It Hurts!

This morning, we had a heavy frost. The grass was so coated with rime that it looked like spaghetti. In winter, many of my morning runs parallel railroad tracks. There are roads along both sides, so I run west on the north side and east on the south side. As I got to my turnaround, I suddenly realized I was hearing a "grrr" sound, repeated again and again. It was car tires sliding on the "black ice" remaining on the road. The frost was heavy enough to coat the roadway, but light enough that it would quickly erode from the protuding aggregate. The area where this was happening was shadowed by the railroad trestle, so most of these drivers were dealing with sliding for the first time this morning. It was a bit disconcerting having several vehicles sliding around, even at very low speed, just four or five feet away from me.

Another thing that happened this morning was that I punched a minivan. I tend to defend my territory pretty fiercely, so when this woman, after passing me, turned in front of me, then stopped with her vehicle blocking my path, my left hand almost instinctively balled up and hit her quarter panel. Right now, I have some bruising on a couple of knuckles. This brings me to something I've wanted to post about for a while, analgesics and anti-inflammatories. Some runners seem to live on a steady diet of these. I take them very infrequently.

First, since let's define these terms. An analgesic is a pain reliever. An anti-inflammatory reduces swelling. Some drugs are one, some the other, and some are both. The most well known analgesic only is acetaminophen (Tylenol), it is also an anti-pyretic (fever reducer). I'd always thought that aspirin (acetylsalicylic_acid) was a "both" drug, but based on one of the articles, it seems to be an anti-inflammatory (which, since inflammation can cause pain, may reduce pain). Aspirin is also an anti-pyretic. In the "both" category is Ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin). So, now you have a bit more information to help you manage injuries and discomfort.