My ribs are still really, really, really sore. I think I was especially excited yesterday that I was feeling good, and over-exerted myself in my enthusiasm. I'm really uncomfortable sitting. I'm uncomfortable standing. I'm really uncomfortable lying down. The problem with lying down is that I need to lift my right arm to stretch my ribcage so that my ribs are comfortable. The stretching isn't the problem so much as the injury I have to my shoulder, making lifting my arm over my shoulder for a long period of time also quite painful.

Sigh.

I went to both Marina and my general practioner yesterday. My main complaints were of:

• achy joints

  You can't tell me my joins are achy because I'm old or because I exercise, because I'm not going to believe you. The onset of said achiness was quite sudden, about a month ago, and the sudden onset of anything is a symptom of something, be it illness or trauma)

• pain after eating

  Anything. After eating anything. Even after drinking water, my stomach hurt. My lower stomach always hurts about 20+ minutes after eating. It's to the point where I don't want to eat, and find myself going longer and longer between meals because meals hurt.

• general malaise, fatigue

  Sure I'm getting old, does that mean I should be tired all the time?

• inability to recover after exercise

  Sure, I'd have plyos on Monday and Wednesday, track on Tuesday, practice on Sunday and Thursday, but sheesh, I should be able to recover somewhat.

Unfortunately, I've had a few other experiences that I'll not relate at this moment, that have made me suspect the root cause of all these problems. I have two tests to take to confirm the self diagnosis, so we'll see if I'm correct.

Here's hoping I am, as I'd really like to be healthy again.

As of this evening, I'm joining the ranks of I Got Jacked Up and Broken Bella Beagle. I was smooshed in a collision with Ben, and, well, hurt all over.

At practice today, as I was cutting back into the stack, and moving backward with the stack, I turned to the sideline where Melody had the disc, and saw no one was cutting for her (we were all clearing to the stack). Being in the front of the stack means I shouldn't cut, but, well, the count was at 4 at least, and someone needed to get there. I had Steffi on me (freaking fast Steffi), so I had to cut hard.

Cut hard I did to the sideline. Melody saw me and put up the disc. A little high, but still catchable. Hard hard hard to the disc.

In a good heads-up, Ben saw the disc go up and moved off his man to the disc. I was still determined to get that disc, so I continued to go to hard hard hard.

We collided.

As I was reaching up for the disc, our shoulders hit. As I'm much smaller than Ben (125# to about 190#), I bounced off him. My center of gravity is lower than my waist, so I pivoted around that point on impact. My feet swept under Ben's feet, taking him out, too.

After I was hit, I started screaming, and closed my eyes. WHAM! I hit the ground, knees, hips, right wrist, head. Down came Ben on top, smooshing me, knees, hips, chest, head. Total smoosh.

I lay there, unable to breath, unable to move, eyes closed, tears spilling from my eyes. I sensed people surrounding me, then heard Rick say, "Take a deep breath." I stopped panting and tried to take a deep breath. No good.

I was asked what hurt. What didn't hurt? At that moment, I couldn't figure out how to answer what hurt, because my head, my ribs, my shoulder, my wrist, my hips and my knees hurt. I answered my knee.

Someone (Lisa?) placed a hand on my right side, and I screamed (moderately, but as much as I could manage), and tried to get the hand off me. I couldn't stand up, but needed to try.

Somehow, I stood up and looked at my left knee. It had a bulge about the size of a walnut. And it hurt. I tried to walk on it, but it was stiff. Whitney offered a shoulder to help me walk, but I asked him to carry me to the bags. He did. When we arrived, Keith handed me a bag of ice. He had seen me go down and took off to the 7-11 for ice. Keith is so great.

After sitting for a moment, I realized my right side hurt, and I moved the ice pack Brynne had given me from my knee to my ribs.

So, at the end of the day, I was smooshed by Ben. I think my ribs are only bruised and not broken, as I can take a deep breath without sharp pain. But I'm unable to stand up without severe help with my left arm.

Time to become ambidextrous!

Wow. The last ASA MVP class in August for us was by far the worst one for me. Aside from the lack of fitness level (haven't exercised since last Thursday, and even that was a short practice), I had chest pains (sharp, just to the left of my sternum) and I fell onto one of the jump boxes, banging my left shin pretty hard. Oh joy.

Before class, Gino recommended some rotator cuff / shoulder work for me. With 3# weights, one in each hand, do set of

• shoulder raises to the side
• shoulder raises directly in front
• raises directly backward
• raises backward with weights touching at the highest point I can reach behind me
• front raises with twisting arms (at the highest point, my hands should be positions as if I were pouring from a glass)
• lying on my side, bent arm raises

I need to start doing these consistantly. I'm considering running over to ASA on a daily basis and working out. They're close. The gym is well stocked (if a little old). And, it'll be a good 20 minute run each way (albeit along and over some crappy roads (El Camino and 85)).

And so we begin.

Ladders

9 station circuit

leg press
leg extension
hamstring curl
sumo squats
squat jumps
weighted lunge walks (down and back)
box jump (2 feet, R, L)
transitional box jumping
low box tranisitions

Phew!

We erroneously thought we were done at this point, except for abs. Nope.

Medicine ball work.

Abs

We thought were were done again. Nope.

Forearm work.

Karen's memorial was today. It was hard. Mom asked me to take photographs of the people speaking. That was hard. There were easily 200 people at the memorial. The auditorium seats 250, which some empty seats, but some people standing in the back.

Mom and I are going to build a site dedicated to her, and perhaps to display some of her works.

Broken Bella Beagle went in for surgery today. She's getting TPLO (tibial plateau leveling osteotomy) on her back left leg.

A description of the surgery's function:

All of the other cruciate repair techniques replace the cruciate ligament
in some manner.  TPLO instead changes the bone structure in the dog's 
knee joint so that the bone angles are different and the cruciate ligament
isn't as critical.

Rotating the tibial plateau until it is level changes the biomechanics 
of the knee joint. After leveling the tibial plateau, the patellar tendon
and the caudal cruciate ligament take over the function of the ruptured
cranial cruciate ligament. The cranial cruciate is then no longer needed.

Bella comes back tomorrow.

Womens pole vaulting debuted in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney (an American, Stacy Dragila, won the gold). As more people are involved in extreme sports, pole vaulting has gained in popularity.

When I was in 9th grade, attending Benjamin Franklin Junior High School (renamed to Benjamin Franklin Middle School in 1986, go fig), I was on the track team for a while. "A while" because I was kicked off the team. "Why?" you may ask. Because I was in the drama club.

Kid you not.

I had made arrangement with the drama teacher to be absent from the play practices so that I could run track. Track was from 2:30 until about 4, drama was from 3 until 5. I could run track, then hightail it over to drama for any practice I needed.

The track coach, a one Miss Ann Davies, didn't think this was reasonable, and told me that, since I had a part in the spring play, I wasn't allowed to run in track. I couldn't do both. Earlier, I had actually asked said Miss Davies if I could learn to pole vault. Pole vaulting was taught at Ben Franklin, usually in the 7th grade, but new vaulters were taught each.

New male vaulters, that is.

Ann Davies informed me that she was not going to allow me to learn pole vaulting because it was a waste of time. There was no need to learn pole vaulting because girls didn't pole vault.

Ah, we see where this is going, eh?

I believe Ann Davies thought I was a nuisance, and used any available excuse to remove me from the team. I may have been a nuisance, asking for an opportunity to fly with the boys, but that choice allow me to pole vault or not wasn't hers to make.

And now we see women pole vaulters in the Olympics. I'm not one of them. To which I have but four words to say:

"Fuck you, Ann Davies."

If I meet you on the street, I will spit on you.