Thursday, April 26, 2012

Confession time

This week, I had every intention of getting completely back on track with the Enter the Kettlebell - Rite of Passage program. I've been feeling much better overall but still have bad days. Monday was a very good day. It was rainy again, and lately rainy days have served me well. On Friday the 13th, I had some improved range of motion with scar tissue breaking up. I didn't know how much of it was coincidence and how much of it was from the joints being extra creaky from the rain.

After joint mobility, I did five 1-2-3 pressing ladders with the 8 kg. I've never felt more solid on them. I even put a smiley face beside the fifth ladder mark in my notebook. I tend to do that when especially pleased with my performance. I've noticed lately that I can isolate my lat to flex it, and it is visible on my back. In 10 years of using kettlebells, I've NEVER seen that on my body before. It is really cool, and I'm having a pretty irregular consistency with my workouts, and haven't been back to them for that long. I have such an incredible connection to my body that I've never had before, and it's all thanks to the RKC and Hardstyle Ventura training I had prior to my surgery. I can't say enough good things about Pavel's training system.

I did some get-up practice, with 5 rounds of 1+1 with the 8 kg. I was able to tuck my toes under on my right foot more than ever before, but still had to steady myself with the top of my dresser on the way up. It's getting there though. Those get-ups felt great.

For easy snatches, I was finally able to use the dice app on my iphone for the first time since training for the RKC. I rolled a 4, so in 4:00 I did 5 rounds of 5+5 with the 10 kg (50 snatches total). It was easy effort, but I can tell it'll take a bit of training to get back to passing the 5:00 snatch test. At the time of the RKC in August, I usually had about 0:30 to spare using the 12 kg.

After my workout on Monday night, I was walking in my socks to get some water before bed (I usually have to wear shoes with orthotics around the house for support. Without, it is still really hard to walk). I realized that I was able to push off with the ball of my right foot. That's a huge deal, since I've been walking with a stiff bottom of my foot since walking again. I didn't have the flexibility to be able to do that. I don't know how much of it I can attribute to the weather, but I did go out in Hollywood wearing high heels the night before. It was my first time wearing them and I was able to walk pretty well. It's quite possible that it helped, given the position of the ball of the foot and weight distribution in a high heel. It's now a focus to keep pushing off when practicing walking.

Time for the confession. I didn't do my kettlebell workout tonight like I had every intention of doing. The weather had improved enough to get out and plant some vegetables in my garden, so I spent a few hours out there. It's very hard work because I'm digging up every bit of roots from about six inches under the top layer of soil. I have no idea what's been planted there over the years but there's obviously been a LOT. I realized why most people don't plant their own stuff anymore, and if they do, they tend to build plantar boxes and start fresh with the soil above ground. I hope to never have to go through these stages again! My daughter had to sing at a local performing arts center tonight, so I took her immediately from doing yard work. I didn't want to pay for parking so I parked the car at a local shopping center and crutched my way several blocks over. I hadn't used my crutches in awhile but was in pain and knew I wouldn't be able to make it without since we were in a hurry and it had been awhile since I'd taken my pain meds. I had a very aerobic run-crutch to get her there on time (I lost track while gardening). And of course I had to crutch back after standing for at least an hour. By the time I got back to the car, my arms felt like jelly and my left quad and hamstring were tired. I don't feel like I would be able to do a fully focused workout, and I'm really worn out from all the activity. So I will wait for tomorrow when I'm fresh. I want to stick to a schedule but I still really need to listen to my body and not push it. The last thing I need right now is a setback.

Time for bed, and attempt to get back to a halfway normal sleeping schedule. It's not too normal for me to be up till 3 am and sleep till noon after taking the kids to school in the morning, but that's what I've been doing lately. Pain has a nasty way of keeping me up at night and letting me sleep through the day.

1 comment:

  1. This is some great news!! One thing I've learned is that when you are tired or worn out, don't push the training. I think that is where all my injuries started. I would workout because it was on my schedule even though I hadn't slept or was just exhausted. Your body is spending a lot of energy healing so listen to it!

    ReplyDelete