Sharla's New Log - Attempting to Avoid Becoming A Slovenly Pig

[Youngblood]

my god...I accidentally erased your response post...and posted mine as yours. lol I'm really sorry...let me see if I can fix it.

[Youngblood]

well I can't restore your original post, just what I meant to quote and my response. So acc. erased a bunch of your text. I had it looking like you were quoting and talking to yourself. LOL I'm really sorry. anyway...this is what I tried to say.

As for whether or not i'm going to be the 'unfit' one when Adam gets back i think he's winning so far! If anyone wants to check out what i'm competing with here's the link:

crazyguyonabike.com: Bicycle Touring: World Jamboree Trike Expedition, by Adam Kilpatrick and Stephen Warren-Smith

He gets to eat whatever he wants with the kms they're doing whereas i'll need to develop some food discipline that's a bit uncharacteristic for me! There are some good photos there of what the South Australian countryside can look like too. I grew up in some of the remote area he's passed and i forget how beautiful it is!

Sharla that's an awesome read. Love the pics and all the links, updates. Thanks for sharing it!

[Sharla]

my god...I accidentally erased your response post...and posted mine as yours. lol I'm really sorry...let me see if I can fix it.

I didn't know that was possible Don't worry a lot of it was dribble anyway I hope Saddo didn't mind me putting a link to a blog elsewhere - i only put it there because it has a connection to me sort-of.

Glad you enjoyed his blog - I think they're doing well but they're going across the Nullabor where they won't evan have mobile phone coverage (which makes me nervous ) so it won't be updated for another 9 days or so now.

Well I had planned stretching on Saturday and something on Sunday but it ended up being a complete rest weekend. Unfortunately I had an appointment with the realestate agent on Friday going over things and spent the weekend obsessively planning how i might fit stuff in our mini apartment. So silly considering we won't move in until Feb 2012 at the earliest!

I also think i was generally run down from our busy October with two weddings, moving house (so i can live cheaply while Adam's away), a farewell and the weekend Adam rode off into the sunset. We're still getting packages with bike parts etc and i guess i just had to rebel against all the hecticness. Plus Adam had Saturday off so i gasbagged to him on the phone for half the day.

Back to normal today though - was a bit late to the gym again but stayed a half hour later. Still could've used more time so i think i'll up gym morning to a 2 hour session.

10 mins on the rower,
1 min skipping intervals with core exercises between. Decided to do that 1st this time as it's of fairly high priority. First two skipping intervals were normal pace, all the rest were hard for 5 secs, easy for 5 secs.

B/W the intervals -
pilates 100s,
pilates scissors (very slow, controlled) with 5 complete slow roll ups & downs,
controlled leg circles - approx 10 each side
side plank - one each side - untimed (weak at this about 30 secs only),
Medicine ball side to side held with both hands, arms out straight not moving body,
Medicine ball roll ups and downs - slowly 5 reps.

Then attempted a new exercise aimed at stabilizing my core while stepping up and down.

Set up a high step approx 60 cm high and put a wobble board in front of it. Put my feet close together in the middle of the board and tried to step up and down. After a few minutes of trying it was obvious i couldn't take my feet off the board to step up - would really need 2 small wobble boards - one for each foot.

Changed it over for one of those disk things with air in it just to do step ups on a surface that requires some stabilization. Was ok with the step up but the step down (backwards) was not as controlled as i'd intended. Will do it with a lower height next time until i can work up to it.

Then two one minute intervals balancing on a normal wobble board.

Then the skipping rope I was using broke mid skip - most of the others oddly are too short so will bring my own next time.

Then put my towel on the wobble board to pad it and knelt on it while i used the ab wheel to push out with both hands. Found it tiring to stabilize this and did about 5 reps one at a time with a very short break between each one. Went as far out as i could stabilize the board - not the whole way but approx 3/4s.
Then repeated the side plank on both sides and decided it was time to start stretching.

Need extra time to get in some boxing as i think this much core is pretty important for me at this stage.

Did approx 25 mins of stretching. Most emphasis on hamstring fit ball stretching. Let a little air out of the fitball (no one was watching ) so i could do it properly, twice on each leg.
Then did some stretch back chest stretching, gluts, calf stretching PNF style with a stretch band and brief abductor stretch.

I think i need to periodize my stretching also to get it all in. This week i'll do a hamstring stretch each night before bed, might move onto a psoas stretch the week after etc etc.

[Sharla]

Shite typed a heap up but it timed out!

Gym - pilates, less skipping, more pilates

Cycled to gym 12kms - tired now

Did upper body stuff same as last week with more focus on the negatives as suggested by Salty.

Adam busing home - rear hub siezed up, needs to get new parts then will catch up with his mate Steven again. He's upset but i'm glad it happened here and not overseas as he can still get the parts wheras trike parts are too rare to get in Africa and now they know they need something much more hardy. Steven's going on alone through the Nullabor - hopefully nothing bad will happen to him otherwise Adam will feel terrible even though it wouldn't be his fault.

[Youngblood]

Shite typed a heap up but it timed out!

save me the trouble of erasing it. lol

Adam busing home - rear hub siezed up, needs to get new parts then will catch up with his mate Steven again. He's upset but i'm glad it happened here and not overseas as he can still get the parts wheras trike parts are too rare to get in Africa and now they know they need something much more hardy. Steven's going on alone through the Nullabor - hopefully nothing bad will happen to him otherwise Adam will feel terrible even though it wouldn't be his fault.

that didn't take long. he prob.sabotaged it cuz he missed ya.

ya ya, will start my own log soon and stop cluttering up yours. just have to get a few things sorted first.

[Sharla]

No worries Youngblood - i'm only into talking to myself a little so I don't mind some replies to my posts

Was given some free movie tickets yesterday so won't go to the group run. Didn't gym this morning because had a late night picking Adam up from the bus station etc. Some crazy dude had to be dragged off the bus at Port Wakefield by the cops and it held the bus up.

So will do a lunch run today - the area i work is flat so it's hard to get my dose of hills etc but i'll try to improvise!

Looks like it will take about a week to get the specialized trike hub they need from interstate so Adam will catch up with Steven on the other side of the Nullabor. I think he may have missed me but at the same time in his head it's a bit of a failure so i doubt he'll sabotage his trike again!

[Sharla]

Have taken a few days off work to do PhD stuff. Having a nightmare about a serial killer preying on people who hadn't finished their PhDs kinda motivated me to get on track with it again. Have not had structured training - just a few long walks with my family's dog while trying to get on track again.

I've decided there are two things i have to do every day from now - some kind of exercise and some PhD work - on basically because my mind starts playing tricks on me if i skip a day and I suddenly start believing I'm incapable of training or studying despite doing so many years of both!

I also think i still have some kind of fear of injury that makes me hesitant to run unless i'm distracted by the group run atmosphere. I think there may be something to it though so some swimming cross training a few times a week will be mandatory for me from now on too. Will help train my core and overall body strength and let me work hard aerobically when i feel hesitant to push hard while pounding the road etc. It just goes back to how i've never felt disabled in the pool! It should help on recovery days from hill runs etc too.

So anyway the news I really want to announce - the greatest news ever - I became an auntie! Last night around 8 pm little connor my nephew was born - Yay!

[Youngblood]

congrats on the becoming an auntie Sharla! that's awesome.

Still not sure if will start a log of my own again or not. Just got back from winter games training camp and we are all keeping detailed log books, and then back for more a week from Fri. It was a great learning experience there with some great people and a really strong team of talented boxers and coaches. Got the honor of being named captain, and made a few mistakes to begin with, but learning from it!

Can't imagine the rigors of doing your PhD and intensive physical training side by each, but knowing a bit about you, you'd likely be bored if not for the challenge.

Again, enjoying your posts and glad to see you back.

[deminmartin9]

I am considering attempting it again this year but probably next year. I think i want to do it well and it's not realistic to think i can get that much stronger between now and May.
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[Sharla]

I am considering attempting it again this year but probably next year. I think i want to do it well and it's not realistic to think i can get that much stronger between now and May.
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Ok yeah I mean I was considering doing it 2011 but I've decided it's more realistic to aim for 2012. You knew what I meant!

I have fallen behind on updating this but I'll catch up around christmas. Things have not gone according to plan - cleats on road bike were not fitted professionally and i was getting a sore left foot - that has now been adjusted but my foot is still a little sore to stand on.

Also I was really excited to have halved my antidepressants to half a tablet a day over 7 weeks but by brain rebelled with a day of dizzy spells and sudden onset of mouth ulcers. Emotionally I felt like i was going ok as I was stressed but I didn't think I was stressed more than i should've been.

Got yelled out by a knob at work (who was later told to apologise by the boss), had a bit of a panic trying to get a trike part posted to Adam when the address he asked for turned out to be a FedEx office in Zambia that didn't exist (awkward as it was urgent and he was out of phone range) and got a really, really bad phone bill from calling Adam. Still I wasn't stuck in bed or totally freaking out or anything.

I guess the physical symptoms mean something though so i'm starting again and reducing my dosage by half a tablet a fortnight now.

[Sharla]

ok finally got around to doing this -

The left foot is all good again. The adjustment of the cleats made a huge difference. On last ride I did still notice a small niggle though so i'm considering putting a soft (not structured) insole in it.

The dude in the bike shop said he wears thicker socks to prevent this. He's had it and suprise suprise he also has feet of slightly different sizes and it's his smaller one that hurts. I'm thinking the socks probably work just because they improve the fit of the shoes (sized for the bigger foot).

I've started a circuit in my neighbourhood. It's only short but the aim is to get myself to really enjoy running again. The last time I did was about April this year - then I got either hooping cough or glandular fever (docs have no idea / time to diagnose) for several weeks and lost a lot of fitness.

Expecting to jump back to that fitness too quickly has made running less enjoyable than it should be and me less inclined to feel like running.

Phil Maffetone is a trainer of distance runners and he has a theory of training at a low heart rate and gradually and very slowly building up to prevent chronic fatigue, heart disease etc. I'm not patient enough to stick to his routine but I did take something from his ideas. He used gradual build up to allow people to mentally enjoy their training even if they started very small.

I think i've self sabotaged a lot by trying to start training the way i did at my fittest and being constantly frustrated by my lack of success!

So this small circuit is something i plan to do most days. It will keep my body and mind familiar with running. It's long enough to get me through that heavy legs warming up feeling and into a more comfortable stage, get a bit sweaty and then stop. As it gets easier i'll add more laps but i'm aiming to get faster before i make it longer.

I've done this for the last three days. Yesterday I also rode about 50 km through the hills and today i cycled to work and back. My gym closed down over christmas so i haven't been there for a while.

[Sharla]

So i haven't updated this for a while. Basically just got too busy with work to do it and was tired when i got home. Things have gone well - up to a point - thatpoint being the bitumen at about 10 to 9 Wednesday morning.

My sister has lost 5 kg already which is great. I found kickboxing again made me really sore and was worried for a while that i might be too defected to do it until i was fitter from other activites again. However, i found each week i was able to do another session with less soreness. I think being a little older my recovery/ adjustment time was slower than when i first got into kickboxing. I struggled coming back into it without understanding why being able to remember how easily i jumped straight into it originally.

I can see the positive side of it now since i guess if it takes longer after a workout to see a training effect then it's longer before i detrain also. Plus it means a little difficulty to begin with is less likely to mean i can't become competant at an activity.

My physio exercises have been added to and i'm less lopsided already. I have begun to feel the difference between the right and wrong movements during my physio routine although i'm way off being able to maintain it for a run.

But after all that Wednesday morning i piked on the gym and decided to cycle in for work at peak hour. Karma then introduced me to the bitumen by way of a car door suddenly opening in front of me from a vehicle lined up at traffic lights.

It happened so quickly i thought i'd been aimed for and screamed "you idiot" as i fell. Both passenger and driver were extremely apologetic and the passenger was actually a cancer patient in a dazed rush to get to his chemo treatment. Now i've yelled at a cancer patient i am definately doomed to hell!

So i fell on my left arm and after 2 days when my range of motion didn't improve the doc sent me to get x-rays. I wasn't expecting anything serious because it wasn't as painful as people said it should be. Alas i have an undisplaced fracture through the radial head & neck.

I'm now in plaster which I'm told will smell like somethings decomposing after a while. I am not allowed to get it wet at all. Obviously no kickboxing, no swimming, no running, no side plank (physio exercise), no work and NOOOOoooo cycling for 6 weeks.

I think it's a threat from the universe - move it and stick to your morning gym sessions or loose it badly! It's also an order to hurry up and write my thesis while i don't have work. Luckily for me Adam is on his way home so i have a carer! Meet him at the airport on Sunday - very excited about that. Cairo is not safe for him to travel through so he's had to cancel that part of his trip. So i won't have anything exciting to write re training - just walks really - for six weeks.

Will check in again after that to winge about how measly & puny my left arm has become .......

[Sharla]

Ok I'm back!

My elbow having an undisplaced fracture didn't require surgery to have pins inserted. When I went to a specialist he said that's what would've been required if it was displaced and if I fell on it or something and caused it to be displaced while it was healing.

That didn't happen! Halleluya! Me being clumsy is not such an uncommon occurance so that really is a true miracle!

The other great thing was that i got to take the cast off after only 10 days. The bone doc was actually disgusted to see it had even been put in one as apparently if it was left that way I may have had difficulty ever straightening it again and competant doctors don't cast elbows. I was suprised something as basic as treatement for a broken bone can be stuffed up by 3 separate GPs that saw me before i saw the bone dude! Scary! Pays to get a second and specialist opinion I think! All the treatment did cost a little bit buthopefully I will end up being refunded on the driver's 3rd party insurance (fingers crossed).

Other news - well I've been feeling like a fat slovenly pig and thus failing at the aim of this log but hopefully I can turn it around now. I can completely straighten my arm and do pushups on it. I'm going to wait a few more weeks before i punch with it but I have made plans to keep myself busy in the meantime.

I have joined a 24 hour gym and It is cool! No time limit means I can get a decent workout in either before or after work and it's about $10 a week with no contract which suits me as i'll likely be moving in another 6 months or so.

It has the coolest treadmills - there are a lot of choices but my favourite so far is the track setting and the fact you can program in 3 paces to train at by just pressing a button. I've been setting walking pace at 6.1 kmphr, jogging at 11 kmphr and running at 14 kmphr.

Saturday - 15.5 km of rowing, 5 km of track with about 10 mins of walk warmup. Walk pace 400 m, jog pace 400 m, run pace 400 m.

Sunday - 14 km track work, walk warm up 10 mins, the rest being 300 m walk pace, 400 m jog pace and 100 m run. Finished off with 6 km on the rower.

Monday (tomorrow) will be a recovery day and I'll aim to do more resistance training etc during the rest of the week.

[Sharla]

I haven't posted here forever and I don't have a lot to add - just a few hindsight notes I'd like to make in case they apply to anyone else.

1) I had the MRI redone on my bad knee mid last year and they did find cartilage damage. There is a good chance this damage was the original cause of my knee pain but the original scan was not of good enough quality to pick it up.

There is a narrow crack in the cartilage behind my left knee cap all the way though. It's not rough and doesn't catch - symptomatically I can see how to a physio it didn't manifest the same way that cartilage damage usually does.

I know now why I went through the cycle of easing off, doing all of the physio exercises, feeling less pain only to have the problem reoccur when I got back to a certain training level.

The reality is cartilage doesn't heal. I will always be limited in what I can do. On one hand this kinda sucks but it's a LOT better to know this now than to continue to go through the frustrating yo-yo experience I did.

Now I just know there is a limit to how far and often I can run. I know cross training is important if I want to keep my cardio fitness going. I know I can't do lunges or stairs or skipping.

To be able to run a little I must work on my cadence, running form and stick to nice surfaces. I also have to keep my weight close to it's ideal. Right now I am heavier than I have ever been because I am 7 months preggers but I will have to drop the kilos ASAP afterwards.

So my advice to others based on this would be - don't always go with your first diagnosis. Things like MRIs can be hideously expensive but they can be worth repeating if you feel like you are hitting a brick wall with your recovery from an injury.

2) I did get off of my anti-depressants quite a while ago. Chemically I think the medication really just needed time to help my brain chemistry reach a new stable equilibrium. I also suspect having adequate vitamin D and B levels has helped.

I'm learning having a firm idea of your values - rather than goals which we so often hear about is crucial. You can always live in a way which is true to your values even if things you can not control interfere with your ability to reach your goals.

I'm trying to become more mindful - to live in the moment to avoid negative, circular thinking. Not great at it yet - but it's a skill I can see being worthwhile.

I want to point out right now that I do believe I am very 'normal'. I believe looking after your brain is something that warrants ongoing consideration and maintenance just like any other part of your body.

3) Sometimes I wonder why the level of my best was what it was - reasonable but not as good as I would have hoped. The biggest reason would be that I was too self conscious - I worried too much about what people might think when they saw me train or compete. I couldn't tolerate failure in myself either.

That attitude was completely Pointless - you have to be crap sometimes and make mistakes to learn. Maybe your mistakes happen in training and you have a great record - maybe they happen in competition because you are not pushed enough in training.

Like many others I was not brought up to see myself making mistakes as a step forward so much as a sign I was not capable of something. Logically / intellectually I have always known that anyone who is good at something had to work to get there so at least I kept trying.

However, I think you need to really believe and feel you can learn from all your mistakes to keep improving. You can't let mistakes ruin your confidence in your ability to improve.

Otherwise the temptation is to stay within your comfort zone. You never progress beyond that point then. With coaching that didn't prod me to improve beyond my comfort zone I reached a maximum.

I hope to avoid this in life from now on - not just to reach my best but even if you are crap you should still be able to enjoy what you do!

Anyway I'd be happy to hear any ideas / comments people have RE the above.