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Bad Backs and Egress

Bad Backs and Egress

Off Track with Hinch and Rossi Apr 08, 2025 25 min
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About this episode

James Hinchcliffe and Alexander Rossi chat about their recent experiences with running, back injuries, and chiropractic care, sharing personal stories and differing views on treatment. They also discuss the challenges of attending the Suzuka F1 race, focusing on the difficult egress and travel logistics post-race. The hosts reflect on the value of attending major motorsport events despite the hassles, and share anecdotes about meeting fans and upcoming race plans. The episode blends humor, health talk, and insider travel tales from the racing world.

Topics: running and fitness back injuries and chiropractic care travel challenges at motorsport events Suzuka F1 race experience event egress and logistics fan encounters race weekend routines motorsport travel tips personal health routines upcoming race previews
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This is off track.
Hello. And welcome to Off Track with Hinch or Rossi.
I guess you've already figured out who's here this week.
Um, dude, sorry if I sound like a bag of stuff.
It's, I, I just woke up.
I've been sleeping for 12 hours after traveling for, I don't even know.
Yeah, it's not good given my line of work. This
Is so weird though.
Okay, so you slept in and have done nothing.
I've run four and a half miles today. , .
Like, Is this is what it's like to be, you wake up in California 12 hours after I went to bed. ?
Yeah, kind of. Well,
Because it was, that's, that's what I've done.
Yeah, man. Okay.
So you've gotten up, you've been to the gym. Um,
Got shower hazel at school.
She showered. Yeah.
Wow. That's, uh, okay, so four
and a half miles you ran? Yeah,
I've, I've still put on the weekend.
Didn't do like An eight or something.
I'm on the A nine, so like yeah, it's, it's like you do two runs on the week that are kind of on the shorter side.
So this week it's two, four and a half mile runs.
And then this Saturday right before Long Beach, get in the mood with a 10 miler. Um,
Saturday morning you're doing a 10 miler.
Yeah. So like if I'm limping
around the paddock Saturday, that's why.
But you know what? You won't be
because you've been doing your training and like you did.
How was it after the nine?
The nine wasn't as bad as I thought.
The eight was the hardest. 'cause I, I'm gonna be honest,
I had a little bit of wine the night before the eight .
Yes, Tim, that does affect your running performance the following day.
So the eight was the hardest.
The nine wasn't that bad, but it was still like my legs were jello yesterday.
Afterwards it was like, I guess I've just never run that far.
I used to row in high school, so the most I'd ever run before was, was like 10 Ks when we were being punished.
Um, . , like
When you, you did not stroke at the appropriate time as the other people in the boat.
Yeah. So it's a, it's a new thing.
How did you, did you hit your a hundred miles in February?
No, I threw my back out and so that's, it's such an old man story.
I literally, I have a comment after.
Okay. . No, I was, I was doing great.
Like I was on pace to be, I I was, I was on pace to have like three days off at the end of the month.
And um, I was running, we were actually out in LA and I was on the treadmill and I just, I think I slept funny.
I'd been in, you know, my eighth bed in 10 nights or something.
And, um, I ran and I like tweaked something in my back and it's like, it threw a rib out on my, on like the back half of me or something, I don't know.
And so like, I'll just take a day off.
I've, I've built myself up a bit of a buffer and, um, yeah, I was like almost immobile for like four days and then I had to come home, go to the chiropractor and then it still took a few more days, so I didn't, it, I was, I didn't run for like a week and then I was like, I'm not gonna now jump back on a treadmill and have to do eight miles a day for the rest of the month to make this, so I'm just gonna defer it to a future month. Dude,
Back stuff is the worst.
Yeah. Man, man, I threw
My back out in January, like lifting some suitcases and it's just been kind of like, I have to stretch twice a day whether I'm working out or not, to just not have it hurt anymore.
Yes, yes. it's stretching is so important.
And I do it like, I dunno if you can negative stretch, but that's basically how I live my life.
I, uh, you know, I sit a lot.
I think they call that like flying.
Flying is the negative stretch.
Correct. Exactly. Sitting in a,
in a like seated position on a plane for that amount of hours.
It is so bad for you. And Becky yells at me all the time,
very rightly as she should to stretch more.
And I almost, almost never do it.
She challenged me to be able to like straight legs bend over and touch my toes by the time we got home from Japan.
And like, I got it. Like I had to work at it.
'cause I was pretty far away before we went and I got there, but it was like I had to do a little bit of a momentum and like, ugh, like at that last, that last like, quarter of an inch, I had to like, I couldn't hold my toes, you know, I can touch 'em, but I need a little Yeah.
You know, it's bad, man.
I need, I need so much help. It's not good.
It's not good. Um, yeah, I, so, okay.
Have you, are you a big believer in the chiropractor? Do you go off?
No, not at I, I am, I am.
I think I, I think before this happened, I had been twice in my life.
Um, and, but then, and then on the other side of the scale, Becky is like a religious believer.
So where do you fall in the chiropractic scale?
I was always super opposed to the chiropractor. Yes.
Because I've just like, that's kind of me.
I've heard enough about like the history of it as a medicine to know that 'cause I'm a medical practice. Yeah.
Yeah. That it was like kind of bunk science,
but I'll be, I went after this most recent one and like, after I threw my back out in January, I went, I went to the, uh, chiropractor out here and like, I'll, I, I'll say it helped, but like before he did the adjustment stuff, I was just being stretched out for like 10 minutes.
So I think that's what really helped.
It was like, all right, I'm gonna make sure you're really stretched out and then I'm just gonna make things pop.
So it sounds like I did something . But here's
The, here's here's the other thing too though, right?
Is like, as much as I was kind of antigo, um, I, I crack my knuckles 20 times a day.
Yeah. But that's just releasing air.
Right. And like, but like,
and I'll, I'll crack like I have like, sometimes I'll crack, I don't even know what I'm cracking when I do it.
It's like something in my pelvis region.
Like if I've been sitting, I can kinda like do something where I lock my ankles together and pull apart.
Oh, interesting. Tailbone. Like
I crack my neck a lot.
Oh, you crack your neck a lot.
Like everything that I crack on my own on my body, I'm like, oh, this is great.
I love this . And then all
of a sudden when someone else is doing it, I'm like, mm.
I don't know if I buy into this science.
Like, it doesn't make any sense.
, it's a orly a hypocritical approach to Take.
Well, no, I know that they're cracking it.
I, I just don't know if it is actually doing anything good.
Right, ? Like
When you Cracking Your Knuckles. My, you
Just, my biggest fear.
Yes. My, my biggest fear with it was always
'cause I had heard, or I knew people, I forget where this came from, but it was like, once you do it, you become reliant on it and you have to keep doing it forever.
Oh, this is like chapstick It's like .
Well, no, it was my same philosophy with why I never started drinking coffee.
'cause I, growing up, I, when my friends started transitioning into drinking coffee, then when they were, they would have days where they didn't get their coffee or like, you know, they were just completely miserable.
They were different people before they had two cups of coffee in the morning and I was like, I never wanna be reliant on having coffee to feel like myself.
I never wanted to be reliant on, on somebody cracking my back to me for me to like, feel good.
So I was just like, I'll just suffer through everything and it'll take care of itself.
That's like kind of my take on medicine and illness and sickness and injury is just wait it out. It'll be fine.
I also think though, like, we're, we're at a point, and admittedly, you're significantly older than me.
Like eight. Okay. Just calm down.
80, 90 years old. All right.
Pump the breaks. , I think we've both solidly
passed the point of like, you can't really build a base for yourself anymore.
Do you know what I mean? Like you've
Oh, I, yes, a hundred percent . We're on,
We're on that. We
We're having coffee now.
Yeah. Like we're at least at that.
We're at least at that like the free hang moment.
We throw the ball in the air before it starts coming back down.
We're not, we don't have upward momentum anymore. . No,
No, no.
We are on the back half of the hill. Yes.
I see what you're saying. Um,
and you know, that's actually there, there's something to that.
Because what I will say, the, the one thing that I've taken out of my, you know, going into my fourth year of working F1 now is I drink a lot of espresso on F1 weekends.
Okay. Because that's coffee.
I know, I know . But let me, let me ex let me explain.
When I say, when I say, you know, I don't drink coffee, I mean that, like, I don't do, I don't have a morning cup of coffee in, in any capacity whatsoever.
Um, that's not when I have to espresso.
I have to espresso jet lagged at two 30 to three 30 in the afternoon when you're like, you still have another session to go and you're like, I just need, I need a little caffeine shot.
Okay. But I also, I also hate every second of it, right?
So not only do I not drink coffee in the morning, most people that do drink coffee in the morning, they enjoy it.
They enjoy the routine. They enjoy, enjoy the smell. I do.
They enjoy the taste. I have to have an espresso
for the sake of the caffeine.
Sometimes I'll use a Red Bull instead of an espresso.
But sometimes it's not appropriate to have a Red Bull 'cause you're sitting in the ho hospitality or something.
Or McLaren hospitality.
So you have coffee or you have espresso. I
Didn't even think about that.
It's, yeah, , it's The, it's the caffeine without, it's like in the minimal amount of coffee delivery.
I get the caffeine that I need. So I, I do not like coffee.
I do not drink coffee.
I will essentially smash an espresso for like self preservation.
But that's It. I, I like
Routine.
A Lot of Routine.
I like the routine. And honestly, nine times outta 10,
my neighbor Casey pops over.
I make a cup of coffee for him too.
I'll read a section of paper, pass it over to him.
We'll have the news on. We'll just sit around and chat.
So you're just an old married couple?
Pretty much. Yeah.
Do you guys do like the crossword together or No, I do the crossword myself.
'cause I pay for the paper. If he wants to get,
He Can get his own subscription. .
He gets the Sudoku. Because you don't like those?
Uh, I do the jumble and the crossword.
That's fair. Have we,
have we talked about your new desk yet?
No, dude. Okay.
So we're just going to like completely brush over the fact that your background is a completely different thing.
And even though it kind of looks fake like it, if it wasn't for the Macbeth book.
Yeah, no, it's, it's real .
No, no, no. Yeah, I know. Yeah, like your hair,
it looks fake, but it is very much real. Um,
I even got this picture of me holding you up.
That's how you know's Legit . When was that?
From 20 15, 20 16?
That would've been, yeah, that was 2016.
2016. That's after Dancing the Stars.
Right? After Dancing with the Stars.
'cause s Shana was there that night.
Um, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Now felt like, uh, you know, about time to start getting rid of the stuff that I brought to this apartment from college.
Like, I still had the same .
I still had a lot of the same, I I was getting rid of some stuff and, uh, one of the surge protectors at my old desk, like had the name of the rental property that I stole it from in college. .
It's like, it's like, oh, that's, I probably that like that.
I don't think that's protecting from Surge anymore.
No, I don't think, I don't think it ever did, if I'm honest.
If they were just giving 'em away to college kids.
Yeah, no, it's, it's, uh, it's crazy man.
Podcasting must be going pretty well for you.
buying new furniture and No, I stole this from a college house.
Just like everything. Okay, good.
Yeah, because I was gonna say, I have no new furniture from, from podcasting, so I'm not entirely sure how this speaking is Happening.
Hey, speaking. Where are you recording from right now?
A friend's house. In what municipality?
I don't actually know the answer to that. I'm not sure where that'd be.
Malibu. It's Malibu. Okay.
Malibu's it own municipality. Is
It?
Yeah. That's What does that have to do?
That's you live in Los Angeles.
What is, what is that, what are we doing here?
There's a lot of bad places in la.
Not a lot of bad places in Malibu, .
No, no, they're not. They're not.
And I'm eternally grateful, uh, to my friends for allowing us to crash here for a few days as we get over our Japan hangover.
So how was, how was the travel back?
You were there covering F1.
We'll do that in the main episode.
We'll cover, we're gonna cover some travel stuff, uh, on the Thursday episode because as a travel podcast, it seems only appropriate to hold some of it off.
Um, I will say that it, we made it, I'll tell you, I'll tell you this story of leaving the, the track on Sunday.
So , here's look, F1 has this interesting, um, dilemma, right?
Okay. So there are a lot
of good things about having sellout crowds in the healthy six figure number, right?
Most series would aspire to have fat and, and welcome it with open arms.
There are some challenges. We get
It once a year, Right?
And there are some challenges. Um, we
Get it once a year. ,
right? Namely egress. Yeah.
Is, um, you know, people trickle in at different times.
You know, uh, people all leave in a pretty small window.
And most old school racetracks are built out in the middle of nowhere because that's the only place you're allowed to build racetracks.
And so the infrastructure for a mass exodus of human beings not awesome.
Non-existent, not awesome. No.
So Becky and I's Plan post-race was our friends had come out, um, our friends from Singapore had flown outta Japan.
They, Becky and, and and them were hanging out over the weekend.
Um, they all came to the race on Sunday.
They very smartly ducked outta the race a little bit before the end and started the train trip back to Kyoto, which is where they had been staying.
And so my plan was Sunday night Becky was gonna stay with me, so they were gonna take off, Becky was gonna stay at the track with me.
And then her and I were going to trip back to train trip back to Kyoto, which is like an hour and 20 minutes kind of on a normal program.
That's like what it took them to get in, for example.
So race finishes, post race show finishes.
I wrap up some loose ends and we're like, okay, um, our options are get into one of the cars that the crew has drive back to our hotel, which Google Maps was saying at the time of our decision making was gonna be an hour and 15 minute drive in the wrong direction from Kyoto, but we could then like get a train from there and start the journey.
And I knew based on experience of leaving that track for every night for the last four nights, hour 15 was incorrect.
It was going to be longer than that. Okay.
So I'm like, no, no, there's a train station here.
Yes, it's gonna be packed with people, but it's probably still quicker to just go line up there and, and do that.
So I get my luggage outta the car and we walk with the masses for like a mile to the train station.
Try again. This thing we get in the lineup for the train
with the people, not the people people.
Correct? Yeah, yeah. Just, yeah. Yes. With the people.
Right. There were, there was, it was no people, people
around and, um, and we get to like, we can see the train station.
We saw the line before we saw the train station, if that, if that makes sense on the sidewalk.
Um, and we got there, we lined up, we were only 50%.
There were two lines. We were only 50%
sure we were in the right line.
And we stayed in line for about 45 minutes.
And we then kind of did the math, you know, it's like when you use a legend on a map or like, hey, one inch is 82 miles or whatever.
And we were like, okay, we've moved this far in this amount of time, so it's gonna be, it's gonna be three and a half to four hours before we get on a train .
So we were like, huh.
Now luckily one of the cars hadn't left yet from the track.
And so we pulled shoot, didn't about face, ran back to the racetrack, still carrying luggage and uh, found the lovely Laura Winter and Amy ovary and they gave us a ride back to the hotel from the hotel.
We then got to the train station there and got on the first train to then go to Nagoya station to get on the bullet train to go to Kyoto to then get into cab to go to the Airbnb.
We were staying at the, even these trains, like at this point is, are so busy because there's just people scattering from the region going everywhere.
Right? So the, the trains there, they have,
um, seats.
The last row of each car is reserved for people with big luggage because there's like a big space behind the last row of seats to the, to like the bulkhead to the, to the wall.
Basically. Not enough for another seat,
but enough to like squeeze in some suitcases.
So like if you're booking a ticket on this, on these trains and you have luggage, you like try to reserve that last row.
Right? And so we got on this train and I have a suitcase.
We had not reserved, this was not a reserve ticket car, but the place was, was packed.
There were people standing in like the breezeways between the cars or whatever.
But there was the last row of this train.
People were in the seats, but there was nobody in the back rows.
So I was like, cool. So we could chuck our luggage
or my luggage in that section.
But then there was nowhere to sit.
So we were just hanging out on the other side in this luggage space.
Becky and I were just like standing there.
But then it was kind of awkward 'cause we're like standing over the people sitting directly in front of us.
And I was like, I wouldn't love that if that was me.
So we crouched down and we were jammed.
I'm gonna show you the picture. We were in the luggage
compartment for all intents and purposes on this train riding home.
So like Tim for reference, like that's okay.
Okay. So then, so then I jumped it. Yeah. Text those to me
So I can post these on the video.
So then I joined her and so then we're just crouching down behind this behind this row seats jammed in there.
And that was just until we got to the next train.
Anyway, the, the, the, the journey out of the track to get back to Kyoto was, uh, it was something, man, it was an interesting, it was an interesting experience.
So, okay, I've had somebody ask this to me because they're, they're coming to the Indy 500 for the first time this year.
And I, I tried to warn, they were like, well, how is it getting in?
I was like, getting in's.
Okay, it's not great, but it's okay.
Getting out's gonna be your problem.
And 'cause same thing everybody trickles in, you all leave at the same time.
Uh, with that, all of that, if somebody was considering going to that race for the first time, would you say it's worth it?
Wow. Yeah. Look man, it's um, I think because
I, I think the five hundred's worth it, 500 is for sure worth it.
The, the, the difference being the 500 is, um, very different from the rest of our races.
Mm-hmm . Right?
Like, would I want to sit in traffic for three hours to leave mid Ohio? I don't know.
I guess, I guess if you're going to Japan, you're, that's probably the only F1 race you're going to like most of those people, right?
Yeah. Or like, it's a bucket list one that you want to go
to for the sake of seeing Suzuka.
'cause it's one of the coolest tracks in the world.
And so like, so yes, it is worth it.
I do think, look, if I were to do it again, Tim, I would've planned things very differently, right?
I I, I had zero plan.
And so that was like, you know, um, I I, yeah, there was no fort On my head.
Used to a big helicopter guy. Was that not an option?
Yeah. Yeah. It's less of an option. Less of an option. Um,
Podcast money isn't great.
No, no. I'm, I don't have desk money.
Nevermind chopper money.
So, so the, uh, yes, I, I do think it's worth it.
I think you just have to know what you're getting yourself into, right?
I think that's part of it is like, when you're unprepared for what you're about to face, it's like that much more shocking.
So if you know what you're getting yourself into, it's fine.
Look, they all suck, man.
'cause F1 has the, the beautiful struggle of every race is sold out.
And so, like, getting out of Austin is a pain in the ass.
But it's still a great event.
If, if you were doing like a one day trip and it was gonna take you an hour and a half to get in and four and a half hours to get out, probably not worth it.
But if you're there every day for four days and you get to see a little bit of everything and it's just Sunday night, that sucks.
Yeah, for sure. Um, I
Mean, I'll I'll I'll rephrase.
Is Becky coming next year? ?
Um, no, but for very different reasons.
, it was budgetary constraints to do that again.
Um, but no, it was totally worth it.
It was so great to see our friends. Kyoto was amazing.
I don't think I, I think our last episode was before we went to Kyoto, um, which was just phenomenal.
I mean, one of the greatest places to see all the cherry blossoms, which, you know, we talked a bunch about and is, is very well known.
Um, saw the, the Bamboo forest in Aama, which was one of the most Instagrammable places I've ever been in my life.
And unfortunately everybody there was trying to add to that collection.
Um, yeah. But, uh,
but a adorable little town and, and great area.
And dude, we went to this one, um, temple.
Um, and we went at night, it was after dinner.
And this is a place where like, they light up, there's like this one massive like owing cherry blossom tree that gets lit up and it's in this kind of, it's again, it's, it's on this, these temple gardens, like the whole thing's just gorgeous, but it's open, like for the night, all these little vendors set up, it, it kind of looks like a state fair, but it's around cherry blossom trees in a temple like gardens rather than, you know, the parking lot of the horse race track in Indie.
Um, and so we walked on there having this great time inside this temple that's all lit up beautifully at night and taking all these, you know, cool pictures, whatever.
And this guy comes up to me and Becky and he goes, I'm sorry to interrupt.
He goes, are you James Hinchcliffe ? And I kind of like .
And I was like, I was like, yeah, yeah.
Hey man, how's it going? He goes,
yeah, oh, you're serious.
You actually are. And I'm like, yeah, no, yeah, yeah, no,
it's, I am, I really am.
He thought I, he like, I almost thought he was kidding.
And then he thought I was kidding.
Anyway, his name's Sam, quick guy.
He recognize you from, uh, F1 tv, IndyCar, dancing with the Stars, All , all of the above.
So I think originally F1.
And then he told me, he was like, you are the reason I started watching IndyCar.
Oh, hell yeah. And I was like, that's amazing.
That's so cool, man. Thank you for saying that.
And thank you for watching. And so he's from Atlanta
and he, you know, it had been a bucket list thing for him to come to see Suzuka and, and, and do the F1 race.
So he was doing that. Like he,
we were actually on very similar programs.
He'd come a week early and was touring around and was going to the race and then he was staying for a little bit more.
But, uh, so I said, I was like, have you been to an IndyCar race yet?
And he goes, no, not yet.
And I was like, well, look man, I'm like, Arbor's coming up.
You're from Atlanta. It's a two hour drive if you ever,
you know, if you got the time, it's definitely worth checking out.
It's a great spot. And the museum
and all that stuff, whatever I said, yeah, it's cool.
I'll, I'll look into that man. Thanks. Cool.
So we kind of said our goodbyes, chat it for a bit and went off.
I get an Instagram message from Sam a couple, couple days later.
He goes, all right, you sold me.
I just booked my tickets for Barbara. Hell
Yeah. All right.
Sam . So we got Sam's coming out,
we're gonna show Sam a good time.
And uh, and, and then on that note, also, Brian, I, I dunno if I told you guys this, the Brian, the, the, the nicest human being in the world.
Yeah. The one who gave the seat up in first class. Yeah.
He's gonna be in, in Long Beach.
So Brian and his buddy are getting the VIP treatment in Long Beach.
Sam, we're gonna show him a good time in Atlanta in, uh, sorry, in Barber. It's gonna be great.
I won't be in Barber 'cause that's the day of my, or that's the day after my, my half marathon in Indie the mini marathon.
Mm-hmm . Uh, but I will, I'll go ahead and,
and buy, uh, Brian a drink in Long Beach.
But we should, you know what? Let's have Sam on,
let's have Sam be our Tuesday guest.
'cause I want to hear after he does, after he does Barbara, how, what, what he thought of both of 'em. I love
That.
I love that. We will do that. We will do that.
We'll get Sam on. Um, in the meantime, we'll let you go
because we've kept you here long enough.
But, um, long Beach this weekend, we got, we're gonna preview that on Thursday.
We're gonna review the F1 race and some of the shenanigans.
And then I'll tell you my frustrated traveler story.
and worse than getting outta the track. Getting outta the track.
Oh, Yes and no.
Okay. Philosophically worse.
Got it. Okay. Practicality was fine,
but I'll just, you'll, you'll see, you'll see.
You gotta tune in. Tune in on Thursday
and uh, we'll chat to you then.
This has been off track with Hinch and Rossi.
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