Hmmmmmm

Body - well it didn't seem unreasonable this morning to try my luck at a short run. I have had no noticable pain in my knee for several weeks. With the addition of my orthotics I was under the assumption that a small jog shouldn't be any major stretch.
I was once again wrong by a large margin.
By the end of the kilometer I could feel distinct pain in my knee which did not lesten as I slowly walked home trying to correct my stride to cause the least amount of torsion as possible.
I rested it for a couple of hours and have been greeted with pain equal to when I first did my injury when climbing and descending stairs.
This is not good news at all. This would imply that I have undone a month and a half of recupperation in a kilometer jog.
What worries me more is the niggling worry that I may not be recovering at all and that this injury could be much worse than what the physio believes it to be.
I am not looking forward to surgery.....
Anti inflammatory cream and ice packs may be on the menu for the next week....

-Another step on my journey

Back Off track

Body- Well late yesterday afternoon I started to feel a bit quesy in the stomach.
It got progressively worse throughout the day, and seeing as the only meals I had eaten were my morning shake(ingredients below), a banana and some baked beans I can't quite figure out where this came from.
By the time I had gotten home from work it seemed I had a full blown fever and a splitting migrane to boot, with your joint and back pain thrown in for good measure...
Suffice to say an sleep-free night later and i still feel like absolute crap, but the stomach pains have seemed to subside. Though I don't trust myself with anything but water for the moment...
Merry Christmas eh??

Morning Shake:
2 x Eggs (Raw)
Cup of Rolled Oats
LSA mix 1 x TblSpoon
Coconut Milk approx. 100mL
Dash of Cinnamon
Dash of Cocoa
Raw Honey x 1 Teaspoon
Water to add volume
And Shake!!

This usually keeps me going until I have finished my morning Cardio/Weights session which I usually follow up with a Banana.

Mind- It turns out that trying to deal with a Fever and crazy stomach cramps can be a fair amount easier if you concentrate on your breath. I found it pretty useful to use some of the meditation techniques to calm myself down and eventually get my 1-3 hours of much needed rest.
Who says that being Mindful of the Breath is a waste of time eh??

Back to it

Body - Enough about what I've done and now to get into the nitty gritty.
My current Workout consists of a two part weight program mixed up with off days of cardio 5 days a week.
Session A:
Weighted Pullup 3 x 5 reps
Barbell Curl 3 x 5 reps
Planche Progression 3 x up to 60 seconds (Back to Frog stand)
Pistol (Single Leg Squat) 3 x 10 reps

Session B:
Weighted Pushup (Fingers) 3 x 12 reps
Weighted Dips 3 x 5 reps
Planche Progression 3 x up to 60 seconds (Back to Frog stand)
Pistol (Single Leg Squat) 3 x 10 reps

Cardio:
Cycling 20 minutes (No running yet...)
Pistol (Single Leg Squat) 3 x 10 reps
Hanging Leg Raise 3 x 10 reps
Pulse up + frog situp 3 x 15+30 reps
Handstand Pushup 3 x 10 reps


I am still playing around with my cardio days as I have yet to get to comfortable with my dodgy knees...

Hope to use my kettlebell more this Summer and to reincorporate more Ring work back into my day.

Feeling Flat

Body - It was two months ago now when I was in the peak of my then training regime.
I had been using my Vibram Five Fingers for several months and I was feeling stronger then ever on my 6km runs in the morning.
I had some minor knee pain at the end of some of the runs but didn't really attribute it to anything as this would go away later in the day.
After having some lax sessions running and at the gym I decided to start again with much gusto. This was a mistake as I was already tired from the week and didn't stretch before the run. It was the last 500m when I felt a very sharp pain in my left knee. I stopped. Tested the leg. I could still move, so naturaly I could still run, I hypothesized.
This was one of my biggest mistakes I have made in recent history as it turns out I had done some ITB damage coupled with close to tearing my ACL.
Although I can't say this was a wake up call, as I proceeded to pass it off as nothing major and proceeded to hobble on it for another three weeks!
When I did finally see a Physiotherapist they were non-plussed with my stupidity.
With over a month of stringent recovery exercises adhered to and some corrective inserts on order (killing my bank balance) I am now within reach of starting to run again. My goal being the new year and no time before, regardless of what that little Spartan voice in my head is telling me. (No I won't be pushing through the pain again thank you)
For now it will be mixing up swim sessions with running later in the new year....gaaaaaaaah!

-Another step on my journey

A History Pt 2

Mind- It was around mid way through 2008 that I started to consider my inner health as just as integral as my outer fitness. In this I mean what I saw as my direction in life and other existential questions that all people are fraut with from time to time.
I found around this time an immensely helpful site called The Art of Manliness. It was within this site that I started my first steps into questioning where my life was haeding and if t was the course that I wished to set for myself. The post entailing 30 Days to be a better Man was where I made the first shaky steps towards defining myself.
However this much like my physical progress fell to the wayside until I changed locations and had time to reflect on how I got to where I was.
It was around this time that I started to look towards Buddhist Psychology; namely Jack Kornfield and his vipassana style of meditation and psychology theory.
I had then spent some time looking inward and trying to cultivate a style of living that satisfied my need to better connect with others.
This met with nothing but praise from others regarding my changed attitude; also feeling like the right thing to do. However like all things in life, if not given the proper attention it can quickly fall to disrepair. As was and is now the case.
This is why I will be concentrating on a loose rendition of Benjamin Franklin's 13 Virtues combined with adherance to the major precepts of Buddhism again.

-Another step on my journey

A History

I find it helps to find out where one is going by outlining where one has been.

In this I will outline a breif recent history on my inner outer health:

Body - I came back from a several year stop over in England late 2007. I found that a combination of an unhealthy lifestyle and lack of motivation to improve myself had left my body in a sore state of affairs.

I had gained over 10kg since when I left. This left me topping the scales on closer to 100kg than 90kg. With starting a new job I started what I thought would be the first steps to a new me by starting to go back to the gym. I frequented sites like BodyBuilders.com and started to create ,y own work out regimes.

I also began to look at functional fitness and it was around this time that I began to earnestly follow the teachings of Pavel and posts at Dragondoor.

I did not couple this with healthier eating though, and found that over a year later of what I thought was quite diligent work, I had seen my weight plateau at 87kg and found no way to lose more.

Around this time I changed living arrangements and hit a wall both emotionally and physically where I knew the only way to push through was to sacrifice what I thought I could not do without. This meant goodbye to fast food and sugary snacks, and instead eating a regimented diet.

IT was around this time (early 2009) that I began to take things a step further and began my Spartan Regime. Although the book had many things which I found hard to take (even with a large grain of salt) it did inspire me to truly reasearch what I put into my body, and started me eating only natural food and stopped my intake of Whey Protein.

Six months of truly diligent work and natural eating later, I had stabilised at a healthy 80-75kg.

I felt more energised and healthy then I had ever felt before and knew that this was a way to live my life.

I did however get cocky and sloppy which will bring me to my predicament over the last several months...

-Another step on my journey

A Beginning

I have been toying with the idea of a way to keep track of my outward and inward journey for some time.
Seeing inspirational Blogs and following them from time to time has always given me a push when I needed it. Sometimes in the right direction and sometimes not.
Though not every one read has spoken to me on the same level, I feel there is always one common thread shared between all that I have read.
That is one of personal growth, accountability, and community.
These three factors are important in any long term goal and it is with starting my own space that I hope to cultivate all three.
This will be an accounting of my journey to better myself in mind and body and will hopefully inform and inspire others of like mindedness.

-Another step on my journey