My hero, Jeff!

I am often accused by my wife of not divulging all of the information and gossip that I hear in a day. I can often be found saying something about one of my coworkers or news of the world and Katie says, "You never told me that." And I can agree, I never did tell her that, but when I try to recall all of the events and information in a day, some things are just edited out. Not intentionally, but I either forget to retell the information or see the information as inpertinent. Considering the exact detail that I get about my wife's daily life, I had assumed that I was receiving every minute detail of information that she receives in a day. However, I was shocked to discover yesterday that this is not an accurate portrayal. Because twice in the last 24 hours, other runners had complained to my wife that they suffered from IT band discomfort in their legs and my wife never once mentioned it to me.

You see, in my post yesterday I complained of a possible hamstring injury while I was running. The injury had me very concerned, first because of its effect on my fitness goals, and second because no amount of stretching was giving me any relief. The injury seems to run down the side of my leg rather than directly in the back, and no amount of toe touches seemed to get to the problem area. When I got home last night I checked the comments to the post and there was one from my friend (little did I know, soon-to-be hero), Jeff. Jeff had recommended that I stretch my IT band. I don't mean to sound too ignorant (I am), but I seriously thought Jeff was making a joke about masturbation or something; I had never even heard of such a thing. You must understand that Jeff is a comedian and if you read his blog, especially the DWTS posts, you can understand that he has a penchant for innuendo. Before sending a reply about how I had already "stretched my IT band", I Googled it, and low and behold this thing really exists. Not only that, but the internet is full of information about IT (Iliotibial) band syndrome, who typically suffers from IT Band syndrome (me), and stretching maneuvers to help with the problem. I got down and did a couple of the stretches and could feel an immediate impact; it was amazing! I ran (yes, ran again!) upstairs to tell Katie all about it, and that's when I found out she was withholding this information from me all day (We just now are back on speaking terms). Later in the evening we were at our neighbor's house and D (another runner) gave me a couple of more stretching moves. And today, while I am still not at 100% (I took today off from biking just to give the leg some more rest), I feel sooo much better.

So, today I am pronouncing Jeff Ford as one of my heroes. Heroism is not unfamiliar to Jeff. He has an uncle that is an astronaut, and a father, David, that served loyaly for many years in Indiana state government and courageously fought pancreatic cancer (I tear up now thinking about David's speech at Jeff's wedding). Obviously, Jeff has come by it naturally. But he did not have to comment on this little blog; Jeff took time out of his day of being a husband, a funny mo'fo'ing blogger, and improv comedian (he has another job, but nothing as cool as these) to help me out. Thank you, Jeff; you are a true hero! I owe you one.