Nora Grace-Flood Photo
John Geanakoplos: On a mission to walk away the pain.
The word on Mitchell Drive Thursday was healing — from a knee injury, and from the Zoom era.
John Geanakoplos expounded on that word while making rounds on the Wilbur Cross High School track during a“Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s“LoveBabz LoveTalk” program.
Geanakoplos, a Yale professor of economics, walked the track Thursday morning as part of an ongoing mission to recover from a torn quadricep tendon in his knee. To accomplish said mission, Geanakoplos walks every morning with his trainer and attends physical therapy.
He was injured from slipping on ice outside of his home last winter. He has spent a full year going through the “slow recovery process” after getting surgery. He has had to dedicate four hours a day for seven days a week to recovering.
Maya McFadden file photo
Before his surgery, Geanakoplos said, he was exercising for “practically zero” hours.
“When you lie in bed for two months, all your muscles atrophy. Not just your leg, your arms your shoulders. So getting all that back is incredibly complicated,” said Geanakoplos, who hopes to recover fully within a year.
He remains grateful for the public track that’s helped him in his recovery process.
After Geanakoplos had surgery, his son came home from college. “He held my hand and rubbed my stomach,” Geanakoplos recalled.
Once the post-surgery anesthetic wore off, the pain of the injury became “excruciating.” Thursday that pain was tolerated as Geanakoplos walked laps on the track for an hour.
“All I’ve learned is: Don’t slip on the ice,” Geanakoplos joked.
Geanakoplos added that he is “trying to heal like the rest of the country” in terms of Covid-19 and ideological division across the nation.
“It’s time to move forward,” he said.
Geanakoplos grew up in Havana, Illinois, then came to New Haven, attending Hopkins School.
As a professor, Geanakoplos said, he feels that the return to in-person classes is helping him and his students to heal from remote learning — from days of “Zoom after Zoom.”
“The students were so glad to be back, they applauded after a bunch of my lectures,” he said. “They weren’t very good lectures but [students] were so relieved to just be there.”
Geanakoplos’ injury served as a reminder to him that “time is running out” and that he still has goals to work toward as he ages.
“It’s got me more worried about age than I was before,” he said.
His goals include traveling more and writing “a few books.”
After his daily walk, Geanakoplos biked home to prepare for a day of lectures.
Click on the above video to watch the full track-walking visit with Geanakoplos on Thursday’s “Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s “LoveBabz LoveTalk.”
Geanakoplos bikes home after hour-long speed walk.
Be brave, professor. YOu can do it!