Gym Recap

Leaps and landings! Leaps and landings! Oh! My! God!

So yeah, I'm really super sore now, and Jeev suggested I wear my brace again on Monday since we're going to be doing more leaps and landings. Guh.

Notable exercise of the day: sitting on a chair and attempting to stand up one-legged. Insanely, maddeningly difficult for me. Of course, after the first set, Jeev put down one of those foam pads that he has me do balance work on, just because it evidently wasn't hard enough. Good lord that was tough!

Gym Recap

In addition to the regular regimen of squats and lunges, Jeev had me run three laps around the parking lot. And I didn't die! In fact, it wasn't too bad at all. I also used a rowing machine for the first time in my life. Nice.

I purchased 36 more sessions with Jeev; I've made a lot of progress, and I think with his help I'll be able to go far beyond where I was before the accident.

In related news, my favorite hiking buddy will be back over the holidays and we're thinking of hitting the trails while she's in town. I'm looking forward to it!

Occasional Gym Recap

Today I asked Jeev, under the assumption that I get back to going to the gym four days a week (a rather serious assumption, to be sure), how long it would take me to be able to run a 5k. He said three to four months, which sounds ridiculously optimistic to me, but it also means I have a goal to work toward.

And man, did I work today. High-knee jogging in place, jogging on the treadmill at various speeds (but only for, like, 45 seconds at a time), kettle ball swings, jump-squats, bouncy plank positions, and more. I definitely feel worked out (or perhaps just over) tonight.

My food habits are gradually increasing, but it's been tough due to an often crippling bout of depression. I think I'm coming out of it, but it's so hard to tell. But I do know that I'm tired of reminding myself of that line from a Jewel song: "...looked like a potato stuffed into jeans." Boo!

Gym Recap 14 Nov 2011

I've actually been hitting the gym fairly regularly lately, though alas, it's only been twice a week with any kind of consistency. I keep trying to push it to three or even four but then something comes up and I have to work late or whatever and it doesn't happen. But my ankle is indeed improving. Jeev was out sick last week but back again today and evidently with renewed motivation to kill me.

But I'm okay with that.

I'm not going to go through the exercises we did, because heaven knows I can't remember them all. But I would like to note that when he had me jogging up and down the stairs, it was totally easy. I mean, I was tired and out of breath because I'm fat, but a few months ago I couldn't even climb the stairs on the balls of my feet (I had to lay my foot fully flat on the step before hauling myself up to the next), much less do it with any kind of speed. So I am improving, even if it's only noticeable in little flashes like this.

Walking on grass still sucks, though. I went to the park yesterday briefly and found that uneven ground is still my enemy. I miss hiking, but if I can't handle crossing a grassy field, there's no way I could hope to scale a mountain. (Even a little one.)

I realized the other day that 2011 has more or less been a wash for me. I need a do-over. The first four months I was spending the vast majority of my time planning the BookCrossing Convention. The weekend following the con was when I busted my ankle. So basically I had something like six days of being able to walk without having to work on the convention. Sheesh.

But I continue to work at it. Eating is a daily struggle, but tonight I am pleased to report that I did not have any dessert. I also did not visit the vending machine at work, though I thought quite seriously about it. That's about the extent of my virtues, and my sins are many, so I think I'll end this here.

Gym Recap

I had my first session with Jeev, my new personal trainer, today. He's pretty awesome. This was just an introductory thing, not a real session, so we chatted a bit so he could learn about my goals and current fitness. Afterward he gave me an hour-long cardio "homework assignment" which I went ahead and did since we hadn't worked out and I don't know when I'll next be able to get to the gym. It nearly killed me, I think, but in a good way. I guess. This is what I did:

20 minutes on the Arc Trainer, changing the resistance every two minutes. The clock restarted halfway through, but I'd estimate I burned about 300 calories there.

Then I moved to this treadmill with crazy inclines. I went thirty minutes, from 3.5mph to 2.0mph and back again, from 3-degree to 27-degree inclines and back again. I burned 360 calories.

The last thing was the stair climber. The routine called for 10 minutes at 65 steps per minute, but I only made it 5 minutes - including two pauses to catch my breath. Part of that was because my ankle isn't really ready for such things, and part of it was that my lungs felt like they were going to explode. I'm really feeling those five months off, man! Anyway, I burned almost 70 calories in those 5 minutes, so it was still worth it.

750 calories in 60 minutes? Not bad, not bad at all. Next time I'll hopefully remember to bring my little notepad so I can write down distances and stuff like that so I don't forget.

Also: The Chemical Brothers are some of the best workout music ever.

Oh yeah, and I'm restarting my progress chart. And including my weight this time around because anyone who matters doesn't care, and anyone who might care doesn't matter. Revel in my fatness! :D

New Gym!

To celebrate five months since screwing up my ankle (and two days out of the last brace), I bought new sneakers and joined a new gym: Gold's Gym this time around. While I really did like Sport & Health, this place is just over half the monthly fee. Sure, it doesn't have the pool I never used or the free shampoo/conditioner/body wash/lotion I will honestly miss, but it's got a lot of high-quality equipment. There is also a distinct lack of small children in the locker room, which is most likely related to the lack of a pool. Fine by me!

Anyway, I signed up yesterday and tried it out today. Not really in the mood to mess with the weight machines, I went into the Cardio Cinema, which is a darkened room with loads of cardio machines in front of a huge screen playing a movie. So I went in and got on the elliptical and watched a random half hour of Thor. I'm totally out of shape after these five months of idleness and pain, and I worked for every one of those minutes. Anyway, here's the stats:

elliptical machine
35 minutes
2.98 miles
431 calories

Sometimes I almost wish there was a way to measure the amount I sweat. I guess the technical term is "lots".

Oh yeah, I was recording victories! Today's victory: I did not stop by Burger King on my way to work this morning. I'd been doing it far more than I'd like to admit lately, but I've decided to turn over a new leaf. At least for now. :)

2011: An Ankle Odyssey

As of today it's been just about exactly one month since my ankle surgery and four months since the original injury. Long story short: the orthopedist put me in a boot for a month to see if that fixed me without surgery, but it didn't, so I had surgery to fix the teeny tear in my tendon.

But that wasn't all that was fixed. I think I've mentioned weird ankle pain when running or walking before; I can remember walking home from elementary school and pain shooting up my right ankle and not getting better until I sat down for a while. I've never had this sort of pain in my left ankle, only my right - which, coincidentally, was also the ankle I sprained back in April.

The surgeon made some vague reference to some kind of muscle issue discovered (and fixed) during surgery, and he clarified it when I went back for my first post-op appointment ten days later. The peroneal brevis muscle in your calf is supposed to end at your upper ankle, about where the top of a bobby sock would be. Mine extended all the way down and wrapped around the bottom of the ankle bone. The little space that runs behind the ankle bone really doesn't have much room: just enough for the two tendons that go through there. With the muscle there too, it means that whenever I worked it (like running or walking), it would expand with blood and thus cause pain and inflammation and probably wasn't helping the torn tendon any either. So he cut the extra muscle away to fix the problem. If I hadn't busted up my ankle, this lifelong issue may never have been spotted.

In short, I was too beefy for my own good.

I'm still in a walking boot for a couple more weeks, and have thus far have not been assigned physical therapy. Once I can walk normally again I'll start looking into another gym. My "big news" (which would have entailed moving halfway across the country) ended up falling through, so I'm staying in this area for the foreseeable future.

Which is fine. I just miss going to the gym. The other day I picked up the novel I'd been reading on the exercise bike and finally finished it. It felt weird to read it while lying in bed, but I knew if I didn't pick it back up I'd have to start over from the beginning, and I didn't want to do that. Oh well; I'll start another book when I finally get back into regular gym visits.