Category Archives: Fitness

Injury After Injury (or I Swear It’s Not Because I’m A Klutz)

Posted on October 15, 2015 | 1 comment

I feel like the past few months have been me dealing with one injury after another. Of course, there is always my hip issues. Those are probably going to be around for the rest of my life (even if I have surgeries to fix them). Then I had my torn calf over the summer. I was hoping that would be better in a few weeks, but I’m still dealing with the recovery from that (but I’m feeling almost 100% again).

Because of the hip issues and the torn calf, I started favoring walking differently. This has been an ongoing issue with my hips (my shoes for the last 10 years have worn down in funny patterns), but with the calf I started to favor the other leg. In doing that, I caused some ankle and knee pain.

Then because of who knows what, I started getting the most epic blisters on my heels. It’s not because of my shoes (I’ve used the same type of running shoes for a while now), so I’m not sure what’s causing it. But it made it more difficult for me to walk and do other things.

I’ve been a klutz my entire life. I’m rarely without a bruise or a scratch of some sort. In fact, right now, I’ve got a pretty nasty bruise on my knee where I bumped into my front door (don’t ask). But these issues are not klutz related ones. These are real injuries.

My dad has said that this is what comes with becoming an athlete. And while I agree with him, it’s not fun and I feel like there must be something I can do differently to work on preventing or limiting these issues.

I’m working on stretching more throughout the day and trying to get up from my desk as least once an hour to move around. It hasn’t been easy with the injuries I’ve got right now, but I want to start building better habits for the future. I’m also trying to limit the number of painkillers I take in a week. I still take one before each workout, but I know that taking them only dulls the pain that I feel and doesn’t always allow me to know when I’m pushing myself too much. If I don’t have a painkiller in my system, I should feel pain sooner and therefore know to stop what I’m doing.

It’s funny to me that I’m dealing with so many more injuries now than I did last year when I was starting my workout routine. Of course, there was the quad strain after my very first Orangetheory workout that had me struggling to walk for a couple of days after (thank goodness that was just that one time). But since then I’ve been relatively injury free until this summer. Maybe I’m working that much harder in my workouts? Or maybe I was overdue for some injuries and they are all happening now.

No matter what, unless I’m horribly sick like I was 2 weeks ago, I’m not letting these injuries prevent me from working out. I’m looking at them like a badge of honor. Because unless my klutz injuries, I’ve earned these by kicking butt.

I just wish that they would hurt less and get better sooner.

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Getting Back In The Groove (or Recovering From My Sick Break)

Posted on October 12, 2015 | Comments Off on Getting Back In The Groove (or Recovering From My Sick Break)

After only being able to do 1 workout the week before, I was pretty nervous about how my workouts would go this past week. Would it not seem so bad or would I hurt like I did for a few days after my very first Orangetheory workout ever? I decided to not push myself too hard and see how it went.

Monday was definitely a struggle. I felt like I was huffing and puffing through the entire workout but my heart rate stayed pretty low. I sometimes have that problem with my morning workouts, but this one felt worse than usual. I really tried to do what I could, but I felt like I had taken 1,000 steps back in my workout progress. I was also possibly holding back a bit since I knew I’d be at Disneyland that afternoon. I’m just grateful that my calf is starting to feel better because that was one less thing I had to worry about.

My Wednesday workout felt a bit more normal. The only big issue I was dealing with was some horrible blisters that I got on both of my heels (not quite sure what happened, but they are still horrible). I didn’t have any pain leftover from my Monday workout like I thought I would and I was doing things at the same speed/weight that I was doing them before I was sick. The only thing that is still behind pretty significantly is my rowing power. That doesn’t seem to make progress like I would like and I’m wondering if it has to do with my calf, my hip, or maybe a combination of both. I’m adding it to my list of things I want to talk about with hip surgeons when I start meeting with them to decide for sure who will be doing my next surgery (and what my next surgery will be).

Friday I finally felt back to normal. And not only did I feel back to normal from being sick, I felt almost back to normal after the calf injury! For that workout, we spent the first half of the workout (about 26 minutes) on the treadmill without a break. When we had walking breaks, I brought my speed down to 3 miles an hour, but the entire workout time I was at 3.5 miles an hour! I’m almost back to what I was doing pre-injury! I’m still not able to boost my speed during the push and all-out paces, but knowing that I did 3.5 miles an hour for 26 minutes gave me a huge confidence boost! I’m feeling better about my next 5K and that I will be able to PR (even if it’s only a few seconds faster).

I feel like I might be ready to start back at 4 workouts a week occasionally. I’m still a bit nervous on how my calf might feel, but I haven’t had any popping or pulling sensations in it for about 2 weeks now. I think that it’s finally completely healed and I want to get in the extra workouts so I can still meet my 2015 workout goal. I also feel like while I’ve been pushing myself due to injury or illness, I haven’t really been pushing myself for real. It’s just been pushing myself to get back to what I can usually do.

Orangetheory will be doing Hell Week again during Halloween week. I’m feeling pretty sure that I can do 4 workouts that week. But I’m starting to think that maybe I should make it a challenge for myself to workout each day of Hell Week. Last year, they gave out a prize for doing that, but I don’t care about getting a prize. I care about proving to myself that I’m not in recovery mode anymore and I’m back to improvement mode.

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Default ThumbnailAlmost Normal (or Guess I’m Definitely Missing The Dri-Tri) Default ThumbnailAlmost Back To Normal (or Making Progress) Default ThumbnailWorkout Struggles and Wins (or My First Early Workout In A While) Default ThumbnailWorkouts With Modifications (or Dealing With A New Injury) Default ThumbnailStill Taking This A Bit Easy (or Not Going To Push Too Hard) Default ThumbnailTaking A Break To Be Sick (or Hitting A Road Bump)

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Workout Failure (or I Tried My Best)

Posted on October 5, 2015 | 1 comment

I was nervous when I wrote about my last workout recap because I knew I was scheduled to work out 3 days in a row last week due to my upcoming crazy schedule. I’ve done 3 workouts in a row before, and they have never been easy. I don’t want to have to do those regularly but it’s always good to challenge myself.

Before I talk about what happened, I’ll talk about my Monday workout. The treadmill is still going well for me. I’m not ready to push myself with speed on the push or all out paces, but I’m getting close. And the fact that my base pace is almost what it used to be is still making me so happy. I’ve got about a month to go before my 5K and that is motivating me every time I have to get on the treadmill (it’s still not my favorite thing to do).

My strength section went fine. It wasn’t anything fabulous, but I did it and I pushed myself to fatigue as often as I could. I don’t like to do that (even though I know it’s good for me) because when I get fatigued, my form gets sloppy and I can hurt myself. I’m not sure how to push to fatigue safely, but that’s something that I’d like to look into more.

Monday after my workout was my epic doctor afternoon. I know that you can sometimes feel off after a flu shot (and my arm can hurt from those and tetanus shots) so I was prepared to have a bit of an off workout on Tuesday afternoon.

At about 1am on Tuesday morning, I woke up in a disgusting sweat, my head was foggy, and my body ached like there was something punching me constantly. I managed to be able to take my temperature after a bit and discovered that I was running a really high fever. I know that you can’t get the flu from the flu shot, but there is a slim chance that you can have a bad reaction to it which includes fever, sweats, aches, and other flu-like symptoms.

I decided to call this “fake flu”.

I posted online about my fake flu and some friends shared with me that it can last a day or two. Obviously, with my fever and horrible sweats there was no way I could go to my workout. I had to late cancel that class and I ended up napping for 4 hours after work and then going to bed an hour after that.

I still had hopes that I could go to Wednesday’s class, but I spend another night with a high fever, sweats, and the rest of it. So no Wednesday class for me.

I ended up pretty much recovering from fake flu by Wednesday night (I feel totally better now), but 2 of my 3 workouts of the week were not going to happen. With my schedule for the SAG-AFTRA Convention no class times would work for me again until Monday (trust me, I checked even for the earliest class time on Thursday and Friday and that would have made me late for Convention).

This is the first time since I started going regularly to Orangetheory over a year ago that I didn’t get at least 3 workouts in during the week. I wish I could say that I was fine with that, but I wasn’t. I was really mad. I wished that I had not gotten the flu shot then and had waiting for a Friday sometime when I could spend 2 days being sick without missing a workout. I wished that this had happened any other week where I could have made up the classes on other days in the week. And I’m hoping that this set back won’t prevent me from meeting my workout goal for the year.

I knew that one day something like this was bound to happen. I honestly thought it would be whenever I get my next hip surgery since that might take me between 6 weeks and 6 months (depending on which surgery I go with) to recover. I’ve worked out sick before, but this fake flu was different from anything else I have had before. It happens to everyone. It’s not the end of the world (even if it feels like that a bit).

I just have to be thankful that this week I should be able to do my 3 workouts and hopefully I can make up some extra workouts in the coming months so I can still meet my year goal.

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Workout Struggles and Wins (or My First Early Workout In A While)

Posted on September 28, 2015 | 1 comment

I’m still on the path of recovery for my calf injury (I laugh now when I think back at how I thought before it would only take 2 or 3 weeks to recover). I’m in a weird balance point of trying to push myself more and more and trying not to re-injury myself. I’m so terrified of another tear but I know that I do need to get myself stronger. It’s a weird thing for me to really want to hold back and push forward at the same time, but I think I’m finally understanding my body more and figuring out things I can do to both protect my muscle and build it at the same time.

I’m learning that if we are going to be on the treadmill for the first half of class uninterrupted (instead of either having a run/row day or switching between blocks), I’ve got to take it easy. Taking it easy is still at 3.4 miles an hour, but I’m not really pushing it any more than that. I’m feeling twinges in my calf when I go faster after being on the treadmill for an extended period of time, so I’m taking that as a sign that I’m not ready for that yet.

But when we are switching between blocks or doing a run/row day (we did both of these in workouts this past week), I’m able to do almost all my treadmill time at 3.5 miles an hour. I’m still keeping the incline on the lower end of things, but I’m testing the waters there a bit too. On Friday, we had very short treadmill segments on the run/row (1 minute or 45 seconds each), so I was able to try slightly higher inclines. But I’m not sure if I’m going to keep pushing myself on the inclines as much because I really want to focus on speed.

Besides the treadmill improvement, I’m still working on my form and other things like that on the rower and on the weights. The rower is tough because of both my hip and calf, but it’s getting better (and less painful). For weights I still have to be careful with some lower body things (I did something on Monday that made my legs hurt through Thursday) but I’m testing my limits there too.

The biggest struggle of my workout week was Friday. Because of my crazy schedule, I had to do a 7:30am workout. I don’t do those that often (I sometimes do 8:30am but that feels so much later than 7:30am), but it was the only way I could get in 3 workouts this week. I’m not sure if it was the early wakeup time or the fact that my heart rate monitor wasn’t registering correctly for the class, but I had the worst time in class. I was constantly dizzy and when I would look at the heart rate monitor for guidance if my heart rate is too high, it was showing false low heart rates. I tried to take my heart rate by feeling my pulse, and my heart was racing higher than it probably should be. I had to take it easy a lot during the rowing and weights segment, but I stuck it out through the entire class.

This week will bring another potential struggle for me. I’m going to be doing 3 workout days in a row. It won’t be the first time I’m doing this, but it will be the first time in a while. It’s not ideal for me to be doing this, but if I don’t I won’t be able to get 3 workouts in for the week and I haven’t done fewer than 3 workouts in a week since starting at Orangetheory. I’m going to try my very best in those 3 classes and I know that even a half-ass workout is better than no workout at all.

And I’ve got the new parking validation stamp from Orangetheory to remind me of that fact.

OTF Validation

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Excellent Customer Service (or A New Fitbit)

Posted on September 23, 2015 | 2 comments

I’ve been enjoying the Fitbit I got earlier this year ever since I got it. There was only one day that I missed getting my 10,000 steps in for the day and even then I was pretty close. I’ve worked really hard at getting in all my steps for the day and have been very happy that while sometimes it’s isn’t easy, it’s not nearly as impossible as I thought it might be.

I had been enjoying all of the challenges and social things that Fitbit offers and most days I checked my progress throughout the day to make sure I was on pace to hit my goals.

While at ENMNCon, I was able to reach my goals the first two days of the conference. It wasn’t easy, but I did it. But on Saturday of the conference, I was too busy to think about checking the app on my phone to see my progress. When I got into my car to head home, I finally checked and realized that there were very few steps recorded for the day. I then looked at the middle of my bra where I keep my Fitbit device attached and realized that it wasn’t there!

My first thought was to look around and inside my car to see if it just fell off. But the app was also showing that it was searching for the device and wasn’t able to connect so I knew that it couldn’t be that close to me. There was no way to drive all over town to look for it, so I just drove home and hoped that somehow I had forgotten to put my Fitbit on for the day and I would find it at home.

I got home, my Fitbit wasn’t there, and I had to come to the realization that it must have fallen off at some point that day and it was lost. I emailed Fitbit support and didn’t have high hopes on a good resolution. I had recently emailed them to get a new clip because my old one broke. And they sent me one at no cost and the day I lost my Fitbit was the first day I used the replacement clip.

So my email to Fitbit was more about how the replacement clip was likely defective and I wanted to let them know about it. They emailed back pretty much right away and let me know what time my device connected with my phone last. I thought back to that time and it was while I was walking near Hollywood and Highland. There is no way that someone hadn’t picked up the Fitbit and took it or that it was run over by a car. I knew it that I had to get a new device.

But fortunately, Fitbit let me know that there were going to send me a new replacement device at no cost! It was going to take a little over a week to get it to me, but that’s better than me paying $100 for a new one! I’ve heard of other friends getting a free replacement device, but I thought that since I had just gotten a free replacement clip that there was no way they would now send me a device. I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong!

It did feel weird not to have my Fitbit on me. I tried to do as many steps as I could, but I wasn’t able to get a decent count of them (my phone tracks steps, but I don’t aways have my phone on me as I’m walking around my house. Finally, on Monday my new Fitbit arrived!

New Fitbit

It’s a different color than my old device, but I was able to get it set up pretty quickly and got started back at my challenges right away! I probably won’t win challenges this week because I pretty much missed all of Monday, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t get back to my 10,000 steps a day streak! I’m excited to be back on track with my steps and to have all the steps counted (and not just counted when I have my phone).

It’s so funny how much I didn’t care for Fitbit the first time I had it, but when I was without it last week I felt lost. I’m just glad that I have it back and I’ve gotten proof that Fitbit really does care about their customers and has awesome customer service!

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Almost Normal (or Guess I’m Definitely Missing The Dri-Tri)

Posted on September 21, 2015 | Comments Off on Almost Normal (or Guess I’m Definitely Missing The Dri-Tri)

Another week of ups and downs with my workouts. Since I like to end on a positive note, I’m going to start with the negatives.

Last week I was debating whether or not I’d be doing the Dri-Tri this past Sunday at Orangetheory. Then I found out that the Dri-Tri was moved to another date and was going to be a partner challenge, so I got really encouraged by that. I figured that there was no reason now to skip the Dri-Tri and I was all set to find a partner.

Until I found out the date that it was switched to. There is no way I can do the Dri-Tri on the new date. I’ve got one thing I have to do from 8am-noon that day and then I’m working from 2-8pm. Technically I might be able to do it between the events, but with driving time and having to be clean and in professional clothes for work I doubt that I could make it happen.

I believe that this is the last Dri-Tri of the year, so this will now be my second year of not being able to do one. It’s so frustrating because even though I know it will be very tough, I know that I could do it. And I want to prove to myself that I can and now I will have to wait a year to do that. And of course I think that knowing my luck I’ll end up having something else that prevents me from doing the event next year.

But I can’t think like that. I just have to focus on working on my workouts as hard as I can from now until the event next year so my first attempt will be great and I’ll be able to get a fast Dri-Tri time.

And working on my workouts is going better and better. My calf almost feels 100% normal now. I’m still struggling with my inclines a bit, but perhaps I was overdoing them before and that’s what caused the injury to happen. I’m getting the inclines high enough that I can get my heart rate up, and that’s most important to me. I’m not too worried if I’m told I should be at 15% and I’m at 8 or 10%. It’s what I can do right now and that’s all good with me.

And as far as my speed goes, I’m testing out 3.5 miles an hour now. I was able to do it a couple of times in the workouts this past week. And when I wasn’t at 3.5, I maintained 3.4 miles an hour the rest of the workout! I’m so close to where I was pre-injury. I still have a goal of being a bit faster before my next 5K in about 6 weeks. But if I’m able to do my treadmill workouts the week leading up to the race at 3.5 miles an hour, I’ll be happy.

I’m still hoping for a new PR at the race, but my PR expectations are lower than they were before. I know now that being a minute faster might not be realistic. But even if I’m 1 second faster at this race, I’m going to be happy now. That will prove to me that I’m 100% recovered from the injury and I’ll be able to train for speed for my next 5K after this one (that next one will be in the spring).

Now that my power walking is very close to what it was pre-injury, I need something new to focus on improving. I never realized that having a very specific workout goal could be as powerful as it is. I don’t think if I had as specific of a goal for the treadmill that I would have gotten back to (almost) normal as fast as I have. I’d love to get better on the rower. My power is still not as high as I wish it was. But I’m also aware that that might be due to my hips and my calf still healing. And I did recently improve on my weights for the strength portion of the workout, so I’m not sure if I can move up to the next weights very soon. I’m going to spend the next couple of days working on ideas for my workout goals and hopefully I’ll have something to work on soon!

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Steps Forward And Back (or Working On Frustration)

Posted on September 14, 2015 | Comments Off on Steps Forward And Back (or Working On Frustration)

My week of workouts were both good and frustrating. I’ve had this injury for too long (in my opinion) and whenever I feel like I take a step forward I end up taking a step back too.

The next Dri-Tri is this coming Sunday. I really thought I’d be better by then so I can do it, but I’m having some serious hesitations too.

My weight work is doing pretty well. I’m noticing that my balance is getting better and my core got significantly stronger recently. I’m wondering if compensating for my injured calf helped to strengthen my core. Whatever it was, I was finding my weight work to feel easier and more natural this week. This been a while since I’ve had a step forward like that and I’m pretty happy about it. My weakest part are still my arms/shoulders, but I think I can work on those.

My rowing also had some strides forward this week. I’m getting my wattage closer to what it was pre-injury and I’m doing well in my sprints. The longer distances are still my struggle. And that concerns me as far as the Dri-Tri goes. That has a 2,000 meter row. The longest distance I’ve done post-injury has been 1,000 meters (I’ve done 1,600 meters pre-injury). And with that 1,000 meter row I did have to take a bunch of breaks. I’m sure I could do 2,000 meters, just not sure how many breaks or how long it would take me.

But as it’s been lately, my biggest concern is the treadmill. I’m getting closer and closer to my pre-injury speed, but I’m not even close to where I was on incline. I’ve done a few quickie segments at 3.5 miles an hour, but I’m pretty much sticking to 3.3 or 3.4 for now. I’m feeling the muscle in my calf straining so I know I can’t do much more. And for inclines I’m doing pushes at 6% and all outs at 8% or the occasional 10%. I’m not sure if I’d have to do inclines for the Dri-Tri, but if I do those might disqualify me.

I’ve got a few more days to figure out if I’m going to do the event or not. I’m going to ask the staff/trainers about my concerns and try to make the best unemotional choice for me. As much as I really want to do it, I’m worried that pushing myself that hard is going to either make my recovery take longer or possibly even tear the muscle again.

I find it so odd that this injury is frustrating me as much as it is. My hip issues have been an ongoing problem for about 10 years now. And even though I know I need surgeries to correct them still, I put up with it and know that it is what it is. Now I have an issue that is going to be better without medical intervention and in the somewhat near future and I’m beyond impatient and annoyed with my progress. You’d think that I’d be more annoyed with an almost permanent issue than a temporary one.

I’m working really hard at being patient and knowing that this will be a memory and not an issue soon. And there will be more Dri-Tris next year, so this won’t be my last opportunity to do one. I just really had my heart set on doing the one last month (which I skipped due to the injury) and the one this month. I figured I’d be better by now, but I guess I was wrong.

But if things turn for the better, you’ll see a post from me next week recapping the Dri-Tri!

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Almost Back To Normal (or Making Progress)

Posted on September 7, 2015 | Comments Off on Almost Back To Normal (or Making Progress)

I’m feeling really great about my last week of workouts! I’m still at only 3 workouts a week (and I laugh that I use the word “only” in that sentence), but those 3 workouts were really awesome!

I had some workouts where I spent 22 minutes straight on the treadmill and some workouts where the treadmill segments were until 5 minutes. And each of those types of treadmill workouts had their own advantages and made me feel really great about my treadmill progress.

For those 22 minutes straight on the treadmill, I’m still keeping myself at a lower speed than before. I’m starting at 3.3 miles an hour, but I did test out going 3.4 for brief moments. Sadly, I couldn’t stay that long at 3.4 miles an hour for more than a minute toward the end of the treadmill workout. But that’s still progress and I’m getting closer and closer to my speed pre-injury.

But for the quick treadmill segments, I had a milestone (at least to me). One block involved going 1/4 mile on the treadmill and then moving on to strength work (it was like a run/row day but instead of rowing we did floor work between treadmill segments). I decided that since I knew that I would spend less than 5 minutes doing that 1/4 mile, I would see if I could start at 3.4 miles an hour. It didn’t feel that bad so I was able to bump it up to 3.5 miles an hour! I was hurting a bit at the end of that workout, but it wasn’t bad pain so I’m ok with that.

Beyond the improvement with the treadmill, I’m feeling like other parts of my workout are benefitting from my healing.

The most obviously one is the rowing machine. Right after the injury, I really couldn’t row because my leg wouldn’t bend enough (part of that was due to pain and part of that was due to the compression bandage I was using). But that’s not an issue anymore so I can go all out on my rowing like I did before. I’m still a little lower in wattage than before, but that’s all about building the strength back up and not because of my injury. I didn’t realize how much strength I’d lose taking it easy in my workouts, but it was pretty significant. I guess my fear of not doing enough workouts is valid. It’s easy to slip backwards.

The weights part of the workout didn’t really suffer from my injury, but I know I took it a bit easy while recovering. Again, I’m working on building things back up. My struggle there is my stubbornness. I like to use the same weight for as much of the workout as I can. But I know that some parts of me are much stronger than others and there’s nothing wrong with switching weights for each part of the strength workout. But I like to move easily from exercise to exercise so keeping the same weight makes that easy. But I need to slow down, take my time, and make sure I’m using the proper weight for each movement.

And finally, there is one part of my workout that I’m still struggling with quite a bit: the TRX Straps. Some of the moves I’m totally fine with. Pretty much anything where I’m facing the straps is fine. But things where I’m facing away (like chest presses or triceps moves) involve being on your toes to do the moves. When I’m on my toes, my calf muscle is screaming in pain! I’m finding that if I stand in a wide stance it helps, but it’s still the worst part of my workout for now.

While I’m going to be in injury recovery for another few weeks (at least I hope it’s only for a few more weeks), but I’m working on getting out of the post-injury mindset and moving on to the usual just kick ass in my workouts mindset!

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Default ThumbnailMaking Progress (or Preparing For My Thanksgiving Workout) Default ThumbnailLearning How To Maximize My Injury (or Feeling More Normal) Default ThumbnailTransitioning Back To Normal (or Going Slow) Default ThumbnailMore Progress And Steps Back (or Trying My Hardest) Default ThumbnailAlmost Normal (or Guess I’m Definitely Missing The Dri-Tri) Default ThumbnailMajor Progress (or I Can Run!)

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Transitioning Back To Normal (or Going Slow)

Posted on August 31, 2015 | Comments Off on Transitioning Back To Normal (or Going Slow)

This week of workouts was all about testing my limits with my injury. I knew that this week would mark when I could attempt going on the treadmill again, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to push it.

I spent Monday on the bike again. I’m not a huge fan of working out on the bike, but it’s not the worst thing. I struggled again with getting my heart rate up because when I’m bent forward holding on the handlebars my heart rate monitor isn’t flush against my chest. But I managed and did what I could (even if the screen wasn’t necessarily showing my accurate heart rate).

After my workout on Monday, I spend the day at Disneyland. I did wear a compression bandage, but I did a lot of walking that day. I was probably close to 4 miles of walking over the entire day, which is the most walking I’ve really done since the injury. I was having issues with pain from time to time, but it wasn’t unbearable. So I decided that I would test myself on the treadmill on Wednesday.

Fortunately, my new compression sleeves arrived before my Wednesday workout. I got a set of them (one for each leg), but I went to my workout just wearing one on my injured leg.

Compression Sleeve

Wednesday’s workout ended up being the perfect workout to test myself on. It was a partner workout and my treadmill segments were under 4 minutes each time. I felt great! I was going slow, but I was still going faster than I had when I started at Orangetheory. I slowly increased my speed, but I never got to what I was at pre-injury. I’m a little concerned since I have a 5K in about 2 months, but hopefully I can get myself up to my previous speed in that time.

Friday’s workout made me realize that I’m still limited in what I can do. I did try wearing the sleeves on both legs after a recommendation from one of my coaches, but I’m not sure if I like that yet or not (I’ll probably try it another time or two before I decide). But on Friday, all the treadmill blocks were one after another. So I had about 30 minutes straight on the treadmill.

I did ok with that. I had to decrease my speed compared to Wednesday halfway through the treadmill time because I was starting to hurt, but with doing that and taking some breaks I was able to finish the treadmill segment on the treadmill and not taking time on the bike.

Obviously, I’m not fully healed yet. I still have some pain when I’m walking regularly around my house or while doing errands. And on the treadmill I had a few scary moments with a quick intense pain but those went away quickly and I don’t feel any additional tears in my calf. I really want to get back to normal, but I need to learn to be patient with myself. It’s not easy when my focus for so long was to push myself, to go faster, and to get higher inclines.

My plan is to stay on the treadmill from now on unless there is a pain that is unbearable or really scares me. I know I need to work on my endurance and muscle strength and hopefully I can spend the next few months just focusing on getting myself to where I was last month and not where I thought I’d be.

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Default ThumbnailWorkouts With Modifications (or Dealing With A New Injury) Default ThumbnailGetting Back In The Groove (or Recovering From My Sick Break) Default ThumbnailEasing My Way Back Into My Normal Workouts (or Not Being Upset I’m Slow) Default ThumbnailLearning How To Maximize My Injury (or Feeling More Normal) Default ThumbnailAlmost Normal (or Guess I’m Definitely Missing The Dri-Tri) Default ThumbnailCan 4 Workout A Week Be My New Normal? (or Pushing Myself Beyond)

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Not Feeling Like I Belong (or Way Out Of My Comfort Zone)

Posted on August 28, 2015 | Comments Off on Not Feeling Like I Belong (or Way Out Of My Comfort Zone)

A few weeks ago, one of the blogger groups I’m a part of offered tickets to a fitness event happening in Orange County. Since it wasn’t going to be that far of a drive for me (and the tickets would be free), I decided that I would check it out. There were a bunch of different fitness classes that I could sign up for, and I signed myself up for a bunch.

Then, I tore my calf muscle.

I knew that I was still going to check out the event, but going to the fitness classes really wasn’t a possibility for me. So I headed down to Orange County right after work on Saturday. I didn’t get off to the best start. The parking lot that was used was a Disneyland lot. I thought that since I have a parking pass on my annual pass that I would be able to park there for free (instead of paying $15). Sadly, that wasn’t the case. After giving the parking attendant my money, I realized that it was going to be a bit of a walk to get to the event. Normally, it wouldn’t have been a big deal, but with the injury it was.

Once I got inside, I had some issues with checking in (there were 2 different names to the event and I was trying to check in at the stand for one name when I had to be at the other name). Finally, I got my wristband and headed inside.

Honestly, I hated it. There were a couple of stage areas where different demonstrations were happening, but besides those it was just booths where things were being sold. There were dozens of protein powders, drinks, recovery foods, gear, and other workout related things being sold. And while I would have loved to try some of them, it was so crowded at each booth that I didn’t stick around to wait in line (some lines were 40 people long, I counted).

The group that got me the tickets had arranged for us to have a room to use for meeting up, relaxing, and picking up our swag bags. Nobody was in there (I think only 2 people from the group were at the event that day) and the swag bag was just a juice drink. I know that I shouldn’t be looking for a big swag bag, but there was one email that mentioned getting a VIP swag bag. I don’t think a nylon drawstring bag with one juice inside is really a VIP swag bag.

Since there was nobody in our reserved room, I tried heading back out on the floor again. I just felt so awkward and out of place there. I’m sure that I’m paranoid, but I felt like everyone was staring at me and looking at me like I don’t belong. Most of the women there were super fit, wearing very little clothing, and had a spray tan. I’m just me.

After walking around for about an hour, I decided that it was time for me to go home. The crowds were overwhelming me and there really wasn’t anything for me to do there.

I don’t think that it is the fault of the event or the blogger group that I had a bad time there. I think that the blogger group wasn’t quite aware that it was mainly an expo and not more of an event. And the event might have been great if I could have gone to the classes and if I wanted to buy a bunch of stuff. I think I just went in with the wrong expectations and it wasn’t right for me.

I’m not sure if I would attend another fitness expo (or any expo really) in the future. They aren’t for me and I hate feeling like everyone there is trying to get me to try or buy things. I like to look at what is offered, but there’s always pressure from the people working the booths to sign up for something or purchase an item.

But I’m glad I went to get out of my comfort zone and see what it was all about. I do need to push myself from time to time and see what is right for me and what isn’t. And now that I’ve realized that this type of thing isn’t for me, I’m ok with that.

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Default ThumbnailAnother Try At The Fit Expo (or Finding My Place) Default ThumbnailBusting Out Of My Comfort Zone (or I Bought Skinny Jeans) Default ThumbnailWorkout On The Beach (or Meeting The TIU Trainers) Default ThumbnailClassPass (or Attempting To Workout While Hurting) Default ThumbnailFeeling Jet Lag Without A Time Zone Change (or Back To Home) Default ThumbnailFeeling Better About My Progress (or Coming Back From The Dri-Tri)

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