Rolling Stoney Stands Strong

[Stonie]

Woo, new challenge.

 

Last challenge I needed something to focus on to keep myself from falling into a slump while waiting for my non-weight-bearing period for my broken ankle to end. It did, and I am now cleared

to weight bear as tolerated. I am not yet cleared to drive so I'm still house bound, but I have a physio appointment this Thursday so depending on what they say I may alter my goals slightly. My long-term goals currently stand like this;

Walk without moon boot, crutches or limp.

Be cleared to drive again.

Be cleared to skate again. 

Re-Pass my Minimum Skills Test.

Play a whole derby bout. 

 

My quests for this challenge focus mostly on the first three goals - being able to walk, and then drive my car and eventually skate again all rely on me strengthening and stretching my weakened right ankle. Passing my MST and playing derby will come in a few months when I can skate again without fear of re-injuring myself. 

 

QUEST 1 - CLEARED FOR SKATING

 

Part 1 - CARDIO. 

3x a week; Planned for M/W/F

I need to keep this up because otherwise I will die when I get back on skates. I will be using the stationary exercise bike I own and doing intervals on that as it is currently the only form of cardio I can do that is low-impact and also good for my ankle. I have started with 30 seconds on and 10 seconds off and I will increase the intervals weekly. I want to work up to cycling for 2 minutes with a 30 second break because that is the longest one derby jam can go for. If my breathing can keep up that long I can survive most derby stuff. 

Week 1: 45/15, Week 2: 60/20, Week 3: 75/30, Week 4: 90/30

 

Part 2 - REHAB.

Daily. 

Once my physio tells me what to do I will be doing that. I also have some derby ankle strengthening exercises I can do as well if I feel like it. If I have to take a rest day and just stretch and ice my ankle, then that will count. Rest is rehab too.

Physio has prescribed theraband exercises (working on all the different ranges of motion my foot struggles with) and one-leg balancing. I need to do it at least once a day, but three times is optimal. 

 

Part 3 - WALK IT OFF.

Daily.

For this quest I am just wearing my pedometer everywhere and logging the steps. I will aim to increase my steps weekly by a small amount. Being able to walk again is crucial to my returning to work and me feeling like an able bodied human again. 

 

QUEST 2 - MIND YOUR HEAD

 

Part 1 - MEDITATE.

Daily.

I find myself often trying to burn up any free time I have with being on social media, especially before bed in the evenings and before getting up in the morning. I plan to stop that and focus on nothing but my breathing either in the morning or the evening. Just for a minute or two. In the morning I can set positive intentions for the day and in the evening I can look back over anything I was grateful for and things I did well. 

 

QUEST 3 - TALK ABOUT IT

 

Part 1 - WRITE.

Daily.

I have a sci-fi story that I am working on that I'd love to get more of done, and I can also journal about my day or something I need to vent about if I don't feel like writing sci fi. I aim to do this directly after meditating in the morning or just before bed in the evening. I will log the word count and try and increase it weekly. 

[Stonie]

Tested these goals out today and I think it's going to go well. I'll update daily on my battle log and post some updates here. Page two of the battle log is where this challenge begins.

[Stronkey Kong]

Cool goals.

[Pherales]

Found you!  

 

Walking and writing team, go!  Following along  

[Stonie]

Physio appointment day today! Two months since my ankle surgery. Hopefully I come away with some good stuff to add to my challenge this time and can get started on fixing my ankle for good.

[Stonie]

Physio went well. My ROM is not terrible and the strength difference in my feet is minimal (despite the atrophy in my calf) and I was given theraband exercises and one-leg balances to do at least once a day. Three times is optimal so I'm going to work on getting it done three times a day, but one is also fine if that's all I can fit in. I also have to walk with my crutches for a bit longer to work on my limp. I will possibly even be allowed to drive next week!

[Pherales]

That's awesome  hooray!

[Stonie]

Week 0 is ticking along nicely in everything except cardio. The physio exercises seem to be helping with the limp, and I'm seeing the tiniest improvement in my 1-leg balancing. I'm not putting my left foot down as often. 

 

Walking has become a very mindful thing at the moment, as I have to consciously think how to move my foot so I don't limp. I'm limping because I assume there will be pain; but when I put focus into on the step there is no pain... unless I go back to limping. I'm not using my crutches even though I should be though; they complicate everything, considering I can move just about fine without them. xD tsk. If I go out I do take one with me just so I can move a bit quicker and walk easier, but they make everything harder.

 

I did a lot of walking around freely yesterday, cleaning the house. It really needed it after being ignored for 2 months while I couldn't do anything.

[Stonie]

Starting my challenge on Monday because Sunday starts are too confusing and I always miss them. So far, so good. 

 

Week 0 went well, all except Sunday where I was mentally (and a little physically) exhausted from helping out at my derby team's first home bout for the year. For someone with a bung ankle, I did an awful lot of running around, selling raffle tickets and wrangling children at half time to play games. I even got on the microphone and addressed the crowd and interacted with them - an introvert doing public speaking?! Yes, I too was surprised I didn't spontaneously combust from anxiety. I wasn't as anxious about anything as I thought I was going to be, and I take that as a huge win for improvements to my emotional strength. People even complimented my people skills - after I stopped laughing hysterically I thanked them - which I never thought would happen. 

 

Week 0 starting points:

Cardio: 0/3.

Plenty of room for improvement here. Having a rest wasn't a totally bad thing though. 

I need to do at least 1 cardio session in week 1 to improve on this. Easy.

 

Physio: 6/6.

4 days of doing physio-approved stuff and two days of doing ankle stretches and balancing before I knew what I had to do. It is helping immensely and it's good to feel like I'm physically improving again. 

I just need to keep this up and do any extra things the physio prescribes on Thursday in Week 1 when I go back. 

 

Total Steps: 23,579.

Not bad. Bumped up a bit by Saturday night but a good baseline to start working on improving.

I need to do 3,500(ish) steps daily to improve on this number for week 1 of the challenge. That's totally do-able. 

 

Meditation: 6/6.

Not all days were actual mind-silencing meditation, but a fair bit of gratitude and journalling which was really nice.

 

I also had a really good moment on sunday night where I was fretting about all the derby things I have to get done by the end of the month (grants for money that need completing) but managed to let go of the panic when I knew it wouldn't help me immediately and worked on focussing on the silence instead. I didn't lie in bed fretting about everything for hours because I'd already written up a to-do list to tackle first thing Monday morning and that helped. I slept well. When I have a list of things weighing on my mind I generally don't get to sleep easy. 

I need to keep doing what I'm doing. try for a few more meditation sessions as opposed to journalling but either is a good thing. 

 

Word Count: 911

Just a few words written, mostly journalling on my days but it's a good baseline to work with.

I need to write 150 words daily to beat this target on week 1. 

[Stonie]

Today I am pissed off. 

 

When I broke my ankle I realised I was going to miss out on a lot of derby-related things. Considering I'd spent my derby off-season cross-training like a boss to get ready for this year, I was a bit miffed when I heard the news about my broken bones. But in true Rebellion fashion, I made a new goal. Be travel-team skating-ready by September. Not an unreasonable thing to accomplish given that my injury was 11 days into January. I felt like that gave myself plenty of time to work on rehab and be fully prepared to trash the other teams. (In a nice way.)

 

Now, September every year is the big state derby tournament, Boom State Clash. I only got to play in one game last year because one of my friends decided to plan her wedding for the same weekend so I had to juggle both. Anyway, this year my goal was to skate both days, and of course, be ready to skate both days after rehabbing my broken ankle. Great. 

 

Now the West Aus Derby-powers-that-be have decided that the regional teams need to fight it out for a place in the tournament on a separate weekend before "some" amount of regional teams (they haven't decided how many yet) win the chance to play the metro teams in September. The metro teams don't need to qualify. (rude.) Apparently this makes it less work for the referees and officials running the game, because the one weekend of everyone playing was a bit much for them. Instead now they have to ref more games over more weekends and do more travel. Go figure. Or, that's what I've gleaned from the meetings. (yay, committee positions!) They have chosen the first weekend in JUNE for this regional playoffs shit. Not only is that short notice for all travel team people to organise their lives for time off and such, they have chosen a rather strange place for us to hold these playoffs so everyone is going to have to travel further then really necessary just to play each other. 

 

They have (for some reason) chosen Dongara as our regional play offs place. It is 4 hours north of Perth (the capital city here in WA) which makes it a 8.5 hour drive for my travel team (Albany.) There are also Kalgoorlie (9 hours), Bunbury (5 hours), Margaret River (5.5hours) , South Headland (14 hours), and Geraldton (1hr) who are expected to travel to play each other. The only teams this benefits are Geraldton and South Headland, who have to travel a bit less for a change. Which I'm sure is nice for them. Also whichever teams win the weekend get to play again in September. While I have great love for my team, we will still be two broken team members down in June so I doubt we'll do well enough to score a place in the September games and therefore I've just had my goal taken off me because of bureaucracy. Instead of "everyone gets to play each other" it's now "some of you don't have to try to get in and the rest of you have to suffer more and not all of you get to play everyone anyway because you live further away from the city."

 

Rude.

 

It really shook me this morning. I woke up to it and I'm still processing it. Derby is my thing and I feel a little betrayed by it at the moment. I'll be okay, and I still have the rest of my goals. But this year was gonna be my year for Boom State.

 

 

[Pherales]

That seriously blows.  Seriously.  And Dongara?  I don't even comprehend the reasoning, at all.  It's not a middle ground location for pretty much any of those teams!

 

Sorry you woke up to this, I hope it doesn't crush your mojo too hard, but definitely reasonable to be saltier than the Dead Sea right now.

[Stonie]

Dongara. IKR. It's stupid. The rest of my league thinks it's stupid. We have now nicknamed it "The Dong." That does make me feel a bit better. Our coach is fighting tooth and nail to try make it better. Bless her. Everyone on our side did all they could to change it but nothing changed anyway. So it's not like me being angry about it is going to help. 

 

Today was not as productive as it probably could have been after the shaky start. I was going to work on derby grant stuff in the morning but couldn't focus for rage so I just vented to anyone that would listen and drank coffee and moped. After I ate lunch and finished venting I felt a bit better so I let myself relax without guilt for the afternoon and played Xbox instead of trying to force anything on myself. 

 

I did do my physio stuff and also some core activating and strengthening exercises I (re)found on the inter webs today. 

 

I also also took foot flexion photos to compare to last month (when I was cleared to weight bear) - there is a huge difference already and it's super exciting to feel like I am improving in stuff again. If the physio lets me drive this week I will be re-instating my gym membership too and I can do all my physio stuff there and extra core ad upper body workouts as well. Squee! Anyway, photos.

 

Last month (20-2-17)                                                        Today (21-3-17)

   

 

I am so effing close to having a normal foot again I can smell it! The only thing you can't see here is how much the plate around my ankle sticks out. It's super weird. 

 

 

[Stonie]

Whoo. What a rollercoaster of a day.

 

As I was waiting for my lift to get to the physio, my partner was dropped home by a co-worker. Holding a box. A box of his work stuff. Without his work-issue ute, phone or iPad. Thankfully my S.O has never carelessly used his sick and annual leave days in the 7 years he had been at his job so when he was made redundant today he at least gets the next 6 months paid; but he is out of a job. He didn't care much for his job so there was very little sadness (especially considering he'll still be getting paid for the next 30 weeks) and it gives him the excuse to finally go find a job he actually wants to do. Then my lift for the physio turned up so off we went. 

 

Went to the physio, that was good. She gave me a stronger theraband to keep doing the same exercises with it, as well as some added squats, calf raises and ankle stretching up against a wall. Got told if I felt strong enough to drive then go for it. Yay!

 

I immediately stopped by work to let them know I would be able to start again. I start on Monday morning, working the morning for 3 hours Monday to Friday. I'm excited now, But let me get back to you about my excitement levels re: working after I've been there for a few days. xD

 

I will also be able to re-instate my gym membership tomorrow, now that I can drive myself there again! Double Woo! I spent a bit of time yesterday planning out my workout plan. I have a upper body day and a lower body day plan, with some core work done every time I'm there as well as my physio work to do every day. 

 

After that mum and I had lunch while my S.O finished signing the paperwork for our house mortgage. Yep, the same day he was made redundant. Hmm.

 

Yet somehow I'm not too worried; we have savings we planned on dumping into our loan to cut down on the interest and he is still getting paid and I'm going back to work next week. Just funny how that all happened in one day. 

 

[Stonie]

Week 1 Wrap Up

 

Cardio: 3/3

Yeahhh! Was gonna settle for 2 sessions until sunday when I decided I got excited about going to the gym so I did all the things. 

Bonus: Did 2 core sessions. 

I need to keep doing this to "improve" on Week 1. I will be doing intervals of 60 seconds on and 20 seconds off. 

 

Physio: 7/7

Nailed it. Even with the added physio stuff given to me on Thursday. I am finding walking easier and I love the feel of progressing again. 

Bonus: Went to the gym once. 

I just need to keep doing this. Increase balancing times and maybe do extra squats and calf raises. 

 

Steps: 18,237

5,342 steps short of Week 0. But with work starting again in Week 2 I won't have any problem on increasing this from now. 

I just need to walk more. Should be simple this week. 3000 steps daily to improve on this. 

 

Meditation: 6/7

One day where I did nothing. A few days were journalling, a few were listening to music to put myself to sleep. 

I need to set an actual time to do this and do it.

 

Word Count: 1,458

+547 on last week. I didn't write every day but I wrote a fair bit and I'm happy with it. I don't like forcing myself to write when I can't get creative but I do need to try practicing even when I don't feel inspired. 

I need to write an average of 230 words daily to improve this for week 2. 

[Stonie]

I'm struggling to get my writing done this week. I started back at work on Monday so a lot of my energy has been sucked into that, despite only doing 3ish hours a day.

 

And because my partner got made redundant last thursday we've been preoccupied with our home loan being rejected and now having to re-evaluate what he is going to do and what we are going to do about our house... and I've been helping him write his resume and cover letter so that's taken a bit out of me. 

 

I've also been working on two derby grants that are due Friday that are siting in the back of my mind also. Convincing people to give us money for essentially nothing is not my strong suit. Normally I at least offer them coffee. xD

 

And now that I've been off work for three months and with my partner now unemployed and my boss potentially selling the cafe I am sort of wondering if I need to think about what I want to do with my career that isn't hospitality related. because sure, all my experience in hospitality basically assures me a job no matter where I go... But I don't really like it. I do it because I'm comfortable doing it. And I'm good at it. But I think it's starting to kill the last of my soul and I don't like that. 

 

[Stonie]

 

More chaos. Our home loan was rejected days out from settlement because of my partner's redundancy. So we are going to have to re-apply when he gets a new job. Thankfully our house is owned by his step-dad so we won't be homeless any time soon but we were keen to actually start paying for the house we are living in instead of paying a small amount of rent like we are currently. It's not fair on the owner of the house

 

My own job is on very unstable footing as well as my boss hasn't made enough money for the last year and her ex-bookeeper did a shit job and left her in debt everywhere, meaning she is trying to sell the cafe I am working in. She did say if she found a new venture she would give me a ring, and would also talk to any potential new owners about keeping me on if they bought the place. Which is awfully nice of her. But it means that I may also be unemployed soon. And I won't get quite the payout like my partner. xD Aaaand I don't know if I'd say yes to being kept on anyway as I sort of want to get away from hospitality xD

 

And then today my mum told me she is having surgery on wednesday to remove her breasts again after her long-dormant breast cancer has returned and was found. It hasn't spread anywhere and the surgery isn't a hard one (apparently) but that's still not good for my mum to have to go through again. The first time she fought and won against breast cancer she was only 28. 

 

All the different parts of my life are nicely arranged objects sitting on a table, and some fucker has just flipped the table. That's how this week feels. xD

[Stonie]

Week 2 Wrap Up. 

 

Some parts of this week were good. Some were not. Being back at work is good for the back account but I'm not sure if it's good for my sanity. That's currently a problem for another time though. 

 

Cardio: 3/3

Did great, now I'm back at the gym. The rowing machine has been good to get my heart racing without having to put impact onto my ankle. I've tried a few times to move at a jogging pace and it just doesn't work. Not for more then a few steps. so I'll stick to the rower / maybe the elliptical. 

I aim to do this 3 times in week 3. Should be easy with gym access. 

 

Physio: 6.5/7

One day was missed because I was quite sore from being on my feet at work. Every other day at least 1 round of theraband and balancing was done. Some days did more stuff then others at the gym. I'm giving myself a half point for the rest day because I feel that rest is a good thing too. I did have to bump my physio appointment to next week (week 4) though so I have another week of doing the same stuff and another week before I can potentially skate again. probably not a bad thing, but to say I was excited to return to skating was a huge understatement. xD

I aim to do all 7 days of physio this week, in preparation for my physio-appointment next week. 

 

Steps: 48,157

And that is why my foot is a bit sorer this week. I did 20 hours of work on my feet with resting and icing breaks in between, as well as attending a derby boot camp with THE Mick Swagger and Mary Fagdalene of VRDL fame (Victoria roller derby league are #2 in the WHOLE WORLD of roller derby and they are Australian so it was super exciting for us baby derby players xD) Even though I couldn't skate I took heaps of notes so I can practice all the things when I get back on skates. 

I'm not going to try and beat this goal in week 3, only match it. 

 

Meditation: 5/7

Mostly did this in the evening to get to sleep. Thursday's meditation session was difficulty over 9000 because I was at the dentist and controlling my breathing to stop myself getting anxious about having to go to the dentist. it sucked, but significantly less while I focussed on my breathing instead of the raping of my teeth. xD

I'm aiming to spend 2 minutes doing this before bed every night this week. 

 

Word Count: 0.

This week was just too distracting to get any writing done. I put down a lot of words but nothing worth writing (haha) about. I filled out two grants for the derby league and got them sent away and helped my partner with his cover letters and resume. After that I just couldn't find the motivation to put any more words down. 

This week I am going to aim to write a paragraph a day on my sci-fi work. 

[Stonie]

CHALLENGE WRAP UP

 

Sorry I vagued out for the end of this challenge guys; Work happened and I lost a lot of motivation to do two of my goals and sort of went into survival mode.

 

Quest 1: Cleared for Skating! -

Rehab:

Went well. I pretty much stuck to my physio stuff, even if I didn't do it every single day (rest days r guud) I did it and the last time I went to the physio my ROM was back to being pretty much the same as my good foot. Super pumped about that. AND as of thursday I am officially cleared to skate with my league again so I actually accomplished this goal! yay!

 

Walking:

After a few days of babying my ankle my boss left the country so I was the boss. So I was pretty much back in the thick of it by the end of the second week of being back. Meaning I was on my feet 8+ hours a day. I lost my pedometer so I stopped counting but having to be at work and not having time to think about my foot has helped my stride immensely. I can walk without a limp perfectly fine now. Only in the mornings or after being still for a while does it stiffen up, but that's to be expected. xD

 

Quest 1 went remarkably well.

 

Quest 2: Mind Your Head.

I tried to do this, and it just felt forced. I quickly dropped it after a few weeks because I just don't think it's for me. I couldn't find time to do it. I think I prefer moments of mindfulness throughout the day to keep myself calm and happy as opposed to meditation at a certain time and place every day. 

 

Quest 2 didn't go quite according to plan but I learnt something about myself and that's good.

 

Quest 3: Write about it.

The first few weeks were good; I journaled and stuff. But I ended up having to do a lot of grant submissions for the derby league and helped my partner put together his resume and cover letters and that burnt out my writing brain. That and I had no energy to be creative in any way after getting back home from work. It's going to take a little while to find my work/life balance again. 

 

Quest 3 could have gone better but at least I wasn't totally unproductive; just not with my writing. It will always be there for me to poke away at so I'm not upset that I didn't get as much done as I wanted. 

 

I thought I'd tanked this challenge but I'm feeling better about it now I've written it out. Now I'm cleared for skating I need to focus on bringing my fitness back up for derby and getting enough food into my body to sustain my work and cross-training and skating without burning out. That's what I'm going to be working on next challenge!

Rolling Stoney Changes her Shape.