Early A.M. Workout

As I type this, my eyelids are starting to close on their own. It's 0630, and I'm DONE with my workout. This is insane. It's been reaching 100 deg here the last couple of days, and muggy. I started taking a spin class and decided to try the morning class. Yesterday I got there at 0520 thinking it started at 0530. No, even crazier, it starts at 0515. So yesterday I just did leg weights and abs on my own. Due to the heat, humidity and sitting in an office all day, I couldn't bring myself to go to the afternoon class. No motivation after sitting on my butt all day.

Being as I'm not an afternoon workout person, I hauled my butt out of bed at 0445 and made it to the gym in time for the class. I yawned all through warm-up. My body protested the rest of the workout, and as I left I couldn't wait to get to my unfinished cup of java that sat in my car. This led me to ponder something on the way home that I've never been able to explain.

Back when I was a hardcore swimmer (the good ol' days) we used to do "two-a-days". There were two ladies in the pool every morning that would kick laps on a kickboard real slow and talk the whole time. It was their social hour. In the showers afterwards, the ladies would say to my teammate and I "Don't you just feel so refreshed after a morning swim?" My face would still be beet red from the workout (takes several hours for that color to go away) and I would just smile at them. I asked my teammate if she felt "refreshed". Negative. Hmm.

Over the years, at pools and gyms around the country, I've heard the same thing. People feel so refreshed after their butt-crack-of-dawn-workout. What have I been doing wrong all these years? Do I misunderstand the meaning of the word "refreshed"? I think I can safely call myself a morning person. I'm certainly not a night person, I like to be in bed by 2100 (9pm) and I can almost never sleep past 0630. Are all these people just not pushing themselves to the point of exhaustion, like I am? I find that hard to believe too. But what would be the point in doing any workout at all if you're not going to go hard? So why on earth are these people so energized after working out? What pills are they taking?

When I think of the word "refreshed" I think of spas, massages, tropical beaches, having a good night sleep and waking up without an alarm clock, jumping in the ocean on a hot summer day. Yeah, surfing is refreshing. A mojito in the summer. When I think of "refreshed", I can honestly say slogging through the pool with my eyes half open doesn't really jump out at me. Neither does sitting in a dark room with Britney Spears booming in my ears, on a narrow bicycle seat, sweating all over the handlebars, butt and legs screaming, and the instructor calling out "push!! push it!!!". I mean really. For the past 13 years (yep, that old) I don't think I've ever once associated that word with a morning workout. Or even an afternoon one for that matter. What's going on here?

Busy week

Ok, some of you may have heard I was in the hospital with a blood clot in my arm, if not- there ya go.

The clot is out, I'm on ridiculous blood thinners and for now have to give myself shots in the stomach twice a day (kinda like a diabetic, but not) until they get the levels of my other blood thinner where they want it. They took a bunch of blood tests to make sure nothing was wrong with my clotting system, but for now I've been diagnosed with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. Here's a good website on it: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/thoracic-outlet-syndrome/DS00800

Basically, due to my activity levels, carrying heavy stuff, and just having this anatomical predisposition to this, my vein has been squeezed to the point it started to clot. Apparently it's been going on for awhile, because my body has developed new veins that have been re-routing blood around the clot. Pretty amazing if you ask me. Like making a detour when the bridge has gone out.

So I went through two procedures to clear the clot. The first was an overnight thrombolysis. They put a catheter type thing in my arm so they can shoot a clot buster at it all night (in pressurized pulses which kept me awake all night long). In the morning they checked to see if the clot was gone, and it wasn't, so they stuck a balloon in my arm and inflated it (angioplasty). I guess that did the trick. So now I'm on blood thinners until further notice, which has put me on light duty. Can't have me hitting my head or cutting myself.

Well, gotta head out to find the crew. Rumor has it they're heading to the beach... didn't know we had one of those, but I'm up for some sunshine.

I survived!

I'm now safely in sunny San Diego, trying to recover from a week of death marches and MRE's (10 yr old packaged clam chowder was probably not a wise choice). The bottom of my feet are bruised, there's bruises and welts on my hips from my pack, I'm covered in poison oak, and I've got some strange swollen arm that the doctor could only diagnose as "bizarre". Lovely. So I'm on a hefty dose of prednisone that has pretty much converted me to an invalid.... a very hungry invalid. I haven't stopped eating since I got here, had night sweats last night and no amount of coffee can lift the fog that's floating behind my eyes.

On the bright side that only means that I'm not running this weekend. Or walking. So laziness is welcome for a change. I'm getting my teeth tightened on Monday and my hair cut. I may also hit up the army surplus store to find something to make my pack a little more work-able. Then it's back up to Redding for one more week in the classroom. After that we're heading out to Colorado for a Staff Ride (see earlier post on Staff Ride). From there we'll see where the season takes us.

That's about all for now, I'm still alive and kicking... from the west coast, signing out.

The Spike

Tomorrow morning starts our "Spike". Otherwise known as spike out, line spike, coyote. Basically we go out to the middle of nowhere, work for an unknown (usually more than 24hrs) amount of time, sleep where we stop for a few hours and get up and continue on. Showers will consist of baby wipes applied in only critical places, food will be military grade MRE's (meals ready to eat), and sleep will be few and far between. Hotshot crews spike out on the line quite often, so our crew is doing a test one, to get every one ready.

We're going to be getting scenarios such as injured people on the line, pretend fires, and having to call in helicopters to drop off our food and water to us. We're coming home Thursday afternoon or night, I guess depending on how well we do all week. I don't forsee much sleep between tomorrow morning and Thursday night. Part of the test is to see how well we do without sleep and food and under stress such as time constraints.

So I just took my last shower until next Thursday (six days from now) ate my last solid meal (a cheeseburger and ice cream) and am working on getting all my stuff together such as 1 extra pair of underwear (yes, I'll make only 2 pairs of underwear work for 5 days out in the woods working my butt off), and maybe an extra pair of socks. Socks aren't as crucial as underwear. Motrin, Zantac, and an extra hair tie. And spam. Did you know they now sell spam in singles? A single serving of spam in a foil pouch, so that you don't have to carry the whole big can. Awesome.

Well, I gotta go finish packing so I'll check in on Thursday or Friday.

Chocolate Bon Bons!!!

I'm a big fan. Trader Joes had a grand opening up here yesterday. This morning I discovered it had opened and nearly went ballistic. Of course I had to buy chocolate bon bons. I've been restlessly roaming the halls of the barracks in search of food I crave, only to settle for a baked potato with cottage cheese on top.... then ran out of cottage cheese....then ran out of potatoes.

Last night was hard to sleep since every position I could get myself in to pushed on bruises I acquired yesterday in Low Angle Rescue training. The first, and worst of them came from going up and down a steep slope attached to a stokes stretcher and 3 other people. I have bruises up and down the outside of my leg and knee from slipping on the rocks (it was raining) and banging into the stokes. Not to mention the pain in my left flank from being strapped tightly into a harness made of tubular webbing. And to top it all off, a rock came loose above me while I was perched mid-slope waiting to be pulled up. Trying to avoid it would've wrecked havoc on the two rescuers and one victim (in stokes stretcher) I was tethered to. I selflessly took the rock to the inside edge of my knee for the good of America. I hope everyone's happy.

It's been raining up here for 24hrs now with no end in sight. Not southern California rain. Northern California rain. Yes, there's a difference. The wind blowing the trees and bushes around makes it look like Hurricane Katrina. I'm bummed that I'm unable (more like unwilling) to grill my burgers I bought today at Trader Joes.

One of the rookie jumpers just came into my room requesting aloe for a friction burn on his butt. I offered him a chocolate bon bon and sarcastically asked if it was from doing too many sit-ups (did I tell you guys about that?). He confirmed it was. Can you believe I'm not the only person who gets severe flesh wounds in unmentionable places due to the simple act of sit-ups?! I'm psyched! So he ate a bon bon and used some of my neosporin, informing me that it's because we have no fat on our butts to protect from injury, and that me finishing off the box of bon bons would be a step in the right direction of injury prevention.