September 2024
Flight to Spain, Rehab and an American Restaurant
Welcome back to another edition of Dodson Diaries!
Here is the schedule for the whole season if interested. There is a 6-hour time difference from Eastern Standard Time, but the games are all streamed and recorded on CanalFeb. The team name is Lointek Gernika Bizkaia. Our first game was October 5th which I will write about in more detail in the next newsletter. It is nice to be back playing again in the games, but also in general!
In this newsletter, I will be talking about my flight to Spain, rehabbing overseas, and an American restaurant.
Flight to Spain
I left for Spain on September 9th. This year, I had three flights. I was hoping it could be changed especially with my ankle, but I made it through. Delta has two flight options especially going out of Atlanta, but the downside of the teams paying for the flight is they will go for the cheaper flight. I learned that with the flights I always have to check the booking information, so I can get an aisle seat. No matter how many times I make it clear I want an aisle seat it often is not chosen. An aisle seat is important for me not only because of the legroom, but on the longest flight being able to get up, walk around, and use the restroom helps a lot. This year, my dad paid for me to get extra legroom on my longest flight from Miami to Madrid which made a huge difference. I think moving forward I will have to start doing that to be more comfortable. Otherwise, my knees are stuck in the seat ahead of me for 8 hours.
My travel schedule was as follows:
Woke up at 5:30 am
I wanted to make sure I had enough time to weigh my bags and make sure I had everything. I almost forgot my neck pillow which I like to have. Buying my electronic bag weigher has been a life changer for me compared to using a traditional scale (link). I am able to precisely fill up my bags right up to the 50 lb limit.
Leave for the airport at 6:30 am
Atlanta is notorious for its traffic to the airport and long security lines. I have TSA Precheck and Clear and the line took about 30 minutes. My bag often gets additional screening because I have a lot of electronics like my recovery boots, laptop, massage gun, and speaker.
Atlanta to Miami: 11:09 am-1:12 pm
The flight was a little delayed, but I still had time to get a good meal before my longest flight to Madrid. The one positive about the extra flight.
Miami to Madrid: 3:35 pm-6:05 am
During the takeoff for the longest flight, I like to write myself a message in my Notes app to send myself an encouraging message or get thoughts out. Sometimes I read entries from previous flights as well. I always end up only sleeping at most 3 hours on the flight.
Madrid to Bilbao: 9:20am-10:25 am
I liked flying into Madrid better than Frankfurt. There was only one passport control check, and it was less of a hassle to change terminals.
The flight took 11 hours in total. Once I landed, I got picked up at the airport and the drive back to Gernika was 30 minutes. I got to Gernika in the morning, so to reset my body clock the first two days were brutal trying to stay up. It helps though to get your body in the right time zone faster. The first day watching evening practice I was very close to nodding off. For me, it took a couple of days for my body clock to be acclimated enough to the time.
Rehab
Returning to the same team gives me deja vu, it reminds me of when I was a returner for college. There is a lot of familiarity with the town and the layout of practices. However, there were a lot of changes in terms of the team, for example, only three players returned including me and we have two new assistant coaches. Furthermore, we have a lot of younger players, and I am one of the oldest. The youngest player we have is 18 years old for reference. It was a new challenge coming to the team unable to play right away. Last year, I arrived late due to my foot injury, but once I came to Spain I played and practiced immediately. Each season brings its own challenges to overcome and right now for me, it is continuing to rehab.
It’s difficult and stressful coming to rehab with a club. There are expectations of playing as soon as possible even if they are not directly insinuated.. it’s there. Their timeline doesn’t always align with yours which it did not for me. Coming to finish rehabbing with the team I had to find a way of “straddling the line”. Showing them that I want to play and that I am making the best effort at getting back, but also advocating when I need more time. Overall I am fortunate that I came back to a club where I have a previous relationship with them and I feel I can talk to the coach, but it still was a challenge.
The progression and the equipment available to me in Spain compared to when I rehabbed in the United States is different. The AlterG was my saving grace for every foot injury I had. It’s an anti-gravity treadmill that lets you slowly build up to 100% body weight. This helps me practice my running form and run before running at full body weight. That was not available and starting off running straight on the court was not ideal for me especially when it was jogging for longer intervals. I had to lean on the resources I have back home like my former college trainer to find ways to find other exercises to help me reacclimate to running.
The rehab progression I have found was more on the progressive side and not consistent. It reminded me of when I was rushed back to play on a stress fracture at Stanford. Mentally that was challenging. I had to tell myself that I have more autonomy now and I am no longer back there. To combat my mind going back to that place I started making routines for myself to supplement the rehab I was doing with them. This helped my ankle get better, but also mentally feel better about the rehab.
They want you to play and just because you are cleared doesn’t mean your body is ready to play. I have to listen to my body more than ever otherwise I could lose all the work I have put in. I can play now, but still using the exercises that my support team back home gave me to manage not only my injury but maintain it so I can make it through the whole season. For example, I still have limited mobility in my ankle so I have to continue to work on my own. In the team’s mind, I am fully healthy, but I know I still have work to do.
An American Restaurant… called Ribs
I know I am in Spain and that means I should be trying out more Spanish cuisine, but I can’t help myself when I find American-inspired restaurants or places. I have to go to them to see what is deemed “American” in other parts of the world. I remember there was an American store in New Zealand that had all the unhealthy food choices to choose from. So much so, everything I pointed out to our team massage therapist, I warned had a lot of sugar, bad for you, or a mixture of both. It did not give me pride to show American food that day most definitely.
The American food place in Spain I went to this month was recommended to me by my nail tech at the salon. My Spanish is good enough now that we can have a simple conversation. She told me how she is from Brazil and is in Spain to have a better quality of life for her family. She told me about an American food spot called Ribs… yes I kid you not that was the name. Often “American food” means Texas or Southern food normally. Of course, me and my other American teammate had to go after making this discovery. I decided to get the ribs because if the place is called Ribs it is a no-brainer to try them. Of course, the spices on the ribs were different and the BBQ sauce was more watery (probably doesn’t have all the preservatives and chemicals) but they were not bad! The ribs were not as fatty, so after eating a full stack, I wasn’t lethargic. They had pazookies for dessert which I would have loved to have if I was not lactose intolerant now. When my parents and brother come to visit, I will take them there. They often stay for about 2 weeks, so sometimes we just want to eat something familiar.
Thank you for reading my newsletter. Until next month :)
Love it! Were those beef or pork ribs?😉
Love this MyMy I’m glad you arrived safely and got some good eats too!