Too soon, old...too late, smart.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

The morning was pretty much a repeat of Saturday with the pain causing me to wince as I hopped to the bathroom. I managed to get dressed sitting on the floor…much easier than trying to stand on a bad foot and pull on your pants. I used the crutches to go out and get the paper and then returned to icing and more foot elevating.

I hate being injured. I’d like to say that this is the worst its ever been for me and likely it is the age…but really not. I’ve struggled with one training related ailment or another since I began working out in earnest back in the early 70’s. Some bodies are built to take the punishment…and some aren’t. Mine isn’t, apparently. Having said that, I’ve never been one to do things in moderation or listen to the good advice I gave those I’ve trained about proper methods of increasing work loads and what to do when you feel your body telling you to take it easy. “Do as I say…” mentality has always ruled my life…and caused me the down time I’m currently experiencing. I’d like to say ‘live and learn’ but I never seem to and I don’t suppose it’ll be any different this time. I am what I am…gotta love me.

When you don’t have the cable, there’s little to watch on a Sunday morning. I’d read for a couple of hours, iced my foot plenty, and basically run out of things to do. I figured I could watch the Browns at 1 p.m., but what was I going to do until then? I could see from the windows as I’d limped by that the leaves were falling so fast that you couldn’t tell Id even raked the day before. Hmm….

I waited until Holly took Savannah out to buy a coat before putting my plan into action. My foot was hurting some…but it was getting better and those leaves…well…they just kept falling! That…and I had a large limb that had fallen from one of those lousy silver maples that grew along the back of our property line. It needed to be cut up…and it needed it like…now.

I slipped into the garage…Ash was upstairs with Ollie and I didn’t want her to catch me…and grabbed my tarp and rake. I was walking about 70 percent normally…if there is such a thing…which encouraged me. I spent the next 2 hours raking leaves and dragging them to the front and when I ran out…did my neighbors front yard, too. Then I grabbed my giant, tree cutting hand saw and headed for the downed limb. I wrestled with that and cut it into fire wood for about 30 minutes until, with one deft stroke, had it spring from the wood and over the top of my left hand. Now…I’ve got a scar from doing this exact move many years ago. At that time it had cut me on the down stroke…and then I’d pulled it back…over my hand, that is. Well…you’d think I’d learned from that incident, but I hadn’t…and pulled it back…again. It was a nice, rusty saw, but thankfully I was bleeding rather nicely, which cleaned the wound of any wood or rust residue…I figured. If not…I’d be going to see Nilesh anyway and could get more bang out of my health care dollar buck now.

Holly came home and found me raking the leaves, but figured…why bother? I covered the hand and grabbed a paper towel before heading to the neighbors to find out how their overnight camping trip had gone while the bleeding stopped. Then I could sneak back in with all the family there for dinner and get lost in the commotion. It didn’t work. Holly saw the blood oozing since I had insisted on helping put the flat dumplings into the broth on the stove with her. “You’re standing when you shouldn’t be…and you’re bleeding in our food. What did you do now?”

“I was cutting that branch back there when the saw jumped of the wood,” I explained. She just gave me one of those ‘why must you be so eternally stupid’ looks and told me to wash my hands and sit down.

I limited my intake of flat dumplings to one helping since its loaded with calories and I could see I wasn’t going to be working out anytime soon. I skipped dessert…for awhile…having a bowl of ice cream after everyone left. Tomorrow…I needed to come up with a plan. I’ve got to figure out a way to get through the winter without injury and with the holiday season upon us…need to keep activity up because I know the calories are on their way…and they always find me.

Leaf raking duration: Two hours.
Training Heart Rate: 70 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 700.