Day 24: Spasms and making the Airdyne my B#$*#

I woke up this morning and I discovered that my arm wasn't in the sling.

....that scared the crap out of me.  Last thing I need is to open up my arm, need new incisions and even worse, have my screws be ripped out of my socket.  

Luckily I hadn't moved a whole lot in my sleep.  I vaguely remember waking up in pain in the middle of the night, and shuffling around.  I guess I took off my sling.  I pray that I don't do that again.

I also noticed today that when I wear my sling, that my shoulder goes into serious spasm.  So, I literally try to not wear it at all during the day.  

Chase told me that it's part of the process.  As I get more active, my arm wants to move more... and it affected him for 2-3 months.

...great. 

In other good news, the Airdyne is no longer as challenging as it used to be.  

I remember the first time I rode it when I arrived at Big D.  My calf was acting up, so Chase had me do the Airdyne instead of running.  

My Grandma had one that she would ride to stay fit.  I have been thinking about her a lot this week.  Monday was the 6 year anniversary of when she passed away and I miss her a lot.  She was all about the Airdyne and doing Tai Chi.  I remember that she would do it for about an hour, while reading a magazine or the newspaper.  I would pop in and she would say hello and even have a conversation.

...I figured if my dear sweet Grandma Dot did it through her 70s and 80s so relaxed and with such elegance and grace, it couldn't be that bad.  

I mean seriously.  My Grandma was adorable.  

...after about 30 seconds on that thing, I discovered why that thing had this nickname:

...and I decided that my Grandmother was a BEAST and some sort of superhero.  She must be looking down on me from heaven, laughing her butt off that her big, big bad CrossFitting, Hockey-playing, granddaughter who also happened to be a US Marine was being absolutely owned by a Schwinn Airdyne.  

...I am sure I am absolutely endearing to her in this struggle. 

...so... I avoided riding that thing like the plague.  No matter how much my legs hurt, I would suck it up and run.  I made it my mission to be awesome at mobility.  I went about 9 months without touching it.. and it was amazing.

Given that I can't run with a sling, I have been stuck on this damn thing. 

The first day back, I hated it so much.  Chase programmed a ridiculous amount of calories.  My arse hurt from the seat.  My legs burned like fire.  It was just not awesome.

Two weeks ago, it took me a minute to do 8 calories on average.  

So... today I did 10 calories on the Airdyne to modify a 400m run... and 20 calories for an 800m run.

...to put that in perspective, it takes me about 1:45 to do a 400m run.  It took me 45 seconds to do 10 calories on the trike.

Sooooooo.... need to reassess that whole math thing. 

It was taking people about 13 minutes to do this workout:

400m Run

25 KBS (53/35lbs)

15 Burpees 

10 Goblet Squats (53/35lbs)

800m Run

10 GobletSquats

15 Burpees

25 KBS

400m Run

I modified it by doing the Airdyne mod I mentioned above, the kettlebell things with one arm and situps instead of burpees..... and I got 8:15 which was just ridiculous.

I have also named the Airdyne that I ride everyday.  Her name is Betty.  I get annoyed when people adjust her seat.

Seriously... don't f#*$ with Betty.  I will know...

Alright.  Time to grab my muscle relaxers and settle into bed.  

Tomorrow... it will be a new day of sling fitness.  

Day 23: Pain in progress

Halfway done with my time in a sling!  Three weeks from tomorrow is my next appointment with Dr. K. Pretty sure that's when I'll get turned loose and can start doing things like not having to sleep with a sling on.

I got to celebrate my 30th birthday belatedly with a couple of my best friends on Monday.  We just got burgers and chatted.  It was pretty much the most ideal night.. ever  As I get older, I'm not big on making a big deal about myself.  But, I really value the people that I care about and my getting to take a break from adulting with them.

Ice cream sandwiches and friends = best

....only problem is that I keep ending up in situations where I have a surplus of cake.... looks like May is going to basically be a No means No challenge to keep away from sugar again...

I've been pretty busy with school and CrossFit.  At least, more so than before.  I have been hitting it  hard 5 days a week.  I think me and Chase have figured out how to scale the workouts based on what is on the board.  I can usually figure out what to do as a modified workout in a similar rep scheme.  Tuesdays when all they are doing is working on olympic lifts, it's time to go for a walk with the sled.

Yesterday, I did a mile with 45 pounds on the sled.  I cut two minutes off of my time from the week before.  Probably because I ignored the small dogs from last week and didn't make a wrong turn.  There's another girl in the gym who also has a gimp hand, so she's in a similar boat.  There are two sleds at the gym, so we figured we could race.

....my PT Brandie was not too excited to hear that, but she will be OK.  I haven't been doing anything crazy... like rowing with one arm... or lifting kettlebells with both arms... or attempting to do anything that involves the rig, or barbells. Could be so much worse... seriously.

In other good news though, in 5 short days I will be able to put my arm over my head with the help of my PT and we get to step our game up significantly.  I even get to take a dip in a pool to work a bigger range of motion.

I'm at the point of healing where everything feels cranky.  My collarbone seems to have finally noticed that part of it has departed to become BFFs with my glenoid, and it's mourning the loss of what used to belong to it.

It probably did not help that two mornings ago, I woke up to Cracker sleeping under my sling.  The reason I woke up was because my arm was in some serious pain from the awkward angle that this made happen.  I already have a pillow under my arm to support it... I really didn't need the extra leverage offered by cat.

....so he got to sleep outside of the room last night. Too bad for him.  That's what he gets.

On Monday, my massage therapist Hope finally got a chance to really get into working on my scar tissue.  I have never seen her so excited.  She took a before picture and she plans on doing a week by week before and after. Happy that I can contribute to the professional development of all the recovery professionals at CryoUSA.

I am really grateful that my recovery is going so well, that I have coaches and therapists who care and friends that have my back even if I can't put up my own hair without it looking like I just stepped out of 1991...

Seriously.

Day 17: Last day of my twenties... and sleds.

I don't have anything profound or insightful for you today really.  Just like a typical CrossFitter, I want to tell everyone about my workout.

I went to daily mass at noon, worked on my homework and then went off to CrossFit in the evening.

Chase decided that today I should have a longer duration workout.  Which meant pulling a sled with a 35 pound plate from straps off of my weightbelt for a mile.

From what Chase described to me, it sounded like a dog walk from hell.. that or that I was essentially a sled dog myself.  The plate was basically my master.

Oh well, at least it was gorgeous out!

Chase buckled me in and I started walking.  I forgot headphones so I figured I would pray the rosary. The obnoxious scraping noise that followed me for the entire time quickly made that impossible.  I couldn't even get through the opening prayers.

Note to self: next time, headphones are NOT optional.

At first I felt really awkward about the whole thing... but eventually I got in a groove.  Compared to hikes with more than 75 pounds in body armor and gear, a little sled with 35 pounds.. wasn't that bad.

...I got to see a lot of lovely Mexican families who were probably wondering what the crazy white girl in a sling was doing.  Many of them waved.  I waved back.

Dogs started barking at me from seemingly every yard, probably perplexed by the noise and the fact that I was pulling a sled.

...even better, about a quarter of a mile in two small dogs came out from their yard and started pursuing the sled... barking... it was pretty hilarious.

The owner seemed highly irritated.  So, I stopped so they would stop following me.  She walked up to them and called them over.  The dogs were not having it.  I started walking again.  They started chasing me.  I probably spent about two minutes trying to sort this out with the poor woman.  I just kept walking.

I then was so distracted that I missed my turn... adding on more time.

Once I got back on track, the rest of the walk was easy.... save for the awkwardness of crossing the street with a sled behind me.

Did the mile in 20:49.  I am sure that next time I will be faster now that I know to ignore small dogs and where to turn.

I turn 30 in a few hours.  I think that was a solid goodbye to my 20s :)

The last decade made me who I am.  I am pumped to see what is in store for the next one.