Athlete Interview: Jennifer Landis
For many, athleticism is much more than just a chore that they must dedicate an hour to every day. Athleticism can inspire powerful and positive mindsets, help strengthen interpersonal relationships, and be a source of self-confidence. By and large, athletes have named countless ways that their constant movement has changed their life trajectories for the better.
However, injury is unavoidable in the world of athleticism, and these accidents can unfortunately bleed into and hamper other aspects of daily life. This significant risk, along with other drawbacks of similar magnitudes, can complicate the way one approaches sport. It can spur many questions, all of which eventually attempt to answer the same unknown: how can one develop a healthy and balanced relationship with athleticism?
To dive deeper into the intricacies of this multi-layered question, let's look at the life of Ms. Jennifer Landis– a teacher at Arcadia High School and the athlete in the spotlight for this article.
There are many ways to incorporate athleticism into daily life.
Three bikers descending Mt. Baldy; mountain biking is a favorite sport of Ms. Landis.
The Interview:
Before anything, please introduce yourself!
Hello! My name is Jenny Landis. I'm a high school English teacher who likes to do challenging things. Give me a problem to solve or a mountain to climb and I'll feel fulfilled.
What is your relationship with athleticism, both growing up and now? What have been/are your most preferred forms of exercise, and how have you incorporated them in your life?
I started running track & field and cross country in high school, fell in love with the sports, and asked to walk onto my college team. I was graciously given a spot on the training team and eventually worked my way up to being a captain and a contributing member of two national championship teams. This experience of having to claw my way onto the competition teams ingrained in me a spirit of tenacity, resolve, and mental endurance that I never would have developed had I not gotten involved with sports.
I developed a positive relationship with failure. Ask any of my students, and they will tell you that this ideology is alive and well in my classroom: I encourage them to view failure as an opportunity to grow and I spur on the mantra, "embrace the struggle" because this attitude extends beyond the field of literal play— it's a way to live life. So to fully answer the question asking about my relationship to athleticism, I have to say that it has been foundational to who I am as a person.
After I graduated college, I knew that I needed to take it easy on my knees, so I began racing mountain bikes. I actually met my husband at a mountain bike race! I wasn't racing then, I was just spectating, but he introduced himself to me, I told him I wanted to get into mountain biking, he bought me my first bike and the rest is history.
Once again, I was absolutely terrible at cycling. I had the endurance, sure, but the bike handling skills were slow to come. But remember? This is what I'm good at, not being good and then trying really hard to improve myself. I competed in many mountain bike races, even winning a state championship in 2016. I've since stepped away from competitions, and have gotten more into road cycling. I prefer to be high up in the mountains— my favorite ride is going up to Baldy Village.
I've incorporated exercise into my daily life by cycling to work most mornings. I also found a neighborhood gym that challenges me in a different way. On weekends, I spend around 2-4 hours on the bike each day (that's usually when I go up to Mt. Baldy).
Describe your most recent biking accident.
I was mountain biking, and I was in the middle of climbing a steep hill when my chain broke! With the snap of the chain, I went from having a lot of resistance under my feet to having none at all. Somehow (it happened so fast that I still don't really understand it), the bike tilted, and the leg I was using to drive up the mountain instead drove directly into my bike frame. I was able to hop off the bike and save myself from crashing, but I knew my knee was in trouble.
Years ago, I broke my wrist snowboarding and I felt sick to my stomach. On the trail, I felt similarly queasy, so I went to get an x-ray to make sure nothing was internally wrong. The x-ray came back clear and the doctor said I could have bruised a bone or damaged some ligaments, but those diagnoses can only be identified from an MRI and I didn't receive one, so I was sent home with instructions to use crutches and wrap my knee until it felt stable and pain free enough to walk unassisted.
How have other aspects of your life been impacted by this injury?
Well, I'm such an active person that it was very difficult literally not doing any physical activity for the time it took to heal. It was frustrating knowing that I was losing strength and fitness, but that's what exercise is all about: constantly rebuilding. So this was just one more time that I needed to be patient with the recovery, and also patient with the rebuilding phase.
What has the road to recovery looked like? How are you feeling now?
I was actually very lucky to have already been going to physical therapy. The knee that I hit on my bike was actually already injured (meniscus and arthritis). After taking 1.5 weeks completely off to let the swelling go down, I went to my physical therapist and when she re-evaluated me, she was able to determine that the ligaments looked intact, but she believes I tore some muscles in my quad. We added more to my routine to help rehabilitate my knee and my quads, and I'm feeling stronger every day! There is still pain and my range of motion is limited, but I'm back on the bike and I'm walking just fine!
Any final comments or takeaways (maybe a favorite quote?)
Embrace the struggle. Do something challenging every day.
Physical therapy, which Ms. Landis underwent, is essential for post-injury recovery.
Ms. Landis: "A view from my favorite bike ride. It’s 45 miles with 5,000 feet of elevation gain. And a reminder that beauty and struggle occur simultaneously in our lives."
Conclusion:
Ms. Landis's lifelong relationship with athleticism is one full of dedication, self-improvement, beauty, and love. Her experience with the sports she enjoys the most has formed values that she has learned to apply throughout her life, and they have been truly integral to the person she is today. Though, like every athlete, she's faced her fair share of injury and setbacks, her patience with the learning curve and her embrace of the struggle has helped her overcome the obstacles she's encountered. These qualities, along with her support system of professionals, have helped her quickly bounce back from this recent knee injury— a testament to the merit of grit and asking for help. All in all, by sharing her uplifting story of self-improvement and love, Ms. Landis shows how she exemplifies and embodies the art of healthy athleticism.