Kintsugi

The art of repair

This isn’t me being strong.

This is me getting strong.

- Joe Cloidt

Reflecting

I’m back.  Back to running, back to lifting, and as soon as I can get off of blood thinners back to sparring (with a plan to transition to lethwei).  I’m impatient.  Everything is returning slower than I want.  My heart rate after pulmonary embolisms is high and I get tired easily.  But I’ve ended my extreme isolation and months of sedentary recovery.  Time to move.  Being as durable as possible takes a lot of humility because I lost so much strength and speed over the past six months.  It is still better to be among healthy people again.  I just have to accept that I’m weaker and slower than a bunch of people that don’t look like they should be stronger and faster than I am.  For now.  I always like to press on at least one metric – either increasing weight or the number of reps.  Neither is that practical at the moment, but at least I can be consistent about showing up.  I’m trying to put all of the resources that I have to their maximal use –  that’s filling up each hour in the gym or on the trails with my best effort for the whole sixty minutes, breathing as deeply as my damaged lungs will allow, and reacting as fully as possible to my coaches’ cues. 

Training

This week was my last in this year’s competitive CrossFit season; the best workout was the Quarterfinals WOD 3 for time:

3 Rounds

• 10 handstand push-ups

• 20 toes to bar

2 Rounds

• 10 Strict handstand push-ups

• 5 rope climbs

1 Round

• 10 wall facing handstand push-ups

• 20 ring muscle ups

Big upcoming running weekend with trail runs scheduled for Friday night, Saturday and Sunday mornings.  Friday’s:

Fueling

Pat LaFrieda burger with egg, bacon, onion, peppers, and mushrooms:

One casualty:

Supplementing

I’ve been able to move off of blood thinner injections every twelve hours to oral but hoping to be done with that before too long too.  If this week’s ultrasound is clear of clots, that will be a big step in the right direction.  Sadly I missed a season of ice climbing due to too much trauma risk on blood thinners but hope to be back to jiu jitsu before too long.   

Measuring

I love all the data that my new smart scale provides.  Definitely worth it.  If you’re trying to lose 50 lbs., then measuring weight is okay, but if you’re trying to lose 5 lbs., then it makes far more sense to focus on metrics such as PBF. 

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Recovering

I am getting Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) Injections at the Hospital for Special Surgery.  The first round of injections made an instantaneous improvement to joint pain that allowed me to attack my running and lifting with renewed vigor.  TBD how long it lasts but a positive so far. 

Closing

Unfortunately I had to cancel big mountain plans for this year.  My sea level pulse oximeter readings are where mine normally are at over 14,000’ so it would be irresponsible of me to go high with teammates counting on me.  But I’m adjusting and pivoting to lower elevation projects – next running an ultra in the Azores along with some surfing lessons followed by another ultra in Mallorca along with some DWS.  Even after a big setback, I prefer to be training for specific events over just vaguely working out.