Post Surgery Update

My shoulder is feeling well and I see increased range of motion with decreased pain when performing my physical therapy. During my post op meeting at the surgeons office it was reiterated to me that this injury is worse, originally a partial supraspinatus sheath tear to a complete tear, than my right shoulder but that I should recover.  Here is my therapy routine:

Pretty hardcore!  This is all I am allowed to do for the next 6 weeks and no running. I have set up the cross bike on the indoor trainer and have been walking a few miles here and there to keep some semblance of fitness going on . I have also tried to think about what I am putting the the pie hole since my activities are limited and I would like to continue the weight loss. 

I stopped taking all pain meds (narcotic and non-narcotic) and was having good results with the cooling sleeve in controlling my pain.  Until I went for evaluation by the work comp office.  It was pointed out to me that my liver will not implode and that the anti-inflammatories will help speed my recovery when used with ice and compression. Back on the drug train.. The therapist also evaluated my 'exercises' and provided some helpful feedback, 'the exercises are passive and meant to keep range of motion (rom), go slow and easy.'

My left knee also appears to be getting better with the running cessation and not using the Hokka shoes.  I have reverted to walking in a pair of La Sportiva Vertical K trail shoes.  These things are like little slippers of love and the cessation of pain reinforces my theory that the Hokka's were the root cause of my knee pain. I am not saying that Hokka's are bad shoes, they just don't work for me.  I had this issue when I tried a pair of Saucony shoes years ago and have never tried another pair of them again either.  People are different and what works for me may not work for you and vice versa..

On unrelated note 4 firefighters in Houston, Tx died in a 5 alarm fire today.  The one true fear I have is that this happens where I work while I am on duty and I am the incident commander.   

Here is the indoor pain cave..

Post Surgery

Recovering after arthroscopic surgery to my left shoulder by Dr. Chris Jones of Colorado Springs Orthopoedic Group performed the procedure, adding another surgery to my punch card there.  I was a bit apprehensive but the staff at Surgical Center at Premier were awesome and made me very comfortable. 

Just before the procedure we met with Jack who delivered a Thermotek Nanotherm. This little gem circulates a mixture of water and alcohol through a shoulder sleeve. You can specify temperatures, compression and change the parameters for each. This way you are not dealing with coolers and ice one armed.

Will see what they say tomorrow after my post-op appointment. It has only been a few days and  I am getting stir crazy. Tried to walk the dogs yesterday but the minor jarring was irritating to my shoulder. Today I was able to walk up and down the stairs for about an hour and walk around the neighborhood without any problems. Also controlling pain with the cooling system and ibuprofen. 

Back at It..

Well after some time away from the Blogger platform, was over at wordpress for a bit, I am back over here. No big reason, just streamlining. What is going on currently? What has changed or what am I using?  Here is a brief rundown..

Health:

I injured my shoulder (partial sheath tear to left supraspinatus tendon) just over 4 months ago at work and will have surgery on Tuesday. Since I was on probation I had to 'suck it up' until my probation was complete or else I would have my probationary period extended. The extension would make me ineligible to for the next promotional exam so I had to be careful with what I did.  I followed the physical therapy routine but this would cause me to have some serious pain at times and really affect my sleep so I have been taking it easy with physical  exercise.

This injury definately put a damper on my plans for getting in some skiing nad climbing in.  Just before the injury I purchased a pair of CAMP X-All Mountain Ice Tools for some leashless climbing. I just received them after my diagnosis and did some free soloing at Silver Cascade and suffered for it, ending the ice season.  I really like them and will do some work on the picks for next year, review and pick changes coming. 

Limiting my activity, increasing age and the desire to eat and drink caused my carcass to balloon to 208lb this year, my heaviest ever! Not something I am very proud of.  It is harder to get the weight to come off the older I get. I have adjusted my diet better and increased my activity level and the weight has come down to 196 right now. Would like to get rid of another 20 and will be tough with my upcoming surgery. Just going to be careful of what goes in the old pie hole.. 

Since I was limiting my upper body activities I increased my running and cycling.  I had purchased some Hooka One One Mafate trail shoes and was really enjoying them.  After putting about 250 miles on them I developed some pretty nasty medial pain in my left knee after a few runs. After several weeks of riding the bike I did the Jack Quinn's 5k on Tuesday nice and easy but woke the next day with a return of the pain. Going to new pair of shoes after a couple weeks of totally off and see what happens.

Equipment:

Aside from the ice tools I replaced my Yeti 575 (original model) with a Niner R.I.P 9 that was built-up by University Cycles in Boulder. I was able to get a pretty good deal since it was last years model and the new ones were coming out. Would love to have gone with the carbon model but the extra $$ is crazy and I need to take the weight off my carcass..

I looked at different models and some 650b bikes but decided on this one and 29 wheel size. Not the lightest bike in the bunch but it offered everything I wanted and I love the way it rides.  More details coming but a friend summed up the 29er wheel with this "Fat skis vs skinny skis" and I didn't feel the 650b offered that much more than a 26" wheel, especially for my (note the emphasis) riding style.  

The KTM 950 Adventure also found a new home. After only puttin a few thousand miles on it last year, including the trip of a lifetime down Baja with a good friend, I realized that it was just an expensive toy sitting the in the garage. My wife wouldn't ride on it and if I was spending a nice day riding the motorcycle I found myself wishing that I was out climbing, hiking or cycling on a day like this.  I find myself becoming more focused in my hobbies..

Upcoming:

I am now collecting gear to take up aid climbing.
Reverb seatpost.
Garmin 510
Food
Beer 
Other random shit..

I did get a new RoadId and was shocked when they refused to put "Make life your Bitch" as a quote on it.. Oh well I can be offensive.

Crossfit Workout 15.Dec.11

This has been a lax week for me and crossfit. I attempted a 13er and just did not feel it and felt like ass on Monday so I rested a bit. Not sure what happened on the hike. Did not sleep much at work the past week and hit crossfit pretty good so maybe my body was just tired? Ok, enough of that..

Pain of the day.

Warm up:
row 500m then,
10 Burpees
10 Walking lunge steps
10 Overhead squats with bar (I still have issues with these and can only go about 10kilos over bar weight when in workout).
10 DB thrusters with jump (used 25lb)
10 Medicine ball cleans (20lb ball for me)
10 Back extensions

Plyo:
Bodyweight squat jumps 2x8

Skills:
Squats 4x6 (50,70,80,85 kg) My progression, still finding optimal weights.

WOD: "Diane"
Complete 21 - 15 - 9 reps for time of:
Dead lift 100kg male/70kg female (I used 90 and could have done the rx)
Handstand pushups (still using band assistance, have issues completing 10 on my own)
My time was 7'05", the fit boys were doing it around 4minutes..

Afterwards I worked on double unders, pull ups, and ring dips. Not going to get any other cardio in today but will, hopefully, get some when I start my 72 hours at work tomorrow.

Here is the Diane demo video for your pleasure..

First ice climbing outing of the season

Headed out for my first day of ice climbing this season at Hully Gully with Steve from UpaDowna.  I pretty much missed last ice and ski season because of shoulder surgery I set up a top rope. My memory was a bit off so my top rope anchor made for a bit of rope.

The ice was a bit thin but will take some short screws and very selective placements to limit damage. You can see the brown of the rock coming through, especially on climbers left.

The day warmed a bit and the limited amount of snow remaining was starting to melt, making the left side a bit wet. The warming temps did make tool placements easy and we were careful to preserve the climb and not hack sections off. Evidence of other climbers also made for some easy hooking and limiting our day.

It was a good first day out and took a run or two to get back in the ice mode and attempting to move efficiently upwards. Hoping to really get in some good ice and alpine climbs in this season..

4 hour Body Diet Update

I am changing my weigh-in to Friday, this would better reflect the weeks loss (or gain, hope not) but I will post here and change my data on my spreadsheet. After reading the book I had some questions and yesterday Tim Ferris posted a blog post that answered several questions I had. I will summ up the blog post here but reading the whole thing is recommended..

The most shocking thing I noticed was that Tim was thinking about starting a forum, with a cost of $9.95/mo... REALLY... That is insane. I read several forums and they are all free. Even then forum for paleo by Robb Wolf is free. Is he going to give people the golden key to life, I do not think so. I am sure there will be those that will pay and this is a muse to generate income off the work of others, as described in his prior book "The Four Hour Work Week." Trust me, I am not hating Tim for this, I looking for my muse but I am not paying to be part of a forum..

The book is a bit confusing in the layout (Tim, who edited this thing?) so here are some clarifications on what not eat (except for cheat days):

• Yams
• Sweet potatoes
• Quinoa
• Dairy (this includes cheese and yogurt of all kinds)

Little more on dairy..

"I mention cottage cheese at one point as a last resort. It is low in lactose, which is what you need to avoid. Ghee and cream (for coffee) should contain little or no lactose, hence you can use them. The same goes for effectively lactose-free, unflavored whey protein, etc..

[Note for the PubMed readers: It's true that whey is partially (or wholly) responsible for the insulinemic response of most dairy, but avoiding lactose seems to be more directly correlated to faster fat-loss in the diet subjects I've tracked. Needless to say, avoiding all dairy is the simplest solution.]"

I have been on the diet for 3 weeks and it is starting to get a bit trying. My wife is continuing to eat her normal diet and watching her eat bread with dipping oils is driving me crazy. But I must persevere. It is important that I give the diet time and here is the direct text from the blog update about timing:

"On the critical 4-6 week window:
For people over 40 and women (especially after two kids), it’s quite common that the most dramatic fat-loss and weight change comes after 4-6 weeks on the diet. I have no explanation for this. Needless to say, if you haven’t done the diet for AT LEAST four weeks, please don’t post a comment about plateauing and panicking. I can’t give you meaningful advice without a ton of other supporting data (blood tests, etc.), and it’s physically impossible for me to respond to each person.

To reiterate: The entire goal of 4HB is to make you a self-sufficient self-experimenter within safe boundaries. Track yourself, follow the rules, and track the changes if you break or bend the rules. Simple as that. That’s what I did to arrive at my conclusions, and that’s what you will do — with a huge head start with the 4HB — to arrive at yours.

Do it for 4 weeks and then troubleshoot if you’re plateauing."

There really is a wealth of information contained in the blog post mentioned in the opening so I highly recommend reading it. Will see what happens on Friday.

Trying to drop the Fat Ass!

Well, after listening to the NPR Pop Culture from the Monkey See group, Stephen Thompson commented that he was happy 2010 was over and all the attachments to it. Well I have the same sentiment and I will be taking 2011 on with some vigor. What will my vigor be directed towards? Same as many others I would assume but here is my list:

1. improve my fitness
2. drop some weight
3. attain more climbing goals ice, rock, 14ers, alpine and skiing
4. be a better husband, friend, brother, son - person!
5. TRAVEL

The first two go hand in hand with dropping some pounds being the subject of this post and what steps I am taking to drop some bacon. The fitness part is purposefully vague. I like to climb (ice, alpine, rock), bicycle (road, cross, mountain), run, hike; basically anything outside. Being a 250lb body builder would be a detriment. I am a firefighter so being a 110lb marathoner would also have an impact on my life. Besides I do not have the frame to be a 110lb marathoner. With that said my goal is functional strength and flexibility.

The one activity that I have kept my whole life is cycling. 'Back in the day' this led me to centuries and then to triathlons and adventure racing. I had some pretty respectable finishes in tris and adventure races but I became pretty burned out on training. Our belief was more is better and my recreation turned into work.. Sorry, focus, needless to say I curbed my recreation and have not been 'out there' like I used to be. This caused my 175lb fit frame to balloon to my current state of 196lb..

A friend and his wife own Pikes Peak CrossFit and they have been very tolerant of all my questions related to diet and fitness. They have also introduced me into the world of the Paleo Diet and the Paleo Solution podcast. A recent guest on the Paleo podcast was Tim Ferris and he was discussing his book "The Four Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman". With a title like that how could I not become interested? I want to be slimmer and posses superhuman powers. The sex thing is optional because I am already incredible! Well maybe a some pointers could come in handy..

The book details all of the experiments that Tim performed on himself in trying to loose weight, become stronger and in recovering from injuries. I am not going to get into detail about the book but I will say that it hit just about all the areas I have been reading about in various other books, magazines and blogs i.e. barefoot running, stretching, diet and focused intense workouts. The book warns against reading from cover to cover and directs the reader to focus on their goals and read only those sections to reach those goals. Well I read the 549 page tomb cover to cover in 3 days and decided on my own 'experiment' taking the information from this book, "The Time Crunched Cyclist", and those other sources for guidance.

Here are the basics of the Slo-carb diet:

1. Start day with high protein (at least 30g) breakfast within the first hour of waking.
2. Meals should be lean protein (grass fed beef is preferred)
3. Augment meals with legumes for some caloric density
4. Each meal should also contain non-starchy vegetables
5. Eat 4 meals a day
6. NO BEER (ugh!) but red wine is ok..

You can look at my diet document in my fitness folder on google docs for a more detailed explanation or buy the book. This diet is not meat to be fun, it is meant to work. You follow this diet for 6 days then on the 7th day you get to binge, not cheat binge! This is also covered in my doc and book. If you go to the Paleo podcast you can also get a slo-carb cookbook in the show notes..

For my experiment I will be following the diet only for the first 3 weeks, add suppliments the next 3 weeks and then cold therapy the last 3 weeks. I suffered through 3+ months of trying to become a vegetarian so I should be able to survive a few months of eating meat and vegetables..

I have been on the diet for 2 weeks now and here are my results so far, I started weighing 196lb..

Wk1 Wk2

Weight 191.8 188.3

Weight Loss 4.2 3.5

Tot Inches 154.5 150.0

Inch Lost 3.25 1.5

My total weight loss for 2 weeks is 7.7lbs with 4.5 inches lost. I have done minimal exercising this past two weeks, only a couple of 30 min barefoot runs and walks. I had shoulder surgery last week and have been hopped up on percocet for pain. Needless to say all I did last week was basically lie on the couch and do rom exercises on CPM machine. The other side effect of the the percocet was slowing of my intestines. This means I have gone several days without a bm so my weight today may be a little full of shit!

In the coming weeks I will be adding some ab workouts, more runs and then kettleball workouts (when the surgeons oks it).. So I will be updating weekly on my progress and what I am up to. I am also going to post up some evaluations on some gear I have purchased this past year from GoLite, Black Diamond, Exped and many others... Please ask if you have any questions or want to join me in my quest(s)...