Open 15.1

Not much to report in the hammy department; I have an appointment with my surgeon for Monday, so hopefully I'll get some answers then.  In the meantime, at my last PT visit on Wednesday I whined extensively spoke persuasively enough that my PT agreed that I could resume lower body workouts until I see the surgeon.  Which meant that I was now able to do...

The CrossFit Open Workout 15.1!

For those not familiar with CrossFit, the Open is an annual online competition that is the first step in qualifying to compete in  CrossFit's "Super Bowl," the Reebok CrossFit Games.  The Open is really cool in that it's truly "open;" while the eventual competitors in the Games will use it as the first step in their road to the Games, hundreds of thousands of "regular CrossFitters" around the world will also complete the same workouts and will be ranked against all Open competitors in their bracket.  Starting at the end of February, every Thursday night for five weeks a new WOD is announced, and competitors have until the following Monday to complete the workout and submit a score.  CrossFit SISU, as usual, has a great plan for making the Open workouts a community event: every Friday they're hosting a three-hour "Friday Night Lights" where SISU athletes can complete the WOD, as well as act as official judges and unofficial cheering sections for each other.

Yesterday was the first of these "Friday Night Lights."  I was excited to compete.  Last year I didn't sign up for the Open, but ended up doing a couple of the workouts because they were programmed as the regular Friday class workouts during the Open.  I hadn't been able to do most of the movements in those workouts, but I figured that, even with the hammy issue, I've improved enough in the past year that I should be able to complete most movements that would show up in an Open workout.  Of course, I was hoping not to see any of my current Kryptonite moves--double unders, handstand pushups, pistol squats, and toes to bar--show up in the Open WOD.  So at 7:00 Thursday night, as I was preparing to leave school after my final Parent-Teacher conference, I checked my phone for the 15.1 WOD.

9 minute AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible) of:
15 toes to bar
10 deadlifts
5 snatches.

Whee.

Oh, and then there was a 15.1a...6 minutes to complete a max clean and jerk.

Well.  This posed a dilemma.  This year, for the first time, the Open offers both "Rx" ("as prescribed," or normal difficulty), and "Scaled" (easier) options for each workout.  Athletes can choose either option each week; all Scaled competitors are then ranked below the lowest Rx competitor in the standings for a given workout.

I knew I could do the Rx weights--75 pounds for both deadlifts and snatches--although the snatch weight was only 5 pounds lower than my current PR and thus would be challenging.  No, it wasn't the weight that was the problem...it was the T2B's.  At the time the WOD was announced, my lifetime total of T2B's stood at a stunning 5.

Still, I know myself.  I'd rather try Rx and get a few reps of something I didn't think I could do (which happened in pretty much every Granite Games Master's Sectional workout last summer) than do an easier scaled version.  Besides, even one T2B completed would put me ahead of every 50-54 year old woman who chose the scaled option.

Not that I was paying attention to that, of course.

So I decided that I'd get to SISU early and try to few T2B's.  If I could hit one or two, then I'd go Rx.  If I failed completely, I'd choose the scaled option, which substituted "knee lifts" for T2B's and had a lower deadlift/snatch weight.

My first T2B attempt, as expected, ended in failure.  So did the second.  Then I thought for a moment.  I'd been trying to "kip"--a mostly upperbody swing that adds momentum to aid in getting your feet to the bar, but which I'm utterly abysmally horrible at executing (this goes for kipping in pullups as well).  But then I remembered hearing people talk about using a "monkey swing"-- more of a whole body, little-kid-on-the-playground-monkeybars sort of thing.  Having nothing to lose, I swung my entire body as violently as possible...and actually touched the bar with both feet.

Lifetime T2B's now stood at 6.

So I practiced my "monkey swing" a bit more, and was able to complete 6 or 7 more T2B's.  I was unable to link them; my feet descended so violently from the bar that my swing at the end of one T2B was completely uncontrolled and there was no way I could channel it into a second T2B without dropping to the ground and starting over.  This is how my kipping pullups go, to, though, so it didn't bother me; I was just thrilled to be able to consistently execute single T2B's.

So Rx it was.

So I conscripted a judge from the ranks of spectators, set up my bar, put on my handgrips (to hopefully avoid ripping my hands again), and prepared to do battle.

3, 2, 1, Go!

I jumped up, grabbed the bar, swung, and kicked the bar with both feet.

One.

Attempts Two and Three proceeded as planned as well: monkey swing, kick the bar, jump down, jump up and do it again.  Hmmm, maybe I'll actually get through all 15.  Maybe I'll even get more than one round...

And then attempt four.  Clumsy swing, feet nowhere near the bar.

No rep!

Attempt five.

No rep!

And attempts six and seven and eight and nine and...well, you get the idea.  All "No rep!"

Somewhere between reps three and four, I had completely lost the ability to do T2B's.

I was still swinging...

Nice monkey swing, eh?

...and sometimes my feet were even coming close to the bar...

I think this was one of the many attempts where a "no rep"

resulted from me kicking my hands instead of the bar

...but in the remaining 8 of the original 9 minutes, I only achieved one more T2B.

By attempt # 63 or so, the spectators were clearly unimpressed...

...while my poor judge, who managed to remain incredibly 

positive and helpful throughout the debacle, pondered

new ways to say "come on, you can get this!"

So I ended 15.1 with a score of 4.  15.1a, fortunately, went a bit better.  I've only done cleans and jerks once or twice since my injury, and I'm a little hesitant to hit a heavy squat clean or a hard fast split jerk (I jerk with my right foot in front, which stresses the bad hammy), but despite this I was happy to hit 105, equaling my pre-injury PR.

After the WOD (and after thanking my patient judge profusely) I peeled off my handgrips to reveal a bloody left palm.  Oh, so that's where that blood on the pullup bar came from!  

I spent the rest of the night cheering on my fellow competitors.  There are some true badasses at SISU, and it was fun to watch them.  I also talked to a fellow competitor who said he was planning to re-do the WOD during the weekend.  

Hmm...if anyone should re-do the WOD, it's me!

So I approached Coach JJ and asked if there was a time I could make another attempt at the WOD.

"What was your score?" he asked.

"Four."

"Four reps?" he asked, his eyes widening in horror.  "Yeah, you need to re-do it."

And we shall recap the re-do tomorrow.

Walk Around in Circles

Remember the late-1990's song "Circles" by Soul Coughing?  "I don't need to walk around in circles, walk around in circles, walk around in circles..."

Well, as it turns out, I do need to walk around in circles.  Or, more accurately, rectangles, in the Plymouth Fieldhouse.  Because that's all the lower body exercise I'm allowed to do right now.

Yup, when I saw my PT on Wednesday he instituted Timeout/Setback/Restrictions Number, oh, I don't know...Three?  Oh, well...I had a good run the past couple weeks, anyway.  As I mentioned in my last post, CrossFit was going well, and skating was, well, improving...slowly, but still improving.
Unfortunately, what wasn't improving was my pain level.  No, it's stayed pretty much the same for the past 3 months or so--anywhere from 1-4 on the ol' pain scale, depending on what I'm doing.  Running, skating and driving are most likely to evoke a 4, while CrossFit and walking and sitting and general life are mostly in the 2-3 range.  The recliner rates a 0-1. My PT has done dry needling the last three times I've seen him; I did have one day after the second session when I was able, for the first time since the injury, to walk without pain--but it only lasted a day.  Other than that, nothing has really had an effect on the pain level.

Understandably, this has led to a lot of frustration.  I'm frustrated that I'm in pain so much of the time (relatively minor though I guess it is, in the grand scheme of pain); my PT is frustrated that we can't figure out what's causing the pain and thus how to make it go away; my CrossFit coaches are frustrated that one day I'm PR'ing my squat clean and the next I'm refusing to do any of the lower body exercises that I've been doing sucessfully--if somewhat painfully--for the past month or two.

For the record, I know that this injury takes a long time to recover from--9 to 12 months until return to full sport performance level.  Right now I'm skating one lap at a time at 55 seconds; I know it will be a long time before I work my way back to multiple laps in the low 40's, just as it will take a long time to work my way from my current back squat of 85 pounds to my previous PR of 150.  And I'm OK with that, because I see progress in the right direction.  I don't, however, see any progress--except for some progress in sitting somewhat comfortably--in the pain level, at least not since I made the jump to walking without a limp, which was about three and a half months ago.  And from what I read on the "Hamstring Avulsion" forum (500 pages of riveting tales of people's injuries and recoveries), this is not normal.  If you remember, back in December my surgeon said to expect my leg to hurt for "a long time" (wish I would have pinned him down on exactly what he meant by that).  Maybe I need to talk to him again, because I guess I didn't expect this to mean absolutely no change in pain level in the two months since I talked to him.

The PT said he wants me to take a week completely off of any lower body stuff to see if that makes a difference--no running, rowing, lifting, skating...basically nothing fun.  I don't expect to see any results from this inactivity; I didn't from the earlier restrictions he imposed, nor did I from my self-imposed five-day timeout a couple weeks ago...but we've got to start somewhere.  Plus, other than skating and running, it's not like exercising seems to aggravate the pain; it's pretty much just always there, so I have a hard time believing that it's the exercise that's causing the pain to stick around.  Maybe I've "done too much" (as all my non-exercising friends and, um, spouse continually warn me against), but I really feel like I've re-introduced athletic activities slowly and gradually, and I've followed what my PT has said. And besides, back in December my surgeon said there was no need to limit my activity.  But, as I say, we've got to start somewhere, and it's only a week...

So I'm frustrated.  And, of course, when I'm frustrated and can't work out, I want to eat.  I'm still trying to lose the poundage I gained when I first hit the recliner, but I know myself well enough to know that I'm going to need to allow for an indulgence or two if I want to maintain my sanity...and I figure Monster, Diet Dew, and grain free Monster Cookies (with three types of chips in them, I can hardly call them Paleo) are better than eating an entire pizza.  Not that I've done that before or anything...

My salvation...

So today, after several days of "upper body only" CrossFit, which is certainly better than nothing but which is not nearly enough exercise to keep me happy,  I found myself, as I did twice yesterday (I was desperate) strapping on the vintage iPod and marching 'round and 'round the Plymouth Fieldhouse.  And when, on my last lap, the iPod's "shuffle all" mode produced Soul Coughing's "Circles,"  I couldn't help laughing.

At least I still have my sense of humor.

Seriously, does anyone have any tales of their own injury that might be helpful?  Any major muscle tears, muscle surgery, etc?  How long did the pain last?  How quickly did it change/improve?  Does my story sound unusual (I'm 5.5 months post surgery right now), or am I just a whiner and I need to suck it up and shut up?  All suggestions are appreciated!

Like a Real CrossFitter (but not quite a real skater yet)

This week, I actually felt like a "real CrossFitter."  I didn't have to avoid any movements in any of the WOD's, which meant that for the first time since the injury I did: kettlebells; squat cleans; front squats with more than 50 pounds or so; deadlifts with actually lowering the bar instead of dropping it to spare my hammy; and Rx-weight thrusters.  Which may, of course, account for why my leg is so sore now.

But it's a good sore, right?

The week started out really well, hammy-wise (wasn't he a character in Lord of the Rings?  No, wait, that was someone else...).  Anyway, I had some more (quite painful) dry needling on my bad leg on Monday, which led to actually feeling almost no pain at all when walking on Tuesday.  Believe me, that's a novel sensation...and it felt so great that I immediately went to CrossFit and did the above-mentioned kettlebell swings.  Which of course meant that by Wednesday it hurt to walk again.  Oh, well.  There are still definite signs of progress; despite the returning leg pain on Wednesday, I was able to wear "regular pants" all week at work, without having to change into sweats to accommodate leg pain and swelling. (Which did not go un-noticed.  As I left school the other day, one of my co-workers asked how my leg was feeling.  When I said "good," she replied "Yeah, it must be feeling better; you kept your pants on all day.")

Thursday's WOD, in particular, put a smile on my face.  It started with squat cleans; we were to work up to our heaviest squat clean which would be followed immediately by two front squats.  My previous clean PR was, I think. 110.  On Thursday, despite it being my first day doing full squat cleans since the injury (I had been limited to hang power cleans before), I did 105--and it felt pretty easy (except for the hammy when I hit the bottom of the squat).  And then there was the metcon.  I had been looking forward to it since the minute I saw it posted the night before: a 5 minute AMRAP of 65 pound thrusters and chest-to-bar pullups (in the format of 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, etc.) followed by a 2 minute rest and then a 5 minute AMRAP of thrusters and toes-to-bar.

Well, I thought the thrusters sounded heavy but I planned to try them at the Rx weight.  I was looking forward to the chest to bars; I hadn't tried them since the Granite Games Masters Sectional when I tried them for the first time and barely managed to complete 7 in about 6 minutes, but I know my regular pullups have improved dramatically since then (in the Sectionals I did 16 pullups in about 12 minutes; now I've done 100 in a WOD) so I was curious to see how my chest to bars had improved.  The toes to bar, though, were the real focus of the WOD for me.  T2B are my current Kryptonite.  I've done exactly one of them in my entire life, and haven't come close the times I've gotten some coaching on them recently.  But I figured I'd do my first thruster, and then either get a T2B or spend the next 4 minutes and 50 seconds trying.

As I had hoped, the thruster/C2B combo went well.  Not fast, but well.  I ended up getting through the round of 5--which meant 15 C2B pullups--and then 6 more thrusters.  The thruster weight felt surprisingly good, and I think I only no-repped myself on one C2B. So that was fun.

On to the T2B.  There were, as I anticipated, many "no reps,"--usually when my right foot didn't quite make it to the party--but in the end I completed 4 actual T2B's, thus quadrupling my lifetime accomplishment.

You can bet I was smiling after that!

As for the skating, I went out twice this week, both times immediately after a CrossFit workout.  The first time, I was able to skate two laps in a row once and three other sets of one lap, before my leg said "stop."  The second time, I couldn't complete a full lap.  So while there's definite progress in skating, there's also definitely a long way to go.  But that's OK; as long as I'm moving forward I'm happy.

It's so much fun to feel like I'm really starting to get back to doing at least one of my sports at close to a "normal" level!

Laps

After all the whining that's been going on here the past couple weeks, I'm thrilled to say that I've got a happy post for a change.  I went skating today for the first time in two weeks...and I managed to do five sets of one complete lap of "speedskating!"  The laps were slow--so slow that I had to throw a few straightaway strokes into my "into the wind" corners--and still quite painful; but I was surprised and very pleased that I even felt like attempting full laps, and even more surprised at how well they went.

Prior to this, I've done mostly single straightaways in "speedskating" position; every time I've tried crossing over in corners I've regretted it, so I've stuck with "skate the straights and coast the corners."  But today, although the pain was still there, my mobility and strength felt up to the task of trying corners, and when I did try, my crossovers felt more like real crossovers than the lurching-and-wobbling attempts I'd previously made.  So I tried a continuous lap...and I could do it!  And I even was breathing a little hard after the lap--so there's hope for getting a good cardio workout sometime soon.  So then I did four more laps, with one lap of rest between each--and then my hamstring felt pretty tired and it seemed like a good time to stop, so I just did upright "rest laps" for the rest of the ice session.  With a huge smile on my face.

Maybe the improvement in skating ability was due to having run a mile (a blazing 10:20, but a significant improvement over my previous 11:40 mile) immediately before hitting the ice and thus being completely warmed up before I tried skating; maybe it was due to just general improvements in strength and flexibility; maybe the dry needling or the ARP wave or the massage had an effect; or maybe I was just better at ignoring the pain and getting on with it this time.  Whatever the reason, I'm delighted, and I'm already planning this week's skating workouts.  Let's see, maybe I could skate Tuesday and Thursday after CrossFit (yes, I'll be well warmed up to skate!)...maybe try a short "pyramid" workout on Tuesday of 1-2-3-2-1 "real skating" laps, with one lap of rest between each set of real laps.  And then maybe on Thursday I could time a lap...

It's so much fun to finally be able to start thinking about real speedskating workouts!