Time for More Bullet Points!

Recovering from an injury isn't nearly as much fun to write about as, say, training for a CrossFit competition or racing in a long track skating meet.  There are a few high points--like doing Cindy Rx--and a few low points--like slipping and falling again; but usually there's not enough to write about to fill a whole blog post.

So enter, once again, the Bullet Point Post.

As of next Tuesday I'll be 14 weeks post surgery.  Here are some of things that are going on lately:

The Good

• On Friday Dec. 5, 102 days after my injury, I was finally able to do a workout at full intensity.  I've done some of the WODs in CrossFit in the past couple weeks, but I've always had to be slow and cautious so I haven't felt like I've really "done a CrossFit workout" yet.  Even Cindy, although it left me a bit breathless, wasn't truly full effort--I was super cautious in the squats.  So I really haven't gone all out yet...until Friday.  The  6x250 meters rowing with 1 mn rest between each row that I did on Friday certainly felt like a "real" CrossFit workout!  I had to sit on my nice little butt pad on the rower seat, and my leg hurt a little, but I was able to row as hard as I could.  When I unclipped my feet after the sixth set and basically rolled onto the floor to assume the classic Post-WOD Roadkill pose, I was able to rediscover the weird masochist joy of completing a high-intensity workout.  Man, I've missed that!
• New things I've done recently:  stepping up on the 20 inch box with my bad leg leading; jumping rope; doing weighted squats (just 35 pounds for the back squat and 15 for the overhead, but still--weighted); rowing (I had done it before my slip-and-fall three weeks ago, but it's been too painful to do until just this week); running (well, jogging 100-200 yards at a time); and dryskating (well, I did 8 strokes with each foot and then my bad hammie said "enough").  So I'm still making progress.
• My kip seems to be improving.  A little.  I've never, despite a lot of very good instruction, been able to figure out the kip.  And until I started competing, I didn't care.  I had heard that kipping is hard on your shoulders, so I didn't even try--I stuck with strict pullups with the band.  But if you're going to compete you need to be able to kip in order to complete the high number of pullups that you might find in a competition WOD.  So, after working on strict pullups for the past 6 weeks to strengthen my shoulders, I'm now trying to kip again.  The coach gave me some more instruction at my personal training session on Thursday, and it might be starting to click--on Friday I did 4 kipping pullups unbroken.  Hey, it's a start!

The Bad

• There are still many movements that I'm unwilling to attempt.  Some, like climbing the rope, would be fine if nothing went wrong--but like Hubby Jim says, you have to consider the failure mode, and flailing around in a rope-climb-gone-bad could cause all sorts of problems.  Also in this category are handstands and double unders.  Other movements make my hammie hurt just thinking about them: deadlifts, snatches, cleans, kettle bell swings, wall balls, toes to bar (not that I could ever do those anyway), and walking lunges.  Oh, yeah--and skating.  Actually, skating lands in both categories--I'm sure I'd be able to just wobble around in rec-skater mode, but if I slipped or lost my balance or fell, really bad stuff could happen.  On the other hand, I can't even imagine being able to get into "real" speedskating position right now, let alone being able to actually skate.  So there's still quite a ways to go.
• Yesterday I went to the Oval to watch the American Cup/John Rose Open long track meet. In addition to watching some good races and talking myself hoarse updating all my friends on my hamstring issues, I managed to find myself spending money at the Cascade Speedskating booth set up in the lobby (no, that's not the "bad" thing!).  I bought a jacket and a pair of full-zip bibs to wear to the starting line of cold outdoor races.  When I  tried on the bibs, my first thought was "man, that's some poor quality control.  The left leg of these bibs is a lot tighter than the right."  A couple seconds later, of course, I realized that I had just answered fellow speedskater and hammie-avulsee Steve's question from earlier in the day..."Is you injured thigh still a lot smaller than your uninjured?"  Um, I guess it is!
• Recovery is still definitely having its ups and downs.  I was pretty bummed after doing a couple CrossFit WODs in my new "slow and careful" style, and realizing how much fitness I've lost--not just in my legs, but in other areas like my core (although, yes, my pushups and pullups and ring dips are progressing nicely).   After Thursday's personal training and Friday's rowing WOD, though, I'm feeling more optimistic again.

The Ugly

• The day after I got back from my parents' place, where we spent Thanksgiving, I stepped on the scale and realized that I have now officially gained back all the weight I had lost last spring in the SISU Nutrition Challenge. Enough said.

So there you have it...the current state of Operation Hamstring Recovery.