Pain is Temporary...

I just now, thanks to Google, found out that Evel Knievel was the person credited with this quote: 
“...bones heal, pain is temporary, [and] chicks dig scars...”  

I first heard something like this was from my daughter Val, who wrote it on my cast when I had broken my hand when we lived in Jeddah. She wrote a longer version, and changed the "chicks" to "hunks." So it was something like this: "Bones heal, pain is temporary, glory lasts forever, and hunks dig scars." 

But today, in Jason's hospital room, I read in an old "Outside" magazine this quote, which is my new training motto: "Pain is temporary. Suck lasts forever." 

I think it's interesting that every version of this keeps the common thread of the temporary nature of pain. Easy to think about now, sitting in front of the computer, and must be remembered when running, biking, swimming, or if you're the one lying on that hospital bed, to keep that perspective.

Thanks to Everyone! --- Also, Perspective

Thanks to everyone who has written and/or called and/or texted.

Jason is doing fine, and we expect he'll make a quick recovery. The surgeons told us he has a better chance than most because he doesn't smoke or drink, doesn't have diabetes or any heart conditions, or any other of those risk factors.

On Wednesday morning he got to have cranberry juice and broth. Not so great; in fact, he got stomach cramps.

But then, around lunchtime, he got to eat orange jello! He has refused to eat orange jello, or any kind of jello, for about 40 years now. But today he was so excited about that orange jello he gobbled it down like it was the most exquisite food of his whole life. Which it was, I guess. And he loved it.

So that's all I wanted to say about perspective. Yeah.

Even More Insane? Yes!

Thanks to Laura (again) for this video, like the previous one but even crazier:

And thanks to Laura and Cim for your comments and good wishes and especially for the sympathy from someone who has been through that same ordeal and knows how miserable it is.

And thanks to everyone for your prayers. We appreciate them all so very much! Jeff is really sick, even though he's trying to pretend like he's just having a relaxing vacation in a nice soft bed.

Wait, this is supposed to be about training, isn't it. Okay, so, here was my training with Derek on Tuesday morning, which made me wish (almost) I was in a hospital bed instead of at the gym:

Six sets each of (1) sprinting down the basketball court and back while he held me back with a resistance rope, (2) 2 minutes at highest intensity on rowing machine, and (3) pushing the sled with 45 pounds up and down the basketball court. The idea was to get my heart rate up. And it worked.

The Most Insane Exercise Class Ever

Thanks again, Laura, for pointing me to something interesting: this time, it's a video of the most insane exercise class ever. The video goes for about 2 minutes, and I can't imagine how they keep that up for a full-length class. But more power to them!

Training: Small Change in Plans

You know how I wrote about how we have to be willing to change our plans as circumstances dictate? My big plan, which I've worked very hard to keep up with, has been two hours of hard exercise every day except Thursday (only one hour) and Sunday (no exercise, unless you count running around after toddlers in the nursery at church as exercise).

I had my first hour of exercise today in my usual way, in Derek's 5:30 am spin class. Later, Jason and I were talking about whether it would work better for my second hour to go to the 6:30 pm body combat class at the gym or go running/jogging/walking at the lake together.

We were talking about that as I was driving him to a Kaiser clinic where they have an ultrasound so he could get a better diagnosis for some really bad pain he'd started having yesterday afternoon, when we'd gone to a Kaiser urgent care clinic.

At this second clinic, the radiologist looked at the ultrasound and said he had a hernia and would probably need immediate surgery, but he should get a C-T scan first to be sure, which he would have to have done at another Kaiser clinic about 30 miles from there.

Tell you what: I made that drive in record time. And I make it faster than most people already, even on regular days.

Anyway, at THAT clinic, actually a hospital emergency room, after hours of waiting to get this, that, and the other test done and person consulted, a C-T scan was finally done, and Jason was diagnosed with a perforated colon. And depending on who talked to us at which moment, surgery was imminent, might wait until tomorrow, might not be necessary at all, and, finally, would not be done.

At last they checked him into a room where he'll stay for the next 3 to 4 days, minimum, with intravenous "nutrition" and antibiotics, to see if the problem can be solved that way.

So, my second hour of exercise today was a moot question all along.

And that's the way it goes with most of life, most of the time, isn't it. Or if not most of the time, way more than we'd like.

My sweet husband being who he is, he  insisted that I not stay at the hospital with him overnight but get home and take care of the birds and get some sleep and get my regular training session tomorrow morning. So I left there around 10:45, and I'll just go spend most of each day with him until this problem is resolved.

And I'm thinking I need to get out of the mind-set I've been in, two hours or my day is wasted --- and change gears entirely, at least for a week or so.

As long as I put my faith in God and keep moving forward as well as I can, He will take care of me. My whole world may turn up-side-down, but I have to trust in God, or what would be the point of it all, anyway?

More Motivation: The Sayings of Robert

I mentioned in yesterday's post attending Robert's spin class at the gym. Here are some of his motivational sayings during the class:

Your legs should be about to burst right now. That's how you know you're getting the workout you came here for.

I need you not liking where you're at because that's how hard you should be working out.

More power! More strength! More speed!

You choose: Back off or go harder. It's all your choice. Dissociate or whatever you need to do, so you can go harder, focus, forget the pain.

It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be close.

Abandon any reservations and just go, go, go. Start getting that competitive mind-set. We all have it, and it's all in your mind. Get to the point where you think you can't do it, and do it anyway.

You don't have to do two hours on the treadmill. Just do this one-hour class, and you get better results. I'm not knocking running. It has its points. But this workout will give you better cardio in half the time.

Those who think they've got it may have to search real hard to find it.

Do not break. Do not give in. Do not give up. Keep it coming.

Another Cycling Instructor

I can't believe I said this morning that I would write a post every day this month in my blogs. What was I thinking?!?

And what can I write about today, anyway?

Hmm, something I've been thinking about a lot lately, with apologies if it doesn't sound complete and coherent yet, still at the randomly roiling stage:

I went to the 7:30 spin class at the gym this morning (before teaching the self-defense class at the college), taught by Robert. He has a style somewhere between Derek's and the styles of the other instructors whose classes I've attended. That is, these two male spin instructors are different from each other in a lot of ways but are even more different from the women.

Maybe, as Laura suggested, simply being male allows an instructor to be louder and sterner and more commanding than the women instructors. On the other hand, I've been in some classes taught by one of the women who does something similar, walking around the room yelling at everyone, "Go! Go! Go! Come on, I know you can do it," like some kind of cheerleader on steroids.

Aha! Maybe that's the key: She's more like a cheerleader (encouraging and cute) than a coach (tough and demanding)?

What do we expect of cycling and other fitness instructors, anyway? And how much do our expectations relate to our culturally influenced expectations, specifically those based on gender?

I found an interesting Web site** written by a male personal trainer in which he discusses  why it's harder for women than men to be successful as personal trainers.  I say the article is "interesting" because I don't endorse everything this guy Jonathan has to say about it, though I agree it has a lot to do with sex.

I've been in a spin class where a middle-aged guy went up to Derek afterwards and said, loudly, "You're so much better than these women teachers they have around here. Why do they have so many women when they don't even work you as hard? They should have guys teaching all these classes."

(Tell you what: when I heard that I wanted to work HIM hard, with my fists.)

But his comment illustrated the double bind for women: You're supposed to be cute and fit and find "feminine" ways to motivate your class members or clients; while the men are supposed to be tough and manly, reflected in tough talk and tough mannerisms; and classic good looks for men aren't that important.

Hmm...I could be wrong on the good looks issue, now that I think about it...but classic good looks for men include the masculine toughness. Also, just looking around the gym at several personal trainers with their clients this morning, it seemed to me in a very non-scientific sampling that the women smiled a lot more than the men, as they do in most situations, another gender-based culturally influenced behavior.

Because it IS about image, isn't it, which does have a lot to do with sex or at least gender.

Anyway, after this morning's class I went up to talk to Robert. I said, "Great class, and I loved your music."*** He smiled, then said, very seriously, "Thank you. You don't know how much it means to get a positive comment. Sometimes people act like we're some kind of punching bags. They want to tell me my music sucked, or I worked them too hard, or whatever."

Hmm, that's all for now. Still semi-random and incomplete, but where I am today. Thanks for going with me this far, and feel free to comment here or on the Aunt Louise or Madame L blogs. 

**I Googled "trainers clients male female" and came up with a lot of interesting hits; I recommend this method for anything, really; and I know Madame L agrees with me on this research method, even if Ms. Wynn the science T.A. doesn't.

***Featuring a lot of classic and contemporary metal, ranging from AC/DC to Linkin Park (which he called "angry white boy music"---a great description!)