Early morning hours

It’s funny to me how I started Bonkless to write about running and fitness tips and tricks, and here it’s become all about my injury and path back to fitness lately. Eh well, I believe in letting blogs expand into different areas as they please, so in any event, here we are.

I was at the gym at 7 a.m. this morning for a hard upper body, cardio and abs workout, which was great. I love starting the day both ahead of schedule and with a workout. As my workout buddy says of working out first thing int he morning, “You’ll already have done the hardest thing you’re going to do all day.”

Plus, there is something really satisfying to me about being up, dressed and out of the house before the sun comes up, don’t you think?

Rehab diaries: so, so close

I’m so close to not being injured anymore that it’s driving me crazy with excitement.I’ve been hitting the gym at my office, alternating upper and core and lower and core, and, bit by bit, all of that hard work is starting to manifest results.

Speaking of manifest, I’m a big fan of taking my brain through my goals. Before I run a race, I visualize the sections of the race as if I’m running them. Before I take on a fitness challenge, I visualize myself kicking ass as it. It’s not nearly as new agey as it might sound, and for me, it gives me a slight advantage: my brain seeing how doable the task ahead is before I try my hand at it.

So, yesterday, a group of people assembled, many strangers until yesterday, and whipped through magazines, books and newspaper we each toted along and assembled some goals in a visual way. We each threw together basically a collage of images that represented our goals for the year ahead.

I didn’t pay much attention to selecting images that represented anything, deciding instead to just grab images and words that appealed to me and that seemed interesting to me, throw them together and then see what it all meant.

Needless to say, my lovely collage is peppered with chicks kicking ass, strong abs, tight rear-ends, buff arms and athletic women with arms raised in victory.

I’ll take that.

Find me elsewhere on the Web lately:

• “Happy (literary) new year” on Chicago Tribune’s Printers Row
• “The passing of time,” my new year video and link-list post on Bigmouth Indeed Strikes Again

Rehab diaries: The bounce-back kid, part 2

Another corner turned, to be sure.

I’m lucky enough to have a gym at work. And luckier still to have some fitness-minded coworkers, one in particular, keen to see my fitness comeback. So, I’ve been hitting the gym often again, just like in the old days (And by “the old days” I mean, not that long ago.), usually with a coworker who knows far more about weight training that yours truly.

At first, while trying to run again on the treadmill felt exciting and relieving, returning to weights felt discouraging in that I realized just how far I’d fallen having to stay out of the gym all this time. So, the first cycle of workouts were awful: light weights, low reps, even straining to do what was quite simple months ago. But, after the the first cycle of workouts, I started to feel my muscles start to slowly begin to shift from sore and horribly untrained (as if every shred of athletic conditioning had simply never happened) to yesterday’s joy: Yesterday I felt tighter muscles working with me, not against me.

It’s been a ridiculous time getting back to this point. I’ll admit that I felt completely disconnected from my runner friends. For months, even while in physical therapy and seeing a bit of progress, I didn’t feel like an athlete anymore. And, I built a lot more of my life on that mindset that I was perhaps able to admit before the injury. I largely ignored the blogs and websites I read daily before because they didn’t feel as the same to me as they did in earlier, fitter, uninjured times.

But, to hell with all that. As much as it has felt very one step forward, two steps back for months, I think (hope) the corner is finally turned.

Rehab diaries: the bounce back kid

After hobbling, and after having to make myself totally stay out of the gym: I’m back.

Granted, it’s tough to go from being in great shape to being feeling like I have to start over fitness-wise post-injury. I had a great workout today, yet I could feel where exercises felt challenging with lower-than-usual resistance. But, that’s okay; it just shows me where to do the most work. I’ll get back to as fit as I was before my wreck last year.

(Sidebar: it was a year ago Thursday, that car accident that started this whole mess. )

So, in summary: I feel  the lost time for which I need to make up from being largely on the fitness sidelines this past year, but my head is in the game to get back that smart and fast.

Who knows, maybe I’ll come back better than I was before. That would be ideal, fer shur.

The rehab diaries: part bajillion + 1

I ditched the cane three days ago.  Apparently, it takes three days to really see what’s what, but I think I’ll keep it at bay. I wasn’t feelin’ it, that cane.

The good news about that, though, is that I immediately felt like my injury rehab was back in my own hands. Funny how jettisoning a stupid piece of metal can do that.

Now, I just need to remember to not get frustrated by starting from scratch, fitness-wise. I’ve gone from what I would classify as “extremely fit” to “strong as a garden slug” in a matter of months. So, that part should be interesting.

The rehab diaries: part bajillion

I’m heading to physical therapy tonight. Again. And, I’m dreading it. Again. There is something in the athletic mindset that fight physical therapy’s gentler approach. We push ourselves, we want results. Physical therapy, at least my experience of it, is an exercise in patience and trusting that things are improving, even wen absolutely nothing feels different or better at all.

Bozeman

Granted, I’m rehabbin’ my hip/lower back still, but I spent this past weekend in Bozeman, MT and Yellowstone National Park walking around, breathing good clean mountain air, and hanging out with my brother.

I really must get back there to do some serious hiking sometime soon.

Feel free to check out my Flickr set from the weekend.

Chicago marathon weekend!

I’ll be at the Chicago marathon expo tomorrow to check it all out. Follow me on Twitter for info in real-time, or check-in next week for my Chicago marathon expo post here on Bonkless, where, just like last year, I’ll check out all the gadgets and vendors and report back with everything.

Two recent posts I wrote on ChicagoNow’s Sports community blog:

How to navigate water stops

How to get a kick-ass finish line photo

Have a great race everyone!

Olympics?

So, Bonkfighters, what do you think about having the Olympics in Chicago? Thumbs up or thumbs down? Let’s hear it.

Run Green, Greener and Green-ish

What I dig about this article from Runner’s World is that is gives options for varying degrees of greening up one’s running. For example:

Hydrate

Good: Buy powdered sports drinks and mix them yourself.
Better: Wave away plastic race cups by carrying your own water in a secure container (like Amphipod’s Hydraform Handheld Pockets).
Best: Use reusable bottles instead of throwaway plastic water bottles.

See the rest at Runner’s World.