Category: injury

fitness · injury · sleep

Sleep is elusive, says Sam and time is meaningless

Sam B4 Comments

So it’s been exactly one week since knee replacement surgery and things are going well on most fronts. Except for sleep. Which is miserable. And I feel sorry for everyone I know with sleeping difficulties. (Hey Jeff.)

Sleeping cat
Photo by
Akshay Bhosle
on
Scopio

Normally I’m an obnoxiously healthy sleeper. Certainly I usually get enough sleep and I feel good about it. I go to bed early. I get up early. It’s all pretty textbook, as recommended, stuff. If I struggle at all it’s with consistency and the hours I sleep. But I’ve even been making progress on that front.

Until knee surgery.

Argh.

I’ve been in too much pain to sleep through the night. It’s hard to even get to sleep. I have to sleep on my back right now. And the prescription narcotic drug that works best for pain (I’m only taking it at night) has as a side effect, sleeplessness. Great.

I can only sleep once I’m absolutely exhausted and then I end up sleeping during the day which only makes for more sleepless nights.

I’ve been watching The Expanse in the middle of the night. I’ve never made it all the way through before. This time, I’ll try.

Maybe I should try counting sheep or one of those how to fall asleep like a Marine drills.

Here’s some sheep to start with.

Sheep
Photo by
Nazanin Esfandyarpour
on
Scopio

Last knee replacement it was at week two that I started googling and buying special pillows to help with sleep and recovery. This time around it’s at week one. But I already own all the fancy pillows.

I’m hoping this stage of recovery doesn’t last. I remember last time it got better once I could sleep on my side again. Wish me luck and all the zzzz’s.

Photo by
Sonya Peacocke
on
Scopio
fitness · injury · motivation

Putting some fitness in the bank

Sam B2 Comments

Balloon sprint times. Getting faster!
Sam’s fitness increased
A new PR
Group ride with the Herd

So I’m riding longer and getting faster and it all feels great except it’s all going to come to a screaming halt on April 11th when I have my second knee replacement surgery. After that, it’s no more riding.

It’s weird the effect that has on me. My life is very busy and I have to make some hard decisions about my time. Usually I’m good at giving priority to exercise but this makes me feel like I should just throw up my hands and stop bothering. Why exercise now when I won’t be able to ride my bike again in a month’s time? Why keep it up when rehab begins all over again in a month?

I’ve got lots and lots of other things I could be doing.

And yet I know the more fit I am come surgery, the better the recovery will be. I know going into surgery, it’ll be better to be strong. It helped me last time having just ridden the Friends for Life Bike Rally Toronto to Montreal the week before knee replacement.

I’m trying to motivate myself by thinking about it as putting fitness in the bank before surgery. The first month after surgery is just a lot of physio, followed by ice and elevation, rest and then more physio. So I’ve doubled up personal training for the month before surgery. I’m going to try to ride more as well. I’m really hoping for some nice weather so I can even get an outdoor ride or two in. See Please let Sam have some good (even passable) bike riding weather before surgery!

I’ve also put out a call for friends to visit. It’s lonely just hanging at home doing physio all the time and the only time you get to leave the house is for more physio. I’m also going to max out my time in the hot tub etc while I can do that. We’ve even booked a spa day.

The other reason to keep working out is that it helps with all the pre-surgery stress and jitters. Really, this isn’t the month to stop moving!

close up photo of pink piggy bank
Photo by Mikhail Nilov on Pexels.com
fitness · injury · snow · winter

It’s snowing again!

Sam B

Here’s Martha from a few months ago with advice we likely need again, at least those of us in North America, whether you’re in California or Ontario!

How to shovel safely and fitly

A car convered in snow with a heart traced on the window
fitness · injury · Zwift

Regaining speed and trying not to care

Sam B1 Comment

Let’s recap last week’s ups and downs while recovering from knee replacement surgery (12 weeks ago).

I began last week declaring that I was back to training again and not just doing physio. Life could be about more than range of movement and balance. What this means is that I started riding in Zwift again, watching my avatar and the related metrics, not just watching My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend or Never Have I Ever. But then I managed to hurt another muscle. See Sam discovers another weird and painful muscle .

So I spent part of the week back on crutches and back to all the physio. Bah.

But that setback didn’t last long and now I’m riding again in Zwift actually watching the screen, which means that I can see I’m gradually getting faster.

Here’s my time on the Fuego Flats spring three times since surgery:

But just as it’s nice to see I’m getting faster, I’m nowhere near as fast as I was. That’s to be expected but I am trying not to care! I’ve ridden that particular sprint segment 171 times and my fastest time was 41 seconds.

The fastest time ever for a woman is 27 seconds. My fastest time puts me in the 16,479th spot of the 127,073 women who’ve ridden it.

I’m trying to take pleasure in getting faster in my recovery from surgery while not caring too much about not being as fast as I used to be and not being as fast as some of the women out there Zwifting,

Wish me luck in the return to bike training and wish me luck finding comparison useful and motivational in some contexts and ignoring comparisons when they’re neither of those things.

injury · training

PHYSIO IS SO BORING AND IT’S NOVEMBER AND SAM IS READY TO SCREAM

Sam B3 Comments
Scream!
Scream!
Scream!
Scream!

So my patience is running low 12 weeks after knee replacement surgery.

I was doing okay until I did something to my Tibialis Posterior–see Sam discovers another weird and painful muscle–and now have ankle exercises along with all the knee exercises. More physio! Argh.

I’m searching “ways to make physio less boring” and found this.

“1. Link the rehab exercises to something that you love. If you’re in the habit of watching TV in the evening, do your exercises while your favourite shows are on and never allow yourself to watch them unless you are doing your exercises while watching. In my case, I pick some of my favourite albums and only listen to them if I’m doing a workout at the same time.

2. The “brussels sprouts” method. In other words, get them over with as quickly as possible before moving on to something that you love. Don’t think about it, just do it. No dessert until all the sprouts are gone.

3. If you are in the habit of exercising regularly, create pairs of exercises where the second one is an exercise that has been assigned to you by your therapist. For example, if you are doing sets of pushups, follow each set with a gait exercise rather than just resting between sets. This is called the “bi-plex” hybrid method and is my personal favourite.”

I’m already doing 1 and 2, so I think I’ll give 3 a try, work some of the physio into a routine of regular exercises that I’ve been missing.

Any other tips out there? All advice welcome!

fitness · injury · training

Sam discovers another weird and painful muscle

Sam B4 Comments

I feel like this is the year when I’m working my way through the annoying and painful muscles of the leg.

Last time it was the gracilis.

This time I’ve irritated the Tibialis Posterior. According to Wikipedia it’s the key stabilizing muscle of the lower leg.

For a few days it’s been painful putting weight on my left foot and then the cane wasn’t enough to make walking possible. For a couple of days I’ve gone back to using crutches. I was worried at first that I’d done something to my knee. But my knee is fine.

My physiotherapist says it’s the Tibialis Posterior, which certainly hurt when she put pressure on it. So for now I’m back to aquafit and physio exercises, including new exercises that target that muscle. So much for my plan to return to bike training…

She says that the muscle hasn’t been used in a bit and I went from asking nothing of it to asking a lot. Fine!

I’m in “take it easy” except for aquafit and physio mode. Bah. Grumble. But also I’m just relieved it’s nothing to do with my knee.

Crutches

This happened to coincide with our first serious snow so I’m actually glad to have the crutches for navigating my way through that. The bright side is that they’re much more stable than just the cane.

Sam’s street with snow

Here’s a video about how to strengthen the Tibialis Posterior:

Is this a muscle you’re familiar with?

cycling · fitness · injury · Zwift

Welcome back to Strava Sam!

Sam B

My last ride on Strava was my birthday ride. I blogged about it here.

Sam’s birthday ride on Strava, 58 km

And today, I’m back!

It was not 58 km, and not multiple hours.

It was on Zwift, not outside. But I did it! I rode my bike on the trainer.

Strava

Twenty minutes and 4.6 km might not seem like much but it’s a start. I wore my cycling shoes and I even lowered the seat to something more reasonable.

My goals from here on in? Keep lowering the seat until it’s back where it was, add time and distance, and start adding back some resistance….

See you out there!

cycling · fitness · injury

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sam B

I’ve got lots to be thankful this year for but here’s what’s most on my mind right now, I mean aside from loved ones, our dogs, and beautiful fall colours…

I just posted this to Twitter but I want to share it here too…

“I did it! 15 minutes on a regular spin bike, not a recumbent, forwards not backwards. I grinned the entire time. Tomorrow will be 6 weeks since total knee replacement surgery. I’m giving thanks.”

I’m now home icing and elevating and excited about getting back into cycling shape. Next time I’ll bring music. I can do 15 minutes without tunes but longer will take my Zwift playlists.

My spin bike
Grinning!
Spin bike
Chase and Cheddar
Fall colours
dogs · fitness · injury · running · shoes

New shoes and poor Cheddar

Sam B2 Comments

I’m trying on the running shoes I ordered and deciding which ones to keep.

The only problem is that each time I put shoes on Cheddar thinks he’s getting a walk.

I might need to wait until Susan’s adult kid Emily comes to get him for a walk before I try on any more!

Such a sad dog face.

Cheddar and a Hoka Kawana
Menopause, depleted estrogen and increased rolling of ankles
aging · health · injury · menopause

Menopause, depleted estrogen and increased rolling of ankles

Sam B

By Martha

A few weeks ago, I ran into my house to retrieve a beach rug and I ended up rolling my ankle severely. While it wasn’t bad enough to warrant a visit to urgent care, I wasn’t my swiftest either.

Having dealt with the sprained ankles of others over the years, I knew I had to rest, ice, apply compression and elevate my injured ankle.

I was curious though: over the last few years, I have rolled my ankle just slightly enough to pause but never enough to feel pain.

As someone with ovaries and estrogen, it occurred to me maybe this might be connected to menopause. Our bodies change in response to depleted estrogen (cessation of periods being one symptom and hot flashes being another.

Turns out our ligaments are affected by menopausal hormone changes including increases in swollen tissues in our feet. Good foot care is important at this stage of life as recovery from sports related injuries such as sprains in feet and knees can take time.

I was lucky. I bought new shoes, acquired some fancy compression socks and regularly applied a topical pain reliever. I’m back to walking lengthy distances without post walk aches. However I’ll keep practicing my ankle exercises (flexing, pumping, and writing the alphabet with my toes) while also stretching my upper leg muscles which compensated for my injury.

So if you are a pre, post or experiencing menopause person, maintain your weight bearing exercises for strong bones and remember to pay attention to your ligaments and soft tissues in your feet.

MarthaFitAt55 likes learning new things about how our bodies work.