Resistance training for princesses, divas, and prima donnas

 

I consider myself to be a hard-working, blue-collar type.  I grew up shoveling horse poop, dabbled in competitive powerlifting, and I have a motorcycle license (not that I use it, it's a relic from my crazy days). I'm not afraid of work and sweat.

But thanks to my one-legged, non-weight-bearing status, I can't lift or move anything unless I am seated, kneeling, lying down, or have my one leg propped up. So during my strength training workouts, I pretty much sit there while Jake selects dumbbells, barbells, medicine balls, bosus, stability balls, dyna disks, resistance bands, ab rollers, cable attachments, benches, seats, and boxes.  He adjusts pulleys, benches, and weights.  He loads the equipment and cleans it up.  He plans the workouts and records the efforts.

My job?  Crank out the reps and move myself from point A to point B as directed.

It's very weird, I feel like some kind of prima donna in there.

I wonder if this is what it is like to be a famous celebrity working out?!

Of course, the non-princess side of it is that Jake sees this as an opportunity to focus and bring up the intensity and effort. I have been working harder and sweating more than ever. I get no assistance to hoist myself up on the pullup bar or parallel bars for dips.  When the shoulders are burning I still have to crutch it to the next exercise. We are doing more max reps in timed intervals to boost my heart rate. My upper body is no doubt benefiting from the situation. I finish workouts in a very depleted state.

Jake has done a great job of coming up with creative alternatives for leg workouts.  We are continuing with some unilateral movements with research showing it can benefit the opposing limb. He's added some non-weight bearing leg movements that I sometimes scoff at, thinking they look like lame exercises you'd see in some women's magazine, but the next day I am feeling it! We are definitely making the most of the situation.

I'm grateful for Jake's direction with strength training workouts, but I will be glad to set aside the princess status and do my part to retrieve, load, and clean up again. Hmmm, or maybe I could just get used to this! Bring on the tiara!

Swim groove, Reading "The Long Run"

I'm actually starting to have some fun with the challenge of the cast swimming.  It brings about a different type of body awareness and focus.  I've been upping the ante a bit each time and working to stay true to form.  I hardly touched the pull buoy today, but did my 16 laps of drills (including kick drills, mind you) with just the one zoomer THEN did a very smooth in-the-zone 500 with nothing.  Nada.  Two arms and one leg.  Coulda done more. 

This is where the competitive part of me comes out.  Now I start thinking how cool it would be to do a 1500 like this and never, never again could I fret about a two-legged 1500.   Hmmmm.....

Haven't sung the praises of the waterproof cast in a while, but honestly I don't know why anyone would use or choose anything else.  Did I mention it's thin enough that all my pants fit over it? 

I've been reading the Long Run by Matt Long.  He was a BQ marathoner and triathlete, fireman, bar owner who was literally run over by a charter bus while riding his bike (out of necessity) during a transit strike.  He sustained MAJOR damage and it was a miracle he lived.  This book interleaves stories of Matt before the accident with his journey back to an athlete. I haven't finished so no chance I'll spoil the ending, but it's been a captivating read thus far.

The Visible and the Hidden

Over the last 2+ weeks there have been a lot of questions about my leg - how did it happen, how do you drive, what can you still do?  It's hard to think of a more visible sign of injury (or personal weakness as I feel sometimes) than a cast and crutches.  While I understand the questions and answer them (very briefly of course), what I think of each and every time is all those who are living with unseen injuries and illnesses that are FAR more limiting and scary.  I would like to deflect sympathetic comments and understanding to them.  After 6 weeks, all my accessories will be gone.  In a few months I hope to hardly even think about this.

So yes, this continues to be a pain in the neck, but not much more.  I will heal and life will go on.

Countless others live day in and day out with conditions that may never resolve or may even deteriorate.

So I count my blessings and hope I might be more understanding of others who live with limiting acute or chronic conditions.

And onto a less serious note and for your enjoyment....here's my 8-year-old hula hooping on a Bosu!

New Year, New Opportunities

 I celebrated the first day of the year with...a day OFF!  I spent it in my PJs, in part sorting through a year's accumulation of paperwork, including my workout and racing-related papers.  I added all the printed weekly training plans to a binder, and enjoyed flipping back through to see all the fun I'd had! I love racing, but I LOVE LOVE training.

For some reason the trip down workout memory lane inspired me to enter all my basic meals and snacks on Spark People which is a free online community that supports fitness and weight-loss goals.  They have a nutrition and meal-logging site that works well for me and allows users to create food groups that can be plugged into a custom daily meal plan. I enjoy the process of making a day's menus of snacks and meals, preparing it, and not having to waste time thinking about what to eat. For me food is definitely (1) fuel and (2) a means to not be hungry.  I enjoy good simple whole foods.

January 2, it was back to work. I did an interval workout on the rower, bum leg propped up on a DynaDisk.  Jake devised a series of intervals with a diminishing rest period, and the heart rate chart below shows that you can indeed get a good cardio workout on the rower!! I hit 168-170 on each interval. I think I even made those grunting gym noises that any self-respecting female would not do.

 

Later I hit the pool for my first workout of the 6-week intensive swim block that Coach Jim and I had planned. We are still going ahead with it.  I used the pull buoy for most of the drill work, the zoomer for the main set, and did just a few odd laps without any equipment. I am settling into a groove with my one-legged swimming.

In two days registration opens for the Virginia Triathlon Series events.  2011 is here!!   I have a race plan and game plan, but I need to spend a little time developing some specific goals.

Get excited everyone!!

Swim Assessment with Cast = Video Motivation

I met Coach Jim at the pool this morning so he could see my swimming and assess the situation and implications for the still-planned-for swim training block. I swam with the pull buoy, without it, and then for the first time, with one zoomer fin. Today I was able to do a solid 300 with the zoomer, and a 100 with no assistive devices. They were tough little cardio intervals, but doable! What a fun challenge it will be to work my way up from that.

Coach Jim seemed much more pleased and optimistic than I expected which really encouraged me. He's not worried about the cast having a negative impact on the stroke.

He had his underwater video equipment there and I was able to see that somehow, in spite of the cast, I have made some improvements with my stroke and body position. So I am now pretty fired up!!