Hit the gym today. Did a lot of boring one legged stuff for my arse and whatnot. Only one set per exercise, 15-20 reps (per leg). Won’t go into too much detail but I did step ups holding dumbells and even holding a 10kg dumbell by my side bothers that right elbow. Grrr.
I did some headstand and handstand work regardless. Perhaps I shouldn’t but I wanted to.
On a slight minus, my friend’s photos from Chessington yesterday weren’t too flattering - there are bulges in places there shouldn’t be. I need to diet again, but it’s Easter, goddamit! Think I’ll leave the hard dieting until after my half marathon, anyway.
Cal: Sorry to hear that your elbow is still being bitchy. I read this in a post by Harry Selkow on elitefts the other day:
“Here is my take on most injuries. Unless an injury has a pathology, or is from blunt force trauma, it is usually caused by a “movement”. The Catch 22 of it is then, it needs movement to fix it.”
I thought that was pretty interesting, and I’m totally using it to justify working through my hip pain. The trick, of course, is figuring out what movement I need to add!
Stay focused on that half marathon training. Running a half is a great accomplishment.
Honestly, regarding your elbow, I would seriously consider the kinesiotaping. I’ve had SPECTACULAR results with my patients and personally… 30 days continuous on my hamstring really corrected that issue I was having. Also, I’ve had almost no problems/complaints regarding sensitivity to the tape. What’s so awesome about it is that it allows you to move through painful ROMs without pain almost immediately in most cases. The application works because it facilitates normal neuromuscular patterning and does it in a way that works WITH the body. Subtle but powerful stuff. Anyway, just my opinion. Chronic injury wears down the spirit in my personal experience. Best of luck.
I would love to but it’s damned expensive. (They do it at the place where I get ART but it is £60 for the initial consult and taping). Having said that, it’s not getting any better so I might cave and go anyway. I’ll have to give it some thought because I’ve been spending more than I earn since I started working at the school (part time salary doesn’t go far). Anyway…
I didn’t do anything yesterday - I was working on my lesson plans (which I hate, and which take me ages) but at least I managed to dye my hair. I’ve suddenly developed a lot more greys and it’s got to the point where I can’t ignore them any more. Sadly, there is no such thing as a silver vixen. What is considered distinguished on a man transforms a woman into a dried up old harridan. Thus, whilst I am loathe to put chemicals on my head, I am bowing to the pressures of trying to maintain my youth for as long as humanly possible.
Anyway, I did go to the gym today and did some leg stuff, but I really can’t do much because of the stupid fucking elbow. I did various glute exercises, step-ups, some squats and hamstring curls, some gymnastics and stretching. My popliteus is still being problematic. It is easy enough to fix (I roll it on a hockey ball at home, or on a dumbell at the gym) but it tightens up on things like squats, especially explosive movements (jumping, oly-lifts, etc). It started playing up after I took the oly workshop. Doesn’t hurt but it feels weird and woolly and on the verge of locking up (until I jam something into the back of my knee, anyway).
God my body pisses me off sometimes. (But then I look at people like my parents, who can barely move, and feel more fortunate. But still, grrrr).
I go to a lady called Nicole for ART (£50 for half an hour which is a lot, but I generally go every six weeks so it’s not too bad) but someone else at the same practise does the taping. It’s not as bad as all that - £60 for the initial consult and then £20 for retaping thereafter. However, it is also a train ride away so I have to go out of my way to visit.
Ugh! Cal, i’m sorry your body isn’t cooperating right now - this is actually a far greater challenge, because the obstacles are harder to fix than just tweaking technique. I feel for ya. But it sounds like you are still continuing to so succeed in managing to work around the aches and pains, and this is highly commendable. Plus, with the elbow resting and all the leg work, just think how much more AWESOME your ass is going to look! And i’ve seen that arse…nom!!
Nadia! Thank you so much for posting that quote! I always feel like i have to justify working with and through aches and pains - and I agree! Deespite my achey shoulder, it really does feel better when I use it and train it, rather than just resting it.
Meh. back to the dieting, huh? I’m trying to clean up my diet as well…you’d think with summer around the corner I’d be more inspired to make better food choices, but alas, my will is weak. Leave the little bunnies alone!
Yeah, my will is non existent. I’m reintroducing rice to my diet in the hope that it will help the carb cravings (rather than try to stick to low carb meals and then supplement them with thousands of calories of dried fruit and nuts. Hrmm).
Ran today - the usual 3.1 mile common circuit but with 12 hill sprints over the railway bridge. I think it was 12 - I lost count so it might even have been 13. Anyway, wore my new Nike Frees which, as it turns out, wasn’t necessarily a good thing. I now have a pain on the outside of my left foot. So hurrah, a whole new pain that I haven’t experienced before (and I’ve been wearing Frees for the last couple of years so I’m a little puzzled as to why it has happened). Hopefully it’s just a temporary thing. I don’t want to be running a half marathon with a bad food, really. May have to use the shitty muddy Frees for that, rather than the new ones, though.
I just died the greys out of my hair the other day too, but when I have enough greys I am going all grey, and I’ll be a silver vixen! I think it usually only looks good when you are more than 50% grey otherwise the texture is to wonky.
I agree with everyone that you should concentrate on one fitness goal, the half marathon. Me, I’m concentrating on sprints for the summer and maybe weights for the winter.
Sorry about your parents, I am not looking forward to this with my parents:(
rather than try to stick to low carb meals and then supplement them with thousands of calories of dried fruit and nuts. Hrmm
hrmm… thats kinda what i’m doing, I think… oh, and chocolate (85%) too, of course…
sorry to hear your body has been giving you a hard time.
i’ve been putting off dying my hair. i have finally decided it is time for me to stop pulling out the greys, though (unless they are only 1 -2 inches long and stick up) or i’ll end up bald. i’d really like to ‘age gracefully’ without dying it, but i think that is partly dependent on the pattern of greyness. one of my friends mothers has black hair and she got two white streaks down either side at the front of her bob. LUCKY!!! I’m just getting the odd grey distributed through brown (not cool streaks or anything) so guess it’ll be time to dye it soon. damn. can’t get over how different the texture is on the greys…
Yeah, one woman I know rocks the grey hair. She looks like a slightly shorter version of Morena Baccarin (Anna in V) - olive complexion, big brown eyes and very thick hair in a pixie crop. She pulls off the salt and pepper thing really well. But if you’ve fine hair like mine with just a scattering of greys, it just looks, well, tatty. And yeah, I hate the wiry texture. I guess if your hair is naturally thick, then it doesn’t stand out so much.
Problem with dying for me is that my natural colour is really hard to replicate. I have ultra ash brown hair - no warmth in it at all. Because my skin is yellow-toned, any red in my hair makes me look jaundiced, but it’s really hard to find a brown dye that is cool enough for my skin tone without looking flat and dull. The current dye job is a bit too dark, to be honest - it’s only supposed to be medium brown, too. Maybe I should have gone for a lighter ash brown, but I’m always concerned a lighter dye will turn it brassy. Grrr.
Anyway, I am visiting friends this weekend. I’d considered getting in a run or workout this morning before I go, but decided it’s better to let the foot settle and not stress the elbow. The foot feels a bit better but there’s still some soreness there. I’ll have to keep an eye on it.
I have ultra ash brown hair - no warmth in it at all. Because my skin is yellow-toned, any red in my hair makes me look jaundiced, but it’s really hard to find a brown dye that is cool enough for my skin tone without looking flat and dull.
yes! i swear you are like my twin or something. so hard to find brown hair dye that doesn’t have red / copper tones!!! i’ve heard that it is more flattering to go lighter than darker as you age. something about softening the face or whatever. i’ve always been fonder of dark, myself. would love to have had long straight black hair - but unfortunately black doesn’t work for me, either (i have very fine hair that is wavy and lots of it so a tendency to fizz). i’m not sure about blonder, though… what are they called? foils - to disguise the grey, apparently. i’ve seen it very well done indeed only once or twice. mostly i reckon it looks just awful. tatty. i feel that way about long hair with layers chopped through it, too. can look amazing when well done, but well done only rarely and a tendency to look like some toddler has been hacking at it otherwise. damn i hate going to the hairdressers. good on you for dying it yourself.
Alright. Looks like everyone else is going to be positive and supportive.
what the FUCK is wrong with you?
you’re getting grey hair- rock it or color it. i’ll advise you to keep trying the washouts till you find one you like, then it’s not such a commitment.
your body hurts- you said it yourself, >20 years of sitting hunched over a computer.
you’re not as strong as you want- stop comparing yourself to other people. your war is with yourself, and making it about anyone else is scapegoating- unacceptable. take pride in the accomplishments you DO make, and reevaluate what’s realistic. you have the choice to be the baddest ass Cal you can, or be a whiney cunt bc you cant have everything that someone else can.
you JUST left your minimally mobile parents. and you’re not thanking every single working part of your body for doing what it needs to do, every time it needs to happen. notice, i said NEED, not WANT. did you get up to go urinate today? SWEET. you’re having a good day.
and while you’re at it, spend a few minutes looking at a pic of jason’s arm, THEN tell me how much your elbow hurts.
Bear, you missed your vocation as a drill instructor.
I’m just frustrated. The elbow issues is stopping me from doing any upper body work (especially posterior chain work, which is the stuff I really need to do) and I’m going to have to lay off gymnastics too. It’s not a great development.
I have been to the gym today. I worked on legs and glutes - didn’t squat over 40kg but I did a lot of step-ups, jumping stuff and the like until I was sweating like a rapist. Foot isn’t hurting when I do this type of training so I’m hoping it was just a minimal strain and will get better quickly. I was planning on doing a mega-run on Sunday (the roads will be quiet as it’s Easter which means I won’t have to wait for traffic) so hopefully I can still do that. Three weeks to my half…so need to get these runs done.
I even threw in a nasty leg extension variant I used to do in my 20s. Crank out 10 reps and then hold it at the top for a minute. Take a few breaths then crank out 10 more reps. Obviously, you can’t use a lot of weight with this. I did it with a 15kg plate, then added 5kg and did another set. Legs hated me. Tough shit, legs.
Stretched somewhat and (as I’d remembered to take a tennis ball with me) I rolled my ITB and VMO and other bits and pieces.
Bought some ibuprofen gel and tablets so I can reduce any inflammation. Hopefully I can get this sorted.
I saw a presentation given by two Iraq war vetrans last week. One had been seriously injured. He lost his left arm and most of the fingers from his right hand “covering up his ding-a-ling.” He still wanted to go back. I couldn’t relate. My boss asked him what he thought of when he looked out at us sitting in our cush conference room. He said we had “bad hair cuts, looked soft and that we probably slept too much.”
It’s not just Cal. Compared to that 20 year old kid and Jason and all of our vetrans and active military personnel we pretty much all suck.
I also have to say that no one rocks the silver. It’s aging. Unless you’re over the age of 69 you should be coloring your hair.
