Confirmed

Well it is confirmed. I have just registered for the Sudbury Rocks Marathon 10km event. It's this Sunday and the weather is forecasting 8C with light rain. Gross! Wish me luck!

Bumpy road to health

So I still have my cast and on Friday it will be two weeks since the operation. I have an appointment at the hospital on Tuesday to most likely take out stitches (if there are any... I am not sure if they put self disolving ones in there) and to put a new cast on. The last couple days I have found that if I move in a specific way that my cast will kind of "rattle" around my leg... which leads me to believe that more swelling has gone down (or muscle mass) around my ankle itself and because of this I will need a new cast. I am actually quite excited to get my cast changed because when they put the new fiberglass around my leg it actually heats up to set which feels really really (I can't stress this enough) good on my ankle. I have also decided not to take any medication unless I really need it because it seems to be doing more damage than good, such as messing with my sleep, appetite, and energy levels.

Crutching is going better. I went to work Monday and Tuesday, but I took today off because I was exhausted. I am planning on going back to work tomorrow and Friday. I didn't realize how hard this would be on me to go back to work. I have also realized how many muscles using crutches actually uses. After my first day at work I was so sore in the obvious spots, legs and arms. Less obvious was my chest and abs, almost like I was doing bench presses. Today I am trying to stay off them as much as possible so that I am able to get around at work tomorrow.

One Year Weightloss Anniversary!

I began my weightloss journey on April 29th 2007. I have been on again, off again dieting and exercising to achieve my goals. Interestingly enough my goals keep changing. There is definately still a minimum weight that I would like to have. I would not like to go under it because I think the skinny and definitely the super skinny are weak and unattractive (in my opinion). I thought that this was at 150lbs, which I am currently hovering above, but it doesn't match the image of my goal that I can visualize. The more recent goal change is for 140lbs. We will have to see how I feel upon reaching this goal whether it is too high or too low.

Here is my past and current measurements:

2007
Arm 13
Bust 38.8
Waist 36.0
Hips 46.0
Thigh 22.8

2008
Arm 11.75
Bust 36.0
Waist 31.3
Hips 42.0
Thigh 19.3

Update

It's been a LOOOOONNG time since I posted. I took 2 weeks off of training. The first week I was recovering from the sickness. After I almost fainted on the treadmill I figured I should be 100% before getting back in routine. The second week I was cramming for my quantum exam.

Last week I got back to it. On tuesday I did a 6.5km run on the treadmill at the Y. The first 20mins were horrible! I lost endurance for sure - I had to slow down the speed and increase the walking breaks. After the first 20-30mins though my lungs were feeling a bit better. I had a lot of energy that day and had a kickass time with the strength training. bigger weights. On thursday I did 5km on the treadmill and 10mins on the elliptical and 10mins on the wave machine followed by a less intense strength training session. Wednesday and Friday I used my free weights at home to do an upper body workout. I missed the weekend long run due to the huge presentation that I had yesterday. Spent way too many hours on that. wow.

I'm looking forward to the runs this week and getting back into my old routine.

Recovery Sucks

Up until yesterday I have been doing pretty good. I have been moving around on my crutches, trying to do everything for myself and just generally trying to relax and heal. I have managed to figure out how to bend down to pick things up without falling (one crutch balancing act), and even get everything I need in the bathroom to get ready in the morning without standing or looking in the mirror. Today I was going to attempt to wash my hair by myself but I just really don't want to now. My ankle hurts more then it has ever before. It is an achy pain (almost arthritic like) and I just can't get into a comfortable position. Not in a good mood today, very mad at myself for falling actually. I know I am going to have these dark days but I hate feeling like this, I just don't know how to snap out of it.

I've been reading posts online about people who have a similar fracture to mine, some are hopeful, others not so much. I have also been trying to figure out if it is possible that the pain I am feeling is the bone actually reforming, if it is then that would be something to be happy about. I don't like not being able to control my emotions in regards to this. Usually if I am feeling like this I would go for a good climb and then I would feel so much better.... I am not sure what to do to replace that feeling or the means to get to that feeling. Any suggestions?

Sad times....

April 15th,

I am bouldering, having a good time, made it to the top of boulder route 5, reaching for the last hold to complete the route. I miss it by cm's. My right hand slips, then my right leg. I swing back from the force of the slip causing me to lose my left foot and hand holds. I fall towards the crash mat. My right half makes it safely to the mat, my left side is not so lucky....

My right foot hit the very edge of the mat and then rolled off, causing me to pretty much take the brunt of the fall on my right leg. After some maneuvering and A LOT of help from some of the guys and girls at the gym (to whom I am eternally grateful) I made it to the emergency room, where after a few hours I was on a stretcher awaiting x-rays. Diagnosis was a broken ankle, but not just any broken ankle, I broke both sides. I was in the hospital from Tuesday until Monday. The Friday in between I had surgery to hold everything together which resulted in what I like to call my new Bionic ankle. I have a plate and four screws on my outside right ankle and three pins in my inside right ankle. I am casted for 6 weeks, no weight, and then hopefully I will get a walking cast for the same amount of time, and then I have physio to go through. Long process, but I am committed! I want to get back at all my goals eventually.... they have just been diverted for the time being.

Present,

Right now small goals are big accomplishments. For example, I made it from the kitchen to the living room (10 feet) with a whole plate of food without dropping it yesterday! Seems simple enough, until you realize I was on crutches. Today I am going to start doing some laps on crutches in my hall as I was told by my dad that I need to work up my endurance on the crutches. They are seriously harder to use then they look! You get tired really really quickly! So for now my blog posts will consist of my mini-accomplishments and my progress through this fun broken ankle. I hope I don't bore you too much....

Happy??

I went to the gym today after work, I did 25 minutes on the treadmill, and then did some weight machines for my legs as well as a standalone structure thing where you can hold on and pull yourself up... I decided to do vertical curls using my grip to hold on, my arm strength to keep steady and my legs were getting a good workout at the same time. I also did some stretching and some work with a medicine ball. It was all good... I think I am going to loose the competition though because I weighed myself at the gym and it said I was 165 while my scale at home says 155... Not too happy about that. To look on the bright side though, I have lost weight since last month according to that scale... only a few pounds, but progress is progress none the less right?

So lately I have been super tired. I have been eating enough iron rich foods as well as eating health, drinking water and getting sunshine (wow... sounds like I am a plant...) Anyway, I thought exercising was supposed to create endorphins which make you happy... why am I not?

The Pain! The Pain!

So today I went climbing, pretty much my first real climb in two and a half weeks. I went last week but it wasn't very long or intensive. So today I did bouldering for an hour and a half... tried route #5 again about 6 times (or more!), I did one of the 60 degree sloped walls for awhile. On the 60 degree wall I made some progress but I had to lay it to rest for today. Then I did some climbing on the boulder with some help from a friend. I was trying to do route #10 which is a little brutal for anyone under 5'4"... I can get 75% of the route done but then fail. I have to figure out how to dyno up to the rock I need and switch my hand position from a grab to an undercling to be able to get the leverage to move my feet up higher. I had to leave after an hour and a half because my grip was actually failing which wasn't happening a few weeks ago. My forearms are pretty sore and my grip is pretty weak. Gonna have to go Saturday to build up my endurance again.

Check this out! Cool homemade climbing wall.

Running While Sick is Stupid!

So yesterday when I tried to run through my cold....that was stupid. Very stupid. Realistically I had no energy, the increased air intake with a sore throat, etc. It was probably a bad idea. I ran for two 5 min intervals and then had to lay down on the floor because I was light headed. I tried to run again after to that but no energy and I only lasted 2 mins. So I just walked a whole bunch. 6.25km in all. Oh well. Fucking up my running schedule was to be expected at some point. Going to have to cancel my personal training session for tomorrow. Hope I Get Well Soon.

Getting back at it

So after two weeks of being pretty much sedentary in the area of workouts I FINALLY made it back to the rock gym. I went with Mimi and we did some top roping. I am not going to lie, it hurt a lot! Basically I had gotten too used to bouldering and shorter routes, so much so, that even one top roped wall was considered long. My forearms were not happy. We climbed for about an hour and a half, about 5 walls each and then we decided to go swimming at the college.

There were some classes going on at the pool when we got there so we did the whole sauna thing first and then hit the water once the classes left. I did 7 laps of the semi-Olympic pool (4 straight without breaks) and swam around the pool for about an hour. Basically we turned into 5 year olds after not long by throwing in quite a few floating toys. I am sure the commissionaire was a little confused watching us through the security camera... Oh well. Today I am forgoing the usual workout to clean my apartment. Yes I know this sounds like an excuse... well I guess it is, but I really, really need to clean as it is driving me closer and closer to that all to near breaking point. Hopefully tomorrow will be another climbing day.

Question: Why are there only cute guys around when you haven't shaved in a few days? This perplexes me...