I'm starting this thread to keep myself accountable for exercising during the month of April.
This month is different from the preceding months, because I had a setback & am now recuperating from it. I need to keep my spirits up & work my way back gradually to where I was.
On April Fool's Day, I went to the gym in the morning & spent an hour on the elliptical. I heard that there would be a party that evening after Pilates class for our Pilates instructor, who's enormously pregnant & ready to pop any day now. I said I'd try to come back again that night.
Well, when I did walk over to the gym that night at about 6:45, carrying my yoga mat & water bottle, I wish I hadn't. Because I got hit by a minivan while crossing the street in a cross walk. The driver was making a left-hand turn at the stop sign & said he didn't see me. I was knocked down forward onto my hands & knees onto the pavement & gravel. I hurt my right hand, which I had extended to break my fall, & also my elbow.
In the emergency room, they splinted my right hand & cleaned out the gravel, gave me a tetanus shot. I saw an orthpedist five days later. He took off the splint & put on an Ace bandage. It looks as though I may be lucky.
BUT .... in other senses, I am unlucky. I had been doing a weight routine, a circuit training class 2x a week, Pilates 2x a week and yoga 2x a week. I also swim on Sundays. My arms & my core were finally shaping up.
Now I'm limited to cardio & basically not using my hands, since I can't put weight on the right hand.
But I want to stay fit. I do NOT want to lie on the sofa eating food to comfort myself.
So I am going to use this thread to keep my motivation up & to be accountable for my exercise. I need to recuperate. But I also want to keep moving. WITHOUT overdoing it. I want to gradually get back into my former routine. But I do not want to reinjure myself, either.
April 1: 60 minutes elliptical, 30 minutes backward, 30 minutes forward. This was the day of my accident.
The funny thing is (or not so funny) that after the car hit me & I heard the thump, and hit the pavement, what I thought upon getting up was, "Oh, damn, I'm going to have to go into the ladies' room at the gym & clean up before Pilates class."
And then, after the minivan pulled up, and my elbow felt wet, & I realized it was bloody, I thought: "This doesn't look or feel good. I may not make Pilates class."
Other women in the neighborhood were walking by with their mats & I felt badly for not joining them.
I think when the police came to make out the accident report & the ambulance arrived (the hospital is one block away -- across from my gym -- so the ride over there felt somewhat farcical), I finally realized: "S**t. I am NOT going to make Pilates tonight or be able to go to the party."
And I know it sounds crazy but I was relieved to have gotten in my cardio that morning already, before the accident.
Calluna, thanks for the encouraging words. I know I am lucky. But isn't it weird, afterward, I felt like **I** had done something wrong, rather than the minivan driver?
April 2: 60 minutes on the arc trainer.
So the day after the accident, I got up in the morning & my hand & elbow hurt. Otherwise, the rest of me was fine. Or so it seemed. I took some Motrin & decided I'd go to the gym. (And learned that getting on a no-hook sports bra & wrestling it over your head one-handed is no fun.)
And I made myself go over that crosswalk again. I must have stood at that crosswalk for five full minutes without a car in sight before crossing.
At the gym, the woman who runs it took one look at my arm & called others to see. Someone told me a story about a woman who was killed in that same crosswalk a few years ago. And about some near-misses of other people walking to the gym from their apartments.
The gym owner suggested the arc trainer, since you just rest your hands lightly on the frame of the thing. So I did that, and believe it or not, got in a good workout to burn off a lot of nervous energy.
I felt relieved afterward. Like, "I'm back in the saddle again." Like getting back up on a horse after a hard fall. I had not been stopped.
Cut to later that afternoon. Then I started getting sore in weird parts of my body. Not from the workout. But from the hard fall.
April 3 & 4: 60 minutes on the arc trainer each day (x2=120 minutes).
Waking up on the second day after the accident was painful. Now my body told me what had happened to me. The front tendons in my neck hurt. I imagined that when I was hit & fell, my head must have snapped back slightly. Also my right side hurt, in the obliques. My arm really hurt. And my elbow still had a lump like a goose egg on the end.
I went for a Vicodin tablet left over from some dental work last fall.
Another strangely good workout. The gym again helped calm me.
Another memory: When they put me in the ambulance & took my blood pressure & pulse, they said, "Are you a runner?" Apparently I have a low resting heart rate. I told them no, not really, but I do about an hour of cardio a day. They said: "Well, it's working."
On the third day, some soreness still, but mostly frustration at having nothing working on my right hand (because of the splint & bandages) but four protruding fingers. I miss my opposable thumb. The thumb is the center of civilization. I never knew how valuable mine was till now.
April 5 & 6: 60 minutes each day (x2=120 minutes) on a Life Fitness elliptical/stepping machine.
My mother & I had planned a trip to Mohegan Sun casino & to see Mystic Seaport. We went anyway, me with my bandaged hand & Motrin bottle. We stayed at a Best Western that had an exercise room & pool. So both mornings I got on the thing that didn't require any hands: Something that looked like an elderly elliptical or stepping machine or stair climber. The trick to this was pressing down with my heels, as the front of my feet got numb after a while on it. I was the only one using the gym. Everyone else wanted to be at the casino all the time.
I am bored with this machine & I am looking longingly at people working the elliptical arms & lifting weights.
I want badly to take a spinning class but I think turning the resistance knob & leaning on the handlebars may still be a bit much at this point.
I imagine my hard-won arm muscles melting back & flattening into my arms. I am glad to see they're still there. Wonder how long before they go away. I do not want them to go away but I am not so insane as to handle weights with a bandaged hand.
But I miss them. Which is amazing, as four years ago it never would have crossed my mind to pick up a weight.
Thanks so much, Bargoo. I do feel lucky. And I hope that my police report adds to the accumulated record of that particular crossing. Despite the crosswalk & the "yield to pedestrians" sign, it seems drivers ignore it. They're making a left turn & looking at oncoming traffic, not where they're going. Or worse, they're on cellphones or something.
April 8: 60 minutes on treadmill, varying from 4.5 to 5.5. Just over 5 miles. At 1.5 incline.
I haven't run in a while -- I run maybe two times a month, sparingly, to save my feet & knees -- but I decided to use the gym at my office, and the treadmill seemed to be the best hands-free option available.
I work for an IT consulting firm in Stamford & we are fortunate enough to have a gym onsite with weights, machines, three treadmills, three bikes, four ellipticals. The CEO & other executive people are there in the mornings at 5 AM & on their lunch hours. (Being female, I am spared the sight of our CEO walking around in the bare in the lockerroom after he's had his daily run. My coworkers aren't & one jokingly calls it, "Our special naked time together with the senior leadership team.")
Usually I'm on a bike there with some resistance (I set it at 6) -- but I do lean my hands & arms on the handbars, and I did not want to do that. So today it was up on the treadmill, me running not very fast but steadily & having no trouble breathing at all. Two very leggy guys running beside me, both about 15 years younger than me. They did intervals. During the sprints, they must have gone over 6, maybe 6.3 or 6.5. I was impressed. What I'm good at is a very long steady rhythmic but not very fast run.
I feel good tonight. Maybe I should try running a little more.
Missing the weights. :-( Tonight I'm going to look at one of my Pilates books & based on that & my classes, I'm going to try to work out a short routine that makes no use whatsoever of my hands. Even if it's just for a stretch. Something to vary all this cardio.
Friday is one of my work-from-home days, so I go to the local gym then. I went there just past 7 AM today. Again, looking sadly at the weights & knowing I must miss yoga class at 10 AM. (There is no way I could do the vinyasa sequences in this class, with all the plank & downward dog poses that this teacher uses.)
So back to my old friend, the arc trainer. It's a combination of tedious & challenging. Motivation comes from strange places: I had a new song on my iPod which I kept punching the button to repeat. It's from last year, actually: "Sexy B!tch" by David Guetta with Akon. Very, very catchy. Also, I had new Nike pants on, which I got with my $50 Nike gift certificate earned with Coke Rewards codes from Coke bottle caps & cartons. I watched "Hip Hop Abs" infomercial practically through the entire workout. I can't decide whether all those flat muscular stomachs were motivational or de-motivational.
April 10: 60 minutes on the arc trainer, most of 45 minute Pilates class
Today was Saturday, but fortunately, my old frenemy the arc trainer was available. I was very energetic today & felt good. (I'm probably getting too used to this particular machine.) Also there was a big muscular dark-haired guy on the arc trainer on my right. He kept glancing my way but I quickly figured out he was checking his form on the mirror. He's often up on the machine too. So I feel like we're a team of horses in harness during our workout sessions. I need to say "hello" & smile. I am so used to being the invisible fat girl whose friendliness guys did not particularly welcome that I forget that generally I'll get a warm smile back, even if they're younger than me.
Afterward, I decided to try the Saturday Pilates class, figuring I would do what I could. The instructor fussed over me. It was her class & her sort-of-baby-shower party that I was headed to when the car hit me. She'd heard the news already but announced it to the class. Immediate consternation, sympathy & attention, which was a little embarrassing, actually. But many of the women in this class walk over that crossing, so they should know about what happened, and thus perhaps be even more alert & tell others to be more alert. Someone also told me that another woman was hit in that crossing a month before I was.
And my Pilates instructor, a little ponytailed dynamo with an enormous baby bump, said she's been hit by a car TWICE in her lifetime. (Not in that crossing! Nowhere near it!) Both times knocked out of her shoes. Which did not happen to me. She was bruised & banged up both times but otherwise okay.
We used flexible rings in Pilates class. I could do many of the moves, not all. I had to sit on my mat & watch at the end during the plank poses & cat/cow stretches, as I can't put any weight on my wrist. As long as I was fkat on my back, trying to "scoop" my abs, I was okay. My abs pained me during class, but in the good way, the "being worked" way. I was a little tremulous at certain points. That surprised me. Like I have had a bit of self-confidence knocked out of me. But hey, I did it.
And I feel better for it. I am nearly out of the self-pity, lying-on-the-couch danger zone, which is what I'd feared. There is a lot that I **can** do & it is better to focus on that than on what I can't do, for now.
Good for you for not letting your current limitations get you down
I've only done the arc trainer once and honestly I felt a little bit ridiculous, especially since it was at the very front of the room and I felt like people were watching me. Definitely smile at mr. arc trainer guy next time!
April 11: 60 minutes on the arc trainer. This time, I set it on "6" and for hill intervals. The high stepping felt odd during some intervals but seemed to be working my glutes more than usual. And that has to be good.
I'm unhappy about missing my Sunday swimming class for a second weekend. I really need to work on my form in swimming. I want to be able to do lots of consecutive laps & to get weight off my feet & legs for some days during the week. I consider this an investment toward my "golden years" as it's an exercise I'll be able to do even if my joints wear out.
Teff, I actually took your advice & exchanged a few words with Big Buff Arc Trainer guy. He showed up just as I was finishing my workout & asked if I was done with the machine. I said yes, since I was wiping it off at that point. I jokingly said that he was a little late today, since he was supposed to be on the other machine while I was working on this one. He laughed. I moved over to the stretching area. Now I will feel comfortable saying "hi" to him regularly.
April 12: 60 minutes on the treadmill, again just over 5 miles, varying from 4.5 to 5.5 at 1.5 incline.
No one beside me on the treadmills, since it was a gorgeous day, which sends the runners at my office out into the picturesque neighborhood, where one can run by Connecticut hedge fund managers' mansions, magnolia trees in bloom, pink weeping cherry trees, and tied-up sailboats & even get a view of a light house. I'm not out there with them because the surface of the treadmill is easier on my bad feet.
While I run, if I get into a cadence, I seem to forget my legs are moving & drop off into meditation or a kind of deep involvement with the music on my headphones. ("Solider of Love" by Sade, a bit too slow for running, but I like the dramatic music, which reminds me, strangely enough, of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir.")
And I think I must look funny running because I am so slow. I suspect short, somewhat stocky women run more slowly than long, tall young men partly because they are so short & their strides are not so long. I feel like a chubby lead pony among the rangy race horses on the track. So I'm glad I was alone on the treadmill tonight.
April 13: 60 minutes on the arc trainer, making an attempt at picking up my speed.
I'm curious to see what alternating the arc trainer with running on the treadmill will do. So far, my feet are holding up well. No plantar fascitis issues -- which usually start with my feeling like there's a stone embedded in my left heel. No pain in either of my big toe joints. This is a relief, as I'm usually not on my feet so much -- I'm swimming on Sundays & on a bike two other days a week. I can't do either yet, though. I'm looking forward to the orthopedist appointment on Thursday.
Another call from the insurer for the car owner yesterday, while I was at the office. I need to call them back. I have to brace myself mentally for this. They are potential lawsuit defendants & they are not really my friends, so I need to be formal & factual & not volunteer anything I'll regret saying later. These transactions & all the required paperwork are just as annoying as the injury.
Keeping myself accountable while recuperating
