Let's Get Physical!

My hair, 35 weeks PFC. I'd really hoped it
would be longer by now based on what I've
seen on other people, but alas I am not hair
blessed. Happy to have this much!

These days, I'm all about getting physical. I officially started marathon training for my event in December. But I gotta tell you, it is so much harder this time around. I knew it would be, but I didn't know what to expect of this new body. The good thing is, it's responding to training. I can do the workouts I'm scheduled to do. Slow, but I get them done. I'm swimming and doing some weights in addition to the running.

The problem is the recovery. I work out, then I go home and crash. I'm literally so exhausted, I have to take a nap or at least veg out for 2-3 hours. People tell me, "I get tired after a workout, too!" Not the same thing. I know what "normal" post-workout tired is, and this ain't it. So, I may have to back off a bit and take things more slowly. This may mean no marathon. We'll just have to see. I'm not giving up yet. I'll be doing a 10k (6.2 miles) next Saturday, so wish me luck!

I went to 24-Hour Fitness to re-join (I'd cancelled my membership when I got sick). I was talking to the manager, and he decided to give me this whole big sell on how important it is to eat right (um...I know) and how exercise is a part of that (um...I know), trying to talk me into his personal diet plan, telling me not to do things I know work for me, telling me I need to do things I know don't work for me, telling me to do things I'm already doing. He was clearly not listening to anything I had to say, and it was incredibly frustrating. I could tell he was another one of those who thinks fat people do nothing but eat bon bons all day and never exercise, and he has all the answers on weight management even though he's never struggled with it.

I was just about getting to the point of putting the kibosh on the whole thing, and he offered to pay for me to have two personal training sessions per week for a whole month. The only catch is that I have to show up no matter what, and if I do the whole month he'll keep paying for it. The implication being that I need motivation to go work out...well, he doesn't know me very well because that is the very least of my worries. But, hey, free training. I'll take it! So I took him up on that offer.

That was Wednesday. We set my first appointment for this morning, and I was braced for more of the same crap. I was already feeling defensive before I met my trainer, Matt. We started at a computer kiosk, where he went over their philosophy and got my background from me. He listened to everything I had to say, asked the right questions, and made no assumptions. We talked about my diet, and he completely understood what I talked about with making good choices most of the time, but having willpower failures that sideline me. He agreed with doing what works for me and made suggestions. He recognized my goals and talked about how he would design my program to help me meet them, rather than expecting me to follow some routine he does with everyone. I could feel the walls I had put up melting as the conversation went on, and I was excited to work with him by the time we were ready to actually get to work.

I don't know how long the workout was, maybe 20 or 30 minutes since we'd spent so much time talking, but it was a good level for me--challenging, but not overly so. He was clearly very cognizant of my limitations, checking in with me about how things felt, telling me to take a breather if I needed to. I left there feeling really awesome.

And then I came home and slept for about an hour and a half. And now I'm drinking coffee and trying to wake up and do a little work before we go out tonight. How is this cup empty already?

I started physical therapy last week for the pain and loss of range of motion in my shoulders and chest wall. They said it's not exactly frozen shoulder--there's just a lot of impingement on the joint from the stress. So, I have lots of super fun (not), totally comfortable (in opposite world) stretches to do to help get that range of motion back. It was really hard for me to be a lady when he was working on me in the office and not swear while he tortured me, but my momma done brought me up right. Anyway, I'll have four more sessions, with a lot of homework in between. I'm already seeing improvement.

Oh...and yesterday I realized I missed the one year anniversary of my diagnosis by a week. I had thought I'd make some amazingly wise and insightful blog post about it, but I forgot. I guess I'll have to wait for the next milestone!