When Good Parties Go Bad

My company holds on to a good tradition; a Christmas party that is actually fun.  I've heard that back in the old days things could get pretty wild but things have changed a bit.  Everybody is a teensy-weensy bit more PC and we have clients at the party so you can't let it all hang out BUT good times can still be had.  For a few years fun was had by all because of the copious amounts of jello-shots available and everybody has fun when jello-shots are around.

Case in point.  The party from a few years ago ended up with me in my coworkers dress when we went to an after party down the street.  Dudes were buying me shots all night at the bar.  I should do it more often.

Do I look drunk?  Didn't think so.

 Anyway, jello-shots were outlawed a couple of years ago because the staff got tired of cleaning up the mess (party poopers) and the last two parties were lame so I took it upon myself to create a covert jello-shot station that provide good times to at least the inner circle of fun folks.

 my contribution.  a fifth of vodka is in those cups.  yikes

Beers were drunk, shots were had and dancing ensued...

ummm, yeah.

and pants were rolled.  (it's something I'm trying to get to catch on.  for some reason, it isn't working...)

Bit by Bit

(editor's note: as I completed today's entry I realized it is almost an exact rehash of last week's post with a few more nuggets thrown in, but it's written so here it is)

It's still slow going on the recovery but, every once in a while, I seem to make a big improvement.  Three or four weeks ago, I got the go-ahead to walk unassisted again and to do whatever I felt comfortable with.  At the time, I didn't think it would be all that much.  Fast forward a few weeks and I find myself able to trail run (close to three miles on Sunday) AND I did my first mountain bike ride since the injury.  A full 4 1/2 months later.  When I first hurt myself, I thought that I'd have to wait til mid February (if I was lucky) to get really active again so I'll definitely take it.  I still have to be REALLY careful since the hip isn't healed and a bad fall could mess my shit up but I'll take what I can get. 

I also think that there is a blessing in disguise in this whole situation.  I'm not the one trick pony that a lot of cyclists are since I do a lot of running, snowshoeing, lift some weights and do core work but I was still heavily weighted on the riding side and other parts of my body suffered as a result.  Since I am now forced off of the bike most of the time, I've had to come up with new ways to torture myself and relieve the copious amounts of stress in my life (I didn't realize just how much cycling did that for me until I couldn't do it anymore).  First it was swimming because it was all I could physically do (albeit really really poorly) with a bit of elliptical mixed in.  I quickly bored of the elliptical but was able to introduce spin class.  Spin class isn't bad and I'll do it as much as possible but it still wasn't quite doing it for me.  As a result, I've starting doing a High Interval Training (HIT) class; essentially a class that has you do multiple exercises in a very short period of time.  On paper the workouts look easy but actually completing them is complete torture made all the more painful since you're surrounded by women while the "real men" pump iron and have no clue that they're working a fraction as hard as us women folk.

It seems to me that come spring my riding legs might not quite be there but the rest of my body is going to be primed to explode.  At least I hope so because, as I sit here, I can barely lift my arms enough to work the keyboard.  I sure hope this is worth it!

So Nice of You To Care 

Three weeks ago, I got the OK from the doc to resume life again.  The hip isn't totally healed yet but the x-rays finally showed signs of healing AND I was able to walk without pain (but with a limp) so I was given the green light to do anything that I was comfortable with.  At first, I just started walking without my cane, doing the elliptical at the gym and upping my swimming but with everybody nagging me to get off my ass  

I had to do something so I've started spin classes, riding the trainer on occasion and doing some full body workout classes at the gym.  Those HIT (High Intensity Training) classes will be kicking my ass this winter.  As I type, my only fully functioning muscles are in my fingers while everything else refuses to move/threatens to cramp.  For somebody who revels in pushing himself to the pain threshold, this is a very good thing.  If you happen to be one of my VERY LUCKY Strava followers, you can see that the activity level has been turned all the way up to 11.

 

Hopefully, with all of this training (over two hours at the gym yesterday), I won't be a total waste when I finally get to hit some of this in my backyard. 

When will it be?  I'm not sure yet but I prepped all of the bikes this past weekend so that as soon as the tower gives the OK I can hit it (really slowly).

Cheers.