I'll Huff and I'll Puff and I'll Blow Your House Down

We all know the story of the Three Little Pigs.  The first pig builds his house of straw; the wolf comes and blows it down.  The second builds his house of twigs; the wolf comes and blows it down.  The third builds his house of bricks; the wolf comes in through the chimney.

When I started running, I basically built my running fitness out of straw.  I didn't have a foundation and the "walls" were very weak. Consequently, I ended up getting hurt.    After taking five weeks off, I was able to run again.  I talked about strength training quite a bit, but I really didn't know what to do at the time so I "built my house out of sticks" and simply added biking and swimming to my running.  I thought I was doing well to add yoga to the mix.

Quite a while later I had a little issue with my knee.  (Can you hear the "WHOOSH" sound of the big bad wolf's hot air?)  After the requisite five weeks off, I came back strong at Wet Dog, moving right back into a house of sticks!!

Then this issue hit with my shoulder in September 2012.  Fifteen months worth of issue.  If you've followed my blog for long, you'll know I had surgery January 2014.  Unfortunately, it wasn't five weeks off this time, it was EIGHT.

From the time I was told I needed surgery until yesterday I was making plans about "building my house of bricks" when the time came.  I was thinking through how I wasn't going to start running/biking/swimming right out of the gate.  I was going to work on general strength--core, arms, legs, even respiratory muscles!  No more big bad wolf for me.  Strong foundation and strong walls, that was the plan.

Until I heard, "you can do what ever you WANT to!"

WANT!  What I want is to race McKay Hollow on March 22nd.  I want to start training for another IronMan.  I want to get out on my bike.  That's like when my husband says "what do you WANT to eat?"  What I WANT is pizza, ice cream, Mexican, lasagna, Kit Kat, Nutty Bars...and the list goes on.  I don't WANT salad and grilled chicken.

Pig number one and number two WANTED to have fun.  They wanted to play all day.  They didn't WANT to take the time to build a solid foundation and solid walls.  And...clearly they weren't thinking about the big bad wolf!  Pig number three however took the time on the front end to prepare a good footing.  He properly stacked brick and mortar, and obviously put in a sizable fireplace because when the big bad wolf couldn't blow number three's house down, that wolf ended up in a soup pot!!

I'm not saying I won't be running/swimming/Spinning*, but I can say I will be doing so sparingly while I work on my masonry skills!  I'd rather have wolf soup than be forced to take five or eight (or more) weeks off again!!


Until next time....  :D

(*My surgeon said Spin is okay but no biking right now.)

Progress...

I'll bet you thought I was never going to post again.  (Okay, so maybe you really didn't miss me at all...)

This is the longest I've gone without writing a blog post, but I have good reason.  Sort of.

As I explained, I had to have surgery January 7th.  The dr who performed the operation told Dwayne that my rotator cuff and labrum looked great but the bicep tendon was "a mess".  If you look at the photo, you can see the bicep muscle has two tendons that attach it to the shoulder.  The long head (number 10) runs across the top of the arm bone, the short head (number 5) goes in front of the arm.  Using this photo as a reference, basically the doctor cut out most of the white part of number 5 out and then attached the end of the muscle to my arm bone.  There's a graphic youtube video here of a procedure like mine if you are interested.  (As a warning, I actually like watching surgery videos, but this one almost made me sick...maybe it's because I kept thinking about it being done to ME which puts a whole new aspect on watching!)

The surgery went well, and I'm now five weeks out.  The worst part about the whole thing has not been the not-working-out part (although that has been extremely tough).  It has been the wearing of the mammoth sling.  I just realized I don't have a picture of me in it to share with you, but this is pretty much the same one I'm wearing.  It's not horrible torture during the day, but it's a real nuisance to sleep with it on.  From what I understand I have three more weeks of captivity.

Physical therapy started the day after surgery.  I've been going three times a week.  I've always heard how painful shoulder rehab is, and I'm certainly not going to dispel that rumor.  However, I will say that since my rotator cuff and labrum weren't injured, my rehab has been much better than it would have been had that not been the case.  I am almost at 100% range of motion for a normal person.  Unfortunately (fortunately?) I am very flexible which means I still have quite a ways to go before the left arm matches what the right arm can do.

If you have ever seen a house being built, you know how at first it goes up so fast you can't imagine that it will really take months to be finished, then progress slows to a snail's pace and you wonder if it will ever be DONE?  Well...I'm at the snail's pace right now.

Last week I started a new stretch (the "towel stretch").  Before I got hurt I looked like the guy pictured.  After working for a week, I have gone from barely being able to get the back of my left hand to my left hip, to being able to grab the end of a long towel behind my back.

That.  Is.  Progress.

Progress is, by definition movement toward a goal, advancement, growth, development and/or continuous improvement.  I am making progress.  I do see that.  But, I have to look really close to notice.  At least once every day I think (and more often than not, I say) "I'm never going to be able to X again."  (X is anything I am wanting to do that I can't manage at this point in time -ride a bike, swim, run, move without pain...)  I do realize that it's ONLY been five weeks.  But, come on...it's been FIVE WEEKS already.

Of course, it's been six weeks since I have written a post and you probably barely even noticed I was gone.  Sometimes ---okay, most of the time--- progress is just a matter of perspective.  When you are right of top of a situation, or very close to it, you may not notice the changes.  Step away and things seem to happen over night.  (That's why they say a watched pot "never" boils.)

I have a lot more to report on, but for now, I'll leave you with this little gem I found when I searched for a picture of a snail to add to the post.  Enjoy.  Until next time. :D

Process

We love the process, and the process is just as important as the end result.
--Sara Hall, 2012 USA Cross Country Champion

This was part of the Runner's World quote of the day.  Ironically "process" was on my mind to write about today.  I am usually "only" focused on an end result.  I don't like the process of getting there, it takes WAY too long, I don't understand the "whys" and/or the "hows", sometimes I just don't like the work involved, other times I get slightly off course and end up in a totally different place than I wanted to be! 

"Process" (NOT my desire) is precisely WHAT will determine the end result I reach.  Without the proper process, the outcome is not usually what it should be/what I want it to be.   One of the hard things for me to realize is that "process" can't be rushed.   I was reminded of this recently while taking a SPINNING class.  The instructor said after a caterpillar forms a chrysalis, and begins to change into a butterfly, it has to beat its newly forming wings against the inside of the cocoon in order to get all the fluid out of its fat little caterpillar body.  Interruption of that process will kill it.  During the metamorphosis it is no longer what it was, but also not yet what it will be.  In fact, for a while it's really just goo.

I have a hard time being in that "goo" phase.  Not only does it take a long time, I want to know why certain things have to be done, or how doing them will help me get to the result I want.  To give you a non-athletic example, when I was a kid I wanted some Rice Crispy Treats.  I had never made them, but there was a recipe on the box; how hard could it be to mix some stuff together?  The instructions called for melting the butter and marshmallows in a pot over low heat.  LOW??  REALLY??  I wanted my Treats NOW.  I turned the knob up to high.  ...you know what happens to butter and marshmallows on high?   They don't burn, they just pretty much disintegrate.  I couldn't figure out why I didn't get the the yum-ness I was looking for until my mother explained to me how important it was to follow the directions as written, even if I didn't understand them fully.  I still don't completely understand why it doesn't just melt FASTER but I do know if I want them to turn out right I have to follow the instructions.  (Okay, yes, I do understand melting points and butter/marshmallows have a lower one than something like lead...but WHY does it have to be that way??!!)

Sometimes the reason the process is so hard for me is because it's just hard.  I read a quote recently, I can't remember where or I'd link it (it was probably on Face Book...), "riding a bike up a hill is HARD, no matter who you are."  That sounds reasonable, but in my mind it's harder for me.  While I believe it's true the muscles needed to accomplish the task might be weaker in me than in other people, the idea that Coach Eric hurts when he's riding up a hill was NEWS to me.  Chrissy Wellington said in an interview she likes to "beast herself"...I loved that.  Her workouts are hard and she doesn't shy away from them--she rushes toward them with open arms and, or course, a big ole smile on her face!  The same SPINNING instructor who told the story about the butterfly likes to say, "DON'T MAKE IT EASY...YOU ARE HERE FOR A REASON...DON'T GIVE UP!!"  If the process of getting to the finish were easy, the reward wouldn't be nearly as sweet.

You've heard that saying, "practice makes perfect?"  It's a lie.  Perfect practice makes perfect.  Sloppy practice makes sloppy.  Right now I'm in the process of learning how to swim correctly.  I know some of you are asking what on Earth I can mean by that.  Since I've worked my way up to an Olympic distance triathlon, I should know how to swim, right?  Wrong.  I know how to thrash around in the water and move my body from point A to B without drowning, but I am just now learning how to swim efficiently, which will hopefully not only cut minutes off my time, but also allow me to conserve energy to complete the bike and swim.  However, the effort to learn/re-learn is much harder than just going out there and splashing from one side to the other.  It requires the use of muscles which I have NOT been using, and it requires me to CONCENTRATE.  (Sometimes I have to concentrate on relaxing because I'm over-thinking so much.)  Slight corrections in my form have already cut several seconds off my 50yard time.  (A half-iron is 3344 yards...so several seconds off 50 yards will add up to many minutes in the race!!)

I'm beginning to see the process is actually what life is all about.  We spend WAY more time in the process of getting somewhere...because when we do "get there" we usually begin a new process of something.

Thanks for stopping in, come again soon!!!
:D