Cindy Rx

Today is twelve weeks and one day since my hamstring surgery, and I think it's time for a good old-fashioned WOD post. You know, the posts filled with tales of epic efforts, colossal clumsiness, and frantic flailing.

In other words, the fun ones.

I've been going to CrossFit about four times a week since I got sprung from the recliner in mid-October.  I have a Personal Training session with Coach Jason every few weeks and he gives me three workouts customized to my current state of "leglessnes."  I do each workout two or three times, and then we meet again and I get new workouts (and once in a while, I'm lucky enough that the regular WOD is upper-body only and I can actually join the class that day.  Those are great days.)    I've already done each of my newest workouts three times, though, and the short holiday week is precluding another PT session to update the plan.  So today I was wanting to do something different, something new, something that might give me a benchmark of where I am at this stage in my recovery.

Enter "Cindy."

Cindy is one of the CrossFit "Girls" WOD's, which are benchmark workouts that all CrossFitters do the same way (they're named after girls, not a ladies-only thing).  They are a way to track your progress and  to compare yourself to yourself...or to compare yourself to others, if you're into that sort of thing. I've done a few benchmark "Girl" WOD's--Nancy and Annie and Jackie and Fran come to mind--but I've never come close to doing one of them "Rx"--that's CrossFit lingo for doing a WOD as it's written, and not modifying anything to make it easier ("scaling."  Yes, it's a whole new language.  Try to keep up). Anyway, scaling has pretty much been my middle name since I started CrossFit.  But when I was pondering what to do today, I remembered Cindy--and I realized, with surprise, that I could actually do this one Rx now.

 Cindy consists of doing as many sets of 5 pullups, 10 pushups, and 15 air squats as possible in 20 minutes.  I've been doing pushups and pullups every day after my workouts so I can actually do a reasonable number of them now.  I just recently became able to do "real" (below parallel) CrossFit squats again, and I've actually done 100 of them, slowly and carefully and in sets of 15-30, a couple of times this past week.  So Cindy was looking like something I might actually be able to do.

I ran the plan by Coach Tyler, who was coaching the class this afternoon.  I didn't want to do Cindy down in the Personal Training room where I usually do my custom workouts because the pullup bar in there is too high for me to reach without a box and I really didn't want to be climbing up on a box for every set of pullups.  But I didn't want to interfere with the class by working out in the main room either...but fortunately the pre-Thanksgiving class was small and there was plenty of room for me to do my thing.

So, as the class prepared to do squat cleans (just watching them makes my hamstring hurt), I set my watch timer to 20 minutes, put on the grips that I use to keep my palms from ripping, and prepped my whiteboard.  I wrote 6 sets of "5's" for the pullups, "10's" for the pushups, and "15's" for the squats.  I hoped to be able to do five rounds, but figured I'd write down an extra one in case I underestimated myself.  Then I'd just erase a line through each number as I completed the exercises--saving the time it would take to uncap a marker and write a number each time.  It's all about the planning...

The first few sets were uneventful. I was able to do the sets of 10 pushups unbroken, and the squats, although excruciatingly slow and careful so as to avoid any unplanned hamstring stretch, were fine.  I did the pullups "strict"--without the body-swing "kip" that makes pullups easier by adding momentum.  It's not that I have anything against kipping...I've just never really been able to do it.  I've been practicing all my pullups "strict" these last 6 weeks to avoid injuring my hamstring with random kip-like flailing, so I figured that's how I'd do them in Cindy.  And I did...for three sets.  I've done three strict pullups in a row a couple times, and two in a row many times, but that wasn't happening today.  Today I was pretty much limited to sets of, well...one.  And after the first 15 pullups, it became clear that no more "strict" pullups were happening today, at least not without a nice long break...maybe 10 minutes or so.  Which was clearly not a good plan since I only had about 13 minutes left.

So for set four, I tried kipping pullups.  Or at least, my mostly-ineffectual flailing-crappie version of kipping.  It wasn't pretty (fortunately everyone else was knee-deep in squat cleans and thus missed my depiction of a dying fish attempting to to a pullup), but it gave me just enough extra momentum that I could continue on with the one-at-a-time pullups.

And so I did, for three more sets.  By this time I was having to break the pushups into sets of five, and my hamstring was suggesting that perhaps we'd done enough squats now.  When my timer rang at the end of 20 minutes, though, I was delighted to have done 7 rounds and 23 additional reps...in other words, 40 pullups, 80 pushups, and 113 air squats.  I was also delighted that, for the first time since August 25, I ended a workout flat on my back on the floor trying to catch my breath. OK, I'm sure part of the breathlessness was due to lack of fitness rather than extent of effort...but I'll take it.

 Rx Cindy and Post-WOD Roadkill Pose...it doesn't get much better than that.

Thankful Post, Early Edition

I realize that it's been a bit whiny around the Long Track Life lately, so I think it's time for a Thanksgiving post, just a couple days early.

Of course, I realize that overall I'm an extremely fortunate person.  The main part of my life, the cake (if you'll allow me an un-Paleo analogy), is fabulous--think of the best cake you've ever eaten, like maybe that white Costco cake with the cream filling.  I'm always thankful for the "cake" part of my life--my wonderful family, husband, dog, friends, and job.  Even in my more whiny moments I realize how good I have it and how much I have to be thankful for.

But just this last week, I've gotten some pretty nice "icing" for my cake as well, and I think it's appropriate to give thanks for all the good things that have been happening recently.  So here, in no particular order, are some bits of icing I'm thankful for this pre-Thanksgiving week (and I hope like heck that no one brings a Costco cake to the staff lounge at work this week, or I may not be able to say "no!").

• My intolerance of tomatoes, which appeared out of the blue last March, has left as suddenly and mysteriously as it came.  After about four months of completely abstaining from any tomato products, I gradually began trying small amounts of tomato--and I'm happy to say that I can now eat an entire serving of spaghetti or chili with no stomach pains or, um, intestinal issues.

Welcome back, my tangy and tasty--if not entirely Paleo--friends.

• Related to the above bullet point, I have now discovered the perfect Paleo noodle substitute--Zucchini noodles, or "zoodles."  All you need is a spiral slicer and a smallish zucchini.  They taste great, and cooking them couldn't be simpler--just microwave them for a minute or so before putting the sauce on them.

Like the "product placement?"  That's a cutting board made

by my brother-in-law, who took over my dad's 

woodworking business when he retired.

• Moving out of the kitchen, I've had some things to be thankful for in the physical department as well.  The big one is that my leg, which was extremely cranky after my fall 10 days ago, is now happier again.  It's been painful enough since the fall that I haven't been able to wear "regular" pants to work (nothing like rockin' the athletic sweats to make you feel professional), and more importantly, I haven't been able to row. This is extremely important because a) rowing is currently the only way I can really get my heart rate up, and b) I really want to do an online "Row 100,000 meters between Thanksgiving and Christmas" challenge as a way of getting into better cardio shape before I start skating again in (hopefully) January.  But as of yesterday, after some stretching and self-scar-massage, my leg is feeling much better.  I rowed 500 meters yesterday, and wore jeans for about 3 hours, both without excessive pain--so things are looking up.
• I may have a CrossFit wheelhouse again (or, as the kids these days seem to say, a "jam").  In the past, my CrossFit strengths have been running and rowing.  Running is obviously not happening now (my farthest and fastest run recently was one-tenth of a mile at 4 mph on the Lifetime treadmill yesterday), and my rowing speed and endurance have also taken a big hit.  But now, as I say, I seem to have a new "jam,"  or at least something that I can do well enough to complete assigned amounts in WODs without scaling.  To my surprise, my newfound strength is pullups and pushups.  I've been doing them pretty much every day in addition to whatever workout I'm doing, and on Thursday I got to see the results of my work.  We had a WOD I could do at CrossFit: weighted pushups for the strength portion, and chest-to-bar pullups and split jerks for the metcon.  I had to sub push presses for the split jerks, but otherwise the movements were legless enough that I could do them.  So I did.  The coach initially wanted me to do my weighted pushups with 15 pounds instead of the prescribed 25, but I wanted to try the 25.  My goal was 30 weighted pushups, and I ended up doing 31 (much to my delight and, I think, everyone else's surprise).  The C2B pullups were supposed to be 12-9-6, and I managed to do the 12 as C2B, the 9 as strict pullups, and the last 6 as C2B.  Well, 5 of the last 6, anyway.  With 40 seconds to go to the time cap, and 6 push presses still to complete, the coach came up as I was hanging on the bar on rep 6, futilely attempting to get the last inch of vertical movement that would bring my chest to the bar.  After watching me hang there for several seconds, kicking and flailing, he said "OK, that's good" and sent me on to the push presses.  I probably would have no-repped myself on that one, but who am I to argue with a coach? :-)

Tomatoes, jeans, pullups, pushups, and rowing...I have a lot to be thankful for this week!

Setback

The week started out so well. On Monday, I got to do a real CrossFit workout.  On Tuesday, I got to do another one.  Then on Wednesday I took the dog out, slipped and fell in the unseasonably-early snow, and tweaked my leg.

Damn.

I knew right away that, even though I had fallen in the worst possible way--slipping with my injured leg in front of me, which forced me to use my hamstring to try (unsuccessfully) to stop myself from falling--I hadn't re-torn the attachment.  It hurt a bit but nothing like the original injury, and the hamstring clearly still worked.  So I didn't call the doc, but just talked to my physical therapist about it at my appointment that afternoon.  By then my leg was sore and swollen, but with no bruising, so he agreed that it was pissed off but not torn.  He banned me from squats, Burpees, rowing, and anything else lower-body until I see him next week, and said it was likely that the fall would delay my return to skating and full CrossFit by an additional couple weeks.  He also told me to be damn sure I don't fall again in the next week or two.  So now I creep around outside in my boots with ice cleats strapped to them, shuffling cautiously along like an old lady.

So I had a couple days of "return to pity party"--my recovery had just hit a phase where I could start doing really fun stuff like actually getting out of breath and sweaty at CrossFit, and it was frustrating to see that go away and to return to the pain level, swelling, and more restricted activities that I had experienced two or three weeks ago.  But I'm over that and able to look on the bright side now...I didn't re-tear the hamstring, I can still do a lot of active stuff, and I'll be back to where I was--and beyond--soon.

So as setbacks go, it certainly could have been a lot worse.

Spiral

So last week I wrote optimistically about "moving past the depressed injured athlete phase" of my recovery.  This week, I'm beginning to realize that the "moving past" is not a straight shot, but more of a spiral in which you revisit the various stages of recovery again and again. Right now, it seems to be time to revisit the "depressed athlete" phase.

In other words, this week I'm gonna whine.

Looking at things objectively, I should be happy.  I can walk, I can drive, I can swim and I can do the elliptical and I can row.  I've got great customized CrossFit workouts to keep me busy, and I'm seeing progress with my upper body strength--last week I PR'd my bench press at 100 pounds, and my strict pullups at 2 consecutive.  I was even able (with my physical therapist's blessing) to do Burpees--one-legged Burpees, really, and I can't say it would distress me too much to still be banned from doing Burpees but hey, it's progress.  I'd even been fairly successful at sticking with Paleo recently.  So what's there to whine about?

Well, like I said...objectively, nothing.  But for a lot of reasons, this has seemed like kind of a rough week.  My ability to sit semi-comfortably had been improving...and then this week I maybe pushed it too far, starting with a dinner out and then compounding that with lots of sitting on hard chairs in the staff lunchroom.  At any rate, my leg has been hurting a lot more than usual this week.  The Oval opened for skating on Friday and I can't skate, lots of people from SISU are doing a CrossFit competition this weekend and I can't do CrossFit, and hot flashes and perimenopausal mood swings have been running rampant the past few days.  And all of these things pissed me off enough that by Friday night, I'd had it.  I was sick of my leg hurting, sick of not being able to do the things I love, sick of having to think, every time I move or bend over or get up or down from the floor, about how I'm going to do it without risking re-injuring my leg.

So of course I did the logical thing Friday night: I indulged in the mood-elevating properties of pizza, cookies, and (free) ice cream at a local pizza place.  There's no mood so bad that junk food can't make it better...before, of course, the regret sets in and makes it worse.

This morning, though, I decided to go to the oval for the first long track ice session of the season--not to skate, just to smell the ice and watch the skaters and talk to my friends--even though I realized I was risking making myself even more depressed by going to watch something I'm not able to do.  It was a beautiful day for skating, though...

Doesn't that just make you want to skate?

...and despite a few initial pangs when I saw the ice and realized that I have as many weeks until I can skate as I've had since the surgery, I was still glad I went.  It was fun to talk to my friends and see how excited they are for the start of the season.  And I tried jogging a bit around the blacktop track outside the oval; I can now make it about 100 yards before I start limping.  So that's an improvement, and it was a fun morning...and so the recovery spiral continues...

On the Bright Side

I tend to be a glass-half-full kind of person, so now that I'm able to work out again and thus have moved past the "depressed injured athlete" phase of this hamstring thing, I think it's time to look at the bright side of my injury.

Now, a hamstring avulsion is hardly a life-changing event, so don't expect any "wow, I look at life so differently now" type of revelations.  No, this is merely a list of "gee, this could have sucked a whole lot more if circumstances had been a bit different" observations.  So without further ado, here are the "look on the bright side" aspects of my hamstring injury:

• Professionally, this injury could not have come at a better time.  I have been a special education teacher for 25 years, and for the last 16 years I've had a classroom for kids with cognitive disabilities.  My class size varies a bit from year to year; last year I had 10 kids...and this year I have five.  And they're five of the easiest kids I've ever had.  Pretty much any of the past 24 years would have been a way worse time for this to happen, in terms of how difficult it would have been to have a reserve teacher step into my job for the first six weeks of school.
• I've been speedskating for the past 10 years.  It's been pretty much my only sport and my only exercise, and it's all, of course, lower-body.  It's only been slightly over a year that I've been doing CrossFit, which has given me a fun way to workout the rest of my body.  So now that lower body stuff is out for a while, I still have workouts I can do.  If I had injured myself before I discovered CrossFit, I would have been mighty depressed if I couldn't skate and had nothing else to replace it with while my hamstring healed.
• CrossFit not only has given me a way to workout that doesn't involve my hamstring, but I've been doing it long enough that the coaches know me and know what kind of stuff I can and can't do.  So, through personal training sessions with one of the CrossFit coaches, I'm able to get customized workouts that avoid exercises I shouldn't be doing and that help me work on my weak upper body areas.
• My bicep tendinitis is gone!  One of my chiropractors had said that a 6-8 week break from lifting was likely the only way I would get it to permanently resolve, and of course I wasn't willing to do that.  Now that I've been forced to, I'm happy to report that my shoulder is feeling fine.
• Because the Granite Games organizers had taunted us with the possibility of a swimming WOD, I had worked on swimming enough this summer that I can now exhale with my face in the water without panicking and risking drowning.  So I'm now able to use swimming (with a pull buoy, no kicking) as a cardio workout while the hammy heals.  It's not pretty, but I wouldn't have been able to do it at all if I hadn't done the practice this summer.
• I gained a new appreciation of my husband.  I already knew he was wonderful, but I was surprised at how well he jumped into the "nurse" role...fetching me stuff while I lounged in the recliner, cooking and taking care of stuff around the house, and even changing the bandage on an incision I could neither see nor reach.

So despite the timing of this injury being very unfortunate in respect to the Granite Games (which of course I had to miss) and the upcoming Masters Long Track Allround competition in Calgary in early February (which I had planned on doing and which I will be in no way ready or able to participate in)--things could have been a lot worse, and there really are a lot of "bright side" aspects to keep reminding myself of...