It's been a while...

Due to a variety of things, mainly some sort of sickness that resulted in me being narcoleptic and falling asleep at nearly every moment and a short spat of homelessness, I've been absent from the blog-o-sphere.

In the meantime, I've done lots of things - moved, worked, and swam in the USMS open water national championship in Lake Placid, NY.  Tons of fun, tons of pain.  More on that later.  I've decided to play in an IM soccer league this fall...possibly a poor decision, but we shall see.  I'm trying to work now, but will have to update more later.

I'm hoping that in a week, I'll have my new house together, my life back on track, and a schedule of sorts for incorporating rehab into a daily routine.

Hot, hot, hot

The title says it all.  This heat dome that we're experiencing is wild.  Other than making me want to do little other than sit in air conditioning, it's been drying out my plants like crazy.  That's beside the point.  I did get in and swim this morning, and it felt great!  A little sore in the hip, as expected, but I'm learning how to take it easy enough that it doesn't bother me too much.  I still have to get around to my exercises for tonight, as well as pack for the Tour of Ohio and Michigan that I'm embarking on this weekend.  There will be a lot of driving - which is always tough on the hip! Yikes.  Busy, busy, busy.

A bigger goal than just "get better"

http://crimesagainsthughsmanatees.tumblr.com/post/7369081989

Things I want to do include completing the Pittsburgh marathon, returning to triathlons, playing in (without pain) a complete season of soccer, and, most importantly, stop holding back. 

A new week, a new mood

After a weekend of sleeping (of the 48 hours of Saturday and Sunday, I slept for at least 26 of them), I think I am finally over the death-disease that I've been stuck with for the past month.  I don't want to speak too soon, but today I actually felt like myself.  Not only did I stay awake at work, but I was actually productive - a drastic change in comparison to last week.  Hopefully this means I'm on the road to recovery, in more ways than one!

While doing tonight's exercises, I finally began to feel "in touch" with what I was doing.  Not to go all yoga instructor on you here, but I could feel each individual area I was targeting actually working in each of my exercises (for the most part).  I could feel my psoas engaging and tiring as I did some very basic isometric moves.  While releasing my glutes, I could feel each nudge of the foam roller push out some of the tension.  The only one I have troubles with, sometimes, is working on engaging my glutes prior to my hamstrings while doing lifts in the prone position.  I think I can help this problem by recording the motion and watching it.  Hamstring firing is something that is relative easy to visualize.  Next time, or possibly tomorrow when I'm at my parents house.  This may be a good opportunity to get some posterior mobilization from my dad as well as an evaluation of my current plan.

Although it's almost bedtime, I can't resist watching more of this rain-delayed Pirates game.  I used to love watching Bucco's games...back in the day of Andy van Slyke and Jay Bell.  I remember Fransisco Cordova throwing a no hitter in July of 1997.  And I remember the bad years, although in less detail, because I got busy, the Pirates got worse, and well...I fell off.  I'm back, they're back, and it's all good.  Hats off, though, to the fans (some of my good friends) who stuck it out and stayed loyal through it all.  In the end, though, Let's go Bucs!

Gator swimmers at a game, 2008

Inspiration in the WWC

Brandi Chastain ripping off her jersey to celebrate World Cup victory(Atkins/AP)

Oh, soccer.  I'll never forget Brandi Chastain's infamous sports bra moment post-1999 World Cup championship.  Who could forget such a moment?  Soccer fan or not, male, female, young, old -  no descriptors matter in a moment like that. Joy, happiness, raw emotion.  Watching this year's world cup, I wonder if such a thing will happen again.

As I sit with the third place game about to begin, watching Heather O'Reilly and Megan Rapinoe talking about what's happening tomorrow, I can't help but miss it.  Training videos remind me of drills, weight room reels remind me of strength, and the games remind me of the competitive flame that used to burn.  I'm not ready, at 24, to be a "has been."  I'm not saying I have aspirations of the national team, or even winning any sort of competition.  I have aspirations of competing, and being proud of what I do.  I could probably roll out of bed and race a 5k - it would be painful and ugly, but, without a doubt, I could do it.  I could do a sprint triathlon, I could (and am) doing a cable swim race in a few weeks.  Do I expect to finish my race and be happy with what I did - no, not in the least.  I've lowered, or abolished my expectations.  What kind of athlete has no expectations?

The glory days.

Expectations, in an of themselves, are a funny thing.  "What do you expect?"  As someone who wants to win, do her best, and come out on top, expectations are merely mundane.  It's about what you strive for, wish for, and dream about.  Yes, a dose of realism is always needed.  Never would I, when I was swimming competitively, aim for a time that was out of my reach.  I would, though, know I could go faster than anyone else thought I could.  That is, so much of the training is physical, but when it comes down to race time, the heart and mind kick in and you can do more.  This is what upsets are all about; the story of the underdog that we so embrace as a culture is about taking expectations and throwing them into the dirt and riding through on dreams.

So what does this all mean for me?  Good question.  I want to do it all again, but that's hard.  It's especially hard because I've always been able.  Yes, I had to work hard to be successful in athletics.  Shooting 100 free throws a day, spending hours upon hours getting touches on the soccer ball, doing strengthening exercises on my bedroom floor, reading book after book on mental preparation and technique.  I worked.  I was also 12.  The work paid off, and I was successful in athletics through high school, garnering multiple league and district honors and winning 12 varsity letters.  Sure, I had injuries, but they didn't keep me down: Banged up knees, concussions, sprained backs, sore shoulders, broken ribs, turf toe...the list goes on.  I sat out a half, modified practices, changed my races, and got back into it.  I actually started all 80+ soccer games of my high school career, minus the one I sat out due to an errant red card.  That's a whole different story.

Now, I'm at the bottom.  I've got to get to the top. One foam roll at a time. The top now isn't the top of the league standings or the top of the podium, rather, it's the top of the rankings in my own mind.  It's the top of myself.

An hour a day isn't much time at all...

When I started this (a whole four days ago), I thought I had an hour a day I could put toward PT and getting better.  Little did I realize that I actually don't have that time.  My days generally involve me leaving my house around 7-7:15 in the morning, stopping in at work quickly, heading to the pool to coach, working until 6 PM or later, doing some sort of social activity or errands, get home, make dinner, clean up.  After all that, it's usually close to 10 PM.  With whatever death-disease I've been suffering from lately, that means bedtime.  Last night I fell asleep on the floor between exercise reps. Geesh.

I'll have an hour tonight and through the weekend. Hopefully that will put me back on track!!

Who does PT when they're tired?

Today was busy, busy, busy! That means there was little time for all of my exercises...eek!  Good thing today was a day of only stretching and not strengthening.  The busy-ness may be for the best, as it prevents me from overdoing things.

No time to write - tired. Hopefully, I'll be able to crank something out tomorrow.  I need to also spend a little more time reading about new exercises to incorporate, including more core stabilization and increased hip mobilization.