this week I’ll be taking my grandmother into a physical therapy center (for her foot), where I plan to ask them if they could take a quick look at my knee.  I’m hoping they can give me an idea of what’s going on.  I’ve spent weeks reading about the human knee, and have only been able narrow my problem down to half a dozen possibilities.  Assuming I can’t get this free advice, I’ve considered a number of costly solutions.

First, I’ve thought of getting a professional bike fitting.  It’ll run around $150, but they’ll take complete measurements (as though you were ordering a custom bike) they’ll go out for a short ride to observe you actually moving.  They’ll make sure everything is set right, aligned, etc.  Most of these higher-end bike fitters have been doing this for years, for pro cycling teams, have been to conferences, and in some instances are certified (on whose authority I know not).  They could probably tell me what’s going on, adjust everything, and tell me how to fix it, but I thought that’s what would happen on the first fitting.  So I don’t know.

Out of curiosity, I emailed the Human Performance Lab at Stanford, and asked if they took appointments for biomechanics analysis.  They do!  Apparently they do a one-of-a-kind fit that NO ONE in the US is doing.  This makes me wonder what the heck they’re doing over at Colorado Springs.  Don’t know, but God bless you Stanford for being advanced, or possibly insanely obsolete.  The fit includes ridiculous high speed 2D & 3D imaging, iDXA bone density and body mass measurements, they evaluate fit at various intensities.  You get to keep all the data on disc.  It’s two 2hr appointments! Clearly, they’re serious about doing some heavy biomechanics analysis.  It’s $500.  Not cheap.

But not expensive either.  Four hours of time on the best equipment with some of the best people on the face of the planet.  Plus I learn all sorts of cool stuff about MY body.  How cool is that?!  How valuable is it to know just how your body is built and works.  I’ve always wanted to know.  Now that I’m my own primary transportation propulsion system, it’s not just cool, it’s necessary.  How much money have we spent on our cars?