Damages

So, for those of you who are just tuning in, I hurt my hand/wrist on Wednesday. (check out the blog on it When Garage Doors attack: A stall in my training?)

On Thursday more of my arm hurt.  The pain and stiffness extended from my wrist to just past my elbow.  I was having a hard time using my hand for anything, so I decided to call the doctor.

Sure enough, my doctor started examining my hand and noticed a lot of tension in my arm. So, it was off to the lab for x rays!

After they took my picture I came back to my doctors office and had a mini-melt down.  I knew that if my wrist was broken I wouldn't be able to compete in the Spartan race

My nerves were on edge! I didn't know what to expect, and I played out the various scenarios in my head.

Shortly after my mini freak out my doctor came back telling me the good news:


MY ARM WAS NOT BROKEN!!

Here's the not-so-great side of this story though: I do have a sprained wrist.  However, the doctor said that after about a week I could begin slowly easing it back into use.  In the meantime, I have to wear a wrist support band (It looks like I'm ready for some intense bowling). 

I also have to ice my wrist every hour for 15 minutes, along with taking Ibuprofin.  I'm practicing some range of motion exercises too.

I'm sad because the race is about 3 weeks away and I didn't realize how much I use my wrist in almost everything I do! I couldn't jog on Thursday night because the jarring motion hurt my arm and wrist!

It's also crazy how much it affects everything.  The pain has now spread from my wrist to my shoulder. OW.

Never in my life have I had a physical goal that I've been trying to work towards.  When this accident happened I didn't realize what that would mean for my training.  It's going to be a cut back, but hopefully I can strengthen myself enough to get through it! As I said in an earlier post, it's good to be reminded that no matter how strong I try to make myself, my body is ultimately weak, vulnerable.  It's a humbling reminder to keep life balanced.  It's good to be healthy, but keep in mind that ultimately your life is not yours to control!

Queen of the HILL!

Welp. Despite the early morning injury I was still able to do my 'hill' routine after work! I did the entire routine 8 times in 48 minutes! WOWZA!  A month ago when I started this hill routine I only did 5 rounds and it took me 60 minutes. I have cut my time in half!!!

I am still concerned about my hand, specifically my wrist. It's hurting worse, and I am getting to a point where it hurts with almost any movement. I might go in for an x ray tomorrow.

Prayers would be appreciated!

When garage doors attack: a stall in my training?

Today started with a very dramatic accident. (at least I thought so....)

Previous to getting married to a man who is very concerned about being on time, I used to be late to everything. I will say that that has changed over the past two years, but I still have some bad habits that stick. One of those habits is hitting snooze on the alarm. I will snooze until I only have 10 minutes to get out of the house and of course I end up arriving 5-10 min late to work. Not good.

So today I woke up determined to be on time. I am proud to say I made it out the door at a reasonable time. However, as fate would have it, I ended up being delayed by an epic battle with my garage door that set me back 10 minutes, and possibly set back some of my Spartan training as well.....

As I went to pull out of the garage, the gate just would not open! 

Let me set the scene for you:

This is how our garage door opens. It slides horizontally. There has been 1 time in the past when the gate wouldn't open, so Shawn took the lever and inserted it into our garage controller box and cranked it open.

So, when I couldn't get out this morning I immediately got out of the car, inserted the lever, and began to manually crank the door open. I had been at it for about a minute, when suddenly, the gate started opening on it's own! This meant the lever I had inserted started rotating SUPER FAST. It bent my wrist, then the other side slapped down on the back of my hand, then it loosed itself and went flying into the air.

Immediately I hurt. I swore I had broken my thumb where the lever hurt.

I took a picture immediately afterward of my hand. It's not gross, but I know some people are squeemish, so instead of posting it here i've added a link to the photo, so you can choose whether or not you wish to see it.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k92/dramadye/hurthand.jpg

As the day has progressed i'm happy to say I don't believe anything is broken. In fact, it hasn't been the part of my hand that was hit that has been bothering me most. The muscles in my wrist and forearm feel extremely tense and I'm concerned I may have strained them.

Yes, I am concerned this could affect my ability to climb things during the race. I'm gonna take it easy on my wrist the next few days to see how it goes. Ultimately this isn't that big of a setback, just a reminder that no matter how strong you are you're body is still vulnerable!

Next time, I'll think first and turn the power off before I start a manual crank.... Oh if only I could strengthen my common sense!

24 days till the race!!

Twenty five

And the countdown begins!!

Only 25 more days until the race!!

The weekend is over and that means it is back to work… Working out that is!

Usually on Saturdays Shawn and I go to the park and play about 3 hours of ultimate frisbee, but this Saturday was different. We had a friends wedding to go to and it started at such a time that we weren't able to play. We didn't mind! The wedding was SO MUCH FUN!

Unfortunately I have a terrible camera, and the few photos I did take didn't turn out so hot. Nonetheless, here's a pic of me and my best friend Stevie:

And this picture of me and my handsome hubby!

The wedding was great, and both Shawn and I burned a lot of calories dancing! We danced for a looooooong time to some great music! It was a BLAST!!

But that was then, and this is now….

Monday nights I take a FIT class that my husband teaches. Last night I got a great workout in!

Tonight I will be running hopefully 2 miles when I get home. It's my goal to run 3 miles on thursday. That will be the first time I've ever done it!! Eeep!

Fortunately I have eaten very well today, so I feel my body is up for a challenge!

Enough typing, time to sweat!

ONE MONTH TO GO!!

The Spartan Race is ONE MONTH away from today!

WOW! 

In four weeks I will be crawling through mud, jumping over walls, swimming, wrestling Spartan warriors, and in general, doing the toughest physical thing I have ever done in my life.

Do I feel ready? 

Its hard to say.  I have a feeling that even after the race I still won't feel ready for it. However, I am so much stronger! If I was forced to run today, I think I could do it, and I could run it well.  Still, there are several obstacles I need to push through.  I still have never run 3 consecutive miles in my training, let alone tried running them uphill (as most of the race is uphill).  But I truly believe I will be ready on the actual race day!

Each week it's easy to see how much I'm progressing in the things I can actually do.  I work out a lot with my husband (he is an amazing trainer!) and when I first started training there was one workout that I could only get halfway through in one hour. Now, I can do that same workout in about 25 minutes!

Every Wednesday I do a special hill training workout at my office. (we have a fairly steep driveway). This is the workout:

1. Run to the bottom of our driveway
2. Run back up the steep driveway
3. 15 pushups
4. 20 lunges left leg
5. 20 lunges right leg
6. 5 burpees (OH! I have such a love hate relationship with Burpees!)
7. 30 squats

The first week I did this workout it took me 60 minutes to do this 5 times.  Just two weeks later, I could do the whole thing 8 times through in 60 minutes! AMAZING!!!!

As if that progress wasn't enough, I've decided to post some progress pictures. My weight has pretty much maintained at about the same level, but I now have muscles!

AS a reminder, this was me in March 2011before I had started any training:

And, now, here I am today:

Yes. I do have a huge grin on my face. I have it because for the first time ever in my life, I feel really content with my body. 

Now, please, do not mishear me! This has been a process. Why do I feel really content with my body? It's because every single day I am working hard to actively love  my  body.  Each day I make a choice as to whether or not I'm going to actually take care of myself by eating right and working out. I definitely fail at that a lot.  However, there is grace in the process. 

With one month to go I am increasing my training! Also, I'll be cutting alcohol and sugar out of my diet for this month... Please! Don't tempt me! :-)  I want to make sure that I feel I have prepared myself to the best of my abilities for this race.

Alrighty! Enough typing! Time to go for a run!