First Time Out

So, I completed my first powerlifting meet on Saturday. I am accustomed to being onstage so that wasn't a problem; I was just nervous about doing my lifts properly. In meets, you have to lift when the judge tells you to, and you can't rack it until they tell you to either, which is not what I'm used to. (note to self: start training like this once in a while)

The other competitors were very nice, helpful, and quite inspirational. There was a 70-year-old great grandmother, a diabetic with an insulin pump, a 50-something guy who'd just had his hip replaced 5 months ago, and a woman who had just completed chemo a few days before. Whatever aches and pains I might have had seemed insignificant compared to what they had been / were going through.

Anyway, I DID manage to successfully do all three lifts AND I set Washington State records for my division in bench press and deadlift. So now there's another meet in six weeks that I'm seriously considering...

Bio-Freeze is my new best friend

OK, I am now 5 weeks out from the competition. Despite lots of stretching and a massage every other week, some of my muscles and tendons have begun to protest at the strain of my training regimen. The good news is, I am continuing to make strength gains. The bad news is, I am going through a lot of ibuprofen and Bio-Freeze. Both calves, my right bicep, and my lower back have been constantly fired up for the last couple of weeks. Sunday is usually my best day in terms of being close to pain-free.

The next five weeks will be interesting!

Competition Time

Now that summer is winding down, there are some good local power lifting competitions on the calendar for the next few months. I've actually been keeping an eye on the competition for the last year or so, looking at what is enough to send someone home with a trophy or medal or whatever while I steadily increase my strenth.

I won't be changing much about my workouts since making the decision last week to compete, except to do fewer reps on my last few sets so that I will have a good idea of my 1RM (one rep maximum) for each exercise by the time I compete. Since June, I have been getting a massage every other week, which helps a lot with muscle recovery and has helped my shoulders a lot (which is good for bench).

So...here's the plan. Sept. 13 is the Pacific Open Bench Press and Deadlift meet in lovely Tumwater. I'm going to go to that as a bystander, see what it's like, and size up the women in my age and weight class in person. Then, the next event on the books is the Columbia City classic in Oct. That one's a full power lifting meet (bench, deadlift and squat) and I am going to sign up to compete. It should be fun and interesting, if nothing else.

After that there's another meet in December and tentatively one in March of next year.

I'm baaaaack

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I'd posted here. Things are good. I am back to pre-injury levels on everything, if not beyond. My calf still gets a little tired when I'm running but it's much better. Aside from learning more about the mechanics of the human leg muscles than I ever intended to, this injury has been a great lesson in patience.

Happy, Merry & All That

Well, it's officially the holiday season now. Why? Because I have completed the three things necessary for me to get in the holiday spirit. They are: 1) listen to at least part of Elvis' Blue Christmas CD; 2) watch Bad Santa; 3) make at least one sugar- and butter-laden holiday treat. DONE.

I am now able to use the exercise bike and am working diligently to eradicate the last vestiges of the limp. Then I can think about reincorporating squats, and running intervals for cardio, in my workouts.

Normally this time of year I am not terribly motivated, and this year is no exception. It has been cold and rainy as usual, and with a sore leg on top of it, I have to really chastise myself to get out the door to the gym. Usually any sort of motivational phrase that includes the term "lard ass" works nicely.

Happy Holidays to all.

In the home stretch

Now at the 4-week mark, I am in the home stretch on this injury. Kevin rated muscle function at 4+ (on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being normal) on Friday. I am still limping slightly...but apparently that's all in my head. When the injury is off the radar, I don't limp, but when I think about it, I do. It's as if, even though I know it's better, there are still some trust issues.

That's just going to take time to work itself out. I have been used to babying my right calf for the past month, and there's also some fear involved, since the injury was so painful. I have always been strong and was always able to keep going despite sprains, strains, etc. but this was a whole new ballgame.

Dave, the IT guy at work who is one of my friends and who played college football at Virginia Tech, has had this same injury and has eerily predicted everything I have gone through, leading me to dub him "Dr. Dave." He gave me a few pointers on eradicating the limp, and predicted I would be over it by New Year's if I followed his advice.

Kevin (my physical therapist) upped the ante today by saying, "you can't do any of your power lifts till you are walking normally." The reason for that is I could actually make the limp worse that way.

Thankful

Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, I got the news from my physical therapist that I am now running about 1 week ahead of schedule on recovery. I walking almost normally now and am able to generate a decent amount of power with the injured muscle. So now I get to do some resistance work to continue building the muscle back up, and some light stretching. I am very happy about that and will probably get to add dead lifts back to my workout routine soon.

I went to karate class on Saturday (exempted from running or jumping, of course), and we learned a very cool technique for quickly bringing someone down by exerting pressure on the right point of their hand while twisting the wrist. It's amazing how little effort it takes. I have been practicing it on every victim I can find, ever since. :-)