Dirt Bulbs & Ginger...

A new appliance has just taken up residence on the kitchen bench. It has pride of place in all it's shiny newness. And the rest of the bench is taken up with an abundance of fruit which will need to be bought in great quantities in order to keep this beast fed.

It's a new juicer, bigger and better than the sad pathetic plastic creation it is replacing. It has jaws of steel and was bought not just to consume fruit in large quantities... but more importantly, to be able to squeeze the innards out of the humble dirt bulb... the beetroot.

This keen interest in juicing was brought on by a recent holiday where the local cafe served the most delicious freshly juiced juices I've had in a long time. My favourite was the Veggie Delight - beetroot, apple, celery, carrot and ginger.

Chosen each morning as my juice of choice as I had recently read that beetroot was one of the 'super foods' and a great addition to an athletes diet. While I don't consider myself a serious athlete I thought it might be good for my return to running as it reportedly helps athletes perform for longer, helps with inflammation, is a good anti-oxident, is full of iron (among other things) and helps lower blood pressure (not that the last one is a problem for me).

So far the beast has produced a simple fresh apple juice on day 1, and a zesty apple, orange, lime and ginger delight on day 2.

And the best thing of all - it's pretty easy to clean and it extracts so much juice from the fruit that the pulp left over is almost dry so there's hardly any mess to remove.

Tomorrow I look forward to a concoction of veggies... including dirt bulbs and ginger.

Green Light Mean Go!

This is the day I have been waiting 12 months for. The green light to run again.

That has to have been the longest 12 months of my life - and even though Christmas, as always, came around quicker than you can say Jack Robinson it still crawled by at a snail's pace as the wait to run again stretched out agonisingly as the weeks and months rolled slowly by.

All the pilates, stretching, strength training, eliptical training, walking and knees-to-wall has got me through but I was hanging out for a run. And today my physio said the magic words... 'have you been running on your ankle?' So... with his obvious permission, and instructions on how to go about a return to it (his confidence in me being able to run 2km was heartening but not likely) I ventured out into the windy day and took my first running steps since last July.

To be honest, as is mentioned in the posts below, I did actually attempt a few trial runs back in October/November before my back prolapsed again. But they were no good. Any my back and ankle had other plans for me anyway for the first half of this year too. So this was the first real attempt. Back in October before any real strength training or pilates had taken place the 50 or so metres that I attempted were a disaster so I started out today not overly confident...

And rightly so. My form is shocking - not that it was great when I was running regularly - but I was well and truly back to beginner status. My legs felt like lead for the first half kilometre. I was back to heel striking instead of mid foot, my running shoes have worn out and I sounded like a flat-footed duck, my lungs burnt, the uphills were a no go putting too much strain on my back, and my thighs need more strength... but it felt GOOD! And, I even managed 2.5km in bursts.

I could have cried tears of joy. And in fact after grinning like an idiot for a fair amount of my walk/run (and no doubt scaring everyone going in the opposite direction to me), I think I did.

Now, fingers crossed tomorrow brings a good result and no inflamation... when I will probably cry tears of joy again!

Let the challenges begin...

So I have been having a lot of fun recently in the Tribesport community http://tribesports.com/users/abigailh. and have completed a number of challenges. This has been great because although I feel I am making progress with the pilates sessions, walking (up to 13km now) and the physio on my ankle, I am still depressed about not being able to get back to running yet until both my ankle sprain is better as well as the disk injury in my lower back.

But last week saw the completion of a couple of challenges at least that seemed much easier when I signed up for them than while I was actually doing them :p

100 crunches a day for seven days
25 squats a day for seven days
Hold a 2 minute wall squat every day for seven days (thought it would be a doddle, was a killer!)
20 push ups 7 times over two weeks (nearly did me in on day one!)

With that I felt very pleased with myself, and while I concentrated on increasing my walking effort to 13km, I was so pleased I forgot to take any more challenges as I waited for a number of books to arrive (yes, even reading is a challenge - well, not literally ;)

So tomorrow begins round number two of challenges including holding the plank pose for 30 seconds, more crunches, push ups, sit ups and balances... I'm going to nail standing on 1 leg for 60 seconds with my eyes closed if it's the last thing I do :) Assuming of course I don't fall over while doing it and injure another part of my anatomy!

Meanwhile, it's off to bed to read more about Lisa Tamati. She's already my hero and she hasn't even started running seriously yet, let alone across Death Valley.

Join the Tribe

Last week I stumbled across a website called Tribesport. It was advertised down the right side of my Facebook page. Being in advertising myself and having created a few hundred Facebook ads in my time I often disregard the advertising... especially as the hot favourite targetting me seems to be about body fat at the moment. I am incensed!

But the Tribesport ad was funky and begged me to click on it. So I did and ended up at the most incredible website. It's a community for like-minded people wanting to be and get fit. There's a lot of hard core fitness people on there and where once that would have been intimidating for me I am finding it inspirational. Especially since everyone there is positive and encouraging.

So, I have now signed up for five challenges - the easier one's while I am still nursing injuries. But they're a start - beginning with squats, crunches and improved balance (which my physio will approve of!). I'll let you know how I go. Wish me luck!

Fashion is Pain

So last week my back and my ankle were pretty sore. The physio session started it off, which is not unusual. But the jeans finished them off. For most people the act of pulling on and off your pants is no big deal. But in my case it's hazardous to my health. Okay, it was about 20 pairs of jeans I was trying on. And they were skinny jeans. And I couldn't breath very well in them (let alone eat all night!). But damn it, that store dummy looked hot in them and I wanted to too!

Okay, lesson learnt. I'm not 20 any more. And the act of breathing is kinda essential to my fitness plan moving forward. Plus confessing to my physio the reason for my sore back was kind of embarrassing. I laughed. I'm not sure he thought it was as funny as I did.

So, anyone want a pair of skinny jeans? Really, don't be deterred by the breathing thing.

Just one more thing...

So last night it was mentioned again that I have a curve in my spine. Not from the side which is normal, but from the back. I knew about it but it keeps getting mentioned and came up recently in an MRI as well. But I don't know what to do about it, or even if it's worth worrying about. So I did the only sensible thing and Googled it. Of course. But after looking at numerous medical sites and reading pages of information about it I decided to stop as I was being advised that it could mean as little as nothing to extensive degenerative issues. Plus there are really gross pictures of pus and parasites on medical sites. So it was best I stop. And continue to ponder what this means.

So, with a slipped disk which is on the mend, I think. An ankle sprain, which isn't improving, and may involve another MRI. A dodgy curve in my back. And the inability to run anytime soon, my happiness levels have declined drastically. Even new running pants from Lululemon (awaiting my return to running) last week didn't improve my happiness levels.

There is only one thing for it... retail therapy at lunchtime!

A Bucket of Ice

So things should be on the up and up by now. Right? It's been eight months since my back injury which was recovering nicely. And I should be back on track. Until the overexcitement of my new computer caused a lack of concentration while lifting the mothership downstairs and the disk went again in January. An MRI confirmed compression of the nerve. And just because I have to be a bit different a bunch of Tarpov cysts were discovered on the nerve roots. Although apparently that's not causing the problem. It was just interesting that I had to show up something strange.

Then just as I was settling into a  morose mindset that this up and down disk injury would determine how I led the rest of my life (tentatively) my original physio suggested I see a different physio who could strengthen my core and back with one-on-one exercise sessions to help me recover.

Of course just as I was being tortured into someone who didn't have to spend the rest of my life bending gingerly and walking as exercise, I fell backwards down a set of stairs and tore my anterior tibiofibular ligament. So my back program has been set back (no pun intended) and I have spent the last three days with my ankle strapped in place and performing ice baths on my right ankle. And in order to get to ice on the affected area I've had to do that in a bucket.

So today as I was thinking what exciting things have I been up to that I could status update and I realised that my life has been reduced to simple physio exercises, slow walking and a green bucket. And 4 to 6 weeks recovery. There are many worse things in life than the inside of that big green bucket but I sure wish the road to recovery hadn't had so many obstacles of late.