Happy New Year folks!

I'm happy to say I was pretty productive during my 2+ weeks out of the office over the holidays, though in a very different way than last year. Last year I would have just returned from the FCS Championship in Frisco, TX with our football team and many of our executive staff after a whirlwind season, only to embark on the remainder of our basketball season planning, and hosting a national women's lacrosse championship. This year, I was basically off on December 18th - exactly 5 years from the day we settled on our house - and used nearly all of the time making that home a much better place.

"Spring cleaning" isn't really a thing for us since most of our busy times of year center around the academic calendar. Therefore, we need to utilize any time we have multiple days, or weeks, off from our typical chaotic schedules to get anything serious done. And our lives were in major need of organization on the home-front. Okay, okay, MY life was in major need. Hubs typically has it all together! But me and the kids were suffering from abundance anxiety. Yep, I just made that up. I realized that for months we were yelling at the kids to put away their things, when they had almost nowhere else to go with it. I was simply stuffing clothes that didn't fit deeper into the closet; I had all of our storage bins in the attic filled with baby clothes no one in our house needed anymore; and my dresser drawers never fully closed because there were always things falling behind them from being over-filled. Sad face....

So I had been reading the Happiness of Pursuit and the Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillabeau, and learning a lot about PLANNING for my life, for goodness sake! The irony is that I've spent nearly a year as the primary liaison of our department's strategic planning at work, only to realize I didn't have a strategic bone in my body! I have learned a lot through both ventures - the reading and the working - and now have a better grasp on what it takes to not just wing it in life :)

I set about cleaning the house the first weekend home, in order to better prepare for the pummeling of Christmas gifts that would soon commence. Then hubs and I enjoyed a movie and lunch date and a wrapping and coffee date. It's the little things. Then the kids were on break and we thought things would just get crazy, but to my surprise, Christmas Eve turned out to be one of the most relaxing days we've spent as a family of late! We watched a movie together, we wrapped gifts, we made a great dinner, we went to the gym.... and then we unwrapped Penguin jammies!!

Playground workouts...

It's ironic I came to finally embrace and enjoy CrossFit after years of dreaming up my own programming for myself that was so similar in duration and intensity. I was always basically doing it in some form, but "winging it" on  my own before I knew about the worldwide community that is CrossFit.

My comp training class will take the week off after this weekend, both for the holiday and for some much-needed nervous system recovery. We'll fill our bellies, and will likely aim to get physical activity in during the week, but in much more varied, low-intensity forms (think long walks with family, yoga, swimming, stretching, etc). I know me and my family will do some form of activity or exercise at least on those days we plan to indulge a bit more than usual :) but also enjoy some rest. Otherwise, many of us train 4 days/week with our team, and probably half of us find something else to do in between during a normal week. Me? I fall somewhere in the middle, finding days that make sense with my work schedule to take it easy, other days training some of my weaknesses - double-unders, muscle ups, and handstands - and my favorite, close-to-home fallback option of PLAYGROUND WORKOUTS!

We are all too close to a playground. In fact, I'd be surprised if anyone is really that far from one these days. I'm happy they are so readily available in our neighborhoods. Our kids love that we can walk to one from our house. We have a swing set in our backyard, but those swings just aren't quite as fun as someplace different every once in a while. We also take advantage of a short walk or bike ride to the park for a picnic lunch, just for a change of scenery. Then, on other days, it's a form of exercise for them and me. For years, I've taken advantage of playground workouts in order to incorporate some fitness into the standing-around that I do while my kids are playing. Every playground provides a different set of equipment, yet all are limited only to your imagination - just like it is for the kids!

My workout today consisted of this:

Walk from home to corner of our road (it's about 30* here so I wanted to warm my legs up before running)
Run 5 mins to playground
10 pushups
20 planks and tucks (core)
20 bird-dogs
20 situps

#mommysalways learning...

Just had an epiphany this morning, if I answer one of the kids' questions with "No, because ..." with any kind of good reason, tears and arguments naturally follow. Answer with ONLY the reasoning and they walk away happily. Hmmm, must. remember. this.

J: Mommy, is it okay if we have a tattoo (fake of course)

Me: sure kiddo

J: mommy, is it okay if we have 2 tattoos?

Me: just one for today

J: okay (Trot Trot Trot down the hall to tell Sis)

7 weeks out...

Okay okay I know I suck at this blogging thing. So much for that English degree. I'm now 7 weeks out and feeling good. Great actually. 2nd Medrol dose pack in 3 weeks helping? Abso-friggin-lutely! It kicks the swelling back immensely and like PT George said, it's "making everything else feel good too!"

I'm still working like a dog at work and waiting for HR to confirm my promotion so it continues to feel worth the effort. Which of course means my workouts are not as frequent, my rehab is mostly on my accord, without the push from an ATC or PT on a regular basis. But I'm always doing something when I wake up and before I go to bed if nothing in between and my flexion and extension are still good for this point in time.

Post op appt #3 was earlier this week (6.5 wks) and he was happy. Gave me yet another reminder that whole I'm a it 33 year old, I'm still 33 and waited 12 years for an operation due long ago. That said-can I get some freaking support please?!? Whatever, e gave me the meds, so why am I complaining...

Here is my typical round of rehab work these days...

10-20 mins spin bike 

Step ups with good leg straight behind x 20 x 2

Step ups and down in front of box x 20

Lateral lunges off step x 20 x 2

Reverse lunge steps x 20 x 2-3

Prone hangs with press and contract x 10 x 2-4 each day

Leg raises front side back in floor x 10 each way x 2-3

Mini squats to box or chair x 10 x 3

Mini squats with med ball straight in front x 10 x 1-2

Side walks with red band x 2 trips up and back

Side shuffles x 2 total trips

Grapevines x 2 total trips

Backpedal x 2-3 trips 

Balance on bosu pad with med ball toss or just weighted hold x 30 (throws or secs hold)

Heel slides x 40-50 each day with gravity bends between sets (lie on back and help pull leg in gently)

Kettle bell single leg deadlift off step x 20-30

I aim to do a pull/push or press workout session around those "rehab" exercises or days and seem to be getting at least 2-3 consistent days in the training room and/or weight room

Don't want to continue to pay for PT off site so I do what I can with our ATCs here at TU...

Holy Moley, I knew this would happen...

The good thing is that I haven't been writing because things are majorly busy in a good way. The bad news is I was pretty miserable about 2 weeks ago and I should've at least documented it. 

One of our tennis athletes who is rehabbing from her 2nd ACL surgery in a year was chatting with me about 2 1/2 weeks out, and have me this slight but memorable warning: weeks 3 and 4 are the hardest. Damn. She ended up being right. I can't say it wasn't all in my head from her notice but I certainly came down from my "I'm gonna nail this rehab thing" high I had been on before that. I was doing okay with PT, he was adding more exercises, but that in turn caused more pain. At work I was mostly wearing my brace all day, working so much thy I wasn't breaking for my workouts, and going home with major dents in my legs from all the swelling. Smack in the middle of weeks 3 and 4, I was part of a Leadership Retreat at work that allowed little time for anything but eating big meals around long periods in a chair. Although the 3 hour session with a TU dance instructor was an interesting one for me to say the least.

Anyway, I've come through that period literally stronger; I'm at 118 degrees flexion; can fully extend to 0; Dr. Hinton told me to put the brace away; and I can get on a bike or elliptical and stride away for time. 

I met my goal of walking the neighborhood brace-free with the kids for Halloween! I went to CrossFit on Sunday and kicked ass in the workout (overall 100 KBS and 100 burpees)!

On to week 6....

Is it true?

A little trivia for you this sunny Sunday morning:

They say that if you are feeling unmotivated to exercise, go ahead and get moving for just 15 minutes and see how you feel then. The idea is that you'll feel good that quickly and put forth the effort to continue. True? 

VERY MUCH SO!!

Feeling SO slow and steady these days that I wonder if it's doing any good, or making my knee recovery worse--what all those nay-Sayers are telling me--so this morning I said, just go and get something in, see how you feel. After two days off from actual exercise (I diligently continued my silly but effective rehab movements) I did feel good. And now I'm sweaty and tired, ready for a shower and a nice fall day with the fam. It's that easy, and sometimes the shortest, fastest workouts are the most effective (go CrossFit!)... Just my two cents. 

Oh, so are you curious??

Stiff-leg deadlift 10-8-6-4-2

Peg board pull-ups 5-4-3-2-1

Push-ups 10-8-6-4-2

Dips 5-4-3-2-1

KB swings 10-8-6-4-2

Good leg pistol squat 5-4-3-2-1

Abs:

Sit-up with med ball (10lb) x 10

Russian twist with med ball x 10

Repeat

Plank x 30 sec

Oblique twists x 30

Repeat

Another workout...

Warmup-- leg swings, scap pullups, arm swings, upper body stretches

Strict press:

Bar x 8

55 x 6

65 x 4

85 x 3 x 3

**3-4 modified rope climbs (below) in between each set

4 rounds:

Bar curls x 12

KB snatch x 10

Med ball straight leg sit-ups x 12