It's December already! Two more months till I'm skiing pow in Japan and I'm yet to get my sorry arse into a fitness regime.
I did get the rear tyre on the treadly replaced, albeit by a visiting couch surfer (yeah I'm a slack arse OK?).
Sunday I went for a lovely 45 minute bike ride then did some squats and lunges.
The next morning I discovered I had a puncture in the new tyre. I had no repair glue, or spare tubes. I just did some lunges and squats instead.
Tuesday I went and got 2 new spare tubes, and some glue, but took till the weekend to fix it.
I continued doing daily lunges and squats though, only with a difference.
I'm doing all my exercises on wobbly bits of equipment.
Air filled rubber discs and balls that force me to really work my core muscles and push me to keep my balance whilst performing said lunges and squats.
This is because skiing is a dynamic sport with lots of latent instability (it's slippery stuff and very uneven) and because a little niggling knee problem of mine seems to have got quite a bit worse.
Back in 2009 I hurt my left knee skiing. I remember when it happened, it was on Magnum in Powder Bowl at TC, on a powder day, in a lesson with Lara. It was a landing twisting injury and I experienced quite a bit of pain, but managed to get up and ski down the hill. I was sore for the next few days, but not enough to stop skiing completely, and the knee continued to be stiff for months afterwards, sometimes causing me excruciating pain if put into certain positions. I couldn't fully flex the knee and sit on my haunches because it hurt too much. Finally, I saw a physiotherapist who couldn't find anything wrong except a bit of minor laxity in the ACL, and gave me some exercises to do which fixed the problem and the pain went away and I had full movement again.
Still, the knee wasn't quite right, and probably explains, along with the broken arm in 2010, why I developed a lot of fear when skiing, which I hadn't had prior to the knee injury. Only with more exercise and some psychological approaches did I conquer that fear, and my skiing improved exponentially. But a couple of times, when my knee was in certain positions it sort of clunked out, and I had to fully straighten the knee for it to clunk back in again. And ski away...
Well that instability has got worse, such that it's now possible for me to reproduce it whenever I sit back on my haunches, and another trip to the physio now reveals my ACL is indeed somewhat deficient. But I'm not yet ready to go off and see a surgeon, so am working crazily on my functional stability and investigating the pros and cons of a knee brace.
It explains why the left leg has been my weaker side and I've had so much trouble weighting onto it on my turns, though Klaus' trick of getting me to unweight my right leg solved that one. You see the ACL carries important nerve fibres for position sense to the brain, and without this feedback the leg can feel unstable. Not that it's actually unstable in anything but extreme positions, but skiing can be pretty unpredictable!
It means I have to retrain those nerves. The knee isn't exactly popping out all over the place, it's what's called ACL deficient. Most surgically repaired knees are also considered ACL deficient due to the damage to the nerve fibres. I reckon I've still got quite a few firing away though but they need a bit of re-education. With wobbly discs and gym balls!
At least it's given me the motivation to get exercising. Not happy but!
And now the bike tyre has been fixed tomorrow I'm off riding again.
Showing posts with label fitness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fitness. Show all posts
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Ski goddess fitness challenge part 2
You know how it is. Book a trip somewhere fancy and then realise you need to be in shape before you get there. Whether it's in shape to cope with physically demanding activities, or in shape to look hot in a bikini, it's pretty well the same thing. Right now you are fat and flabby and that's not going to go down well on said booked holiday.
Vow to get fit/ get in shape. Publish your good intentions on your blog. Find a great 90 day exercise program and get going.
Yeah right!!
Start off doing daily exercises for 2 days. Feel good that you are really doing what you said you'd do. Then do no exercise for 3 days because you are just so damn tired from work. Then spend the following week and a half not doing anything either, even though you don't have any excuse except laziness for not getting back doing exercise.
Also fail to replace the blown out back tyre on your bike. Despite the fact that you bought a replacement tyre months ago, or was it last year already?
Finally, after purchasing new skis because you have at last convinced yourself that wider skis give you more options in Japan and that you'll use them for ski touring in New Zealand - oh yeah, start purchasing some back country gear too - read some articles about ski touring and start to feel guilty that you haven't done any exercise for 2 weeks. Vow to do some tomorrow.
Wait a couple of days for tomorrow to arrive.
Get out of bed, go downstairs to yoga room and do 3 days' worth of exercises in one session. Do lots of stretching afterwards then proceed to feel rather stiff and sore for most of the day. Ah, this is more like it, at least now you can feel the effects.
Vow to drink more water and less coffee and wine. Even consider giving up drinking wine for the next 3 months. Think about drinking a bit more tea.
Get up next morning and proceed to drink at least 3 coffees whilst chatting to mum on the phone before breakfast. Then procrastinate a few hours reading about walking through France, then at last change out of pyjamas into gym gear and proceed to do another 3 days' worth of exercises. Discover your abs are very sore after yesterday's effort, but that you are still capable of doing more than 150 squats!!
Have a late lunch, shower and head out in the rain to celebrate a bunch of September birthdays with the bookclub girls. Vow to drink no alcohol. Keep promise. Get laughed at by bookclub girls because they are sure you are going to have "toilet legs" by tomorrow after doing more than 150 squats today. Suffer all evening from sore abs...
Wake up next morning, still with slightly sore abs, but without "toilet legs". Do 60 squats, 60 lunges and a few other sundry exercises, completing 2 day's worth of the program, deciding to balk at the cardio program for today as you don't think the abs will cope with more mountain climbs quite yet. Gloat on Facebook that you don't have "toilet legs" but somewhere in the back of your mind know that you may just rue that gloat before long. Savour it anyway!
You have now completed 10 days of a 90 day program, but are still 5 days behind your original schedule. Contemplate how you are going to get through the next 3 days of work and also find time to do some exercise. Fail to replace back tyre on bicycle.
Torture yourself with pictures posted by your friends of them skiing in New Zealand. Peruse airline websites looking at flights to NZ for next year. Realise that if you lived on the east coast you'd probably be able to whizz over for a long weekend - not a possible scenario from regional WA. Note that this is not the first time this week you've been reminded how far in the boondocks you live...
Next morning wake early and decide you ought to put your alarm clock on for an earlier wake up since it's now getting lighter earlier. Wait for alarm to go off then doze another 15 minutes before getting up. Have no time for exercise before work, noting that your abs are still sore!
Come home after work and check your Facebook status. OK, how many of you will admit to that one?? Receive text from couch surfers cancelling their stay for the night. Looks like you'll have time to exercise after all!! Change into gym gear and get totally annihilated by the cardio workout. Decide that plank jacks are your new nemesis. Finish cardio workout and plan to leave more abs torture until tomorrow.
Acknowledge to yourself that the only reason that you are managing to stick to this routine is because you are writing a blog post about it. Figure that's not such a bad way to keep up the motivation but that it isn't really fair to inflict this level of mundanity on the reading public just to motivate yourself to get off your arse and exercise. Rack brain to think if there is any other way to break the procrastination cycle.
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
yep, still thinking....
I'll get back to you.
Vow to get fit/ get in shape. Publish your good intentions on your blog. Find a great 90 day exercise program and get going.
Yeah right!!
Start off doing daily exercises for 2 days. Feel good that you are really doing what you said you'd do. Then do no exercise for 3 days because you are just so damn tired from work. Then spend the following week and a half not doing anything either, even though you don't have any excuse except laziness for not getting back doing exercise.
Also fail to replace the blown out back tyre on your bike. Despite the fact that you bought a replacement tyre months ago, or was it last year already?
Finally, after purchasing new skis because you have at last convinced yourself that wider skis give you more options in Japan and that you'll use them for ski touring in New Zealand - oh yeah, start purchasing some back country gear too - read some articles about ski touring and start to feel guilty that you haven't done any exercise for 2 weeks. Vow to do some tomorrow.
Wait a couple of days for tomorrow to arrive.
Get out of bed, go downstairs to yoga room and do 3 days' worth of exercises in one session. Do lots of stretching afterwards then proceed to feel rather stiff and sore for most of the day. Ah, this is more like it, at least now you can feel the effects.
Vow to drink more water and less coffee and wine. Even consider giving up drinking wine for the next 3 months. Think about drinking a bit more tea.
Get up next morning and proceed to drink at least 3 coffees whilst chatting to mum on the phone before breakfast. Then procrastinate a few hours reading about walking through France, then at last change out of pyjamas into gym gear and proceed to do another 3 days' worth of exercises. Discover your abs are very sore after yesterday's effort, but that you are still capable of doing more than 150 squats!!
Have a late lunch, shower and head out in the rain to celebrate a bunch of September birthdays with the bookclub girls. Vow to drink no alcohol. Keep promise. Get laughed at by bookclub girls because they are sure you are going to have "toilet legs" by tomorrow after doing more than 150 squats today. Suffer all evening from sore abs...
Wake up next morning, still with slightly sore abs, but without "toilet legs". Do 60 squats, 60 lunges and a few other sundry exercises, completing 2 day's worth of the program, deciding to balk at the cardio program for today as you don't think the abs will cope with more mountain climbs quite yet. Gloat on Facebook that you don't have "toilet legs" but somewhere in the back of your mind know that you may just rue that gloat before long. Savour it anyway!
You have now completed 10 days of a 90 day program, but are still 5 days behind your original schedule. Contemplate how you are going to get through the next 3 days of work and also find time to do some exercise. Fail to replace back tyre on bicycle.
Torture yourself with pictures posted by your friends of them skiing in New Zealand. Peruse airline websites looking at flights to NZ for next year. Realise that if you lived on the east coast you'd probably be able to whizz over for a long weekend - not a possible scenario from regional WA. Note that this is not the first time this week you've been reminded how far in the boondocks you live...
Next morning wake early and decide you ought to put your alarm clock on for an earlier wake up since it's now getting lighter earlier. Wait for alarm to go off then doze another 15 minutes before getting up. Have no time for exercise before work, noting that your abs are still sore!
Come home after work and check your Facebook status. OK, how many of you will admit to that one?? Receive text from couch surfers cancelling their stay for the night. Looks like you'll have time to exercise after all!! Change into gym gear and get totally annihilated by the cardio workout. Decide that plank jacks are your new nemesis. Finish cardio workout and plan to leave more abs torture until tomorrow.
Acknowledge to yourself that the only reason that you are managing to stick to this routine is because you are writing a blog post about it. Figure that's not such a bad way to keep up the motivation but that it isn't really fair to inflict this level of mundanity on the reading public just to motivate yourself to get off your arse and exercise. Rack brain to think if there is any other way to break the procrastination cycle.
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
yep, still thinking....
I'll get back to you.
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