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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

‎"Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory." ~ William Barclay

Spartan Shape-Up, Day 216:

Good evening, BlogLand. I've been grounded, so to speak, for the last couple of days. This hamstring thing has really, truly SUCKED.

I was going to write last night and fill you all in, but quite frankly, I was a pretty miserable human being, and wasn't sure I could form any remotely post-worthy sentences.

Sunday night, on the recommendation of some people in the know, I get in an ice bath. Let me just point one thing out. I have ice bathed many times before, and can tolerate them like a champ. However, an ice bath, in the middle of winter, when you are not all warmed up from running, is QUITE a different story. PLUS, when you submerge an angry muscle in ice like that, and your body tenses up (I call this the "holy shit, it's COLD" response), that angry muscle gets temporarily angrier, before it goes numb. THAT was intensely unpleasant. My whole left leg quivered and twitched involuntarily, so much so that all the way down to my big toe, and all the way up to my glute. I'm not going to lie, I sat in the ice bath, trying to eat hot chicken soup, with tears running down my face. The pain contributed to that, but I think a lot of it was the frustration of the situation. I was afraid that I had really seriously hurt myself. If I had really seriously hurt myself, then I'd be out of commission for a while, for recovery time. Then I wouldn't make my races... then, and then and then.... *insert crazy mind string of thoughts*.

So, I sat at home and ice bathed and cried, and after I warmed up again, did some bonding time with the foam roller... if I thought the ice bath was bad, the foam roller with the 7th layer of hell. When a muscle hurts to touch with your hand, there is nothing more hellatious than foam rolling it. The ouchiness literally took my breath away. More tears (are we seeing a trend?).
I followed that up with more ibuprofen and sleep.

Monday morning, it was still not good. I went to work.... I sat in an office chair all day.  By 'sat' I mean fidgeted constantly all day. You know what sitting in an office chair does? Presses on your hamstrings. I kid you not, BlogLand, I could feel a pulse in my hamstring. The other awesome part that started on Monday, was the general, all-over ache. My entire left leg. Basically, when that big hamstring muscle gets angry and seizes us, it pulls with it in a chain reaction, things all the way down into your calf, and up into your back. It aches. It pains. It is very uncomfortable.
Home Monday night... More rolling, more ibuprofen, more tears on the floor of my living room, as I try to force myself to roll it out just a little longer.

Today I woke up, feeling about 75-80% with the leg of death. There was a dull ache, and it didn't feel quite right, but it didn't feel super bad either. I took this as a victory. I got smart today, at work, though and ice packed on and off all day. WAHA. Take that, hamstring.

I am about to go foam roll... I am NOT looking forward to that, but it must be done. ("One must do the things one thinks one can not do!")

The GT has vetoed tomorrow's CrossFit WOD. Apparently, things like finding your 1RM at Clean & Jerks, and/or box jump courses, or wall balls, are not things that are conducive to healing hammies.  ARgh.

I feel sore, off kilter, and out of whack. I want to get back to my WOD's.

Tomorrow morning, however, will have a different mission. It's going to be the All Upper Body, All WOD Long time... There's nothing like putting my t-rex arms through some focused torture to make my appreciate my legs when I have them.

Stay Strong, BlogLand.... and do some squats for me!

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