recovery – Page 4 – Khaos Theory Derby

Creating community & evoking change this March

And now it’s March. And now it’s time to get serious.

Two more months of school. Roller derby bouts are starting. Last month of qualifications before the Herbalife Leadership Conference. One month before our first home bout.

I have a lot of things on my plate this spring and I am stating my intention that I will not only BALANCE everything, but I will excel at it. I am taking my business to the next level. I am doing more work in the community locally to support what I do in the roller derby community.

I have blocked out times for study, for workout, for follow up, for talking to people.

In the month of March I need to help 75 people find better health and nutrition. I want to coach 75 new people on how to live better and feel better. I want to inspire them and work with them. In March, when I change the lives of 75 people – I will change my own life.

Using my life as an example - I have carbs and junk around ALL the time. I avoid it by eating high protein and healthy! — Using my life as an example – I have carbs and junk around ALL the time. I avoid it by eating high protein and healthy!

I will do this on top of a reoccurring injury. Yesterday during softball practice I stepped in a gopher hole while [beautifully] sprinting to and fro across left field shagging fly balls. My right knee crunched three times before I went down like Frasier.

So after weeks and weeks of recovery – I feel like I’m back at square one. I can put weight on it and I am further along from the start, but the challenge with this knee continues. I will train despite it. My nutrition was structured well to begin with, so I will continue the trend and work my recovery tabs back in. I will show everyone that a knee injury is nothing to hold you back. You are limited only by your mindset.

Taken at as close to the same angle and perspective as possible. Sad face.

Health and wellness for my community is the goal. Strength and prowess for the derby community is my commitment. I am excited to build friendships and relationships this month. I am excited to meet the people who will become the leaders of healthy living on my campus and in my community. I cannot wait to conquer fear and start building my vision.

My Fit Clubs and Nutrition classes start next week. Though there is only two months of school left, I will not let that deter me from making any impact I can. I learned last week, while talking to the manager of the food and catering there on campus, that the student body actually petitioned for MORE fried food. He had actually wanted to do one fried-foodless day a week and was told no by our student government.

This Fit Club in Cali is a great example of the kind of friendship and motivation I will bring to Central PA

All the complaints I’ve had about food at school has been because of the student body. So I have a huge task on my hands if I am looking to begin transforming us into a healthy, fit school. I am looking forward to challenging myself to be a strong leader, and challenging my peers and those in my community to be best version of themselves that they can be.

If you are just as excited as I am to affect change in the health of your community or sports league, please e-mail me so I can tell you all about health coaching and my goals for March! KGreyActiveNutrition@gmail.com

And for good measure … here’s a photo of the sea monster that my parents call an “algae eater”:

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When a flat tracker attempts the banked track

Even athletes get sore to the point of not being able to move. Even athletes training within their sport are able to change it up enough to make even the strongest parts of their body hurt in ways that they haven’t experienced for years.

Enter the banked track.

Love City Roller Derby has a banked track on Spring Garden Street in Philadelphia, and their league has decided to take on a huge venture by organizing the Derby Ink Invitational in Harrisburg, PA on April 19-21. Most of the teams that have entered into the Invitational tournament are not banked track leagues that play by M.A.D.E. rules – they are teams made up of flat track skaters that do tournaments as super teams for fun or they’re giving it a go for the first time.

Enter me.

Skating backwards on this thing is tough

I had tried pulling some friends together to put a team in, but I couldn’t get enough girls to commit and I didn’t know that there was a second team pulling at the same skaters. So, I let go of trying to put together my own team and (luckily) the team now calling themselves “Team Rogue” absorbed me into it as well. Well.. I mean we’ll see if I make the roster.

I felt like a complete newbie again this weekend. We had a two hour practice yesterday and then a two hour practice/one hour scrimmage today. With the sheer talent on this team, I would not be surprised if I got the boot on the final day. I am not as strong or as fast or as naturally talented as ANYONE else on this team. I am not being negative: I am being wholly honest with myself.

I am the weakest link. Goodbye?

Warming up with agility ladders. Somehow I could do it... — Warming up with agility ladders. Somehow I could do it…

If I want to survive, I have a lot of work to do and I plan on doing it. I will not be seen as the weak link 30 days from now. Now I just need to figure out the best way to train between now and then.

On a banked track, I am feeling more pressure on my right leg through the process of skating as opposed to my left leg (which takes all the force in flat track). Why? You’re fighting the slope of the track, and it’s that right leg that has to do most of the work. Also, the game play is at about 3x the speed of a flat track game. I’ve played some fast flat track; I would put this up there with Gotham & Philly speed of play.

With the different rules that I’m not used to, it means that I am not responding quick enough physically OR mentally. Luckily, I am not the only one that let a pivot by them or wasn’t able to follow through on a hip check to the inside.

Today was exceptionally hard because my legs were all wobbly from two hours learning drills and fighting the uphill slope for the first time. When we began our cardio/paceline drills I was waiting for my muscles to tear in half, to be honest. I couldn’t dig, I’d slide when I would crossover in the corners and (in general) I feel like I made a complete ass out of myself. I was the slowest person on the team, far and away. It would have been fine if I felt strong enough in drills to take people to the rail.

I couldn’t.

Ok, so enter the awesome part about being on a team like Team Rogue. We’re all there to have fun. We don’t have an official coach. There is no real pressure. Sure there are prizes in the tournament, but other than wanting to be able to compete against skaters on Team USA, Team Canada and Team France… we just want to have fun!

The encouragement I got from my team mates as I slugged my ass around the track was amazing. These are all skaters that I admire and feel like I am not even in the same league as and they cheered and pushed me. (Thank goodness my legs warmed up and I got the hang of things a little better later.)

Wow, this is how you know my brain is mush! I don’t ramble in a free write style often! I TRY to keep my writing reigned in!!

So, yesterday we had a bunch of people (and not all of them are necessarily on the team for April – I honestly don’t know what the roster situation is so don’t assume that any of these people are or aren’t skating then… this is just who I skated WITH). I got to skate with Nash Villain, Renegade Raven, Russian Bayou, Jocelyn Bassler, Treasure Chest, Miss USA-Hole, Pixie Bust, Damage Dahl, Antidote, Spry Icicle and Grim D Mise. Today, Raven, Nash, Bayou, Spry and Grim came again and we added Eileen U Scream and Buster Skull! It was awesome. I had so much fun. I felt so challenged.

It’s rare that you can have a practice that makes you feel so useless and yet at the same time, makes you feel so amazing. I feel stronger and faster than ever before. I feel focused and determined to build a routine that will change me by April. Today though, the hot shower was amazing and my hip flexors, hamstrings and abductors are sore to the touch. Even little movements cause a ripple of pain through my legs. Flat track practice should be interesting tomorrow night.

: Practice! Agility ladders and friends and laughing!

And as a side note, in scrimmage against a couple of the Love City All Stars … I did take a jammer to the rail. 😉
Today, my food has looked like this:

8am Formula 1 chocolate shake with personalized protein powder.

16 oz of water before leaving, had half of my peach tea/aloe on my way there.

9:30a Soy Nuts and a bite of Cookies n Cream meal replacement bar

10a Practice started, 24 Hydrate happening! 32 oz of water during practice plus some nibbles of meal bar.

Noon: Beverage Mix w/ H3O before the hour long scrimmage. Then another 16 ounces of water

Rebuild Strength for recovery, end of the Cookies N Cream bar; another half of the peach tea and aloe on the way home

Got home, had some grapes, 2 boiled eggs and spring mix with fresh salsa. Another 64 oz of water.

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Confidence

Feelings are cyclical, I understand. It is insane to believe that we will not undergo some fluctuating feelings and emotions throughout our journeys – no matter how positive and upbeat we are. It is understandable to feel down sometimes, or have to pick yourself up after a bad day. To really, honestly change your mindset takes years of practice and discipline.

Even then, even the pros of positivity find situations in which negative thoughts creep in. Ask them – they’ll admit it! The difference between those who are truly positive and the rest of us is that the truly positive folk have little alarm systems that go off when negativity happens and they’re able to divert, re-route or re-assess to turn the energy around.

So why am I talking about this with a title on the post called “Confidence”?

Because it is amazing how sometimes you just wake up. When you set off on a journey like I have – one of self-improvement, fitness and coaching – it is a path wrought with AH HA moments. (Just like in roller derby, actually)

Today I realized that I’ve never allowed myself to be really confident and positive about my appearance.

I have always been the chubby girl. The ugly one. The dork. Kids can be cruel, and I’d be lying if I said that being bullied in third grade didn’t stick with me. If I told you that being embarrassed in front of my whole elementary school in 5th grade didn’t leave some scars. I’d be lying if I told you that I have never blamed my looks on why I’m not engaged (or more) yet.

Today I really looked at a picture I took of myself at the Sweat-a-Fit. It was after my final class of the day. I had done 5 total. I had just done back to back Zumba classes, and the final teachers were not only fresh and ready but they were HOPPY and TWITCHY. It was the 2nd most intense class of the day. It was awesome, but I was a sweaty mess. I figured it would be good proof that I had been there!

I really looked at that photo today and realized that I am a silly fool. The photo isn’t just of some girl who’s sweaty. It’s of a beautiful woman who is making a new life for herself. A woman who has dropped 15 pounds off in the last 6 months. A woman who is happy and healthy and wants to help others. A woman who overcame barriers during the event; physical, mental and spiritual. The photo is me: a girl who is more timid than you would think, but who found the guts to go and talk to every person she could before the event ended. I saw the picture and realized: The confidence was always in me, I just had to find it. For me it took 4 hours of intense cardio…

And on top of that, I don’t even look sweaty. I just look like I’ve had the time of my life. Which I did! I even got to drink some Peach Tea Concentrate and reward myself with a chocolate banana cupcake.

So tomorrow is a new week. I have had a rough month for my business so far, but tomorrow is different and tomorrow is new. Tomorrow I will help more people start their own journey to find their own confidence. I will help as many people as I can to live healthier, more active lifestyles. I will find more coaches to work with me on these goals. I will.

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Set Backs and Self-Awareness

Knowing how your body feels before you go into activities, and then through the activity and then afterwards .. It is something that people do not actually think about taking note of. Anyone who is working out or considers themselves an athlete needs to understand their body to a more heightened level.

What I am finding through this recovery process, is that I am so scared of the new pains and sensations that I feel in my leg and knee. I am so in-tuned to my joints that whenever I feel something different, I recoil. I become tentative. I do not have a physical therapist to walk me through the process of recovery, so I am in a trial and error phase. I must make notes of what happens when, and hope that I can find resources online that tell me that those pains are normal.

Physical therapy is supposed to be hard. It’s supposed to hurt and from everyone I’ve ever talked to, it is just not comfortable. However, what is TOO much pain? What is the wrong pain and what is the right or wrong amount of rest time in-between strength training or cardio training?

This is what I’m trying to get back to. Photo by JPaden Photography

While at the gym three days ago, I was finished with my leg day (leg press, leg extension, leg curls, abduction, adduction & straight leg ‘squat’) .. I was stretching my hamstrings and using the ballet bar. When I proceed from stretching my right leg (the bad one) to the left, I had a bad moment.

My right foot planted, parallel to the ballet bar, I lifted my left leg to place on the bar. When my right knee twisted it felt like .. well .. kind of like a white hot poker was shoved into my knee from the outside, in. I have to mention that it was probably a bad idea to have worn heels to a derby banquet the night before, so it was already sore.

Did I just overdo it? How do I know? I rested for the next two days except for some calisthenics. I feel a constant pressure on the outside of my leg. I am still icing. I am eating lots of protein, keeping up with vitamins, eating low sodium and drinking lots of water.

Today, I hop on the elliptical. The INSIDE of my leg was hurting, and a tingling feeling extended up my femur for about 10 minutes. I did 25 minutes and then moved to the bike for 35 minutes. I’ve iced. I take pain killers. I’ve taken anti-inflammatories. But the outside of my leg is still very tender.

So the moral of the story? If I weren’t self aware, I wouldn’t know when things do not feel right. If I weren’t self aware maybe I would have plunged through the workouts and not noticed the leg tingling on the elliptical and I would have done a higher resistance for a longer amount of time than I did.

Know your body. Love your body. Trust your body. But… asking for outside help is necessary sometimes too.

(Anyone know a good physical therapist?)

As a final thought … Despite feel squishy the last couple days, and having those two rest days… My legs and arms are getting RIPPED.

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Khaos Wellness Update

Although this blog is a smattering of topics right now, I do want to make sure I have a log of my journey and progress in here from now on. I do have to make one WordPress complaint however (especially since I know my PR teacher will read this at some point) – there is a text delay. When I type, every four characters, the program stutters and then I’m reminded to just type it in Word, copy and paste.

Much better.

The last two weeks have been a blur for me. A huge, hazy, unproductive blur of “what the hell is going on”? It started before that, but what made the final piece of my life spiral out of control was the bout against Philly Roller Girls.

I had trained for two and a half months for this bout. I felt awesome. I was concerned about being able to warm up properly, since we were playing the second game (which meant that I had pre-game duties and would not be able to jog right before gearing up). Something felt off about the atmosphere, but I couldn’t place my finger on it. I just knew that I would be on the line against women who had played at Championship levels before.

Scott Johnson Photography at Dutchland Rollers 2012

I’ll tell you what – I held them too. Mo Pain could not get around my passive blocking. Mo Pain did NOT get lead jammer against me. However, I landed in the box on jam 3. On jam 4, I came out, tried to take the outside line (which I have been trying NOT to do) and Kick Ash clocked me hard enough to send me into the penalty box. My knee was sure to pop before I went barrel-rolling the 20 feet however.

That was it. I feared forever.

At the ER, I was given a stabilizer, some meds and told “follow up with it in 2 weeks, and if it feels better you won’t need an MRI.”

“Right,” I thought. “It popped. I’m going to need an MRI. I’m going to need surgery. I can’t believe this.”

I told my team and my friends that everything was uncertain, but my goal was January 1 to be back on skates. After the first day I could put weight on it, if I was pointing my toes. Day 2 I could put weight on it. Day 3 I could walk stairs without my stabilizer and could do one-legged planks, push-ups and anything where I was sitting on the floor.

The next weekend I hobbled around Championships.

Philly made sure to come up and talk to me and tell me that I looked awesome right before it happened and they were so sad to see me injured. People I had only known on Facebook found me to see how I was doing. The derby was so inspiring. The people and community were so supportive.

Medal Winners Grits & Glory 2012
Dave Wood Photography

Plus, seeing how the biggest weekend of the year is organized was a great experience and awesome insight for my internship next semester.

The next week I weaned myself off the stabilizer. I went to the gym. I did 16 miles on the stationary bike on day 12 and 14 miles on the bike on day 15. Today, day 16, I had an appointment with the Penn State Wellness Center doctor. After 20 minutes of questions, stability tests and poking the diagnoses:

I suffered a minor strain of the LCL, and the popping I heard was probably a few fibers tearing. My knee is too strong, too stable and does not have the swelling or pain indicative of a possible tear.

The doctor’s reason for my slight injury and quick recovery: My intense training routine and my strict nutrition. Because I am constantly feeding my body, constantly giving it vitamins and protein and because I am so relentless about my water intake, my body has every tool it needs for recovery. I have been diligent about my icing, compression and elevation as well which has had an impact.

My strength was good when it happened, which prevented a serious injury. The muscles absorbed much of the blow, and the ligaments/tendons surrounding the LCL were as strong as they could be.

If I hadn’t been in such amazing shape – I would have blown my knee for sure.

So I have a definite 4 more weeks off skates. He gave me strength routines and specific benchmarks to reach before returning to the instability of roller skates. I will follow everything. My off season is going to be fantastic and I will come back even stronger than before.

#HerbalifeforLife #EarnYourBody