Trust

"Trust yourself."  "Trust me."  "Trust the process."  "Trust your body."  I don't know how many times he must have said words along those lines to me.  Because I can talk myself out of anything.  My inner dialogue was can't.  Just about every workout, for a long time, I said "I can't."  But after drilling it into my head that I could if I just trusted my body, it started to sink in.  And I really did get to a place where I believed I could do just about any physical challenge in front of me.  I may not nail it the first time around; but my body was capable of doing what I wanted it to do.  I just needed to get out of my own way.

Which is why I got up on that Ninja course rock wall that had no harness.  I just wanted to try.  I trusted.  But my body failed.  My knee dislocated.  It happened.  I tried and I not only failed, I seriously hurt myself.  And now I am struggling with rebuilding that trust within myself.  Because I have to be careful so I don't re-injure myself...but I now have fear in the back of my mind.

Mike posted a workout on his facebook page.  I immediately wrote it down and brought it to the gym ready to give it a go.  It was a plyometric workout so lots of jumping.  Box jumps were included in that.  I knew that I may have to modify some of the moves to be safe.  I even got the lowest box out and just did a step up to feel things out.  The way down is where I felt pain.  I sat there for a minute trying to decide if I was just afraid of hurting it or if I really needed to hold off.  I tried one more.  Same thing, pain on the way down.  I decided it was my body telling me that I wasn't there yet.

So I did 3 sets of 20 with a minute in between of this:

Back squats (just with the bar- 45 pounds- I'm also starting at ground zero there too)
Upright rows (40 pounds) 
Sumo Squats - no weight
Bicep curls- 40 pound

This was after a hill interval work out on the treadmill.  My knee is a bit sore. Lots of squatting.  I have ice on it.  It was the right decision.  I'm trying to rebuild, but I can't be stupid about it.  I also can't be scared.

Scared didn't get me anywhere. 

Something

I'm making progress.  It's slow, but it's steady. And it's on my own.

You all know how I feel about Mike.  I love Mike.  Mike is a dear dear friend to me and he changed my life.  He helped me change my inner dialogue.  He taught me.  He pushed me.  He listened to me.  And then I was on my own and I stumbled.  But I have gotten back up, brushed myself off, and dug deep.  This is all me.  So I'm not going to take it away by saying it isn't very much.  It's something.  It's enough.

I'm bad ass.

Taken at the Y last summer.

Taken about a month ago, just before my injury.

It's Been Awhile

Why have I been avoiding this?  Oh yeah, cause I feel like a failure.  Cause I parted with my trainer,  did not appreciate where I had gotten to, obsessed about figuring out why I was stuck, moved, and gained back about 15-20 of the 60 I lost.  Which doesn't sound like a lot.  But it is.  For me it is.  My shorts for summer don't fit as of right now and I'm battling some demons I thought I had defeated.  So I stopped putting myself out there.  I was ashamed.  I felt like I had failed at something I had worked so hard on and gotten a lot of encouragement for.

I hid.

I forgot why I do this blog.  It is to process through all my crap.  I make it public because maybe someone else has crap and it helps them process through theirs.  And I need the support from people who love me.  I have lost 6 pounds of that 20 I gained.  By doing what I know to do. Lots of lean protein and veggie packed smoothies and training.  Mike training.  And I was feeling pretty confident that by summer I was going to be back where I was.

And then I hurt myself.  Badly.  My knee dislocated while on a rock wall.  Well, ok,  I didn't stay on the rock wall.  And I knew it was bad.  I lay there in the pit for several minutes not moving in an absolute panic because I knew it was bad.  I was so scared of it being bad.  I knew what was in front of me.  Work.  The Urgent Care x-ray showed no tears.  So it all could have been worse.  I'm on week 4 and just now walking without a brace.  But my muscles are so weak.  I stand on one leg and it shakes.  In some dark moments I have almost cracked.  Because I was doing 10- 1 minute hill sprint intervals, 24 inch box jumps, and working on my pull up progression.  I had recently reached out to Mike to ask him for a new challenge.  Pistol squats.  I felt strong.  And now I don't.  Now I am back to walking on the treadmill, leg lifts and balancing to strengthen all of those muscles again.  I'm trying to be humble.  Shit happens for a reason right?  Maybe I needed to start over for some reason.

I have been focused.  Determined.  Doing what I can when I can and listening to my body.  I'm too old to mess around with knees now.  In the past I would have barreled ahead.  But I'm taking it slow.  Trying to be smart.  Progressing when and how I can.  For the first couple of weeks I only did arm work where I did not have to put any weight on it at all.  Now I'm trying to incorporate some mobility back into it.  I did squats yesterday with some light weight and it was sore all day today.  So I didn't go to the gym.  I rested.

But I hit a bit of an emotional wall today.  Full blown panic.  How am I going to lose the last 14 pounds before summer so I can feel confident in my shorts again without being able to train?  Really train?!

So I'm back to this blog.  It helped me work through my shit before.  It may annoy some people.  For that I'm sorry.  Block me, do what you gotta do.  But I'm gonna do what I gotta do.  This has been a major set back for me.  And I have been proud of how I have dealt with all of it.  But I could use a little more help at the moment.