Wednesday, August 18, 2010 Am I Unbalanced?

Another hard time sleeping last night but for a different reason. I didn't want to be unbalanced. Let me explain.

Last week Sharon went to the chiropractor. In helping her, he discovered that her legs were unbalanced. One of the factors could have been the way she slept. It seems that sleeping on your stomach is the worst, but you also have to be careful about your form when you are sleeping on your side. You shouldn't have one leg bent while the other is straight. Sleeping with a pillow between your legs would help this. So, my problem was that I couldn't sleep on my stomach which is my number one position when I can't sleep. When I was on my side I kept moving my legs to make sure they were both bent and not one straight, one bent. Sleeping on my back isn't really an option as that just isn't comfortable. I finally did fall asleep but have no idea at what time and I still had to get up at 4:45.

Unfortunately for Sharon still no boot camp and it is driving her crazy. She is not used to having her exercise cut off. She can start walking for exercise, 15 minutes at a time. Then she can progress to 30. If she is ready she can try boot camp on Monday but only walking up the hill and with little use of weights or resistance. My guess is that there is no way she will not be at camp on Monday.

Back to the playground workout today. I really do like this one. It is pretty intense and gets me moving and this morning was great for it. Pretty cool temperatures and the light breeze kept the mosquitoes away (although one did get me, the dang bug!). It didn't start promising for me though. My first station was a jump over a U-shaped stake with a 180 degree turn, landing on the other side and repeating. That area around my achilles tendon was still very sore at this point so I couldn't land the jump! Just like the Olympics. Low scores all around but certainly some extra points for artistic interpretation. I tried several different ways to get over that stake and they all must have looked ridiculous. I was even laughing at myself. Finally I realized that the best option was to do a jump with a 180 degree turn without going over the stake. That way the jump wasn't so high and the pain wasn't so great. Of course by the time I figured this out the 45 seconds was over and it was time to switch.

Next we moved to pull ups. I'm glad it was early so I wasn't tired in the upper body yet. Well, you wouldn't have guessed that as I still can't do pull ups. I did manage 1 1/2 which definitely is an improvement. That great technique that one often uses, the one where you kick your feet all over the place as if that would help, didn't work here. Neither did loud grunts. We were too close to the ground. So I spent the time jumping to the up position, holding myself up and slowly lowering myself down. This is getting better. I need to do this more on my own.

We followed this with body rows. Oh no, I thought. I worked on these last night at the health club so I knew I wasn't going to do real well. I did discover that bar we used here is about the same height as what I used at the club. You are supposed to touch your chest to the bar as you lifted and I felt like I was more touching my stomach but I was getting up there. And I did get slower at the end but I did at least keep going.

Other stations were tricep dips, glute raises off the medicine ball, planks off the swing with the legs pulling into the chest to work the lower abs, bunny hops (which I love), a tricep/ab exercise, chest work with tubing, step ups and dead weight lifts while standing on one foot. These last two exercises again tested my balance. I would step up and have to come all the way down on the other foot before repeating as I kept losing my balance and would lean all over the place. I did the same thing on the deadlift but that was extra hard. That sore heel made it hard to stand on just that leg. I kept wobbling just like a Weeble (you know, Weebles wobble but they don't fall down). Interestingly enough, though, after the water break it felt better and I was able to do the hop over the stake with no problem. Still the balance problems though.

Next we had to run the hill but only up. I think something I learned here was sometimes it is easier to go a little faster. I started in the back as usual so I got to the hill a little late. I was being a little fussy and didn't want to get my shoes soaking wet so I decided to try and stay on the path. However some of the people in front of me were a bit slower so I went at their pace so as to stay behind them on the path. I think this almost made it harder. I finally gave up and went around them. My feet did get soaking wet but I made it to the top of the hill without stopping. I was huffing and puffing though. We waited for the others to finish and then went back down to the tennis courts. We ended camp today by running across the tennis court. We went a little ways, dropped and did seven push ups, ran some more, more push ups. We continued to do this across and back. I really thought I was gonna make it but on the last 2 sets I had to go modified for one on one set and 2 on the last. Something more to work toward.

Joe finished with some inspirational words. Things about working through the pain and exhaustion. I added to myself working through the nausea. But I did work through it as best I could and once again felt I gave about all I had to give, with the exception of the first stake jumps.

Well, off from boot camp on Friday and then back on Monday. Hopefully Sharon will be there as well.

Have a good one.

Roger